film – Page 12 – Blue Ink Alchemy

Tag: film (page 12 of 20)

Spectacles with Smarts

There was a time when I could buy the argument of a fictional work being fun for its own sake. Specatcle that aims to be nothing but spectacle has its place, usually in the skies above parking lots as fireworks explode in the darkness. But in the arenas of storytelling, be it printed or in motion, characters that feel human and storylines that lead to a satisfactory end in paths audiences can follow will slay works based entirely on spectacle every time.

To illustrate my point, let’s compare the films Flash Gordon and Scott Pilgrim Versus The World.

Both are based on printed comic adventures. Both feature arguably normal human beings thrown into abnormal situations. Both films have bright, splashy color pallettes and kickass soundtracks. And both are largely considered cult classics having not performed well at the box office. Of the two of them, I would say that Scott Pilgrim is the superior work by a large margin.

I’ve reviewed both movies, and looking back on my take on Flash Gordon, I can see why I was so favorably disposed towards it. It’s unashamedly fun. Camp for camp’s sake was pretty big in the 80s, as evidenced by this and Rocky Horror Picture Show among others. Rocky Horror survives due to its cult camp appeal and the fact that large groups see it together. Flash Gordon is also better viewed with a group, if only so there are others with whom you can laugh at the production.

Comics and their heroes tend to be silly in one way or another, but embracing that silliness can be a delicate operation. Making the premise of a man wearing the flag of his country or a woman doing acrobatic assaults in impractical outfits work as a plausible, relatable story takes effort and thought. Opting for total abandonment of coherence for the sake of spectacle is much easier. Flash Gordon does the latter. I still think Max vod Sydow’s Ming the Merciless is a delightfully callous villain, the Queen soundtrack can be enjoyed outside of the context of the film, and Brian Blessed turned loose on his fellow actors is fun to watch, but there are major problems a production based on campy set pieces cannot overcome. Characters have no arcs, no growth. The plot shambles aimlessly, forgotten for the sake of the visuals which have not all aged well. It’s a relic of a different age, and the wrinkles do unfortunately show. I still think it’s possible to have fun just sitting back and watching Flash Gordon, but your brain is not engaged while doing so.

By comparison, Scott Pilgrim balances its sillier elements with good character growth and interaction and a plot that can be followed without difficulty. Scott’s struggle to overcome his own insecurities is enhanced by his battles with Ramona’s evil exes, rather than overwhelmed by those battles. His relationship with Ramona also has some weight to it, despite its supernatural trappings, and there are even realistic relationship with Knives and Kim, to say nothing of the advice and support of Wallace. Rather than laughing at Scott Pilgrim, we laugh with it. While the far-flung moons of Mongo feel distant and alien, and not in a good way, Toronto and the young people in it are relatable and realistic, high-octane psychic kung-fu battles notwithstanding.

Could a better story be made of Flash Gordon? Certainly. If Flash had flaws to overcome, doubts to face, the freedom to learn more about the other characters outside of broad and ill-defined characterstics, he’d be a better hero for us to get behind. Let his relationships with Dale, Zarkov, the princess, the Hawkmen, even Ming develop naturally. I say keep the garish colors and the operatic rock soundtrack, but make this plot and these characters mean something other than a vehicle for the set pieces. It’s the 21st century, after all; there’s no reason we can’t have unique spectacles that also engage us on the basic levels of storytelling.

Dumb fun will arguably always have its place, be it in mindless shooting games like Painkiller, Space Marine, or Serious Sam, or films that are great fodder for parties with friends, like Flash Gordon, most of the Star Wars films, the Grindhouse movies, or most flicks starring Arnold or Sly. But to ask for something substantial in the story department or some decent characters we can get behind is not a tall order. The Avengers would simply not have worked as well as it does if the admittedly silly superheroes who star in it didn’t have realized characters with complex relationships and understandable motivations. Oh, it would have been fun, certainly… but as it stands, it’s both fun AND engaging. It’s a spectacle that’s also smart.

Don’t ever underestimate your audience. Keep your writing broad and simple at your own peril. The more you engage the reader’s brain, the more you make them think about and relate to your characters, the more they’ll want. It’s not unreasonable for today’s audiences to expect, nay, demand their entertainment be smart as well as entertaining. And we, as entertainers, should be all too happy to oblige.

Movie Review: Brave

June 27, 2012 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

To me, the team at Pixar is right next to the directors Peter Jackson and Christopher Nolan. They’ve never made a bad movie. Even their ‘weakest’ titles are good movies with great composition and interesting ideas on some level. For Pixar, I’d say their weakest title is probably Cars, keeping in mind I’ve never seen the sequel. Pixar is owned by Disney, and the guys have taken a stab at adding a new princess to Walt’s long-lived pantheon of young ladies. The result is Brave, a story about the heiress of a Celtic kingdom.

The kingdom is ruled by Fergus and Elinor, and their first-born is a girl named Merida. Ever since she was little, Merida has been raised with high expectations, especially from her mother. While she craves adventure and freedom, she has traditions and obligations to uphold. When she reaches the age at which she can be married, she is to be betrothed to one of the heirs of the three smaller fiefdoms that make up the bulk of her father’s kingdom. Merida really isn’t interested in boys, though, let alone getting married. She seeks a way to change her fate, but her search for the means to do so could spell doom for her family and the entire kingdom.

Time and again, Pixar shows why they are the bar by which all other modern animated features are measured. Brave is yet another example – it’s absolutely stunning. I understand dedicated teams were assigned to Merida’s wayward crimson tresses and how her body should move in relation to them. This sort of attention to detail coupled with the breathtaking scenery and Celtic elements that ring with authenticity make the story come to life.

Best of luck, boys. You’ll need it.

As for Merida herself, I imagine Pixar is pretty pleased with how she turned out. She’s a well-balanced character with complexity, plenty of charm, and a number of flaws to make her more human and interesting. She’s capable, determined, funny, and mostly polite, but also somewhat uncouth, scornful of tradition, short-sighted, and a little insensitive and tactless at times. In the end, she’s a great protagonist and a worthy role model in spite of her flaws.

Her parents are not one-dimensional characters, either. In Disney movies with a princess as the main protagonist, fathers tend to be largely absent or at least somewhat tangential to the main story. Fergus, by contrast, takes an active hand in shaping and supporting Merida from the beginning, eager to share in his adventures and do what’s right, even if he’s a little clueless now and again. Elinor does get more screen time, as this story is about mother and daughter bonding, and while she’s focused on Merida following in her footsteps, it’s clear she’s very proud of her daughter and wants what’s best for her, though at the start she wants what she thinks is best for the girl rather than lending an ear to what Merida has to say.

They’re actually both pretty good parents.

Another thing that struck me about Brave is that there’s no malevolent antagonist. The two opposing forces in the way of the protagonists, the witchy woodcarver and the demonic bear, are not so much villains as they are other characters with their own agendas, feelings, and quirks. I think it would be very difficult to dislike the witch, and when the truth about the bear that takes Fergus’ leg early in the film is revealed, I for one was far more sympathetic towards it even as it was trying to get its claws on Merida. I was very glad to have characters with complexity on just about every level.

I’d love to say Brave is a perfect production, but it does have some flaws and doesn’t quite measure up to the very best Pixar has to offer, such as Wall-E and Up. However, most of the nitpicks I have are minor. Given that the story is set up and aimed as it is, it tends to be a little simplistic, even predictable at times. As much as our protagonists are challenged throughout, I never really felt like any of the danger had true weight to it. Sure, there were tense moments here and there, but the outcome felt fairly predictable. I’m not saying every story has to have deep complexity and unforeseen twists, though, and when it comes to this sort of straightforward storytelling, Brave is excellent. And while it may not be Pixar’s very best, it’s still head and shoulders above a lot of the other dross out there for young people, especially young women.

Stuff I Liked: The various Celtic elements, from tossing cabers to mentions of haggis. Billy Connolly’s voice never gets old and fits Fergus perfectly. The triplets are a hoot. And I could really appreciate giving the demonic bear a tragic backstory rather than letting it be a fundamental evil.
Stuff I Didn’t Like: A little more time on the second act of the movie could have helped. At the same time, it takes a little while for the main plot to actually begin, and as much fun as the various clans and their leaders are, less time setting them up would have meant more time for the central story and the ladies within it.
Stuff I Loved: Merida. Merida’s relationship with Elinor. Elinor & Fergus’ relationship. Elinor’s struggle to adapt to her circumstances. The witch’s workshop. And there’s a scene involving the men’s kilts that had me laughing my ass off.

Bottom Line: Brave is definitely worth your time to see, especially if you’re the parent of young girls. Minor nitpicks aside, it’s a very strong entry into Pixar’s library, introduces a Disney princess cut from a very different cloth from Snow White or Cinderella, provides plenty of humor for all ages, and manages great characterization and relationship drama while remaining light in tone. The fact that it’s gorgeous to look at is just icing on the cake.

Movie Review: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

June 12, 2012 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

I was introduced to Mission: Impossible at a young age. I found the TV series to be fascinating, in the way it used the same aesthetic and atmosphere of James Bond but felt far closer to home. It had cool gadgets, good chases, and decent characters. The movies have never quite measured up to the source material, and while I admire the audacity of the first film to wreck absolute havoc on the lives of the characters, they’ve felt a bit safe and generic since then. Ghost Protocol seemed to promise a return to former Mission: Impossible standards while looking fresh and crisp.

Ethan Hunt is in a Russian prison, and two members of the Impossible Mission Force break him out. He’s needed for a delicate operation in the very heart of the country’s government. It turns out, however, that his team’s been set up by a brilliant but insane physicist to take the fall for a bombing at the Kremlin. Faced with a ton of international fallout and the resurrected fear of war, the United States quickly shuts down the IMF, and the President initiates Ghost Protocol. Hunt and his team, along with a newcomer who claims to be a mere analyst, must track down the physicist and prevent the release of nuclear launch codes, lest the world become an atomic wasteland.

So while it’s not Russia being the bad guys, there’s still a lot of this film that feels like Cold War stuff. In that way, it’s similar to the Angelina Jolie vehicle Salt. Both are technically well-executed thrillers, but Mission Impossible goes for more of a straightforward, high action route rather than opting for grit or darkness. Besides, this is a plot we’ve all seen play out before, so the film has to do something new to keep our attention for its 133 minute run time.

Yeah, that’s one way to keep our attention.

What it opts to do, and what I like about it, is that its focus is more on the characters and how they deal with their circumstances, rather than the tech or the chases overwhelm us. I wouldn’t say it’s an entirely character-driven piece, as more often than not circumstances from the plot are what move us along. However, the moments we do get between the characters aren’t badly written. Banter is believable and the characters tend to react to things in realistic ways. I also like the fact that while romance is hinted at in one instance, it’s neither forced nor taken as a foregone conclusion. The filmmakers do a good job of making the team feel like people, rather than cyphers, even if Simon Pegg and Paula Patton get the short end of the stick in terms of character development.

Unfortunately, our main foursome have to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting us to care about the story. The antagonist is so generically Bond-villain bad it’s difficult to key into the threat he represents outside of a general dislike of the prospect of nuclear war. As much as the plot is rooted in the current geo-political theater, the Cold War is over and the spectre of atomic annihilation is not the bogeyman it once was. There’s also the fact that Michael Nyqvist is completely wasted in the role. He was very good in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (the original one) and while he does what he can with this mouth-foaming megalomaniacal drivel, it’s just a bit hard to swallow, especially when his hitherto-unknown martial arts skills appear for the climax.

Beautiful people.

There’s also the fact that the plot relies almost entirely on coincidence and contrivance to stay in motion. While the tech never outshines the characters, its functionality, or more often lack thereof, is the cause of the characters needing to act rather than the characters being the vector for change themselves. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s there. The technology robs the characters of their agency and the story suffers for it. It’s a shame, too, because here and there we see good character beats that would make a good movie in and of themselves, instead of just being the saving grace of a well-shot above-average espionage thriller.

Stuff I Liked: The IMF team has good chemistry. Action is well-shot and does not rely on camera tricks to highten tension. It’s nice to see locales that don’t often get used for films like this, such as Dubai and India.
Stuff I Didn’t Like: I felt bad for Michael Nyqvist as he’s given little to do other than be a dime-store Blofeld until the final scene where he suddenly becomes an excellent fighter. Technology failing once at an inopportune time is kind of funny, but it happens so often that it becomes almost predictable. Plot contrivance is the fuel that drives the film instead of character development.
Stuff I Loved: The banter between Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner. The prevalence of the Mission: Impossible theme in the score made me happy. The opening operation of sneaking into the Kremlin was very well done. Little moments like Renner’s character hesitating to jump, Pegg’s overall enthusiasm, and the old phone booth failing to self-destruct after giving Tom Cruise his mission.

Bottom Line: Brad Bird’s debut in live-action filmmaking is by no means bad. It’s fun to watch and not without good moments, especially in the character department, but it’s not terribly memorable. While it’s much better than the previous two Mission: Impossible films, a little more time playing down the plot contrivances while increasing the moments of character construction would have made it even more compelling to watch. As it is, you could do worse for espionage action films to watch, but you could also do better.

Movie Review: Pan’s Labyrinth

May 17, 2012 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

I’m really not sure where to begin with this. If I were still doing IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! I may just lead with a few moments of silence. Powerful films have a way of taking the breath, the very words right out of me. Make no mistake: Pan’s Labyrinth is one of those films.

The year is 1944, and Spain is under new management by the fascist Francisco Franco. At a forward post established against guerrillas fighting the new regime, Captain Vidal has summoned his wife and step-daughter to stay with him. His wife, Carmen, is close to giving birth to his son, while the girl, Ofelia, would rather keep her nose in her fairy tale books. En route to the post, Ofelia happens across a strange insect that transforms before her eyes and leads her to a secluded labyrinth where a faun tells her she may be a legendary princess. To prove herself worthy of her birthright, she must accomplish a series of tasks, in the midst of this bloody civil war, with the lives of all she knows and holds dear hanging in the balance.

Writer-director Guillermo del Toro is no stranger to dark fantasy. He brought us Blade II (one of the good ones) and both Hellboy films. By ‘dark’, I don’t mean the sort of dark fantasy where there’s lots of naked women and cursing and gratuitous buckets of blood. No, I mean thematically dark. Truly dark. The sort of dark that has kids curling up tight in their beds with their sheets pulled up to just under their eyes, because they’re scared witless by what’s in the shadows but don’t dare look away. You could even call it ‘edgy’, as it lives on the very edge between fantasy and horror. Pan’s Labyrinth is unafraid to glance, just for a moment here and a heartbeat there, into the deep shadows of the realms of the unknown and the very real darkness in human nature.

Absolutely stunning visuals.

You can’t tell a story like this without good characters, and in film you need good actors to make them come alive. In the hands of a less adept director, Captain Vidal would come across as a caricature of the fascist movement, a Nazi in all but name, not so much a man as he is a punching bag leering at us to hit him harder. Thankfully, the character is written with complexity and depth, even if he’s a rather vile human being, and Sergi López gives a fantastic performance. As for Ofelia, del Toro was so impressed by Ivana Baquero that he aged up her part so the young actress could play it. She, too, is complex and deep, as well as fallible.

Here are two human beings who come at life from entirely different angles, even in some cases wanting the same thing for completely disparate reasons, and their conviction is what drives this story forward and holds us mesmerized by it. The visuals and the construction of del Toro’s fantasy world don’t hurt, either. Culled from all sorts of fairy and folk tales, the world Ofelia alone can see, touch, and enter is brought to breathtaking life, with del Toro mainstay Doug Jones playing the parts of the Faun and the Pale Man. As wondrous as it is, there’s also a primal and untamed nature to it, as as attractive as it might be to a young girl, one wonders if it’s any less dangerous than the cold, jackbooted reality through which her stepfather reigns as nominal master.

My skin crawls just looking at the guy.

The tendency is to write something like “I can’t say enough about this” but I really feel, in this case, I can’t say any more about it. You should really just watch it, if you haven’t already. Despite its fairy tale trappings, it’s an exceedingly mature and heart-wrenchingly vital tale, far removed from what most would consider kid-friendly. Don’t be put off by the choice del Toro made to shoot it in Spanish; the truths of this film and the lives of its characters transcend things like spoken language. It is one of the most deeply affecting films I’ve seen in a very long time. I really cannot recommend Pan’s Labyrinth highly enough.

Movie Review: The Avengers

May 8, 2012 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

It all comes down to this. Four years and five movies ago, if you’d told me that Marvel Studios would craft a connected universe between film franchises building to a coherent capstone piece, I would have laughed at the notion. But here we are. The Avengers has arrived, and with it a lot of questions are answered. Is Marvel crazy enough to pull this off? Were they right to trust Joss Whedon and his litany of failed TV shoes? Can the disparate worlds of Iron Man’s slick super-science, Thor’s magical Norse-trapping high adventure, and Captain America’s slightly campy but ultimately endearing throwback action merge without a seam or hitch? And will an untested actor filling the oversized purple pants of the Hulk topple the whole thing?

In case you’re wondering: yes, yes, yes, and hell no.

The story for this epic is relatively straightforward. The shady international organization SHIELD is in possession of a magical MacGuffin called the Tesseract, last seen used by super-science villains Hydra during World War 2. Loki, Asgardian demi-god of mischief, appears in the SHIELD lab and steals it so he can summon an intergalactic army and conquer the Earth. To stop him, SHIELD head honcho Nick Fury puts together a team of super-powered individuals consisting of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Hulk. They alone have the power to save the planet… provided they don’t beat the crap out of one another first.

In comics, this sort of thing happens all the time. But in film? It’s a lot more difficult to pull off. Marvel undertook the biggest gamble since the Lord of the Rings or perhaps Harry Potter, taking works that were previously considered somewhat niche and pushing them into the mainstream culture with a complete lack of shame or irony. As more films were released, less of the pretense of ‘our world’ was wrapped around them. Iron Man you could almost buy as a plausible story, Thor not so much. And with The Avengers, not only do these disparate stories meet, but they’re also expected to play off of and work well with one another? This shouldn’t work.

Tony: “Ladies, ladies. You’re both pretty.”

And yet, it does. Not only does it work, it works extremely well. Writer-director Joss Whedon is one of the best alive when it comes to quirky settings and balanced character dynamics. His writing, while often panned for being too self-referential or pop-culture laden, fleshes out these characters for newcomers to the audience while playing off of previously established beats, as well as setting up alliances and conflicts for this film’s running time. No character, be they hero or villain, is made to look dumb or shorted on time to shine. Except for the alien invaders, that is, but as CGI threats for our heroes to beat up, they do pretty well.

Speaking of heroes, this movie absolutely would not work if the ensemble had no chemistry. Put any fears of that to bed. Not only is everybody in this production at the top of their game, it’s clear that these folks are quite comfortable with one another, playing up the merits of their characters as well as their flaws with adeptness that allows their co-stars to play off of them with ease. The dialog and actions feel natural, tension is high, and humor is explosive. While Robert Downey Jr. is the old hand at this, and occasionally the scenes feel like “Tony Stark and some other losers, the movie”, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Hemsworth continue to show what inspired choices they are for Cap, Black Widow, and Thor, respectively. I also don’t think Thor’s lines could be said by another character, which is another criticism often leveled against Whedon. Last but never least, Tom Hiddleston is allowed to stretch his wings as Loki even more here than he was in Thor. Free of a great deal of his familial angst, he comes across as a great mix of mischief-maker, deceiver and Flash Gordon villain, with a smirking confidence and swagger that are, in and of themselves, tough to beat.

List of offenses: Mass murder, mass destruction, mind control, killer fashion sense, having too much swag.

The Avengers does feature some new faces which could have diluted the project but instead underscore the strengths of the work. Jeremy Renner, previously established as Hawkeye in a one-scene cameo during Thor, feels very much like both a sniper and a former renegade. Cobie Smulders, previously seen on How I Met Your Mother, comes to us as SHIELD agent Maria Hill, working very well with SHIELD vets Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg (Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, respectively) not only in humans observing the super-humans but also as forces of their own. And then we have Mark Ruffalo. Bruce Banner in the past has been tortured, haunted, hunted, and conflicted, but Ruffalo manages to be all of those things and brilliant, quick-witted, funny, and confident. I certainly hope we’ll be seeing more of him in this role.

There are a few hiccups in the plot regarding the nature of the Hulk, and the discussions between Loki and the aliens can seem a bit obtuse at times, but any quibbles I can think of against the film are minor. The construction is tight, and while the film clocks in at around two and a half hours, it never drags and no scene feels unnecessary. It’s a modern epic, a testament to the power of geek culture, and while on paper it seems like it should never work, The Avengers not only delivers on the promise of the previous Marvel Studios films, it leaves the audience hungry for more.

Stuff I Liked: The SHIELD helicarrier. The governing council of SHIELD which was a nice callback to some of those comics. The scene in Germany before the heroes arrive. The callbacks to the previous films, woven elegantly into this new plot.
Stuff I Didn’t Like: There’s a moment in the film that I definitely didn’t like, but I acknowledge its presence for various reasons. I will not speak more of it, as this is a spoiler-free review.
Stuff I Love: The duo of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. The little touches that remind us just how much Steve Rogers is a man out of time. Thor and Loki maintaining their Asgardian airs at all times. The very well balanced final battle, from the ‘assembly’ of the Avengers to its climax.

Bottom Line: The Avengers is one of the best super-hero films ever made, with a great cast, top-notch production values, a very smart screenplay, and excellent direction. This is well worth your time and money to go see in cinemas.

Tag: film (page 12 of 20)

Spectacles with Smarts

Movie Review: Brave

Movie Review: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

Movie Review: Pan’s Labyrinth

Movie Review: The Avengers

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