Tag: Reviews

The Adjustment Bureau / Limitless

It seems that March held an unexpected bonanza of science-fictional films.  I have been making something of an effort to see as many as I can, but as my time is limited I have been concentrating on movies that have a degree of positive buzz.  Thankfully,  the two I’ve seen have not let me down.

The Adjustment Bureau

This Matt Damon vehicle is yet another loose Hollywood adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story (“Adjustment Team”).  Not having read the original story, I have no idea how accurate this adaptation is, so my impression of The Adjustment Bureau is solely based on the movie itself.

That impression is favourable.  The cast was surprisingly solid, and while there were plenty of chase sequences and big reveals, the pacing of the movie was surprisingly thoughtful and reflective.  The basic premise—which I think is apparent from the trailers—is that political aspirant David Norris (Damon) falls for a girl and mysterious forces try to keep them apart.

If that plot sounds rather simple, well, it is.  But the movie tries to explore the whole fate-versus-freewill debate, and much of the action develops out of the main characters taking action for themselves.  They actually have clear reasons for acting as they do, and it is an intensely personal story despite all the bigger questions raised by the film.

My only complaint about the film is with the ending, which seemed to arrive rather abruptly and quite possibly undermined the thematic argument of the movie.  While it tied up the plot, it didn’t really answer any questions or give us any sense of what lay in store for the characters. (I will grant that the last point may have been deliberate, given the nature of the movie, but it was still mildly unsatisfying.)

Still, I very much enjoyed this movie.  While it was no Inception in terms of complexity or quality, it was one of the more enjoyable and thoughtful SF movies I’ve seen recently, and I wish more movies were out there like it.  Good stuff.

Limitless

I had some trepidation going in to Limitless, as I hadn’t heard much about it before its release, and I knew its star Bradley Cooper more for his roles in comedies than serious action or SF films.  But it got some decent reviews from SF outlets, and did some solid box-office, so I gave it a shot.

In the movie, Eddie Morra (Cooper) is a struggling writer who takes a drug that enhances his intelligence to stratospheric heights but only lasts for a day.  The plot follows what happens to his accelerated self as he tries to take advantage of his new-found capabilities.

I thought this movie did not explore the notion of enhanced intelligence as well as it could have.  There are threads in that direction, but they get subordinated to the plot-level action and suspense.  However, the narrative style of the film was unconventional for an SF movie, and there were some very interesting visuals used in showing how the drug affected Eddie’s mind and perception of the world around him.

Despite the lack of depth, the movie was entertaining.  While the outcome was somewhat predictable, there were surprises on how we got there, and it made for a satisfying movie.  While I did not personally enjoy it quite so much as The Adjustment Bureau, I can certainly see that other people might like it more.  And, technically speaking, Limitless was the more rigorously science-fictional of the two movies.

Overall, I think my two choices for movies so far this month were good ones.

Tangled / Green Hornet / Barney’s Version

The girlfriend came to visit for a few weeks, so—as we are wont to do—we frequented the movies.  This post contains my thoughts in brief on the movies we saw together, most of which are old news by now, but I felt they should not pass without comment.

Tangled

Tangled may have the distinction of being the first Disney non-Pixar computer animated film that was any good.  I quite enjoyed it; more than The Princess and the Frog, I think, though the music was largely forgettable and it lacked the gravitas or dramatic oomph of that 2D film.  Tangled just felt more fun, although I’m sure Zachary Levi‘s voice work conjuring my warm feelings toward Chuck may have contributed to this.

I saw it in 3D, and it was thankfully inoffensive in that regard.  Of course, the 3D also didn’t add anything, and I would have rather done without, but unfortunately it wasn’t showing in 2D anywhere at that time.

The animation looked fine; the characters were amusing or cute as needed, and the scenery sufficiently lovely.  As is often the case with Disney movies, the non-speaking animal sidekicks stole the show, in the form of Pascal the chameleon and Maximus the horse.  The story had some fun adventures and clever set pieces and was, well, fun.

It has just occurred to me that, at this point, most 3D computer animated features are all looking pretty much the same.  I didn’t notice much difference in terms of the quality of animation between this, Megamind, and Despicable Me, for example.  I hope this means that we’re at the point where writers, directors, and producers realize that they have to distinguish themselves with the quality of the movies (story, characters, voice acting, etc.) rather than just the visuals.  If so, then Pixar might finally face some meaningful competition.

Anyway: Tangled.  Enjoyable and fun, but not too deep.

Green Hornet

I had been hoping that the Green Hornet movie would be awesome because I generally like Seth Rogen, and more importantly I like movies that are awesome and that are also superhero movies.  There was even some reason to hope that it might be, seeing as director Michael Gondry had produced weird, interesting, and excellent films such as Be Kind Rewind and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Alas, my hopes were not quite met.

First of all, the movie had a truly atrocious 3D-conversion.  Yet another overwhelming piece of evidence that 3D films suck in general, and converted ones suck without exception.  The people who keep making these travesties happen should totally just be melvined.

Secondly, the movie felt like it was two very distinct scripts jammed together in the middle.  So early in the film we see some amusing buddy comedy that is typical Rogen fare, and then in the latter half we have an intense, violent, plot-driven action flick.  Cameron Diaz’s role also seems entirely superfluous—I get what they were trying to do with her character, but she was heavily under-utilized and didn’t become interesting until the very end.

Thirdly, the action sequences lacked any kind of consistent style.  The first fight scene featuring Kato was highly stylized.  It was not necessarily a good style, but it was distinctive.  Some elements of that returned in the final action scene, but were absent from the rest of them.  And for me, a movie having its own sense of style is what can elevate it from so-so or ridiculous to transcendent and sublime.  Green Hornet did not reach such an apotheosis.

That said, it was a passably-entertaining action comedy.  I have expounded upon its flaws—which are many—but in the hierarchy of all movies, it was okay.  I was entertained, I laughed, I enjoyed the action sequences, and there were some genuinely clever bits.  I did not feel it was a wast of my money (other than the 3D), but your mileage may vary.

Barney’s Version

This film is, admittedly, a little far off my usual fare.  But my mother had wanted to see it, so the girlfriend and I went with her.  Also, at the time, there wasn’t really anything else out.

Fortunately, Barney’s Version turned out to be a fine film.  As with many films starring Paul Giamatti, it was laced with humour but turned a bit dark and depressing toward the end.  (In this case, I believe it was true of the original book as well.  Though it had been many years since she had read it, my mother found the movie to be a pretty good adaptation of the book.)

The story follows the ups and downs in the life of Barney Panofsky.  I can’t really say much more about the plot without giving away spoilers.  What should be obvious, though, is that Barney (played by Giamatti) is front-and-centre throughout the film, and he does an amazing job.  As Barney ages in the movie, Giamatti adjusts his posture, his way of walking, of speaking.  Very impressive and convincing.  The movie also had an excellent supporting cast, though Dustin Hoffman as Barney’s father was the real standout.

So Barney’s Version was an excellent film, albeit a somewhat dark and depressing one at times.  If that’s what you like in a film, this one won’t do you wrong.

Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

My familiarity with Harry Potter has, till recently, been entirely via the movies and various online wikis.  Unlike die-hard fans of the books, I have seen the films with no additional knowledge of the world or plot, and thus some movies that were most beloved by the book-lovers left me confused and dissatisfied, whereas my favourite of the films thus far (Prisoner of Azkaban) is often cited as the weakest by the book fans.

Now, I have started reading the books opportunistically; that is, whenever I am staying with someone who happens to have a copy on their shelves.  I have read the first three books, and while they are growing on me, I still stand by my choice of favourite film.  I mention this to establish that, when it comes to the seventh Harry Potter movie, I’m still approaching it as a film-goer rather than a reader of the specific books.

As such, I found Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 enjoyable but dissatisfying, as it sort of just ended.  Of course, I understand that is because this movie ends in the middle of the book, but that doesn’t make it any more satisfying as a movie.

Nevertheless, the action was interesting if a bit directionless.  There were cool scenes and revelations, and the “interminable camping” bits I’ve heard mention of in the book seemed eminently terminable.  And this movie, more than any of the previous, was relentlessly dark.  In the previous films, bad stuff happened, but always to someone other than our main trio of heroes.  In this film, it hits them all square on, as if someone flicked a switch to go from kids book to adult book (or movie, in this case).

Despite my grumbles about the dissatisfying ending, it did leave me anxious to see how the series ends.  (I mean, I’ve *read* how the series ends on various wikis, but I’m anxious to see it, which is no small feat.)  I may try and get through the rest of the books before the final film arrives just to see how it turns out.

Of course, the movie is not all roses and sunshine in terms of production quality.  There were a number of plot events that didn’t really make a lot of sense to me, in the form of a few scenes where they tried to explain something, but didn’t explain enough.  Also, I found some of the character motivations a bit thin, and the lead trio seemed to rehash the same personal drama we saw 2 movies ago.  All in all, it felt a bit meandering and directionless, with lots of cool scenes individually that failed to make a coherent whole.

In terms of recommendations, well, if you liked the other movies, you’ll probably like this one; if you didn’t, probably not.  It is a more grown-up film than its predecessors, but won’t make much sense without them.

Thoughts on Tron: Legacy

I saw the original Tron when I was a kid.  Since it came out when I was 3, I’m pretty sure I saw it when my sister rented it for me on VHS.  I remember enjoying it, but what stuck with me were the Recognizers revolving their legs to crush stuff, the disc battles, and (of course) the light cycles.  The plot and characters didn’t really sink in too much, though, since when I saw part of it again on TV a few years ago, I was delighted to recognize Bruce Boxleitner (who I am a fan of via Babylon 5, which is one of my favourite shows ever) and Jeff Bridges (who is known for many things).

Clearly, most of my recollections were of cool bits, rather than the original movie as a whole, and thus while I wasn’t entirely disinterested when Tron: Legacy was announced, neither was I salivating in anticipation.  Have no hopes for a movie sequel is perhaps the safest way to approach them, and for me it worked out very well in this instance.

Most of what I knew about this movie before seeing it came from the presentation I had attended at Fan Expo back in August.  (I went to this more because Boxleitner was going to be there, not out of any particular interest in the movie.)  At the presentation we saw how they updated the graphics, visuals, and character designs, and I began to fell more positive about seeing the movie.  I was also mildly amused when Boxleitner asked us all to go see it—a couple of times, and on opening weekend, if possible.

(I partially failed that charge—I did see Tron: Legacy twice, quite by accident, but neither viewing was on opening weekend.  The movie seemed to do okay without me.)

All of this is my rather roundabout way of saying that I came to this movie with little in the way of personal investment or expectation.  Unlike, say, Star Wars or Star Trek, where I hope the movies live up to the awesome potential of their respective franchises, Tron: Legacy just had to be a decent movie.  I’m happy to report that—in my opinion—it succeeded.

The movie starts a few years after the original movie, with a recap of said movie told in the form of a bedtime story by Kevin Flynn (the lead from the first Tron, though not Tron himself) to his young son Sam, which ends with him promising to show his son the world-inside-a-computer known as “The Grid”.  Kevin then heads to work, turning to wave goodbye to his son, and we see a computer de-aged Jeff Bridges clearly for the first time.

(This brings up the first quibble: the CG “Young Kevin Flynn” looked okay, except around the mouth when he spoke.  I’m not sure if it was just animated poorly, or seemed too disconnected from the rest of the face, but it threw me off for a moment.  Perhaps it is the uncanny valley at work.)

Flynn heads to work, and is never seen again.  Sam inherits his company, and grows up thinking he has been abandoned.  He avoids any responsibility to do with the company until one night his father’s old friend Alan Bradley (played by Boxleitner, who was also Tron) tells him of a message from his father’s old arcade building and convinces him to check it out.  Sam stumbles across his father’s hidden office, and gets sucked into the Grid where the story really begins….

Structurally, Sam’s discovery of the Grid for the first time allows viewers unfamiliar with the original movie to “ride along” with him as he makes his discoveries and has things explained to him.  Fans of the original also get brought up-to-date by this mechanism.  It’s an old approach, and a bit predictable, but it does the job in introducing the world and the major conflicts within it.

The story, for all the setup we’re given, is really about a father and son reconnecting, and the father managing to overcome the mistakes he made that kept them apart.  This is punctuated with a lot of cool fight scenes—the disc battles and light cycles return, in upgraded form—a bit of character development, and a notional threat to the real world of programs escaping the Grid to run amok in reality.

All of that is really only secondary to the story of Kevin and Sam, though, which I think is a source of a lot of the complaints about the movie.  It throws a lot of ideas and plot points out there, and with most of them it fails to explore them in depth.  If, as a viewer, you can fill in the gaps on your own and be satisfied that the depth is there, just not on screen, then I think you might find the movie enjoyable.  Otherwise, you’ll be full of “but why…” and “what about…” questions.  The external plot points are resolved, but the story between Kevin and Sam is what concludes.

As such, I quite enjoyed this movie.  It is not without its flaws, and I’m not sure I can recommend it to a fully general audience, but it is good without being great.  I enjoyed both of my viewings of it, was satisfied with the ending, and yet was still left wanting to know more.

Before I wrap up, I feel I should offer my complaints as well.

  • The de-aged Jeff Bridges that bothered me in the opening scene of the movie reappears later on, as well, and has drawn heavy criticism.  The later appearances don’t bother me so much, since in the context of the movie it is not the same character and everyone is in the Grid then, so creepy CG people make a sort of sense.  I  don’t think it was on purpose, though—I just think that technology is not quite there just yet.
  • Recognizers didn’t crush anybody!
  • The 3D seemed unnecessary.  While it didn’t give me too much of a headache (a rarity for 3D movies), it didn’t really add much to the movie, and was barely noticeable.  If any movie was going to wow me with 3D, it should have been this one, and yet, meh.  I’d rather have watched in 2D with the brighter picture, like I did for the “real world” parts at the beginning.  I just want 3D to die die die.
  • I wanted to see more of Tron!  He is the namesake character, after all.
  • I think the movie offered up too many ideas, and failed to fully explore all of them.  As such, this is a source of discontent in the viewer.  The ideas on display are good, but they just couldn’t handle them all in this movie, and so there has to be a bit of a let-down feeling after that setup.

Ultimately, however, these criticism are pretty minor compared to what I could say about some movies out there.  While I don’t think this movie is for everyone, Tron: Legacy is a solid movie that I quite enjoyed, and I hope there is another one.  Preferably with lots of Tron, Recognizers crushing things, and answers to the questions and ideas introduced in this film.

Megamind / RED / Skyline / Morning Glory

Once again, I strive to squeak in an update under the wire and leave no gap in the monthly archives.  I have actually quite a lot to talk about, but I’ll limit myself to movie thoughts for now.  That, in itself, is still quite an undertaking, as I managed to visit the girlfriend and we saw 4 movies in theatre in 8 days.

Megamind

I had low expectations for this movie.  When the trailer first debuted forever ago, I was immediately dismayed at the similarities with Despicable Me.  (Note that this was before either movie was released—I was dismayed at the seemingly-similar premises.)  I was also dismayed at Will Ferrell’s involvement, as I have tended to be irritated by his movies, though I may need to reconsider that assessment as I have quite enjoyed several of his more recent movies.

Anyway, point is I had low expectations.  However, a few people I knew saw it and said it was good, so off the girlfriend and I went, and I was really pleasantly surprised.  Apart from both being about the villains, Megamind and Despicable Me are quite different films, and while I enjoyed the latter, I think Megamind was the better of the two.  Indeed, Megamind was one of the better movies I’ve seen this year.

It doesn’t quite reach Pixar quality, but the writing and jokes were clever, and there were some delightful visuals.  And, most pleasantly, the movie actually surprised me in a couple of places.  As a result, I’d probably put it above all the other non-Pixar CGI movies I’ve seen, with the sole exception of How to Train Your Dragon, which was also really good.  Anyway, Megamind is a good movie, and I highly recommend it.

RED

No, not the colour.  Acronym.  For “Retired, Extremely Dangerous”.  Based on a comic by Warren Ellis.  Most of what you know can be summed up with the following: action movie starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich.  If you can’t tell whether RED is something you might enjoy based on that, I’m not sure anything else I can say will help.

Anyway, the aforementioned cast star as retired spies.  When a team of commandos tries to kill Frank Moses (Willis), he reunites with old friends to find out why.  Wackiness ensues, where wackiness equals lots of entertaining gun battles with actors not usually found in the action genre.

The plot is a little weak but vastly entertaining, and the action scenes are well done.  While I have seen better movies, RED certainly satisfies.  Recommended if action movies are your thing.

Skyline

We saw this sci-fi movie because it was the next one playing, and because some of the trailers looked kind of cool.  Unfortunately, the coolness did not persist outside of the trailer.  Skyline was quite dissatisfying.

It is like the illegitimate love child of Independence Day and Cloverfield, where we have an alien invasion, but see it from the point of view of regular people trying to survive.  As such, we never really find out what is going on, and our heroes, such as they are, stand little chance.   It’s a pretty dark and depressing movie, and while they almost did something interesting with the ending, they pushed it too far, took it in the wrong direction, and gave it a non-ending instead.

You don’t need to actively avoid this movie.  It had some cool bits and all, but it’s not really enough to command your full attention.  It’s the sort of thing you might watch if it’s on TV while you’re doing something else, or on an airplane.  So I give this one a big, “Meh.”  My viewing companions were not nearly so kind in their opinions, so be warned.

Morning Glory

Morning Glory is a comedy—or possibly a dramedy, though I am loath to use the term—starring Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford.  It is not a romantic comedy, though there is some romance in it (not between the two leads).  It is just a funny, well-done movie.

McAdams plays an eager young TV producer given a chance to try to revive a failing morning talk show.  She manages to bully Harrison Ford’s character—a legendary news anchor who is a miserable, grumpy bastard—into working on the show, but has little time to wring cooperation out of him and improve the show’s ratings.  Wackiness ensues, where wackiness equals zany news bits, neuroses, Harrison Ford being an ass, and further delights.

The movie has solid writing, is not entirely predictable, and is quite cute to boot.  It is thankfully not rife with cliche and rehashed storylines, and while it’s not ridiculous over-the-top side-splitting funny, there is no shortage of laughs.  A good movie, and recommended if you’re in to general (non-gross-out) comedies.

Get Low / Easy A

Happy Halloween!

In order to avoid having a gap in my archives, I’m writing this quick review instead of preparing for my supervisory committee meeting tomorrow.   Because I would never avoid work in any other circumstance.  Ever.

Anyway, I’m here to discuss two movies.  Yes, only two.  Since the girlfriend moved away and the summer ended, I’ve become something of a shut-in.

Ahem.

Anyway, the two movies up for consideration couldn’t be more different, but both were quite interesting and enjoyable.

Get Low

This movie veers into “film” territory.  The girlfriend and I settled on this instead of being caught in then rain.  We hadn’t heard of it before (or since, for that matter), but Bill Murray was listed among the cast, so we figured it was worth a shot.  Get Low is the story of an old man who decides to arrange a funeral party before he dies, where people can come and tell their stories about him.  Of course, it turns out that what he really wants is to tell a story of his own, and how he gets to that point is the whole point of the film.

This movie is both dark and humourous, rather more slowly-paced than my usual fare, and yet it held my attention.  The tale that is unraveled is deeply tragic, and yet never so bad as you might imagine.  The story unfolds naturally at the hands of an excellent cast (Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray), and overall the movie exudes the feeling of a quality, well-made film.  If that’s the sort of thing you like, I think this is worth your time.

Easy A

I had no expectations going into Get Low, but with Easy A I just had low expectations.  It looked like a silly and fun movie, but I expected little more than that.  I was very pleasantly surprised.

Easy A turned out to be one of the smartest comedies I’ve seen in long time.  Emma Stone rocked the lead, but had a lot of support by an odd and eccentric supporting cast (including the most delightfully strange parents), and the story never quite went where you would expect.  I expected a fun-but-stupid high school comedy, and got a fun-and-smart one instead!  Hooray!

So, yeah, I would recommend this one.  No deep thoughts on it or anything.  For me, it all just worked.

Salt / The Other Guys / Scott Pilgrim

Aha!  I have finally settled upon a naming scheme for these movie posts.  I shall use the titles of the movies themselves!  Pure genius (so long as I don’t let too many build up)!

Here, then, are my thoughts on the handful of movies I saw since my last movie post.  Sadly, the summer movie season is drawing to an end, so there’s only one more on my list to see (The Expendables).

Salt

Much like when I saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the girlfriend and I took in Salt because we wanted to see a movie and had seen everything else of higher interest.  This Angelina Jolie vehicle tried to bill itself as a thriller where nobody knew what was really going on.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the case.

It was entertaining enough, with a number of nice action sequences, but it was largely predictable.  The sort of movie where there’s a binary choice to the truth—the “Is the protagonist actually the villain?” genre—has been done to death.  In older movies, the answer was always, “No!”  Then, to shake it up a bit, a lot of movies had the answer being, “Yes.”  And that really exhausts the possibilities.

So now modern movies try to make you think the answer is no when really it’s yes, or vice versa,  But it always works out to one or the other, so whatever you guess, you have a 50/50 chance of being right.  And if the filmmakers are clumsy about telegraphing their intent, the odds go way up in your favour.  Coupled with casting some actors who always play the bad guys, and there’s not a whole lot of mystery left.

Now, as a plain action movie it was fine, but if you’re relying on the mystery for your enjoyment, Salt may fall short.  Otherwise it was a perfectly adequate movie.

The Other Guys

The girlfriend and I took this one in to stay out of a rainstorm.  It was an extremely pleasant surprise.  Normally I don’t really like Will Ferrell movies, but his buddy cop feature that pairs him with Mark Whalberg worked really well, and is way funnier and different than the trailers would lead you to expect.

The main plot is a somewhat conventional buddy cop storyline that provides a fair amount situational comedy.  What I liked best, though, was the layer of absolutely bizarre and random humour laid over top of it.  There were jokes in this movie that were completely out of left field, that I could never have predicted.  I’m absolutely delighted when that happens.  Consequently, this movie turned out to be a lot of fun.  I’m comfortable giving it a recommendation.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

For me personally, this movie had a lot in its favour: based on a Canadian comic that I enjoy, directed by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame, and a pretty solid cast.  I’m thrilled to say it lived up to my expectations.  Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was one of my favourite movies of the summer.

That said, the demographic is really the under-35 crowd, as it is steeped in the world of video games, anime, and indie music.  I suspect that just watching the Universal logo at the beginning is enough for you to tell whether you’ll enjoy the movie or not.  The creator of the comic—Bryan Lee O’Malley—is the same age as me, and thus grew up with all the same cultural touchstones, and that shines through in the comic and the movie.

The movie basically embodied fun, with lighthearted and entertaining fight scenes, an over-the-top cast of odd-but-largely likable characters.  Possibly the weakest character is the eponymous Scott Pilgrim (ably played by Michael Cera), but the whole point of the movie is his growth from useless slacker into a decent guy.  Getting from A to B is where the fun lies.  Highly highly highly recommended.

More Movies

You know, you’d think I’d get around to writing about something other than movies.  But I’m on vacation now, so this is all you’re going to get.  My thoughts on some July movies follow.

The Last Airbender

I really wanted this movie to be awesome.  I mean, I want all the movies I see to be awesome, but for this one I had  especially high hopes.  This is because it was a live-action adaptation of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is one of the best things ever.

Now, I will admit to some trepidation when I heard that M. Night Shiyamalan was the driving force behind this film.  But, by all accounts, he was so excited by the cartoon that he fought to be able to make the movie, and at least the story was already coming from somewhere else, so there’d be no lame twist ending.  In fact, the first season of the show had one of the best endings to anything I’ve ever seen, so there’s no way he could screw that up, right?  And the trailers were looking pretty sweet, too.

But alas, all my hopes and dreams were dashed.  The Last Airbender had Lucas-esque dialogue, narrated montages that skipped over so much and explained character interactions rather than showing them, and just felt rough and unfinished.  It was also short.  I will grant they had a tough job, cutting 10 hours worth of TV down to a single movie, but they could have at least gone for a 2.5 to 3 hour movie rather than the abrupt 90 minutes we were given.

The ending also changed somewhat from the show, cutting out details making it just a little bit less awesome and a lot wussier.  Way to go, M. Night!  You could have filmed the last 3 episodes of the season shot-for-shot and had one of the best things ever on film, and you still managed to cock it up.

(It is my fondest hope that Shiyamalan was working busily away on a 3-hour awesome epic version of this movie when the studio told him it had to be released in a month, and so he whipped this version together in the little time he had, and that the DVD will have a super-cool Director’s Cut.)

The movie was not without *some* redeeming features: it did showcase a lot of cool ideas from the show, and the bending looked pretty good (though not quite right compared to the original).  Some of the actors were okay, but they weren’t given much to work with.

I wish I could recommend this movie wholeheartedly, but it was so rough, and so disappointing, I can’t.  About the best I can say is that if you do see it, the cool ideas that made it into the movie might inspire you to watch the original show, which is—as I have stated above—one of the best things ever.  (Also, if you do see the movie, see it in 2D—the 3D is the converted kind, not the filmed kind, and apparently sucks and makes the movie incredibly dim and an even worse experience.)

Despicable Me

This was a cute and funny CGI movie.  I saw this in 3D, but apart from a few token “wow” scenes nothing would have been lost seeing it in 2D.  It centers on Gru, a supervillain who gets scooped when a new villain steals the pyramids.  As part of his plan to regain his status as the most dastardly of supervillains, he adopts 3 orphan sisters.  Wackiness ensues.

From the setup, you can probably figure out the emotional arc of the plot, but it is still handled with charm and humour.  It doesn’t approach Pixar-quality, but it has plenty of laughs, some clever ideas, and some “Awwwwwww” moments.  A satisfying and entertaining summer movie.

Inception

This is the latest movie from Christopher Nolan, whose last movie (The Dark Knight) was all kinds of awesome.  As such, there was a lot riding on this to be a success, and a lot of hope from audiences that it would be different and good.  Thankfully, I think it succeeded on all fronts.

Inception is a sort of reverse heist movie.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays an expert at going into others’ dreams to steal ideas and knowledge who gets hired to *plant* an idea instead.  He has to assemble a team, make a plan, and then execute it (which inevitably goes wrong).  Wackiness ensues.

Now, the plot is more complicated than that.  A *lot* more complicated.  That may be the greatest problem in the movie.  They have to devote a lot of exposition to it in the first hour of the film, and then when the action kicks in it is somewhat-to-very confusing to follow what is really going on when the plan goes awry.  The overlapping action scenes are beautifully-constructed, though, and once you’ve given it a bit of thought, only the ending is left as ambiguous.

So, this is an excellent movie that is beautifully shot.  I saw it in IMAX, which was pretty sweet (except for sitting in the 3rd row like I did).  It’s not a simple action movie, it’s not quite a drama, but it is really good.  I recommend this one.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

I know, I know.  Disney movie, starring Nic Cage.  Why give it the time of day?  Well, we gave it the time of day because nothing was out that we hadn’t already seen that we might possibly find amusing.  But you know what?  It wasn’t bad.  In fact, I might even go so far as to say it was pretty good.

Nic Cage seems to have found his most natural role ever in playing a creepy, crazy old guy, and Jay Baruchel nailed his lovable nerd loser role (as he is wont to do).  The plot was a bit predictable, but it moved quickly, *mostly* made sense, and was pretty fun.  The visuals were good, and in some places genuinely clever.

So this movie was like the inverse of The Last Airbender: the trailers made it look awful, but it turned out to be surprisingly good.  It’s not the best movie of the year or anything, and it doesn’t really need a sequel, but it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours on a Friday night, and that is more than most movies can say these days.

Movie Mayhem!

So, I’ve seen a lot of movies during the past few months.  A lot of movies.  However, because I’ve been trying (and mostly failing) to make progress on my thesis research, I have yet to write about them.  I’m going to remedy that with this post, and provide short reviews of every movie I remember seeing in theatre in the last little while.  If I forget any, I’ll add them over the next few days.

Alice

Tim Burton’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was only okay.  It was pretty, and had some cool and funny moments, but was generally just “meh”.  The plot didn’t make much sense, it had the same creepy Burton-esque imagery all of his films have, and the ending was uninspired.  Also, I saw the 3D version, which was crap—the movie wasn’t filmed in 3D, and the “conversion” process left a lot to be desired.  Anyway, this movie was passably entertaining, but there’s no need to seek it out.

She’s Out of My League

This movie is a bit out of my normal viewing habits, but it was that rarest of all creatures: a romantic comedy with a male protagonist.  This is not to be confused with the sex comedy, which is about guys trying to get laid and the wackiness that ensues.  This is an actual romantic comedy about a regular joe (played by Jay Baruchel, to whom I have been partial since seeing him in Fanboys and who is turning up all over the place these days) who ends up attracting the attention of a super-hot woman, and the wackiness that ensues as he tries to figure out how to get over his own insecurities so they can actually be together.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit.  It’s rare to find a modern romantic comedy that doesn’t irk me in some way, but this one worked for me overall.  If you’re looking for such fare, you could do worse than this one.

Clash of the Titans

I saw this movie in 2D after hearing that the 3D sucked.   (Experience with the “converted-to-3D” Alice suggested such conversions were no good, anyway.)  Though unfamiliar with the original movie, I had high hopes for this one—I figured, giant monsters fighting each other, how could it go wrong?

Alas, the title misled me, and the movie was a confusing jumble, with a demigod and his companions on a quest to stop the Kraken.  The visual effects were fine, and some of the battles were pretty sweet, but the hero and his companions were all stock characters without a lick of inventiveness about them, and you could pretty much predict the order they’d die in.

I think that this was possibly the most disappointing movie of the last two months, simply because it would have been so easy to make this better than it was.

Kick-Ass

Now this was a tremendously awesome movie.  The girlfriend described it as Kill Bill with an 11-year-old, and that’s damned accurate for parts of it.  The trailers made this look like as if it was a “teenage boy decides to become a superhero”, which does happen, but what the movie actually does is show how awful and horrifying such a life can be for everyone involved in it.  It pulls this off with a lot of profanity, graphic violence, and touching moments of humour and kindness.  This is certainly one of my favourites so far this year.

Iron Man 2

The original Iron Man movie was a tough act to follow.  It came out of nowhere, and was so good at balancing action and character depth and development.  Thus, I had a lot of trepidation about the sequel.  Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed.

Iron Man 2 was a good movie.  Not as good as its predecessor, not quite becoming great.  But it was entertaining.  Lots of great action sequences.  It was fun.  I think, however, that they tried to cram in too much character development without giving enough screen time to do it right, leaving it feeling rushed and superficial.  I would have happily given up some of the action sequences in favour of the character depth.

My fondest hope is that the inevitable Iron Man 3 raises the bar again, rather than dropping the ball as all of Marvel’s other part threes have.

Gunless

This was a Canadian Western movie starring Paul Gross.  That may tell you everything you need to know.  Overall, it was pretty entertaining.  It had genuinely funny moments, but also its share of cliches.  It doesn’t redefine the Western genre or anything, but is well-produced and well-performed.  Fun, and worth watching if you come across it.

Robin Hood

This movie was much better than I expected, although it was severely lacking in Alan Rickman.  While it is supposedly an origin story of Robin Hood, there was very little about it that had any meaningful connection to various Robin Hood legends other than the character names.  Other people have referred to this as “Gladiator in England”, and they’re not wrong.  Still, the story was coherent and compelling (although my medievalist friends were less than enamored of certain aspects), the soundtrack was good, and—apart from some shaky-cam—the battle scenes were fun.  A quality movie overall.

Shrek Forever After

The fourth Shrek movie was another pleasant surprise.  I had felt that the second and third movies in the franchise veered a little too much into self-congratulation and knowing winks to the audience in the form of wall-to-wall pop culture references, but this movie was closer to the original in form.  It didn’t beat you over the head with pop culture references (though it still had them), it did beat you over the head with the character arc (as all of the others have done), and it worked as a fun, lighthearted movie.  I liked it almost as much as the first.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

This may be the best movie ever made that was based on a video game.  By that comment, I certainly do mean to damn with faint praise.

Apart from the more general issues (none of the princes of Persia look especially Persian, for example), my major criticism relates to the action and parkour scenes.  Unlike Jenn, I found the parkour scenes uneven.  The sequence when he was a kid was great, with all the action and moves visible and easy to follow.  Once Jake Gyllenhaal takes the screen, the camera zooms in so all you can see are his rippling pecs, and none of the actual parkour.  Admittedly, Jenn and I are in different demographics, and so her appreciation of the “parkour” may have a different motive than mine.

Anyway, the movie was entertaining, even though a number of the characters acted in completely arbitrary and/or stupid ways in order to further the plot.  The rationale behind the ending was unclear, and the ending itself was a bit of a cop-out, undermining everything that happened in the movie itself.  I think this is best considered as the sort of movie that you might watch on late-night TV rather than seeking it out on purpose.

[Update 02 July 2010] How could I forget the best part of this movie?  The ostrich racing, ran by Alfred Molina’s character.  That was almost worth the price of admission itself.  (To clarify, this is ostrich racing where the ostriches have riders.  So like horse races, not dog races.  Awesome.)

The Karate Kid

I went to see this movie because, well, it was a cheap weekend morning  movie and nothing else was out at the time.  I was sort of appalled when I saw the trailers for a movie called The Karate Kid where they were clearly studying kung fu, and also that they were remaking a cheesy 80’s movie series.  I mean, I think Jackie Chan was a great choice for the mentor, but they turned it into a little kids’ movie.

But it turns out the movie wasn’t so bad.  I found it a little slow to begin with, but I was actually pretty impressed with the fight choreography when stuff started going down.  They gave Chan’s character a bit more depth than Mr. Miyagi got in his first movie, and had some nice training montages.  Jaden Smith did a good job as a lead, too, for such a young actor.  I was rather surprised to see full-contact martial arts tournament in a kid-oriented movie, too, but I certainly enjoyed it.  Perhaps not worth heading out to see, but not a bad watch.

The A-Team

This movie was delightful.  The cast was solid in taking over roles from the classic TV show, the plot was delightfully ridiculous, and the action non-stop.  In fact, my only criticism might be that there was too much action, and so the audience was left with little down time.  I think I would have enjoyed some longer, more in-depth planning sequences than we were treated to, but that’s a minor quibble.  The movie poked fun at itself and its origins, cleverly acknowledging how ridiculous their plans could get and mocking the action movie genre in general.

Oh, one other thing: the final action sequence was perhaps a bit too explosive.  Without giving anything away, let me just say that the same people who built the hotel in Quantum of Solace turned their hands to shipbuilding, leading to a climactic battle that was just a little too CGI-heavy and over-the-top (a.k.a. Michael Bay-like).  But the movie is super-fun overall.

Toy Story 3

I ended up seeing this movie twice, once in 3D and once in 2D, for two reasons: both showings were cheap, and it was really good.  Now, I’m not really a fan of the Toy Story franchise.  I’ve only watched the first one on TV while doing something else, and I don’t think I had seen the second at all.  (I came to Pixar around Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo, and have been stuck with them ever since—except for Cars.)  I say this to clarify that I don’t have 15 years of history with these characters.

Nonetheless, the movie was tightly plotted, with well-paced plot and emotional arcs (as I have come to expect from Pixar) and an ending that left me teary-eyed both times.  (Not Up-weepy, but still not bad.)  It’s just a really well-done movie, and should be satisfying to fans of the other two.

Regarding the 2D versus 3D: I saw the 3D one first, and honestly didn’t notice it much, except for the two or three occasions where they did something up really high and I thought, “Now there’s a shot put in for 3D.”  More to the point, I didn’t miss anything at all in the 2D version—it seemed perfectly excellent to me.  So maybe saving your extra $3 is not a bad thing, but see this movie.  Highly recommended.

Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm: Another Triumph!

Last night, I saw Jonathan Coulton (with Paul and Storm) for the third time.  As expected, it was a great show.

In general, I prefer the music of Coulton to Paul and Storm (though I like both quite a lot), but in the live shows, Paul and Storm are absolutely hilarious in their between-song banter.  Most of the stuff they had played in their previous shows, but that included favourites like “Nun Fight”, “Live”, and “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” so it was much appreciated.  They also played a couple of songs I hadn’t heard before, and I very much enjoyed “Frogger! The Frogger Musical”.  By the end of the opening act, my jaw was aching from laughing so much.

Coulton took the stage after a short break, and basically played all of my favourite songs of his.  He also did a few I was less familiar with, although “Sunny Blue Day”, which I first heard at his last show in Toronto, is rapidly becoming another favourite.  An excellent set indeed.

About the only thing I’m unsure of  was the venue.  Previous shows were at the Lula Lounge, which didn’t have assigned seating, but had a friendly and comfortable atmosphere, and felt like a more intimate space.  In contrast, the Enwave Theatre was a bit bigger and a proper theatre, with a stage, balconies, and the like, but it felt… stodgier.  The staff enforced no food/drink/photography rules, when a quick search of YouTube will demonstrate that Coulton is not shy about letting fans record his shows.  And while everyone had a good view thanks to how the seating was arranged, the openness of the theatre space made it feel sort of empty.

(However, that may be an issue unique to me.  My seat was on the balcony nearest the stage—great view, but no one in front of or behind us.  So I didn’t get that feeling of being in a crowd at concert.  During the chorus to “Re: Your Brains” when the audience joins in, I wasn’t surrounded by a horde of singing zombies as I was at the Lula Lounge.  But even down below, the crowd seemed tamer than previous year’s shows.)

Anyway, an excellent show all around.  If you ever get the chance to see either Coulton or Paul and Storm, take it.