Man I'm getting slack with updating this thing, especially considering I saw both of these films over a week ago. So, that said, lets get straight into it;
X-men: First Class
Presuming all the X-men films are meant to be set in the same universe and follow the same canon, then we now have our fifth film in the series. In an unusual release format we've seen the original trilogy, followed by a prequel, followed by a prequel of a prequel. The first film was enjoyable fun, the second was a surprisingly better and deeper sequel, haven't seen the third, and the series defiantly went downhill with decent but unnecessarily convoluted Wolverine film. Fortunately, the series is now back on track with the best film in the series so far.
It starts off by laying the background for Eick Lehnsherr (Magneto) who, as a child sees his mother murdered in a Nazi concentration camp by another mutant named Sebastian Shaw whilst trying to get Erik to unleash his powers. Meanwhile, pre-teen Charles Xavier meets Raven (Mystique), and is relieved to find out he is not the only one with extraordinary abilities. Jump forward to almost 20 years later, Shaw and a group of other mutants are bent on mutant world domination through a careful plan of manipulating the worlds superpowers. Xavier is publishing a thesis on mutation, whilst Lehnsherr is tracking down Shaw to get his revenge. Xavier and Lehnsherr meet, and stat working together to stop Shaw. There's a whole bunch of other stuff going on too, but I think that's best left to the viewer to discover.
There's a lot to like about this movie. It tells a great story on an epic scale, but developing the two main characters from their childhood, and then showing them team together and learn from each other right up til the final battle, where, well I'm sure I'm not spoiling anything by saying they don't remain BFF's and live happily ever after. The film moves at a constant pace and theres some much happening and plenty of good action scenes, so there's no room for boredom. The usual X-men political themes and messages of accepting yourself and others for who they are are present, but I think they're looked at in a more poignant way than ever. I'm still waiting for a really awesome film to come out this year, and this one comes close to achieving that, however perhaps falls a little bit short due to the limitations of the genre. Still, it's my favourite film of 2011 so far.
**** out of *****
Rental - The Green Hornet
Before I say anything else I guess I need to mention that I'm not familiar with the Green Hornet character in anyway. I've never seen any movie, TV show or read any comic book featuring the character. Therefore, there's no nostalgia involved for me in watching this film, nor can I say how faithful the film is to the source material. So here we go.
The movie's about Britt Reid (Seth Rogan), who is a constant embarrassment to his father, a wealthy media... errr.... guy. When Britt's father dies, Britt inherits the fortune, and then for some reason decides to start fighting crime with Kato, a martial arts expert and his dad's mechanic. Their motivations escape me completely, however never mind that as they drive some TOTALLY BAD ASS cars in the process, and that's more important than storytelling, right?
The movie starts out pretty badly, with some cheesy soundtrack music, poor dialogue and boring action sequences that make it feel like a straight to DVD film rather than one that got an actual theatrical release. It's only really at the end where you're actually positioned to give a crap about what's going on, with a plot twist giving some depth to the character of the protagonist, and an over the top finale being a bit of fun. But it's a case of too little too late. It's hard to believe that the same guy who directed the emotional and visual roller coaster Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind directed this tosh.
**1/2 out of *****
Saturday 25 June 2011
Sunday 12 June 2011
DOUBLE FEATURE
I went and saw the following two movies within 24 hours of each other, so they may as well have been a double feature anyway. One was quite good. The other not so much...
Super 8
The new film from JJ Abrams (who, of course, was the creative force behind Lost), this feels like a total homage to 80's sci-fi and coming of age films. I've heard it described as a cross between Alien and ET, I'd throw Stand By Me into that equation as well. Set in 1979, it's basically about a bunch of young friends in a small town who decide to make a movie, and one night while filming a scene they witness a train crash. From there a whole bunch of weird stuff stats happening, with suitable doses of mystery, intrigue and suspense.
Coupled with the sci-fi thriller element of the film is the coming of age story of the friends who become caught up in the weird going ons, and the heart of the story (as far as I'm concerned anyway) is the friendship/romance between central protagonist Joe and Elle Fanning's character Alice. There is a quote from one of the characters early in the film that spells out in very simple terms why this film works and why I get frustrated with so many other sci-fi/action films. Whilst going about making their film, Joe's friend who is directing the film makes a comment something along the lines of "It doesn't feel like a story yet. When we give the main character a wife it will make people care about what happens because of their relationship." It's not quoted verbatim but you get the idea. We care about the predicament the characters are in simply because we care about the characters, and about tthe relationship at the heart of the film. For those people who still think The Expendables was a good movie, there's your answer right there as to why that movie sucked (not the only reason though, obviously). But anyway.
There are a surprising amount of themes on display in this movie; dealing with grief, growing up in a small town, bravery, the impact of father's behaviour on their children, and the treatment of people or things that you don't understand (as seen in the film's alien.) The problem is that it only really skims the surface of all these ideas, and doesn't delve deep enough to keep this viewer satisfied. Having said that, all the elements of this film combine nicely to make an overall enjoyable viewing experience, although it falls short of being an amazing one.
***1/2 out of *****
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Oh dear. Here we have what started as an immensely popular and respected family adventure movie that has now degenerated into a shameless attempt to cash in on the franchise with one of the most pointless, redundant sequel I've seen for a while. I wasn't planning on seeing this one after reading the bad reviews, however I was invited out with a group from work and figured why not. Why not indeed.
This film sees Blackbeard, the British Navy and the Spanish all on a quest to find the fountain of youth? Why? Because they can I guess. Jack Sparrow joins Blackbeard's crew, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) joins the British, whilst the British are hardly seen. Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom are gone from this film, and although they played the most annoying characters in the original trilogy this film is somehow more annoying without them. Penelope Cruz joins the cast as Angelica, Sparrows former lover, and despite the writers best efforts to make their relationship a point of interest it fails miserably.
In stark contrast to Super 8, I was left wondering why I should care about anything that's going on. There's no warmth or depth to any of the characters or relationships, and there appears to be nothing at stake should they fail to find the fountain of youth. The only spark of humanity in the film is found in the relationship between a missionary on Blackbeard's crew and a mermaid (yep). There are plenty of pointless action scenes to stop you from falling asleep (Sparrow even gives a monologue before the final fight about how pointless it would be for them to all become involved - but they do anyway), and I'm sure a lot of people will argue that this film is just a bit of harmless fun. But without being set up to give a crap about anything that's happening I don't think that argument is sufficient.
** out of *****
Super 8
The new film from JJ Abrams (who, of course, was the creative force behind Lost), this feels like a total homage to 80's sci-fi and coming of age films. I've heard it described as a cross between Alien and ET, I'd throw Stand By Me into that equation as well. Set in 1979, it's basically about a bunch of young friends in a small town who decide to make a movie, and one night while filming a scene they witness a train crash. From there a whole bunch of weird stuff stats happening, with suitable doses of mystery, intrigue and suspense.
Coupled with the sci-fi thriller element of the film is the coming of age story of the friends who become caught up in the weird going ons, and the heart of the story (as far as I'm concerned anyway) is the friendship/romance between central protagonist Joe and Elle Fanning's character Alice. There is a quote from one of the characters early in the film that spells out in very simple terms why this film works and why I get frustrated with so many other sci-fi/action films. Whilst going about making their film, Joe's friend who is directing the film makes a comment something along the lines of "It doesn't feel like a story yet. When we give the main character a wife it will make people care about what happens because of their relationship." It's not quoted verbatim but you get the idea. We care about the predicament the characters are in simply because we care about the characters, and about tthe relationship at the heart of the film. For those people who still think The Expendables was a good movie, there's your answer right there as to why that movie sucked (not the only reason though, obviously). But anyway.
There are a surprising amount of themes on display in this movie; dealing with grief, growing up in a small town, bravery, the impact of father's behaviour on their children, and the treatment of people or things that you don't understand (as seen in the film's alien.) The problem is that it only really skims the surface of all these ideas, and doesn't delve deep enough to keep this viewer satisfied. Having said that, all the elements of this film combine nicely to make an overall enjoyable viewing experience, although it falls short of being an amazing one.
***1/2 out of *****
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Oh dear. Here we have what started as an immensely popular and respected family adventure movie that has now degenerated into a shameless attempt to cash in on the franchise with one of the most pointless, redundant sequel I've seen for a while. I wasn't planning on seeing this one after reading the bad reviews, however I was invited out with a group from work and figured why not. Why not indeed.
This film sees Blackbeard, the British Navy and the Spanish all on a quest to find the fountain of youth? Why? Because they can I guess. Jack Sparrow joins Blackbeard's crew, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) joins the British, whilst the British are hardly seen. Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom are gone from this film, and although they played the most annoying characters in the original trilogy this film is somehow more annoying without them. Penelope Cruz joins the cast as Angelica, Sparrows former lover, and despite the writers best efforts to make their relationship a point of interest it fails miserably.
In stark contrast to Super 8, I was left wondering why I should care about anything that's going on. There's no warmth or depth to any of the characters or relationships, and there appears to be nothing at stake should they fail to find the fountain of youth. The only spark of humanity in the film is found in the relationship between a missionary on Blackbeard's crew and a mermaid (yep). There are plenty of pointless action scenes to stop you from falling asleep (Sparrow even gives a monologue before the final fight about how pointless it would be for them to all become involved - but they do anyway), and I'm sure a lot of people will argue that this film is just a bit of harmless fun. But without being set up to give a crap about anything that's happening I don't think that argument is sufficient.
** out of *****
Wednesday 1 June 2011
The Hangover: Part II
When I first saw that this movie was coming out my initial reaction was "Does The Hangover really need a sequel?" As much as I enjoyed the first one (even if it was a bit overrated) I figured that unless they took the characters and placed them in a completely different situation the film would be in danger of being to similar to the original. However, being completely bored last Friday night I found myself sitting in the late session (which was surprisingly busy) up the back waiting to see what they had to offer.
And, you know what, it was pretty much a carbon copy of the original, only this time a different guy is getting married, the soon to be son in law goes missing, and it's set in Bangkok not Vegas. What felt like a fresh and interesting formula the first time (even though the whole bucks party gone wrong concept has been done before) just felt like a rehash this time.
Like the first one there were admittedly quite a few laugh out loud moments, although some jokes missed the mark, and some pushed the bar a bit too far (jokes involving Thai ladyboys sound like any ones idea of a good laugh?) For a boring Friday night this was a bit of fun, although it's more along the lines of "Wait for DVD and veg out at home" Friday night fun that "Sit in a cinema full of middle aged couples who find the aforementioned jokes funny" Friday night fun. If there's a Hangover 3 I expect I'll be taking my own advice here.
*** out of *****
Also, even though I watched Winters Bone and said I'd write about it, I decided not to as a I wasn't really in the right mood while watching it, and therefore wouldn't be doing it any justice. I'll probably rent it out again some day and give it my full attention.
And, you know what, it was pretty much a carbon copy of the original, only this time a different guy is getting married, the soon to be son in law goes missing, and it's set in Bangkok not Vegas. What felt like a fresh and interesting formula the first time (even though the whole bucks party gone wrong concept has been done before) just felt like a rehash this time.
Like the first one there were admittedly quite a few laugh out loud moments, although some jokes missed the mark, and some pushed the bar a bit too far (jokes involving Thai ladyboys sound like any ones idea of a good laugh?) For a boring Friday night this was a bit of fun, although it's more along the lines of "Wait for DVD and veg out at home" Friday night fun that "Sit in a cinema full of middle aged couples who find the aforementioned jokes funny" Friday night fun. If there's a Hangover 3 I expect I'll be taking my own advice here.
*** out of *****
Also, even though I watched Winters Bone and said I'd write about it, I decided not to as a I wasn't really in the right mood while watching it, and therefore wouldn't be doing it any justice. I'll probably rent it out again some day and give it my full attention.
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