John Carter – A review

My bus got me home for 7 and I ust finished supper.  This might be shorter than I intended.  Asides like this and the next won’t help either.

I’ve got a lot of ideas this week and a half finished blog about Tim and the crocodiles, but talking about John Carter seems more timely.

It was, apparently, a box office disaster.  Underservingly so.  This was a solid, fun, entertaining action/sci-fi flick.  I can heartily recommend it.  It isn’t without its flaws, but they are not huge.

John Carter is the newest Disney movie.  Directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and Wall-E) although this is a far different beast.  It is filled with actors you probably don’t know – although the supporting cast is an incredibly solid mix of Dominic West (The Wire – Det. McNulty), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes – Moriarty) and James Purefoy (Rome – Mark Antony).  The trailer looked like a very generic mess.  And now it didn’t do well at the box office.  This movie needs saving.

John Carter is a former calvaryman from Virginia.  As he searches for a rumoured gold mine and outruns a posse, he is transported across space to the planet Barsoom.  But this isn’t a made up planet – it is the one we can see in our night sky.  The red planet – Mars.  Waterless, filled with giant plains and looming canyons, but with less gravity.  John Carter finds that a simple step turns into a leap and a single blow of his first can cave in a chest.

That’s right because Mars is populated with Martians.  The martial and savage, but honorable Tharks.  The human looking resident of the two cities in an ongoing civil war – Helium and Zodonga.  The mysterious Therns.  And a variety of both vicious and loyal beasts.

Carter is quickly embroiled in the civil war.  He befriends the Tharks and involves them as well.  The Therns seem to be manipulating events from the sidelines.  But the core plot is about Carter fighting for the love of the Martian princess of Helium – Dejah Thoris.

Intriguing, if a bit conventional, plot – check!  Interesting characters?  Check – especially Dejah Thoris and the Thark Jeddak (general/leader) Tars Tarkas.  Cool effects?  Yes.  Exciting action?  Yes – including fight scenes, chases, and environmental hazards. An emotional through line?  Yep.

It is rated PG although there are some scenes of combat that might be intense for younger kids – a villainous Thark is beheaded and a vicious white ape is disemboweled.  (I thought the later was a bit gratuitous in a PG movie, but if the kids are fine with the Rancor’s death this isn’t far different.)  It won’t insult an adult’s intelligence to watch it.

Plus the movie is just fun.  Fun.  Fun. Fun.  It has a brave, solitary hero.  A brave, intelligent, beautiful martian princess.  A brave alien leader – Tars Tarkas.  It isn’t a funny movie, but it doesn’t lack wit.

Here are my quibbles;

• John Carter speaks with a gravelly “Batman” voice.
• The sci-fi aspects – the ravaging city of Zodonga – the planes that fly through the air – the power of the ninth ray – not enough time is spent on these for my sci-fi bred interest.  (YMMV)
• Dejah Thoris may be too beautiful.  Her character is complex with a number of layers, but the camera lingers on her gorgeous eyes.  (It doesn’t ignore her stunning legs either!)
• It has a ‘princess must marry to save her people instead of for love – oh the injustice!’ subplot.  This is just one of those plots that annoys me – like a carebear stare ending.
• The villains are played by two awesome actors who get almost nothing to do.  That made me sad.  Sure they get to be villainous, but not – not interesting enough.
• 3D does the movie no favours.  It is filled with vistas of Mars that are all blurry because they are in the foreground of the 3D shot.  It was really annoying. See this in two-D if you can.  (I spent $19 on an Imax ticket when only 5% of the huge screen was in focus at a time.)

None of these are a reason not to see the film.  If you can’t see it, rent it or buy it, VOD it or PVR it.  Figure out how to go watch it.

This movie owes a lot to Star Wars.  You’ll see touches of it here and there.  But, it is trying to do the same thing as Star Wars – have fun, entertain and thrill.  In many ways it succeeds.  It is no Star Wars, but it aspires to be.  That is pretty nifty.

 

Wahorse – A review

Spielberg and war movies: Band of Brothers, Amistad, Schindler’s List and, of course, Saving Private Ryan.  There’s a little bit of magic there.  Always with a strong anti-war theme, but recognizing the courage of people in battle alongside the horrors they face.

Still I was wary of Warhorse.  I loved animal movies as a child.  Benji is particular is one for which I have fond memories. (I wonder how it would hold up?)  Plus it was released as a family movie.  In my mind that somehow is a red flag.

I needn’t have worried.

The movie is essentially a series of short films.  Each centres on the horse, but each also shows the triumphs and failings of people.  The horse is always stalwart and strong.  The people are by turns courageous and cowardly.  Kind and cruel.  Three times the film evokes the passion from Saving Private Ryan.  Twice during a charge across no man’s – once by people and once by the horse.  The third time is a moment of quiet reflection and cooperation inspired by the horse’s bravery.

Not all the scenes are as successful, but none are failures.  I’m least satisfied with the film’s ending.  Although I don’t have a better in mind.

We had a discussion the other night about the horrible things people do to each other in movies.  Some movies contain people whose pretty face conceals a character of malignant cowardice.  Warhorse certainly has horrible things (though no gore).  But the pretty faces don’t conceal – they reveal.  And in general they reveal courage.

That sure ain’t all bad.

Midnight in Paris – A review

This is the best movie I’ve seen since Drive.

Midnight in Paris is the most recent Woody Allen comedy.  Ever since he stopped acting in his own movies, I’ve started to enjoy Woody Allen movies much more.  It may appear that as a romantic comedy this isn’t really my thing, but I’m like an ogre.  I have layers.

The movie is also a bit of a time-traveling sci-fi thingy.  It has clever dialogue.  It shows a lively and exciting Paris.

Owen Wilson plays Gil Pander.  He is vacationing in Paris with his fiance Inez played by Rachel McAdams.  The visit is a mix of pleasure and vexation.  They are there with Inez’s parents who rub Gil wrong.  They hang out with Paul and Carol.  Paul is described in the movie as pendantic, but in earthier language, he is a complete ass.  Most troubling is that Inez just doesn’t appreciate the same things about Paris that Gil does.

And Gil loves Paris.  He is a Hollywood screenwriter who is working on his first novel.  The mystique of Paris, especially the ex-pat writers who prowled the left bank in the 1920s enrapture him completely.  That is when he begins to time travel.  Each midnight he is transported back to the 1920s where he meets his idols.

The movie is funny.  Consistently funny.  And smart, but not too smart.  It assumes you know who Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald are plus Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and other luminaries of the 1920s in Paris.  Missing a few of the references and inside jokes probably won’t ruin the movie, but it would probably be frustrating is you don’t get a little thrill when Gil meets Cole Porter or Salvador Dali.

Ernest Hemingway, played by Corey Stoll, is particularly hilarious.

If the description appeals to you at all – run out and see this movie.  It is worth it.

Drive – A review

Finally after a summer of big budget action comes my kind of movie.  Noir plus car chases.

Drive isn’t perfect.  I don’t understand either the musical score choices or the decision to use a pink cursive script for the titles.  I also think the violence was too graphic.  Once during a surprising and shocking scene the row behind me burst into laughter.  inappropriate laughter.  I think they were so shaken by the violence they didn’t know how to react.

In general, I think the audience didn’t know how to deal with the movie.  I think they were expecting the dreamy Ryan Gosling in a “Fast and the Furious” type pic.  That was not this movie.

Much has been said about Gosling’s decision to act the main character mostly silently.  His emotions were shown in the narrowing or his eyes, the grip of his hand on the wheel and often a slow smile.  The smile worked – it was spontaneous whenever he spent time with the child Benicio.  In fact, the relationship between the Driver and the child seemed to be the core of the movie – even more so than the romantic one between the Driver and the child’s mother, Irene, played by Carey Mulligan.  Little is spoken of Mulligan’s performance.  Like Gosling’s it existed mostly in silence as well.  I thought she was quite effective – and to my mind way dreamier than Gosling.

The plot, like most noir, is simply a structure in which the characters hang.  Driver drives.  He drives the getaway car.  He drives the stunt car in the movies.  He drives to relax and think.  When he isn’t driving, he works in a garage.  When he isn’t doing that he isn’t involved.  His apartment is barren.  He doesn’t help plan any heists or stunts.  Outside the car he barely exists – a ghost on the edges.

He makes a decision to befriend Irene and Benicio.  Because of the people that surround them a plot develops.  His boss at the garage is a penny ante con man with a history and dependency on two gangsters.   Bryan Cranston is effective as the garage owner – pitiful and cheap and desperate.  Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman play the gangsters.  Perlman is loud and large and grows more pathetic as the movie progresses.  Brooks is the opposite, but as he talks and acts, he grows more chilling in every scene.

Behind the wheel, the Driver is in control, but outside he struggles.  He struggles with a core of violence that can burst forth.   He wears the same jacket throughout.  It starts off bright and shiny and silver.  As the movie progresses it dulls and dirties and is splattered with blood.

The final catalyst is Irene’s husband, Standard.  A recently paroled thief.  A truly tragic character.  He wants nothing more than to love his wife and care for his son.  But the Driver is in their lives now.  And his criminal past just won’t leave.  Had he befriended someone else when things start to go wrong, he might go to the police.  Instead he turns to the Driver – the man who may have made him a cuckold.

Just in case it isn’t clear, this is a not a movie that will end well.

The character acting is all excellent.  The driving and chases is awesome.  The tension as things start to go wrong and you see the blackness at the core of the Driver is incredible.

I recommend this movie.  Go noir!

Good Things List

And so…

When I review something I always find caveats.  Nothing is ever perfect.

True nuff.  I’m not likely to read the perfect book or see the perfect movie.  Regardless I worry I sound like a curmudgeon.  ‘Cause I like stuff, don’t cha know?

So here is a list of things in the last year that I’ve liked.  No review or commentary.

1. Dr. Who – Season 6.
2. Eureka – Season 1 and 2.
3. The Good Wife – Season 2.
4. The Big Bang Theory – Season 4
5. Source Code
6. Donnie Darko
7. The King’s Speech
8. Captain America
9. Leviathan Wakes
10. A Canticle for Leibowitz
11. The Wise Man’s Fear
12. A Dance with Dragons
13. Lady Sabre and the Ineffable Aether
14. Morning Glories
15. Non Player
16. Echo

 

Captain America – A review

The Cap movie is deeply flawed, but ultimately enjoyable.  I’ve told those who have asked that the best moments are in the trailer.

The movie opens, surprisingly, in the present day with a task force finding an object frozen in the far north.  That is surprising because that is how I had expected the Avengers movie to open.  The movie then has a great first act where Steve Rogers is chosen to be part of the Super Soldier project and the origin of Captain America is told.  The second act has the new Captain America becoming a hero.  The third and final act has Cap in a climatic struggle with his nemesis the Red Skull.

Here is what the movie gets right.  It gets Steve Rogers and it gets Captain America.  Steve Rogers is not a hero because he is superhuman.  Steve Rogers is superhuman because he is a hero.  The movie surrounds Cap with an entertaining cast.  The Howling Commandos in particular worked for me.  Dr. Erskine, played by Stanley Tucci, is also very effective – he plays the heart of the cast.  It has a good villain.   Hugo Weaving plays a menacing and crazy Red Skull.   He isn’t as good as, say, Doc Ock for Spidey II or the Joker from the Dark Knight, but he is excellent.  The movie is filled with references and callbacks that fans will get.  My two favorites were the appearances of the Human Torch and Dum Dum Dugan.  Finally, the movie shares a continuity and references with other Marvel movies.  Beyond the cameo appearances by Nick Fury, there is also the macguffin used – a cosmic cube that was previously seen in the Thor movie.

The flaws are twofold.  The first is the action.  There is a lot of action in the movie.  But they ran out of room for anything other than a montage of Captain America in full costume.  The movie spends more than half its time getting Cap into costume and then when it happens they simply portray his adventures in a long montage.  Other than the montage there is one scene, the climax, where Cap is fully on display.

The second flaw is the ending.  The ending contains two deaths that are so “comic-book”‘ish that you feel pretty sure that neither will stick.  That is a flaw of the serialized continuity of the original books that you don’t really want to pull into the movies.  It also plays like a feature length trailer for the upcoming Avengers film.  There is both tragedy and victory, but although there is an extended denouement, neither seems to be fully explored.  I left the movie unsatisfied.

The trailer for Captain America was pretty awesome, I thought.  Those scenes are all present in the movie and are supported in strength by the scenes around them.  If the movie ended as strongly as it began I would be raving about it.  But the end had more fizzle than fireworks.

Also, don’t bother sticking around for the end of credits bonus scene.  It is a short teaser trailer for the Avengers movie that isn’t complete in and of itself.  Wait until a real teaser shows up online…

Summer Movies so far

I’ve now seen three of the summer blockbusters – Thor, X-Men: First Class. and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

In short:

• Thor – wasn’t happy with it
• X-Men – had some truly ludicrous moments, but overall wasn’t bad
• Transformers – surprisingly good

The Transformers result today was particularly surprising.  I’ve haven’t read any reviews so I don’t know if the world agrees with me.  The second Transformers movie was such utter crap that I went into this one with no good expectations whatsoever.  As I was being my ticket I was wondering “why?  Why am I doing this?”  Super 8 and Green Lantern were both still in the theatre.

Now to be fair, the best part of the Transformers movie was still the Captain America trailer at the beginning.  That being said they fixed a lot of what went wrong with the second movie.  Heck in adding Alan Tudyk in as some comic relief they even managed a couple of funny bits – but maybe I just like Alan Tudyk.  The robot action scenes were tighter and were often comprehensible, the robots had interesting’ish lines, the new big bad was pretty nifty and the foreshadowing in the early part of the movie was awesome.  For the first time in the series the marines were even given some interesting things to do.  The biggest downfalls were that it was too long and had too many shots of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s giant bruised lips.  Those are scary.

If you are looking for a giant, turn your brain off at the door action movie though this meets the bill.

I saw X-Men a week ago.  I don’t have much to say about it.  I liked the performances by all the major cast.  I thought the young actors did a pretty good job.  MacIvoy’s Prof X was the most uneven, but a lot of that was the fault of the plot.   There were two ludicrous death sequences that I didn’t like.  One is just a matter of taste and reflection of the comic – the actual scene was OK.  The other took me out o the climax of the movie.  The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were pretty scary – part of the charm was they had basically no lines.  They were just a pair of killing machines.  Of course everyone else did enough yapping…

I’m fine recommending it to fans of the X-Men.

Thor I’ve spoken about previously.  Search the archives.

I hope Cap is half as good as its trailer.

True Grit – Comparatively

I’ve watched both movie versions of the western True Grit in the past few weeks. I have to say I like them both. I think the modern Coen brothers version is a better movie, but the visceral thrill of the original leads me to pick it as my favourite. That thrill comes mostly from the presence of John Wayne in the main role and the sheer joy and recklessness of the climax.

This post isn’t a review though. What stuck me most, watching the two versions, is how different they were without being different. That is really keen and makes me wish that there were more remakes of this type. I think the latter movie goes back to the book for its inspiration rather than being an adaptation of the first movie. I think that often it is the reverse that you see.

If you have never seen either version, the plot goes like so:

A plowhand kills a farmer while they are off selling ponies and flees into Indian Country. The farmer’s 14-year-old daughter, Mattie Ross, goes to town to retrieve the body for transept and burial. She decides to seek justice and retribution. She finished her father’s business in town and hires a Marshall, Roster (Reuben) Cogburn, to take her into the back country and bring the murderer back to town for justice and hanging.

The murderer, Tom Chaney, has join a gang of bandit led by Ned Pepper. He is also being chased by a texas Ranger, LaBoeuf, for previous crimes. Cogburn, LaBoeuf and Mattie band together against the Pepper gang and have a series of misadventures during their hunt.

A little research shows that the more recent movie is closer in its adaptation than the John Wayne original. But the plot is mostly note for note intact. What changes is the staging, tone, and pacing of the scenes.

Let’s give an example. In the Wayne movie, Mattie Ross calls upon the spectre of an attorney’s power many times during the movie. It is in doubt as to whether the lawyer actually exists or if he is just a fictional threat. In a scene bargaining for her father’s horses, she threatens the hostler with the lawyer. When she does so the hostler wilts and gives in. Mattie produces a signed writ from the attorney at the end of the scene made out, seemingly prophetically, for the exact amount of the bargain and terms of agreement. The attorney is played mostly for laughs including the final reveal at the end which show whether he does or doesn’t actually exist.

In the same scene in the Coen Bros. movie, the lawyer just seems to be a normal small town attorney. He is not really played for laughs although still used as an example of Mattie’s stubbornness and gumption. The hostler does not seem to be scared of the legal threat, but gives in more due to Mattie’s persistence. Mattie must wait for the delivery of the signed agreement rather than producing it on the spot.

Another example of difference is the portrayal of Rooster. The Jeff Bridge’s version is a much more pathetic drunk than the John Wayne version. The Coen Bros. include a new scene with Rooster getting so drunk he can’t sit his horse and then attempting to shoot corn bread out of the air like skeets and failing. While elements of the scene are funny, it exists more to show that Mattie may have picked the wrong man to serve as her instrument.

A final example is staging. In the first movie, when the three set out there are a series of three scenes where Rooster and LaBoeuf resist Mattie’s accompaniment. First on the town side of the ferry, next on the back-country side of the ferry landing and finally in the bush after a horse race. In the Coen Bros. there is only the one encounter. Both contain the same key details though – the two lawmen ride out without her, they tell the ferry owner she is a runaway, Mattie gets her horse to swim across the river, and LaBoeuf gives her a switching, which Rooster stops, as a final attempt to dissuade her.

The effect of both seemed very similar to me. The Coen Bros. version took less time I think. The Wayne version included a horse race which was cool. But otherwise it seems to just highlight the different choices that get made.

There are many more elements that are different between the two films. The relationship between Rooster and LaBoeuf is darker in the later movie as is the ending. While the humour is often black in both shows it seems a bit more sinister in the Coen Bros.

If you have the time, I’d encourage you to watch both. They are two excellent movies with the same plot that are quite different.

All alone.

My brother has deserted me for a hockey game.  There are no comics.

S’alright.  There were only three comics to get today anyway.

In general, it has been a quiet day.  I called in sick to work this morning.  I made poor food choices yesterday and they left me, um, uncomfortable this morning.  I kept up with my e-mail on my Torch, but I missed 5 meetings today.  In hindsight, I might have accomplished more just treading water than earning more action items at those meetings. 

I also watched The Social Network this afternoon.  I’ve been waiting for the movie since before it was released.  It was written by the creator of West Wing and directed by the director of Panic Room.  This seemed like a good mix to me.  I also really liked the star in Zombieland.  The movie got great reviews, but folks generally haven’t seemed to like it.

I loved it.  From the first moment they started talking fast in the opening scene, I knew I would enjoy the show.  But it was an obnoxious show.  The characters were arrogant and unlikeable.  They engaged in excess with no consequence and, in fact, garnered acclaim and reward.

Actually, I liked it from the moment the White Stripes played guitar as the credits rolled.  The music was nifty.

The morality of the show was uncomfortable.  The kind of thing you’d expect from the director of Fight Club, Se7en and The Game.  Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t glamorized by the script, but he wasn’t demonized either.  Certainly he was shown to be more sympathetic than many who surrounded him.  Most of the movie was sitting around and talking.  The framing sequence were overlapping depositions on two court cases.  The kind of thing you’d expect from Aaron Sorkin.

All in all, I don’t think the movie would be liked by many, but I am one of the ones for whom it works fine.  The only false note might be the very end which felt a bit mawkish in the “he only wants to be loved” way.  There is another reading of it.  The “I’ve grown so big that you’ve no choice but to join me” reading.

Supper time now.  I must eat.  Eat and hope that my troubles have passed.

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