directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams
written by Robert L. Baird, Dan Gerson and Jordan Roberts
Big Hero 6 has the unenviable task of being Walt Disney Animation's first movie since their runaway blockbuster Frozen. The good news is that even without showtunes or princesses, it's a thoroughly satisfying time at the movies. The even better news is that anime nerds are in for a real treat; this is probably the best anime tribute ever to come out of Hollywood.
Set in the city of San Fransokyo, Big Hero 6 is the story of Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) a budding teen genius with a knack and love for robotics, who spends most of his time in underground 'bot fighting tournaments. His older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney), who also happens to be his only remaining father figure, knows that Hiro can do more with his life than hustle money from illegal gambling, so he takes him to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology where he works, where Hiro meets fellow prodigies Gogo Tomago (Jamie Chung), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), and self-proclaimed "science enthusiast" Fred (TJ Miller). Hiro also meets his own personal hero, the robotics pioneer Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell). Hiro is dazzled by the technology, and makes a successful bid to enroll in the school. Suddenly, tragedy strikes, leaving Hiro in mourning. Hiro then gets to know Tadashi's pet project, healthcare robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit) a whole lot better, and not a moment too soon; Hiro needs Baymax's help to get to the bottom of a mysterious threat to San Fransokyo. The threat proves too great for the two of them to handle on their own, and Hiro now has to recruit his fellow science nerds. Thus, Big Hero 6 is born.
While this film is actually based on a relatively obscure (and no doubt now highly sought-after) Marvel Comics title from several years ago, from a visual perspective it owes a lot more to the work of Osamu Tezuka than anything else. There are shout-outs to its comic book heritage, such as Hiro's alliterative name and a virtually obligatory cameo that just about every fanboy in the audience will recognize, but it definitely feels much more like a loving homage to the robot anime of the 70s and 80s than yet another comic-book adaptation. The attention to detail, and the delightful visuals of the mashed-up cityscape are reminiscent of the colorful work of Hayao Miyazaki, as well. After the staid blues of frozen Arendelle last year, it was really a blast to see a full-color adventure like this one.
As dazzling as the visuals and animation are, though, it's heart that makes a Disney movie watchable, and this movie has it in spades. Though Hiro's journey is a soul-crushingly tragic one (he's an orphan who loses his only brother) it is also an uplifting one, and I haven't quite seen a Disney movie that deals with the grief of losing a loved one quite as poignantly as this movie does. Fortunately, Hiro's support system includes a loving Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) a younger, "Aunt May" type of character who owns the coffee shop above which Hiro and she live, his nerd friends, and, of course, Baymax. Scott Adsit, whom I remember well from his performances as Pete Hornberger on 30 Rock, infuses the vinyl robot-nurse-turned-combat-machine with a unique and truly memorable personality. He really does live up to the hype as the star of the show, and Adsit's performance is an integral part of that charm. The other voice actors are no slouches either, and most notable for me was how genuine the relationship between Potter's Hiro and Henney's Tadashi felt. It made the turn of events in the film all the more moving. It was nice of Disney to cast actors of actual Asian descent in these roles; even though they speak like Americans it was nice to know they were going for some kind of authenticity.
As nerd fare, the movie is a great deal of fun, though not quite as chock-full of references as Wreck-It-Ralph. The action is very well-staged, and the out-and-out-violence is surprisingly minimal considering this film's comic-book roots; The Incredibles had a much higher body count. People going to see Baymax and the rest of the crew in action will certainly not be disappointed. One downside to the story is that the villain of the piece is nothing to write home about, but clearly, he's just an excuse for the gang to all get together. The onus is now on Disney to provide a more compelling antagonist the next time around.
Overall, the movie is great family fun, even as it panders to the inner twelve-year-old of many of the dads watching, and I, for one, am more than ready for more nerd-service starring this crew of newly-minted superheroes whenever Disney is ready.
8.5/10
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Quick Looks: A Review of Gone Girl
directed by David Fincher
screenplay by Gillian Flynn (based on her novel)
It's hard to discuss David Fincher's latest film Gone Girl, in great detail without wading into spoiler territory, because so much of the film revolves around twists in the plot, but to my mind it is a rather extraordinary film, and Fincher's most audacious since his breakout film Se7en.
Spouses Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and Amy Elliot (Rosamund Pike), have been married for five years, and the last few have not been pleasant. Things take a turn for the strange when Nick, who manages a bar, comes home to find his wife having completely disappeared with signs of a struggle. Over the days that follow, Nick's life turns into a living hell as suspicion rises that he killed Amy with the Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) hot on his tail. As Dunne recruits infamous defense attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry), time is not on his side.
There's something gratifying about seeing a mainstream movie, especially one as well crafted as this one, defy convention; while the film would most properly be classified as a "thriller" it really is so much more than that, and it features some truly amazing writing and acting. it is an incredibly engaging film, with an ending that really threw me for a loop.
Affleck sticks to his usual low-key, aw shucks acting, which is, fortunately, consistent with Nick's character, but it's Pike who shines as Amy, for reasons I cannot really discuss lest I spoil plot points. Tyler Perry was a hoot as Nick's oily defense attorney, and there were a lot of other sterling performances all around from Dickens as Detective Boney and Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister Margo.
What I loved about the storytelling was how often it turned things on their head, bringing on story tropes and then taking abrupt left turns. Still, I wasn't too fond of the final twist as to my mind it kind of transformed the film into something else, but again, it's not something I can discuss. For all its flaws, this is a film that needs to be experienced (even if, at this point, one will have to wait for it on home video).
David Fincher has turned in some pretty extraordinary work over the years, but this is, to me anyway one of the movies for which he will truly be remembered.
8.7/10
There's something gratifying about seeing a mainstream movie, especially one as well crafted as this one, defy convention; while the film would most properly be classified as a "thriller" it really is so much more than that, and it features some truly amazing writing and acting. it is an incredibly engaging film, with an ending that really threw me for a loop.
Affleck sticks to his usual low-key, aw shucks acting, which is, fortunately, consistent with Nick's character, but it's Pike who shines as Amy, for reasons I cannot really discuss lest I spoil plot points. Tyler Perry was a hoot as Nick's oily defense attorney, and there were a lot of other sterling performances all around from Dickens as Detective Boney and Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister Margo.
What I loved about the storytelling was how often it turned things on their head, bringing on story tropes and then taking abrupt left turns. Still, I wasn't too fond of the final twist as to my mind it kind of transformed the film into something else, but again, it's not something I can discuss. For all its flaws, this is a film that needs to be experienced (even if, at this point, one will have to wait for it on home video).
David Fincher has turned in some pretty extraordinary work over the years, but this is, to me anyway one of the movies for which he will truly be remembered.
8.7/10
Friday, October 10, 2014
Not Exactly Edward Woodward: A Review of The Equalizer (mild spoilers)
directed by Antoine Fuqua
written by Richard Wenk
After watching the first trailer for Antoine Fuqua's remake of the 1980s television show The Equalizer, which starred Edward Woodward, I found myself quite keen on seeing it. I was mainly interested in seeing Denzel Washington kick ass once again. While I have long been a fan of Washington's performances in general, it is especially gratifying to me when he plays a bad-ass, like the one he first portrayed in 2004's Man on Fire, and the others he played in films like The Book of Eli and Safe House.
Robert McCall (Washington) leads a quiet life as an employee at a Home Mart hardware store in Boston, Massachusetts. He is well-liked by his co-workers and lives comfortably, if somewhat simply. He has trouble sleeping at night, though, at spends the wee hours of the morning reading books at a diner that is open 24 hours, where befriends child prostitute Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), whom he tells can change her world when she is disconsolate about her lot in life. At one point, Teri, whose real name is Alina, tries to fight back when an abusive customer hits her, and ends up incurring the ire of her pimp, Slavi (David Meunier), who then beats her within an inch of her life to make an example of her to the other girls. After visiting her in the hospital, McCall then displays an extraordinary set of skills that he picked up from his past life as a black ops operative, as he not only punishes Slavi but takes down all of his body guards in the span of half a minute. Unfortunately, it turns out that Slavi is the representative of someone much bigger, a Russian crimelord named Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), who dispatches his brutal problem solver nicknamed Teddy (Marton Csokas), who, together with a crew of corrupt Boston cops on Pushkin's payroll, may prove too much for even the highly resourceful McCall to handle. Or maybe not.
I feel this was a movie that would have benefited from a much more muted marketing campaign than the one that made its main fighting sequence the centerpiece of the trailer. The narrative seemed, to me anyway, structured so that McCall's lethal skills are supposed to come to the viewer as a complete surprise, but thanks to the trailer with that magnificent fighting scene, it becomes precisely what the viewer looking for action is looking forward to, which is not a good thing because as it turns out, it's all downhill after that.
To be fair, the fight choreography (or the little of it that can be seen) is exceptional, and just as he did in The Book of Eli and Safe House, Washington shows outstanding onscreen fighting skills to complement his nigh-legendary acting talent. The problem is that, after the first fight, which was expertly staged with its judicious use of slow motion and close-ups to "show" the audience how McCall scans his environment just before walking into an explosive situation, followed by some truly hard-hitting fighting moves, every other fight scene that comes afterwards is spoiled by overly dark lighting or too-quick editing. The idea, I suppose, is to show off McCall's cunning over and above his martial arts skills, but truth be told, I felt the movie would have benefited from more Taken or Bourne style fighting sequences than just the one. Instead, for the climax, the filmmakers provided a somewhat ludicrous finale set in the hardware store, which felt like a more brutal version of scenes from another 1980s television show I grew up with, MacGyver.
(spoilers)
It also annoyed me no end that the script went to some lengths to establish Csokas' character Teddy as a truly fearsome villain, narrating his background as a Russian Secret Service agent and showing in one scene just how brutal he could be, and then completely backed out of having him and McCall slug it out at the end. The script clearly called for a "boss battle" between the two, but ultimately McCall's ultimate slugfest was with a decidedly generic bald Russian goon, with Teddy's fate being decided by something other than fists. It was bad enough that the writing felt utterly by the numbers, and even worse that the filmmakers couldn't even be bothered to deliver on one of the few decent payoffs the script clearly teased.
(end spoilers)
As an action film, the movie often feels rote, with even some of the more striking storytelling devices like the aforementioned slow motion environment scanning having been cribbed from other movies like Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, but the somewhat earnest efforts of Washington and many members of the supporting cast, particularly Moretz, who trades in her Hit Girl tights for a hooker's miniskirt and push-up bra here, save the film from direct-to-video territory, but only just. Richard Wenk's script isn't much to write home about at all, but Washington makes it work, even as he retreads the impossibly wholesome/unflappable characters from films like the aforementioned Eli and the late Tony Scott's Unstoppable to imbue McCall with a nobility that seems somewhat incongruous with the brutality he displays in killing people.
The film's box-office success has ensured that a sequel will eventually hit movie theaters, and next time I honestly hope the filmmakers fix at least some of this film's more glaring flaws. I wasn't really expecting to be quite as disappointed in this film as I was, especially considering my fondness for most of films starring Denzel Washington that I have watched, but not even my predisposition towards liking Washington's movies could overcome this film's somewhat cookie cutter script, poor pacing, and even worse editing.
One final gripe I had was the complete absence of Stewart Copeland's old instrumental theme for the TV show on which it was based. Even a little homage would have been nice.
5.5/10
written by Richard Wenk
After watching the first trailer for Antoine Fuqua's remake of the 1980s television show The Equalizer, which starred Edward Woodward, I found myself quite keen on seeing it. I was mainly interested in seeing Denzel Washington kick ass once again. While I have long been a fan of Washington's performances in general, it is especially gratifying to me when he plays a bad-ass, like the one he first portrayed in 2004's Man on Fire, and the others he played in films like The Book of Eli and Safe House.
Robert McCall (Washington) leads a quiet life as an employee at a Home Mart hardware store in Boston, Massachusetts. He is well-liked by his co-workers and lives comfortably, if somewhat simply. He has trouble sleeping at night, though, at spends the wee hours of the morning reading books at a diner that is open 24 hours, where befriends child prostitute Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), whom he tells can change her world when she is disconsolate about her lot in life. At one point, Teri, whose real name is Alina, tries to fight back when an abusive customer hits her, and ends up incurring the ire of her pimp, Slavi (David Meunier), who then beats her within an inch of her life to make an example of her to the other girls. After visiting her in the hospital, McCall then displays an extraordinary set of skills that he picked up from his past life as a black ops operative, as he not only punishes Slavi but takes down all of his body guards in the span of half a minute. Unfortunately, it turns out that Slavi is the representative of someone much bigger, a Russian crimelord named Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), who dispatches his brutal problem solver nicknamed Teddy (Marton Csokas), who, together with a crew of corrupt Boston cops on Pushkin's payroll, may prove too much for even the highly resourceful McCall to handle. Or maybe not.
I feel this was a movie that would have benefited from a much more muted marketing campaign than the one that made its main fighting sequence the centerpiece of the trailer. The narrative seemed, to me anyway, structured so that McCall's lethal skills are supposed to come to the viewer as a complete surprise, but thanks to the trailer with that magnificent fighting scene, it becomes precisely what the viewer looking for action is looking forward to, which is not a good thing because as it turns out, it's all downhill after that.
To be fair, the fight choreography (or the little of it that can be seen) is exceptional, and just as he did in The Book of Eli and Safe House, Washington shows outstanding onscreen fighting skills to complement his nigh-legendary acting talent. The problem is that, after the first fight, which was expertly staged with its judicious use of slow motion and close-ups to "show" the audience how McCall scans his environment just before walking into an explosive situation, followed by some truly hard-hitting fighting moves, every other fight scene that comes afterwards is spoiled by overly dark lighting or too-quick editing. The idea, I suppose, is to show off McCall's cunning over and above his martial arts skills, but truth be told, I felt the movie would have benefited from more Taken or Bourne style fighting sequences than just the one. Instead, for the climax, the filmmakers provided a somewhat ludicrous finale set in the hardware store, which felt like a more brutal version of scenes from another 1980s television show I grew up with, MacGyver.
(spoilers)
It also annoyed me no end that the script went to some lengths to establish Csokas' character Teddy as a truly fearsome villain, narrating his background as a Russian Secret Service agent and showing in one scene just how brutal he could be, and then completely backed out of having him and McCall slug it out at the end. The script clearly called for a "boss battle" between the two, but ultimately McCall's ultimate slugfest was with a decidedly generic bald Russian goon, with Teddy's fate being decided by something other than fists. It was bad enough that the writing felt utterly by the numbers, and even worse that the filmmakers couldn't even be bothered to deliver on one of the few decent payoffs the script clearly teased.
(end spoilers)
As an action film, the movie often feels rote, with even some of the more striking storytelling devices like the aforementioned slow motion environment scanning having been cribbed from other movies like Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, but the somewhat earnest efforts of Washington and many members of the supporting cast, particularly Moretz, who trades in her Hit Girl tights for a hooker's miniskirt and push-up bra here, save the film from direct-to-video territory, but only just. Richard Wenk's script isn't much to write home about at all, but Washington makes it work, even as he retreads the impossibly wholesome/unflappable characters from films like the aforementioned Eli and the late Tony Scott's Unstoppable to imbue McCall with a nobility that seems somewhat incongruous with the brutality he displays in killing people.
The film's box-office success has ensured that a sequel will eventually hit movie theaters, and next time I honestly hope the filmmakers fix at least some of this film's more glaring flaws. I wasn't really expecting to be quite as disappointed in this film as I was, especially considering my fondness for most of films starring Denzel Washington that I have watched, but not even my predisposition towards liking Washington's movies could overcome this film's somewhat cookie cutter script, poor pacing, and even worse editing.
One final gripe I had was the complete absence of Stewart Copeland's old instrumental theme for the TV show on which it was based. Even a little homage would have been nice.
5.5/10
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Pleasantly Surprised: A Review of The Maze Runner
directed by Wes Ball
screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin
based on the novel by James Dashner
After spending several days far away from home, one of the last things on my mind was watching a movie. Thanks to heavy rain and traffic between the airport and my house, though, waiting a few extra hours suddenly seemed like a good idea, and to pass the time my wife and I caught a late screening of The Maze Runner. I knew next to nothing about the film and had only seen one trailer, and basically walked in with no expectations whatsoever. This turned out to be a very good thing as I might otherwise have been inclined to dismiss this strange, spiritual retelling of the seminal novel The Lord of the Flies as yet another post-apocalyptic, Hunger Games knock-off, which it certainly is not.
A young man (Dylan O' Brien) wakes up in a rapidly ascending elevator, which brings him to a forest glade populated by several other young men and which is surrounded by high concrete walls. The young man, who at first cannot recall his name, receives guidance from Alby (Aml Ameen), the most senior of the young men who have come to call themselves "Gladers," and learns more about the situation he is in; basically the lot of them are trapped in the Glade, which is surrounded by a gigantic maze which is open during the day but which closes at night. He learns the ropes from Alby, as well as two of the Gladers he befriends, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Chuck (Blake Cooper). The Gladers live by a few simple rules, one of the most important of which is never to wander into the maze, a rule honored by all save for a select few of the Gladers known as the maze runners. At night, the maze is prowled by the deadly Grievers, monsters that no Glader has ever seen and lived to describe, whose bloodcurdling howls can be heard in the Glade at night.
As the young man's memory comes back in pieces, though, he comes to remember his name, Thomas but little else, at least by way of coherent information. One thing he doesn't need his memory to realize, however, is that he has to get out of there, a growing preoccupation that does not sit well with a few of the Gladers, particularly the hulking Gally (Will Poulter). When all kinds of strange new developments turn up, though, such as the abrupt arrival of the only girl ever to enter the glade, the mysterious Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), and a few other frightening occurrences, it becomes clear that leaving the maze is not simply a matter of personal liberty but of survival.
The film is hardly groundbreaking, but it's got quite a bit going for it. For one thing, even on a shoestring budget it offers some really striking visuals, as not even the Hunger Games films can boast a set piece as striking as the enormous maze that surrounds and menaces the Gladers. More importantly, however, the filmmakers, presumably taking their lead from the novel (which I haven't read), keep their narrative cards quite close to their chest, shrouding almost everything that goes on outside of the Glade and the maze in mystery until the very last few minutes of the film, and even then only giving away just enough to let viewers know that there will be more adventures to come. Such storytelling economy isn't all that common in an era of two-and-a-half-hour blockbusters, a goodly chunk of which is usually spent on considerable exposition, and it is a breath of fresh air. Structurally, though, the film feels a little flimsy, and I'm sure I could pick apart the logical gaffes in the film if I really sat down to think about it. To their credit, though, director Ball and his crew kept things moving along briskly enough for me to surrender myself to this movie and its world for the duration of its running time.
I wouldn't call this a great movie, anyone waiting at a mall for traffic (or rain) to ease up, and thinking of a movie to watch and pass the time could do a lot worse than this.
7/10
screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin
based on the novel by James Dashner
After spending several days far away from home, one of the last things on my mind was watching a movie. Thanks to heavy rain and traffic between the airport and my house, though, waiting a few extra hours suddenly seemed like a good idea, and to pass the time my wife and I caught a late screening of The Maze Runner. I knew next to nothing about the film and had only seen one trailer, and basically walked in with no expectations whatsoever. This turned out to be a very good thing as I might otherwise have been inclined to dismiss this strange, spiritual retelling of the seminal novel The Lord of the Flies as yet another post-apocalyptic, Hunger Games knock-off, which it certainly is not.
A young man (Dylan O' Brien) wakes up in a rapidly ascending elevator, which brings him to a forest glade populated by several other young men and which is surrounded by high concrete walls. The young man, who at first cannot recall his name, receives guidance from Alby (Aml Ameen), the most senior of the young men who have come to call themselves "Gladers," and learns more about the situation he is in; basically the lot of them are trapped in the Glade, which is surrounded by a gigantic maze which is open during the day but which closes at night. He learns the ropes from Alby, as well as two of the Gladers he befriends, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Chuck (Blake Cooper). The Gladers live by a few simple rules, one of the most important of which is never to wander into the maze, a rule honored by all save for a select few of the Gladers known as the maze runners. At night, the maze is prowled by the deadly Grievers, monsters that no Glader has ever seen and lived to describe, whose bloodcurdling howls can be heard in the Glade at night.
As the young man's memory comes back in pieces, though, he comes to remember his name, Thomas but little else, at least by way of coherent information. One thing he doesn't need his memory to realize, however, is that he has to get out of there, a growing preoccupation that does not sit well with a few of the Gladers, particularly the hulking Gally (Will Poulter). When all kinds of strange new developments turn up, though, such as the abrupt arrival of the only girl ever to enter the glade, the mysterious Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), and a few other frightening occurrences, it becomes clear that leaving the maze is not simply a matter of personal liberty but of survival.
The film is hardly groundbreaking, but it's got quite a bit going for it. For one thing, even on a shoestring budget it offers some really striking visuals, as not even the Hunger Games films can boast a set piece as striking as the enormous maze that surrounds and menaces the Gladers. More importantly, however, the filmmakers, presumably taking their lead from the novel (which I haven't read), keep their narrative cards quite close to their chest, shrouding almost everything that goes on outside of the Glade and the maze in mystery until the very last few minutes of the film, and even then only giving away just enough to let viewers know that there will be more adventures to come. Such storytelling economy isn't all that common in an era of two-and-a-half-hour blockbusters, a goodly chunk of which is usually spent on considerable exposition, and it is a breath of fresh air. Structurally, though, the film feels a little flimsy, and I'm sure I could pick apart the logical gaffes in the film if I really sat down to think about it. To their credit, though, director Ball and his crew kept things moving along briskly enough for me to surrender myself to this movie and its world for the duration of its running time.
I wouldn't call this a great movie, anyone waiting at a mall for traffic (or rain) to ease up, and thinking of a movie to watch and pass the time could do a lot worse than this.
7/10
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Over the Top In the Best Possible Way: A Review of Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends
directed by Keishi Otomo
based on the manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends picks up immediately where its predecessor, Kyoto Inferno, left off, with Kenshin Himura (Takeru Satoh), formerly Battousai the killer, having washed up on a beach after jumping off the ship of the villainous, murderous Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara), right where, as fate would have it, his old master Hiko Seijuro (Masaharu Fukuyama). Kenshin realizes that, to defeat Shishio and prevent Japan from plunging into chaos and death, he will need to dig deep and learn a technique he has never mastered before, the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. Time is not on his side as Shishio, from his floating fortress of a battleship, is now closing in on the government, despite even the efforts of the likes of Saito Hajime (Yosuke Eguchi) and Kenshin's other allies to stop him.
The stakes are sky-high in this sequel, which really pulls out all the stops in terms of its action sequences, in which, even more than in the first film, the filmmakers proudly embrace their film's anime/manga heritage.
The surprising aspect of this particular film was how long the filmmakers took to arrive at the action sequences, which, basically, are the highlight of the entire affair. It's forgivable, considering that, the action, when it finally arrives, is for the most part, sublime, but there are parts where the film feels a tad ponderous, even though the intent is clearly for Kenshin to do some soul-searching.It's not so much that the "quiet time" scenes felt unnecessary; it's just that Otomo didn't pace them well enough to keep them from feeling like they were dragging out the running time a bit too much. This movie is supposed to be the payoff of two films, which is why the additional exposition this late in the game feels a tad superfluous.
The good news is that the imagery of the film is very much in keeping with its themes; the first film, in which Kenshin followed Shishio's trail of death and mayhem, was steeped in a lot of gray and black. In this film, the bamboo forest in which Kenshin and his master duel captures the introspective, quieter nature of these scenes as Kenshin looks inside himself for the answers to the challenges facing him. As odd as this may sound, for me, the duelling scenes between Kenshin and his master are the most riveting of the film, even if they're arguably the least flashy. Also, they feel like they carry more narrative weight as they cap off the long exchanges of meaningful (though occasionally ponderous) dialogue between Kenshin and his master.
There's a real satisfaction in the climactic duels that end the film, which I will not spoil though any "Samurai X" fan worth their salt knows the outcome; suffice it to say the battles are well-realized, though the big fight at the end perhaps went a little too far over the top.
All in all, however, it's still a lot of great fun at the theater, and anyone still smarting from having watched the wretched 47 Ronin adaptation earlier this year will be well-served by watching this, which also happens to feature renowned Japanese actor Min Tanaka in a pivotal role.
For fans of the anime that showed on Philippine television for several years before this series of live-action adaptations came out, their cups should pretty much run over.
7.5/10
based on the manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends picks up immediately where its predecessor, Kyoto Inferno, left off, with Kenshin Himura (Takeru Satoh), formerly Battousai the killer, having washed up on a beach after jumping off the ship of the villainous, murderous Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara), right where, as fate would have it, his old master Hiko Seijuro (Masaharu Fukuyama). Kenshin realizes that, to defeat Shishio and prevent Japan from plunging into chaos and death, he will need to dig deep and learn a technique he has never mastered before, the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu. Time is not on his side as Shishio, from his floating fortress of a battleship, is now closing in on the government, despite even the efforts of the likes of Saito Hajime (Yosuke Eguchi) and Kenshin's other allies to stop him.
The stakes are sky-high in this sequel, which really pulls out all the stops in terms of its action sequences, in which, even more than in the first film, the filmmakers proudly embrace their film's anime/manga heritage.
The surprising aspect of this particular film was how long the filmmakers took to arrive at the action sequences, which, basically, are the highlight of the entire affair. It's forgivable, considering that, the action, when it finally arrives, is for the most part, sublime, but there are parts where the film feels a tad ponderous, even though the intent is clearly for Kenshin to do some soul-searching.It's not so much that the "quiet time" scenes felt unnecessary; it's just that Otomo didn't pace them well enough to keep them from feeling like they were dragging out the running time a bit too much. This movie is supposed to be the payoff of two films, which is why the additional exposition this late in the game feels a tad superfluous.
The good news is that the imagery of the film is very much in keeping with its themes; the first film, in which Kenshin followed Shishio's trail of death and mayhem, was steeped in a lot of gray and black. In this film, the bamboo forest in which Kenshin and his master duel captures the introspective, quieter nature of these scenes as Kenshin looks inside himself for the answers to the challenges facing him. As odd as this may sound, for me, the duelling scenes between Kenshin and his master are the most riveting of the film, even if they're arguably the least flashy. Also, they feel like they carry more narrative weight as they cap off the long exchanges of meaningful (though occasionally ponderous) dialogue between Kenshin and his master.
There's a real satisfaction in the climactic duels that end the film, which I will not spoil though any "Samurai X" fan worth their salt knows the outcome; suffice it to say the battles are well-realized, though the big fight at the end perhaps went a little too far over the top.
All in all, however, it's still a lot of great fun at the theater, and anyone still smarting from having watched the wretched 47 Ronin adaptation earlier this year will be well-served by watching this, which also happens to feature renowned Japanese actor Min Tanaka in a pivotal role.
For fans of the anime that showed on Philippine television for several years before this series of live-action adaptations came out, their cups should pretty much run over.
7.5/10
Saturday, August 23, 2014
A Whole New Level of Chop-Sockey: A Review of Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Infermo
Directed by Keishi Otomo
Based on the manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki
I have never been more than a casual fan of the anime called Samurai X which is properly titled Rurouni Kenshin in its native Japan, and is based on a popular manga. I have, however seen enough episodes, including a feature length special that came out on Home Box Office many years ago, to appreciate the story of an ex-assassin with unparalleled swordsmanship skill wandering around 19th century Japan seeking to redeem himself from a life of bloodshed. I missed the first live-action adaptation of this series, which came out two years ago and I was sorry I did, which was why I was only to happy to join the long queue to watch the first of two sequels: Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno.
While Kenshin Himura (Takeru Satoh) is living peacefully after the events of the last film, trouble is brewing in Kyoto as a warlord named Makoto Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara) surfaces. Like Himura, Shishio was one of the imperial government's top assassins, whom they attempted to liquidate after winning the Bakumatsu war. He proves to be a royal headache for the government, and when several of their officers fail to take him down, the government turns to Kenshin for help.
This movie, quite honestly, is quite unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have seen comic book adaptations by the boatload, including those told using an Asian sensibility, specifically Bong-Joon Ho's Snowpiercer, and I have enjoyed a great many of them, but I have also noted that with few exceptions, none of them really focused that much on the importance of really gripping fight scenes. A few months ago I was celebrating Captain America: The Winter Soldier for having the best choreographed fight scenes in any comic book-based movie I had ever seen, not quite realizing at the time that just what I was missing.
Basically, the fight scenes in Rurouni Kenshin are a wondrous marriage of everything that's been learned from swordplay and martial arts movies over the last century. There's a mix of the balletic grace of the Hong Kong action film and the Chinese wuxia epic as well as the bone-crunching, rough and tumble feel of films like The Raid. Of course, all of this is still tempered with a comic book sensibility that, from time to time, reminds the audience that this is all fantasy, but that does not detract in any way from the utterly engaging action sequences.
The story isn't really that much to write home about, truth be told. The movie still carries the animated series' somewhat heavy handed, purportedly pacifist message, but is still about a guy who beats up people with the flat part of his sword (though he does a magnificent job of it). I don't speak Japanese, so I can't really say how well people acted, but to my mind the performances were convincing enough, even if the guy who played Sanosuke, one of the more prominent supporting characters in the anime, kind of portrayed him as a buffoon. Apart from him, though, the actors, in so far as recreating the cartoon characters from whom their roles were derived, turned in performances that were pretty much spot on, and that was a treat to watch. Still, I get the sense that someone unfamiliar with this world and the characters that move in it would have a hard time understanding why an ex-samurai with flaming red hair would be walking around Meiji-era Japan, or why he would fight people like a blond goon with hair that's four inches high. In short, this film isn't exactly for anime novices, which could be a little jarring to the casual viewer.
To me, though, it was still a lot of fun, and I am definitely looking forward to the sequel, which will be coming out in a little over a month.
7.5/10
Based on the manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki
I have never been more than a casual fan of the anime called Samurai X which is properly titled Rurouni Kenshin in its native Japan, and is based on a popular manga. I have, however seen enough episodes, including a feature length special that came out on Home Box Office many years ago, to appreciate the story of an ex-assassin with unparalleled swordsmanship skill wandering around 19th century Japan seeking to redeem himself from a life of bloodshed. I missed the first live-action adaptation of this series, which came out two years ago and I was sorry I did, which was why I was only to happy to join the long queue to watch the first of two sequels: Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno.
While Kenshin Himura (Takeru Satoh) is living peacefully after the events of the last film, trouble is brewing in Kyoto as a warlord named Makoto Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara) surfaces. Like Himura, Shishio was one of the imperial government's top assassins, whom they attempted to liquidate after winning the Bakumatsu war. He proves to be a royal headache for the government, and when several of their officers fail to take him down, the government turns to Kenshin for help.
This movie, quite honestly, is quite unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have seen comic book adaptations by the boatload, including those told using an Asian sensibility, specifically Bong-Joon Ho's Snowpiercer, and I have enjoyed a great many of them, but I have also noted that with few exceptions, none of them really focused that much on the importance of really gripping fight scenes. A few months ago I was celebrating Captain America: The Winter Soldier for having the best choreographed fight scenes in any comic book-based movie I had ever seen, not quite realizing at the time that just what I was missing.
Basically, the fight scenes in Rurouni Kenshin are a wondrous marriage of everything that's been learned from swordplay and martial arts movies over the last century. There's a mix of the balletic grace of the Hong Kong action film and the Chinese wuxia epic as well as the bone-crunching, rough and tumble feel of films like The Raid. Of course, all of this is still tempered with a comic book sensibility that, from time to time, reminds the audience that this is all fantasy, but that does not detract in any way from the utterly engaging action sequences.
The story isn't really that much to write home about, truth be told. The movie still carries the animated series' somewhat heavy handed, purportedly pacifist message, but is still about a guy who beats up people with the flat part of his sword (though he does a magnificent job of it). I don't speak Japanese, so I can't really say how well people acted, but to my mind the performances were convincing enough, even if the guy who played Sanosuke, one of the more prominent supporting characters in the anime, kind of portrayed him as a buffoon. Apart from him, though, the actors, in so far as recreating the cartoon characters from whom their roles were derived, turned in performances that were pretty much spot on, and that was a treat to watch. Still, I get the sense that someone unfamiliar with this world and the characters that move in it would have a hard time understanding why an ex-samurai with flaming red hair would be walking around Meiji-era Japan, or why he would fight people like a blond goon with hair that's four inches high. In short, this film isn't exactly for anime novices, which could be a little jarring to the casual viewer.
To me, though, it was still a lot of fun, and I am definitely looking forward to the sequel, which will be coming out in a little over a month.
7.5/10
How Robin Williams Died Long Before He Killed Himself
When I found out that actor and comedian Robin Williams took his own life earlier this week I was in no position to post on this blog; I was out of town and hard at work. Even as I write this post, however I find myself grappling with what I want to say.
Two years ago I wrote a blog post lamenting the fact that Robin Williams career appeared to have been in the toilet well before he took his life two weeks ago. Basically, I was already mourning the fact that the guy's career was, for all intents and purposes, dead. I mean, this man was an Academy Award winner and starred in several movies that grossed well over $100 million at the American box office, back when those numbers actually meant something, and his most high profile role post-2000 was a bit part in a Ben Stiller movie? Ben Stiller would be lucky to even be a fraction of the comedian that Williams was in his heyday, especially considering he could never really expand his roles beyond that of the insecure short guy, though I suppose I should be glad that he at least threw Robin that bone. It was wrong to me on so many levels that audiences could basically turn their back on someone who had brought so much joy to so many people.
For me, the saddest thing is that the role which, it seems now, most closely approximated the loneliness Robin Williams felt inside, that of Sy Parrish, the shy, secretly obsessive photobooth attendant in One Hour Photo, was largely ignored by audiences, even though it was arguably one of his very best. People just didn't want to see a creepy Robin Williams, even if it's a story he clearly really wanted to tell. After that, it was as if they didn't want to see him at all.
The thing that pained me about seeing Robin Williams' career just peter off was the thought that there wasn't any sex scandal or any single movie that really "did him in" (the disastrous 2009 film Old Dogs notwithstanding). It wasn't even that he stopped getting work; iMDB lists him as having projects all the way through the end of 2014. The problem was just that people really didn't pay him that much attention anymore, whether it was the studios giving out roles or the audiences watching them. The guy made studio execs rich and made audiences laugh for years, and in the end they rewarded him with cold indifference while Adam Sandler's negative-I.Q., man-child movies made big money year after year. Let's see Adam Sandler pull off roles like the ones that Williams did in Awakenings, Dead Poets Society, or Good Will Hunting. Oh wait, that's right, he can't.
I won't launch into a treatise on depression, a topic I am not at all qualified to discuss, or list my "top ten Robin Williams performances" or anything like that.
If people had continued to watch Robin Williams' movies, would it have stopped him from killing himself? Probably not, but he would have arguably have had less to be depressed about near the end. Maybe he was just sad he couldn't make people laugh anymore, at least not with any new material.
I just wish, to be honest, that the Hollywood moneymaking machine hadn't killed Williams' career long before he killed himself, whether or not that was the actual cause of his depression.
I guess the closest thing that can approximate a "moral of the story" is that if audiences cherish their favorite actors, they should keep watching their movies in theaters rather than patronizing garbage like Adam Sandler's movies, or something like that.
Oh well, I did say I was struggling with what I wanted to say...
Two years ago I wrote a blog post lamenting the fact that Robin Williams career appeared to have been in the toilet well before he took his life two weeks ago. Basically, I was already mourning the fact that the guy's career was, for all intents and purposes, dead. I mean, this man was an Academy Award winner and starred in several movies that grossed well over $100 million at the American box office, back when those numbers actually meant something, and his most high profile role post-2000 was a bit part in a Ben Stiller movie? Ben Stiller would be lucky to even be a fraction of the comedian that Williams was in his heyday, especially considering he could never really expand his roles beyond that of the insecure short guy, though I suppose I should be glad that he at least threw Robin that bone. It was wrong to me on so many levels that audiences could basically turn their back on someone who had brought so much joy to so many people.
For me, the saddest thing is that the role which, it seems now, most closely approximated the loneliness Robin Williams felt inside, that of Sy Parrish, the shy, secretly obsessive photobooth attendant in One Hour Photo, was largely ignored by audiences, even though it was arguably one of his very best. People just didn't want to see a creepy Robin Williams, even if it's a story he clearly really wanted to tell. After that, it was as if they didn't want to see him at all.
The thing that pained me about seeing Robin Williams' career just peter off was the thought that there wasn't any sex scandal or any single movie that really "did him in" (the disastrous 2009 film Old Dogs notwithstanding). It wasn't even that he stopped getting work; iMDB lists him as having projects all the way through the end of 2014. The problem was just that people really didn't pay him that much attention anymore, whether it was the studios giving out roles or the audiences watching them. The guy made studio execs rich and made audiences laugh for years, and in the end they rewarded him with cold indifference while Adam Sandler's negative-I.Q., man-child movies made big money year after year. Let's see Adam Sandler pull off roles like the ones that Williams did in Awakenings, Dead Poets Society, or Good Will Hunting. Oh wait, that's right, he can't.
I won't launch into a treatise on depression, a topic I am not at all qualified to discuss, or list my "top ten Robin Williams performances" or anything like that.
If people had continued to watch Robin Williams' movies, would it have stopped him from killing himself? Probably not, but he would have arguably have had less to be depressed about near the end. Maybe he was just sad he couldn't make people laugh anymore, at least not with any new material.
I just wish, to be honest, that the Hollywood moneymaking machine hadn't killed Williams' career long before he killed himself, whether or not that was the actual cause of his depression.
I guess the closest thing that can approximate a "moral of the story" is that if audiences cherish their favorite actors, they should keep watching their movies in theaters rather than patronizing garbage like Adam Sandler's movies, or something like that.
Oh well, I did say I was struggling with what I wanted to say...
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