Wonder Woman

Hello dear reader, hot off the heels of my ever so slightly overdue Guardians Vol 2 review I bring you in all its glory, the one, the only (appearing at a cinema near you) Wonder Woman. Now, there’s a lot of ground work to catch up with here, so if you’ll permit me I’ll get right down to it. Wonder Woman was officially created William Marston. However, the characters original conception and mythology was hugely influenced by the two main women in William’s life, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston & domestic partner Olive Byrne. So much so that they would continue to write Wonder Woman comics after Williams’s death in 1947. As far as female superheroes go, Wonder Woman is effectively ground zero for every female superhero character that has come since. Her influence cannot be underestimated and without her the comic book, superhero and movie industry today would be a very different place. It’s also worth pointing out that this is the first time Wonder Woman has ever made it to the silver screen in her own movie, played again by the very capable Gal Gagot and the first time that any comic book/superhero film (to the best of my knowledge) has ever had a female director. The director in question is Patty Jenkins, who coincidently was going to be the in the hot seat for the MCU’s Thor: The Dark World but walked away, almost taking Natalie Portman with her, citing ye olde ‘creative differences’. Jenkins herself doesn’t have what you would call an extensive CV. Apart from the film Monster, for which Charlize Theron won the Oscar for her portrayal of real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, her directing duties have been mostly confined to television. Sheparding episodes of Arrested Development, Entourage and The Killing onto the small screen. Thankfully someone realised that she is very talented and decided to trust her with a nine figure budget and before you could say ‘go forth and show the world how female superheroes should be depicted’ she went forth and showed the world how female superheroes should be depicted.

So, as always, let’s begin at the beginning. Wonder Woman’s origin story was first set during the Second World War. However, this time they’ve pulled it forward by twenty’ish years and set the film during World War One. There are many reasons for this but I think the main one is it helps solidify the whole ‘we live a long time’ angle and given that the photograph of Wonder Woman’s team, which was first seen in last year’s Batman v Superman masterpiece (sarcasm claxon ahoy),  it went some way to creating a mystery about Wonder Woman’s age. Wonder Woman herself or Diana if you’d like to keep this casual was born and raised on a secluded island paradise called Theymscira. Populated entirely by women, these Amazons live in peace, away from the outside world but are fully prepared to kick butt should the occasion call for it. Just a little aside here, most of the Women that were hired to play the Amazons are professional athletes, including a boxer who I would actively go out of my way not to irritate. Unfortunately for them, the occasion does call for it when their seclusion is interrupted when a spy, flying a freshly stolen German plane, crashes just off shore. This in then closely followed by some rather annoyed German Navy types who are not at all impressed that someone has made off with one of their planes and more importantly, are moving heaven and earth to put small pointy metal projectile thingys into this spy, in order that he won’t do it again. Thankfully, and in no small part down the Amazon inhabitants of the island, the spy is rescued and the German Navy is dispatched from whence it came. Unfortunately and this may upset a few of you, the Princess Bride or again if you want to keep things casual, Robin Wright, gets shot and deaded. This is a sad moment in the film as her character Antiope is responsible for training Diana is the ways of combat and the aforementioned arse kicking. On the plus side though it does save the audience from hearing a very suspect accent that Robin had been using, which seemed to be a mixture of South American, Dutch and possibly Klingon. Having been rescued the spy, Steve Trevor, who I haven’t mentioned yet is being played by Chris Pine, tells Diana of this great war that is ragging across the globe. Wonder Woman is convinced that given the scale of conflict she’s just been told about, it must have something to do with the God of War Ares. So armed with nothing more than a sword, shield, a lasso of truth, impressive bracelets and a very expensive looking alice band, she leaves the island with Steve, determined to stop Ares at any cost and bring peace back to the world. 

And that is basically the set up and plot that drives the film forward for another two hours or so. However, unlike previous DCEU films, and as they say ‘forth times a charm’, this film actually works and is a pleasure to sit through. And just in case you were thinking that if it has Chris Pine in it then he must be the star of the show and Gal Gadot is just there in a secondary supporting role then let me allay your fears right now. This is a female centred superhero movie and Wonder Woman is the leading role. It has a great supporting cast too, including a very nice performance from Lucy Davis as Etta. David Thewlis as Sir Patrick, a rather stuck up British military type who tries to do the right thing but doesn’t always succeed and fresh from Trainspotting 2 we have Ewen Bremner as a sniper with some fire arms issues. As I mentioned before this is the best DCEU film by a country mile. It’s clever when it needs to be, has emotional impact when required and overall it looks like someone over at Warner Brothers may have actually taken the time and trouble to sit down and think to themselves ‘you know what, I’ve heard people say that these script things are terribly important. Why don’t we try and make sure we get this one right!’ Now, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There are some pretty ‘iffy’ CGI moments and I do have a problem with the ending of the third act. I’ve read some reviews that have stated that it ‘falls of a cliff’ in the last ten minutes. Which I think is a tad unfair. Prometheus falls off a cliff in the last ten minutes, Wonder Woman is more like a stumble down a steep footpath, whilst battling an inside out umbrella in the wind and rain. The final battle is my main gripe and here’s why. At times it felt like a very polite game of tennis. 

‘I believe that’s the end of my go. Would you care to take a couple of swipes at me now?’ 

‘That’s very decent of you. Don’t mind if I do.’ 

‘Splendid, and when it’s you turn to come after me again, I’ll make sure I’m stood in front of something that’s flammable and highly explosive.’

‘That would be marvellous, what a simply stupendous way to spend the evening.’ 

Apart from that small grumble I can and will recommend Wonder Woman as a great film to go and watch. It does have that great musical riff that was first used in the Batman v Superman film, which I recently found out isn’t produced on an electric guitar but rather an electric Cello. (Every day’s a school day). It does have the potential to be the best Superhero film released this year but with Spider-Man, Thor: Ragnarok and the ‘very long shot’ Justice League still to come, I suspect that that crown may end up upon the head of another. Patty Jenkins can be very proud of the work she’s done here and I hope that she’s given numerous opportunities to repeat it. The king is dead, long live the Queen…  

Twitter Review:

A very large step in the right direction. Script & direction work Special effects need either more time or more money.

#WonderNoMore

Usueful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/wonder-woman/review/

The Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy

Hello dear reader. It has been a while since my last post and for that I can only apologise. The summer is traditionally when the big ‘Tent Pole’ or if you will ‘Blockbuster’ films get released. A four month period that for a lot of Studios is the culmination of teaser trailers, viral campaigns and an advertising budget that could fund a military coup in South America and still have enough money left for a ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ weekend, Penn & Teller tickets included. All this just so we will part with our hard earned money and help massage the egos of Hollywood’s elite.
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

Man of Steel

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