Director Guillermo del Toro is a rarity; he's one of the few directors who knows how to captivate awards-giving bodies and fanboys. Like Peter Jackson, who was basically a fanboy god after the first Lord of the Rings trilogy, with multiple Oscars to boot, del Toro has won a slew of awards, including Oscars, for his 2006 masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth, and has won plenty of fanboy street cred with his Hellboy films and his work on Blade II. His latest film, Pacific Rim, panders more to his second demographic than the first, and it does so in a huge way...literally.
In the near future, the Earth is invaded by giant monsters called Kaiju, which enter our world through a dimensional portal that has opened deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. After the monsters attack and level several major cities around the world, with the usual weapons proving ineffective, humanity decides to create a new weapon: giant robots (as tall as skyscrapers) called Jaeger, which are operated by two human pilots locked in a neural link. Over time it becomes clear that not even the jaegers are enough to repel the relentless kaiju invasions, and the world's governments decide to just build giant walls to keep the threat out, which proves to be an exercise in futility. However, one of the pioneers of the jaeger program, a "marshall" named Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) believes the massive robots are key to a plan that could end the threat once and for all, and together with his protege, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) he approaches washed-up jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) whose last outing in a jaeger ended in tragedy, to take one last shot at taking the kaiju down. Armed with the four remaining jaeger suits from America, Australia, China and Russia, the people of the Earth make their last big push to save the planet.
If social networks are any indication, it would seem that fanboys the world over are gushing over this film, and for pretty good reason, in my opinion. The designs of both the giant monsters and the giant robots, easily the stars of the film, are the stuff of fanboy wet dreams. In particular, the jaeger robots look like they stepped out of any of a number of anime from the 80s or 90s, albeit with some pretty innovative design quirks, and with a good measure of grittiness thrown in by their designers, and the wizards at Industrial Light and Magic who brought them to life. The grotesquely cool kaiju are somewhat more varied in design than their robotic nemeses, though pretty much all of them seem inspired by monster movies of old, with some of them sporting giant crab claws or tentacles and others looking like a cross between King Kong and Godzilla. Still, the robots were the stars here. Though Gipsy Danger was the "hero" jaeger, I was a bit partial to Australia's Striker Eureka, which of all the jaeger robots on display seemed the most anime-inspired of the lot. These robots, unlike the similarly ILM-generated metal creatures of the Transformers movies, had a real weight and heft to them and really looked like they could both take and dish out a world of punishment.
Another, more crucial element that sets this movie apart from the narrative disaster of the Transformers movies, though, is the human element; there's a lot going on outside the field of battle, and much of it involves Pentecost as the head of the jaeger program, scientists Newton Geizler (Charlie Day) and Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) and sleazy black-market kaiju body parts dealer, Hannibal Chau (Ron Perlman). There are a lot of surprisingly strong performances here, led by Elba as Pentecost, who delivers a Braveheart-esque speech that makes the one during the climax of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King seem embarrassingly inadequate and whose utter conviction basically elevates the kitschy script he is given. The bickering scientists played by Day and Gorman, the entertaining walk-on by Perlman and the mostly taciturn performance turned in by Kikuchi are pretty effective in reminding the audience that there's a bit more to this movie than just robots punching monsters and vice versa. Lead actor Charlie Hunnam is actually kind of the weak link here, but he is, at least, adequate.
(Mild Spoilers)
For all the shortcomings of any of the human actors, all is forgotten when the robots vs. monsters slugfest begins in earnest. As thrilling as the fight scenes were, I confess to being slightly disappointed that most of the jaeger vs. kaiju action took place between Gipsy Danger and its monstrous opponents, and that two of the much-hyped jaeger robots, Crimson Typhoon from China and Cherno Alpha from Russia, both of which featured prominently in the marketing materials and which were described as virtual legends in the movie itself, went down as quickly as they did without so much as taking down a single kaiju. I would have wanted to see Crimson Typhoon's unique three-arm attack do some real damage before the robot and its operating team of Chinese triplets went down for the count. At least Striker Eureka got to wallop a kaiju early in the movie, and got some good shots in later, during the film's climax.
On top of that, I found it slightly silly that Becket and Mori whipped out Gipsy Danger's sword AFTER they had basically used a freighter as a club against the kaiju, to apparently little effect, especially considering that one well-placed slash from the sword was basically able to take the kaiju down completely. In the anime of old, the sword was the principal weapon, and an effective one at that, a concept which this film echoes, which made me wonder why the heck they didn't use it sooner.
And then of course, there are questions like, how could a thousand-ton (or more) robot survive a 50,000 foot drop, how could a giant monster with wings climb 50,000 feet in a few seconds when it takes a commercial airliner at least a few minutes to climb to half that distance moving at just under the speed of sound, and so on and so forth. Train the harsh eye of science, even just one branch of it, like physics, on this film, and it will almost surely fall apart. But that's not really the point.
(End Spoilers)
Gripes and implausibility notwithstanding, there is no point in my denying how much fun I had watching this film, especially having grown up with giant robots in the 70s and 80s. Spiritually, this was a lot more effective as an anime adaptation than the Wachowskis' notorious flop Speed Racer,and considering del Toro's gift for visual panache that he prominently put on display in Pan's Labyrinth and the second Hellboy film, it was always going to be a visual feast.
The genius of del Toro, however, is that he isn't content to simply let the monsters and mech do all the talking. He also plays a lot with thematic elements as well, and the fact that he chose to set the story years after the invasion began opened up a lot of interesting narrative possibilities; the bodies of slain kaiju litter the landscape, and it's fascinating to see how humanity adapts. As mentioned, there is a bustling underground trade in kaiju body parts and even skin parasites (!) which takes place in--where else?--Hong Kong, and some people have even turned the kaiju skeletons into places of worship! Del Toro basically creates a world that's as grimy, sleazy and uncomfortably believable as the one we live in, for his fantastical creatures to inhabit, and this actually makes it easier to look past the absurdity of the larger-than-life grudge matches that play out on the screen.
While this film may not have the crossover appeal of other recent genre films like the Avengers or Dark Knight movies, I humbly submit that there is more to it than just a fanboy love fest, and because I would love to see a sequel to this movie, I am giving it a big ol' thumbs-up.
4.5/5
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Yellow and Loving It: A Review of Despicable Me 2
Like just about everyone else who powered the 2010 animated film Despicable Me to a worldwide gross of over half a billion dollars, I was a huge fan of the film and more than ready to shell out cash for Illumination Studios' highly-anticipated sequel, Despicable Me 2, which did not disappoint, or at least not too much.
Steve Carell's now-ex-villain Gru is back with his three adopted little girls Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), his mad scientist colleague Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and his tens of thousands of hilarious little yellow minions (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, speaking their patented multilingual gibberish). In this film, Gru is approached by a super spy organization called the Anti-Villain League in order to help track down a mystery villain who has stolen a powerful mutagen that can turn even the most harmless animals into murderous, indestructible monsters. The AVL boss, Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) assigns Gru to stake out a mall where the villain might be hiding, and pairs him up with AVL agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig). At the mall Gru runs into Mexican restaurant owner and proprietor Eduardo Perez (Benjamin Bratt), whom he believes is a former supervillain named El Macho who supposedly died several years before. Much to Gru's dismay, Margo then finds herself infatuated with Antonio, Eduardo's flirtatious tweener son. Worse still, a mysterious villian starts abducting Gru's beloved minions in droves. Time is clearly running out for everyone's favorite ex-villain.
Sequels to animated films, with the exception of the Toy Story films, usually tend to decline in storytelling quality relative to their predecessors, especially when the original film carries a unique premise. The first Despicable Me, for example, stood out because of the very interesting notion of having a villain adopt three little girls to further an evil scheme, only to fall in love with them later on. It even had to compete with a similar "what-if-villains-had-feelings" film, Megamind, and came out on top. Of course, with Gru's adoptive daughters now having domesticated the former bad guy, the original storytelling conceit had to give way to the question of how he would adjust to civilian life, and how the writers can introduce a woman into his life.
While I definitely enjoyed the first film more than I did this one, I'd like to credit the filmmakers with maintaining many of the elements behind the success of the first film. Even though he's already been a dad for awhile, Gru is still wonderfully awkward and Steve Carell, still sporting his faux-Eastern European accent, is still a lot of fun to watch. By introducing new elements to his character, such as a romantic interest and, at the same time, the stress of having a budding adolescent daughter (Margo) taking an interest in boys, the filmmakers are able to keep things fresh. Of course, the three orphans in the film are just as cute as they were last time, and the scene-stealing Agnes has a little bit of a subplot involving her desire for a mother. Agent Wilde is a fun character, but surprisingly bland, especially given actress Kristen Wiig's comedic resume. In terms of zaniness, she could have easily gone toe-to-toe with Carell's Gru, and a slightly wacky accent couldn't have hurt, at least in my opinion. The new potential bad guy, Eduardo Perez, is a significant stylistic departure from the first film's nerdy villain, Vector, and there's something to be said about the new approach. Part of me regrets that the filmmakers discarded the recording of Oscar winner Al Pacino, who originally did the voice-acting for the character, but Benjamin Bratt, who had previously lent his voice to a character in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, was, to my mind a suitable replacement.
The visual design of the characters and locales, old and new, retained a lot of the flavor of the first film, which was basically a mix of the illustrations of the late artist Edward Gorey and some bright pastel colors, therefore much of its charm as well.
I would, of course, be remiss if I failed to mention the real stars of this movie, the characters who have already become the official mascots of Illumination Studios: Gru's minions. Even more than in the first film, the gibberish-jabbering, clumsy, and consistently hilarious little henchmen basically steal the film right out from under Gru's beak-like nose. They are even more prominent here than in the last film as they are actually now an integral part of the plot rather than just a constant source of laughs (though they are still that). As in the previous film, directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud lend their voices to these little critters, who are basically just vitamin pills with eyes, arms, legs, goggles and overalls, and to me it really is amazing how iconic these little creatures have become.
Unlike the last animated film I reviewed, Monsters University, DM2 is not about subtext or messages for adults but really is just about laughs, and this movie delivers plenty of them. While this is still basically a movie for the young and young at heart, I will go so far as to say that this a movie the whole family can enjoy.
4/5
Steve Carell's now-ex-villain Gru is back with his three adopted little girls Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), his mad scientist colleague Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and his tens of thousands of hilarious little yellow minions (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, speaking their patented multilingual gibberish). In this film, Gru is approached by a super spy organization called the Anti-Villain League in order to help track down a mystery villain who has stolen a powerful mutagen that can turn even the most harmless animals into murderous, indestructible monsters. The AVL boss, Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) assigns Gru to stake out a mall where the villain might be hiding, and pairs him up with AVL agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig). At the mall Gru runs into Mexican restaurant owner and proprietor Eduardo Perez (Benjamin Bratt), whom he believes is a former supervillain named El Macho who supposedly died several years before. Much to Gru's dismay, Margo then finds herself infatuated with Antonio, Eduardo's flirtatious tweener son. Worse still, a mysterious villian starts abducting Gru's beloved minions in droves. Time is clearly running out for everyone's favorite ex-villain.
Sequels to animated films, with the exception of the Toy Story films, usually tend to decline in storytelling quality relative to their predecessors, especially when the original film carries a unique premise. The first Despicable Me, for example, stood out because of the very interesting notion of having a villain adopt three little girls to further an evil scheme, only to fall in love with them later on. It even had to compete with a similar "what-if-villains-had-feelings" film, Megamind, and came out on top. Of course, with Gru's adoptive daughters now having domesticated the former bad guy, the original storytelling conceit had to give way to the question of how he would adjust to civilian life, and how the writers can introduce a woman into his life.
While I definitely enjoyed the first film more than I did this one, I'd like to credit the filmmakers with maintaining many of the elements behind the success of the first film. Even though he's already been a dad for awhile, Gru is still wonderfully awkward and Steve Carell, still sporting his faux-Eastern European accent, is still a lot of fun to watch. By introducing new elements to his character, such as a romantic interest and, at the same time, the stress of having a budding adolescent daughter (Margo) taking an interest in boys, the filmmakers are able to keep things fresh. Of course, the three orphans in the film are just as cute as they were last time, and the scene-stealing Agnes has a little bit of a subplot involving her desire for a mother. Agent Wilde is a fun character, but surprisingly bland, especially given actress Kristen Wiig's comedic resume. In terms of zaniness, she could have easily gone toe-to-toe with Carell's Gru, and a slightly wacky accent couldn't have hurt, at least in my opinion. The new potential bad guy, Eduardo Perez, is a significant stylistic departure from the first film's nerdy villain, Vector, and there's something to be said about the new approach. Part of me regrets that the filmmakers discarded the recording of Oscar winner Al Pacino, who originally did the voice-acting for the character, but Benjamin Bratt, who had previously lent his voice to a character in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, was, to my mind a suitable replacement.
The visual design of the characters and locales, old and new, retained a lot of the flavor of the first film, which was basically a mix of the illustrations of the late artist Edward Gorey and some bright pastel colors, therefore much of its charm as well.
I would, of course, be remiss if I failed to mention the real stars of this movie, the characters who have already become the official mascots of Illumination Studios: Gru's minions. Even more than in the first film, the gibberish-jabbering, clumsy, and consistently hilarious little henchmen basically steal the film right out from under Gru's beak-like nose. They are even more prominent here than in the last film as they are actually now an integral part of the plot rather than just a constant source of laughs (though they are still that). As in the previous film, directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud lend their voices to these little critters, who are basically just vitamin pills with eyes, arms, legs, goggles and overalls, and to me it really is amazing how iconic these little creatures have become.
Unlike the last animated film I reviewed, Monsters University, DM2 is not about subtext or messages for adults but really is just about laughs, and this movie delivers plenty of them. While this is still basically a movie for the young and young at heart, I will go so far as to say that this a movie the whole family can enjoy.
4/5
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Pixar Takes on the Academe: A Review of Monsters University
I've been very busy lately, so unfortunately I was not able to review this movie immediately after I saw it nearly two weekends ago, but this was a solid entry in Pixar's library which definitely deserves a review, no matter how late.
Now, I love most Pixar movies, and a lot of other animated feature films from their competitors as well, because they are able to speak to my inner child, but most of the time, Pixar stands head and shoulders above its competition because it is able to address the adults in the audience as well, on a variety of themes, from mortality (Toy Story 2 and 3), to the challenges of single parenthood (Finding Nemo) to middle age (The Incredibles). Monsters Inc., was, surprisingly, one of the less "mature" Pixar hits as it posed the interesting hypothetical question -- "What if the monsters in our closet were more afraid of us than we were of them?"-- which basically captivated anyone who had ever been a kid dreading the bogeyman in the closet or under the bed. It was also one of Pixar's bigger hits over time, as it gained an enormous amount of goodwill over the years on home video and cable TV. While the decision to make a prequel was not something I, personally, welcomed as much as I would the decision to make a sequel to The Incredibles, I was reasonably enthusiastic about watching it the new installment, Monsters University, just the same.
While Monsters, Inc. was primarily about bigtime "scarer" James "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman) and the relationship he formed with a little human girl, as well as his partnership with Michael "Mike" Wazowski (Billy Crystal) MU focuses primarily on a young Mike and how he chases down his dream of becoming a top-class scarer someday. Of course, he does what anyone aspiring to be a professional would: he goes to college, in this case, the scaring school of renowned Monsters University. He faces several challenges there, such as bullies, headed by alpha-male Johnny J. Worthington III (Nathan Fillion), head of the Roar Omega Roar, a legendary but extremely strict Dean of the School of Scaring, Abigail Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), and, surprisingly, the scion of a renowned clan of scarers, the talented but lazy James P. Sullivan. He also finds himself befriending several misfits such as Squishy (Peter Sohn), Don (Joel Murray), Art (Charlie Day) and two headed monster Terri (Sean Hayes) and Terry (Dave Foley). Mike soon learns that, if he wants to pursue his dream of being a scarer, he will have to learn to work well with others, including those with whom he has seemingly insurmountable differences.
Even more than its predecessor, this film tackles decidedly adult subject matter as it takes a swipe at the formal education system in the United States, particularly among the so-called "Ivy League" schools. Basically the adult subtext for this particular film is that the top universities in the United States, as represented by Monsters University, do not truly recognize nor can they properly nurture certain types of genius. It's pretty daring subject matter for a Disney movie, especially one geared largely for schoolchildren, to whom Disney is undoubtedly selling cuddly stuffed versions of these characters. The delivery of the message is a little heavy-handed here, and not quite done with the panache of Pixar's earlier movies, but this movie is still a fine return to form for Pixar after the debacle of Cars 2 and the slightly wobbly narrative of lats year's Brave.
Of course, in terms of character design and visuals, Pixar is still very much at the top of its game. In addition to familiar characters like Mike, Sully, and Randall (Steve Buscemi) from the first film, director Dan Scanlon and his crew have introduced a number of interesting new character designs which effectively straddle the line between cute and creepy, though my personal favorite of the bunch, the stern Dean Hardscrabble, basically made my skin crawl while not looking altogether terrifying. The hallowed halls of academe are not quite as interesting as the ocean floor in Finding Nemo, or the exotic jungles of south America depicted in Up, but Pixar does great work here nonetheless.
All told, this was a prequel that was worth making, and worth watching.
4.5/5
Now, I love most Pixar movies, and a lot of other animated feature films from their competitors as well, because they are able to speak to my inner child, but most of the time, Pixar stands head and shoulders above its competition because it is able to address the adults in the audience as well, on a variety of themes, from mortality (Toy Story 2 and 3), to the challenges of single parenthood (Finding Nemo) to middle age (The Incredibles). Monsters Inc., was, surprisingly, one of the less "mature" Pixar hits as it posed the interesting hypothetical question -- "What if the monsters in our closet were more afraid of us than we were of them?"-- which basically captivated anyone who had ever been a kid dreading the bogeyman in the closet or under the bed. It was also one of Pixar's bigger hits over time, as it gained an enormous amount of goodwill over the years on home video and cable TV. While the decision to make a prequel was not something I, personally, welcomed as much as I would the decision to make a sequel to The Incredibles, I was reasonably enthusiastic about watching it the new installment, Monsters University, just the same.
While Monsters, Inc. was primarily about bigtime "scarer" James "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman) and the relationship he formed with a little human girl, as well as his partnership with Michael "Mike" Wazowski (Billy Crystal) MU focuses primarily on a young Mike and how he chases down his dream of becoming a top-class scarer someday. Of course, he does what anyone aspiring to be a professional would: he goes to college, in this case, the scaring school of renowned Monsters University. He faces several challenges there, such as bullies, headed by alpha-male Johnny J. Worthington III (Nathan Fillion), head of the Roar Omega Roar, a legendary but extremely strict Dean of the School of Scaring, Abigail Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), and, surprisingly, the scion of a renowned clan of scarers, the talented but lazy James P. Sullivan. He also finds himself befriending several misfits such as Squishy (Peter Sohn), Don (Joel Murray), Art (Charlie Day) and two headed monster Terri (Sean Hayes) and Terry (Dave Foley). Mike soon learns that, if he wants to pursue his dream of being a scarer, he will have to learn to work well with others, including those with whom he has seemingly insurmountable differences.
Even more than its predecessor, this film tackles decidedly adult subject matter as it takes a swipe at the formal education system in the United States, particularly among the so-called "Ivy League" schools. Basically the adult subtext for this particular film is that the top universities in the United States, as represented by Monsters University, do not truly recognize nor can they properly nurture certain types of genius. It's pretty daring subject matter for a Disney movie, especially one geared largely for schoolchildren, to whom Disney is undoubtedly selling cuddly stuffed versions of these characters. The delivery of the message is a little heavy-handed here, and not quite done with the panache of Pixar's earlier movies, but this movie is still a fine return to form for Pixar after the debacle of Cars 2 and the slightly wobbly narrative of lats year's Brave.
Of course, in terms of character design and visuals, Pixar is still very much at the top of its game. In addition to familiar characters like Mike, Sully, and Randall (Steve Buscemi) from the first film, director Dan Scanlon and his crew have introduced a number of interesting new character designs which effectively straddle the line between cute and creepy, though my personal favorite of the bunch, the stern Dean Hardscrabble, basically made my skin crawl while not looking altogether terrifying. The hallowed halls of academe are not quite as interesting as the ocean floor in Finding Nemo, or the exotic jungles of south America depicted in Up, but Pixar does great work here nonetheless.
All told, this was a prequel that was worth making, and worth watching.
4.5/5
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