Director Bryan Singer, the man behind X-Men and X2 is back after a three "X-Men" break. Since his return, the world has seen numerous Wolverine films as well as three additional X-Men films. With all of these films involving mutants and various world conflicts, many are probably asking why should i go see this one OR what does this one do that makes it stand out? Well, it's Memorial Day weekend and with the extra time on hand, it would be a solid investment when it comes to the movies. For what it's worth, i give the movie a rating of 3.5/5.
At the end of X-Men First Class, we saw a young Professor X crippled due to a bullet that ricocheted off of Magneto and into his spine, paralyzing him. This film, set in the present day, involves many of those same mutants and friends squaring off against an entity known as Sentinals. If you are a nerd like me, you remember the comic books and think, "The big red/purple guys that are stupid, slow and can be killed by Wolverine." Well, as it turns out, no. These are machines that have been implanted with programs about mutants, as well as Mystique's DNA, allowing them to morph into or avoid the powers of other mutants in order to avoid being killed. Bottom line: they are Terminators with mutant powers. In order to avoid total destruction as a race, mutants must rise together, go back in time and stop the production of Sentinals from ever taking place. They are able to do this by sending Wolverine back in time (because he can constantly heal) and fight/discuss/be a BA with mutants in the 1970's. Wolverine has one task, get Mystique to avoid killing a man named Trask. Trask is played by our favorite Game of Thrones character, Peter Dinklage. Trask doesn't hate mutants like many of his peers, but he does want to make a lot of money destroying them with weapons he creates. Basically, he is Tony Stark without a conscience for good.
Anyway, Wolverine makes his way through the 70's meeting old and new mutants, while also avoiding his temper. Hugh Jackman knows his roll in these movies and he does a good job helping keep the plot moving forward. Among the characters that he meets along his journey is Quicksilver. Quicksilver is a mutant that can move super fast. In this movie, he is the only character that has fun with his role. He helps Wolverine and others save Magneto from prison. As a nerd, i was disappointed that Magneto was not told that this was his son, but i digress...
While the movie has good action scenes, fun characters and the right director back at the helm, I have the same problem with this movie as I had with Godzilla: too many "stolen" parts from other movies. I'm not saying that every movie must be original and knock our minds out of the world like Inception. However, when most of the movie is giving credit to previous films, even films done by the same franchise, it takes away from what it was once trying to add to the current film. Any time you deal with TIME TRAVEL, you must go up against any Terminator film, which this one does. Even the "End of the World" scenarios seem like they came from T2. Wolverine encounters so many "flashbacks" while he is in time travel mode that it seemed like Mr. Singer had a chance to throw insults at the other X-Men films that he had nothing to do with, as well as try to close gaps between films. This all may be fine, it just seems a bit forced.
With all that said, the movie has a good pace, is solid and has a great cast from all the films, so there is that. The film does bode well for the future of the franchise, which couldn't always be said. The film simply ends, leaving the next director a lot of leeway in where they take the next film. That may be good, but with the X-Men franchise, while the films are solid, the company or studio doesn't seem how to plot the course or have a plan with where to take these films in the future, unlike The Avengers and their characters. They have a specific plan with where they go and in turn, they are able to give their films a bit more identity.
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Saturday, May 24, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
The Big Guy: Godzilla Review!
As David Ershon famously said in The Other Guys, "Americans live for excess. American sports contracts, Wendy's Baconnator, with extra bacon." When it comes to movies with BIG heroes or CGI battle sequences, most of the time, movie goers love watching things go BOOM. On the eve of another Transformers movie, and just months after the nerd favorite Pacific Rim, here comes the grand-poba of them all: Godzilla.
Godzilla is set in our present day world, and involves Walter White, i mean, Bryan Cranston, who plays another scientist. He works in Japan at a nuclear power plant when something goes terribly wrong and his wife is killed in a radiation leak. This causes Mr. Cranston to plunge into a 15 year search for the truth about "that terrible day." Obviously, you've seen the trailers and know that it is not an earthquake, but something much worst that caused a nuclear power plant to collapse and expose millions. Anyway, this leads to other scientist, the navy and Mr. Cranston's son, Ford, to become involved in the plot. But, let's get to the nitty-gritty: Does the movie deliver the goods when it comes to the big fella?
For what it's worth, i give the movie 3/5 stars. It is an average popcorn, summer going, blockbuster. Godzilla does look amazing, as do the bad monsters he's up against. These monsters apparently need nuclear energy/radiation from our nukes to survive, and Godzilla is nature's way of restoring the balance for humanity's inability to stop destroying the earth or creating weird animals because of our nuclear tests back in the 40s. Anyway, Godzilla looks great, as do the other monsters, which is to be expected with a budget of over $160 million and a great CGI team. No, the problem is not Godzilla. The problem comes with the "other details" of the film.
The director, Gareth Edwards should be applauded for not jumping right into action and destruction scenes, Transformers style. In fact, he does a good job building up to the BIG FELLA entering with his ferrous scream. Mr. Edwards even tries to build some chemistry with the actors, trying to get some empathy for the characters involved and build a palpable sense of urgency for Godzilla's entrance. No, where the film fails is "the other stuff."
The movie, frankly, jumps around too much. There are scenes that begin in 1999, then present day, then present day San Francisco, then Oakland, the Hawaii. There seems to be so many small intercut scenes from one area to the next that the film quite literally doesn't gain too much traction. Then, when it does get rolling, Mr. Edwards falls into the same trap that every big budget monster film seems to go for: fighting monsters in the dark. From King Kong by Peter Jackson, to the recent Pacific Rim, monsters seem to like fighting in the dark, rendering the CGI or "Bigness" of the film moot because we CAN'T see anything very well. Yes, there are parts where we see Godzilla quite well, but for the most part, everything seems to happen at night, or we literally get small snap shots of the beasts (a TV monitor in a casino, hospital, or elevator doors closing as we see monsters engaged in battle, etc.). It is truly a bit of a downer, because again, Mr. Edwards tried to at least get a story going, characters interacting and diagnosing what is truly at stake. Too many times in monster movies, the directors don't even try to engage in character development (Here's to you Alien remakes, and the truly awful Transformer films), making the CGI the only "story," which ultimately, doesn't engage anyone or leave an impact because frankly, we've seen it all by now.
Now, with all that said, Mr. Edwards does have some fun with his film. He must give dozens of "props" to directors or films he loves, specifically Jurassic Park. The big foot prints, the looking through a fogged car, the big monster scream at the lonely human, etc. He clearly owes Spielberg a lot, which is great, but again, it takes a bit away from his vision of Godzilla. It's hard to say if Pacific Rim impacted the direction of this film, but i can only wonder, as there seemed to be a bit of "kudos" to that film as well. Whatever the case, the film had a huge opening weekend, does a decent job as a "summer action flick" and should not leave you bummed you went to see the big fella. My only question, when it comes to these things (sense i am a nerd) is: Can Godzilla be killed? Does he get a remake with Superman, and what happens if Marvel gets involved? My head is spinning...
Godzilla is set in our present day world, and involves Walter White, i mean, Bryan Cranston, who plays another scientist. He works in Japan at a nuclear power plant when something goes terribly wrong and his wife is killed in a radiation leak. This causes Mr. Cranston to plunge into a 15 year search for the truth about "that terrible day." Obviously, you've seen the trailers and know that it is not an earthquake, but something much worst that caused a nuclear power plant to collapse and expose millions. Anyway, this leads to other scientist, the navy and Mr. Cranston's son, Ford, to become involved in the plot. But, let's get to the nitty-gritty: Does the movie deliver the goods when it comes to the big fella?
For what it's worth, i give the movie 3/5 stars. It is an average popcorn, summer going, blockbuster. Godzilla does look amazing, as do the bad monsters he's up against. These monsters apparently need nuclear energy/radiation from our nukes to survive, and Godzilla is nature's way of restoring the balance for humanity's inability to stop destroying the earth or creating weird animals because of our nuclear tests back in the 40s. Anyway, Godzilla looks great, as do the other monsters, which is to be expected with a budget of over $160 million and a great CGI team. No, the problem is not Godzilla. The problem comes with the "other details" of the film.
The director, Gareth Edwards should be applauded for not jumping right into action and destruction scenes, Transformers style. In fact, he does a good job building up to the BIG FELLA entering with his ferrous scream. Mr. Edwards even tries to build some chemistry with the actors, trying to get some empathy for the characters involved and build a palpable sense of urgency for Godzilla's entrance. No, where the film fails is "the other stuff."
The movie, frankly, jumps around too much. There are scenes that begin in 1999, then present day, then present day San Francisco, then Oakland, the Hawaii. There seems to be so many small intercut scenes from one area to the next that the film quite literally doesn't gain too much traction. Then, when it does get rolling, Mr. Edwards falls into the same trap that every big budget monster film seems to go for: fighting monsters in the dark. From King Kong by Peter Jackson, to the recent Pacific Rim, monsters seem to like fighting in the dark, rendering the CGI or "Bigness" of the film moot because we CAN'T see anything very well. Yes, there are parts where we see Godzilla quite well, but for the most part, everything seems to happen at night, or we literally get small snap shots of the beasts (a TV monitor in a casino, hospital, or elevator doors closing as we see monsters engaged in battle, etc.). It is truly a bit of a downer, because again, Mr. Edwards tried to at least get a story going, characters interacting and diagnosing what is truly at stake. Too many times in monster movies, the directors don't even try to engage in character development (Here's to you Alien remakes, and the truly awful Transformer films), making the CGI the only "story," which ultimately, doesn't engage anyone or leave an impact because frankly, we've seen it all by now.
Now, with all that said, Mr. Edwards does have some fun with his film. He must give dozens of "props" to directors or films he loves, specifically Jurassic Park. The big foot prints, the looking through a fogged car, the big monster scream at the lonely human, etc. He clearly owes Spielberg a lot, which is great, but again, it takes a bit away from his vision of Godzilla. It's hard to say if Pacific Rim impacted the direction of this film, but i can only wonder, as there seemed to be a bit of "kudos" to that film as well. Whatever the case, the film had a huge opening weekend, does a decent job as a "summer action flick" and should not leave you bummed you went to see the big fella. My only question, when it comes to these things (sense i am a nerd) is: Can Godzilla be killed? Does he get a remake with Superman, and what happens if Marvel gets involved? My head is spinning...
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