Earlier today, I found out that one of my very favorite film composers, James Horner, probably best known for having composed the music and theme song for James Cameron's Titanic, died in a plane crash. Of all the celebrity deaths I've ever heard of, this is perhaps the saddest for me, along with Robin Williams' suicide.
I grew up with James Horner's music. When I was eleven I watched Amblin Entertainment's An American Tail on Betamax. As utterly ridiculous as this sounds, I was convinced I was in love with the main character's sister after hearing her (and the main character), sing the song "Somewhere Out There" in the course of the film. I was, of course, captivated by the song (though oddly enough, not the pop version by Linda Ronstadt) and in particular by James Horner's contribution to that melody. He wrote the score, which permeated the film and, as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, was simply haunting. It left a heck of an impression.
About four years later, Horner blew me away, perhaps a bit more this time, with the soaring choral music of the Civil War epic Glory, a story of African-American soldiers fighting for equality during the War between the States. That was when he became one of my favorite composers of all time.
My love for his music continued into the 1990s, thanks to an aunt who brought me extremely hard to find CDs from the United States. His first foray into the superhero genre, The Rocketeer, was as magnificent as the film itself was ill-fated at the box office, but I was also a fan of his less bombastic stuff, like the jazz-flavored music of Phil Alden Robinson's Sneakers. I also liked his work on Edward Zwick's Legends of the Fall, the film that arguably launched Brad Pitt's career but which I remember better for its sweeping, if slightly overbearing musical score, which featured seventy-five glorious minutes of Horner music being played by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Then he came up with, for me, some of the very best work of his career: the one-two punch of Apollo 13 and Braveheart, the latter of which got him the job that would seal his status as a pop-culture icon: Titanic. People tell me they still cry when they watch that movie, even 18 years after it first came out, and I'm willing to bet Horner's music plays a huge part in that.
Of course, while everyone else went back to their pop music after that, Horner geeks like me continued to follow his work; in particular I loved his music score for Martin Campbell's The Mask of Zorro, yet another foray into the action-adventure genre, the very next year.
Then, the 2000s came, and with it the superhero renaissance courtesy of the X-Men and Spider-Man, and while these films dominated the box-office landscape for the better part of a decade, Horner kind of fell under the radar for me, although he continued to work. He even snagged a couple of Oscar nominations in 2002 and 2004 for A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog, respectively.
When James Cameron's Avatar started breaking box-office records in 2009, of course I bought and thoroughly enjoyed James Horner's high-flying soundtrack, but if I may be honest, after over twenty years of enjoying this man's music I found myself recognizing a little too often the hooks, motifs and cues from his other work, which kind of affected my appreciation just the slightest bit, especially that four-note "enemy" motif that has featured in a lot of his film scores, and I started wondering if he'd run out of tricks. He had always been guilty of a bit of recycling (which, arguably can also be said of the likes of Hans Zimmer and even the heralded John Williams), but it struck me a little that he was doing it quite a lot in this music.
Horner then wrote the music for the remake of the 1984 film The Karate Kid, and while it was serviceable, it felt even more like a regurgitation of his previous work than Avatar did. He seemed to be in a bit of a creative slump.
Then Horner did something I had not expected him to do: he joined the Marvel Age, and wrote music for Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man. I had always associated the comic book movie genre with the likes of Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri and Zimmer. Heck, even John Williams only composed music for the first Superman movie (though the theme still endures thirty-seven years later, even after Zimmer's rather clumsy attempt to create a new one); I hadn't figured Horner would be a fit for this, even though he arguably had some superhero work under his belt with the little-seen Rocketeer. Suddenly, a childhood dream I didn't even know I had was being fulfilled.
Better still, Horner's work on the movie truly surprised me. Yes, there were cues borrowed from his other work, but the Shakuhachi (Japanese wood flute) and four-note motif were nowhere to be found, and with the full-bodied brass that played Spider-Man's theme when he swung across a bridge after foiling a carjacker, Horner convinced me that not even John Williams himself could have done a better job of scoring this movie. Not just that; but more than just about all of the superhero scores, including the work of the aforementioned Elfman, Zimmer and Silvestri I had heard over the last ten years prior to this, Horner's music had an extraordinary emotional range. I loved the Peter/Gwen theme every bit as much as I enjoyed the superhero-ey stuff.
What really took me by surprise was the fact Horner poured so much character into what could have easily been treated as another paycheck. I mean, Webb wasn't one of his frequent collaborators like Ron Howard, James Cameron or Mel Gibson, so he could have rejiggered another of his lesser known scores from the 1990s and passed it off as something new. After all, The Karate Kid had been nothing but a patchwork of all his former score. It wasn't the case here, and quite frankly I found myself falling in love with Horner's music all over again, and not just because Spider-Man happens to be my favorite comic book character.
Immediately thereafter, however, he went into a long period of silence. The Amazing Spider Man came out in 2012, and for two years thereafter nothing came out with his name on it. Sure, there were rumblings of a series of sequels to Avatar, but considering that James Cameron is not in the habit of making a movie more often than every six years at best, assuming Horner would even work on the movies, they were a long way into the future.
Finally, this year, Horner was slated to work on not just one but three movies, including a rather promising drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal entitled Southpaw.
And now he's gone.
It saddens me greatly that someone whose music I grew up with has passed on, and arguably well ahead of his time considering that he was a sprightly 61 (for purposes of comparison, consider that John Williams is now 83 and still composing music), but what pains me more was that he went at a time when I was starting to rediscover him. I take some consolation that I can look forward to at least three more movies with the music of my favorite composer of all, the wonderful James Horner.
Thank you for the music and the memories, Mr. Horner.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
A Very Pleasant Trip Down Memory Lane: A Review of Jurassic World
directed by Colin Trevorrow
written by Derek Conolly, Colin Trevorrow, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
I was not having a very good year in 1993 when I walked into Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, but when I walked out after having seen the film I was significantly happier. It really was a fantastic film, the kind that gets me excited about watching movies in the first place. The sequel four years later was simply awful by comparison, and by the time the third movie in the series rolled around, this one no longer based on a novel by the series creator, the late Michael Crichton, I had lost interest and caught it on cable television instead of in the theaters.
I'm not entirely sure why I was particularly impressed by the trailer of Jurassic World, the latest installment in the Jurassic series, which I can confirm is a sequel and not at all a reboot (and even features one of the cast members of the very first movie) but suffice it to say, I went to see it, my expectations having been tempered by my disappointment with the second and third movies and several years' worth of cynicism and blockbuster fatigue. Maybe I just liked the feeling that star Chris Pratt was kind of channeling his Star Lord character from last year's Guardians of the Galaxy. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to say that for the first time since 1993, I enjoyed a movie with the word "Jurassic" in the title.
The story picks up some 22 years from the time the first movie left off (and as odd as this may sound, actually seems to disregard the previous two sequels) and things are quite different now; Jurassic World is a fully-functioning theme park, the kind that Richard Attenborough's John Hammond set out to build in the first movie, and has been for several years now. As often happens with any long-running business concern, costs are escalating, and the woman running it, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) has been looking for ways to incease the "wow" factor, and as a result she and her higher-ups, including the theme park's owner, magnate Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) have given the scientists, headed by Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) from the first film free rein to create the most badass new dinosaur they could imagine. Meanwhile, another new approach Masrani is taking is having ex-sailor Owen Grady (Pratt) actually train the deadly velociraptors that menaced the humans during the first three films, and to his credit, Grady seems to have done a pretty good job, much to the interest of the park's head of security, Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio), who has his own sinister plans for the raptors. Claire is so preoccupied with improving the park's attendance that she completely neglects her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) who are touring the place while their parents (Andy Buckley and Judy Greer) lock horns over their divorce proceedings thousands of kilometers away. She leaves them in the hands of her equally indifferent assistant Zara (Katie McGrath). Unfortunately for just about every one of the 20,000 + human beings on the park, the Indominus Rex, the dinosaur that Dr. Wu and his cohorts have cooked up is bigger, meaner, and smarter than any other dinosaur, and in true Jurassic Park fashion, figures out a way to get out of its enclosure and cause all hell to break loose.
While I often bewail Hollywood's lack of originality given the proliferation of remakes, reboots, sequels and adaptations of existing material, Trevorrow makes this film work by paying effective homage to the original film, and a brace of other 80s and 90s science-fiction films, including James Cameron's Aliens. There's an overriding sense throughout the whole movie that the filmmakers know they aren't breaking new ground, so they try their very best to show their love for the original film and similar movies of the era, and by gum it works. There's a bit of investment in getting the audience to care what happens to the characters when the dino-poop hits the fan; the kids have to grapple with their parents' impending divorce, and their aunt's almost criminal negligence, Claire has to deal with, well, the greed of Jurassic World's shareholders, and Owen has to deal with the fact that while he seems to finally have achieved some kind of breakthrough in understanding dinosaurs (or at least velociraptors), no one else, save perhaps for Barry, one of the park's other wranglers (Omar Sy) seems to really care.
The humans are always peripheral in movies like this, though; at the end of the day their principal purpose is to serve as stand-ins for the audience so that they can feel they're in the thick of all the dinosaur-induced chaos, and to these humans' credit, they do a pretty good job. The real treat has always been the dinosaurs, and Trevorrow gets all of the important beats right, from concealing the big bad I-Rex (a jab, I imagine, at today's smartphone savvy generation) for most of the first act of the film, to dialing back the constant reliance on computer-generated imagery and giving animatronic dinosaurs some generous screen time, just as Spielberg did in the original. Still, the script calls for a lot of running, fighting and killing dinosaurs here, so heavy use of CGI is kind of a must, but at least Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is very much at the top of their game here, no matter what the hipsters who love to bitch about CGI might say.
I also appreciated Michael Giacchino's unobtrusive music score, as well as his rather generous and very well-timed references to John Williams' regal theme.
It's worth emphasizing at this point that this film is nowhere near as good as the original, which set a benchmark for science fiction movies that stood for many years, but it's also worth emphasizing that it's not trying to be. Interestingly, like the first film, it also has something to say, though it feels more of a commentary about the greed of Hollywood than on the evil of messing with nature that was quite patent in the first film. There's some irony to that, considering that from one perspective this film may definitely be viewed as a cynical cash grab; a repackaging of a much older product to sell to newer audiences. There's even a loose end that is somewhat shamelessly left dangling so that Universal can pursue a sequel if the box office receipts justify one.
Ultimately, though, what matters is that the film, for all its flaws, is quite an entertaining affair. Trevorrow and his cast and crew have thrown together the best "Jurassic" movie since the original, and whatever success this film may experience when it opens worldwide is, to my mind, well-deserved.
(On a side note: I was somewhat amused by the fact that almost the entirety of the principal cast consists of actors who have starred in one adaptation or another of a Marvel comics property; Pratt, of course, was the lead in the aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard had a supporting role in Spider-Man 3, Khan had a role in The Amazing Spider-Man, Simpkins had a pretty pivotal role in Iron Man 3, Sy had a small role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and D'Onofrio was the arch villain in Daredevil. There were so many Marvel-movie or TV-show veterans around that if the Hulk had shown up at some point and started beating up the dinosaurs, he wouldn't have felt entirely out of place.)
The cast and crew have put together a solid, competent sequel to one of the most beloved Spielberg movies of all time, and while it wasn't exactly 1993 all over again for me, I had a really good time.
7.5/10
written by Derek Conolly, Colin Trevorrow, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
I was not having a very good year in 1993 when I walked into Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, but when I walked out after having seen the film I was significantly happier. It really was a fantastic film, the kind that gets me excited about watching movies in the first place. The sequel four years later was simply awful by comparison, and by the time the third movie in the series rolled around, this one no longer based on a novel by the series creator, the late Michael Crichton, I had lost interest and caught it on cable television instead of in the theaters.
I'm not entirely sure why I was particularly impressed by the trailer of Jurassic World, the latest installment in the Jurassic series, which I can confirm is a sequel and not at all a reboot (and even features one of the cast members of the very first movie) but suffice it to say, I went to see it, my expectations having been tempered by my disappointment with the second and third movies and several years' worth of cynicism and blockbuster fatigue. Maybe I just liked the feeling that star Chris Pratt was kind of channeling his Star Lord character from last year's Guardians of the Galaxy. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to say that for the first time since 1993, I enjoyed a movie with the word "Jurassic" in the title.
The story picks up some 22 years from the time the first movie left off (and as odd as this may sound, actually seems to disregard the previous two sequels) and things are quite different now; Jurassic World is a fully-functioning theme park, the kind that Richard Attenborough's John Hammond set out to build in the first movie, and has been for several years now. As often happens with any long-running business concern, costs are escalating, and the woman running it, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) has been looking for ways to incease the "wow" factor, and as a result she and her higher-ups, including the theme park's owner, magnate Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) have given the scientists, headed by Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) from the first film free rein to create the most badass new dinosaur they could imagine. Meanwhile, another new approach Masrani is taking is having ex-sailor Owen Grady (Pratt) actually train the deadly velociraptors that menaced the humans during the first three films, and to his credit, Grady seems to have done a pretty good job, much to the interest of the park's head of security, Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio), who has his own sinister plans for the raptors. Claire is so preoccupied with improving the park's attendance that she completely neglects her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) who are touring the place while their parents (Andy Buckley and Judy Greer) lock horns over their divorce proceedings thousands of kilometers away. She leaves them in the hands of her equally indifferent assistant Zara (Katie McGrath). Unfortunately for just about every one of the 20,000 + human beings on the park, the Indominus Rex, the dinosaur that Dr. Wu and his cohorts have cooked up is bigger, meaner, and smarter than any other dinosaur, and in true Jurassic Park fashion, figures out a way to get out of its enclosure and cause all hell to break loose.
While I often bewail Hollywood's lack of originality given the proliferation of remakes, reboots, sequels and adaptations of existing material, Trevorrow makes this film work by paying effective homage to the original film, and a brace of other 80s and 90s science-fiction films, including James Cameron's Aliens. There's an overriding sense throughout the whole movie that the filmmakers know they aren't breaking new ground, so they try their very best to show their love for the original film and similar movies of the era, and by gum it works. There's a bit of investment in getting the audience to care what happens to the characters when the dino-poop hits the fan; the kids have to grapple with their parents' impending divorce, and their aunt's almost criminal negligence, Claire has to deal with, well, the greed of Jurassic World's shareholders, and Owen has to deal with the fact that while he seems to finally have achieved some kind of breakthrough in understanding dinosaurs (or at least velociraptors), no one else, save perhaps for Barry, one of the park's other wranglers (Omar Sy) seems to really care.
The humans are always peripheral in movies like this, though; at the end of the day their principal purpose is to serve as stand-ins for the audience so that they can feel they're in the thick of all the dinosaur-induced chaos, and to these humans' credit, they do a pretty good job. The real treat has always been the dinosaurs, and Trevorrow gets all of the important beats right, from concealing the big bad I-Rex (a jab, I imagine, at today's smartphone savvy generation) for most of the first act of the film, to dialing back the constant reliance on computer-generated imagery and giving animatronic dinosaurs some generous screen time, just as Spielberg did in the original. Still, the script calls for a lot of running, fighting and killing dinosaurs here, so heavy use of CGI is kind of a must, but at least Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is very much at the top of their game here, no matter what the hipsters who love to bitch about CGI might say.
I also appreciated Michael Giacchino's unobtrusive music score, as well as his rather generous and very well-timed references to John Williams' regal theme.
It's worth emphasizing at this point that this film is nowhere near as good as the original, which set a benchmark for science fiction movies that stood for many years, but it's also worth emphasizing that it's not trying to be. Interestingly, like the first film, it also has something to say, though it feels more of a commentary about the greed of Hollywood than on the evil of messing with nature that was quite patent in the first film. There's some irony to that, considering that from one perspective this film may definitely be viewed as a cynical cash grab; a repackaging of a much older product to sell to newer audiences. There's even a loose end that is somewhat shamelessly left dangling so that Universal can pursue a sequel if the box office receipts justify one.
Ultimately, though, what matters is that the film, for all its flaws, is quite an entertaining affair. Trevorrow and his cast and crew have thrown together the best "Jurassic" movie since the original, and whatever success this film may experience when it opens worldwide is, to my mind, well-deserved.
(On a side note: I was somewhat amused by the fact that almost the entirety of the principal cast consists of actors who have starred in one adaptation or another of a Marvel comics property; Pratt, of course, was the lead in the aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard had a supporting role in Spider-Man 3, Khan had a role in The Amazing Spider-Man, Simpkins had a pretty pivotal role in Iron Man 3, Sy had a small role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and D'Onofrio was the arch villain in Daredevil. There were so many Marvel-movie or TV-show veterans around that if the Hulk had shown up at some point and started beating up the dinosaurs, he wouldn't have felt entirely out of place.)
The cast and crew have put together a solid, competent sequel to one of the most beloved Spielberg movies of all time, and while it wasn't exactly 1993 all over again for me, I had a really good time.
7.5/10
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Not So Much a Misfire as a Miscalculation: A Review of Tomorrowland (Mild Spoilers)
directed by Brad Bird
written by Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird and Jeff Jensen
Once upon a time, animator/storyteller/director Brad Bird could do no wrong in the eyes of film critics. While dis debut animated feature-film back in 1999, The Iron Giant, did not set the box-office on fire (and was, in fact, a bomb), it was quite well-received by film critics, and to date it has a highly enviable 97% "Fresh" score of review aggregator site rottentomatoes.com. When Bird started collaborating with Walt Disney's Pixar Studios, the results were magical: 2004's The Incredibles and 2007's Ratatouille were both critical and commercial successes, and both movies won Brad Bird an Academy Award. They certainly made me a dyed-in-the-wool fan. He then successfully made the transition to live-action filmmaking with 2011's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the best-reviewed film in the series and one of the highest grossing ones as well.
As a result, when it was announced that Bird was working on a top-secret, live-action project for Walt Disney pictures starring George Clooney, there was quite a bit of excitement generated among fans like myself and the filmgoing community in general.
Tomorrowland is basically the story of a secret community of cutting-edge innovators who live just beyond the fringes of our reality, sort of a secret society of geniuses.
The story begins at the New York World's in 1964, where an 11-year-old boy named Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson), presents his invention a rocket pack that doesn't quite work, to a stern judge named David Nix (Hugh Laurie), in the hope of winning prize money and getting the opportunity to improve his invention further. He is summarily rejected, but not before he has piqued the attention of Athena (Raffey Cassidy), a young child like himself who hands him a pin with a "T" and tells him to secretly follow her and the rest of the judges headed by the unpleasant Nix. Frank complies, and finds himself in a fantastical city in the sky filled with robots and wondrous flying machines. One such robot ends up tweaking his jet pack, and not a moment too soon as Frank falls from one of the sky-high towers and finds himself using the jet pack to save his life, and, with his impressive display, securing his place in Tomorrowland.
Over fifty years later, fifteen-year-old Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), is at the end of her rope; her father (Tim McGraw), an engineer for NASA will soon find himself out of work as the launch platform where he works is set for dismantling for no other cited reason than that "people are running out of ideas," and Casey does everything she can that doesn't involve violence to stave off the dismantling, including sabotaging the heavy equipment. Unfortunately, her activism brings her in trouble with the law, and as she is being released into her father's recognizance she discovers, among her things, a pin very similar to the one given to Frank at the beginning of the film, one that shows her a fantastic place every time she touches it. In her determination to understand what she is seeing, however, Casey finds herself in grave danger, and she'll need the help of Athena, and the now-adult Frank (George Clooney) to get herself out of it. One thing is clear; Casey has to find her way to Tomorrowland, before it's too late.
A little over a week after its worldwide opening, Tomorrowland, has apparently disappointed across the board with underwhelming box-office receipts and lukewarm reviews. Personally, I really enjoyed it, but I think I understand what the problem was.
Tomorrowland is a film fueled by a wonderful sense of nostalgia, and hearkens back to a time when people's image of the future was all about jet packs and space travel. Unfortunately, we're living in an age where moviegoers have been to several other worlds, courtesy of Star Trek, Star Wars and even Avatar, where they've seen wondrous things like dinosaurs brought back to life and finally, they've seen men don suits of armor that can fly and shoot lasers, all of which make Bird's (and co-writer Damon Lindelof's) visions of tomorrow look positively quaint. The truth is, most people have already seen too much, whether on the big screen, the small screen, or even their handheld devices to be impressed by what this film has to offer. Now, I happen to be a fan of the brand of nostalgia that Bird is peddling, but I totally get why not many other people are.
To sort of compensate for the general lack of oomph, Bird and Lindelof wrap the story in layer upon layer of mystery, and to the credit of Disney's marketing crew, they followed suit. The problem was that all of the mystery surrounding the narrative made people wonder just what it was they were going to see, and with that much expectation, especially considering Bird's track record, he was basically setting himself up to disappoint.
I disagree with the notion that people rejected this for being a "message movie" considering that the highest grossing film of all time Avatar, is one of the most hackneyed message movies ever, but I do agree that Bird could have taken a different approach to proselytizing. Avatar may have been preachy, but it gave audiences a heck of a ride while it was doing it. As someone who's given audiences some pretty spectacular action scenes in the past, one would think Bird could have pulled this off with a bit more panache.
So if there was so much wrong with this film, why did I like it? Well it still has quite a bit going for it, like Bird's gift for "retro-futuristic" visual flair, generous helpings of the humor and witty dialogue that made his best films as entertaining as they were, some excellently filmed action scenes apart from the disappointing climax, and some winning performances from his principal actors. The production design is wondrous to behold, though as I said, it really isn't anything new, and neither are the admittedly slick visual effects on display courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic.
Robertson is delightful as the lead; the scenes of her popping in and out of Tomorrowland are the centerpiece of the film's marketing (and of the film, to an extent) and she sells the heck of out of them. Clooney doesn't disappoint as the curmudgeonly version of Frank Walker, but the real surprise is how well Thomas Robinson, who actually resembles Clooney a bit, plays his younger version. Laurie makes the most out of a thankless role, as Nix, delivering the film's central sermon--er, message, at the climax. It's a terrible waste of a great actor, to my mind. For me, the breakthrough performance here was that of Cassidy as the mysterious Athena. It's hard to go into detail about her performance without spoiling a couple of surprises about her role, but suffice it to say that like Robertson, her role required her to do some pretty funny things with a straight face, and she pulled it off quite well.
This film is a bit of a hiccup for Bird, who really was on a roll for many years, though I hardly think it's set him on the same downward spiral that M. Night Shyamalan found himself on ten years ago.
I'm still waiting for him to come up with The Incredibles 2...
7.1/10
written by Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird and Jeff Jensen
Once upon a time, animator/storyteller/director Brad Bird could do no wrong in the eyes of film critics. While dis debut animated feature-film back in 1999, The Iron Giant, did not set the box-office on fire (and was, in fact, a bomb), it was quite well-received by film critics, and to date it has a highly enviable 97% "Fresh" score of review aggregator site rottentomatoes.com. When Bird started collaborating with Walt Disney's Pixar Studios, the results were magical: 2004's The Incredibles and 2007's Ratatouille were both critical and commercial successes, and both movies won Brad Bird an Academy Award. They certainly made me a dyed-in-the-wool fan. He then successfully made the transition to live-action filmmaking with 2011's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the best-reviewed film in the series and one of the highest grossing ones as well.
As a result, when it was announced that Bird was working on a top-secret, live-action project for Walt Disney pictures starring George Clooney, there was quite a bit of excitement generated among fans like myself and the filmgoing community in general.
Tomorrowland is basically the story of a secret community of cutting-edge innovators who live just beyond the fringes of our reality, sort of a secret society of geniuses.
The story begins at the New York World's in 1964, where an 11-year-old boy named Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson), presents his invention a rocket pack that doesn't quite work, to a stern judge named David Nix (Hugh Laurie), in the hope of winning prize money and getting the opportunity to improve his invention further. He is summarily rejected, but not before he has piqued the attention of Athena (Raffey Cassidy), a young child like himself who hands him a pin with a "T" and tells him to secretly follow her and the rest of the judges headed by the unpleasant Nix. Frank complies, and finds himself in a fantastical city in the sky filled with robots and wondrous flying machines. One such robot ends up tweaking his jet pack, and not a moment too soon as Frank falls from one of the sky-high towers and finds himself using the jet pack to save his life, and, with his impressive display, securing his place in Tomorrowland.
Over fifty years later, fifteen-year-old Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), is at the end of her rope; her father (Tim McGraw), an engineer for NASA will soon find himself out of work as the launch platform where he works is set for dismantling for no other cited reason than that "people are running out of ideas," and Casey does everything she can that doesn't involve violence to stave off the dismantling, including sabotaging the heavy equipment. Unfortunately, her activism brings her in trouble with the law, and as she is being released into her father's recognizance she discovers, among her things, a pin very similar to the one given to Frank at the beginning of the film, one that shows her a fantastic place every time she touches it. In her determination to understand what she is seeing, however, Casey finds herself in grave danger, and she'll need the help of Athena, and the now-adult Frank (George Clooney) to get herself out of it. One thing is clear; Casey has to find her way to Tomorrowland, before it's too late.
A little over a week after its worldwide opening, Tomorrowland, has apparently disappointed across the board with underwhelming box-office receipts and lukewarm reviews. Personally, I really enjoyed it, but I think I understand what the problem was.
Tomorrowland is a film fueled by a wonderful sense of nostalgia, and hearkens back to a time when people's image of the future was all about jet packs and space travel. Unfortunately, we're living in an age where moviegoers have been to several other worlds, courtesy of Star Trek, Star Wars and even Avatar, where they've seen wondrous things like dinosaurs brought back to life and finally, they've seen men don suits of armor that can fly and shoot lasers, all of which make Bird's (and co-writer Damon Lindelof's) visions of tomorrow look positively quaint. The truth is, most people have already seen too much, whether on the big screen, the small screen, or even their handheld devices to be impressed by what this film has to offer. Now, I happen to be a fan of the brand of nostalgia that Bird is peddling, but I totally get why not many other people are.
To sort of compensate for the general lack of oomph, Bird and Lindelof wrap the story in layer upon layer of mystery, and to the credit of Disney's marketing crew, they followed suit. The problem was that all of the mystery surrounding the narrative made people wonder just what it was they were going to see, and with that much expectation, especially considering Bird's track record, he was basically setting himself up to disappoint.
I disagree with the notion that people rejected this for being a "message movie" considering that the highest grossing film of all time Avatar, is one of the most hackneyed message movies ever, but I do agree that Bird could have taken a different approach to proselytizing. Avatar may have been preachy, but it gave audiences a heck of a ride while it was doing it. As someone who's given audiences some pretty spectacular action scenes in the past, one would think Bird could have pulled this off with a bit more panache.
So if there was so much wrong with this film, why did I like it? Well it still has quite a bit going for it, like Bird's gift for "retro-futuristic" visual flair, generous helpings of the humor and witty dialogue that made his best films as entertaining as they were, some excellently filmed action scenes apart from the disappointing climax, and some winning performances from his principal actors. The production design is wondrous to behold, though as I said, it really isn't anything new, and neither are the admittedly slick visual effects on display courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic.
Robertson is delightful as the lead; the scenes of her popping in and out of Tomorrowland are the centerpiece of the film's marketing (and of the film, to an extent) and she sells the heck of out of them. Clooney doesn't disappoint as the curmudgeonly version of Frank Walker, but the real surprise is how well Thomas Robinson, who actually resembles Clooney a bit, plays his younger version. Laurie makes the most out of a thankless role, as Nix, delivering the film's central sermon--er, message, at the climax. It's a terrible waste of a great actor, to my mind. For me, the breakthrough performance here was that of Cassidy as the mysterious Athena. It's hard to go into detail about her performance without spoiling a couple of surprises about her role, but suffice it to say that like Robertson, her role required her to do some pretty funny things with a straight face, and she pulled it off quite well.
This film is a bit of a hiccup for Bird, who really was on a roll for many years, though I hardly think it's set him on the same downward spiral that M. Night Shyamalan found himself on ten years ago.
I'm still waiting for him to come up with The Incredibles 2...
7.1/10
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Better the Second Time (Yes, It's Been a Slow Week for Reviewing New Movies...oh and SPOILERS)
Recently, I watched Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron for the second time, because my kids had not yet seen it.
This doesn't happen very often (almost never, in fact), but in spite of all of my issues with the movie the first time around, I found myself enjoying it significantly more than I did the first time I watched it. A lot of that is down to the fact that, unlike my first experience, I dispensed with the utterly s***ty 3-D conversion, which really hampered my first viewing experience, and went with good, old-fashioned 2-D.
I still noted some of the things I had gripes with, like Thor's somewhat disjointed subplot that explained the whole "Infinity Stones" thing and which still felt like a vague plug for his upcoming solo sequel Thor: Ragnarok, and the fact that Tony Stark was an even bigger egotistical prick than before, but I was able to ignore them in favor of what I really enjoyed about this film.
I'm obviously not going to review the film again, but I will highlight a number of things I really enjoyed about the movie, in ascending order.
5. Improved Fighting Skills All Around - In this day and age of blink-and-you'll-miss-it martial arts sequences, it was really gratifying to show that the Avengers' fighting skills, particularly those of Captain America and Thor, have actually improved since the first movie. It was especially cool to see them double-teaming the bad guys with a one-two shield and hammer takedown. This is a team movie, after all, and it's great that it actually feels like it. It never felt right to me in the early MCU days that Black Widow had a monopoly on all of the cool martial arts sequences, something Marvel remedied with the Captain America sequel, and here it was gratifying to see Cap not only kicking gratuitous ass from start to finish, but also punching well above his weight when, he took on, without hesitation, a much more powerful foe in Ultron. The gratifying thing about a lot of the fighting is how grounded and practical it feels; basically it looks like the actors really worked out and actually took part in the meticulously choreographed fighting rather than letting their computer-generated avatars do all the work, something that happened rather frequently in the CGI-infested Hobbit films. The promised Cap/Iron Man throw down in Civil War got a bit of a sneak preview here in act three of this movie, and I have to say I'm really, really excited to see it play out in Cap's movie, which is now being touted as a de facto Avengers sequel of sorts.
4. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch - Last year 20th Century Fox kicked off a bit of a "friendly" rivalry with Marvel Studios when it featured popular "Avenger" Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, in X-Men: Days of Future Past. In that film, Quicksilver had a show-stopping display of his speed in the sequence in which he freed Magneto from his prison under the Pentagon, after which he was somewhat arbitrarily written out of the script, most likely because his further participation in the story would have obviated a lot of the narrative tension that follows, or in short, he could have solved everyone's problems. Well, as impressive (and humorous) as Bryan Singer's take on the character was, Joss Whedon's was superior in a number of ways. His overall look, starting with his costume, hewed much more closely to the comics than his Fox counterpart. His cocky personality and anger issues were a much closer approximation of the comic-book Quicksilver than the laid-back juvenile delinquent in Singer's film. Finally, MCU's Quicksilver was ultimately more heroic, saving dozens (maybe even hundreds?) of lives in Korea and later in Sokovia (and in the process, showing everyone what a dick Superman was in Man of Steel), and ultimately sacrificing his life to save Hawkeye's. Also, while he didn't have a protracted, money-shot of a sequence, his display of power was ultimately more impressive, and not only that, but his participation in the movie, from start to finish, makes more narrative sense.
The Scarlet Witch, who will be sticking around a lot longer (barring a Phil Coulson-like character resurrection for Pietro) was not quite as flashy, but she had some of the film's very best moments, such as her utterly creepy mind-control sequences, her primal scream of grief when she senses the death of her brother, and the utterly satisfying scene in which she rips out Ultron's "heart." It was great to know that she'll be part of Captain America: Civil War, which is actually a notable innovation from the original comic book series (from which Wanda was notably absent), and I can't help but feel, and hope, that the filmmakers there will play up her rage at Tony Stark, which has to have somehow been exacerbated by the fact that her brother was killed by Stark's creation.
3. Hawkeye's Turn to Shine - I was one with Jeremy Renner in feeling that Hawkeye, easily one of the most beloved Avengers from the comics, got the short end of the character development stick in the first Avengers film. While this was inevitable given how many characters Whedon had to juggle in what was then the most ambitious-ensemble themed big-budget movie ever, it still felt like a distinct disservice to such an important staple of the team. Well, Whedon made it up to Clint Barton, Renner and all of us fans in the best possible way, by giving him a healthy dose of back story, a wife (girlfriend?), kids and a lovely farm in the middle of nowhere, where the entire team spends some much needed down-time after a rather harrowing sequence of events. On top of that, he gets a lot of really juicy character moments in this movie, and even a not-so-subtle jab at the fact that his character spent the majority of the last movie mind-controlled. Renner has real affection for this character, and it shows. My favorite bit took place in the climax, where he basically talks Scarlet Witch into becoming an Avenger. Wonderful stuff.
2. Location, Location, Location - The last time I really enjoyed a superhero film's location shooting was when Batman climbed out of Christopher Nolan's version of the Lazarus Pit in The Dark Knight Rises and emerged in an incredibly exotic, ancient-looking city which, as it turned out, was somewhere in India. It gets tiresome seeing action movies set in America, which is what makes films like the Bourne series, with their varied locations, such a treat to watch. Well, it was nice to see Marvel finally getting in on the globetrotting action, with as many as four different locations for the movie, and with a significant part of the action taking place in a very old looking part of Italy that, amusingly enough, doubled for the fictional Eastern European republic of Sokovia. I say amusing because, back in Marvel's two-penny, half-penny days, the direct-to-video adaptation of Captain America was filmed in the genuinely Eastern European republic of Croatia, which doubled for all of the film's locations, including the United States. Well, here it's obvious that Marvel wasn't just after tax breaks or cheap labor; Whedon makes extensive use of what looks like a medieval fort for the staging of the action in Italy, and considering that huge chunks of the action also take place in Seoul, South Korea and Johannesburg, South Africa (more on that next), this film is ultimately much more global in scope than any Marvel movie that has come before it. The Johannesburg sequence, in particular, was a real doozy...
1. Hulkbusting Glory - When I reviewed this film, for all of my nitpicking, it was without reservation that I heaped praise on the Hulk/Iron Man fight in Johannesburg, going as far as to call it "iconic" and I totally stand by that pronouncement. Watching it again, without the piss-poor 3-D conversion was pure, unadulterated joy. In a film full of excellently-staged action sequences, this truly stands out. Whedon expertly dances along the line between fast-paced and coherent action, which says a lot considering that this fight could easily have degenerated into a Bay-tastic blur of flying fists and shredding metal, and it's gratifying to see that at all times during the battle, civilians' lives matter. No matter how hard it is, Tony Stark (but obviously not the mind-f****d Banner) does everything he can to make sure people are safe. The interaction of so many elements in this sequence, including real backdrops and actual extras, really sold this sequence for me and, I suspect, a lot of other people. This is the sort of sequence comic-book fans have been salivating for since "The Avengers" was first made into a movie, as evidenced by the fact that it was the single most prominent part of the film's marketing campaign, and to my mind it has completely and comprehensively lived up to the hype. There is nothing in any other action film (yes, I am being all encompassing here) that even comes close to measuring up to this battle. If there was any justice in the world, this sequence alone should win Industrial Light and Magic their nth Academy Award for visual effects, but even if it doesn't, to my mind, this is one of their greatest achievements as a visual effects house so far.
While it looks as though the new adventures of Mad Max are getting raves from critics, limited funds means I have to choose which movies I can watch, so I'm saving up for Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, his first new film in four years and his first original property in eight. It looks like an incredibly ambitious piece of science fiction, and its release (for me) cannot come soon enough.
For now, though, I was more than happy to take one more joy ride with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
This doesn't happen very often (almost never, in fact), but in spite of all of my issues with the movie the first time around, I found myself enjoying it significantly more than I did the first time I watched it. A lot of that is down to the fact that, unlike my first experience, I dispensed with the utterly s***ty 3-D conversion, which really hampered my first viewing experience, and went with good, old-fashioned 2-D.
I still noted some of the things I had gripes with, like Thor's somewhat disjointed subplot that explained the whole "Infinity Stones" thing and which still felt like a vague plug for his upcoming solo sequel Thor: Ragnarok, and the fact that Tony Stark was an even bigger egotistical prick than before, but I was able to ignore them in favor of what I really enjoyed about this film.
I'm obviously not going to review the film again, but I will highlight a number of things I really enjoyed about the movie, in ascending order.
5. Improved Fighting Skills All Around - In this day and age of blink-and-you'll-miss-it martial arts sequences, it was really gratifying to show that the Avengers' fighting skills, particularly those of Captain America and Thor, have actually improved since the first movie. It was especially cool to see them double-teaming the bad guys with a one-two shield and hammer takedown. This is a team movie, after all, and it's great that it actually feels like it. It never felt right to me in the early MCU days that Black Widow had a monopoly on all of the cool martial arts sequences, something Marvel remedied with the Captain America sequel, and here it was gratifying to see Cap not only kicking gratuitous ass from start to finish, but also punching well above his weight when, he took on, without hesitation, a much more powerful foe in Ultron. The gratifying thing about a lot of the fighting is how grounded and practical it feels; basically it looks like the actors really worked out and actually took part in the meticulously choreographed fighting rather than letting their computer-generated avatars do all the work, something that happened rather frequently in the CGI-infested Hobbit films. The promised Cap/Iron Man throw down in Civil War got a bit of a sneak preview here in act three of this movie, and I have to say I'm really, really excited to see it play out in Cap's movie, which is now being touted as a de facto Avengers sequel of sorts.
4. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch - Last year 20th Century Fox kicked off a bit of a "friendly" rivalry with Marvel Studios when it featured popular "Avenger" Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, in X-Men: Days of Future Past. In that film, Quicksilver had a show-stopping display of his speed in the sequence in which he freed Magneto from his prison under the Pentagon, after which he was somewhat arbitrarily written out of the script, most likely because his further participation in the story would have obviated a lot of the narrative tension that follows, or in short, he could have solved everyone's problems. Well, as impressive (and humorous) as Bryan Singer's take on the character was, Joss Whedon's was superior in a number of ways. His overall look, starting with his costume, hewed much more closely to the comics than his Fox counterpart. His cocky personality and anger issues were a much closer approximation of the comic-book Quicksilver than the laid-back juvenile delinquent in Singer's film. Finally, MCU's Quicksilver was ultimately more heroic, saving dozens (maybe even hundreds?) of lives in Korea and later in Sokovia (and in the process, showing everyone what a dick Superman was in Man of Steel), and ultimately sacrificing his life to save Hawkeye's. Also, while he didn't have a protracted, money-shot of a sequence, his display of power was ultimately more impressive, and not only that, but his participation in the movie, from start to finish, makes more narrative sense.
The Scarlet Witch, who will be sticking around a lot longer (barring a Phil Coulson-like character resurrection for Pietro) was not quite as flashy, but she had some of the film's very best moments, such as her utterly creepy mind-control sequences, her primal scream of grief when she senses the death of her brother, and the utterly satisfying scene in which she rips out Ultron's "heart." It was great to know that she'll be part of Captain America: Civil War, which is actually a notable innovation from the original comic book series (from which Wanda was notably absent), and I can't help but feel, and hope, that the filmmakers there will play up her rage at Tony Stark, which has to have somehow been exacerbated by the fact that her brother was killed by Stark's creation.
3. Hawkeye's Turn to Shine - I was one with Jeremy Renner in feeling that Hawkeye, easily one of the most beloved Avengers from the comics, got the short end of the character development stick in the first Avengers film. While this was inevitable given how many characters Whedon had to juggle in what was then the most ambitious-ensemble themed big-budget movie ever, it still felt like a distinct disservice to such an important staple of the team. Well, Whedon made it up to Clint Barton, Renner and all of us fans in the best possible way, by giving him a healthy dose of back story, a wife (girlfriend?), kids and a lovely farm in the middle of nowhere, where the entire team spends some much needed down-time after a rather harrowing sequence of events. On top of that, he gets a lot of really juicy character moments in this movie, and even a not-so-subtle jab at the fact that his character spent the majority of the last movie mind-controlled. Renner has real affection for this character, and it shows. My favorite bit took place in the climax, where he basically talks Scarlet Witch into becoming an Avenger. Wonderful stuff.
2. Location, Location, Location - The last time I really enjoyed a superhero film's location shooting was when Batman climbed out of Christopher Nolan's version of the Lazarus Pit in The Dark Knight Rises and emerged in an incredibly exotic, ancient-looking city which, as it turned out, was somewhere in India. It gets tiresome seeing action movies set in America, which is what makes films like the Bourne series, with their varied locations, such a treat to watch. Well, it was nice to see Marvel finally getting in on the globetrotting action, with as many as four different locations for the movie, and with a significant part of the action taking place in a very old looking part of Italy that, amusingly enough, doubled for the fictional Eastern European republic of Sokovia. I say amusing because, back in Marvel's two-penny, half-penny days, the direct-to-video adaptation of Captain America was filmed in the genuinely Eastern European republic of Croatia, which doubled for all of the film's locations, including the United States. Well, here it's obvious that Marvel wasn't just after tax breaks or cheap labor; Whedon makes extensive use of what looks like a medieval fort for the staging of the action in Italy, and considering that huge chunks of the action also take place in Seoul, South Korea and Johannesburg, South Africa (more on that next), this film is ultimately much more global in scope than any Marvel movie that has come before it. The Johannesburg sequence, in particular, was a real doozy...
1. Hulkbusting Glory - When I reviewed this film, for all of my nitpicking, it was without reservation that I heaped praise on the Hulk/Iron Man fight in Johannesburg, going as far as to call it "iconic" and I totally stand by that pronouncement. Watching it again, without the piss-poor 3-D conversion was pure, unadulterated joy. In a film full of excellently-staged action sequences, this truly stands out. Whedon expertly dances along the line between fast-paced and coherent action, which says a lot considering that this fight could easily have degenerated into a Bay-tastic blur of flying fists and shredding metal, and it's gratifying to see that at all times during the battle, civilians' lives matter. No matter how hard it is, Tony Stark (but obviously not the mind-f****d Banner) does everything he can to make sure people are safe. The interaction of so many elements in this sequence, including real backdrops and actual extras, really sold this sequence for me and, I suspect, a lot of other people. This is the sort of sequence comic-book fans have been salivating for since "The Avengers" was first made into a movie, as evidenced by the fact that it was the single most prominent part of the film's marketing campaign, and to my mind it has completely and comprehensively lived up to the hype. There is nothing in any other action film (yes, I am being all encompassing here) that even comes close to measuring up to this battle. If there was any justice in the world, this sequence alone should win Industrial Light and Magic their nth Academy Award for visual effects, but even if it doesn't, to my mind, this is one of their greatest achievements as a visual effects house so far.
While it looks as though the new adventures of Mad Max are getting raves from critics, limited funds means I have to choose which movies I can watch, so I'm saving up for Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, his first new film in four years and his first original property in eight. It looks like an incredibly ambitious piece of science fiction, and its release (for me) cannot come soon enough.
For now, though, I was more than happy to take one more joy ride with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Bigger Isn't Always Better: A Review of Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron
written and directed by Joss Whedon
Following up the most successful superhero movie of all time was never going to be an easy endeavor. There were so many things that needed to be done right, and so many things that could have gone wrong.
Thus far, the template for Marvel Studios' so-called "Phase 2" films, specifically the sequels to the earlier "Phase 1" films has been, more or less, a combination of three things: 1) bigger action set-pieces, 2) more elaborate CGI, 3) more menacing villains, 4)the same blend of action-comedy that worked in Phase 1. In the case of two Phase 2 movies, namely Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, one additional element is a major story twist midway through the movie.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is very much in that mold.
Following the evens of The Winter Soldier, in which Captain America (Chris Evans) and friends had to take down a S.H.I.E.L.D. that had been compromised by HYDRA, the Avengers --Cap, Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo and a lot of computer-generated imagery), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)-- now find themselves having to chase down important artifacts that are in HYDRA's possession. One such artifact, the mind-controlling scepter wielded by the villainous Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the first film, is in the hands of the villainous Baron Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), who has used it to experiment on humans. The only survivors of these experiments are two superpowered volunteers, the Maximoff twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who has acquired superhuman speed and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), who has some form of telepathy and telekinesis. Strucker is captured in the Avengers' raid, but the twins escape, and not before Wanda puts a mental whammy on him, giving Tony Stark/Iron Man a glimpse of his worst nightmare: the death of the Avengers because of his inability to do enough.
This proves to be the catalyst of events to come as Tony, spurred by his apocalyptic delusion and with some help from Bruce Banner, decides to put into motion something he's been cooking up for a long time without the knowledge of their teammates: an artificial intelligence he calls Ultron programmed to protect the world with a gleaming metal robot army. He uses the energy of the scepter to try to infuse the Ultron A.I. with the little something extra it needs to be the ultimate global cop, then leaves with Bruce Banner to join the rest of the Avengers for evening cocktails, when the scepter apparently gets ideas of its own and Ultron (James Spader) "wakes up..." but with a twist. He envisions the better, safer world that his creator wants, except his particular vision involves the destruction of the Avengers and the human race in general. Ultron crashes the Avengers' evening get together, then, after a brief skirmish, flies off with several of Tony's robots and Loki's scepter.
The Avengers, naturally, have to shut Ultron down, but it won't be easy for a robot whose consciousness can jump in and out of the internet, especially after he recruits the super-powered Maximoff twins, who, it turns out, have a bit of an axe to grind against erstwhile arms-dealer Tony Stark.
It was always a given that this film would be bigger than the first one, and it is to Whedon's credit that he plunges the audience into the action right from the word "Marvel." The opening action sequence in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia (played by both England and Italy) is really a doozy, though oddly enough a few nanoseconds of the relentless computer-generated mayhem seem a little cartoony. Fortunately, most of the action (and there are a LOT of sequences to choose from) is quite expertly staged, and if I may be so bold, some of it will stand out as iconic over time, like the outstanding fight in Johannesburg between a rage-crazed Hulk (courtesy, again, of Wanda's mind tricks) and Iron Man decked out in an enormous suit of armor that was specifically designed for such an eventuality, known to comics fans as the Hulkbuster armor but here, simply called "Veronica."
The scope of the film is bigger, too; this is the first Marvel Studios movie that takes place in more than two main locations, with the action starting out in Europe, very briefly going Stateside before heading over to Africa, then over to Asia, and finally back again to Europe for the big climax.
Fortunately, Whedon still manages to sneak quiet moments between the action, some of which actually double as a surprise story twist for a specific character. I'd rather not spoil exactly what the twist is, but I will say that apart from giving the said character some much-needed dimension, the sequence really helped keep the film grounded, along with the brief evening cocktails scene earlier in the film in which most of the Avengers try to lift Thor's hammer, a joke that pays off hugely near the end.
There are a lot of nice character moments throughout the movie. Captain America has a running joke involving his age and swear words, Black Widow gets a back story and bit of a romantic subplot with Bruce Banner, who in turn finds himself grappling with the question of whether or not the Hulk is a hero or a menace. Hawkeye gets to do a lot more than spend two thirds of the movie being mind-controlled. James Spader is magnificent as Ultron, infusing the right amounts of menace and humor into a character that, to my mind at least, was a bit of a challenge to realize. Strangely enough, getting short shrift here were Iron Man, whose motivations for creating Ultron were articulated well enough but which still felt a little off, and Thor, who, outside of the action sequences, didn't really have much to do except make hammer jokes, take his shirt off, and sell the sequel to his own series. Tragically underutilized here was Andy Serkis (better known as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings series), who put on a really thick South African accent for less than ten minutes of screen time. Still, considering he was playing Ulysses Klaue, we may yet see him again, and with a more meaningful role. Thomas Kretschmann's Baron Von Strucker is utterly wasted here, as he barely gets more screen time than he did during his mid-credits Easter egg in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Apart from the fact that a number of characters fell by the wayside (an inevitability in a movie with a cast this big), there were other things that didn't quite sit well with me. The narrative just didn't feel as tight as the storytelling in the first film, and the sense of urgency wasn't quite there. Sure, Ultron was a menace, and James Spader plays the character to the hilt, but by the climax Ultron and his army just didn't quite feel threatening enough. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, did a better job of depicting its heroes in peril, even though their enemies there only human beings (and one particularly tough human) and not an army of murderous robots.
That's actually my problem in a nutshell; I didn't find this film quite as engaging as I did the Captain America sequel. Sure, AAOU definitely has CATWS beaten in terms of pure pyrotechnics and visual flair, but in terms of the tautness of the narrative, character exploration and even the impact of the story, it falls surprisingly short. CATWS, with its revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. was being run by HYDRA, basically shook the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its very core. In comparison, this film feels...inconsequential, and the fact that the really earth-shattering stuff seems reserved for the next chapter, the already announced two-part epic the "Infinity War" is distinctly disappointing. I mean, CATWS was just supposed to whet my appetite for AAOU; as it was, AAOU just felt like the dessert to the rib eye steak dinner that was the Cap solo movie, and as a dessert it felt loaded with a bit too many calories.
Plus, I have to say that the constant banter, one-liners and physical comedy that worked so well in the first movie sometimes feel a bit strained here. CATWS had its share of laughs, too, but the Russo brothers, whose bread and butter, ironically enough, used to be directing sitcoms, showed considerably more restraint. I'm glad to know the Russos will be taking over the two-part sequel to this, The Infinity War.
Finally, the product placement just got a bit out of hand here; I was used to seeing a fleet of Audis on screen, but when Quicksilver, in preparing for the climactic battle, grabbed a pair of shoes with a clear focus on the Adidas brand, I just groaned. I'm normally quite forgiving of product placement, especially when it's of brands that I like, but this movie just took it a bit too far for me.
Don't get me wrong; I genuinely enjoyed Avengers: Age of Ultron and will probably watch it again in theaters at least once. I'm just a tad disappointed considering that this franchise is supposed to be the crown jewel of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and yet it seems to have lost a bit of its luster.
8.2/10
Following up the most successful superhero movie of all time was never going to be an easy endeavor. There were so many things that needed to be done right, and so many things that could have gone wrong.
Thus far, the template for Marvel Studios' so-called "Phase 2" films, specifically the sequels to the earlier "Phase 1" films has been, more or less, a combination of three things: 1) bigger action set-pieces, 2) more elaborate CGI, 3) more menacing villains, 4)the same blend of action-comedy that worked in Phase 1. In the case of two Phase 2 movies, namely Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, one additional element is a major story twist midway through the movie.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is very much in that mold.
Following the evens of The Winter Soldier, in which Captain America (Chris Evans) and friends had to take down a S.H.I.E.L.D. that had been compromised by HYDRA, the Avengers --Cap, Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo and a lot of computer-generated imagery), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)-- now find themselves having to chase down important artifacts that are in HYDRA's possession. One such artifact, the mind-controlling scepter wielded by the villainous Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the first film, is in the hands of the villainous Baron Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), who has used it to experiment on humans. The only survivors of these experiments are two superpowered volunteers, the Maximoff twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who has acquired superhuman speed and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), who has some form of telepathy and telekinesis. Strucker is captured in the Avengers' raid, but the twins escape, and not before Wanda puts a mental whammy on him, giving Tony Stark/Iron Man a glimpse of his worst nightmare: the death of the Avengers because of his inability to do enough.
This proves to be the catalyst of events to come as Tony, spurred by his apocalyptic delusion and with some help from Bruce Banner, decides to put into motion something he's been cooking up for a long time without the knowledge of their teammates: an artificial intelligence he calls Ultron programmed to protect the world with a gleaming metal robot army. He uses the energy of the scepter to try to infuse the Ultron A.I. with the little something extra it needs to be the ultimate global cop, then leaves with Bruce Banner to join the rest of the Avengers for evening cocktails, when the scepter apparently gets ideas of its own and Ultron (James Spader) "wakes up..." but with a twist. He envisions the better, safer world that his creator wants, except his particular vision involves the destruction of the Avengers and the human race in general. Ultron crashes the Avengers' evening get together, then, after a brief skirmish, flies off with several of Tony's robots and Loki's scepter.
The Avengers, naturally, have to shut Ultron down, but it won't be easy for a robot whose consciousness can jump in and out of the internet, especially after he recruits the super-powered Maximoff twins, who, it turns out, have a bit of an axe to grind against erstwhile arms-dealer Tony Stark.
It was always a given that this film would be bigger than the first one, and it is to Whedon's credit that he plunges the audience into the action right from the word "Marvel." The opening action sequence in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia (played by both England and Italy) is really a doozy, though oddly enough a few nanoseconds of the relentless computer-generated mayhem seem a little cartoony. Fortunately, most of the action (and there are a LOT of sequences to choose from) is quite expertly staged, and if I may be so bold, some of it will stand out as iconic over time, like the outstanding fight in Johannesburg between a rage-crazed Hulk (courtesy, again, of Wanda's mind tricks) and Iron Man decked out in an enormous suit of armor that was specifically designed for such an eventuality, known to comics fans as the Hulkbuster armor but here, simply called "Veronica."
The scope of the film is bigger, too; this is the first Marvel Studios movie that takes place in more than two main locations, with the action starting out in Europe, very briefly going Stateside before heading over to Africa, then over to Asia, and finally back again to Europe for the big climax.
Fortunately, Whedon still manages to sneak quiet moments between the action, some of which actually double as a surprise story twist for a specific character. I'd rather not spoil exactly what the twist is, but I will say that apart from giving the said character some much-needed dimension, the sequence really helped keep the film grounded, along with the brief evening cocktails scene earlier in the film in which most of the Avengers try to lift Thor's hammer, a joke that pays off hugely near the end.
There are a lot of nice character moments throughout the movie. Captain America has a running joke involving his age and swear words, Black Widow gets a back story and bit of a romantic subplot with Bruce Banner, who in turn finds himself grappling with the question of whether or not the Hulk is a hero or a menace. Hawkeye gets to do a lot more than spend two thirds of the movie being mind-controlled. James Spader is magnificent as Ultron, infusing the right amounts of menace and humor into a character that, to my mind at least, was a bit of a challenge to realize. Strangely enough, getting short shrift here were Iron Man, whose motivations for creating Ultron were articulated well enough but which still felt a little off, and Thor, who, outside of the action sequences, didn't really have much to do except make hammer jokes, take his shirt off, and sell the sequel to his own series. Tragically underutilized here was Andy Serkis (better known as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings series), who put on a really thick South African accent for less than ten minutes of screen time. Still, considering he was playing Ulysses Klaue, we may yet see him again, and with a more meaningful role. Thomas Kretschmann's Baron Von Strucker is utterly wasted here, as he barely gets more screen time than he did during his mid-credits Easter egg in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Apart from the fact that a number of characters fell by the wayside (an inevitability in a movie with a cast this big), there were other things that didn't quite sit well with me. The narrative just didn't feel as tight as the storytelling in the first film, and the sense of urgency wasn't quite there. Sure, Ultron was a menace, and James Spader plays the character to the hilt, but by the climax Ultron and his army just didn't quite feel threatening enough. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, did a better job of depicting its heroes in peril, even though their enemies there only human beings (and one particularly tough human) and not an army of murderous robots.
That's actually my problem in a nutshell; I didn't find this film quite as engaging as I did the Captain America sequel. Sure, AAOU definitely has CATWS beaten in terms of pure pyrotechnics and visual flair, but in terms of the tautness of the narrative, character exploration and even the impact of the story, it falls surprisingly short. CATWS, with its revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. was being run by HYDRA, basically shook the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its very core. In comparison, this film feels...inconsequential, and the fact that the really earth-shattering stuff seems reserved for the next chapter, the already announced two-part epic the "Infinity War" is distinctly disappointing. I mean, CATWS was just supposed to whet my appetite for AAOU; as it was, AAOU just felt like the dessert to the rib eye steak dinner that was the Cap solo movie, and as a dessert it felt loaded with a bit too many calories.
Plus, I have to say that the constant banter, one-liners and physical comedy that worked so well in the first movie sometimes feel a bit strained here. CATWS had its share of laughs, too, but the Russo brothers, whose bread and butter, ironically enough, used to be directing sitcoms, showed considerably more restraint. I'm glad to know the Russos will be taking over the two-part sequel to this, The Infinity War.
Finally, the product placement just got a bit out of hand here; I was used to seeing a fleet of Audis on screen, but when Quicksilver, in preparing for the climactic battle, grabbed a pair of shoes with a clear focus on the Adidas brand, I just groaned. I'm normally quite forgiving of product placement, especially when it's of brands that I like, but this movie just took it a bit too far for me.
Don't get me wrong; I genuinely enjoyed Avengers: Age of Ultron and will probably watch it again in theaters at least once. I'm just a tad disappointed considering that this franchise is supposed to be the crown jewel of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and yet it seems to have lost a bit of its luster.
8.2/10
Saturday, April 4, 2015
No Place Like It: A Review of Home
directed by Tim Johnson
written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember
I could be mistaken, but I think that the brand new Dreamworks' Animated film Home has the distinction of being the most benign alien-invasion movie ever made.
Here, an alien race known as the Boov, led by the idiotic Captain Smek (Steve Martin), travel across space, constantly fleeing from a terrifying alien race known as the Gorg, and settling on new worlds and then fleeing once the Gorg has caught up with them. The chase has left several destroyed worlds in its wake.
Finally, the Boov arrive at earth, and take over in fairly short order. There are no death rays here; they simply whisk people out of their homes using bubbles and giant vacuum cleaners and summarily displace the human population to a gigantic settlement in Australia, filled with all of the things that Captain Smek thinks will pacify them, like amusement parks and candy.
The Boov then begin the process of resettling yet again, and one of them, a particularly unloved Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons), who also happens to be completely clueless as to his unpopularity, tries to throw his neighbors a party. Unfortunately, he ends up sending the message all the way across the galaxy to everyone within "earshot," including the Gorg. Oh ends up on the run from the rest of the Boov, and runs into Tip (Rihanna) a girl who happens to be the sole human to escape "relocation." Tip has a car, and Oh has knowledge of Boov tech, which basically means the ability to make things fly. They strike up a deal to find Tip's mom (Jennifer Lopez), though unbeknownst to Top, Oh secretly plans to flee to Antarctica. The friendship that inevitably blossoms between them, however, might prove to change everything, even the fate of the world.
While this movie hardly the most cleverly written film in Dreamworks' library, which stretches back nearly two decades, it is reasonably entertaining, and quite notably makes the best use of the studio's considerable technical prowess in a long time by providing the viewer with some of the most colorful visuals seen in a Dreamworks' movie since 2013's The Croods.
As far as offering compelling characters goes, though, the movie falls sadly short of the better DWA movies like Kung Fu Panda or How to Train Your Dragon. The film tries to establish Boov as lonely but only succeeds in making him as unlikable to me as he was to his fellow Boov. The filmmakers do well enough to establish how and why Tip is, like Oh, lonely and in need of a friend, but apart from giving her adorable curls and Rihanna's voice there is not much else to her. Also, it was hard for me to separate Rihanna from her onscreen avatar considering that her songs came blaring over the movie's soundtrack every five minutes. It was quite annoying.
All that said, though, I still find myself recommending this film because it is just...so...pretty. Animated films in general are very colorful affairs, but this movie, I daresay, really stands out, even in a market that's been saturated with computer-generated cartoons, many of them from this very studio. It is guaranteed entertainment for kids under twelve (my two daughters, both below ten, had a good time, while thirteen-year-old son groaned at every Rihanna song, just as I did), so it has that, but even as a cynical adult, I was able to enjoy this feast for the eyes.
6/10
written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember
I could be mistaken, but I think that the brand new Dreamworks' Animated film Home has the distinction of being the most benign alien-invasion movie ever made.
Here, an alien race known as the Boov, led by the idiotic Captain Smek (Steve Martin), travel across space, constantly fleeing from a terrifying alien race known as the Gorg, and settling on new worlds and then fleeing once the Gorg has caught up with them. The chase has left several destroyed worlds in its wake.
Finally, the Boov arrive at earth, and take over in fairly short order. There are no death rays here; they simply whisk people out of their homes using bubbles and giant vacuum cleaners and summarily displace the human population to a gigantic settlement in Australia, filled with all of the things that Captain Smek thinks will pacify them, like amusement parks and candy.
The Boov then begin the process of resettling yet again, and one of them, a particularly unloved Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons), who also happens to be completely clueless as to his unpopularity, tries to throw his neighbors a party. Unfortunately, he ends up sending the message all the way across the galaxy to everyone within "earshot," including the Gorg. Oh ends up on the run from the rest of the Boov, and runs into Tip (Rihanna) a girl who happens to be the sole human to escape "relocation." Tip has a car, and Oh has knowledge of Boov tech, which basically means the ability to make things fly. They strike up a deal to find Tip's mom (Jennifer Lopez), though unbeknownst to Top, Oh secretly plans to flee to Antarctica. The friendship that inevitably blossoms between them, however, might prove to change everything, even the fate of the world.
While this movie hardly the most cleverly written film in Dreamworks' library, which stretches back nearly two decades, it is reasonably entertaining, and quite notably makes the best use of the studio's considerable technical prowess in a long time by providing the viewer with some of the most colorful visuals seen in a Dreamworks' movie since 2013's The Croods.
As far as offering compelling characters goes, though, the movie falls sadly short of the better DWA movies like Kung Fu Panda or How to Train Your Dragon. The film tries to establish Boov as lonely but only succeeds in making him as unlikable to me as he was to his fellow Boov. The filmmakers do well enough to establish how and why Tip is, like Oh, lonely and in need of a friend, but apart from giving her adorable curls and Rihanna's voice there is not much else to her. Also, it was hard for me to separate Rihanna from her onscreen avatar considering that her songs came blaring over the movie's soundtrack every five minutes. It was quite annoying.
All that said, though, I still find myself recommending this film because it is just...so...pretty. Animated films in general are very colorful affairs, but this movie, I daresay, really stands out, even in a market that's been saturated with computer-generated cartoons, many of them from this very studio. It is guaranteed entertainment for kids under twelve (my two daughters, both below ten, had a good time, while thirteen-year-old son groaned at every Rihanna song, just as I did), so it has that, but even as a cynical adult, I was able to enjoy this feast for the eyes.
6/10
Monday, March 16, 2015
Bippity-Boppity-Boo! A Review of Cinderella
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Written by Chris Weitz
Following the success of their live-action adaptation of their animated classic Alice in Wonderland back in 2010, Walt Disney Pictures has begun giving several more films from its library of animated movies the live-action treatment, complete with a 21st century sensibility. Last year they came out with Maleficent, a retelling of 1955's Sleeping Beauty which basically turned the movie on its head, making Maleficent, previously the antagonist of the animated film, into the hero of the live-action film. This year, they've taken a slightly less radical approach with their latest live-action update of Cinderella, starring Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) as the evil stepmother and Lily James (Downton Abbey) as the title character.
The story is essentially as I remember it: Ella (James, played by Eloise Webb in her childhood) is the only child of a kind, landed colonialist (Ben Chaplin) and his wife (Hayley Atwell). After her mother dies tragically of illness, her father remarries. His new wife, the widow of a former business partner, is the cruel, haughty Lady Tremaine (Blanchett) who promptly moves in with her two daughters Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drizella (Sophie McShera) and proceeds to make Ella's life miserable while her father is away on his frequent business trips. Then, tragedy strikes anew, and Ella is left alone with her stepmother and her stepsisters, and things really get nasty as Tremaine dismisses all of the household staff to save money, and turns her stepdaughter into the household's only servant. Things couldn't possibly get worse for poor Ella, who at one point is dubbed "Cinderella" by one of her stepsisters after she spends one cold night sleeping by the hearth rather than her usual drafty room in the attic and wakes up with ashes all over her face, but for all of that she tries to stay kind to her new mother and stepsisters, and refuses to leave the house which her parents cherished, and which had been in her father's family for generations. After one episode of particular cruelty Ella rides out of her house to escape for a few moments, and meets the prince (Richard Madden of Game of Thrones fame) who is out hunting. She helps the stag he is hunting get away, and then enchants him with her protestation against the very concept of hunting, just before she leaves without even giving her name. The prince is utterly taken with her, so much so that he holds a grand ball open to everyone in the kingdom just to find her. Tremaine is determined to have one of her daughters snag the prince, but even though the prince himself has "democratized" the ball so that anyone and everyone can go, the evil stepmother and stepsisters live up to their billing and prevent Cinderella from going, ripping up her mother's dress and leaving her sobbing. It is then that Cinderella's fairy godmother (a scene-stealing Helena Bonham Carter) disguised at first as an old crone, to whom a despondent Ella gives a cup of milk in spite of her abject misery, appears, and gives Ella everything she needs for the night of her life: the coach, the footmen, the driver, her dress, and of course, her glass slippers (which, the fairy godmother assures her, are quite comfortable). Cinderella goes to the ball, meets the prince who recognizes her instantly and thereafter, but for a few twists thrown in to update the story a little bit, things play out just as anyone who's seen the old cartoon would expect them to.
As I write this, I find myself remembering Andy Tennant's 1998 film Ever After the last live-action retelling of the Cinderella story that I watched because I was quite honestly struck by how it had managed to influence this film. From the period garb to the prince played by a Scottish actor (Dougray Scott was Drew Barrymore's prince there) to, most importantly, the much more outspoken Cinderella. Branagh's updating of the story is hardly the somewhat progressive take on the lore that Tennant's film managed to be, but it does make some pretty important changes to the storytelling. This incarnation of Cinderella is considerably more empowered than her animated incarnation of over half a century ago.
At its heart, though, the story is still about a girl meeting a boy, falling for him, then getting him in rather short order. I have to credit screenwriter Weitz with his attempts to throw nuance into a 112-minute kids' movie by beefing up Cinderella's back-story as well as that of Prince Charm--excuse me, Kit--who now has more screen time with his father, the king (Derek Jacobi), and a somewhat trying relationship that vaguely evokes Branagh's fondness for Shakespeare.
While the tweaks to the story, while crucial, are still minimal, from a technical perspective Branagh truly brings the film into the new millennium with some amazing production value. This is a cartoon fairy tale brought to life, and Branagh, having cut his teeth on the mega-budgeted Marvel blockbuster Thor four years ago, does an excellent job visualizing that. This film is beautiful to look at.
Lily James is quite capable her role as Ella, and truth be told I enjoyed her performance all the more thanks to her lovely accent. Neil Patrick Harris was right; everything does sound better with a British accent (or at least, fairy tales do). It was also nice that Cinderella got to show acts of kindness other than feeding talking mice. Helena Bonham Carter was an absolute joy as the fairy godmother, and her screen-time was way, way too brief. I would have wanted her to at least show up again at the end, although she was the narrator all throughout. Cate Blanchett looked like she had a grand old time chewing the scenery as the wicked stepmother, especially in her outlandish, anachronistic outfits. Madden and Jacobi strike up a nice father-son rapport, too, but really, it's all about the ladies here.
Interestingly, it became clear at one point that this movie was not set in 18th century France but in a time and place of the filmmakers' own making, where clothes from various eras and people from various cultures and climes were basically all smashed together.
The thing about this PC overload, however, which hearkens back to 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful is that it feels like pandering of sorts. It's also worth noting that the first persons of color we see in the film are the servants of Ella and her family. Now, I'm all for equal representation in Hollywood, but this was rather patronizing, and a little hypocritical as well, considering that the lead characters were still white. The "diverse" cast ended up looking like employees at Disneyland rather than the ambassadors for racial equality they were probably meant to be.
Finally, as lovely as Patrick Doyle's music score was, I found it a bit overbearing; his orchestra was blaring for the vast majority of the running time as if to compensate for the absence of the show tunes that were such a staple of the first film. The only singing here was some wistful warbling by Cinderella's mother, and later, Cinderella herself (though James does a wonderful cover of "A Dream is a Wish" which plays during the end credits). Make no mistake, Doyle's music was beautiful, but it was also a bit cloying at times.
Speaking of cloying, I was amused by the animated short that preceded the film, Frozen Fever a sequel of sorts to Disney's billion-dollar grossing megahit from 2013, but I was also struck by the blatantly by-the-numbers approach employed in making it. It reproduced, in a few short minutes, most of the things that kids loved about the movie, from the song number between Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) to the sisterly love, to Anna's messed up hair, to Olaf's childlike demeanor, to Kristoff's clumsiness, to...well you get the picture. They even managed to sneak in a line from "Let it Go." I dearly hope the recently announced sequel takes the characters into new territory. Still, as a short this film was a nice little confection.
All told Cinderella is worth watching, especially for the people who grew up with the cartoon. Frozen Fever isn't half bad, either.
7/10
Written by Chris Weitz
Following the success of their live-action adaptation of their animated classic Alice in Wonderland back in 2010, Walt Disney Pictures has begun giving several more films from its library of animated movies the live-action treatment, complete with a 21st century sensibility. Last year they came out with Maleficent, a retelling of 1955's Sleeping Beauty which basically turned the movie on its head, making Maleficent, previously the antagonist of the animated film, into the hero of the live-action film. This year, they've taken a slightly less radical approach with their latest live-action update of Cinderella, starring Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) as the evil stepmother and Lily James (Downton Abbey) as the title character.
The story is essentially as I remember it: Ella (James, played by Eloise Webb in her childhood) is the only child of a kind, landed colonialist (Ben Chaplin) and his wife (Hayley Atwell). After her mother dies tragically of illness, her father remarries. His new wife, the widow of a former business partner, is the cruel, haughty Lady Tremaine (Blanchett) who promptly moves in with her two daughters Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drizella (Sophie McShera) and proceeds to make Ella's life miserable while her father is away on his frequent business trips. Then, tragedy strikes anew, and Ella is left alone with her stepmother and her stepsisters, and things really get nasty as Tremaine dismisses all of the household staff to save money, and turns her stepdaughter into the household's only servant. Things couldn't possibly get worse for poor Ella, who at one point is dubbed "Cinderella" by one of her stepsisters after she spends one cold night sleeping by the hearth rather than her usual drafty room in the attic and wakes up with ashes all over her face, but for all of that she tries to stay kind to her new mother and stepsisters, and refuses to leave the house which her parents cherished, and which had been in her father's family for generations. After one episode of particular cruelty Ella rides out of her house to escape for a few moments, and meets the prince (Richard Madden of Game of Thrones fame) who is out hunting. She helps the stag he is hunting get away, and then enchants him with her protestation against the very concept of hunting, just before she leaves without even giving her name. The prince is utterly taken with her, so much so that he holds a grand ball open to everyone in the kingdom just to find her. Tremaine is determined to have one of her daughters snag the prince, but even though the prince himself has "democratized" the ball so that anyone and everyone can go, the evil stepmother and stepsisters live up to their billing and prevent Cinderella from going, ripping up her mother's dress and leaving her sobbing. It is then that Cinderella's fairy godmother (a scene-stealing Helena Bonham Carter) disguised at first as an old crone, to whom a despondent Ella gives a cup of milk in spite of her abject misery, appears, and gives Ella everything she needs for the night of her life: the coach, the footmen, the driver, her dress, and of course, her glass slippers (which, the fairy godmother assures her, are quite comfortable). Cinderella goes to the ball, meets the prince who recognizes her instantly and thereafter, but for a few twists thrown in to update the story a little bit, things play out just as anyone who's seen the old cartoon would expect them to.
As I write this, I find myself remembering Andy Tennant's 1998 film Ever After the last live-action retelling of the Cinderella story that I watched because I was quite honestly struck by how it had managed to influence this film. From the period garb to the prince played by a Scottish actor (Dougray Scott was Drew Barrymore's prince there) to, most importantly, the much more outspoken Cinderella. Branagh's updating of the story is hardly the somewhat progressive take on the lore that Tennant's film managed to be, but it does make some pretty important changes to the storytelling. This incarnation of Cinderella is considerably more empowered than her animated incarnation of over half a century ago.
At its heart, though, the story is still about a girl meeting a boy, falling for him, then getting him in rather short order. I have to credit screenwriter Weitz with his attempts to throw nuance into a 112-minute kids' movie by beefing up Cinderella's back-story as well as that of Prince Charm--excuse me, Kit--who now has more screen time with his father, the king (Derek Jacobi), and a somewhat trying relationship that vaguely evokes Branagh's fondness for Shakespeare.
While the tweaks to the story, while crucial, are still minimal, from a technical perspective Branagh truly brings the film into the new millennium with some amazing production value. This is a cartoon fairy tale brought to life, and Branagh, having cut his teeth on the mega-budgeted Marvel blockbuster Thor four years ago, does an excellent job visualizing that. This film is beautiful to look at.
Lily James is quite capable her role as Ella, and truth be told I enjoyed her performance all the more thanks to her lovely accent. Neil Patrick Harris was right; everything does sound better with a British accent (or at least, fairy tales do). It was also nice that Cinderella got to show acts of kindness other than feeding talking mice. Helena Bonham Carter was an absolute joy as the fairy godmother, and her screen-time was way, way too brief. I would have wanted her to at least show up again at the end, although she was the narrator all throughout. Cate Blanchett looked like she had a grand old time chewing the scenery as the wicked stepmother, especially in her outlandish, anachronistic outfits. Madden and Jacobi strike up a nice father-son rapport, too, but really, it's all about the ladies here.
Interestingly, it became clear at one point that this movie was not set in 18th century France but in a time and place of the filmmakers' own making, where clothes from various eras and people from various cultures and climes were basically all smashed together.
The thing about this PC overload, however, which hearkens back to 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful is that it feels like pandering of sorts. It's also worth noting that the first persons of color we see in the film are the servants of Ella and her family. Now, I'm all for equal representation in Hollywood, but this was rather patronizing, and a little hypocritical as well, considering that the lead characters were still white. The "diverse" cast ended up looking like employees at Disneyland rather than the ambassadors for racial equality they were probably meant to be.
Finally, as lovely as Patrick Doyle's music score was, I found it a bit overbearing; his orchestra was blaring for the vast majority of the running time as if to compensate for the absence of the show tunes that were such a staple of the first film. The only singing here was some wistful warbling by Cinderella's mother, and later, Cinderella herself (though James does a wonderful cover of "A Dream is a Wish" which plays during the end credits). Make no mistake, Doyle's music was beautiful, but it was also a bit cloying at times.
Speaking of cloying, I was amused by the animated short that preceded the film, Frozen Fever a sequel of sorts to Disney's billion-dollar grossing megahit from 2013, but I was also struck by the blatantly by-the-numbers approach employed in making it. It reproduced, in a few short minutes, most of the things that kids loved about the movie, from the song number between Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) to the sisterly love, to Anna's messed up hair, to Olaf's childlike demeanor, to Kristoff's clumsiness, to...well you get the picture. They even managed to sneak in a line from "Let it Go." I dearly hope the recently announced sequel takes the characters into new territory. Still, as a short this film was a nice little confection.
All told Cinderella is worth watching, especially for the people who grew up with the cartoon. Frozen Fever isn't half bad, either.
7/10
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