And what has there been in the way of blogs from me during this? Zip, zero, nada comes the deafening response. Now before I regale you with excuses that would convince even the most cynical amongst you I will just say sorry and try to move on. Sure I could mention exotic trips to far flung locations like Berlin. I could also entertain you with lavish chronicles of ‘Awesome BBQs’ that would seem too good to be true or even try and divert your attention with yarns about slaving over a keyboard day and night, as and when free time was available, to try and complete an Open University course in creative writing but you’re all far to intelligent to buy into any of that mumbo jumbo. I dropped the ball and I’m sorry…
What follows are three daring and noble accounts of the films I have seen since I last blogged about ‘Godzilla’ or if you want me to put my newly acquired creative writing skills into practice ‘Films that I wented to see by Stjon Bavin aged forty two and a little bit.’
The first of my trio to get the ‘Bav’s Celluloid Musing’s’ treatment is the Tom Cruise sci-fi action thingy ‘The Edge of Tomorrow’. Now first of all I should say that this film doesn’t really know what it wants to be. This problem is further compounded by the fact that the studio who made it can’t seem to decided what they want to call it either. When the film was in pre-production it was called ‘All You Need is Kill’. This was the original name of the manga graphic novel written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, on which this film is based. Then about three months before it was released it had its name changed to ‘The Edge of Tomorrow’. Now just when you thought that this name changing nonsense couldn’t get more complicated Warners pulled the rug out from everyone again when it released the art work for its state side DVD release. It would now seem to be called ‘Live, Die, Repeat.’ Now setting aside these issues the film itself isn’t that bad. It does have its problems. The third act is a little weak, the main female lead, played by Emily Blunt, has the nickname ‘Full Metal Bitch’ (which I shall just file over there in the corner under ‘charming’) and the sword that she wields is lifted lock, stock and barrel straight out of Final Fantasy VII.
The plot of the film basically see’s Tom Cruises character ‘Cage’, who is an officer who’s never seen a day’s combat, dropped into what he sees as a suicide mission. Faced against overwhelming odds and an unrelenting alien force, that never seem to make mistakes, Cage finds himself stuck in a time loop. Living the same battles over and over till he finds a way to win. The fact that the Edge of Tomorrow has Cruise in it will put a lot of people off from wanting to see it but if you find yourself in the not too distant future with one hundred and thirteen minutes to spare and you feel inclined to watch a film, avoid ‘Muppets Most Wanted’, hide from ‘Three Days to Kill’ and give this little unappreciated piece of moviedom a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Twitter Review: It’s Groundhog Day with guns
#CruiseBlunt&ALotOfGrunt
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1631867/?ref_=nv_sr_18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUmSVcttXnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bydHcLDfWuY
Next on my hit list is the seventh, yes seventh, movie in the ever unstoppable motion picture juggernaut that is The X-Men. ‘Days of Future Past’ is another story that has been transferred onto the big screen from a previously released graphic novel. It also marks the first time that the cast from the Mathew Vaughan’s ‘X-Men: First Class’ have shared screen time with their older selves. Now trying to explain the intricacies of the plot maybe a little difficult as someone would need to explain a few of them to me first. I’ll start with my first ‘huh, how did that happen?’ moment. ‘Days of Future Past’ has both James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart playing ‘Charles Xavier’. Now I have no issue with Mr McAvoy gracing the screen as his Charles isn’t dead, whereas Mr Stewart’s Charles had hopped the twig, bitten the bullet, breathed his last and if you’ll permit me, kicked the bucket back in the third film ‘The Last Stand.’ Now I’ve never claimed to be an expert when it comes to the X-Men nor would I begin to even try and understand the particulars of how this complex time travel yarn works but at no point during the entire film is there even an attempt to explain how the older Charles just happens to be rolling around, ready to help save the day as and when required.
My second grumble with this charming tale of cause and effect is that (as expected) Wolverine is once again the main centre of attention. I haven’t read the graphic novel that the film takes its title from but I am lead to believe that Wolverine isn’t the X-Men Character that’s sent back in time to fight the good fight and generally help fix the future.
If ever there was a collection of individuals from a Superhero universe that had roughly a fifty fifty male and female spilt and that also had some very strong feminine leads that could have been utilised, then this would have been it. But I fear that Twentieth Century Fox and their bean counters may have had I very large part in guiding this screenplay into existence.
The film itself I would give a solid three out of five. But it had the potential so much more though. When you bring talent together like Ian McKellen, Ellen Page, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Hale Berry, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Peter Dinklage, to name but a few, onto the big screen you’d think that it would be hard to get it wrong. Its problem is that it never quite delivers on the sum of its parts. There are some great set pieces including one of the finest prison breaks you’re ever likely to see but it all just feels a little unbalanced. Joss Whedon may have raised the bar a little too high for other screenwriters when it comes to ensemble superhero films and this just feels like Simon Kinberg thought you’d be so busy leaning over to say to your friend in the cinema ‘Oh look that’s such and such from the last film’ or ‘Isn’t she the actress from The Hunger Games?’ that it wasn’t really necessary to burden you with anything resembling an admirable script.
And let’s not forget that this is a Marvel film after and that means a credit stinger. For those of you who don’t want to know what it revealed, look away now. For those that do I shall disclose the following. Film number eight ‘Apocalypse’ will be gracing multiplexes up and down the country in May of 2016. You have been warned….
Twitter Review:
Time travel with Adamantium. Lots of excess baggage and too complex
#MoreIsLess
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2zYHWDZKo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6acRHWnfZAE
Well, dear reader, you’ve made it. We are now at the third and dare I say it best of the three films I needed to play catch up with. A film that has a lot to offer. A film that has a talking tree, a racoon with a gun fetish, blue and green sisters that get on as well as North and South Korea, a charming muscle bound destroyer who takes everything literally and a male lead that is one part Han Solo, one part Indiana Jones and has just a dash of Malcom Reynolds from Firefly thrown in for good measure. The film is of course ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.
For Marvel to consider adapting this comic was a risk and a long way out of there comfort zone. Although they do have an excellent track record with films, there has been the odd dud released into the world. Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk spring to mind. So I suspect that Marvel’s CEO Kevin Feige must have thought long and hard before he gave the green light for this film.
Fitting this film into the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ became the responsibility of director James Gunn. A man that, by Hollywood standards, didn’t have a proven track record with big summer blockbusters. This didn’t seem to faze him at all and he has managed to serve up a very large slice of fun and entertainment. The script, which Mr Gunn also helped sculpt, is full of humour, great action and characters that aren’t one dimensional or clichéd. The leader of the pack is Peter Quill or ‘Starlord’ as he insists on being called. Peter is played by the American actor Chirs Pratt, who’s best known role to date is the TV show ‘Parks and Recreation’. Pratt has had a number of small roles in the past, ‘Money Ball, Zero Dark Thirty and Her’ but has never been asked to play the linchpin and be the emotional core in a big film. However his charisma, and dancing for that matter, in this role practically leaps through the screen and has helped in land the lead role part in next years ‘Jurassic World’ reboot/sequel.
As I’m late to the party with this review (again sorry!) and I suspect most people will have seen this film already, and judging from its box office take most have, I won’t bore you with the plot I will just leave you with a couple of observations.
Marvel seem to be stuck on repeat when it comes to its third act ‘defeat the bad guys’ set pieces and resolutions. Since ‘Avengers Assemble’ Marvel have had the good guys win with what is basically a big battle in the Sky. There are obviously differences from film to film but ‘Avengers’ has a huge battle that takes place over New York. Next is ‘Iron Man 3’, big airborne battle set above some docks. In ‘Thor: The Dark World’, Christopher Eccleston parks his rather large Dark Elves spaceship over downtown Greenwich before suffering from a rather large case of hammer envy. ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ has, yep you guessed it, a very large skirmish above the skies of that there Washington involving some Helicarrier’s that lose a fight with gravity. And that brings us back to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Its third act big action ‘good triumphs over evil’ set piece is once again set above a city on the planet Nova.
There won’t be another Marvel film until next Summer’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things will change but there’s a nagging doubt that I just can’t shake off. I hope that Joss Whedon’s script will be as good as his last and be inventive and innovative but I think I’m going to be disappointed. Only time will tell.
My other observation is short and to the point. There have now been ten Marvel films released since the first Iron Man film in 2008 and of those ten not one has had a female screenwriting credit and not one of them has had a female director. That needs to change and change quickly….
Twitter Review:
An absolute blast. Sci-fi action, comedy and brains rolled into one.
#AKillerGunnShot
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE9vypfwbvk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CqymRQ1uUU
