Review – Thor

Origin stories are a no-brainer for introducing comic book heroes to the straight crowd of mainstream commercial cinema, so I was unsurprised that Thor focused on making the connection from Valhalla to Earth, and introducing a backstory as to why a god would hang out with mortals.

It skips on the old comic origins of Thor having his memories of godhood removed and placed in the body of a handicapped scientist, for the sexier story of having Thor pissed off that his powers were taken, but otherwise being in his own body, one still quite capable of fucking people up.

I know it’s stupid to nitpick some things about a comic book movie, but lets get my gripes out of the way right now. The costumes were an attempt to sexy up classic designs, but they came across as a bit plastic looking, along with some of the other props. S.H.I.E.L.D. is portrayed as iron-fisted and comes across as unreasonable and ignorant, and it is intentional, as one of the characters refers to them as being ‘jack-booted’, but I can’t help but think that in the current American political climate, driven by PATRIOT Act injustices similar to what S.H.I.E.L.D. was guilty of here, that they could have been softened up a bit. Maybe that’s a plus, it depends on your point of view.

But it does other things absolutely right. Hemsworth is a great Thor. He’s physically and esthetically right for the part. None of the Asgardians display much in the way of Nordic accents though. Anthony Hopkins as Odin seemed just right. The special effects are flashy and loud, make good use of screen real-estate and convey the source material well.

As I said, it skips from my favorite origin story, but that said, it managed to keep the spirit of the comics close, while still being accessible to the general public. The action scenes are exciting, and there are some hilarious slapstick moments early on. As expected, Loki plays a large part, but almost any mention of his actions could be spoiler intensive since he is such a huge part of the plot, so I’ll leave it up to you to find out.

Yes, that last line is subtle speak for go watch the damn movie. It’s good! It’s not the best comic book movie, but it’s FAR from the worst (lookin’ at YOU Punisher:War Zone) it’s a fun action movie that strays from guns and grenades to emphasize melee beatdowns and that of course is the whole point. And Stan Lee’s required cameo is absolutely hilarious.

7/10

Review – Sucker Punch

OK so I saw Sucker Punch the other day.

Great visuals...

I’ve been trying to figure out how to go about this since I’m sure the 4 people who read this and the 15-20 random clicks I get from Facebook are going to be angry about it.

I didn’t care for it.

It started out very promising, poignant, stylish from the start, those flashy good looks that Zack Snyder’s known for, but a good concept (in the vein of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil) was given poor treatment. Character development was too sparse; Brazil worked because of the personalities of the characters, Sucker Punch was lacking.  It had a quest element that I was excited about, but it’s too easy to identify the early plot markers, so the exposition sequence later is less rewarding to the viewer than it should have been. You end up feeling a bit let down.

Visually the film is outstanding. Details jump out at you, the backgrounds during the metaphor sequences were stunning, and the action therin was fantastic. Choreography was spot on. The costumes were a bit anachronistic, being the movie is set in the 50’s, but they appeal to the young male demographic the movie is clearly aimed at. The live sets are detailed and gorgeous as well, and definitely provide a proper feeling of foreboding.

All this cannot save it from a lack of character development and a forced twist that adds nothing to the merit of the movie.

If you want a mindless action spectacular, you could do worse. It’s made to appeal to that crowd.
If you like your movies a little less prosaic in the intellectual department, avoid Sucker Punch.

Review – Rango

Rango is very disturbing.

At least it’s not what I imagined from a Nickelodeon produced movie. It starts with what can only be described as creepy imagery, the titular character playacting with discarded material, making inappropriate innuendo with a decapitated Barbie. These are the toys his owner chose for him.

Soon after, our ‘hero’ is speaking with roadkill, and the movie is quickly devolving into what can only be described as a cross between a Roadrunner cartoon, and a western that includes an inordinate amount of dialogue intended for heavier thinking than the average 6 year old is going to muster, and more than a few jokes that are more appropriate for a PG-13 rating.

The aspiring actor takes the moniker of Rango in an effort to save himself, and gets into a typical corruption/outlaw tale that we’ve seen a hundred times before in a thousand westerns. There’s nothing really new or interesting here. It comes across clunky, and the constant breaking of the 4th wall seems intrusive rather than story driving. Another thing, it’s surprisingly violent.

I do like the animation style, if not the character models themselves, and I do like the nods you see to some of Depp and Verbinski’s earlier work. Ultimately Rango feels like it could have been it could have been fantastic but falls short due to poor execution and over-reaching dialogue, it just doesn’t know what it wants to be. The movie might have come across better if it hadn’t been marketed as a kids movie. I don’t think cursing, even mild, should be in something you want to show to your innocent progeny. (Just to be clear, no I’m not a fucking prude, but I don’t talk to my kids that way…)

This sounds rough, it’s certainly not going to scar a child for life in my opinion, it just might not interest all of them for long. And you may have to explain a couple of the jokes. Or cleverly avoid explaining them. But in my opinion this is not a child’s movie. The themes of murder, violence and organized crime are prevalent, and not something I think is particularly appropriate for children.

Bottom line, I cannot recommend Rango. Not at the theater price at any rate. It might be worth picking up on DVD or on a service like Netflix if you have it, but save your theater cash for something better.

4/10

Review – Paul

So yeah I saw Paul recently and I gotta say, I was moderately impressed. The general hook should be known to anyone who’s seen a trailer or commercial, but in case you are one of the few that don’t know, Paul is about an alien.

Shocker!

No seriously, the movie spends most of the first act getting to know a couple of nerds (Pegg and Frost) with means. Tourists from England – I know the USA’s economy is bad but I dunno how a couple of pocket pulp writers make the scratch to come to the US, stay in 3-4 star hotels, rent an RV and pay for gas, oh and do this in the several cities the Comicon travels to… Why sleep in a hotel when you have an RV? Travel and food at gas stations isn’t expensive enough? Maybe I’m not being fair because this is the only major story flaw in my opinion. I’m guessing the writers being successful actors have lost the concept of expense, especially while travelling abroad.

Enter the Alien (voiced by Rogen) near the end of the first act, a stereotypical Roswell (Or Alienware) design alien, which I’m impressed to say is actually explained in the movie pretty well. Suffice to say the movie certainly plays up the government conspiracy angles, makes hundreds of in jokes and several predictable but well executed potty humor moments. Some of the in jokes are surprisingly cerebral, so the nerdier you are, the more you’ll enjoy them.

I do imagine that some religious groups could be somewhat offended by this movie. I won’t explain why because I personally thought the scene and subsequent subplot was absolutely hilarious, and if anyone seriously gets mad at a work of fiction… Well, fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.

We take our road trip off towards the movie’s climax, ensuring several moments for giggles, a surprisingly decent amount of action, and a surprise twist that I would call worthy of Shyamalan, except Shyamalan’s movies tend to slam it in your face as if you were stupid, this one kind of just pops in as a “Oh, well now I gotta look at that differently” and it works. Oh and it doesn’t involve Paul being allergic to water and coming to a planet that’s near 80% surface water. Stupid Shyamalan. Get an easier name to spell, you hippie.

The guest star couldn’t have been chosen better considering the subject of the movie. Fantastic. I must also stress that the dialog and character actions are not the only canvas used for comedy. Some of the background items are used for fantastic comedic effect. I nearly choked on my drink when I saw the photos on The Big Guy’s desk.

The movie is a high six, low seven for me. Seth Rogan’s voice works quite well for the alien, Jason Bateman is believable too. It’s marred by Hader as Haggard. I understand he’s playing comic relief, but I think the movie would have benefitted a bit more with a slightly more serious actor. As it is, it’s hard to suspend your disbelief when you see Hader’s questionable ‘clueless’ routine. It’s been done before, we see the same character in Superbad. He’s by no means bad in the part, I just think the part ultimately was done wrong for this movie. Whether that’s scripting or acting is not information I am privy to, nor do I care all that much.

Because despite that, I can’t recommend it enough. I laughed out loud regularly, and certainly annoyed people sitting nearby.

 

7/10

Retro Review: The NeverEnding Story

I’m normally one who freaks out when I hear of a movie remake, especially when the movie in question is such an iconic one from my youth. When I heard that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company and Kennedy and Marshall were planning a remake I inwardly shuddered. I cried in the dark. I was in personal anguish and turmoil. Why oh why was my childhood being abused in this way?

I calmed. I had a copy of the movie on Blu-ray. I turned out the lights and loaded it up and made myself comfortable.  They couldn’t take this from me, at any rate. I hadn’t really watched it from an objective viewpoint before though, so I tried to clear my mind as much as possible.

I read the book more recently than I had watched the movie, so I would use this as part of my basis for comparison.

I lost any hope of objectivity as soon as that synthesized beat of the theme music started. Limahl may have had a rocky time with Kajagoogoo, but he hit a homerun with the music for this movie.

We sit through Bastien’s traumatic bully experiences, a moment of unabashed thievery, and Mr. Bux gets to his hideout and begins the book, and brings us along. Henson’s animatronic puppetry is almost magical. The characters are believable, detailed and larger than life. I make a double take as I notice Deep Roy is in there – holy crap, I never made that connection before!

Bastien for his part is pretty forgettable. His part in this movie is not pronounced, but they only really touched on the first part of the book for all that. They did try to develop him a bit with the bully sequence, which isn’t present in the novel.

I now find myself unconsciously drawing lots of comparisons to the book, noting that the Will-O-Wisp is absent, with the Rockbiter taking his/her/its lines. Not a big deal, special effects in 1984 were not quite as easy as they are today. I think they made the right choice, rather than use a shoddy special effect to cover the book more directly.

I try to ignore this once Atreyu is introduced, noting mentally his lack of green skin and blue hair. Noah Hathaway was fantastic in the part though, and carries it believably and strongly.

I pause the movie, go get a drink, remind myself that I should be watching the movie for what it is, and judging based on that. Unpause.

The movie proceeds apace, a fantastic journey, great effects, and my 30-year old self cried just as much as my 6 year old self did at the end of the swamp scene.

We get a look at Falkor, fantastic, majestic… oddly plastic looking. High definition is not a friend to all, I guess. The flaws in the puppet are worst in the close ups, when the speech doesn’t even come close to matching the mouth movements and the whole face is disjointed and phony looking. Ouch, my childhood.

I give the movie credit for having a lot of things that would not be ‘politically correct’ nowadays. The ideas of apathy, helplessness, anger and such aren’t often touched on in children’s cinema nowadays. The breasts on the sphinxes would be hard to put into a PG movie nowadays, but the sculptures are real works of art. Beautiful yet intimidating. The violence implied when meeting with Gmork, the blood. Sadly our lives are being sanitized away from real exploration of art.

We build to our climax and I’m enjoying myself immensely. I am only partially put off by how bad Gmork looks in the scene in the abandoned city. Tears flow when the Childlike Empress pleads with Bastien, I cheer when the bullies are dealt with in the end.

The NeverEnding Story is a fantastic movie. Sure, it has definite flaws that aren’t helped by the aging process, but it’s standing the test of time. I put it on for the kids the next day and watch their reactions to it. My oldest is enchanted, to the point of violently shushing her siblings when they get too loud. My middle child is a year younger than I was when I first watched it. She likes the critters but doesn’t seem to follow the story.  Both of them are in tears during the swamp scene. My youngest just wonders why Cars isn’t on the TV then goes and plays with his toy cars. Overall a positive experiment.

It passes the tests. It’s a great movie that shouldn’t be forgotten. That being said, I look again at the differences between the book and movie, and I realize, it might not be a bad idea for a remake. We have a lot of untouched things in the book to address, the shapeshifter, the Old Man, and much of the character backgrounds can be reworked to be much closer to the novel. Make two movies, one for each half of the novel.  I often wondered how a decent sequel would turn out, rather than these lovely barely video worthy sequels we got before.

Final Verdict? The NeverEnding Story is a classic piece of cinema. It’s well realized, a great journey, has a fantastic lead actor driving it, and isn’t dumbed down like so many children’s movies are. It’s a solid 7 of 10.

The remake is going to be made whether I want it to or not, so instead of dwelling on that, lets see about the possibilities of bringing more of this great book to the screen. It has potential, don’t let me down Hollywood.