Maleficent

Ah, the nostalgia of going and seeing a movie based on a memorable viewing experience from childhood.  This can usually go to a drastic extent of the pendulum swing.  It can be modernized replica that reminds you of all the joy of first viewing, creating the adult into their child-like state of marvel and wonder, capturing perfectly all of the wonders remembered.  This was the case with Godzilla, which came out a few weeks ago.  The other extreme could be that the movie is empty and emotionless, an experience that leaves the audience feeling like the Hollywood system was purely looking for a way to make a new movie to bring in some cash without having to think of new story ideas.  They bring super special effects, superficial storylines and characters, and can make general audiences happy.  Such as how I found last year’s Man of Steel.

And then, there are times when people attempt to travel a new direction.  They see a well-known piece of source material and it brings into their head a new way to interpret it, staying true to the basic structure but bringing out the microscope to heighten elements that have not before been explored.  A good example of this recently was Darren Aronofsky’s Noah.  The problem with films like this is that they can exist in almost a ‘no-man’s land’ where audiences can assume that it will be landing on either extreme of the spectrum.  Some can feel alienated as it was not what they expected, while others revel in being surprised by a film that takes chances and brings out fully developed and rich characters.  There is hardly ever a ‘right way’ to view a film, which is what can make these off the beaten path films polarizing, as they are not able to fully satisfy either camp.

This is the exact category that Disney’s Maleficent fits into.  While it tells the story of Sleeping Beauty audiences should be warned ahead of time; this is not a fairy tale, it is a character story.  The film follows one of the most evil villains in Disney history (played by Angelina Jolie) and adds a backstory and history of love and innocence before she became corrupted by the harshness, greed, and deception that lived in the world around her.  Her turn into bitterness and vengeance makes sense, and as she wavers on her decisions throughout the film I always had an understanding of why.  It never felt as though the Hollywood Shoe Horn was coming out to force story elements without cause (see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 if you like that sort of thing).  As Maleficent travels through her emotions, we are right there with her, feeling the sting of her pain, and hoping for her to recover from her emotional and physical wounds.

The film becomes very dark at times, which some may say a little too much so for an all ages movie, but the use of the horrible elements of humanity is never too graphic and serves to propel Maleficent through all of the twists and turns of her life.  It could get perhaps a tad scary for children at times, but most likely no more so than the terror I had when I was a young, curly haired lad seeing Sleeping Beauty for the first time.  Visually, as well as tonally, the contrast of light and dark are in integral point to properly allowing this character we view as evil to become human and redeemable.

The visual component is utterly stunning.  From creating the fanciful land where Maleficent comes from, to a fire-breathing dragon, it is a treat through and through.  My absolute favourite visual is the recreation of the green coloured evil magic from the animated film, which really added an element of geek love for me.  Director Robert Stromberg is a well credited and Oscar winning visual effects artist, and he brings that craft with him to Maleficent which is his first directorial effort.  Transcendence showed that some people do not travel well from the visual realm to the director’s chair, but Stromberg shows an innate understanding of character development and storytelling.   

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton’s script fits seamlessly with style of movie that Stromberg was creating visually.  It felt as though writer and director were one person, as they shared vision for the movie which brings down the walls of the typical fairy tale portraying the helpless woman who is ultimately useless without a good-looking prince to show up on a shimmering horse and kiss her.  Because the princess is useless, all it takes is a token act as such by a man to help her out, thus leaving little girls everywhere anticipating that they really need a man to save them if the world gets a little dark and scary. 

If I can side rant for a minute, this is not just an issue that occurs in fairy tales, but so many films that it becomes rare to find a movie about a competent and complex female character that does not either need the help of a man, or strive for the love of a man.  In ‘female driven’ movies, it can still feel as though the theme is ultimately revolving around the Y chromosome.  It is sad, and it is pathetic.  Women get the complete shaft both on screen and off screen in Hollywood, and thank goodness for movies like Maleficent that show there is so much more to the mind of a female than just the want for a handsome mate.

Angelina Jolie is perfect in filling this role.  She is able to bring to her stone-faced character emotions from all across the spectrum, from compassion to malice, all through nuances in her facial expression, while still maintaining a face that looks cold and heartless.  Opposite her is the cursed child Aurora (Elle Fanning) who is magnificent in capturing a love for life, being entranced by the beauty around her, but still being able to feel hurt, sad, and angry.  How I would right now love to go into spoilers and talk at length about the part she plays in the story, but I will refrain from that out of respect for your viewing experience, should you decide to see it.

There is a spinning wheel needle, there is a prince on a horse, but they are not the real story here.  The focus is on a complex character who is dragged through the harshness of life and becomes something evil because of it.  We are given a perspective of the story that does not line up with the ends of the pendulum swing, but choses a bold approach to venture into a change of perspective that is full of richness of character emotions and development.  It is a refreshing dip into what a movie could be if you present female roles that have emotions of their own and lack a reliance on men, and is aided by the female writing perspective of Woolverton.  Remember, this is not a fairy tale.  It is a character story, and one that leaves you hoping and begging for the ‘happily ever after’ genre trope.

Rating – 3.5 out of 4 stars

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Last week I sat down to write about Godzilla and found that a minor hurdle that I had to enjoying it was getting past a very mundane plot that occupied the first thirty minutes of the film.  And, like a virus coming around for a second go at a drained and exhausted human body, X-Men: Days of Future Past took plot issues to a whole new level and gave me my second assault from within the past week.  If audiences spend the entire film thinking too much, stocks in Tylenol would see a significant jump as thousands of movie goers would attempt to quell their brain-drain headaches.

Every movie, especially time travel movies (which this one is), will have plot holes in it, and action films such as this require an expected suspension of disbelief.  The issue with this movie is that the suspension of disbelief needed does not come from having to allow for the fact that there are mutants with crazy powers, but that everything you have been told from previous X-Men movies may or may not fit with the tale you are watching.  X-Men: First Class was a wonderfully fun film which had the appearance to be a reboot over a direct prequel, as elements were introduced that did not fit with the previously established trilogy.  That is fine and good, but X-Men: Days of Future Past links the two together, meaning that all anomalies from the past versions should somehow fit with the future version, and it is just a mess of mental catastrophe wading your mind through the maze of inconsistencies.

Let me now pause to enjoy the aforementioned Tylenol…

Alright, I am back on track.  If you were to spend all of the running length of this film straining to put all of the pieces together of what you are being told by director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg then you would miss out on a visually stunning and fun adventure.  I won’t downplay the inconsistency factor, but the film is good enough that you are able to look past it.  If you look at the Batman trilogy by Christopher Nolan you will find a massive amount of improbabilities and plot holes, but the experience is engrossing enough that it is easy to pass them by.  It is very similar with X-Men: Days of Future Past, which relies on a stellar cast of talent playing mutants, all of whom have their own personal battles that they are trying to get through.

The future of mutants and humans is in jeopardy in the future, and the X-Men use the powers of Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) to transport Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) mind into his body in the year 1973.  He then must find the young Professor X (James McAvoy) and his old friend turned enemy, Magneto (Michael Fassbender).  Along the way we get to see new mutants and ones we have already met as they attempt to track down Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) whose actions may lead to the bleak future that they are trying to avoid.  It sounds a bit like Terminator, but instead of Kyle Reese naked and with no weapons landing in the past, we Wolverine, naked and with temper… this sort of thing bodes well for entertainment.

Just like the first film, I felt the largest strength to be the performances and relationship between McAvoy and Fassbender, both of whom play their characters perfectly and exhibit full, powerful emotions, as well as Fassbender being able to show strength and danger using only facial expressions an posturing.  Magneto really has to be one of the most cinematic villains in history, because there is so much you can do with him that creates a sense of awe when seen on the big screen.  Bryan Singer crafted numerous magnificent moments with Magneto that alone are worth seeing the film for.

One aspect that I was very happy with in X-Men: First Class was their use of the F-word.  This may sound very silly for me to bring up, but in a PG-13 movie they are only allowed one use of the word.  Just like any other aspect of the visceral and storytelling experience, language means a lot.  So many times when studios only have one opportunity to use a strong word that sums up many emotions it is just inserted in a throwaway moment.  First Class used it at an appropriate time, with appropriate characters that created a great deal of humour, but was so true and sincere to the moment.  X-Men: Days of Future Past ties in its use of the cuss word with the previous film, not for humour but for an understanding of character.  I do applaud them for making the most of the one shot they had at using that word, because it made an impact in the story.

The action scenes were a visually stimulating experience, and one in particular included an enormous amount of humour.  While it was not an overly funny movie, the humour fit perfectly with the character and situation involved without being out of place and overly slap-stick (even though it was rather slap-stick).  Once again, Singer showed an awareness of what works, with whom, and when.  One downside to his choice of visuals was at times inserting grainy perspective shots from bystanders to the action who had cameras.  I do understand that the intent was possibly to instill the understanding that the mutants were now caught on tape, but it had a tendency to work against the flow of what was unraveling.

If you are an X-Men fan, or just a fan of solid summer action flicks, you will most likely get all of your money’s worth out of X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Or, if you are like me, you are sitting on a stock pile of Scene points and will have the option of seeing it for free.  But, if you completely act like me, you will not figure out how to redeem the points and, for the second week in a row, pay full price for a movie you could have gotten for free because you don’t understand tech.  I am not completely blaming this on Bryan Singer, but I am considering writing a strongly written letter.

Rating – 3 out of 4 stars

Godzilla

The last time I saw the great monster Godzilla on a theatre screen was in in the Japanese film Godzilla 2000, and, even though there was still Japanese Godzilla movies made after that, the giant Kaiju went quiet in North America, returning to the deep for many years.  And perhaps it was a good move as the excitement for the giant lord of the deep was starting to wain and began to quiet down.  Some things, however, can only remain dormant for so long.

In the latest installment of the franchise, Godzilla (2014) brings its own new interpretation to the history of the mammoth beast, and spends the first half hour or so of the movie introducing the major players and allowing the mystery to slowly be unravelled.  Bryan Cranston plays an engineer turned conspiracy theorist who is convinced that the Japanese government has something they are trying to hide at the site of a nuclear reactor that he worked at before it melted down.  He finds his antics getting him into trouble with the Japanese police, and his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) heads from his nice life in the states after returning from military duty to bail his father out before finding himself wrapped up in the mess as well.

There, that is the plot.  Most of the times in a monster movie the plot is just a spinning wheel that transports us from our pleasant introductions to furious creatures pounding the monster-snot out of each other.  The trailers for the film had added an element of intrigue around the concept of a government cover-up, and I became kind of sad through the first portion of the film as the execution of the plot felt lifeless.  I also began to learn that thinking too much about the plot really was a waste of time, because it did not bring any excitement and was pretty ripe with possible holes.

Before the story could be too much of an issue for me, I was pulled off into a world of the giant monsters, which had now arrived on the scene, and began feeling just like a little boy again.  Director Gareth Edwards and screenplay writer Max Borenstein know well just how to build to a big event.  We got a lot of teasers from the Godzilla and his Rodan-like opponent, but full payoff was held back until the very end.  At a time in cinema where summer blockbusters are all about flexing 30 minute long battle sequences that end up numbing the audience, the build and anticipation showed that less can be more, and it can top the excitement of a Michael Bay movie about fighting robots.

One of my favourite moments in the movie was the first real appearance of Godzilla, a sequence that took place over perhaps ten minutes.  The monster’s arrival was not the purpose of the scene, but rather another element as there was a lot happening, which allowed Edwards to drag it out and get people like me ultimately geeked out and pumped for what was about to happen.  Much like the world of professional wrestling, the entrance sets the tone, and what a wonderful tone it set.

The special effects crew on this film was enormous, and it showed in the quality of the visuals.  Seeing it in 3D actually assisted giving scale and proportion at times, creating the sense that human characters were puny and insignificant.  Edwards also chose moments of a first person perspective in scenes that added to the emotional element that Ford was going through as he was trying to help save humanity.  And, on another technical note, it was not an incredibly loud movie, especially not compared to the aforementioned Michael Bay.  Edwards showed great abilities in using silence during portions of the movie, which then would elevate the effect of Godzilla roaring.  Technically, this film was a treat.

And that is why I chose to give up on worrying about the plot.  The people in charge of the film knew exactly how to create very epic and memorable moments, and pulled them off with expertise that forced a child-like grin to be tattooed on my face for much of the movie.  The biggest accomplishment of them all was the fact that the audience gains an appreciation for Godzilla and roots for him to not just kick ass, but to win and live to fight another day.  This movie proves that summer epics do not have to be close to three hours long, they do not need to be loud, and they do not need to rely on lengthy fight sequences to be entertaining.

Rating – 3 out of 4 stars

The Breakdown of Neighbors

It's Monday, and today my friend and fellow reviewer Chris and I have our podcast up and posted.  We talk about our thoughts of the new Seth Rogan movie Neighbors (and Chris decides to drop the gloves over the most miniscule of differences of opinions) as well as 2014 Oscar nominated documentary Blackfish.  On top of that, we give our thoughts on the martial arts spectacle that is Ip Man (a tale of the man who would become the teacher of Bruce Lee) and the hard hitting look at romance in Blue Valentine with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

After all of the chit chat on the movies, we then get into the discussion on the recent news of Netflix being picked up by three cable providers in the United States.  While it may not sound like huge news, it is a groundbreaking moment in the evolution of entertainment, and we talk all about it.

You can find the podcast here.  I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to give your comments, feedback, or whatever you may have to say.  And, if you do enjoy it, please feel free to share it with others.

Have a great Monday... I will not.  I will be watching Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star for next week's podcast.  If you do not know why I am dreading this, you can read my review of it that I posted months ago.  Sadly, I do not remember that train wreck well enough to go off memory, thus the second viewing.  A sad day for Scott.

Flash Gordon

After the big sci-fi adventure boom that was brought about thanks to Star Wars, there seemed to be a clamouring to hop onto the popularity and cash in with similar type films.  The year was 1980, and entering the epic space scene was Flash Gordon, a movie based off of the 1930s comic strip.  On a visceral level, I suppose as well as on an acting and script level, the film, at first glance, feels a notch or two above the Italian movie Starcrash.  If you simply substitute Christopher Plummer for Max von Sydow and David Hasselhoff for Timothy Dalton you could possibly make a case for the two movies being of similar schlocky form.

There is a main difference, however, between Flash Gordon and Starcrash as well as the many other space movies of the time.  Instead of taking a purely serious approach (and failing as Starcrash did), director Mike Hodges and scriptwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. went the route of creating a film that was full of an intentional campiness.  There may be some folks out there who could believe that I am wrong in viewing it that way and that the film was truly a poorly made film, but one only needs to know that Semple is the same man who penned the infamous 1966 Batman: The Movie starring Adam West (AKA the best Batman ever).  Batman: The Movie is a film that perfected the art of intentional camp, allowing the movie to be close enough to walk the line that would confuse people in understanding  its true intentions of what Adam West likes to call ‘the theatre of the absurd.’  The same heights of the art form are not found in Flash Gordon, but it is still deceptive enough to leave people believing it was taking itself seriously.

The movie finds Earth to be in trouble, thanks to the meddling nature of The Emperor Ming (von Sydow), which means that a flight home for Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) turns into a nightmare of turbulence and poor special effects as Earth is plagued by natural (and unnatural) disasters.  After Flash flirts with the only other passenger on the plane, Dale (Melody Anderson), he safely lands the plane into the side of a greenhouse/secret rocket launch facility of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Oscar nominated Topol).  Flash, who is in need of making a phone, is tricked into entering a rocket ship with an intricate flight system that needs someone to step on a red pedal, shoots off into space and enters into a tie-dyed black hole.

Once in space, Flash shows the powers he has as being quarter back for the New York Jets and attempts to save earth by uniting the divided peoples under the rule of the dread Emperor Ming.  He comes face to face with over the top costumes, odd gimmicks, and the ever present looming danger of poor acting and dialogue.  This is where the brilliance of Hodges and Semple come into play, as they do just enough to make it laughable, but never bring it fully into the realm of complete catastrophe.

The sound track to the film is enhanced by Queen, who made a special anthem for the blond-haired hero.  The song is not great, and it is not even that good.  What it is, though, is fitting to the feel of camp-style heroics that the movie is aiming to capture.  The repetitive and over-the-top nature of the song burrows deep into your head like those torturous creatures that Khan used in Wrath of Khan, a key means for which to carry out his wrath.

I am kind of saddened that I never saw this film in my childhood.  I feel like perhaps I missed out on the legend that it could have been for an eight year old boy (although I only would have been two when it was in theatres).  Still, many years later I find much fascination and youthful energy in the movie that entertained me from start to finish.  Oh, and, as mentioned, Timothy Dalton is in it, too!

Rating – 3 out of 4 stars

As a side note, I remember hearing a tale of someone whose mother intended to rent Flash Gordon for her son’s birthday party.  Popping the VHS into the player and hitting play, she left the boys to have their fun while they watched good versus evil and ate potato chips.  What she would realize about ten minutes later, when she heard noises coming from the television that did not sound like the movie she had envision as well as absolutely no sounds coming from the young boys.  After investigating, she quickly discovered that she had accidently rented Flesh Gordon, which carries a rather different approach to telling the story.  Parents, always be sure to properly read the titles of movies.