As of late last December, Sony Pictures' franchise film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the lowest-grossing Marvel comic book adaptation at the U.S. box-office, in a year when there were a total of FIVE movies based on Marvel Comics properties, namely: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy, Big Hero 6, and TASM 2. Last night, TASM 2 was the only film among those five not to receive a single Oscar nomination, with the others collecting at least one each, and Guardians of the Galaxy managing to pick up two.
Considering the commercial and critical highs which Sony's Spider-Man franchise once enjoyed, this has got to hurt. Once upon a time, Spider-Man was a certified box-office titan; the very first Spider-Man movie was the very first movie to ever gross over $100 million in a single weekend, a feat that not even Harry Potter or any of the Star Wars prequels, then the box-office gold standard, could manage. Spider-Man 2 remains the only film based on a Marvel comic ever to win an Academy Award (visual effects, 2004). Two of the first three Spider-Man movies were the highest grossing films at the global box-office in their respective years of release. Basically, while films like X-Men and Blade established Marvel-based movies as credible box-office players, the towering performances of the Spider-Man movies was what established that putting the "Marvel" logo before a movie was a virtual guarantee of its success.
All of that seems a distant memory now. Even though 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man pulled in surprisingly respectable grosses worldwide for a supposedly unwanted reboot, TASM 2 left no doubt that the once-widely loved series of films has lost a good chunk of its audience.
In the midst of all of this, the recent revelation that Sony has actually been in talks with Marvel for the crossover to happen is at once the most exciting and frustrating bit of movie-related information I have heard in a long time. It's exciting, because I can't honestly think of any other way to describe the thought of Spider-Man becoming part of a shared cinematic universe. It's frustrating, because nothing has come of these talks, except for Sony's clearly hollow boasts that it doesn't need Marvel Studios to keep the character interesting.
The thing is, fanboy hyperbole aside, this is a crossover that has to happen. One needs only look at the success of The Avengers and even non-Marvel projects like The Walking Dead to know that these characters are so much stronger together than they are apart. The goodwill from The Avengers has been nothing short of astonishing; all of the solo "Avenger" movies that came after the 2012 box-office phenomenon saw significant bumps in their international box-office, and all of them, it's worth pointing out, grossed more than the last Spider-Man movie, at least in terms of U.S. box-office. The X-Men franchise got a real shot in the arm this year (and even ended up outgrossing Spidey, once the more favored of the two properties), because of the novel premise of merging the old and new casts. Ensemble is the way to go; even Superman and Batman are learning this particular lesson.
Spider-man is the only major superhero property these days that doesn't involve any kind of team or team-up potential, and it's worth noting that all of the Marvel properties that beat him at the U.S. box office this year either involved teams, or characters who were part of prominent teams. Heck, the Captain America sequel featured one of his Avengers teammates in a pretty pivotal role.
As the saying goes: if you can't beat them, join them.
I think I speak for millions of Spider-Man fans, when I say with all affection and respect to Sony, who are responsible for bringing my favorite character in all of fiction to the big screen:
You can't beat them.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Chemistry is Everything: A Review of English Only Please
directed by Dan Villegas
written by Antoinette Jadaone and Anjeli Pessumal
As a person with limited time and cash but a fervent love for movies, I generally gravitate these days towards movies I either know or believe I will like as well as those I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. After I saw the trailer, English Only Please became just such a movie.
Julian (Derek Ramsay) an American of Filipino descent (on his mother's side), is about to take a trip to the Philippines, and he has a very specific errand in mind: he wants to tell his ex-girlfriend off in Filipino. He already knows exactly what he wants to say, but his problem is that, having grown up in the United States, he cannot speak a word of Tagalog. He goes online to find a translator, and of all of the candidates, he ends up picking Tere (Jennylyn Mercado) an English tutor who is basically the sex-toy of her ne'er do well "not-boyfriend" (Kean Cipriano). Of course, they meet, get to know each other and...well, it's fairly self-explanatory where the plot goes from this point onward.
There really isn't much else to the plot besides jilted boy meets neglected girl, but if there's one thing I know from having watched romantic comedies from four different decades (I started in the eighties), it's that plot is nowhere near as important as a credible chemistry between the two lead actors, and Mercado and Ramsay have it in spades.
I used to follow Mercado when she was still a gangly teenager on the television show Encantadia. I found her portrayal charming enough, and she was as the vernacular goes simpatica, but even though I knew she was a capable enough actress I found myself pleasantly surprised by her performance in this movie. Her comic timing was brilliant, and the best thing about her portrayal was how genuine it felt. Too often in Filipino movies and even in romantic comedies in general actors put on performances that are often cloying and manipulative, but Mercado rarely strayed into that territory, if at all, and even when she did, the conviction of her performance was more than enough to overcome any sense that she was playing it to the hilt.
Ramsay, of whom I have not seen a whole lot of outside of television commercials, was a perfect foil for Mercado; his Julian was the "straight man" to Mercado's somewhat zany Tere, and their dynamic really plays out well, especially since the audience already knows exactly where they're going. Also, I don't really know how well or poorly Ramsay actually speaks Tagalog in real life, but he really did a good job of playing the clueless "Fil-Am," especially in a scene where, having been misled by Tere, he sincerely congratulates a local toughie who has beaten him at checkers by telling him "bakla ka!" At any rate, he was a lot more fun to watch than the insufferable KC Montero in Kubot.
Cipriano is appropriately slimy Tere's not-quite-boyfriend who basically just uses Tere as a sugar mommy, while Cai Cortez is a hoot as Tere's BFF. The fact that her single-mom character is with a different guy in every scene she's in is one of the film's running jokes, the other one being a constant reference to traffic on EDSA as an (often untrue) excuse for being late.
The film's script may not have anything profound to say about the human condition, but it really works well, and the dialogue feels quite natural rolling off the actor's tongues. Sure, some of the jokes might not be the most politically correct, and there overused story tropes all over the place but there is real wit to most of the humor here; it's several cuts above the usual brainless Vic Sotto tripe. The actors really carry the whole thing.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get this review out quite as quickly as I would have liked, which means this movie may not be in as many theaters as it was when I wrote this, but even though the Metro Manila Film Festival is over and the usual Hollywood product is starting to creep back into the market, this is still worth checking out, wherever it may be playing.
8.5/10
written by Antoinette Jadaone and Anjeli Pessumal
As a person with limited time and cash but a fervent love for movies, I generally gravitate these days towards movies I either know or believe I will like as well as those I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. After I saw the trailer, English Only Please became just such a movie.
Julian (Derek Ramsay) an American of Filipino descent (on his mother's side), is about to take a trip to the Philippines, and he has a very specific errand in mind: he wants to tell his ex-girlfriend off in Filipino. He already knows exactly what he wants to say, but his problem is that, having grown up in the United States, he cannot speak a word of Tagalog. He goes online to find a translator, and of all of the candidates, he ends up picking Tere (Jennylyn Mercado) an English tutor who is basically the sex-toy of her ne'er do well "not-boyfriend" (Kean Cipriano). Of course, they meet, get to know each other and...well, it's fairly self-explanatory where the plot goes from this point onward.
There really isn't much else to the plot besides jilted boy meets neglected girl, but if there's one thing I know from having watched romantic comedies from four different decades (I started in the eighties), it's that plot is nowhere near as important as a credible chemistry between the two lead actors, and Mercado and Ramsay have it in spades.
I used to follow Mercado when she was still a gangly teenager on the television show Encantadia. I found her portrayal charming enough, and she was as the vernacular goes simpatica, but even though I knew she was a capable enough actress I found myself pleasantly surprised by her performance in this movie. Her comic timing was brilliant, and the best thing about her portrayal was how genuine it felt. Too often in Filipino movies and even in romantic comedies in general actors put on performances that are often cloying and manipulative, but Mercado rarely strayed into that territory, if at all, and even when she did, the conviction of her performance was more than enough to overcome any sense that she was playing it to the hilt.
Ramsay, of whom I have not seen a whole lot of outside of television commercials, was a perfect foil for Mercado; his Julian was the "straight man" to Mercado's somewhat zany Tere, and their dynamic really plays out well, especially since the audience already knows exactly where they're going. Also, I don't really know how well or poorly Ramsay actually speaks Tagalog in real life, but he really did a good job of playing the clueless "Fil-Am," especially in a scene where, having been misled by Tere, he sincerely congratulates a local toughie who has beaten him at checkers by telling him "bakla ka!" At any rate, he was a lot more fun to watch than the insufferable KC Montero in Kubot.
Cipriano is appropriately slimy Tere's not-quite-boyfriend who basically just uses Tere as a sugar mommy, while Cai Cortez is a hoot as Tere's BFF. The fact that her single-mom character is with a different guy in every scene she's in is one of the film's running jokes, the other one being a constant reference to traffic on EDSA as an (often untrue) excuse for being late.
The film's script may not have anything profound to say about the human condition, but it really works well, and the dialogue feels quite natural rolling off the actor's tongues. Sure, some of the jokes might not be the most politically correct, and there overused story tropes all over the place but there is real wit to most of the humor here; it's several cuts above the usual brainless Vic Sotto tripe. The actors really carry the whole thing.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get this review out quite as quickly as I would have liked, which means this movie may not be in as many theaters as it was when I wrote this, but even though the Metro Manila Film Festival is over and the usual Hollywood product is starting to creep back into the market, this is still worth checking out, wherever it may be playing.
8.5/10
Saturday, January 10, 2015
The Raid Meets the Army of Darkness: A Review of Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles II
directed by Erik Matti
written by Michiko Yamamoto, Erik Matti
Every year, starting from Christmas Day until the second week of the new year, residents of Metro Manila area "treated" to the annual Metro Manila Film Festival, during which all foreign movies are barred from release in movie theaters and only local movies, and those entered specifically in the festival, are screened for the public. Given that my movie entertainment usually consists of Hollywood-generated product, this is often a trying time for me (though lately, not so much, as I don't watch movies as often as I used to), but this year in particular, I was determined to go with the flow and basically just enjoy myself.
My wife and I agreed to a double-header; we would watch Erik Matti's Kubot and Dan Villegas' English Only Please, the only two movies on this year's roster we found appealing.
First up was Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles Part II, the sequel to 2012's Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, a stylized action/horror/comedy hybrid that got rave reviews, and a movie that my wife and I were quite sorry to have missed. Needless to say, expectations were fairly high as we walked into the theater.
Kubot begins where Tiktik ends, with Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) Nestor (Joey Marquez) and the survivors from the first film hopping on a jeep to take them away from Pulupandan and home to Manila, when they are attacked by a band of strange, hairy-looking "kubot" or another form of aswang, who exact terrible revenge on Makoy for his slaughter of the Tiktik from the last film. Years later, sans a wife, a child and his right hand, Makoy lives with Nestor and his wife Nieves (Lotlot de Leon) in Manila, where he also works as a mechanic, when a new aswang menace emerges. It seems a group of aswangs led by the progressive, American-raised Doms (KC Montero) has a terrifying scheme which involves transforming people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs made from ground-up people and aswang saliva. A group of aswang friendly to people are willing to stop them, led by the youthful Dr. Lex (Isabelle Daza) but ultimately they will need the help of Makoy, who may or may not be willing to give it.
Now, I understand that we cannot expect Hollywood-quality visual effects from a local effort, for budgetary reasons if nothing else, but the problems I had with this film really had nothing to do with the computer-generated imagery. No, my problems were with the script that promised so much and yet delivered so little, some atrociously bad acting, and idea after idea cribbed from other action movies. The hero loses a hand and puts on a bad-ass, lethal prosthesis? How Sam Raimi. The hero faces down a whole bunch of bad guys in a dark and dingy corridor and takes them down with hand-to-hand fighting? How Gareth Evans. There are people-friendly aswang who have decided to feed on animals instead? How Stephanie Meyer. Slow-mo wire fu? How Wachowski siblings. And the list goes on. The fact that the movie does not take it seriously is definitely a plus point as it suggests that I might have seen references to all the films I mentioned, instead of plain old ripoffs. I want to believe that these were tongue-in-cheek, deliberate references rather than efforts to make the movie "kewl" with borrowed material, and maybe the fact that part of me does is what keeps me from giving this film a worse score.
Another aspect of the film that made it difficult to sit through was the horrible choice of villain in KC Montero. His inability to speak Tagalog properly may have been written into the script, but it didn't make his line delivery any less cringe-inducing to hear.
Fortunately, though, the film has some plus points: the whole plot of aswang trying to turn people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs is actually a brilliant jab at the processed food industry, which spends millions of pesos trying to convince us that hot dogs, which, to my knowledge, are made from God-only-knows-what, are safe for our children to consume on a daily basis. The scene where the health inspector pigs out on the bad guy's hot dogs and transforms in the process is a pretty funny highlight. Speaking of highlights, though, the scene in which Isabelle Daza's Lex summons her fellow aswang with a series of strange animal noises and dancing is, in a word, priceless. As funny as it is, it's actually integral to the plot as she basically saves their lives by doing it. Also, there's something utterly sexy about an attractive woman making a moderate fool of herself. I applaud Daza for being so incredibly game.
Another plus point, and one which is Matti's incredible ability to create atmosphere. The dingy Manila rooftop (Binondo, to be precise) where Makoy, Nestor and Nieves live is, for me, the best example of this. This particular location is perpetually filmed at night, and with its crumbling skyline it has a wonderfully grungy vibe that perfectly suits the grim and gritty vibe that a movie about fighting aswang should have. This is one of those instances where Matti's "indie" sensibility shines through; most of the film either is, or looks like it was shot on location, rather than in a sound studio (the first film was reportedly filmed entirely against green screen, a la 300), and the film is the better for it. Dingdong's extended monologue late in the film, which Matti filmed with multiple cameras to which he cuts several times, also has an "experimental cinema" vibe, though it didn't much appeal to me.
Overall, this film had the stink of "product" on it, almost as much as the hot dogs it decries, but enough of the director's quirks peek through to make me appreciate the better film hidden under all the least-common-denominator pap. I kind of long for the film that this could have been.
The film sets up another sequel, and as disappointing as this film was, I may give it a shot, even without the benefit of having no other movie to watch.
6/10
written by Michiko Yamamoto, Erik Matti
Every year, starting from Christmas Day until the second week of the new year, residents of Metro Manila area "treated" to the annual Metro Manila Film Festival, during which all foreign movies are barred from release in movie theaters and only local movies, and those entered specifically in the festival, are screened for the public. Given that my movie entertainment usually consists of Hollywood-generated product, this is often a trying time for me (though lately, not so much, as I don't watch movies as often as I used to), but this year in particular, I was determined to go with the flow and basically just enjoy myself.
My wife and I agreed to a double-header; we would watch Erik Matti's Kubot and Dan Villegas' English Only Please, the only two movies on this year's roster we found appealing.
First up was Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles Part II, the sequel to 2012's Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, a stylized action/horror/comedy hybrid that got rave reviews, and a movie that my wife and I were quite sorry to have missed. Needless to say, expectations were fairly high as we walked into the theater.
Kubot begins where Tiktik ends, with Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) Nestor (Joey Marquez) and the survivors from the first film hopping on a jeep to take them away from Pulupandan and home to Manila, when they are attacked by a band of strange, hairy-looking "kubot" or another form of aswang, who exact terrible revenge on Makoy for his slaughter of the Tiktik from the last film. Years later, sans a wife, a child and his right hand, Makoy lives with Nestor and his wife Nieves (Lotlot de Leon) in Manila, where he also works as a mechanic, when a new aswang menace emerges. It seems a group of aswangs led by the progressive, American-raised Doms (KC Montero) has a terrifying scheme which involves transforming people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs made from ground-up people and aswang saliva. A group of aswang friendly to people are willing to stop them, led by the youthful Dr. Lex (Isabelle Daza) but ultimately they will need the help of Makoy, who may or may not be willing to give it.
Now, I understand that we cannot expect Hollywood-quality visual effects from a local effort, for budgetary reasons if nothing else, but the problems I had with this film really had nothing to do with the computer-generated imagery. No, my problems were with the script that promised so much and yet delivered so little, some atrociously bad acting, and idea after idea cribbed from other action movies. The hero loses a hand and puts on a bad-ass, lethal prosthesis? How Sam Raimi. The hero faces down a whole bunch of bad guys in a dark and dingy corridor and takes them down with hand-to-hand fighting? How Gareth Evans. There are people-friendly aswang who have decided to feed on animals instead? How Stephanie Meyer. Slow-mo wire fu? How Wachowski siblings. And the list goes on. The fact that the movie does not take it seriously is definitely a plus point as it suggests that I might have seen references to all the films I mentioned, instead of plain old ripoffs. I want to believe that these were tongue-in-cheek, deliberate references rather than efforts to make the movie "kewl" with borrowed material, and maybe the fact that part of me does is what keeps me from giving this film a worse score.
Another aspect of the film that made it difficult to sit through was the horrible choice of villain in KC Montero. His inability to speak Tagalog properly may have been written into the script, but it didn't make his line delivery any less cringe-inducing to hear.
Fortunately, though, the film has some plus points: the whole plot of aswang trying to turn people into aswang by feeding them hot dogs is actually a brilliant jab at the processed food industry, which spends millions of pesos trying to convince us that hot dogs, which, to my knowledge, are made from God-only-knows-what, are safe for our children to consume on a daily basis. The scene where the health inspector pigs out on the bad guy's hot dogs and transforms in the process is a pretty funny highlight. Speaking of highlights, though, the scene in which Isabelle Daza's Lex summons her fellow aswang with a series of strange animal noises and dancing is, in a word, priceless. As funny as it is, it's actually integral to the plot as she basically saves their lives by doing it. Also, there's something utterly sexy about an attractive woman making a moderate fool of herself. I applaud Daza for being so incredibly game.
Another plus point, and one which is Matti's incredible ability to create atmosphere. The dingy Manila rooftop (Binondo, to be precise) where Makoy, Nestor and Nieves live is, for me, the best example of this. This particular location is perpetually filmed at night, and with its crumbling skyline it has a wonderfully grungy vibe that perfectly suits the grim and gritty vibe that a movie about fighting aswang should have. This is one of those instances where Matti's "indie" sensibility shines through; most of the film either is, or looks like it was shot on location, rather than in a sound studio (the first film was reportedly filmed entirely against green screen, a la 300), and the film is the better for it. Dingdong's extended monologue late in the film, which Matti filmed with multiple cameras to which he cuts several times, also has an "experimental cinema" vibe, though it didn't much appeal to me.
Overall, this film had the stink of "product" on it, almost as much as the hot dogs it decries, but enough of the director's quirks peek through to make me appreciate the better film hidden under all the least-common-denominator pap. I kind of long for the film that this could have been.
The film sets up another sequel, and as disappointing as this film was, I may give it a shot, even without the benefit of having no other movie to watch.
6/10
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The (Supposedly) Last Middle-Earth Movie: A Review of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies
directed by Peter Jackson
written by Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro
Following the events in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to Lake Town, until he is slain by Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans). The people from Lake Town are left without a home, and the lonely mountain is now without a fire breathing dragon to prevent anyone from claiming all of the gold in Erebor. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), his band of dwarves, and their resident burglar, hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), hole up in the mountain, with the the dwarf king claiming his legacy. Unfortunately, others with a claim on the gold come knocking as well, including the now-destitute people of Laketown, whom he had promised a share of the treasure in exchange for boats and provisions to the mountain and the Woodland Elves led by Thranduil (Lee Pace) who have a claim on several jewels located in the massive treasure trove. The problem is, however, that now that Thorin has his hands on the treasure, he is possessed by uncontrollable greed and has no intention of even letting so much as a single coin of it go. He is, in fact, seized with a new obsession: finding the Arkenstone, a large jewel that will secure his dominion over all of Erebor. Meanwhile, even as the combined forces of Laketown and the elves look to collect their due through force, another enormous army of orcs led by Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and his right hand Bolg (John Tui) also marches towards the Lonely Mountain. Will the intervention of Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) be enough to stave off the coming slaughter?
Given that I saw this movie two weeks ago, I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to finally review it. I suppose one reason is that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this film. It was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a reasonably entertaining series of films, but the fact that the entire series has felt rather bloated keeps me from singing this film's praises in the same way I used to cheer for the Lord of the Rings films. Of course, the computer-generated visual effects are far and away superior to those that featured in the LOTR movies, but then again, that's to be expected considering the advances in technology since then. The biggest problem of this movie, for me, is that for all the filmmakers' efforts, it still feels like a product.
I have nothing but praise for Richard Armitage, the English actor who plays Thorin who, after Bilbo, is effectively the central character of the saga. I like the way he captures Thorin's emotional journey and inner turmoil, even through a fair bit of prosthetics. Freeman is still a hoot as Bilbo, and of course, the ever-reliable McKellen turns in a solid turn as Gandalf, joined here by Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, and Christopher Lee as Sauron, all of whom featured in a pretty impressive action sequence midway through the film.
Some characters, however, cool their fight sequences, repeatedly betray the fact that they serve no real purpose in the story other than to hook otherwise uninterested fans. I am referring, of course, to Orlando Bloom's Legolas, who never appeared in The Hobbit, but who distinctly feels like he was written into these movies as a marketing tool for fans of the LOTR trilogy. The manner in which the script tries to infuse him with some kind of back story is somewhat embarrassing. Does he have mommy issues? Daddy issues? Existential crises? Unrequited love issues? The script hints at all of these but develops none of them. At the end of the day, Legolas serves his purpose as being an utter badass/boss-killer in the fight, but nothing more. Even Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) the female elf created for these movies to both balance out the sausage fest and to provide a rather poorly realized romantic subplot for both Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner), fares little better, and quite frankly if the two of them had been written out of the entire story the films the narrative impact would be negligible.
In fact, it's padding like the Legolas-Tauriel-Kili love triangle that kind of hits home for me how superfluous so much of this film feels, even if it is a lot of good fun. I was also a bit irked at how Smaug's demise was moved to the beginning of this film rather than made into the climax of the last one, even though it did make sense from a sales perspective. The manner in which Bard dispatches Smaug, though, is appropriately heroic, if a little comical.
I watched this in conventional 3-D rather than the somewhat jarring "high frame rate" 3-D in which I watched The Desolation of Smaug, and truth be told I'm not sorry I made the change. I did try the film in a "4-D" theater, which meant that my seat lurched back and forth and fans blew in my face for key scenes. It was a novel experience, though one which I'm not keen to repeat, much like the creepy HFR.
In closing, I liked the film enough to recommend it, especially if it's reinstated in Philippine theaters after the Metro Manila Film Festival ends next week, but certainly not enough to rank it as a modern classic the way the original trilogy of films was.
6.5/10
written by Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro
Following the events in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to Lake Town, until he is slain by Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans). The people from Lake Town are left without a home, and the lonely mountain is now without a fire breathing dragon to prevent anyone from claiming all of the gold in Erebor. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), his band of dwarves, and their resident burglar, hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), hole up in the mountain, with the the dwarf king claiming his legacy. Unfortunately, others with a claim on the gold come knocking as well, including the now-destitute people of Laketown, whom he had promised a share of the treasure in exchange for boats and provisions to the mountain and the Woodland Elves led by Thranduil (Lee Pace) who have a claim on several jewels located in the massive treasure trove. The problem is, however, that now that Thorin has his hands on the treasure, he is possessed by uncontrollable greed and has no intention of even letting so much as a single coin of it go. He is, in fact, seized with a new obsession: finding the Arkenstone, a large jewel that will secure his dominion over all of Erebor. Meanwhile, even as the combined forces of Laketown and the elves look to collect their due through force, another enormous army of orcs led by Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and his right hand Bolg (John Tui) also marches towards the Lonely Mountain. Will the intervention of Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) be enough to stave off the coming slaughter?
Given that I saw this movie two weeks ago, I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to finally review it. I suppose one reason is that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this film. It was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a reasonably entertaining series of films, but the fact that the entire series has felt rather bloated keeps me from singing this film's praises in the same way I used to cheer for the Lord of the Rings films. Of course, the computer-generated visual effects are far and away superior to those that featured in the LOTR movies, but then again, that's to be expected considering the advances in technology since then. The biggest problem of this movie, for me, is that for all the filmmakers' efforts, it still feels like a product.
I have nothing but praise for Richard Armitage, the English actor who plays Thorin who, after Bilbo, is effectively the central character of the saga. I like the way he captures Thorin's emotional journey and inner turmoil, even through a fair bit of prosthetics. Freeman is still a hoot as Bilbo, and of course, the ever-reliable McKellen turns in a solid turn as Gandalf, joined here by Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, and Christopher Lee as Sauron, all of whom featured in a pretty impressive action sequence midway through the film.
Some characters, however, cool their fight sequences, repeatedly betray the fact that they serve no real purpose in the story other than to hook otherwise uninterested fans. I am referring, of course, to Orlando Bloom's Legolas, who never appeared in The Hobbit, but who distinctly feels like he was written into these movies as a marketing tool for fans of the LOTR trilogy. The manner in which the script tries to infuse him with some kind of back story is somewhat embarrassing. Does he have mommy issues? Daddy issues? Existential crises? Unrequited love issues? The script hints at all of these but develops none of them. At the end of the day, Legolas serves his purpose as being an utter badass/boss-killer in the fight, but nothing more. Even Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) the female elf created for these movies to both balance out the sausage fest and to provide a rather poorly realized romantic subplot for both Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner), fares little better, and quite frankly if the two of them had been written out of the entire story the films the narrative impact would be negligible.
In fact, it's padding like the Legolas-Tauriel-Kili love triangle that kind of hits home for me how superfluous so much of this film feels, even if it is a lot of good fun. I was also a bit irked at how Smaug's demise was moved to the beginning of this film rather than made into the climax of the last one, even though it did make sense from a sales perspective. The manner in which Bard dispatches Smaug, though, is appropriately heroic, if a little comical.
I watched this in conventional 3-D rather than the somewhat jarring "high frame rate" 3-D in which I watched The Desolation of Smaug, and truth be told I'm not sorry I made the change. I did try the film in a "4-D" theater, which meant that my seat lurched back and forth and fans blew in my face for key scenes. It was a novel experience, though one which I'm not keen to repeat, much like the creepy HFR.
In closing, I liked the film enough to recommend it, especially if it's reinstated in Philippine theaters after the Metro Manila Film Festival ends next week, but certainly not enough to rank it as a modern classic the way the original trilogy of films was.
6.5/10
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Disney's Love Letter to Anime: A Review of Big Hero 6
directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams
written by Robert L. Baird, Dan Gerson and Jordan Roberts
Big Hero 6 has the unenviable task of being Walt Disney Animation's first movie since their runaway blockbuster Frozen. The good news is that even without showtunes or princesses, it's a thoroughly satisfying time at the movies. The even better news is that anime nerds are in for a real treat; this is probably the best anime tribute ever to come out of Hollywood.
Set in the city of San Fransokyo, Big Hero 6 is the story of Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) a budding teen genius with a knack and love for robotics, who spends most of his time in underground 'bot fighting tournaments. His older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney), who also happens to be his only remaining father figure, knows that Hiro can do more with his life than hustle money from illegal gambling, so he takes him to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology where he works, where Hiro meets fellow prodigies Gogo Tomago (Jamie Chung), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), and self-proclaimed "science enthusiast" Fred (TJ Miller). Hiro also meets his own personal hero, the robotics pioneer Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell). Hiro is dazzled by the technology, and makes a successful bid to enroll in the school. Suddenly, tragedy strikes, leaving Hiro in mourning. Hiro then gets to know Tadashi's pet project, healthcare robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit) a whole lot better, and not a moment too soon; Hiro needs Baymax's help to get to the bottom of a mysterious threat to San Fransokyo. The threat proves too great for the two of them to handle on their own, and Hiro now has to recruit his fellow science nerds. Thus, Big Hero 6 is born.
While this film is actually based on a relatively obscure (and no doubt now highly sought-after) Marvel Comics title from several years ago, from a visual perspective it owes a lot more to the work of Osamu Tezuka than anything else. There are shout-outs to its comic book heritage, such as Hiro's alliterative name and a virtually obligatory cameo that just about every fanboy in the audience will recognize, but it definitely feels much more like a loving homage to the robot anime of the 70s and 80s than yet another comic-book adaptation. The attention to detail, and the delightful visuals of the mashed-up cityscape are reminiscent of the colorful work of Hayao Miyazaki, as well. After the staid blues of frozen Arendelle last year, it was really a blast to see a full-color adventure like this one.
As dazzling as the visuals and animation are, though, it's heart that makes a Disney movie watchable, and this movie has it in spades. Though Hiro's journey is a soul-crushingly tragic one (he's an orphan who loses his only brother) it is also an uplifting one, and I haven't quite seen a Disney movie that deals with the grief of losing a loved one quite as poignantly as this movie does. Fortunately, Hiro's support system includes a loving Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) a younger, "Aunt May" type of character who owns the coffee shop above which Hiro and she live, his nerd friends, and, of course, Baymax. Scott Adsit, whom I remember well from his performances as Pete Hornberger on 30 Rock, infuses the vinyl robot-nurse-turned-combat-machine with a unique and truly memorable personality. He really does live up to the hype as the star of the show, and Adsit's performance is an integral part of that charm. The other voice actors are no slouches either, and most notable for me was how genuine the relationship between Potter's Hiro and Henney's Tadashi felt. It made the turn of events in the film all the more moving. It was nice of Disney to cast actors of actual Asian descent in these roles; even though they speak like Americans it was nice to know they were going for some kind of authenticity.
As nerd fare, the movie is a great deal of fun, though not quite as chock-full of references as Wreck-It-Ralph. The action is very well-staged, and the out-and-out-violence is surprisingly minimal considering this film's comic-book roots; The Incredibles had a much higher body count. People going to see Baymax and the rest of the crew in action will certainly not be disappointed. One downside to the story is that the villain of the piece is nothing to write home about, but clearly, he's just an excuse for the gang to all get together. The onus is now on Disney to provide a more compelling antagonist the next time around.
Overall, the movie is great family fun, even as it panders to the inner twelve-year-old of many of the dads watching, and I, for one, am more than ready for more nerd-service starring this crew of newly-minted superheroes whenever Disney is ready.
8.5/10
written by Robert L. Baird, Dan Gerson and Jordan Roberts
Big Hero 6 has the unenviable task of being Walt Disney Animation's first movie since their runaway blockbuster Frozen. The good news is that even without showtunes or princesses, it's a thoroughly satisfying time at the movies. The even better news is that anime nerds are in for a real treat; this is probably the best anime tribute ever to come out of Hollywood.
Set in the city of San Fransokyo, Big Hero 6 is the story of Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) a budding teen genius with a knack and love for robotics, who spends most of his time in underground 'bot fighting tournaments. His older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney), who also happens to be his only remaining father figure, knows that Hiro can do more with his life than hustle money from illegal gambling, so he takes him to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology where he works, where Hiro meets fellow prodigies Gogo Tomago (Jamie Chung), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), and self-proclaimed "science enthusiast" Fred (TJ Miller). Hiro also meets his own personal hero, the robotics pioneer Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell). Hiro is dazzled by the technology, and makes a successful bid to enroll in the school. Suddenly, tragedy strikes, leaving Hiro in mourning. Hiro then gets to know Tadashi's pet project, healthcare robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit) a whole lot better, and not a moment too soon; Hiro needs Baymax's help to get to the bottom of a mysterious threat to San Fransokyo. The threat proves too great for the two of them to handle on their own, and Hiro now has to recruit his fellow science nerds. Thus, Big Hero 6 is born.
While this film is actually based on a relatively obscure (and no doubt now highly sought-after) Marvel Comics title from several years ago, from a visual perspective it owes a lot more to the work of Osamu Tezuka than anything else. There are shout-outs to its comic book heritage, such as Hiro's alliterative name and a virtually obligatory cameo that just about every fanboy in the audience will recognize, but it definitely feels much more like a loving homage to the robot anime of the 70s and 80s than yet another comic-book adaptation. The attention to detail, and the delightful visuals of the mashed-up cityscape are reminiscent of the colorful work of Hayao Miyazaki, as well. After the staid blues of frozen Arendelle last year, it was really a blast to see a full-color adventure like this one.
As dazzling as the visuals and animation are, though, it's heart that makes a Disney movie watchable, and this movie has it in spades. Though Hiro's journey is a soul-crushingly tragic one (he's an orphan who loses his only brother) it is also an uplifting one, and I haven't quite seen a Disney movie that deals with the grief of losing a loved one quite as poignantly as this movie does. Fortunately, Hiro's support system includes a loving Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) a younger, "Aunt May" type of character who owns the coffee shop above which Hiro and she live, his nerd friends, and, of course, Baymax. Scott Adsit, whom I remember well from his performances as Pete Hornberger on 30 Rock, infuses the vinyl robot-nurse-turned-combat-machine with a unique and truly memorable personality. He really does live up to the hype as the star of the show, and Adsit's performance is an integral part of that charm. The other voice actors are no slouches either, and most notable for me was how genuine the relationship between Potter's Hiro and Henney's Tadashi felt. It made the turn of events in the film all the more moving. It was nice of Disney to cast actors of actual Asian descent in these roles; even though they speak like Americans it was nice to know they were going for some kind of authenticity.
As nerd fare, the movie is a great deal of fun, though not quite as chock-full of references as Wreck-It-Ralph. The action is very well-staged, and the out-and-out-violence is surprisingly minimal considering this film's comic-book roots; The Incredibles had a much higher body count. People going to see Baymax and the rest of the crew in action will certainly not be disappointed. One downside to the story is that the villain of the piece is nothing to write home about, but clearly, he's just an excuse for the gang to all get together. The onus is now on Disney to provide a more compelling antagonist the next time around.
Overall, the movie is great family fun, even as it panders to the inner twelve-year-old of many of the dads watching, and I, for one, am more than ready for more nerd-service starring this crew of newly-minted superheroes whenever Disney is ready.
8.5/10
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Quick Looks: A Review of Gone Girl
directed by David Fincher
screenplay by Gillian Flynn (based on her novel)
It's hard to discuss David Fincher's latest film Gone Girl, in great detail without wading into spoiler territory, because so much of the film revolves around twists in the plot, but to my mind it is a rather extraordinary film, and Fincher's most audacious since his breakout film Se7en.
Spouses Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and Amy Elliot (Rosamund Pike), have been married for five years, and the last few have not been pleasant. Things take a turn for the strange when Nick, who manages a bar, comes home to find his wife having completely disappeared with signs of a struggle. Over the days that follow, Nick's life turns into a living hell as suspicion rises that he killed Amy with the Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) hot on his tail. As Dunne recruits infamous defense attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry), time is not on his side.
There's something gratifying about seeing a mainstream movie, especially one as well crafted as this one, defy convention; while the film would most properly be classified as a "thriller" it really is so much more than that, and it features some truly amazing writing and acting. it is an incredibly engaging film, with an ending that really threw me for a loop.
Affleck sticks to his usual low-key, aw shucks acting, which is, fortunately, consistent with Nick's character, but it's Pike who shines as Amy, for reasons I cannot really discuss lest I spoil plot points. Tyler Perry was a hoot as Nick's oily defense attorney, and there were a lot of other sterling performances all around from Dickens as Detective Boney and Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister Margo.
What I loved about the storytelling was how often it turned things on their head, bringing on story tropes and then taking abrupt left turns. Still, I wasn't too fond of the final twist as to my mind it kind of transformed the film into something else, but again, it's not something I can discuss. For all its flaws, this is a film that needs to be experienced (even if, at this point, one will have to wait for it on home video).
David Fincher has turned in some pretty extraordinary work over the years, but this is, to me anyway one of the movies for which he will truly be remembered.
8.7/10
There's something gratifying about seeing a mainstream movie, especially one as well crafted as this one, defy convention; while the film would most properly be classified as a "thriller" it really is so much more than that, and it features some truly amazing writing and acting. it is an incredibly engaging film, with an ending that really threw me for a loop.
Affleck sticks to his usual low-key, aw shucks acting, which is, fortunately, consistent with Nick's character, but it's Pike who shines as Amy, for reasons I cannot really discuss lest I spoil plot points. Tyler Perry was a hoot as Nick's oily defense attorney, and there were a lot of other sterling performances all around from Dickens as Detective Boney and Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister Margo.
What I loved about the storytelling was how often it turned things on their head, bringing on story tropes and then taking abrupt left turns. Still, I wasn't too fond of the final twist as to my mind it kind of transformed the film into something else, but again, it's not something I can discuss. For all its flaws, this is a film that needs to be experienced (even if, at this point, one will have to wait for it on home video).
David Fincher has turned in some pretty extraordinary work over the years, but this is, to me anyway one of the movies for which he will truly be remembered.
8.7/10
Friday, October 10, 2014
Not Exactly Edward Woodward: A Review of The Equalizer (mild spoilers)
directed by Antoine Fuqua
written by Richard Wenk
After watching the first trailer for Antoine Fuqua's remake of the 1980s television show The Equalizer, which starred Edward Woodward, I found myself quite keen on seeing it. I was mainly interested in seeing Denzel Washington kick ass once again. While I have long been a fan of Washington's performances in general, it is especially gratifying to me when he plays a bad-ass, like the one he first portrayed in 2004's Man on Fire, and the others he played in films like The Book of Eli and Safe House.
Robert McCall (Washington) leads a quiet life as an employee at a Home Mart hardware store in Boston, Massachusetts. He is well-liked by his co-workers and lives comfortably, if somewhat simply. He has trouble sleeping at night, though, at spends the wee hours of the morning reading books at a diner that is open 24 hours, where befriends child prostitute Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), whom he tells can change her world when she is disconsolate about her lot in life. At one point, Teri, whose real name is Alina, tries to fight back when an abusive customer hits her, and ends up incurring the ire of her pimp, Slavi (David Meunier), who then beats her within an inch of her life to make an example of her to the other girls. After visiting her in the hospital, McCall then displays an extraordinary set of skills that he picked up from his past life as a black ops operative, as he not only punishes Slavi but takes down all of his body guards in the span of half a minute. Unfortunately, it turns out that Slavi is the representative of someone much bigger, a Russian crimelord named Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), who dispatches his brutal problem solver nicknamed Teddy (Marton Csokas), who, together with a crew of corrupt Boston cops on Pushkin's payroll, may prove too much for even the highly resourceful McCall to handle. Or maybe not.
I feel this was a movie that would have benefited from a much more muted marketing campaign than the one that made its main fighting sequence the centerpiece of the trailer. The narrative seemed, to me anyway, structured so that McCall's lethal skills are supposed to come to the viewer as a complete surprise, but thanks to the trailer with that magnificent fighting scene, it becomes precisely what the viewer looking for action is looking forward to, which is not a good thing because as it turns out, it's all downhill after that.
To be fair, the fight choreography (or the little of it that can be seen) is exceptional, and just as he did in The Book of Eli and Safe House, Washington shows outstanding onscreen fighting skills to complement his nigh-legendary acting talent. The problem is that, after the first fight, which was expertly staged with its judicious use of slow motion and close-ups to "show" the audience how McCall scans his environment just before walking into an explosive situation, followed by some truly hard-hitting fighting moves, every other fight scene that comes afterwards is spoiled by overly dark lighting or too-quick editing. The idea, I suppose, is to show off McCall's cunning over and above his martial arts skills, but truth be told, I felt the movie would have benefited from more Taken or Bourne style fighting sequences than just the one. Instead, for the climax, the filmmakers provided a somewhat ludicrous finale set in the hardware store, which felt like a more brutal version of scenes from another 1980s television show I grew up with, MacGyver.
(spoilers)
It also annoyed me no end that the script went to some lengths to establish Csokas' character Teddy as a truly fearsome villain, narrating his background as a Russian Secret Service agent and showing in one scene just how brutal he could be, and then completely backed out of having him and McCall slug it out at the end. The script clearly called for a "boss battle" between the two, but ultimately McCall's ultimate slugfest was with a decidedly generic bald Russian goon, with Teddy's fate being decided by something other than fists. It was bad enough that the writing felt utterly by the numbers, and even worse that the filmmakers couldn't even be bothered to deliver on one of the few decent payoffs the script clearly teased.
(end spoilers)
As an action film, the movie often feels rote, with even some of the more striking storytelling devices like the aforementioned slow motion environment scanning having been cribbed from other movies like Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, but the somewhat earnest efforts of Washington and many members of the supporting cast, particularly Moretz, who trades in her Hit Girl tights for a hooker's miniskirt and push-up bra here, save the film from direct-to-video territory, but only just. Richard Wenk's script isn't much to write home about at all, but Washington makes it work, even as he retreads the impossibly wholesome/unflappable characters from films like the aforementioned Eli and the late Tony Scott's Unstoppable to imbue McCall with a nobility that seems somewhat incongruous with the brutality he displays in killing people.
The film's box-office success has ensured that a sequel will eventually hit movie theaters, and next time I honestly hope the filmmakers fix at least some of this film's more glaring flaws. I wasn't really expecting to be quite as disappointed in this film as I was, especially considering my fondness for most of films starring Denzel Washington that I have watched, but not even my predisposition towards liking Washington's movies could overcome this film's somewhat cookie cutter script, poor pacing, and even worse editing.
One final gripe I had was the complete absence of Stewart Copeland's old instrumental theme for the TV show on which it was based. Even a little homage would have been nice.
5.5/10
written by Richard Wenk
After watching the first trailer for Antoine Fuqua's remake of the 1980s television show The Equalizer, which starred Edward Woodward, I found myself quite keen on seeing it. I was mainly interested in seeing Denzel Washington kick ass once again. While I have long been a fan of Washington's performances in general, it is especially gratifying to me when he plays a bad-ass, like the one he first portrayed in 2004's Man on Fire, and the others he played in films like The Book of Eli and Safe House.
Robert McCall (Washington) leads a quiet life as an employee at a Home Mart hardware store in Boston, Massachusetts. He is well-liked by his co-workers and lives comfortably, if somewhat simply. He has trouble sleeping at night, though, at spends the wee hours of the morning reading books at a diner that is open 24 hours, where befriends child prostitute Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), whom he tells can change her world when she is disconsolate about her lot in life. At one point, Teri, whose real name is Alina, tries to fight back when an abusive customer hits her, and ends up incurring the ire of her pimp, Slavi (David Meunier), who then beats her within an inch of her life to make an example of her to the other girls. After visiting her in the hospital, McCall then displays an extraordinary set of skills that he picked up from his past life as a black ops operative, as he not only punishes Slavi but takes down all of his body guards in the span of half a minute. Unfortunately, it turns out that Slavi is the representative of someone much bigger, a Russian crimelord named Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), who dispatches his brutal problem solver nicknamed Teddy (Marton Csokas), who, together with a crew of corrupt Boston cops on Pushkin's payroll, may prove too much for even the highly resourceful McCall to handle. Or maybe not.
I feel this was a movie that would have benefited from a much more muted marketing campaign than the one that made its main fighting sequence the centerpiece of the trailer. The narrative seemed, to me anyway, structured so that McCall's lethal skills are supposed to come to the viewer as a complete surprise, but thanks to the trailer with that magnificent fighting scene, it becomes precisely what the viewer looking for action is looking forward to, which is not a good thing because as it turns out, it's all downhill after that.
To be fair, the fight choreography (or the little of it that can be seen) is exceptional, and just as he did in The Book of Eli and Safe House, Washington shows outstanding onscreen fighting skills to complement his nigh-legendary acting talent. The problem is that, after the first fight, which was expertly staged with its judicious use of slow motion and close-ups to "show" the audience how McCall scans his environment just before walking into an explosive situation, followed by some truly hard-hitting fighting moves, every other fight scene that comes afterwards is spoiled by overly dark lighting or too-quick editing. The idea, I suppose, is to show off McCall's cunning over and above his martial arts skills, but truth be told, I felt the movie would have benefited from more Taken or Bourne style fighting sequences than just the one. Instead, for the climax, the filmmakers provided a somewhat ludicrous finale set in the hardware store, which felt like a more brutal version of scenes from another 1980s television show I grew up with, MacGyver.
(spoilers)
It also annoyed me no end that the script went to some lengths to establish Csokas' character Teddy as a truly fearsome villain, narrating his background as a Russian Secret Service agent and showing in one scene just how brutal he could be, and then completely backed out of having him and McCall slug it out at the end. The script clearly called for a "boss battle" between the two, but ultimately McCall's ultimate slugfest was with a decidedly generic bald Russian goon, with Teddy's fate being decided by something other than fists. It was bad enough that the writing felt utterly by the numbers, and even worse that the filmmakers couldn't even be bothered to deliver on one of the few decent payoffs the script clearly teased.
(end spoilers)
As an action film, the movie often feels rote, with even some of the more striking storytelling devices like the aforementioned slow motion environment scanning having been cribbed from other movies like Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, but the somewhat earnest efforts of Washington and many members of the supporting cast, particularly Moretz, who trades in her Hit Girl tights for a hooker's miniskirt and push-up bra here, save the film from direct-to-video territory, but only just. Richard Wenk's script isn't much to write home about at all, but Washington makes it work, even as he retreads the impossibly wholesome/unflappable characters from films like the aforementioned Eli and the late Tony Scott's Unstoppable to imbue McCall with a nobility that seems somewhat incongruous with the brutality he displays in killing people.
The film's box-office success has ensured that a sequel will eventually hit movie theaters, and next time I honestly hope the filmmakers fix at least some of this film's more glaring flaws. I wasn't really expecting to be quite as disappointed in this film as I was, especially considering my fondness for most of films starring Denzel Washington that I have watched, but not even my predisposition towards liking Washington's movies could overcome this film's somewhat cookie cutter script, poor pacing, and even worse editing.
One final gripe I had was the complete absence of Stewart Copeland's old instrumental theme for the TV show on which it was based. Even a little homage would have been nice.
5.5/10
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