directed by Avid Liongoren written by Charlene Sawit-Esguerra
It isn't often that I view writing movie reviews, which I do mainly for my own pleasure, as a form of advocacy, but in the case of Saving Sally, as in the case of last year's Heneral Luna, that is very much the case.
Saving Sally, the first live-action/animation hybrid feature film in the Philippines, or at least, the first in a long, long time, is a film that deserves, and unfortunately, needs to be championed.
It is the story of student/comic-book creator Marty (Enzo Marcos) and the love of his life, the spunky inventor Sally (Rhian Ramos), his best friend who lives under the close watch of her abusive foster parents (Archie Adamos and Shamaine Buencamino), and who longs to be free. Marty, in the meantime, longs to tell Sally how he feels about her but can never muster up the courage. When she hooks up with the self-absorbed, shallow alpha-male Nick (TJ Trinidad), Marty is, of course devastated, and to show the extent of his devotion, volunteers to be the messenger between Nick and Sally when she is grounded by her draconian foster parents. Marty stays true to his friendship with Sally, as frustrating as it is, and gets words of wisdom and moral support from his dad (Bodjie Pascua) and mom (Carme Sanchez). From this ongoing frustration, Marty draws inspiration for a story that may or may not land him a job writing and drawing a comic book for publisher Renegade Comics (Peejo Pilar). What matters most to Marty, however, is the well-being of his beloved Sally.
The film is not quite the grab-you-by-the-balls, narrative tour de force that Heneral Luna was when it graced movie theaters last year, but I'm honestly hard-pressed to think of any other film which can boast this much painstaking effort packed into each and every frame. This film was ten years in the making, and it shows in the sheer detail and craft of the images on the screen. The environments are mostly, if not entirely animated.
It doesn't exactly have anything particularly profound to say about the human condition, but really, it doesn't have to be that kind of story. I'm fairly certain it will resonate with anyone who's ever ached from the pain of unrequited love, as well as the comic-book/pop culture geeks to whom it lovingly pays tribute. There's also a shout-out to every nice guy (or every person who fancies himself a nice guy) who has ever felt frustration at the girl of his dreams falling for a bad boy. It touches on the evils of child abuse, and indeed that's what drives quite a bit of the narrative, but it is, at its heart, a love story and it is a rather tender one at that. It avoids sentimentality, and, for a fantasy movie, has a remarkably grounded take on human relationships, whether it's between parents and children or friends. Sure, a number of story tropes play out here, but many of them feel valid because they happen in real life.
Also, I'd like to give kudos to this crew for daring to film almost the entirety of the film's dialogue in English. It showcases just how proficient Filipinos are in the language, and how naturally they can act in it without coming across as overly theatrical. I hope this gives the movie's international prospects a boost.
This film is about to be pulled out of theaters after today, but I hope it finds its audience abroad and on home video.
8.5/10
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
More "War" Than "Star": A Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Mild Spoilers)
directed by Gareth Edwards
written by Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll and Gary Whitta
The very first thing I'll say about this film arguably the most "spoilery;" its story leads directly into the events of the very first Star Wars film.
"Rogue One" is primarily the story of the scrappy Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) an Imperial Scientist who is forced out of an early retirement by an ambitious officer (Ben Mendelsohn) who has plans for his brains. The forced re-recruitment ends in tragedy as the young Jyn (Beau Gadsdon) is separated from her father, and then raised by Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).
Years later, Jyn, a hustler and small-time criminal, is rescued from an Imperial penal convoy by the Rebel Alliance, who send her along with Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and reprogrammed Imperial Droid K-2S0 (Alan Tudyk) on a mission to visit Gerrera on the planet Jedha, whom the Alliance believes will lead her to her father and find out whatever it is he's reportedly built for the empire, especially since they have received reports that an Imperial cargo pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) has already gone to Gerrera to relay a message from Erso. Jyn is told the plan is to extract her father from the Empire once he has been located, but Andor is secretly given a much more grim order as to what to do with him. When the small troop of rebels learns what exactly Erso has built for the Empire, they realize it's something worse than anything they could ever have imagined, and the future of the rebellion itself is cast into doubt.
Of course, the vast majority of people who walk into this movie will know how the saga eventually plays out, but the fact that, but for a few cameos by some of the franchise's best known characters, most of the cast is new, the storytelling still manages to feel fresh, especially considering the unconventional and, to my mind at least, extremely gratifying casting choices.
No doubt, people have been writing about Jones' plucky heroine Jyn or Donnie Yen's awesome blind space monk Chirrut Imwe or even Alan Tudyk's snarky former Imperial droid, but for me the best character of the bunch was Diego Luna's Andor, arguably the most nuanced character ever to step into the Star Wars Universe. He's basically the dark underbelly of the rebellion that no one in the original trilogy ever spoke of. There's been quite a bit of dialogue in the original films about people dying for the rebellion, but none about people killing for it...until now, and I don't mean the righteous kills like shooting down stormtroopers but the kind of cutthroat aggressiveness that actual rebellions have to be made of to survive. Maybe casting a Latin American was a bit of a nod to all of the insurgencies that have been waged in that part of the world, complete with the murky moral compass that has characterized many of those movements.
Luna himself comes across as a curious choice for the role, which could have gone to any of a number of British or American actors, but to me I think he essayed the role perfectly. Unlike Oscar Isaac, whose Poe Dameron in last years The Force Awakens was more of an archetype, Luna, with his lean and mean look, really does come across as a battle-hardened veteran ready to do anything and everything in the name of his cause. The accent helps too, especially when played off against the well-known American accents of the stormtroopers, the effete British accents of the Imperial officers, and the hodgepodge of different accents of the new cast, which include a curious concoction by Whitaker, who basically wheezes all of his lines, apparently because his character is on some form of perpetual life support. Jones still has to hold the film together, though, and to her credit she does a great job of it. For the second year and Star Wars movie in a row the story is anchored on a solid performance by a British actor. Fellow Brit Riz Ahmed, on that note, does an engaging job as Bodhi Rook. The duo of defrocked kyber crystal monks Imwe and Malbus (Wen Jiang) make for some wonderful onscreen comedy and action, with Donnie Yen putting on display the best hand-to-hand combat ever seen in a Star Wars movie, and even getting one of the film's best lines as a bag is shoved over his head: "Are you kidding me? I'm blind!"
The approach Edwards has taken to the narrative, a much grittier one than the franchise is used to, is a most welcome one. While the franchise has always had a political undercurrent, with George Lucas taking not-so-subtle jabs at the second Bush administration in 2005's Revenge of the Sith, this is probably the closest a Star Wars film has actually come to depicting a war, and I think Edwards and his screenwriters deserve a big pat on the back for that.
I was also glad to note that CGI was avoided whenever possible. It was also nice to see that the actual use of CG was so well-done that the aerial dogfights in the film were pretty outstanding and could easily count among the franchise's best. The Force Awakens lacked some proper X-Wing-on-Tie-Fighter action, in my opinion, and this movie more than made up for that deficiency in its own third act. My memories of the prequels with their godawful video game graphics has effectively been banished, for the most part. I say for the most part, because I feel the decision to feature Moff Tarkin, played in the original Star Wars by the late Peter Cushing, in the film was an unfortunate mistake. Tarkin is played here by a body double, with his likeness digitally imposed, and in all honestly it is never fully convincing. Another well-known character makes a prominent digital appearance right at the film's end, but that was judiciously timed and presented. Tarkin's appearance was just creepy, and for me, a major drawback, one that not even Darth Vader's well-written and staged appearance could offset.
That flaw notwithstanding, however, this is definitely a worthy addition to the canon, and one I easily enjoyed more than last year's entertaining but dishearteningly safe "The Force Awakens." Notably absent from the crew of this film is legendary composer John Williams, though his iconic themes are peppered through the film and grace the end credits. Michael Giacchino, a last-minute replacement for Alexandre Desplat, turns in admirable, if slightly unremarkable work; that he was just pinch-hitting really shows here.
It's funny to think that I hadn't even planned on seeing it. I was suffering from some serious prequel fatigue, and I'll admit that some of the glowing reviews, which I basically just skimmed, got me rather curious. Well, my curiosity has since been satisfied and I am genuinely happy to have seen this film.
8.5/10
written by Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll and Gary Whitta
The very first thing I'll say about this film arguably the most "spoilery;" its story leads directly into the events of the very first Star Wars film.
"Rogue One" is primarily the story of the scrappy Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) an Imperial Scientist who is forced out of an early retirement by an ambitious officer (Ben Mendelsohn) who has plans for his brains. The forced re-recruitment ends in tragedy as the young Jyn (Beau Gadsdon) is separated from her father, and then raised by Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).
Years later, Jyn, a hustler and small-time criminal, is rescued from an Imperial penal convoy by the Rebel Alliance, who send her along with Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and reprogrammed Imperial Droid K-2S0 (Alan Tudyk) on a mission to visit Gerrera on the planet Jedha, whom the Alliance believes will lead her to her father and find out whatever it is he's reportedly built for the empire, especially since they have received reports that an Imperial cargo pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) has already gone to Gerrera to relay a message from Erso. Jyn is told the plan is to extract her father from the Empire once he has been located, but Andor is secretly given a much more grim order as to what to do with him. When the small troop of rebels learns what exactly Erso has built for the Empire, they realize it's something worse than anything they could ever have imagined, and the future of the rebellion itself is cast into doubt.
Of course, the vast majority of people who walk into this movie will know how the saga eventually plays out, but the fact that, but for a few cameos by some of the franchise's best known characters, most of the cast is new, the storytelling still manages to feel fresh, especially considering the unconventional and, to my mind at least, extremely gratifying casting choices.
No doubt, people have been writing about Jones' plucky heroine Jyn or Donnie Yen's awesome blind space monk Chirrut Imwe or even Alan Tudyk's snarky former Imperial droid, but for me the best character of the bunch was Diego Luna's Andor, arguably the most nuanced character ever to step into the Star Wars Universe. He's basically the dark underbelly of the rebellion that no one in the original trilogy ever spoke of. There's been quite a bit of dialogue in the original films about people dying for the rebellion, but none about people killing for it...until now, and I don't mean the righteous kills like shooting down stormtroopers but the kind of cutthroat aggressiveness that actual rebellions have to be made of to survive. Maybe casting a Latin American was a bit of a nod to all of the insurgencies that have been waged in that part of the world, complete with the murky moral compass that has characterized many of those movements.
Luna himself comes across as a curious choice for the role, which could have gone to any of a number of British or American actors, but to me I think he essayed the role perfectly. Unlike Oscar Isaac, whose Poe Dameron in last years The Force Awakens was more of an archetype, Luna, with his lean and mean look, really does come across as a battle-hardened veteran ready to do anything and everything in the name of his cause. The accent helps too, especially when played off against the well-known American accents of the stormtroopers, the effete British accents of the Imperial officers, and the hodgepodge of different accents of the new cast, which include a curious concoction by Whitaker, who basically wheezes all of his lines, apparently because his character is on some form of perpetual life support. Jones still has to hold the film together, though, and to her credit she does a great job of it. For the second year and Star Wars movie in a row the story is anchored on a solid performance by a British actor. Fellow Brit Riz Ahmed, on that note, does an engaging job as Bodhi Rook. The duo of defrocked kyber crystal monks Imwe and Malbus (Wen Jiang) make for some wonderful onscreen comedy and action, with Donnie Yen putting on display the best hand-to-hand combat ever seen in a Star Wars movie, and even getting one of the film's best lines as a bag is shoved over his head: "Are you kidding me? I'm blind!"
The approach Edwards has taken to the narrative, a much grittier one than the franchise is used to, is a most welcome one. While the franchise has always had a political undercurrent, with George Lucas taking not-so-subtle jabs at the second Bush administration in 2005's Revenge of the Sith, this is probably the closest a Star Wars film has actually come to depicting a war, and I think Edwards and his screenwriters deserve a big pat on the back for that.
I was also glad to note that CGI was avoided whenever possible. It was also nice to see that the actual use of CG was so well-done that the aerial dogfights in the film were pretty outstanding and could easily count among the franchise's best. The Force Awakens lacked some proper X-Wing-on-Tie-Fighter action, in my opinion, and this movie more than made up for that deficiency in its own third act. My memories of the prequels with their godawful video game graphics has effectively been banished, for the most part. I say for the most part, because I feel the decision to feature Moff Tarkin, played in the original Star Wars by the late Peter Cushing, in the film was an unfortunate mistake. Tarkin is played here by a body double, with his likeness digitally imposed, and in all honestly it is never fully convincing. Another well-known character makes a prominent digital appearance right at the film's end, but that was judiciously timed and presented. Tarkin's appearance was just creepy, and for me, a major drawback, one that not even Darth Vader's well-written and staged appearance could offset.
That flaw notwithstanding, however, this is definitely a worthy addition to the canon, and one I easily enjoyed more than last year's entertaining but dishearteningly safe "The Force Awakens." Notably absent from the crew of this film is legendary composer John Williams, though his iconic themes are peppered through the film and grace the end credits. Michael Giacchino, a last-minute replacement for Alexandre Desplat, turns in admirable, if slightly unremarkable work; that he was just pinch-hitting really shows here.
It's funny to think that I hadn't even planned on seeing it. I was suffering from some serious prequel fatigue, and I'll admit that some of the glowing reviews, which I basically just skimmed, got me rather curious. Well, my curiosity has since been satisfied and I am genuinely happy to have seen this film.
8.5/10
The New and Improved Metro Manila Film Festival
Starting every December 25 since the 1970s, movies houses in Metro Manila, and later all around the country, have shown exclusively Filipino-made movies for a two-week period. I imagine that in the beginning, the idea was to showcase the very best films Filipino filmmakers had to offer, and I can even remember a period of time when this was so.
For many years, however, it seemed that the festival, once meant to showcase Philippine cinema's finest became just a protectionist cash grab designed to benefit whoever was most capable of pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Lately, it seems, the festival has been invigorated with an exclusively "independent" film slate, which means, as it does in Hollywood, a bunch of Filipino movies financed independently of any major studios, and freed of the constraints of commercial filmmaking. In short, these are movies produced by filmmakers driven solely by the imperative of telling the stories they want to tell, and not of cramming as many lowbrow jokes and movie stars mugs into the running time as they possibly can.
For the first time in years, I find myself looking forward not just to one or two films in the festival (because even at its worst, the MMFF has always managed to have a few gems amidst all of the dreck), but to the festival itself. I can also say, with complete honesty, that I am looking forward to at least one movie in this festival more than I was to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This is a refreshing turnaround from the years in which I groaned at the knowledge that my beloved Hollywood films would be booted out of cinemas to make way for trashy local movies.
Come Christmas Day, I am happy to say this year that I will be excited to go to the movies!
For many years, however, it seemed that the festival, once meant to showcase Philippine cinema's finest became just a protectionist cash grab designed to benefit whoever was most capable of pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Lately, it seems, the festival has been invigorated with an exclusively "independent" film slate, which means, as it does in Hollywood, a bunch of Filipino movies financed independently of any major studios, and freed of the constraints of commercial filmmaking. In short, these are movies produced by filmmakers driven solely by the imperative of telling the stories they want to tell, and not of cramming as many lowbrow jokes and movie stars mugs into the running time as they possibly can.
For the first time in years, I find myself looking forward not just to one or two films in the festival (because even at its worst, the MMFF has always managed to have a few gems amidst all of the dreck), but to the festival itself. I can also say, with complete honesty, that I am looking forward to at least one movie in this festival more than I was to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This is a refreshing turnaround from the years in which I groaned at the knowledge that my beloved Hollywood films would be booted out of cinemas to make way for trashy local movies.
Come Christmas Day, I am happy to say this year that I will be excited to go to the movies!
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Disney's Sailing Princess: A Review of Moana
directed by Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall and Chris Williams
screenplay by Jared Bush
Following the fantastic Zootopia, I was expecting very good things from Disney with their animated tale Moana, which tells the story of a chieftain's daughter from the South Pacific who sets sail to appease an angry god and save her people.
Inspired by folk tales from the South Pacific, this film is the story of Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), the daughter of the chieftain of the island community of Motunui, grows up captivated by two things: the ocean, and the stories she hears from her grandmother (Jenny House), particularly the tale of how demi-god Maui (Dwayne Johnson) stole the heart (actually a jewel) from the island goddess Te Fiti (sort of a Mother Earth figure). One day, these two converge as Moana, trying to settle into her role as the next in line to lead her people, is confronted with a frightening phenomenon; her people are unable to catch fish or harvest coconuts or crops. Moana's grandmother is convinced that the world is cursed as a result of Maui's theft of Te Fiti's heart. The Moana must then find Maui and travel with him to Te Fiti's island in order to restore her heart and end the curse, over the objections of her protective father (Temeura Morrison). The question is whether or not Moana can get the egotistical Maui to cooperate long enough to save the world.
There's a lot to love about this movie, from the gorgeous South Pacific island backdrops to the high seas adventure to the catchy songs by Lin Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa'i, to the lead character herself, Moana, and her burly traveling companion, the demi-god Maui, who is Johnson at his comedic best. I doubt if anyone watching World Wrestling Entertainment in the 1990s and early 2000s ever imagined "The Rock" would one day be singing in a Disney film -(and singing well, too!)-but here he is, with a whole song number to himself. The casting of unknown Cravalho was a canny, if not necessarily inspired choice.
Ultimately, though, this was the movie with which Disney followed up Zootopia, and as such it is, well, a bit of a step down.
Moana's journey to redeem her people and find herself feels vaguely like Fa Mulan's journey to preserve her father's honor in 1998's Mulan, albeit without the war and gender-bending. That's not particularly detrimental, but next to Zootopia's decidedly more subversive storytelling it has a slightly well-worn feel to it. Moana's songs are certainly catchier than Mulan's, especially the signature "How Far I'll Go" as well as Johnson's "You're Welcome." Also, as fresh as the movie feels from a visual perspective, a lot of the territory seems distinctly familiar. Zootopia wore its film noir, buddy-cop influences on its sleeve but used them to come up with something surprisingly new. Moana isn't quite as brave. A lot of the homages were distinctly fun, though; the Mad Max-inspired sequence involving demon coconuts was a laugh riot!
The bottom line for me is that this movie is worth the trip to the cinema, but it wasn't quite the home run for me that Zootopia was.
They should have the Oscar for Best Original Song in the bag, though.
7/10
screenplay by Jared Bush
Following the fantastic Zootopia, I was expecting very good things from Disney with their animated tale Moana, which tells the story of a chieftain's daughter from the South Pacific who sets sail to appease an angry god and save her people.
Inspired by folk tales from the South Pacific, this film is the story of Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), the daughter of the chieftain of the island community of Motunui, grows up captivated by two things: the ocean, and the stories she hears from her grandmother (Jenny House), particularly the tale of how demi-god Maui (Dwayne Johnson) stole the heart (actually a jewel) from the island goddess Te Fiti (sort of a Mother Earth figure). One day, these two converge as Moana, trying to settle into her role as the next in line to lead her people, is confronted with a frightening phenomenon; her people are unable to catch fish or harvest coconuts or crops. Moana's grandmother is convinced that the world is cursed as a result of Maui's theft of Te Fiti's heart. The Moana must then find Maui and travel with him to Te Fiti's island in order to restore her heart and end the curse, over the objections of her protective father (Temeura Morrison). The question is whether or not Moana can get the egotistical Maui to cooperate long enough to save the world.
There's a lot to love about this movie, from the gorgeous South Pacific island backdrops to the high seas adventure to the catchy songs by Lin Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa'i, to the lead character herself, Moana, and her burly traveling companion, the demi-god Maui, who is Johnson at his comedic best. I doubt if anyone watching World Wrestling Entertainment in the 1990s and early 2000s ever imagined "The Rock" would one day be singing in a Disney film -(and singing well, too!)-but here he is, with a whole song number to himself. The casting of unknown Cravalho was a canny, if not necessarily inspired choice.
Ultimately, though, this was the movie with which Disney followed up Zootopia, and as such it is, well, a bit of a step down.
Moana's journey to redeem her people and find herself feels vaguely like Fa Mulan's journey to preserve her father's honor in 1998's Mulan, albeit without the war and gender-bending. That's not particularly detrimental, but next to Zootopia's decidedly more subversive storytelling it has a slightly well-worn feel to it. Moana's songs are certainly catchier than Mulan's, especially the signature "How Far I'll Go" as well as Johnson's "You're Welcome." Also, as fresh as the movie feels from a visual perspective, a lot of the territory seems distinctly familiar. Zootopia wore its film noir, buddy-cop influences on its sleeve but used them to come up with something surprisingly new. Moana isn't quite as brave. A lot of the homages were distinctly fun, though; the Mad Max-inspired sequence involving demon coconuts was a laugh riot!
The bottom line for me is that this movie is worth the trip to the cinema, but it wasn't quite the home run for me that Zootopia was.
They should have the Oscar for Best Original Song in the bag, though.
7/10
Saturday, November 5, 2016
How WB/DC Definitively Beat Disney/Marvel
A couple of days ago, Warner Brothers released the second trailer for its upcoming comic-book-based blockbuster-in-waiting Wonder Woman. This is a fully-realized, big-budget feature film by the director of the Academy-Award-winning film Monster (though perhaps notably, not much else), which will be in theaters less than a year from now. And if the trailers are any indication, it promises to be one hell of an action-packed movie.
Now, since Marvel/Disney pioneered the concept of a shared cinematic universe for several of its characters with The Avengers, the studio has gone from strength to strength. Kevin Feige and his army of directors, writers and producers have successfully launched four solo properties (Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Ant-Man), two team properties (Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy) and the first, and so far, only, interconnected cinematic world. Other companies have taken notice, such as Universal Studios, and have tried to replicate the formula, but as the saying goes, "often imitated, never duplicated."
For all of that, however, there has been an underlying "safeness" to a lot of the decisions that Marvel's head honchos have taken in their filmmaking approach, and I might as well get right to it: all their lead actors so far, ALL of them, no exceptions, have been white, straight, Caucasian males. I don't really consider myself a gender or racial equality activist, and I can honestly say I wouldn't raise a hue and a cry if an LGBTQ character never anchors a superhero movie (though Marvel's openly gay Wiccan character is brilliant), but I raise this point to offer a bit of a reality check to this claim that Marvel are somehow especially brave in their filmmaking choices. Once upon a time, that was true, right up until The Avengers scored a record $207 million on its opening weekend at the North American box office. Since then, every single film has been made in accordance with a set of core specifications. The good news is that it's a formula that allows filmmakers quite a bit of creative latitude, and has resulted in several very enjoyable films, but it's still a formula.
What's sad about this is that one can see strong female characters sprinkled throughout the MCU, from Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to Zoe Saldana's Gamora to Evangeline Lilly's Wasp, and there are hundreds more from Marvel's comics catalog, but thanks to the likes of Ike Perlmutter, who reportedly blocked the idea of female-led Marvel movies for years, citing 1984's Supergirl and 2004's Catwoman as his arguments, they've always remained stuck in the back seat.
Wonder Woman's journey to the big screen has been, as in the case of many high-profile comic-book adaptations, a troubled one. Arguably the most high-profile attempt to bring her to the big screen involved no less than Avengers director Joss Whedon, who had proposed to make the film a period film set in World War II, which didn't pan out. In fact, production for the current iteration of the movie only finally fell into place two years ago, twelve years after Spider-Man became the first movie in history to gross more than $100 million in North America on its opening weekend, six years after Iron Man proved that Marvel could produce a movie without the backing of a major studio (with Paramount only distributing) and two years after The Avengers became the first movie in history to gross more than $200 million in North America on its opening weekend. In short, in the time it took for WB/DC to get their act together and decide to make a Wonder Woman movie, Disney/Marvel could easily have come up with a fantastic movie featuring any of a number of rich, multi-dimensional female characters, but it didn't. With their hard-won clout and credibility Kevin Feige and his crew could easily have beaten WB/DC to the punch at a true landmark: the first female-anchored superhero movie.
To rub salt in the sound, Marvel's first female-anchored movie, Captain Marvel, is over two years away, even though the actress who will play her, Brie Larson has already been cast.
People will debate the quality of Disney/Marvel films versus the quality of WB/DC films; art is an inherently subjective experience shaped by experiences and biases, but it cannot be debated that WB/DC beat Disney/Marvel to a significant comic-book-movie milestone.
What hurts me, as a Marvel fan, is that they had every opportunity to do it first but because of a nauseatingly sexist head honcho (or a bunch of them), it didn't happen.
I'm happy to report to those that don't know that Perlmutter is no longer running the movie division of Marvel Studios.
Now maybe we can see some real diversity, and not just some contemptuous tokenism.
Now, since Marvel/Disney pioneered the concept of a shared cinematic universe for several of its characters with The Avengers, the studio has gone from strength to strength. Kevin Feige and his army of directors, writers and producers have successfully launched four solo properties (Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Ant-Man), two team properties (Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy) and the first, and so far, only, interconnected cinematic world. Other companies have taken notice, such as Universal Studios, and have tried to replicate the formula, but as the saying goes, "often imitated, never duplicated."
For all of that, however, there has been an underlying "safeness" to a lot of the decisions that Marvel's head honchos have taken in their filmmaking approach, and I might as well get right to it: all their lead actors so far, ALL of them, no exceptions, have been white, straight, Caucasian males. I don't really consider myself a gender or racial equality activist, and I can honestly say I wouldn't raise a hue and a cry if an LGBTQ character never anchors a superhero movie (though Marvel's openly gay Wiccan character is brilliant), but I raise this point to offer a bit of a reality check to this claim that Marvel are somehow especially brave in their filmmaking choices. Once upon a time, that was true, right up until The Avengers scored a record $207 million on its opening weekend at the North American box office. Since then, every single film has been made in accordance with a set of core specifications. The good news is that it's a formula that allows filmmakers quite a bit of creative latitude, and has resulted in several very enjoyable films, but it's still a formula.
What's sad about this is that one can see strong female characters sprinkled throughout the MCU, from Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to Zoe Saldana's Gamora to Evangeline Lilly's Wasp, and there are hundreds more from Marvel's comics catalog, but thanks to the likes of Ike Perlmutter, who reportedly blocked the idea of female-led Marvel movies for years, citing 1984's Supergirl and 2004's Catwoman as his arguments, they've always remained stuck in the back seat.
Wonder Woman's journey to the big screen has been, as in the case of many high-profile comic-book adaptations, a troubled one. Arguably the most high-profile attempt to bring her to the big screen involved no less than Avengers director Joss Whedon, who had proposed to make the film a period film set in World War II, which didn't pan out. In fact, production for the current iteration of the movie only finally fell into place two years ago, twelve years after Spider-Man became the first movie in history to gross more than $100 million in North America on its opening weekend, six years after Iron Man proved that Marvel could produce a movie without the backing of a major studio (with Paramount only distributing) and two years after The Avengers became the first movie in history to gross more than $200 million in North America on its opening weekend. In short, in the time it took for WB/DC to get their act together and decide to make a Wonder Woman movie, Disney/Marvel could easily have come up with a fantastic movie featuring any of a number of rich, multi-dimensional female characters, but it didn't. With their hard-won clout and credibility Kevin Feige and his crew could easily have beaten WB/DC to the punch at a true landmark: the first female-anchored superhero movie.
To rub salt in the sound, Marvel's first female-anchored movie, Captain Marvel, is over two years away, even though the actress who will play her, Brie Larson has already been cast.
People will debate the quality of Disney/Marvel films versus the quality of WB/DC films; art is an inherently subjective experience shaped by experiences and biases, but it cannot be debated that WB/DC beat Disney/Marvel to a significant comic-book-movie milestone.
What hurts me, as a Marvel fan, is that they had every opportunity to do it first but because of a nauseatingly sexist head honcho (or a bunch of them), it didn't happen.
I'm happy to report to those that don't know that Perlmutter is no longer running the movie division of Marvel Studios.
Now maybe we can see some real diversity, and not just some contemptuous tokenism.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Sorcerer Supreme? More Like Pretty Cool Conjurer: A Review of Doctor Strange
directed by Scott Derrickson
written by Jon Spaihts, Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill
When I learned two years ago that Marvel Studios had cast British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, I considered it a casting coup on par with their casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a decision which, as every self-respecting Marvel fan knows, kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having seen Doctor Strange, I am happy to report that Cumberbatch does not disappoint in the least, and neither does the visual effects crew that have produced the most eye-popping, mind-bending sensory experience to come out of the Marvel Studios stable to date.
Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) is a brilliant but arrogant neurosurgeon whose hands are severely injured in a horrific car crash. Desperate to recover the use of his hands, Strange spends every last penny on expensive, experimental treatments and ultimately finds himself in Nepal, where he comes face-to-face with a mysterious guru known only as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who, with the help of her disciple Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a curmudgeonly librarian Wong (Benedict Wong), shows him a different path in life from that which he has been following so far, and he begins the process of learning an altogether new art, a far more ancient and powerful one than the one he used to practice. This happens not a moment too soon, as one of the Ancient One's former disciples Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) has stolen pages out of her mystical books for a ritual that could result in the total annihilation of the whole world. Strange has a lot to learn about the mystic arts, but unfortunately not a whole lot of time to learn it.
This film exemplifies several of the qualities that have made Marvel Studios films consistently entertaining if not always outstanding: an all-too-human, well-realized hero with complexities, frailties and insecurities, incredible production value in the form of meticulously-realized sets, costumes and locations, and state-of-the-art visual effects. Cumberbatch in particular was the absolute star of the show, which was no mean feat considering the weight of expectations he bore upon entering into the production as, arguably, the highest-profile star ever to throw his hat into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the MCU revived Downey Jr.'s career, Cumberbatch took this on while his was very much on the upswing, which made it a bit of a risk for him, albeit one which has definitely paid off in spades.
I'm happy to note that we've come a long way from the Nevada desert doubling for the Middle East (Iron Man), or Cleveland doubling for Germany (The Avengers). I loved that the film was actually shot in Nepal, Hong Kong, New York and London. It's also worth noting there's a bit of "house style" as evidenced by the presence of Director of Photography Ben Davis and Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne who, between the two of them, have worked on eight Marvel Studios films, which is over half of the entire catalog of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Little details like this, as well as the references to the Avengers in the script, are a subtle way of reminding the audience that this film still forms part of a bigger tapestry, even as it stands quite well on its own. Another regular Marvel collaborator, Industrial Light and Magic, turns in sensational work here, deftly mixing and seriously upgrading earlier reality-bending effects from films like The Matrix and Inception. These sequences looked great in IMAX 3-D.
All that said, the film suffers from some of Marvel's frequent shortcomings, starting, unfortunately, with their virtually-trademarked cookie-cutter villain, with Kaecilius' only truly remarkable feature being his wildly colorful eye make-up. It's sad to think that the reasonably talented Mikkelsen passed up the chance to play one generic Marvel bad guy years ago in Thor: The Dark World, only to play another one three years later. Equally listless here is Rachel McAdams as Strange's throwaway love interest Dr. Christine Palmer, who at the very least fares better here than in the last movie in which I saw her, Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw (in which her sole purpose was to catalyze the hero's journey towards redemption by dying), but that doesn't say much at all.
To be honest, I think Marvel should really make it a point to hire scriptwriters who specialize in creating memorable villains, as this has really been a glaring deficiency in their storytelling. To be fair, apart from Heath Ledger's Joker, the folks at Warner Brothers/DC have not exactly come up with a particularly memorable heavy, but Marvel Studios' inability to come up with a truly menacing villain (apart, perhaps from Loki), has practically become the stuff of legend (or internet jokes) by now. Marvel villains are not only not memorable, by now many of them have a distinctly generic feel to them. It's a serious structural flaw in their storytelling that needs to be remedied, especially considering their rather formidable rogues' gallery from the comic books. Also, the script made a couple of annoying shortcuts, notably Strange's immediate acquisition of serious mystical skills, as well as some logical gaffes in the climactic sequences of the film.
It's not all bad news, though. I had originally written off Ejiofor's Baron Mordo, based on what I had seen in the promotional material, as yet another black sidekick in the mold of Don Cheadle's War Machine, Anthony Mackie's Falcon and Idris Elba's Heimdall, but as it turns out Mordo undergoes his own journey in the course of the film, one that, in a way, parallels that of Strange, and is notable for the fact that he ends up somewhere very different from where Strange does. Swinton, for all of the bellyaching that her casting spawned, is marvelous in her role as the Ancient One, and Benedict Wong, as Wong, essentially the film's deadpan comic relief, is also a welcome presence. Marvel geeks will recognize the weapon he wields in the film's climax as the Wand of Watoomb, among several other Easter Eggs liberally sprinkled throughout the film.
It's still, overall, a very safe Marvel film, and one can almost see the boxes the producers ticked when they made it, but the good news is that there was room for quite a bit of extra imagination here, and for a newly-minted Marvel superstar to flex his thespic muscles. Another plus for this film is that it features a genuine rarity in Marvel Studios productions these days: an outstanding music score, courtesy of Oscar winner Michael Giacchino.
Still, one would think that after fourteen movies, Marvel would finally have gotten a handle on their more conspicuous problems like mediocre villains and love interests who are basically just attractive wallpaper. Had this been one of the earlier films in their catalog I would almost certainly have given this movie a higher score, but after all this time, Marvel should really know better.
7.9/10
written by Jon Spaihts, Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill
When I learned two years ago that Marvel Studios had cast British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, I considered it a casting coup on par with their casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a decision which, as every self-respecting Marvel fan knows, kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having seen Doctor Strange, I am happy to report that Cumberbatch does not disappoint in the least, and neither does the visual effects crew that have produced the most eye-popping, mind-bending sensory experience to come out of the Marvel Studios stable to date.
Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) is a brilliant but arrogant neurosurgeon whose hands are severely injured in a horrific car crash. Desperate to recover the use of his hands, Strange spends every last penny on expensive, experimental treatments and ultimately finds himself in Nepal, where he comes face-to-face with a mysterious guru known only as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who, with the help of her disciple Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a curmudgeonly librarian Wong (Benedict Wong), shows him a different path in life from that which he has been following so far, and he begins the process of learning an altogether new art, a far more ancient and powerful one than the one he used to practice. This happens not a moment too soon, as one of the Ancient One's former disciples Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) has stolen pages out of her mystical books for a ritual that could result in the total annihilation of the whole world. Strange has a lot to learn about the mystic arts, but unfortunately not a whole lot of time to learn it.
This film exemplifies several of the qualities that have made Marvel Studios films consistently entertaining if not always outstanding: an all-too-human, well-realized hero with complexities, frailties and insecurities, incredible production value in the form of meticulously-realized sets, costumes and locations, and state-of-the-art visual effects. Cumberbatch in particular was the absolute star of the show, which was no mean feat considering the weight of expectations he bore upon entering into the production as, arguably, the highest-profile star ever to throw his hat into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the MCU revived Downey Jr.'s career, Cumberbatch took this on while his was very much on the upswing, which made it a bit of a risk for him, albeit one which has definitely paid off in spades.
I'm happy to note that we've come a long way from the Nevada desert doubling for the Middle East (Iron Man), or Cleveland doubling for Germany (The Avengers). I loved that the film was actually shot in Nepal, Hong Kong, New York and London. It's also worth noting there's a bit of "house style" as evidenced by the presence of Director of Photography Ben Davis and Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne who, between the two of them, have worked on eight Marvel Studios films, which is over half of the entire catalog of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Little details like this, as well as the references to the Avengers in the script, are a subtle way of reminding the audience that this film still forms part of a bigger tapestry, even as it stands quite well on its own. Another regular Marvel collaborator, Industrial Light and Magic, turns in sensational work here, deftly mixing and seriously upgrading earlier reality-bending effects from films like The Matrix and Inception. These sequences looked great in IMAX 3-D.
All that said, the film suffers from some of Marvel's frequent shortcomings, starting, unfortunately, with their virtually-trademarked cookie-cutter villain, with Kaecilius' only truly remarkable feature being his wildly colorful eye make-up. It's sad to think that the reasonably talented Mikkelsen passed up the chance to play one generic Marvel bad guy years ago in Thor: The Dark World, only to play another one three years later. Equally listless here is Rachel McAdams as Strange's throwaway love interest Dr. Christine Palmer, who at the very least fares better here than in the last movie in which I saw her, Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw (in which her sole purpose was to catalyze the hero's journey towards redemption by dying), but that doesn't say much at all.
To be honest, I think Marvel should really make it a point to hire scriptwriters who specialize in creating memorable villains, as this has really been a glaring deficiency in their storytelling. To be fair, apart from Heath Ledger's Joker, the folks at Warner Brothers/DC have not exactly come up with a particularly memorable heavy, but Marvel Studios' inability to come up with a truly menacing villain (apart, perhaps from Loki), has practically become the stuff of legend (or internet jokes) by now. Marvel villains are not only not memorable, by now many of them have a distinctly generic feel to them. It's a serious structural flaw in their storytelling that needs to be remedied, especially considering their rather formidable rogues' gallery from the comic books. Also, the script made a couple of annoying shortcuts, notably Strange's immediate acquisition of serious mystical skills, as well as some logical gaffes in the climactic sequences of the film.
It's not all bad news, though. I had originally written off Ejiofor's Baron Mordo, based on what I had seen in the promotional material, as yet another black sidekick in the mold of Don Cheadle's War Machine, Anthony Mackie's Falcon and Idris Elba's Heimdall, but as it turns out Mordo undergoes his own journey in the course of the film, one that, in a way, parallels that of Strange, and is notable for the fact that he ends up somewhere very different from where Strange does. Swinton, for all of the bellyaching that her casting spawned, is marvelous in her role as the Ancient One, and Benedict Wong, as Wong, essentially the film's deadpan comic relief, is also a welcome presence. Marvel geeks will recognize the weapon he wields in the film's climax as the Wand of Watoomb, among several other Easter Eggs liberally sprinkled throughout the film.
It's still, overall, a very safe Marvel film, and one can almost see the boxes the producers ticked when they made it, but the good news is that there was room for quite a bit of extra imagination here, and for a newly-minted Marvel superstar to flex his thespic muscles. Another plus for this film is that it features a genuine rarity in Marvel Studios productions these days: an outstanding music score, courtesy of Oscar winner Michael Giacchino.
Still, one would think that after fourteen movies, Marvel would finally have gotten a handle on their more conspicuous problems like mediocre villains and love interests who are basically just attractive wallpaper. Had this been one of the earlier films in their catalog I would almost certainly have given this movie a higher score, but after all this time, Marvel should really know better.
7.9/10
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Brave, Tragic and Utterly Beautiful: A Review of Kubo and the Two Strings
directed by Travis Knight
written by Marc Haimes, Chris Butler, and Shannon Tindle
Since they burst onto the scene seven years ago with their acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean's modern classic children's book Coraline, Laika Productions has produced consistently astonishing movies featuring off-beat stories and unusual heroes. Kubo and the Two Strings continues that proud tradition, and I dare say, on both a technical and storytelling level, it is their best work yet.
Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson) is a one-eyed Japanese boy who lives on a cliff with his mother, a half-catatonic woman with a mysterious past who washed up on shore one late evening with her newborn baby whose eye had just been plucked out. Kubo spends his days and earning a living of sorts entertaining people from the nearby village with his storytelling, in which he uses what appear to be magically-animated origami figures and the skillful playing of his shamisen to captivate his audience. He leaves before the sun goes down, however, on his mother's warning not to stay out after dark. Kubo's heart aches, though, because of the absence of his father, whom his mother explains was killed when he was a baby. One day, at a festival for the dead, Kubo stays out late, hoping to commune with his father's spirit, and tragedy strikes. Now, to save himself from dark forces out to harm him, he must find a magical, mystical suit of armor, which he can only do with the help of his friend, a magical monkey sent to protect him (also Theron) and a mysterious warrior beetle (Matthew McConaughey). He'll need all the help he can get against the power of his mother's malevolent sisters (both voiced by Rooney Mara) and the powerful, sinister Moon King (Ralph Fiennes).
Anyone who reads this blog knows I have great affection for Disney's Zootopia, a film I ranked a perfect 10, for its blend of entertainment and its unflinching look at racial prejudice, at a time when a stand on the issue had to be taken. As much as I love that film, though, and as brave as I felt it was, this, in my honest estimation, felt even braver, with its mutilated hero, dark subject matter, and equally unflinching look at the importance of human kindness, which, per this story, must be extended to even the most odious of beings.
Laika's craftsmanship is, as it always has been, vastly impressive, and has significantly improved since the days of Coraline. It's a pretty awesome marriage of the age-old technique of stop-motion animation and modern day technology. Even with all the advances, though, it took a total of five years to make this film.
However sophisticated the storytelling tools, however, they are nothing without a good story to tell (just look at several of Dreamworks Animation's recent offerings), but the good news is that the ladies and gentlemen at Laika have that bit pretty much down pat.
As delightful as it was to hear Oscar-winners Theron and McConaughey voice key characters in the story, it's Parkinson's earnest performance that does the heavy lifting in this film as Kubo is defined by his imagination and ultimately his compassion, all of which come through in Parkinson's voice acting.
I realize I'm venturing into slight spoiler territory when I say this, but this film is quite defiantly not-entirely-kid-friendly with some frightening antagonists (my three-year-old turned away in fear at the ghostly twin ninja sisters of Kubo's mother), and its surprisingly tragic tone near the end. That's what makes it rather endearing in my eyes; the studio could probably have made a couple of more million at the box office with more conventional storytelling, which makes their act of sticking to their narrative guns all the more impressive.
This film is a classic in the mold of a Studio Ghibli production; it's completely uncompromising, and utterly mesmerizing.
10/10
written by Marc Haimes, Chris Butler, and Shannon Tindle
Since they burst onto the scene seven years ago with their acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean's modern classic children's book Coraline, Laika Productions has produced consistently astonishing movies featuring off-beat stories and unusual heroes. Kubo and the Two Strings continues that proud tradition, and I dare say, on both a technical and storytelling level, it is their best work yet.
Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson) is a one-eyed Japanese boy who lives on a cliff with his mother, a half-catatonic woman with a mysterious past who washed up on shore one late evening with her newborn baby whose eye had just been plucked out. Kubo spends his days and earning a living of sorts entertaining people from the nearby village with his storytelling, in which he uses what appear to be magically-animated origami figures and the skillful playing of his shamisen to captivate his audience. He leaves before the sun goes down, however, on his mother's warning not to stay out after dark. Kubo's heart aches, though, because of the absence of his father, whom his mother explains was killed when he was a baby. One day, at a festival for the dead, Kubo stays out late, hoping to commune with his father's spirit, and tragedy strikes. Now, to save himself from dark forces out to harm him, he must find a magical, mystical suit of armor, which he can only do with the help of his friend, a magical monkey sent to protect him (also Theron) and a mysterious warrior beetle (Matthew McConaughey). He'll need all the help he can get against the power of his mother's malevolent sisters (both voiced by Rooney Mara) and the powerful, sinister Moon King (Ralph Fiennes).
Anyone who reads this blog knows I have great affection for Disney's Zootopia, a film I ranked a perfect 10, for its blend of entertainment and its unflinching look at racial prejudice, at a time when a stand on the issue had to be taken. As much as I love that film, though, and as brave as I felt it was, this, in my honest estimation, felt even braver, with its mutilated hero, dark subject matter, and equally unflinching look at the importance of human kindness, which, per this story, must be extended to even the most odious of beings.
Laika's craftsmanship is, as it always has been, vastly impressive, and has significantly improved since the days of Coraline. It's a pretty awesome marriage of the age-old technique of stop-motion animation and modern day technology. Even with all the advances, though, it took a total of five years to make this film.
However sophisticated the storytelling tools, however, they are nothing without a good story to tell (just look at several of Dreamworks Animation's recent offerings), but the good news is that the ladies and gentlemen at Laika have that bit pretty much down pat.
As delightful as it was to hear Oscar-winners Theron and McConaughey voice key characters in the story, it's Parkinson's earnest performance that does the heavy lifting in this film as Kubo is defined by his imagination and ultimately his compassion, all of which come through in Parkinson's voice acting.
I realize I'm venturing into slight spoiler territory when I say this, but this film is quite defiantly not-entirely-kid-friendly with some frightening antagonists (my three-year-old turned away in fear at the ghostly twin ninja sisters of Kubo's mother), and its surprisingly tragic tone near the end. That's what makes it rather endearing in my eyes; the studio could probably have made a couple of more million at the box office with more conventional storytelling, which makes their act of sticking to their narrative guns all the more impressive.
This film is a classic in the mold of a Studio Ghibli production; it's completely uncompromising, and utterly mesmerizing.
10/10
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