Under the guidance of British filmmakers outside of the Hollywood meatgrinder there’s some excitement that the sophistication and intensity of the alterna-comic would translate better to cinema. Unfortunately good intentions go awry here, as Dredd suffers badly from dull heroes, dull villains, and an over confidence in its own cold, detached ultraviolence.
Showing posts with label Comic Book Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comic Book Films. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Sunday, 22 July 2012
The Dark Knight Rises
Like the 30 lbs of muscle Tom Hardy apparently gained on top of an already ripped body to play the brutish Bane character, Christopher Nolan applies this mentality to every aspect of filmmaking for 'The Dark Knight Rises'. The result is a gargantuan monster of a film, a breathless and sometimes exhaustive experience.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman
By Alan Bacchus
Both the good and the bad of this series has been spiked. The sense of the mythological pathos from Batman Begins is firmly planted back into the series, the emotional weight of everyone’s backstories (characters past and present) come to a head in grandiose fashion and the stakes are even more dangerous than some psychedelic gas or a couple of boats wired with explosives. It’s now nuclear annihilation. Unfortunately, there's also so much going on, from the nihilistic revolution that occurs throughout all of Gotham to the reconciliation of a dozen character threads, the narrative of this film can barely be contained. But Nolan's assault of cinema admirably dulls us to these deficiencies.
Every actor listed above gets his or her moment (perhaps with the exception of Mr. Freeman), usually complemented with multiple flashbacks to make sure we get the point. This results in the running time elongated to 2 hours and 45 minutes (the first two timed in at 2:20 and 2:30, respectively). But the history of the series has shown that Nolan is dissatisfied treating any character as ‘stock’. While there's perhaps one or two flashbacks too many, we have to admire his consistency of leaving no stones unturned.
Hans Zimmer’s music has been spiked as well, pulsating orchestral compositions wall to wall, which include hypnotizing bass drums, choral tenor chants and forceful string sections. Think Verdi’s Requiem and it comes close (google “Verdi Requiem Dies Arie” if you’re unaware). As an aside... can we now start talking about Hans Zimmer with the likes of John Williams, Max Steiner or Bernard Herrmann as one of the great film composers? From the elegance of The Thin Red Line to the rousing anthems of Pirates of the Caribbean, and now the Nolan films, Zimmer has reigned supreme for 15 years.
This mindset of uniform cinematic enhancement will certainly be grating for some, even me. I questioned the need for a Batplane, but everything must be topped, as these are the requirements of a sequel. And Nolan’s adherence to these genre rules is commendable.
Even when the cause-and-effect action or individual character motivations get muddied through the bloated story, the remarkable assault-like momentum of the film easily carries us over these minor bumps in the road. The last half of the picture maintains such a heightened feeling of tension and action, it’s a rush of monumental proportions.
But the reason this film works is how Nolan leaves us in the end, his chaos cleaned up as neat and tidy as possible without the agonizingly drawn out finale of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
***½
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
The Amazing Spider-Man
The general grumpiness of people’s attitudes toward this film is palpable. So I’m happy to champion the new take on Spider-Man as a sharply executed shift in tone from the Sam Raimi version. Director Marc Webb finds a happy medium between the brooding, deadly serious tone of Christopher Nolan’s Batman and the colourful cartoony campness of Raimi’s Spider-Man, an admirable modus operandi of comic realism, both in emotion and visual design. I eagerly anticipated future entries in this new series.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) dir. Marc Webb
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field
By Alan Bacchus
It was an almost unprecented task to reboot such a successful series, which is less than 10 years old. After all, the last Spider-Man(#3) was in made in 2007, just five years ago. The Marc Webb version apparently comes from the ‘Ultimate Universe’ series (I’m not a reader), wherein the brass at Marvel Comics rebooted a bunch of their old franchises (The Avengers included). Here we get to see the familiar story of Peter Parker but with fresh new layers, including his estrangement from his father, his tempestuous relationship with his Uncle Ben, his interest and involvement with the bio-genetical industry, which, through a spider bite, transformed him into a ‘spider-man’, a more elaborate learning curve of his powers and added spidey senses, as well as a new romantic relationship. In this case, it’s not Mary Jane (whom I suspect might come into play in a sequel) but Gwen Stacy, another bio-genetic geek who teams up with Parker to fight the irresponsible and deranged Curt Connors.
The broad strokes of the story, including Parker’s bullying and his arrogance arising from his powers to the world domination-plotting of the bioscientists, are all standard fare comic book material, but it’s Webb’s tonal adjustments that admirably allow this picture to sit proudly beside Sam Raimi's without ursurping it.
Aiding Webb greatly is Andrew Garfield, a ‘marvel‘ as Peter Parker. From The Social Network to his fine work in his British films, we all knew he could act. But Garfield arguably trumps Tobey Maguire’s dough-eyed Parker, as he feels like a relatable teenager, complex and emotional, without resorting to caricature.
Webb and his writers tease us with a new backstory involving Parker’s father and his innovations with the Oscorp bioscientists. We don’t even get to see Norman Osborn, though his presence is always there – in this case a shadowed figure pulling the strings off camera. But Webb still manages to craft an equally complex villain in Connors, an amputee who wants as much as anyone to find the missing scientific link that would enable him to regenerate his cells and grow back his arm. He’s a reluctant villain, who, through the pressures of the unseen Norman Osborn, takes a risk and tests his formula on himself. Of course, it doesn’t work and he’s transformed into a beast - a green lizard.
Webb’s action sequences are directed with the same realism and integrity he’s given to his characters. With many computer tools at his disposal Webb has exercised admirable restraint using as many organic and practical effects as possible. His spiderwebs looks like a real gooey substance, and much of his web-swinging could have been performed in real time as traditional stunts, as opposed to the overused CGI Spiderman in Raimi’s version.
At 136 minutes, the film threatens to be overlong, yet I can only admire the patience and attention Webb gives to the origin story before launching into the main action. The toughest parts of comic book storytelling are those moments when we have to be convinced that putting on a mask and a costume and fighting crime on one’s own is the right thing to do. This takes time and care.
Webb is in no hurry, and neither was I. The Amazing Spider-Man is one of those rare cases when expectations and execution match up perfectly, which, for this type of popcorn movie, makes for a thoroughly satisfying experience.
***½
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Green Lantern
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard
*½
By Alan Bacchus
It would be overkill to beat this failed franchise starter down again, but the fact is Green Lantern is clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel of the old school comic book superheroes. The story of an Air Force test pilot chosen to be a member of an intergalactic policing squad to fight off their encroaching arch enemy from taking over Earth should have stayed on the page.
The over-ambitious intergalactic plotting and mondo special effects sequences sink any attempt to humanize this story. This was the same problem with Thor, which mostly took place in another universe, thus lowering the stakes on Earth and reducing our ability to identify with any of the conflicts at play.
That said, in Green Lantern the filmmakers make no allusions that this is "realism." While more successful films like Iron Man, Spider-Man and Batman have a shred of plausibility, Green Lantern is pure fantasy. In fact, in the Blu-ray special feature "focus points," the filmmakers and actors look genuinely confident that they're doing great work, a hubris derived from their honest integrity for the tone of the original comic.
This universe is played for serious and, if anything, it's actually refreshing to be saved from another self-aware superhero. Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a straight-up old-fashioned superhero transplanted directly from the pages of the comic, a square jawed jock heavily flawed and in need of inspiration and emotional cleansing, which he receives from his gifted superpowers. Reynolds' warm, accessible personality is ideal for this role, but sadly he's subdued by the grandiosity of the story and the excessive technical tricks.
Visually there's also a strong whiff of Battlefield Earth: the green cinematography and elaborate alien creatures serving as key supporting characters, in particular Peter Sarsgaard's enormous head, which recalls John Travolta's ludicrous headgear in the L. Ron Hubbard flop.
But, really, the commonality is the uninspired direction, in this case from Martin Campbell, who fails to make us care for his characters or excite us in any way. The Blu-ray special features comprehensively break down the origins of the comic, the film and the key aspects of making this huge effort. Ironically, I found myself interested more in the disconnect between the enthusiasm of the artists involved than the dismal result on screen.
This review first appeared on Exclaim.ca
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Thor
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skargaard, Anthony Hopkins
**
By Alan Bacchus
I’m not a comic geek, but something tells me after watching this movie that Stan Lee never imagined this story on the big screen. Sure, Thor is part of the Avengers series, thus requiring this character to have a presence in the film, but the creative concept of this comic hero just doesn’t complement the stories of Iron Man, The Hulk or Captain America.
This movie fails because, unlike those other films, there’s very little connection to the human or Earth experience. Instead, most of this movie plays out in outer space, another dimension featuring real-life gods battling out a sibling rivalry. Yes, these are relatable human conflicts, including jealousy and the desire for acceptance from one’s father, but when these battles take place through interstellar portals with hand-to-hand combat fights on top of light bridges spanning different planets, it’s much too difficult to relate to anything that’s going on.
This is Stan Lee writing ambitiously on a different and almost limitless canvas. On film there are boundaries of production restraints, running times and the jigsaw puzzle being formed with five other movies. Thor simply doesn’t fit.
The film barely even needs Earth to exist, and most certainly it doesn't need any of its characters other than the teaser introduction showing a trio of scientists chasing down a storm system in the desert, which they think could open up a portal in space. Out of this wormhole lands someone we will learn is Thor, God of Thunder, moralized in human form on Earth. Flashing back we get to know Thor on his home planet of Asgard. He is the son of the revered king (another lazy performance from Tony Hopkins), who is dying and about to relinquish his throne to him. Sadly, Thor’s half-brother, Loki (Hiddleston), is left behind raging with internalized jealousy. When Loki learns that at birth he was actually stolen from Thor’s mortal enemies, the Frost Giants, he schemes to plot Thor’s downfall and claim the throne of Asgard.
After going against his father’s wishes, Thor attacks the Frost Giants, thus breaking their peace and re-sparking war. For this, Thor is banished through the aforementioned wormhole to Earth to live out his life as a mortal, and without his main weapon and source of power, his hammer. On Earth, he’s a fish out of water trying to fit into the ways of humans while speaking his formal godlike English tongue to a group of collegiate do-gooders. The key battle of conflict which emerges out of this mess of a plot is between the two brothers, vying for power and the almighty hammer.
There's actually very little action to even distract us. The main set piece occurs at the end when Thor battles a giant robot that can throw fire and blow things up real good. But there's so little creativity in the action, they're at best deleted scenes in a Michael Bay movie.
This is my second time seeing this film, and even on sparkling Blu-ray the dank cinematography doesn't hold up. The big screen, ironically, was even worse.
With The Avengers coming out next year and including an only slightly better Captain America as the final piece of the puzzle, there's much less cause for excitement for this series than when Iron Man was released.
Thor is available on Blu-Ray from Paramount Home Entertainment
Friday, 29 July 2011
Captain America
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones
***
By Alan Bacchus
The announcement that journeyman visual effects guy-turned-director Joe Johnston was attached to this project wasn’t really a cause for celebration. His body of work consists mostly of adequate, though ultimately unmemorable, ‘effects’ films (Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3, Wolf Man). Johnston’s been around the block and so we wouldn’t even get a fresh new voice into the mix.
However, after watching the first few scenes of Captain America I started to come around. The WWII setting of this picture under the faux war effort-style propaganda filmmaking style of Hollywood in the ‘40s brought back memories of the underrated comic book film from 1990, The Rocketeer, which was directed by... you guessed it, Joe Johnston. The pieces of this puzzle were now fitting together.
Captain America is the last of another puzzle, the Avengers Saga, an ambitious undertaking by Marvel Entertainment that began in 2008 with Iron Man to create a series of independent feature films that fed into a ‘super-group’ movie, The Avengers, due out in 2012. Iron Man was a fantastic film. The Incredible Hulk that same summer was decent and a sign that this might just actually work. Next came Iron Man 2 in 2010, which was a dreadful quickie sequel that betrayed the inspiration of the first picture. And then Thor came out earlier this year, which, like IM 2, was mostly awful. But now the series picks up a bit of its mojo with Captain America , a rousing actioner with spirit.
It’s 1941 and America is recruiting soldiers to fight abroad. One of the hopefuls is Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a meek, scrawny weakling who gets denied service, but through perseverance and a bit of cheating he will not take no for answer. After witnessing Rogers’ steadfast patriotic belief and determination to stand up for himself, German ex-pat scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine (Tucci), recruits Rogers into the military to be a guinea pig for his experiments in body enhancement. And at the first act turn, the meek Rogers is transformed into a beefcake ubermench with super strength and lightning speed.
But instead of going to Europe, Rogers becomes a spokesman for war bonds, prostituted in recruitment revival shows, ads and USO concerts. When Rogers’ best friend goes missing in Italy, Captain America goes AWOL and arranges a secret rescue mission. All the while, Dr. Erskine’s old rival, Johann Schmid (Hugo Weaving), is conducting similar experiments on his own with his splinter Nazi group called Hydra. Rogers quickly recognizes Schmid as the real enemy he needs to excise, thus sparking a battle of ages, one which will likely spill over into the present and involve the other superheroes from the other movies in The Avengers.
In many ways, Captain America feels like the G.I. Joe movie that never was – a rousing story of triumph over adversity with a strong American patriotic spirit that actually works for the picture. The origin story, like the beginnings of Iron Man, contains the best moments. Chris Evans' digitally enhanced underweight alter ego is a fine bit of invisible CGI. We know it’s not Evans' body. In fact, we know it’s 'face replacement technology' used by Fincher in Benjamin Button and The Social Network, but it works so wonderfully, especially when acted with such earnestness by Evans. Stanley Tucci also does a wonderful turn as Rogers' kindly mentor
Unfortunately, what fails the pictures is Joe Johnston’s action scenes. Once Cap’n America gets to Europe and is engaged in Nazi-fighting, Johnston curiously chooses to show much of this action in montage form. We’re deprived of a few set pieces, full-length scenes with a build-up and payoff. Instead, we see a series of random shots of jumping, punching, motorcycle riding and explosions without anything tying it all together.
Johnston, thought a special effects expert, uses too much of it. As such, we get the feeling that during most of the action Evans is in front of a green screen on soundstage, and NOT in the forests of Western Europe or the snow-capped Bavarian mountains. This takes us out of the anchored reality in which we were placed in the first act.
But what Captain America does better than Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk is set up The Avengers movie and tie together some threads from the other pictures. Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark character, thus Robert Downey Jr.'s father, is a clever link-up. It’s the same with the other worldly motivation of Hugo Weaving's character, which suggests a link-up with the alien gods of Thor. And with the Easter egg clip and trailer at the end of the credit I'm sufficiently teased. That's all I wanted and Captain America delivered.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Superman II
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty
**1/2
By Alan Bacchus
Yeah, I’m sorry to say, despite my childhood memories of the awesomeness of General Zod and his two other black clad Krypton baddies matching strength with Superman in this film, the film itself doesn’t hold up well. Richard Donner’s superlative Superman: The Movie, as mentioned in my review last week, still resounds as a landmark of the genre, but it’s much maligned sequel is the beginning of the devolution of the series from serious reflection of the superhero genre to candy coded bubblegum entertainment for children.
And yes, I’m talking about the Richard Donner cut, which back in 2005, allowed Donner to, as much as possible, cut the film as he originally intended back in the day, before being fired and replaced by Richard Lester. Unfortunately the fact the second film (and to some degree the first) got bungled up by the meddling of the Salkind producers, who knows how this second film would have turned out if Donner had stayed on through the entire two films.
The changes in the DVD-released 'Richard Donner Cut' are surprisingly extensive, the opening shot brings some of the same feelings of pathos as the previous film. A slow tracking shot across planet Krypton before replaying the scenes of General Zod and his team on trial and being captured in the plate glass prison are powerful.
There’s also the reinstatement of Marlon Brando as Jor-el in the fortress of solitude – first when Lex Luthor arrives to steal Superman’s secrets and at the end when he confesses the mistakes made with Lois. Brando’s presence is invaluable, his droll British accent adds a little more meaning and importance to the film, but not enough to completely save the film.
Admittedly Richard Lester’s ending is actually better. Donner chose to have Superman spin the world back in time again (as in in the first film) in order to erase Lois’s memory of Superman’s identity. But again, this is not Donner's fault. The Salkinds, against Donner's wishes, chose to use the ending of the second film in the first. So on it's own the reversing time segment doesn't work, but in the scope of the fully realized Donner vision it does. Lester’s magical kiss which has Superman simply erasing Lois’ memory with a genuine romantic kiss is a small moment, still Ex Machina, but more emotionally satisfying, connecting the two souls together without the grandiosity to reversing the Earth.
That all said, the internal conflict of Superman as a man and as an alien visitor and saviour of the planet provides a strong character arc for Superman across both films (and even both versions of the sequel). Christopher Reeve is still a marvel, exhibited immense screen presence as the Man of Steel as well as doing a fine Cary Grant slapstick turn as Clark Kent.
The trio of General Zod and the others are much more exciting as a 5 year old back in 1980, than a 36 year old adult today. Spotty effects, maligned by the stingy Salkinds, betray the build up to their eventual confrontation, though Terence Stamp is still imposing in his signature line, ‘kneel before Zod’.
But the absolute best character and actor of both films is Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. He’s not really needed in this film, but Hackman’s magnificent delivery and comic timing elevates his character beyond what most actors could have done with the part.
Superman II both the Richard Lester and Richard Donner versions are available on Blu-Ray in the Superman Anthology 1978-2006 Box Set from Warner Home Entertainment
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Superman Returns
Starring: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, James Marsdon, Parker Posey, Frank Langella
***1/2
By Alan Bacchus
It’s too bad this film missed its mark 6 summers ago. It’s a rather unique and wholly admirable vision for this Superman. Virtually anything could have been done with the character and the franchise, and Jon Peters, the producer, tried many different directors to relaunch the series, including using his old Batman pal Tim Burton with Nicolas Cage as the man of steel. Bryan Singer’s film resonates strongly based on his meticulous precision in plugging it into the style, tone and overall mythology of the Richard Donner films (Superman The Movie and most of Superman II). Perceived success or not, Superman Returns is a terrific film.
What’s to be cherished most from the 1978 Superman The Movie is the treatment of the origin story, both the father-son relationship between Jor-El (as played by Marlon Brando) and Superman (nee Ka-Lel), and Superman's relationship with his adopted father on Earth played by Glenn Ford. What a stroke of genius to bring Brando back from the dead, incorporating outtakes from the original in this new one to provide a unique tie between the two films. In production, the announcement of Brando’s presence signified Singer’s desire to stay in sync with the other films.
Tonally, Singer hits the same marks as Donner. Brandon Routh not only looks strikingly similar to Christopher Reeve, but he possesses some of the same slapstick steps as Reeve playing Clark Kent. Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey admirably step into the shoes of Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty, the sometimes bumbling, sometimes deadly affable opposing duo.
John Ottman’s score admirably reworks John Williams’ recognizable music to find a satisfiable hybrid.
In terms of story, Singer finds a fun medium between continuing the story established by Donner, finding his own journey for Superman and even adapting/recreating a number of the scenes from the original for his own purposes. Lois Lane’s interview of Superman, for example, is choreographed and directed note-for-note with Donner’s memorable scene in the original. After getting the assignment to do a personal piece on Superman, he meets up with Lois on the art deco rooftop flying in from the sky. A fun conversation piece filled by sexual subtext and double-entendres ensues before Superman whisks Lois off into the sky for a nighttime jaunt.
Singer’s new addition, Lois’s child, who may or may not be Superman’s kid, also fits in wonderfully. It connects to his strong feelings for his two paternal figures, Jor-El and Pa Kent. If anything, it’s a shame we couldn’t see Ford, like Brando, somehow return in a flashback. The surprise moment in the third act when the child discovers his powers for the first time offers a pretty darn exciting piece of action, and the denouement, the final admonition of Superman as father to his sleeping son, is deeply affecting.
Where Superman Returns doesn’t land as softly, arguably, are in the overstocked action scenes. Sequences such as the airplane crash and the boat rescue at the end feel perfunctory, exercises in blockbuster excess demanded by its tent pole requirements. The overuse of CGI to replicate Superman during the scenes adds a negative cartoon nature to its generally serious subject matter.
Perhaps this is why the filmed failed – the needs and desires to create an action film conflicted with Bryan Singer’s desire to romance the genre as Richard Donner did so many years ago. Regardless, the work speaks for itself and succeeds as a worthy final chapter in the long yet truncated saga.
Superman Returns is available on Blu-ray in the Superman Anthology 1978-2006 set from Warner Home Entertainment.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Superman The Movie
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper
****
By Alan Bacchus
Superman was the original comic book franchise, first immortalized on film in 1978 in the Alexander and Ilya Salkind superlative all-star production as Superman The Movie, followed by three sequels ending with Quest for Peace in 1987 and then the long awaited reboot Superman Lives in 2006. The entire franchise is available on Blu-ray from Warner Bros. in a handsome box, which includes all the films, plus their director’s cuts and making-of documentaries.
But let’s go back to the original 1978 film, which is still the benchmark most comic book filmmakers aspire to achieve. Whether it's Batman, Spider Man or Iron Man, we can see a bit of Richard Donner's film in all of these. It’s just about the perfect example of the transition from page to screen – a film that captures the exuberance, fantasy, charms and pathos of the long history of the Joe Schuster/Jerry Siegel-written stories.
We don’t even see Superman until the 45-minute mark of the film. Before that, we see two key sequences that establish the backstory, motivations and tone of the movie. First, the Krypton sequence featuring Marlon Brando (top-billed) as Ka-Lel, Superman’s father, who warns his planet’s elders of its inevitable demise and then sends his son to earth before his own planet’s final destruction. This sequence is played with complete seriousness and powerful emotions rooted in our own paternal/maternal instincts to nurture and survive. Back then it was a huge creative gamble considering the history of superheroes in film and TV.
The next sequence of scenes in Smallville shows a teenaged Clark Kent living with his adopted parents, Ma and Pa Kent, discovering his powers and questioning his place in the world. These scenes are simply masterful and arguably the best moments in the film. Richard Donner’s brilliant compositions shot with the same kind of American mythic reverence of a John Ford film convey the tone of wholesome Americana, which served as the basis of the original source material in the 1940s. The awareness of this respect and acknowledgement of the original Schuster/Siegel stories is seen in the opening sequence, a preamble in black and white, before blasting us into the awesome high energy credit sequence.
Once Christopher Reeve enters the picture, Richard Donner executes the fun, thrilling and often hilarious action film we expect from Superman. We get to his alternate personality as Clark Kent, the mild-mannered Daily Planet reporter, his burgeoning relationship with Lois Lane and his conflict with Gene Hackman as the world domination super-villain Lex Luther.
The action is fun and executed with top notch special effects utilizing the best practical and optical effects around. As a set piece, look at the fantastic fortress of solitude sequence. The huge scenes of mass destruction of the Krypton and the earthquake scenes on earth still have all the scope necessary to maintain the sense of reality. Sparing no expense to create a film of true spectacle, each of the scenes looks surprisingly good today. Old fashioned organic special effects compare favourably to today’s more elegant and seamless techniques. It's part of Donner’s intelligent use of effects, avoiding the weak points of blue screen and rear projection techniques.
But what will truly stand the test of time 33 years down the road are the smallest moments. Take note of the unheralded acting of young Jeff East as the teenaged Clark Kent. There’s so much curiosity, anger, doubt and promise in those eyes, he’s arguably even better than Christopher Reeve. Same with the casting of Glenn Ford in his brief but memorable role as Pa Kent. His death scene is heartbreaking – so full of pathos and rich texture, which resonates throughout the picture and informs the decision-making throughout the narrative.
Marlon Brando is also terrific, despite his well-publicized surliness on set. As usual, his innate charisma fits well to Jor-El’s commanding fatherly presence in Superman’s life. As a side note, take note of the casting of Trevor Howard who plays one of the stubborn Krypton elders, a neat Easter egg of sorts, which recalls his dramatic matchup as Captain Blighe to Marlon Brando's Fletcher Christian in 1962’s Mutiny on the Bounty.
The glue that binds the varied tonal shifts is the magnificent John Williams score. A true hummable classic, one of a dozen scores he‘d write throughout the 70s and 80s, which ranks as some of the best movie scoring in the history of cinema. Hell, I still get chills when, after the end of the Brando speech and effects montage in space that presents the transition from teenaged Superman to adult Superman, we see Brando’s head of ice spin around revealing Superman flying toward the camera with the crescendo of John Williams’ music kicking the film into another gear. This is great cinema.
Superman The Movie is available on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment in their Superman Anthology Collection. It's a reverent collection including not only all the feature films, but many of the movie serial classics from the '40s and some Chuck Jones shorts as well.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
X-Men: First Class
Starring: Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, January Jones
**1/2
By Alan Bacchus
Well, it’s been five X-Men films thus far over 10+ years, and by now it’s pretty clear there’s a formula that doesn’t quite fit the big screen. This latest entry in the saga suffers from the same problems as the first four. Despite some excellent sequences and genuine emotional attachment to some of the characters, the need to ‘go big’ and bombard us with overly produced set pieces of earth-encompassing grandeur drowns the picture in excess.
Kick Ass was an excellent comic book film. It was comedic, tragic and horrific in equal measure from a shit-hot director with keen visual and aural sensibilities. With X-Men: First Class we definitely get the sense it’s a Matthew Vaughn film. Here Vaughn has fun with some James Bond-style world domination plotting, dancing go-go girls in hot pants and bras, and fun ‘60s split-screen effects. Considering his two main characters are British, his style effectively matches them.
Cleverly, Vaughn and the producers go back to the original opening sequence of the Bryan Singer-directed X-Men (2000), as we see Magneto as a child being removed from his parents in a concentration camp and then demonstrating his powers to the Nazis. It’s a great sequence that expertly sets up the misdirected rage Magneto exhibits in the present. X-Men: First Class expands on this scene and shows exactly what happened to that kid and his relationship with the Nazis, specifically a particularly cruel (and hidden mutant) Sebastian Shaw played by Kevin Bacon.
In the ‘60s we get to see the elder child Magneto (aka Erik Lehnsher), now in his 20s, hunting down the Nazis who had his mother murdered in front of his eyes. Meanwhile, we also get to see the Cold War played out by Russian and American spies in the backdrop of real history (i.e., the placement of US missiles in Turkey and the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis). Charles Xavier gets recruited by the CIA to find fellow mutants whose powers just might help the cause. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) shows up starting off as an ally of Xavier’s before meeting and falling in love with his future enemy, Magneto. A host of other mutants include Beast, Angel, Riptide, Havok and Banshee, who all learn their powers in the first congregation of the X-Men school – hence the title, First Class.
Michael Fassbender is the star here. His edgy, internalized trauma trumps the boyishness of James McAvoy’s Xavier. The film works best in his journey to personal vendetta. Everything else in the film is fodder. Vaughn and company expertly execute the true conflict that lies at the heart of the X-Men stories, which is the opposite philosophy of Xavier’s peaceful integration and Magneto’s survival by any means necessary. Vaughn cleverly shows how thin a line exists between good and evil, and how Magneto’s noble but warped mind would result in the massive destruction we would see later in the series. This is the stuff the best comic book films are made of.
Unfortunately, the film suffers from an overload of characters and overly produced set pieces in the second half, which dilutes the beautiful and powerful moments in the opening half. Jennifer Lawrence, while terrific in Winter’s Bone, feels miscast here. Her performance is lifeless, and sadly but honestly, her baby-ish face doesn’t look that great in the blue makeup. Sure it’s crass, but it’s important. Like all the other X-Men movies, there’s too wide a range in the mutants' abilities. Some characters get to raise tornadoes, while others simply have big feet. And really, a lot of these characters look plain silly.
Going back a few months, I remember being disappointed at the departure of Darren Aronofsky from his Wolverine picture. Despite multiple directors not being able to truly ‘crack’ this franchise as well as Iron Man and Batman, perhaps it's the fault of producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, as she is the common thread between all these pictures. I can’t help but think an effort to squeeze Aronofsky into this blockbuster formula resulted in him leaving the project. If so, then it’s for the best.
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Batman
Starring: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Jack Palance, Michael Gough
**1/2
By Alan Bacchus
It was a monumental summer of 1989, the summer of Batman. As an impressionable 15-year-old, I got sucked into the tremendous and then innovative marketing push for this film. Warner Bros. somehow made this film feel like the most important thing in the world – a monumental shift in how we see comic books and superheroes on film. Before anyone even saw it, we were compelled to it. Looking back, the film is not that great. Only in the context of the history of comic book adaptations, Tim Burton’s career and the Hollywood marketing techniques does the film resonate soundly as a milestone in cinema.
In 1989, to the masses, Batman was synonymous with the kitschy satirical Adam West TV series from the 1960s. The only other legitimate comic book adaptation as a feature film was the Superman series, which in 1979 started out with a strong sense of literary credibility, but over the course of its sequels devolved into juvenile parody. Remember, 1989 was long before the Internet, so information was sparse. However, it was made clear by Warner Bros. that this wasn't Adam West’s Batman, but a leaner darker, brooding caped crusader. The teaser campaigns said it all. First, we saw only the ultra cool black and gold logo and then the teaser trailer, which featured starkly under-lit noirish-style visuals of a superhero we hardly see, instead covered in shadow and highlights.
The buzz manufactured on this picture was palpable, and to this 15-year-old it didn’t disappoint. Before I could understand the elements of cinema, I knew Danny Elfman’s score was different than anything we’d heard before, and Tim Burton’s vision was dark but wholly playful, ironic and fun. Nicholson was over-the-top crazy, and Michael Keaton was surprisingly thoughtful, charming and strong as a superhero.
Now, in 2011, we’ve been through a four-film string of sequels since this first Batman film, plus Warner Bros. is just about to begin production on the third chapter of the reboot. The success of Batman helped birth other DC and Marvel stories onto film, including another two Superman reboots, four X-Men films and almost every other recognizable superhero property.
Now, unfortunately, Tim Burton’s Batman seems like a relic, like the aging old champion of former glory. Some parts of the film still feel inspired and fresh. The opening credits, for instance, are driven by Elfman’s aggressive opening cue (which sounds so close to The Simpsons theme), and all of Elfman's music for that matter. The same goes for the Bob Ringwood-designed Batman costume, which has never been improved upon, even 5 or 6 pictures later. Michael Keaton is still better under the cowl than Kilmer, Clooney or Christian Bale.
But it’s also an awkward and stagey film. The action set pieces feel as heavy and inelegant as the gigantic pimpmobile Batman drives. And the attempts at injecting the mythic pathos of the Batman origin story into the Joker’s transition never gets under the surface of the camp. Burton’s retro-campy playfulness still feels original and distinct to Burton, but it certainly doesn’t generate any laughs. If we got the feeling of any kind of real tension in the Joker’s antics, his jokes might have effectively been disarming to the danger, but it’s just too goofy to take seriously.
And so my opinion of the film seems to be coloured by a) my perception of it as a teenager and b) the subsequent films and visions of other filmmakers on similar subject matter. Though it was a career leap into the superstrata for Burton, I suspect it’s as difficult to watch for him as it was disappointing for me.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Batman Begins
Starring: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson
****
By Alan Bacchus
It's remarkable the feeling we get from watching this picture and the sequel The Dark Knight. Despite the fact that these films were made only a few years apart, Batman Begins feels like a completely different picture, and IMHO a better one. According to the special featurettes, Nolan's cited influence was Richard Donner’s original comic book film Superman the Movie. Donner's tone of adult-oriented dramatic realism and mythic literary grandeur is plugged directly into Nolan's film.
Nolan magnificently connects the events of Bruce Wayne's entire life into the emotions and motivations of the present using three time periods. Firstly, there is Wayne as a child and the trauma he experienced from seeing his parents killed, specifically his idolized and righteous philanthropic father. There's also his university-age youth where, fearing failure and feeling the pressure of living up to the standard set by his father, Wayne goes on a walkabout of sorts to discover the criminal mind. An attempt to be recruited into the 'League of Shadows' pits Wayne against his first mentor, the charming yet devious Henry Ducard (Neeson) and his leader Ras Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) - I mean, how awesome are those character names to start! And then comes the main through line, the present day, where Bruce Wayne assumes the form of his greatest fear, the bat, and becomes a symbol of justice that the regular police can't uphold.
Each character rings true with an arguably deeper sane of realism than The Dark Knight. Despite Heath Ledger's fine performance as the Joker in that film, the fact that he was insane and that his motivations weren't explained meant we ceased to identify him as a character. Although highly entertaining, he was simply a robotic antagonist no more complex than say The Terminator. Ducard, on the other hand, is wholly fascinating. Introduced first as a saviour and mentor to Bruce, Nolan and his writer David Goyer elegantly morph him into an antagonist closely tied to Wayne's goals.
To convey this sense of pathos, Nolan employs a complementary cinematic eye. Look at the colour palette for instance. While The Dark Knight utilized colder colours more in line with police procedurals, Batman Begins is distinctly golden brown, like a faded old photograph or newspaper. The look adds a level of aged texture and a resonance of the past.
The opening sequences in Tibet also add to the feeling of spirituality and existential enlightenment. The glaciers of Iceland, which double for the Himalayas, look fantastic. But the mere fact that we're in the middle of devout Buddhism adds a subtext of Zen-intellectualism.
Admittedly, Christopher Nolan still has some learning to do in terms of filming action scenes. His hand-to-hand combat scenes never seem to be cut right. Perhaps it's that darned Batsuit that makes it impossible for an actor or stuntman to be flexible. That said, he shoots a decent car chase and his roller tank sequence is pretty darn awesome and certifiably trumped in The Dark Knight. But the primo sequence that represents the 'epic' tone is Batman's rescue of Rachel Dawes. With Batman at the top of a staircase, his army of bats storm the building and provide the definitive image in the film. The bats that represent true fear, which Wayne has controlled and channelled, become his greatest asset – a physical manifestation of the overall theme of the film.
Batman Begins is available in a lovely SteelBook packaging on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Allison Pill, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons, Anna Kendrick
***
By Alan Bacchus
Yeah Toronto! The city featured as the location and setting of Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Wright, working for the first time, outside of Britain and without his mates from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, turns in a wild ambitious cinematic romp of monumental proportions. Its a fun, though ultimately soulless, film, but a must see for it's impressively complex cornucopia of visual styling.
The phantasm of stylistic flourishes which tells O'Malley’s far out cosmic romance of a meek 20-something bass player and his Blue-haired Anna Karina-type obsession, feels like a fanboy cumshot of geekdom – a mash-up of videogames, kung-fu sword play, dirty punk rock and hip beats supplied by Radiohead produced-turned composer Nigel Godrich, slapped onto the tried and true story of boy meets girl. Wright updates the notion of post modern pop culture beyond mere self-reference with a new paradigm of post modernism.
If there’s a comparison film, it’s probably the Oliver Stone’s treatment of celebrity in Natural Born Killers. With reckless abandon, and his foot firmly on the accelerator Wright, like Stone assaults us with sight and sound. Miraculously, Wright is completely in sync with the times, using his style to comment on the zeitgeist in the present.
The story, which you probably already know by now, goes like this. Scott Pilgrim (Cera) who has just broken up with his girlfriend rebounds to be in the company of a perky 17 year Chinese gal named Knives Chau, but when he catches sight of the aloof Ramona Flowers (Winstead) Pilgrim, he ditches Chau, and lasers on his latest obsession. But in order to date Flowers he has to defeat her 7 evil ex’s, in a series of one-on-one video game style Mortal Kombat duels.
Meanwhile Pilgrim plays bass in a rock band with his buddies, Stephen Stills (Webber), Young Neil and another former girlfriend Kim (Pill), as the drummer. Soon the confluence of her exes, his exes and his rock band with come into conflict with each other for a final battle for love.
It’s style over substance taken to near pornographic levels. Other than the video game iconography, kung-fu chop socking and thundering punk bass licks, the key aspect of Wright’s unique rhythm is his astonishing transitions - a term referring to the editing of one scene to another. The meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail of every frame results in an overall feeling that the film is one long set piece, which goes on and on, and arguably, losing some steam in the third act.
Wright's editors Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss employ every trick in the book, whip pans, smash cuts etc and whole set of new techniques – including transitioning in between the coverage of multiple conversations, match cutting dialogue, too many to keep track of really. It’s a style which is not entirely unmotivated. It all fits into Pilgrim’s impulsive obsessive mindset and Wright/O’Malley’s themes of new millennium attention deficit connectivity.
Wright employs the veteran DOP Bill Pope, perhaps a nod of respect to one of the film’s stylistic influences ‘Army of Darkness’ and ‘Evil Dead II’ – two Sam Raimi films with the same joie de vivre and innovation with transitions and camera gymnastics.
Unfortunately as much as we are impressed with the technical visual and aural extravaganza, there’s little beneath the surface to truly move us or even have the characters and the actions linger with us. Comparing to Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead’, which was as clever and aware with pop culture as Pilgrim, there was a heart and soul to Shaun's characters which stood over and above the style. In Pilgrim, there’s almost no romance going on, and we don’t care for a single moment if Pilgrim gets the girl at the end – or even which girl he’ll get at the end.
But there’s no denying that for most of the picture I sat with my mouth agape at the sheer thrill of delightful eye and ear candy of Wright’s film. It’s a phenomenal achievement and ride like few others offered in the cinema right now.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Iron Man 2
Starring: Robert Downey Jr. Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johanson
**
By Alan Bacchus
Remember when Iron Man came out, and shortly after its success, press swirled about Jon Favreau’s reluctance to quickly put its sequel into production without proper development and prep? And for a while there Favreau's participation really was up in the air. Of course, he smartly stayed on board (his producer Peter Billingsley did not), took the paycheque, delivered a competent movie which has coasted to a huge box office riding on the coattails of the previous film. But the dullness and soullessness of “Iron Man 2” only proves that Favreau was right. IM2 feels like a hastily put together slapdashery without any of the genuine love for character which made the first film so unique for it's genre.
The failure of “Iron Man 2” just shows why the first movie was so good in the first place. It took half the movie before we even saw the Iron Man suit, an hour long build up of suspense to reveal Tony Stark’s alter ego. Now, at the top of IM2, the suit is built, Iron Man is already a superhero, and there’s very little to reveal in this film. Stark's character reverts to his egomaniac capitalist persona again, having started up his own Stark Expo in New York and very publicly fighting off the US Military who want access to his suit.
The baddie this time round is Mickey Rourke as a Russian scientist Ivan Danko who seeks revenge against Stark for his wrongdoings against his father, in some manufactured backstory. Rourke’s scene chewing is to be expected and his overly tattooed and generally dirty appearance is off-putting, and even stranger is that he spends most of his screen time typing away at a computer. His introduction builds up wonderfully to the film’s best sequence, a fight with Stark and Iron Man at the Monaco Grand Prix. Unfortunately his character is left aimless without seemingly much purpose or ‘stuff to do’ until he shows up at the end for another big fight scene, with, of course another big-ass metal suit.
We all knew Rhodey would get more involved, don one Stark’s suits and join him in the fight. Unfortunately Don Cheadle doesn’t fit the suit as well as Terrence Howard might have, in fact he actually looks awkward encased in metal, a suit whose CG rendering looks glaringly obvious this time round.
The sexual tension between Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Pots character which generated the best character development for Stark, is rendered virtually inert in this one. Same with the future Avengers plotting. Of course we know Marvel is laying ground work for an eventual link up of their superhero characters for an ultimate supermovie with Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America. Unfortunately we only get a minor scraping of this story. In fact, most of the Nick Fury/Agent Coulson scenes serve more as comic relief than a broadening of the mythology of the story. Like IM1 and The Incredible Hulk we’re treated to a post-end credits scene teasing us for the Avengers film. “Thor” makes his first appearance, which indeed picks up the excitement factor...
Scarlett Johanson makes the best addition. At once a neat sexual tease and competition for Pepper Pots as well as a good excuse for an action scene which doesn’t involve the Iron Man suit. Her break in to Hammer’s layer and the hand-to-hand choreography is magnificent.
Despite Scarjo, “Iron Man 2” is otherwise a flatline affair. No one really seems to know what to do with Iron Man, the suit, Pepper Pots, SHIELD, Rhodey or Ivan Danko. Everyone seems lost and lacking in guidance. Paramount should have listened to Favreau two years ago.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Kick Ass
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage
****
By Alan Bacchus
Cudos to the filmmakers who refused to ‘tone down’ this film and thus make it palatable to broader audiences and thus more box-office friendly. Unfortunately it’s a shame the film didn’t make more waves at the box office, because ‘Kick Ass’ is a great picture and by far the best of this new wave of self-reverential graphic novel filmic adaptations.
‘Kick Ass’ is as up-to-date to modern youth as possible. In an era of hyperfast information dissemination, the film smartly plugs in technological tools, youtube, skype, twitter and other viral social networking outlets, to tell its origin story of superheroes in the modern world - superheroes who are acutely aware of what an ‘origin story is’. It’s perhaps the only film that has used these tools as organicly as it does (Although if anything, with the prevalence of MySpace and the absence of Facebook, likely due to an exclusive product placement deal, loses the film some credibility points).
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a typical high schooler, he masturbates a lot, is self-conscious and fearful of his place in the teenage social strata and, of course, he voraciously reads comics and watches hip ultraviolent movies. While he and his pop culturally-aware buddies natter on about geek cultural benchmarks like John Woo and Scott Pilgrim, Dave questions the plausibility of a real world omic book hero. And so, after getting mugged he dons a wet suit, assumes the name ‘Kick Ass’ and goes out into the world as his own personal vigilante of justice. After his first altercation with crime gets videotapeded on a cellphone and then youtubed for the world to see, he becomes an internet sensation.
Meanwhile there’s a real vigilante out on the streets fighting some more nefarious criminals – a former defrocked cop and his 11 year old daughter affectionately named Big Daddy(Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Morentz) who pack more firepower, street smarts and real hardcore violent tendencies than Kick Ass could ever dream of. When they discover they have a mutual enemy in local gangster thug Frank D’Amico (baddie du jour, Mark Strong), Kick Ass, Hit Girl and Big Daddy team up forming a legitimate crime fighting team.
The intensity of action, violence, and relentless teen-aged angst transformed into cursive bloodletting seems like a cathartic reaction to get everything right that Hollywood has ever gotten wrong in the world of comic-to-film adaptations. As if Vaughn is making up for all the griping of the fanboys of the world for the collective disappointment at say, ‘The Punisher’ or ‘The Watchmen’.
Kick Ass achieves what the “Watchmen” couldn’t seem to do - self-analyze the influence of comics as an influential form of storytelling for today’s youth. Vaughn’s influences range from the naughty depiction of Luc Besson’s violent child assassin in training character in ‘Leon/The Professional’ to the archetypal deconstruction of the genre in ‘Unbreakable’ to action-influenced bullet-porn of ‘The Matrix’.
'Kick Ass' succeeds not because of its genre due diligence but its core relationships and despite its clever self-awareness we’re never let the audience off the hook for an emotional and melodramatic attachment to its characters There’s a death in this film, which, amid mondo bullets, blood, slo-mo jumping, explosions etc, manages to hit us so deeply with great sadness, it’s the moment in the film when as an audience member, you realize you’re watching something truly memorable.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
SIN CITY
Sin City (2005) dir. Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro
****
The most subversive of mainstream films in recent years has to be Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City”. Perhaps only the genuinely independent Rodriguez isolated from Hollywood in his self-sustaining mini studio operating out of his home in Austin could pull off such a feat. With fine cinematic recklessness Rodriguez shows us some of the most violent, vile and misogynistic portrayals of violence ever put to screen and made it successful.
Rodriguez takes several of Miller's storylines and combines them together to form a unique episodic narrative. There's Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a former cop, who, while saving a child from kidnap, rape and murder, unjustly takes the blame for the rap and is jailed. When he gets out he must race to save the girl, now grown up to be Jessica Alba, from the same maniacal perpetrators. Also being chased throughout the city is Marv (Mickey Rourke), a bruiser of a man whose lover is killed in bed by a mysterious sicko cannibalist played by Elijah Wood. Clive Owen rounds out the triptych as Dwight who desperately tries to stop the city from imploding under a brewing street war between the cops, mob and street whores.
It’s all told with an eye popping extreme expressionistic style – a mixture of hard boiled noir and comic book fantasy sensibilities. The dialogue from each of the three stories’ protagonists is read with heighten self-awareness. Like the narration in “The Watchmen”, Marv, Hartigan, and Dwight, speak with grandiose melodramatic eloquence to an audience aware of the noir-speak of cinema past.
If these out-of-this-world characters weren’t played with complete seriousness and integrity, the dialogue would have drowned them in ridiculous overindulgence. Before the so-called comeback or 'resurrection' of Mickey Rourke, he managed to stun us with his portrayal of Marv with sympathy and surprisingly genuine sincerity. Beneath the heavily made up false nose and boxtop haircut, Rourke somehow managed to humanize the muscular-bound monster figure. And has Bruce Willis’ expressive eyes been used to greater emotional effect than in “Sin City”? Perhaps only “Pulp Fiction.” The third anchor, Clive Owen, has the most difficult role. It’s the most talky and least heroic of the three roles, but a testament to Owen’s talents to breathe life into Dwight. And in every corner of the picture is a fun supporting performance, my favourite being the surprisingly passionate performance of Brittany Murphy as the spunky waitress from Kadie's bar.
Years from now the filmmaking philosophy and literal adaptation of the graphic novel medium will be seen as a benchmark in filmmaking. And the immersive blue-screen production methodology has never been used better. With any camera angle Rodriguez can think of at his disposal, it’s his brevity and his adherence to Miller’s frames which elevate the material to high pop art.
The new Blu-Ray edition is a must-have for any fanboy. In addition to the already in-depth special features on the well-packaged extended/recut edition from three years ago, some added goodies make it worth while. Stunningly pristine image quality aside, perhaps the gem of the BD version is a fun ‘audience audio track’. With this clicked on you get to hear the proper 5.1 mixed audio along with the recorded audience reaction to the film’s premiere at the legendary Alamo Draft House in Austin TX. More than just some canned laughter, it's a neat way to bottle the movie experience you can only get from a darkened theatre.
Now I just wish Rodriguez would get going on "Sin City 2"...
"Sin City" is available on Blu-Ray from Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
WATCHMEN
Watchmen (2009) dir. Zack Snyder
Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
***1/2
In terms of conceptual grandeur “Watchmen” is like the “Magnolia” is comic-book films - bold strokes of cinematic genius layered with complex yet loose socio-political metaphors which don't quite link together with complete satisfaction. Zack Snyder gives us as faithful an adaptation of Alan Moore's celebrated comic as is cinematically possible, at times overly reverent to the often obtuse material but on the whole a surprisingly coherent rendering of the complex story.
The setting and environment of Moore and Snyder's revisionist world is difficult to penetrate. Put yourself in a world where masked superhero vigilantes exist with a keen self-awareness of the silliness of such a concept. It's the mid 80's, Richard Nixon is still President and the Soviet nuclear threat against the U.S. has resulted in ticking clock Cuban Missile Crisis-like standoff to world annihilation. The man who holds the ability to deter this event is a blue superhero named Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) who has the ability to change the molecular structure of his body and other objects around him.
When one of his compatriots 'The Comedian' (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is murdered, the masked vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) comes out of hiding to reunite his former league of heroes - the Watchmen - to investigate. Rorschach finds all his old buddies, Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman), Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) have all gone straight, leading regular civilian unmasked lives in retirement. When Rorschach's gumshoeing connects the Comedian's murderer with the current political crisis the stakes are raised enough to reinvigorate the Watchmen with the same idealistic fervour they once had.
The opening is a bravura title credit sequence showing the involvement of masked superheroes in many of the pop culturally significant events of the past century. The scene compresses much of the generational backstory of the first half of the book neatly into one package and establishes the story's throughline theme of pop cultural awareness. Snyder compliments the mash-up with a soundtrack of poignant rock tunes including Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and even some less memorable like the 80’s topper “99 Red Ballons” by Nena. Watch for other fun pop culture references, like the Dr. Strangelove War Room set recreation, all of which add to the self-reflexive cultural complexities.
Perhaps the most astonishing surprise is Snyder's ability to make the obtuse 'unfilmable' elements work. The treatment of Dr. Manhattan as a transformed Jesus Christ-like resurrected God, specifically his trippy journey to Mars which made no sense to me on the page, provides with one of the more elegent detours in the story. His lengthy backstory is aided by cleverly borrowing Philip Glass' great music cue from the final scene of "Koyaanisqatsi".
At this point in the film Zack Snyder reaches an enormously high creative peak. In fact, the entire second act sustains this high through Rorschach's backstory, Silk Spectre/Nite Owl's passionate love affair to Rorschach's breakout from prison.
Like Robert Rodriguez's "Sin City", "The Watchmen" is not a comic book film for kids. Snyder embraces all the naughtiness of the book - Malin Ackerman's Silk Spectre is red hot and her steamy love scenes with Nite Owl retain all the thrusting carnality from Moore's pages. Snyder also has fun showing us all the bone breaks and blood gushing missing from all other super hero films. It's far from hardcore exploitation though, using the hyper slo-mo cine language from his previous graphic novel film "300", the Rated R scenes are graceful and dreamlike.
The film just misses out on greatness. The dialogue, most of which is lifted right off the page, suffers in the translation to screen. What sounds like punchy words designed for each frame comes off as overly-familiar Raymond Chandler noir dialogue. And after two acts of inspired unconventionality, unfortunately the third act resorts to a lazy recycling of the worst conventions of the genre. Snyder wraps up the plotthreads with rudimentary confessionary speeches, revelatory flashbacks and James Bond-like world domination plotting. The same type of ‘Hardy Boys’/Scooby Doo moments I despise in investigative mysteries. It’s a shame that despite the innovative methods of storytelling no one could get around the elementary and rushed plot resolution.
Though not everything Snyder throws at us sticks, "Watchmen" is still a supremely 'watchable' film. The muddied metaphors never distract us from the awesome muscular bravura which will titillate all the senses of your body.
Monday, 15 December 2008
THE DARK KNIGHT DVD
The Dark Knight DVD and Blu-Ray( 2008) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal
The Movie: ****
The DVD: **
The timely DVD release 3 weeks before Christmas will likely ensure "The Dark Knight" to be one of the highest selling DVDs of all time. While the film (and especially the IMAX) version was arguably the movie event of the year, the DVD version doesn’t quite live up to quality of the film.
One of key innovations of the production was the extensive use of IMAX in key scenes in the film. On the big IMAX screen the effect of these scenes produced a stunning adjunct to the film. The aspect of ratio change from 2.35:1 to almost square full screen frame was startling. Widescreen televisions will experience a similar, though not as grandiose shift during these scenes. The opening of the film begins with the title credit framed in standard anamorphic 2.35:1, but when the opening bank heist begins the letterbox bars disappear revealing a full 16:9 image. Of course, since the origination medium is IMAX, the difference in visual clarity is stunning. This difference is even more evident on Blu-Ray. Though the IMAX aspect ratio still requires a small crop on the top and bottom of the frame to fit into 16x9 director Christopher Nolan admits it’s a largely unimportant screenspace - an acceptable difference to the theatrical IMAX experience.
So the aspect ratio and resolution differences are acceptable, unfortunately the special features leave much be desired. Disc one features a number of small featurettes called “Creation of a Scene” which documents the production of a number of the key scenes in the film (most often the IMAX sequences). When viewed all together, these segments make for a reasonably insightful ‘making of’ documentary. Many will be disappointed with the lack of on-camera live footage of the key creatives discussing the process. The information is largely told to us using narrated voiceover, from Nolan and the bunch.
Disc 2 contains a number of surprisingly awful featurettes. “Batman Tech” feels like it was produced by Nickelodeon. A gruff voiceover man with no connection to the series whatsoever narrates this featurette like an episode of “Frontiers of Construction” or any other average Discovery Channel program. “Batman Unmasked” features a similar ‘television’ tone and style. In “Unmasked” various ‘psychological experts’ discuss the psyche of the superhero with blockheaded intellectualism. Rabbis, historians and other ‘smart people’ proceed to breakdown and explain the historical context of the character. My favourite is Robert Phillips. identified as a forensic services consultant, who explains to me the subtext of the film.
The extensive fake news footage featuring Anthony Michael Hall’s character which is used as background TV footage in the movie serves just to ‘pad’ the disc with more useless material. This is by no means a “special” feature.
Lastly, the stills galleries are put together without any creativity whatsoever, which reminded me of those old laserdisc galleries requiring the ‘step’ function to scroll through each picture. At the very least they could have added some of the great Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard music in the background.
This special edition DVD appears to have been hastily put together with already produced material, which clearly does not look like anything which the filmmakers would have ordinarily approved of. Don't be surprised if a more definitive edition appears once the producers have time to create something worthy instead of rushing to get something out for Christmas.
“The Dark Knight” is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Bros Home Video.
Saturday, 29 November 2008
HANCOCK
Hancock (2008) dir. Peter Berg
Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan
**
On DVD arrives “Hancock” a film no one seemed to like (a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) yet grossed $227million dollars. It was born from one of those legendary specs scripts which floated around Hollywood for years. The Peter Berg version has an intriguing set-up, but a number of great ideas gone unrealized.
Will Smith plays Hancock, a drunken superhero, who literally lives in a ‘van down by the river’. Though he flies around saving the citizens of L.A. from petty crimes, lately his crass attitude, drunkenness and careless behaviour has turned the public against him. When he saves the life of a well-meaning publicist, Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) a friendship develops which will change Hancock’s life for good and bad.
Ray starts improving his attitude and learning the ropes of being decent, trustworthy and reliable. As he ingratiates himself with Ray’s family he becomes closer to Ray’s wife Mary (Charlize Theron), which reveals secrets of his past and his ultimate destiny.
A clever twist on the superhero genre is established – an affable hero, lost with no direction. His relationship with Ray is introduced and plays well. Berg primes us for a classic cinematic redemption of sorts, but midway Charlize Theron’s character takes the film on a wild turn in a new direction. It’s a massive coincidental plot twist, which throws all the groundwork of the previous act out the window. As the background of Hancock comes to light Ray instantly becomes inconsequential and unnecessary to the story. Berg tries to juggle two relationships (Hancock-Ray and Hancock-Mary) and so failing at both drowns the film.
Hancock’s villain, Red Parker, is also sorely underwritten. His story is hastily put together in the second half of the film to provide some external conflict for Hancock. Unfortunately, he’s just some criminal schmuck who poses no threat to our hero whatsoever. Eddie Marsan plays Red, he’s a great actor (see his great performance in “Happy Go Lucky”) but as for a villain to play off Will Smith, he’s out of his league.
Ultimately the film is let down by Peter Berg’s show-off direction. He paints lovely pictures but he appears to be channeling some kind of early-career-Michael Bay fixation. Every scene is shot in the sundrenched deep yellow L.A. magic hour and cut with the manic intensity of Bay’s “The Rock”. Unnecessary handheld camera appears to create drama where there is no drama. It’s all artifice and distracting.
I’m convinced “Hancock” could have worked with a more focused director. Berg’s previous film “The Kingdom” makes a good comparison with “Hancock”. Berg seems to get distracted with crafting his individual scenes instead of creating a unifying whole of a film. “The Kingdom” meandered wildly with a different tone to every scene. “Hancock” suffers from the same ailments.
"Hancock" is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Monday, 20 October 2008
Toronto After Dark Film Festival: MIRAGEMAN
Mirageman (2008) dir. Ernesto Diaz Espinoza
Starring: Marko Zaror, Maria Elena Swett, Ariel Mateluna, Mauricio Pesutic
**
From Chile comes an unusual and unexpected entry in the comic book genre. Hanging on the concept of a superhero film is this showcase vehicle for Marko Zaror (stuntman for the Rock in “The Rundown) and his extraordinary feats of acrobatic martial arts. In the marketing leadup to this film at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, we’re told to expect something like breakout performance of Tony Jaa in “Ong Bak”.
While Mr. Zaror’s martial arts skills are indeed out of this world one has to get past the film’s unimposing no-budget home video-like stylistic exterior. With these strikes discounted, and with a forgiving and rambunctious genre-ready audience, “Mirageman” becomes a surprisingly enjoyable theatrical experience.
Marko Zaror plays Maco who is introduced to us sparring against one of those martial arts resistance boards in the basement. His speed and strength are a sight to behold. His physical stature is about 6’ 3” of pure toned muscle. This extraordinary beast of nature is actually an ordinary guy. He’s a gentle giant who cares for his crippled brother in the hospital. One day Maco happens upon a robbery and uses his beat down skills to stop the crime. Maco has an epiphany that he could be a vigilante superhero like Batman.
After brainstorming names and costumes, Maco becomes Mirageman – a low rent Halloween costumed superhero. As Maco performs his altruistic good deeds quickly the city of Santiago catches on that they have a bona fide superhero of their own. The media jumps on the story and he becomes a sensation. A template superhero plot is follows...
Watching and enjoying “Mirageman” must come with a few caveats. It’s a “no-budget” film to start, but not the charming and innovative cinematic techniques of say “El Mariachi”. The consumer-grade cameras, no lighting, no sets, real locations with real people walking the streets in the background is not kind to the film. Excessive use of news reporter footage to give expository information to the audience is a tedious and lazy storytelling device. It’s looks barely above a home video backyard filmmaking.
But it’s all about the fight scenes, most of which were choreographed on the day of filming. Zaror is a massive physical presence, which commands the screen. Director Espinoza wisely keeps Zaror's dialogue to a minimum, letting his fists and feet do the talking. Zaror spin kicks his opponent with lightning quick speed, often hitting the actual actors (who are all stuntmen though).
Espinoza has an ear for comedy too, and though his send up of the superhero genre is not original he coterie of pathetic characters provides enough humour. The funniest recurring gag is Pseudo-Robin, a wannabe superhero who tries to convince Mako to be his sidekick.
“Mirageman” only work if a) you’re a Hollywood talent looking for talent b) you’re at the Toronto After Dark film festival and you’re with a theatre full of energetic die hard genre-junkies. So despite some atrocious ‘filmmaking’ “Mirageman” turns out to be a somewhat decent cinematic experience. Enjoy.
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