Hello dear reader. Below is a short statement, a mission statement if you will. Some of you will agree with it however I suspect most of you will think I’m in the minority. Either way I believe the following to be true and no matter what reasoned arguments you want to throw in my direction my belief is unwavering.
“DC is better than Marvel, FACT”.
I can’t remember a time when I haven’t thought DC was best. As far as I’m concerned Batman and Superman have always been the big boys on the block and despite the fact Marvel seem to be cool at the moment and ruling the roost with multiplex box office takings with offerings like Iron Man and The Avengers, they don’t have a “Big Bad” that’s even in the same league as the Joker. Superman is the original comic book superhero and all that follow do so is the knowledge that he is the archetype and always will be.
Now I know there will be people out there practically beside themselves shouting things like what about the X-men, Spiderman or even the Hulk. To them I say this, for every Wolverine, Goblin and Abomination there will always be a Bane, General Zod and The Riddler to put them in their place. That said I’m all for discussions and debate as long as you understand that I will never think you’re right and may call you stupid pants if you try.
Right now I’ve got that off my chest we can continue…
Back in the summer of 2011 Warner brothers announced to the world that they were going to make another Superman film. This coming after the Bryan Singers largely underperforming “Superman Returns” back in 2006. This announcement was further met with raised eyebrows and scepticism when along with the declaration of a new son of Krypton movie they announced that it would be a complete reboot of the entire franchise. Now a lot of people, myself included, hold the original Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner films in very high regard and any attempt to “re-do” them is was always going to be met with a large amount of complaining and disagreements from the uber fans.
Let’s not forget that reboots and remakes seem to be Hollywood’s go to commodity at the moment. The Spiderman man films had a reboot less than eleven years after the original. Total Recall was another that found itself being brought to the big screen again, twenty two years after Arnold first “got his arse to Mars” and within the next twelve months we’ll have more reincarnations of Mad Max and Robocop to play with. So given that this was a big reboot and seeing what failures had come before, somebody over at Warner Brothers had obviously taken a large consignment of brave pills.
So let’s start at the beginning. Warners knew that once they’d given the green light they’d need to find someone who could handle the responsibility of constructing a summer blockbuster. A director who was competent dealing with an action and effects heavy movie. They originally contemplated the idea of asking Christopher Nolan to pick up the megaphone duties as he had done a damn fine job of bringing Batman back to life but given that he was half way through filming The Dark Knight Rises at the time and that he didn’t want to sign up for another comic book franchise, he declined. He did however agree to stay on as a producer.
They eventually settled on Zack Snyder. He had previously given the world 300 and Watchman. Both of these films had been based on graphic novels so asking Snyder to adapt a comic book hero on to the big screen just made sense. With Snyder in place, Nolan producing and a screen play being written by David S Goyer, who had also had a hand in writting all three Batman films, the building blocks were in place to create the perfect storm.
Next came casting. As a general rule the role of Superman, when it comes to films, has always been given to a newcomer. Christopher Reeve got the honours in the initial Richard Donner films and then Bryan singer cast the little known Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. Synder ended up casting Henry Cavil in the pivotal role. Although Cavil wasn’t an unknown he certainly wasn’t part of Hollywood’s “A-List”. His most famous roles being in the TV series “The Tudors” and the lead in the film “Immortals”. He also just happened to have the squarest jaw this side of the Thunderbirds and more than ample frame required to fill the famous costume.
Snyder then added the American character actor Michael Shannon as General Zod. A role made famous originally by the British actor Terrance “Kneel” Stamp. When it came to Clark Kent’s parents, both here on earth and back on sunny Krypton, Snyder cast two actors who have both played Robin Hood, Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe. Now I’m not sure if this was deliberate but I can say after watching Man of Steel that neither actor was required to wear green tights during the entire film there were no bows and arrows used either. Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne round out the other major parts in the film as Lois Lane and Perry White respectively.
The film opens on Krypton but instead of giving us just a quick five minutes there and then shifting the story to our little corner of the solar system, we’re given a long and visually striking battle that sets up Russell Crowe's Jor-El And General Zod as enemies. Zod realises that Kal-El, who is just about to catch the 09:30 express space pod to Earth, is the only one that can resurrect his soon to be doomed race, having been genetically encoded with their Codex. This Codex is basically a blue print for all of Krypton’s future unborn. A race of people who are born and raised to fulfil specific purpose, whether it’s as a soldier, a politician or a doctor etc.
We then find ourselves on earth and the first part of the film basically takes us through how Clark Kent was raised and how he became the man he is today. This is mostly done through flash back and after I while I found this annoying. You never really get a sense of cohesion with the story and where it’s going. This is a shame as I’m sure if these scenes were shown in the right order they’d make for a far more compelling story.
Ma and Pa Kent played by Diane Lane and the aforementioned Costner do their best to raise the child that they have found and although they don’t have much time on screen they give Clark his moral centre. Costner actually gives a very good performance and is under used in my opinion.
One of the major things Clark has to deal with as he’s growing up is being bullied and not being able to use his powers to protect himself. This is due to the fact that he has promised that he won’t reveal that he’s different as his father believes the world isn’t ready for that yet. It’s this promise that ultimately causes his father’s demise as he finds himself in a position that only he can solve.
The Second part of the film deals with what happens once General Zod and his merry men arrive on Earth having discovered that this is where Kal-El was sent. Zod gives the people of Earth twenty four hours to turn over Kal-El to him or face the consequences. As Kal-El or Clark has yet to reveal himself or his powers to anyone, other than Lois Lane and we’ll get to that later, he finds himself at a loss as to what to do. He knows that turning himself over is almost certainly a trap but he also doesn’t want anyone to suffer on his behalf. After some soul searching he hands himself over and faster than you could get Admiral Ackbar to pop up and say “It’s a trap” he realises it’s a trap. However he promptly escapes and wouldn’t you know it finds himself right back in the middle of Smallville (small world eh). What follows is best described at a battle. Between Superman, Zod and the US army as they basically make the town “open plan”. Big old Superman wins the day but before you can say “please, General Zod, don’t go and activate a gravity well over Metropolis” he goes and does just that. The main reason being that he wants to start a terraforming process that will turn the Earth in a new Krypton and apparently gravity wells are all the rage when it comes to villains these days.
The Battle in Metropolis is epic and also isn’t short on the obliteration scale either. Whole skyscrapers are raised to the ground and there’s a lot of unseen death and destruction. Although it’s never really mentioned thousands of people must die during this clash and at times it left a bitter taste in my mouth. The original films put people in danger but you knew that Superman would always save the day.
The ending of the film is also slightly controversial as Superman must break his unwritten rule when it comes to taking life in order to save others. This death and the two previous confrontations do go some way to realising why this film has been given a 12A certificate.
However my main problem with the film is not its excessive violence but rather the relationship Lois and Superman have or for that matter don’t have. They are hardly given any screen time together at all but we are supposed to buy their emotional investment in each other by the end of the film. The have a scene at the end where they kiss and it just doesn’t work at all and falls flat. I hope this relationship gets expanded on as and when the sequel arrives as it is the films main failing. The one thing I will say that does work with the Lois and Clark relationship is that because of events we see unfolding during the course of the film, Lois knows that Clark is Superman. I think it’s appropriate that the time has come an investigative journalist can spot that a pair of glasses won’t do much to hide someone’s identity or alter ego.
In closing I would just like to say that despite its problems Man of Steel is a great film. There are issues that I would like to address, such as, how does he shave? But all in all it’s definitely worth a watch. The Score composed by Hans Zimmer is breathtakingly magnificent at times and gives the John Williams music a run for its money. If you do go and see it keep an eye out for nods to things that may come to pass in future films. There is more than one use of the “Lex Corp” sign and the very eagle eyed should also be able to catch a glimpse of a “Wayne Enterprises” logo as well.
If I were pushed to give this a score out of ten I’d say it was a solid eight. Not the best comic book adaptation to come out of Warner Brother and DC but the groundwork has been laid and I think things will get better. Only time will tell…..
Twitter Review:
The original Superhero returns. Underwear missing, action isn’t. Synder, Nolan & Goyer oh my....
#TheClarkKnight
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlOF03DUoWc
Sunday 14 July 2013
Monday 1 July 2013
Hangover 3, Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek Into Darkness
Well, hello there readers. Firstly an apology from my good self, it’s been a while since my last entry here. Several weeks, days and hours have transpired since I dazzled you with my witty and urbane review of Iron Man 3. I can only say sorry and offer up an excuse. Once you reach the level of celebrity that I have now achieved, your days are filled with public appearances, opening supermarkets, filming adverts for Gucci and Ronseal and doing a lot of work for charity, which as you can imagine doesn’t leave you with much time to sit down and blog. You, dear reader, can choose to believe that or you can take what’s on offer behind door number two. The simple truth of the matter is I’ve just been the wrong side of busy.
So because of this there will now be a review of the last three films that I have seen in the good old picture house. These films being in no particular order “The Hangover 3”, “Fast & Furious 6” and “Star Trek into Darkness”.
So sit back, relax, take the cat off the hook and put the phone out. I shall start purely at random with The Hangover 3.
The first Hangover film was unleashed into the wild back in the summer of 2009 and due to its box office success a sequel was promptly ordered. The premise of the first film for those not in the know is basically take one stag party, stir in a large portion of “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” and then turn up to 11. Whilst turning it up to 11 chuck in a cameo from Mike Tyson, a tiger in a ruined hotel suite and a scene stealing performance from Zach Galifianakis. I happen rather to like this film. It’s widely un-pc in places, doesn’t take itself too seriously and if you squint really hard, put your hands over your ears and make very loud “La La La” noises it is almost possible to forget that there are two films that follow it.
The problem with the follow-ups is that for the second film all they seemed to do was take the plot of the film and just move it lock, stock and barrel to Bangkok. It wasn’t anywhere near as funny as the first and you really got the feeling that all the actors involved were just going through their “contractual obligations” whilst filming it. However it also seemed to put the right figures in the right columns with regards to box office takings and those lovely chaps at Warner Brothers asked the director Todd Phillips to write another screenplay and then threw money at the actors until they said yes. Now the major problem with the third film is that it’s a completely different animal from the first two. It almost borders on black comedy in places, it’s uncomfortable to watch and I spent a lot of the third act sitting in my seat thinking “really?” to myself. It’s set back in Vegas and again has the “Wolfpack” getting themselves caught up, through no fault of their own, with criminal underworld. John Goodman plays the big bad and plays it very well. It’s the sort of performance that he can do on autopilot.
Even after some distance between seeing the film and writing this blog I’m still struggling to find positives about it. The only glimmer of hope I offer you dear reader is that everyone involved with the trilogy, including the recently Oscar nominated Bradley Cooper, has said that this is the end, there will be no more. I’d like to hope this is true but I’m the same way I once saw a certain George Lucas proclaim that there would never be a Star Wars VII, VIII & IV, I doubt it will be…..
Fast & Furious 6. Well where do I start??? I can safely say without too much fear of contradiction that this is not a Merchant Ivory production. It basically, like the Ronseal mentioned before, does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’re looking for a no nonsense, bang for your buck and leave your brain at the door way to switch off for 130 minutes then look no further. The plot and I do use that word with a wry smile centres around a crew of international mercenary drivers who according to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson need to be taken down. And of course the only people who are good enough to do the aforementioned “down taking” are all in exile around the world. The reason that they are all scattered to the four corners is due to the shenanigans that have taken place over the course of the previous five films, which I’m happy to report you do not need to see before embarking on film six.
The leader of this band of merry men and women is Vin Diesels “Dominic Toretto”. The Rock offers them all pardons and the chance of a return to normal life and before you can say “mirror, signal, manoeuvre” they find themselves in our very own London causing the sorts of mayhem and destruction that you usually only get from TFL engineering works. There are some great action set pieces in the film including a totally believable car chase through London’s west end with those charming police chaps leaning out of their car windows and using machine guns (wry smile people, wry smile). As well as that there is also a rather over the top action battle that has a tank, bridges blowing up and more handbrake turns than you can shake a set of fluffy dice at. However the big grand finale takes place in Spain. It involves a large cargo carrying plane, several vehicles and without doubt what has to be the longest runway every committed to celluloid. It’s beyond ridiculous. I’m sure it must cross at least three time zones.
That said I did actually enjoy this film. It’s entertaining and frantic and also funny when it tries to be. I will say this as well, whoever the sound engineer was on this film obviously wasn’t getting paid by the hour. They must have gone in to the recording booth and turned all the faders up to maximum and gone home. It’s earth shatteringly loud and you could need fillings replaced after you’ve seen it. The other little treat it has hidden up its sleeve is an end of credits scene that has the one and only (spoiler alert) Jason Statham being set up as the next baddie for Fast & Furious 7 and given that F&F 6 just had Universals biggest opening weekend since Jurassic Park I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before vehicular warfare once again descends into your nearest multiplex.
Star Trek into Darkness. Ok you lovely people it’s time to be controversial. When it comes it comes franchises that have the word Star in them, I’ve always found myself leaning towards Trek as opposed to Wars (Lights blue touch paper and retires).
Back in 2009 JJ “lens flare” Abrams was given the task of rebooting a Star Trek universe that had seemed to have collapsed under its own weight. Five television series, six if you included the short lived animated series form the 70’s and ten films. The last of which was received with a whimper by its fans. So when Paramount asked Abrams to re-launch the brand many of the diehard fans were up in arms. By his own admission he had never been a fan of the shows but that may have been an advantage as he came in and was given a clean slate to work with. His idea was simple. Take it back to the beginning and show how Kirk, Spock and company first started out. Basic training at Starfleet and how the Infamous Enterprise crew came to be. Then throw in a little bit of time travel so you can have Leonard Nimoy pop up for some much needed words of wisdom. Thankfully it all worked and now four years later we find ourselves with the much anticipated sequel.
One of the criticisms of the first film was the villain was a bit lacklustre. Thankfully the Trek universe has a few adversaries of note to choose from and Abrams went to the top of the list when putting his film together. He then got the very talented Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch to play him and as everyone knows, if you want a bad guy played well, they need to be British. The bad guy in question is Khan (sorry there should have been a spoiler alert there) and Benedict plays him perfectly. He’s a one man weapon of mass destruction and seems hell bent on bringing Starfleet to its knees. Kirk, who has a personal score to settle and co are sent after him and as luck would have it they find him on the Klingon home world. What follows is a giant chess game of life and death. Cat and mouse, move and counter move which at one point actually brings Kirk and Khan together to fight of another oppressor.
At its core it’s a 132 minute rollercoaster of a ride and takes you by the scruff of the neck from the very first scene and doesn’t let up until the credits roll. It’s a credit to Abrams that he manages to pull this off. It’s ticks both the visual and substance boxes and may have gone some way to ease the concerns of the Star Wars fans he’s about to entertain. Episode VII will almost certainly be visually spectacular and will almost certainly have the odd shot of lens flare in it. I just hope he has some input and say with regards to the screenplay as that’s where the previous three Star Wars fell down quite considerably. Star Trek Into Darkness is a great film and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone at Paramount in the not too distant future gave the green light to another series based in the Trek universe….
Hangover 3
Twitter Review:
The Wolfpack are hopefully now on the endangered species list. Not funny, not good and not needed.
#QuitWhilstYoureBehind
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951261/?ref_=sr_2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUUvJ3jGC4Y
Fast And Furious 6
Twitter Review:
Cars, Guns, Chaos and a smattering of eye candy. Brains not required but ear plugs may be.
#LoudProud&DangerousToKnow
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1905041/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKi5XoeTN0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JZKEN_vpzY
Star Trek Into Darkness
Twitter Review:
Kirk & Khan "The Rematch". sky box office not required just a truck load of popcorn and put your smile on standy.
#MayTheForceBeWithYou
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408101/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAEkuVgt6Aw
So because of this there will now be a review of the last three films that I have seen in the good old picture house. These films being in no particular order “The Hangover 3”, “Fast & Furious 6” and “Star Trek into Darkness”.
So sit back, relax, take the cat off the hook and put the phone out. I shall start purely at random with The Hangover 3.
The first Hangover film was unleashed into the wild back in the summer of 2009 and due to its box office success a sequel was promptly ordered. The premise of the first film for those not in the know is basically take one stag party, stir in a large portion of “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” and then turn up to 11. Whilst turning it up to 11 chuck in a cameo from Mike Tyson, a tiger in a ruined hotel suite and a scene stealing performance from Zach Galifianakis. I happen rather to like this film. It’s widely un-pc in places, doesn’t take itself too seriously and if you squint really hard, put your hands over your ears and make very loud “La La La” noises it is almost possible to forget that there are two films that follow it.
The problem with the follow-ups is that for the second film all they seemed to do was take the plot of the film and just move it lock, stock and barrel to Bangkok. It wasn’t anywhere near as funny as the first and you really got the feeling that all the actors involved were just going through their “contractual obligations” whilst filming it. However it also seemed to put the right figures in the right columns with regards to box office takings and those lovely chaps at Warner Brothers asked the director Todd Phillips to write another screenplay and then threw money at the actors until they said yes. Now the major problem with the third film is that it’s a completely different animal from the first two. It almost borders on black comedy in places, it’s uncomfortable to watch and I spent a lot of the third act sitting in my seat thinking “really?” to myself. It’s set back in Vegas and again has the “Wolfpack” getting themselves caught up, through no fault of their own, with criminal underworld. John Goodman plays the big bad and plays it very well. It’s the sort of performance that he can do on autopilot.
Even after some distance between seeing the film and writing this blog I’m still struggling to find positives about it. The only glimmer of hope I offer you dear reader is that everyone involved with the trilogy, including the recently Oscar nominated Bradley Cooper, has said that this is the end, there will be no more. I’d like to hope this is true but I’m the same way I once saw a certain George Lucas proclaim that there would never be a Star Wars VII, VIII & IV, I doubt it will be…..
Fast & Furious 6. Well where do I start??? I can safely say without too much fear of contradiction that this is not a Merchant Ivory production. It basically, like the Ronseal mentioned before, does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’re looking for a no nonsense, bang for your buck and leave your brain at the door way to switch off for 130 minutes then look no further. The plot and I do use that word with a wry smile centres around a crew of international mercenary drivers who according to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson need to be taken down. And of course the only people who are good enough to do the aforementioned “down taking” are all in exile around the world. The reason that they are all scattered to the four corners is due to the shenanigans that have taken place over the course of the previous five films, which I’m happy to report you do not need to see before embarking on film six.
The leader of this band of merry men and women is Vin Diesels “Dominic Toretto”. The Rock offers them all pardons and the chance of a return to normal life and before you can say “mirror, signal, manoeuvre” they find themselves in our very own London causing the sorts of mayhem and destruction that you usually only get from TFL engineering works. There are some great action set pieces in the film including a totally believable car chase through London’s west end with those charming police chaps leaning out of their car windows and using machine guns (wry smile people, wry smile). As well as that there is also a rather over the top action battle that has a tank, bridges blowing up and more handbrake turns than you can shake a set of fluffy dice at. However the big grand finale takes place in Spain. It involves a large cargo carrying plane, several vehicles and without doubt what has to be the longest runway every committed to celluloid. It’s beyond ridiculous. I’m sure it must cross at least three time zones.
That said I did actually enjoy this film. It’s entertaining and frantic and also funny when it tries to be. I will say this as well, whoever the sound engineer was on this film obviously wasn’t getting paid by the hour. They must have gone in to the recording booth and turned all the faders up to maximum and gone home. It’s earth shatteringly loud and you could need fillings replaced after you’ve seen it. The other little treat it has hidden up its sleeve is an end of credits scene that has the one and only (spoiler alert) Jason Statham being set up as the next baddie for Fast & Furious 7 and given that F&F 6 just had Universals biggest opening weekend since Jurassic Park I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before vehicular warfare once again descends into your nearest multiplex.
Star Trek into Darkness. Ok you lovely people it’s time to be controversial. When it comes it comes franchises that have the word Star in them, I’ve always found myself leaning towards Trek as opposed to Wars (Lights blue touch paper and retires).
Back in 2009 JJ “lens flare” Abrams was given the task of rebooting a Star Trek universe that had seemed to have collapsed under its own weight. Five television series, six if you included the short lived animated series form the 70’s and ten films. The last of which was received with a whimper by its fans. So when Paramount asked Abrams to re-launch the brand many of the diehard fans were up in arms. By his own admission he had never been a fan of the shows but that may have been an advantage as he came in and was given a clean slate to work with. His idea was simple. Take it back to the beginning and show how Kirk, Spock and company first started out. Basic training at Starfleet and how the Infamous Enterprise crew came to be. Then throw in a little bit of time travel so you can have Leonard Nimoy pop up for some much needed words of wisdom. Thankfully it all worked and now four years later we find ourselves with the much anticipated sequel.
One of the criticisms of the first film was the villain was a bit lacklustre. Thankfully the Trek universe has a few adversaries of note to choose from and Abrams went to the top of the list when putting his film together. He then got the very talented Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch to play him and as everyone knows, if you want a bad guy played well, they need to be British. The bad guy in question is Khan (sorry there should have been a spoiler alert there) and Benedict plays him perfectly. He’s a one man weapon of mass destruction and seems hell bent on bringing Starfleet to its knees. Kirk, who has a personal score to settle and co are sent after him and as luck would have it they find him on the Klingon home world. What follows is a giant chess game of life and death. Cat and mouse, move and counter move which at one point actually brings Kirk and Khan together to fight of another oppressor.
At its core it’s a 132 minute rollercoaster of a ride and takes you by the scruff of the neck from the very first scene and doesn’t let up until the credits roll. It’s a credit to Abrams that he manages to pull this off. It’s ticks both the visual and substance boxes and may have gone some way to ease the concerns of the Star Wars fans he’s about to entertain. Episode VII will almost certainly be visually spectacular and will almost certainly have the odd shot of lens flare in it. I just hope he has some input and say with regards to the screenplay as that’s where the previous three Star Wars fell down quite considerably. Star Trek Into Darkness is a great film and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone at Paramount in the not too distant future gave the green light to another series based in the Trek universe….
Hangover 3
Twitter Review:
The Wolfpack are hopefully now on the endangered species list. Not funny, not good and not needed.
#QuitWhilstYoureBehind
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951261/?ref_=sr_2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUUvJ3jGC4Y
Fast And Furious 6
Twitter Review:
Cars, Guns, Chaos and a smattering of eye candy. Brains not required but ear plugs may be.
#LoudProud&DangerousToKnow
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1905041/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKi5XoeTN0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JZKEN_vpzY
Star Trek Into Darkness
Twitter Review:
Kirk & Khan "The Rematch". sky box office not required just a truck load of popcorn and put your smile on standy.
#MayTheForceBeWithYou
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408101/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAEkuVgt6Aw
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