FROZEN (ANIMATED/FANTASY/MUSICAL) 4 out of 4 stars Directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee Featuring the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, Ciaran Hinds PG for some action and mild rude humor. Verdict: A fine follow-up to TANGLED and a feminist revision of the Disney Renaissance classics, Disney Animation has outdone their cousins at Pixar once again with this brand-new animated musical featuring some of the best new Disney songs since THE LION KING. YOU ENJOY FROZEN IF YOU LIKED: TANGLED (2010) BEAUTY & THE BEAST (1991) WRECK-IT RALPH (2012) TARZAN (1999) THE LION KING (1994)
My feelings about FROZEN are of soaring elation and fully satisfied delight; my initial thoughts, on the other hand, were a tad cynical in some respects, but I'm going with my gut on this, especially since my thoughts have since evolved into something more appreciative.
I love Disney animation; I'm even something of a Disney geek. My intense adoration of THE LION KING has only grown since I first saw it a two-and-a-half-year old tot, and it continues to rank among my personal all-time favorites. I also love Disney Animation's "Princess movies," my favorites being THE LITTLE MERMAID, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS and TANGLED. Disney's animated features are practically a subgenre unto themselves, and the "Disney Princess" films even within that. Traditionally, the stories are simplistic, even formulaic, with much of the heavy-lifting done with legendary musical numbers, throw in a few whimsical and palatable sidekicks for comic relief and to put in the marketing/merchandising spotlight, and you've got an animated family classic. Because of their unparalleled appeal for children audiences though, these films are put under intense, arguably even unfair, scrutinization and cynicism. Besides those who sneer at the occasionally simplistic storytelling and the titanic merchandising that accompany these films, Disney Princesses receive much of the same flack as Mattel's Barbie from contemporary feminist attitudes due to their huge influence on little girls as female role models. Snow White is a character defined by domesticity as she cooks and cleans without complaint until her Prince Charming shows up, and Cinderella is not significantly different. THE LITTLE MERMAID's Ariel is defined by her desire for a man who she's just barely met, and when Disney finally attempted to appease criticisms with BEAUTY & THE BEAST's Belle as an intelligent, proactive, feminist-friendly princess, she turned out to have a clean-cut case of Stockholm Syndrome.
But now comes FROZEN, and adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, a story that has long eluded the best efforts of the Disney story department. Often considered one of Andersen's greatest works, The Snow Queen is a very strange and cryptic Christian parable of a young girl's quest to free her friend of an icy glass shard that has frozen heart in ice and is now held captive by the ominous Snow Queen. FROZEN, however, is a very loose, "inspired by" adaptation of the fairy tale, now focusing on a pair of royal sisters; the younger, clumsy, reckless and ridiculously optimistic Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and her cautious and emotionally fragile older sister, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel, best known for originating the role of "Elphaba" on Broadway's Wicked), the heir to the throne of Arendelle. Elsa was born with a magical ability to create and manipulate snow and ice, but after an accident as youngsters, Elsa and her powers have been hidden away from the rest of the kingdom, including Anna. On the day of Elsa's coronation as queen, Anna becomes stricken with a foreign prince at the Coronation Ball, but Elsa refuses to give her blessing to such a brief infatuation and their sisterly spat exposes Elsa's powers to the horrified kingdom. Elsa flees the scene to the mountains neighboring the kingdom, but she leaves the kingdom buried in an eternal, sub-zero winter, so Anna teams up with Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff), an unsociable mountain man who prefers the company of his reindeer Sven to that of people, to retrieve Elsa from her icy isolation and return things to their rightful state.
FROZEN bears nearly all the elements of the Disney animated classics, with princesses, princes, magical elements, spectacular visuals, catchy musical numbers, comic supporting characters, etc., but then it uses these tropes in all different ways. It joshes its predecessors some with satirical plot elements regarding love at first sight, but as it distances itself from archaic attitudes, it does so in a way that feels familiar to its predecessors. With a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, who also acts as co-director with TARZAN-director Chris Buck, and is the first female director of a Disney animated feature, this is easily the most feminist Disney Princess movie ever. Although Disney has been getting better and better at politically correcting the gender politics of their princess movies, and I thought they hit the note perfectly with TANGLED, FROZEN takes it further, sidestepping every possible accusation of sexism or poor female role models like clockwork.
Anna could aptly be described as "a-dork-able"; a go-getter in every sense and intelligent despite being physically/emotionally/mentally clumsy, she's ever brave, and a cutie to boot, but still has bedhead and drool in the morning. Through Anna, FROZEN is also the most character-driven Disney animated fairy tale to date, as her learning curve shapes the plot of the film as opposed to the magic plot devices and countdown timers that dominate most Disney classics. And yet, it is her sister Elsa, who commands the most attention as the most interesting character in the film. Suppressing not only her powers, but her personality with them, she forced to be "the good girl," representing the standards of those around her, and while this easily ties in with some women's feelings about what earlier Disney Princesses have represented, there's also a strong case to be made that Elsa is gay, which is an idea that I'd like to revisit later and in greater depth in another post, but suffice it to say that while something like that could only be "unofficial," it would make sense, and she has no identified romantic interest in the film. Anyway, she's a sympathetic and tragic character whose motto is "Conceal; don't feel," but when she's finally "outed," she blossoms into a fully-formed personality,
but still forced into solitude until Anna proves that she's loved regardless.
The primary sidekick is Olaf, a snowman magically endowed with life, who fantasizes about warm things, which he holds no experience in, but longs for. Olaf is a terribly dangerous sort of character to attempt, the sort that is prone to become a "Jar Jar Binks," aka the annoying would-be slapstick character, but in what seems to be a combination of a hilarious vocal performance by Broadway's The Book of Mormon star Josh Gad, endearing animation, solid writing and a heaping dose of dumb luck, he pays off. The stone trolls who Kristoff lives with are on slightly shakier footing, modeled after Scandavian cultural depictions and portrayed in the 'big happy family' trope, but their part is significantly smaller and they do no damage. Finally, Sven the reindeer is another success in the fine tradition of pantomime animal sidekicks.
The humor is where FROZEN has its closest calls; there are some huge, gut-busting laughs, mainly involving Kristoff's wry commentaries (one moment gets a hilarious payoff towards the end of the end credits in an unconventional disclaimer), but there are some real misses, such as the awkward introductions of the sniveling Duke of Weselton at the Coronation Ball, and a couple girl-power moments utterly lacking in subtlety, but it's inconsequential.
Finally, the music, easily one of the most important factors in a Disney animated feature (practically up there with the 'animated' bit); it's great. I downloaded the soundtrack on my way out of the theater. The songs, written by the husband-and-wife writing team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, both of whom previously wrote new songs for 2011's WINNIE THE POOH, and the latter of whom collaborated with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on The Book of Mormon, are some of the best new Disney songs since the "Disney Renaissance" of the 1990s featured the work of Howard Ashman & Alan Menken and Elton John & Tim Rice. There's one definite standout, Elsa's anthem Let It Go, belted with dramatic bravado by Idina Menzel (a single version by Demi Lovato plays over the end credits), and it has the Academy Award for Best Song in bag as arguably the best song in Disney Animation since THE LION KING's Can You Feel the Love Tonight? Anna also gets a great anthem in For the First Time in Forever, and the charming Do You Want to Build a Snowman and Love is An Open Door would be standouts in any of Disney's last several films. Olaf's mid-show showstopper, In Summer, is an amusing ditty, but a novelty, and I didn't think the trolls' song Fixer Upper was especially memorable, but it serves for the story beats.
In injecting the Disney Princess with a booster of contemporary feminist power, we do have to trade in a lot of the sweeping romance that pervades those that came before, but there still is romance. However, romance plays second fiddle to a different sort of love, a platonic and familial love that is refreshing to see in the spotlight and provides a greater source of development to the female leads, both of whom are likely to be a pair of the most relatable Disney Princesses to modern female audiences ever. For myself, a college-age male, I look forward to at least a few more viewings of this emotional powerhouse certain to join the ranks of the great Disney Animated Classics.
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (ACTION-ADVENTURE/SCI-FI) Three and a Half out of Four Stars Directed by Francis Lawrence Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Sam Claflin, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jena Malone, Willow Shields, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, Jeffery Wright, Lynn Cohen PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language. Verdict: While distinctly different from its predecessor, CATCHING FIRE is as strong a film and a highly-engaging two-and-a-half hours. YOU MAY ENJOY THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE IF YOU LIKED: THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) I AM LEGEND (2007) WINTER'S BONE (2010) BATTLE ROYALE (2000)
The last time we saw Katniss Everdeen (newly-minted Academy Award-winner for Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence), she had just defied the authority of the tyrannical Capitol by forcing a tie in the infamous gladiatorial competition, The Hunger Games, with her co-victor Peeta Melark (Josh Hutcherson). Now, the seeds of rebellion have been sewn across the impoverished and oppressed districts of the dystopian nation of Panem, and not without the notice of President Snow (Donald Sutherland), who is eager to destroy the symbol that Katniss has become. Meanwhile, Katniss is torn between Gale (Liam Hemsworth), her longtime sweetheart, and what began as an act with Peeta for public appeal, but is beginning to turn real. All of this rising tension comes to a head as Snow announces the 75th Annual Hunger Games, in which Katniss and Peeta will once again be forced to enter the arena, but this time up against a roster of victors from previous years, all experienced veterans of the arena. Taking up the director's reins from Gary Ross, who directed the first film, is Francis Lawrence, best known for his experience in music videos and for I AM LEGEND and WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, and the shift in directorial vision is prominent. Gone is the handheld cinematography and the raw, earthy aesthetic, and the overall tone is altered. Also, now that the anxieties of depicting the gory details of the books into a PG-13 rating have been satisfied with a first installment, F. Lawrence maintains the brutality factor while not worrying much about the blood quotient. Now that I've given you a false start though, I'll now point out that while the film is a notably different experience from its predecessor, it's just as good as the original in its own way.
Like the original though, even in the course of all the action, it maintains a strong sense of the horror in killing, and this time around, each of the competitors have more distinct and varied personalities, so there are not nameless deaths for the sake of cheap thrills. Instead, the thrills are based almost purely in the imperilment of the clearly-defined and mostly benevolent characters. In CATCHING FIRE, the games are less primal and less grounded, but more nightmarish. And while the first film showed us much about the mechanics of the games as Capitol operators manipulate the situations in a satire of reality television, here the attention is all based in the arena-bound characters.
The second part of a three-part franchise (even when part three has been split in two parts to technically make it a four-film franchise) is typically the "dark one," as the stakes must be raised higher, but without the reassuring conclusion to come in the final chapter, but while CATCHING FIRE certainly raises the stakes and makes more prominent many of the story's dark themes (but the first film was about kids killing kids, for gosh sakes), there's also more humor this time around. While most of her roles seem to run the way of ultra-serious, J. Lawrence's public personality is well known for her sense of humor, and a certain elevator scene makes fabulous use of her comedic sensibilities.
The greatest weakness to the film lies in the fact that in being part of a whole, it lacks a resolution in order to set the stage for the upcoming parts one and two of MOCKINGJAY, but in a two-and-a-half hour-long movie where there's hardly a dull minute, that ought not to be a deterrent.
For movies, the Holiday Season, late November through Christmas Day, is like a compressed version of the Summer Movie Season, which is when the studios flaunt their biggest "event" films. The holidays are like a second place major movie season, where movies that wouldn't meet the deadline for summer or were otherwise unfeasible for a summer release but just as prominent as those that are can find a release date. There's also the odd awards season heavy-hitters, especially those that hold an appeal for wider audiences, as opposed to the artistically-obsessed independent films that usually appear in September. It's the usual time of year for Disney Animation's annual feature release, a few action-adventure spectaculars and some heart-warming and/or heart-sickening family flicks, and this is one of the most promising holiday seasons in years.
NOVEMBER 22 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (ACTION-ADVENTURE/THRILLER) Directedby Francis Lawrence; Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Jena Malon, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language. What's it about?: Continuing the saga of revolution across the 12 districts of the futuristic dystopian nation of Panem, ruled by the tyrannical and decadent Capital, Katniss Everdeen (newly-minted Academy Award-winner, Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are now celebrated victors of the infamous gladiatorial competition, the Hunger Games, and their acts of defiance have begun to spread the seeds of rebellion. With the threat of a very real war on the horizon, and intent on seeing Katniss and her dissidents smothered into oblivion, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) oversees the preparations for the 75th Annual Hunger Games, a "Quarter Quell," in which the competitors are made up of champions from previous years, and everyone is a skilled killer. Why to be excited: Last year's THE HUNGER GAMES was a spectacular example of an alignment between critical and popular acclaim, with great acting, action and production, plus, it proved that while it may not be as bloody as BATTLE ROYALE, you can still pull off an effective movie about kids slaughtering each other in a bloody melee within a PG-13 rating. Why to be worried: There has been a change of directors, from PLEASANTVILLE and SEABISCUITdirector Gary Ross to I AM LEGEND and WATER FOR ELEPHANTS director Francis Lawrence, who may not turn out to be as steady a hand or as insightful a mind.
NOVEMBER 27 FROZEN (FAMILY/ANIMATED/FANTASY) Directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee; Featuring the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Alan Tudyk, Ciaran Hinds PG for some action and mild rude humor. What's it about?: Very loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen, Walt Disney Animation's 53rd animated feature is the story of two sister princesses; adventurous and optimistic Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), the elder of the two and heir to the throne of Arendelle, with magic powers over snow and ice, but who is also insecure and temperamental. When Elsa loses control, she freezes the kingdom in an eternal winter and hides herself away in a palace of ice, and an arrogant duke convinces the kingdom that she is a monster. Anna teams up with a mountain man named Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) to find her sister's castle and make amends, before Arendelle is frozen forever. Why to be excited: Disney Animation has been picking up a lot of steam lately, with 2010's excellent TANGLED and last year's WRECK-IT RALPH, as well as the spectacular Academy Award-winning animated short that played with the latter, PAPERMAN. Disney has had their eyes on The Snow Queen for decades now, and even though the story has now changed nearly beyond recognition, this is the result of extensive development. Also, the early reports have been raves, comparing it to the Disney Renaissance's crown jewel of the awards, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Why to be worried: The previews suck (in fairness though, Disney may just have a bad set of preview editors, because some of Disney's best films in recent years, such as TANGLED and THE MUPPETS, have had trailers that ranged from unimpressive to terrible).
DECEMBER 13 THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (ACTION-ADVENTURE/FANTASY) Directed by Peter Jackson; Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mikael Persbrandt, Sylvester McCoy, Stephen Fry PG-13 What's it about?: The second chapter in the epic trilogy adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the band of dwarves led by the dwarf prince, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), encounter perils in the forests of Mirkwood (wherein lives LORD OF THE RINGS fan-favorite, Legolas, played once again by Orlando Bloom) before reaching their destination of the Lonely Mountain, inside which Bilbo encounters the fearsome dragon Smaug (voice of Benedict Cumberbatch). Meanwhile, the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) leads a council to exorcise and reveal the ominous Necromancer, who was discovered in the first film. Why to be excited: The trailers thus far have been pretty cool, and it adds another piece to the three-chapter mega film that the trilogy is, but most of all, the action and intrigue quotient is rising as the dragon Smaug becomes a major player and the competing forces of the story collide.
Why to be worried: Anybody who still thinks that this trilogy will measure up to THE LORD OF THE RINGS once seen all in one is kidding themselves; all of the LOTR films were vastly better than THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, and even if these next two parts are stellar, this trilogy will still have a weaker link than any in LOTR. The decision to turn the one book into three films is obviously excessive, even when you cram in the stuff from Tolkien's appendices to make an unnecessarily more direct link to the LOTR trilogy, and the result for the first film was that it slogged along at a death crawl most of the time. I do not like the new computer-animated orcs either. Why the hell could they not make a "Pale Orc" with prosthetic makeup like they did for all the close-up orcs in LOTR?
DECEMBER 18 AMERICAN HUSTLE (CRIME DRAMA) Directed by David O. Russell; Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner R What's it about?: Fresh off of last year's Academy Award-winning SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, writer/directorDavid
O. Russell's newest is a fictionalization of the FBI's ABSCAM operation
from the late 1970s and early 1980s, which exposed public corruption in
the political, commercial and mob affiliations on the East Coast.
Starring an ensemble cast, Christian Bale stars as a brilliant con man
pressed into cooperating with the FBI, along with his mistress/novice
partner-in-crime, played by Amy Adams, to infiltrate the criminal
underworld of New Jersey which leads up to the Camden mayor (Jeremy
Renner), while Bale's neglected wife (Jennifer Lawrence) could bring the
whole thing crashing down.
Why to be excited:
David O. Russell is returning to form following his good but simplified
THE FIGHTER and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, with a film for which the
advertising emulates a groovy GOODFELLAS-esque tone, which can't be a
bad thing. Furthermore, the cast is amazing and the screenplay was
listed as one of the best unproduced screenplays back in 2010. Why to be worried:
There aren't many reasons, beyond David O Russell's occasional
misfires, and it may be a bit too convoluted, but overall, this looks
like a strong bet.
DECEMBER 20 ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (COMEDY) Directed by Adam McKay; Starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Kriten Wiig, Harrison Ford R What's it about?: With the 1970s behind them, the Channel 4 new team of anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell, in his signature role), lead field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd),dimwitted weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and sportcaster Champ Kind (David Koechner) have gone their separate ways and fallen into lives of disarray, when they get the call to reunite the news team for an all-new 24-hour news channel during the rise of cable television. Why to be excited: The previews and other marketing ploys have been hilarious, including Ben & Jerry's special edition flavor "Scotchy Scotch Scotch" ice cream, an autobiography of Ron Burgundy called Let Me Off At the Top!: My Classy Life and Other Musings, and "Rich Mahogany Edition" re-release of the original on Blu-Ray. There's also just the fun of bringing back together these cult-classic characters for an encore. Why to be worried: The comedy genre has a terrible track record for successful sequels, because comedy is one of the most difficult to get right anyway, so the good ones are typically of a "lightning in a bottle" sort. Plus, Will Ferrell hasn't had a good mainstream movie for a while now.
DECEMBER 20 SAVING MR. BANKS (DRAMA/COMEDY/BIOPIC) Directed by John Lee Hancock; Starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, B.J. Novak, Colin Farrell PG-13 for thematic elements including some unsettling images. What's it about?: Based on a true story, prim Australian author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) haggles with folksy American Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) over the particulars of developing her children's book Mary Poppins as a major movie over the course of decades, interwoven with Travers' memories of her troubled childhood and her father (Colin Farrell), where she found the inspiration for her tale of a magical nanny who came to save a father. Why to be excited: It's the first time that Walt Disney, an American icon, has been brought to the screen in a dramatized portrayal, and Tom Hanks is perfectly cast in the role. It's also a relatively little-known story behind the scenes of MARY POPPINS, one of the most popular films of all time and considered the filmmaking peak of Disney's illustrious career. Why to be worried: John Lee Hancock, director of sentimental true-life family dramas like THE BLIND SIDE and THE ROOKIE, is directing, and one of the the biggest challenges to this kind of film is keeping a delicate balance to sentimentality. Furthermore, Walt Disney can be a divisive figure, and the balance of maintaining accuracy, warts and all, is hugely important to this movie's success, especially when Walt Disney Pictures is behind the film (they're really the only company with the legal rights to get this kind of movie made). DECEMBER 20 WALKING WITH DINOSAURS 3D (FAMILY/ADVENTURE) Directed by Barry Cook & Neil Nightingale; Featuring the voices of Charlie Rowe, Angourie Rice PG What's it about?: In what looks like a cross between Disney's DINOSAUR and DreamWorks' SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON, this feature-length adaptation of the 1999 BBC miniseries of the same name tells the story of three Pachyrhinosaurusfrom they moment they hatch and as they come of age to lead the pack in migration, during which they intermittently encounter the predatory Gorgosaurus during the Late Cretaceous period, filmed with live action backdrop footage and computer-animated dinosaur characters. Why to be excited: It's definitely an interesting prospect as an attempt to credibly depict dinosaurs in nature, emulating the feel of a nature documentary (the dinosaurs do not speak, not outside of narration voice-overs), plus, it's dinosaurs. Dinosaurs. Why to be worried: The limitations of a $65 million dollar budget (plenty sizable for some movies, but a bit low for a film where all the characters are photo-realistic CGI) are evident in the previews, with the animation being serviceable but still not as thoroughly rendered as may be desirable, and the story appears formulaic and in service to the visuals.
DECEMBER 25 THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (CRIME DRAMA/COMEDY/BIOPIC) Directed by Martin Scorcese; Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jon Faverau, Jean Dujardin, Kyle Chandler, Margot Robbie, Cristin Milioti R What's it about?: Based on the memoirs of Jordan Belfort, a brilliant but corrupt New York stockbroker who refused to cooperate with a federal investigation of a massive securities fraud operation he was behind along with many others on Wall Street, along with the corporate banking industry, organized crime and politicians. Along the way to his fall from glory, Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives a high life of decadence and moral depravity, all the while defrauding his investors. Why to be excited: Anything directed by Martin Scorcese is worth getting excited about, plus he's teaming back up with his new "Bobby De Niro," Leonardo DiCaprio, making it their fifth film together. The previews have been great so far, filled with glitzy amorality and black humor that Scorcese has thrived on in some of his best films.
Why to be worried: The film was meant to release on November 15 but ran into trouble due to a lengthy first cut over three hours long and further rumored issues that edits were necessary to avoid an NC-17 rating. After a week of uncertainty as to whether the film would even be ready in time for consideration in the upcoming awards season, it's since been announced for a Christmas Day release. While this isn't necessarily a harbinger of disaster, previous "would've, could've, should've" been great Scorcese movies that faced similar struggles like CASINO (1995) and GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002) have been relatively disappointing (note the emphasis on "relatively").
DECEMBER 25 THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (ADVENTURE/COMEDY/DRAMA) Directed by Ben Stiller; Starring Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt, Shirley McLaine PG for some crude comments, language and action violence. What's it about?: Based on the short story of the same name by James Thurber, and a remake of the 1947 Danny Kaye musical-comedy, Ben Stiller directs and stars as the title character, an ineffectual worker at Life magazine who spends his days daydreaming spectacular fantasies of heroism outside of his mundane day-to-day life, but is thrust into a global adventure in search of a missing picture required for the final issue of Life. Why to be excited: The teaser trailer certainly got some buzz going with its hallucinogenic dream imagery accompanied by the Beastie Boys' song "Of Monsters and Men," and Stiller has made some solid previous directorial-starring efforts like ZOOLANDER and TROPIC THUNDER. One way or another, it's got to be better than the Danny Kaye version. Why to be worried: So far, we don't have a whole lot to go on, other than the mixed-to-poor response from its premiere at the New York Film Festival. Plus, the recently revealed PG rating is so strongly associated with family audiences, but none of the marketing has hinted at any such intentions. DECEMBER 25 GRUDGE MATCH (SPORTS COMEDY) Directed by Peter Segal; Starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger PG-13 for sports action violence, sexual content and language. What's it about?: The leading men from the two most famous boxing movies of all time (ROCKY and RAGING BULL) unite in this film about two old boxing rivals, Henry "Razor" Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy "The Kid" McGuigan (Robert De Niro), who hold a 30-year grudgeand when an incident while doing some motion-capture acting for a video game becomes a viral sensation, rekindling interest in their rivalry, the long-retired fighters get the opportunity to enter the ring again to see who really would have won the botched match where it all started three decades ago. Why to be excited: There is something fun to the idea of seeing Robert "Jake LaMotta" De Niro and Sylvester "Rocky Balboa" Stallone swapping punches in the ring as two old guys, even if its evidence of their cheapened reputations. Why to be worried: Director Peter Segal's resume is made up of mostly generic comedies, the best of which is GET SMART, but also includes bland cult-favorites TOMMY BOY and some of Adam Sandler's bad (but not as spectacularly bad as some) "comedies." It could be funny, but its unlikely to be at all unique outside of its stars. DECEMBER 25 47 RONIN (ACTION-ADVENTURE/FANTASY) Directed by Carl Rinschl Starring Keanu Reeves, Rinko Kikuchi, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, and thematic elements. What's it about?: A big-budget Hollywood reinterpretation of the "national legend" of Japan, Keanu Reeves stars as an outcast half-British samurai who joins up with a clan of ronin, samurai warriors without a master, who seek revenge on the evil lord who killed their master and had them banished. On their quest, the forty-seven ronin encounter mystical perils and high adventure as they pursue honor. Why to be excited: Samurai do not get the attention they deserve in American movies, even with the enormous influence of Akira Kurosawa's films, including SEVEN SAMURAI, and this is a big budget, super-samurai adventure.
Why be worried: Oh, where to begin? If you've heard of the problems that accompanied Disney's financially disastrous THE LONE RANGER, they're not quite on the same level, with 47 RONIN shot primarily back in 2011, with reportedly extensive re-shoots. The release date has changed twice, originally for November 21, 2012, then February 8, 2013 and now, finally completed, for Christmas Day. It's the film debut of director, Carl Erik Rinsch, whose previous work was exclusively in "visual and stylish" brand blurbs (it's not unheard of to give a big-budget feature to an unheard of filmmaker, but most of them at least have an independent film or two on their repertoire), and has apparently had difficulty grappling with the epic scope of the film. Plus, Keanu Reeves is starring, and his acting (or lack there of) usually demands the service of the script rather than vice versa. The international audiences may still pick up the pieces, but otherwise, it looks headed for disaster.
12 YEARS A SLAVE (BIOPIC/DRAMA) 4 out of 4 stars Directed by Steve McQueen Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Garret Dillahunt R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality. Verdict: Admittedly, it is a film that feels so important that any attempt at criticism is made with reluctance, but there's nothing legitimate to complain about anyway. Steve McQueen's cinematic interpretation of Solomon Northup's autobiographical account of slave life in the antebellum American South is justly the defining film on the subject to date and deserves to be seen if only to educate Americans on the absolute reality of a historic shame which we have too often shook our heads at before patting ourselves on the back for putting a stop to it, while the wounds continue to fester. YOU MAY ENJOY 12 YEARS A SLAVE IF YOU LIKED: AMISTAD (1997) LINCOLN (2012) DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012) SHAME (2011) HUNGER (2008)
In 1932, in order to quell the accusationsthat it glorified the lifestyles of its criminal subjects and to avoid the wrath of the censors, Howard Hawks' SCARFACE, loosely and unofficially based on the then-contemporary Al Capone, was released with a subtitle; "THE SHAME OF A NATION." Seven years later, under the notoriously strict Production Code Office, which prohibited 'morally objectionable' content from appearing in the major studio films prior to the creation of the ratings system, the epic adaptation of the best-selling novel Gone With the Wind, made it to theater screens to become the highest-grossing film of all time in 1937 (still the #1 movie of all time when adjusted for inflation). Despite its romanticized depiction of an affectionate master-slave relationship in the institution of slavery, with exaggerated stereotypes of slaves who range from quaintly childish adults to blustering "mammies," but all of whom love and stick to "the master," poor, suffering and dreadfully unlikable Scarlett O'Hara, the biggest issue of controversy was the famous line, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." No doubt Al Capone was a criminal of the nastiest order, but I'm compelled to think that the Shame of a Nation label could be better fitted to Miss O'Hara. Slavery was born in our nation's blood, part of our nation's DNA at the very beginning. The Founding Fathers, who we revere like saints while we fret and pain over over what they would have wanted over two centuries later, were not unmarked by this stain, and many of them were slave owners, some apologetically, but slave owners nonetheless. And yet, today, many people insist on defying any addressing of this issue, and those who bring it up are accused of "race-baiting," so any legitimate or illegitimate commentary on race relations is made out to be malicious pot-stirring. Such accusers claim that racism is "dead" and insist on a supposedly "color-blind" world, after all, slavery was abolished in the United States nearly 150 years ago, but while we try so hard to push it behind us so that we can move on, one doesn't have to look very far to see the continuing aftershocks of the wicked institution comparable to the Holocaust. This is why Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE is as important a film as can be claimed.
Based on an autobiographical novel published in 1853 which was an early rallying cry for abolition before it was overshadowed by Uncle Tom's Cabin and fell into obscurity sometime after the Civil War before being re-discovered by historians in the early 1960s and republished in an annotated version in which the historians had investigated the account and found it to be a highly accurate record. The story is that of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free-born and educated black man in the pre-Civil War 19th Century, living in New York with a wife and two kids. A professional violinist, Northup is offered the prospect of touring with a traveling show, but when he travels to Washington, D.C. to have the details worked out, he wakes up the morning after a night out with his prospective employers, to find himself in chains to be transported with slaves down to Louisiana. Assigned the identity of "Platt," every time Solomon attempts to inform someone of his situation, it results in severe beatings and Solomon learns that to survive in this world, he must keep a low profile or risk potentially deadly punishment. He's first sold to William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), a New Orleans plantation owner and preacher, who is a decent man, as far as those who own other human being go, but his overseer, John Tibeats (Paul Dano), is a cruel and short-tempered man who comes to blows with Solomon, forcing Ford to sell his favored slave rather than let Tibeats kill him. The man who buys him next is an especially cruel man, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), who lords over a cotton plantation and has an indecent interest in his most accomplished cotton-picker, a demure young lady named Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o), bringing out the equally fearsome cruelty of Epps' wife.
I didn't feel as emotionally engaged in 12 YEARS A SLAVE as I had with SCHINDLER'S LIST, the standard for documentative narrative epics about real-life atrocities, but 12 YEARS is a subtler film, gradually bringing its narrative to a boil before it explodes into an emotionally-charged last half hour or so.
Like SCHINDLER'S LIST aspired toward being with its respective subject though, 12 YEARS is as comprehensive a narrative work on the institution of slavery prior to the Civil War as could possibly be hoped for. It isn't a sensationalist work, and although it is the story of a man in one sense, it is also a film about how the institution of slavery dehumanized a man, dehumanized a race, and dehumanized a nation. Few films have as high of ambitions as this, and far fewer have tackled them successfully, but 12 YEARS A SLAVE is as close as possible as one can imagine to a fully-fleshed cinematic portrayal of its shameful subject. The most obvious victims are the slaves themselves, torn apart from their families in a business where "it could not be helped," subject to the whims of unpredictable masters, and even with the less cruel masters, there's little accounting for what the overseers or other circumstances will bring. There's a conversation in the film when Solomon tries to justify for Master Ford that "considering the circumstances" he's a good man, but a slave woman rebukes him because, "considering the circumstances, he owns slaves." It seems that only too many times have I heard about how most of the slave owners were decent, and the slaves basically worked for food and board, and that many slaves admired their masters and how many slave-owning plantation masters were morally upstanding; which of course is sick. People say such things generally admit that slavery was bad, and that even though the slaves had it, as some would ignorantly say, "pretty good," it was unfortunate that they didn't have a choice in the matter. Maybe that sounds extreme to some, but an upbringing in a conservative rural area has its own peculiarities. The fact is that the act of slavery is not one that can be justified, and it should never have been there from the beginning, and I can't believe that even the bloodiest of civil wars was not a better route than waiting for however long until the practice dissipated, while who knows how many human beings languishing as the literal property of another from birth until death. Even worse, the demeaning of what is essentially a human being, even a "lesser human being" according to the archaic views of slavery, as livestock, opens the doorway to inhumanly cruel behavior, from flagellation to the noose.
Less obvious victims to this point of history are the slave masters themselves, deceived in their traditions and society, and forced to deceive themselves in order to deny the obvious humanity of their "property." Michael Fassbender's Epps is a cruel and brutal man who has any slave who picks less than 200 pounds of cotton a day receive a whipping, and he is infatuated with his slave Patsey, who, as his property, he forces himself upon, but cannot admit his affection because she is his "property," but his affections are not unnoticed by his acid-tongued wife, who takes much of her jealousies out on Patsey. One plantation overseer talks about the emotional toll of being the whipman, and even some of these white folk feel trapped within the institution.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, a British actor best known as the ruthless Operative in SERENITY and various supporting roles in a few other movies, plays Solomon as a man suppressed by his environment, where any word can bring startling consequence, while seething in his suffering underneath, opposite Fassbender, who plays his role as the cruel slave master similarly, but at a 'boiling over' point, enraged by and totally accepting of the world around him. Newcomer Lupita Nyong'o, a Mexican-born Kenyan actress in her feature debut, is the standout performer of the film though, in the difficult role of Patsey, the unfortunate victim of her master's affections, and by default, her mistress' rage. Her demure tolerance in seeming hopelessness is tragic and impressing, claiming the place of the most sympathetic character in a film filled with sympathetic characters.
The film is not all suffering though, and there is much beauty of the Southern landscape juxtaposed against the ugliness of slavery, but when the genuinely good people come along, such as Brad Pitt's (who also produced the film) Samuel Bass, a Canadian abolitionist who stands up to Epps, it's refreshing and matters all the more against the despair, so you can't even care that someone as recognizable as Brad Pitt is suddenly in this movie.
You've probably heard about how "hard to watch" this film is because of its depictions of cruelty, and it's true that McQueen doesn't succumb to squeamishness, but I think that only makes it more important to see. Recently on NPR, in an interview with McQueen and Ejiofor, I heard it said that we love to be the country that freed the slaves, but were not so ready to acknowledge that we were also the country that needed to free the slaves who made up the largest slave industry in the world. It's crucial that we know our history, the good and the bad, and if we ignore the evils of such institutions or simply downplay them, we can lose the importance of the goodness. 12 YEARS A SLAVE isn't really a very graphic movie, but it is brutal and it should be. It's a movie that does not let you forget that this was reality, and people were lynched, tortured, families separated and innocent victims were penalized in ways that we aren't comfortable doing to animals. I would consider this reasonable viewing for kids around 13 or 14, not because it isn't horrific, because it can aptly be described as 'horrific' but it isn't exploitative or excessive. It's an honest depiction of our history, a nationally-defining history, and it's a more visceral and educational way for kids to learn than from the clinical but comfortable textbooks at schools. Most of it is stuff that we all know about loosely, but rarely acknowledge fully, but should. People cannot afford to excuse these events. It's incredible to think that for something so significant in our history, American slavery has never had a very solid presence on the cinema screen, often making cameos in historical epics, and during the Golden Age of Hollywood, it was often romanticized. One of the most important movies of all time, D.W. Griffiths' THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), the first use of many classic cinematic techniques and often considered the first cinematic epic, not only romanticized slavery, but glorified it wholeheartedly and climaxed with the first ride of the Ku Klux Klan, founded by the film's heroes to stop the freed slaves from violated their white women. Over the years, film has managed to evolve past the ultra-racist and ridiculously inaccurate portrayals of our most shameful history, but until recently, any attempts to bring an honest and realistic story of slavery to the big screen have been unsuccessful. Even Steven Spielberg, the master filmmaker who so successfully brought the Holocaust to the public eye in SCHINDLER'S LIST was unable to do the same for slavery in his only-intermittently successful AMISTAD (1997). Last year, master filmmaker of a sensationalist sort, Quentin Tarantino made the excellent DJANGO UNCHAINED, which aptly depicted the brutality of American slavery, but without much concern for realism, a la Tarantino. Until 12 YEARS A SLAVE, there has not been a realistic, intimate and comprehensive, not to mention fact-based, account of slavery in the antebellum South made with such potency and craft. Currently, it is far and away the strongest contender for the Best Picture award at next years Academy Awards, and if that stays, that also makes it the strongest contender for Best Director, which would make Steve McQueen the first black winner of the Best Director Oscar. Additionally, it is also likely to receive nominations for Best Actor (Ejiofor), Best Supporting Actor (Fassbender), Best Supporting Actress (Nyong'o), Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. If you have the stomach for your own history, or even if you don't, I highly recommend 12 YEARS A SLAVE, and if you don't think its issues are still relevant today, perhaps you haven't noticed the disproportionate poverty and crime rates among predominantly black communities who continue to suffer the aftershocks of a history that placed them under the foot of another population for our first decades and continues to speak to our culture.
THOR: THE DARK WORLD (ACTION-ADVENTURE/SCI-FI) 2.5 out of 4 stars Directed by Alan Taylor Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Eccleston, Jaimie Alexander, Idris Elba, Rene Russo, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some suggestive content. Verdict: The Mighty Avenger proves to once again to travel a rocky road to cinematic realization in this follow-up to THOR (2011) and THE AVENGERS (2012), but if you come looking for swashbuckling action and goofy laughs, and don't mind a heaping dose of oddity scrambled with a sprinkling of camp, then THE DARK WORLD may be just the thing for a Saturday afternoon. YOU MAY ENJOY THOR: THE DARK WORLD IF YOU LIKED: THOR (2011) MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS (2012) HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY (2008)
Back in 2011 when Thor first hit the big screen in Marvel Studios' fourth independent production, it was enjoyable, but those of us with snootier cinematic tastes were compelled to qualify with our statements of Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, being the most difficult of the main Marvel "Avengers" to to adapt to the screen on their journey to creating the spectacular crossing-over that was MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS. Well, I'm going to pull the same kind of crap again, because THOR: THE DARK WORLD, following up the events of both THOR (2011) and MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS (2012), is an entertaining mess from the lower end of Marvel Studios' sturdy stable of superhero blockbusters that make up the "Marvel Cinematic Universe," as they call it. The thing about Thor is... he's strange. Even in a world where mild-mannered scientists explode into giant green rage-monsters when irritated, WWII veterans are thawed out from Arctic glaciers and fight aliens whilst decked out in red, white & blue, and asshole billionaires privatize world peace with mechanical bodysuits, Thor stands out as the oddest of them all. He's a superhero of a vaguely god-like status, having been worshipped by medieval Iceland, but he's more of an extra-terrestrial, being from another planet, or "realm," that being Asgard. He's primary combative tool, and primary superpower at that, is a big hammer called Mjolnir, with which he can fly and summon lightning, not to mention using it as a blunt weapon. Plus he wears a cape and speaks in Olde English, at least within the bounds of what mainstream audiences are able to understand.
THE DARK WORLD finds Thor (Chris hemsworth) one year following the Battle of New York, that being the climactic event of THE AVENGERS, as his adoptive brother Loki (Tom Hiddlestone) has been locked away in the dungeons of Asgard for the remainder of his existence. Loki having cast the Nine Realms (of which Asgard and Earth, known to them as Midgard, are accounted) into disarray, Thor is charged with restoring order under the reign of his aging father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor's heart remains with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), an astrophysicist on Earth, though, and it's been two years since he last saw her (in 2011's THOR; the passage of time in the movies is apparently literal between films). Jane and her intern assistant, Darcy (Kat Dennings) have been picking up strange astronomical readings on Earth as what the Asgardians call the "Convergence" approaches, at which point the Nine Realms will align, exposing the vulnerable areas of their borders, at which point an ancient and archaic race known as the Dark Elves hope to use an ancient weapon to plunge the universe into the darkness that it was before the rise of Asgard.
While Thor's cinematic debut was criticized as being "too safe" and a "commercially efficient" film, THE DARK WORLD takes many more risks, and some pay off, while many do not. The universe of the Nine Realms in Thor's story is made up of many differing aesthetics, and sometimes they clash. Aasgard is the kind of world that looks like THE LORD OF THE RINGS' "Minas Tirith" plated over with steampunk bronze and brass, but when there's trouble at the dungeons, an Earthly alarm blares, and while swords, spears and arrows are used in combat against elves, trolls and giants, ray guns and spaceships that would be at home in STAR WARS are also commonplace. The result is an occasionally campy aesthetic, which
appears both in comic and serious contexts, for better or worse.
The most significant weakness to THE DARK WORLD is in its villain; they say a hero is only as good as its villain, but Marvel Studios hasn't always followed that rule as much, preferring to put its characters at odds with more personal conflicts, while the actual villains are sometimes little more than incidental. Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, played by Christopher Eccleston, is a dreadfully thin character explained with a minimal amount of information about the fall of his race when light was brought to the universe, and beyond looking creepy and speaking in digitally-modified low monotone, he's hopelessly interchangeable.
Tom Hiddleston as Loki fills the villain role far better and with less screen time, taking up a position similar to that of Magneto in X2: X-MEN UNITED (2003), as Thor forms an uneasy alliance with him to fight a common enemy until the moment comes that Loki can manipulate himself into an upper hand. It is a shame that Hiddleston's screen time is slimmed out this time around, because he is the best part, but then again, they don't want to always be returning to the same barrel. Yet again though, Loki is the most sympathetic and entertaining presence in Thor's world, and after going full-villain in THE AVENGERS, Hiddleston is able to come unhinged in the role of a madder, more spiteful Loki; a trickster with an unquenchable thirst for power and methods of rapidly-shifting allegiance to whomever he can use to the greatest advantage.
The script seems to have a bit of difficulty in balancing out the attention given to its other characters, many of whom it desires to give more significant parts, but rarely gets much past suggestions, especially a would-be love triangle between Thor, Jane and Sif, as well as the now-looney Dr. Selvig's (Stellan Skarsgard) involvement with the goings on of the convergence.
Action-wise, THE DARK WORLD does not disappoint, providing plenty of the big set-pieces that we've come to expect from Marvel (even while we now wonder what exactly qualifies as an Avengers-level catastrophe), as well as some really cool littler bits such as Thor's mom, Frigga (Rene Russo), taking up swords against Malekith. The lining up of the Realms towards the inevitable climax provides the setting for a uniquely oddball final showdown that's part godly combat and part madcap mayhem. As opposed to the much more independently-minded IRON MAN 3, THOR: THE DARK WORLD is a prominent crossroads for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with multiple story lines intertwining on their way to 2014's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, ABC's network television hit Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 2015's MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and the inevitable THOR 3, whenever that may come. Those who keep up to date with those other properties will be rewarded with so-called "Easter Eggs," including a great cameo by Captain America (returning in Marvel's next movie, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, in April) and cameos for other characters who will play bigger parts in future films (and probably Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes). Be sure stay through the end credits; yes, there's an extra scene (basically a little preview for one of Marvel's upcoming movies) midway through the credits, but there's also a "stinger" at the end of the credits.
If THOR: THE DARK WORLD is a weak point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then it's a hell of a weak point to have, because it still delivers the swashbuckling thrills and dopey laughs in droves and is a perfectly adequate 'popcorn movie'.
"Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot..."
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Even while proponents of libertarianism and anarchy sport Guy Fawkes masks for their cause, the historical Guy Fawkes was in fact a Catholic activist who sought to bomb the British Parliament and assassinate King James I not in order to depose an unjust theocratic dictatorship, but to replace an 'ungodly' Protestant one with a Catholic one. Disillusioning as that might (and should) be, V FOR VENDETTA is a great movie filled with interesting ideas, stylish action and great acting. I don't really care for the symbolism of the Guy Fawkes mask that has been inspired by the film though; it's a trite, unthoughtful symbol of cookie-cutter political activism that, ironically, is a self-indulgent and conformist variation on the power of the people. I'm not saying that that's always the case, but that it's a safe bet that it is in most cases.
Alan Moore, who wrote the graphic novel on which V FOR VENDETTA is based, has made no secret of his great disdain for Hollywood and their adaptations of his works, the right to which he sells strictly for the money, and to be fair, those films have included the severely overrated WATCHMEN, the surprisingly uninteresting FROM HELL, and the positively abysmal THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. V FOR VENDETTA, which Moore described as "de-fanged" and "a Bush-era parable by
people too timid to set a political satire in their own country," is definitely the best film adaptation of any of Moore's original works. The graphic novel on which it is based was written in response to the conservative resurgence under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and was a complex and morally ambiguous conflict between anarchy and fascism, but any elements directly addressing anarchy have been downplayed in the film, and the fascism has been altered to mix in more of the concerns of selling liberty for security that were prominent in a post-9/11 world during the Bush Administration and continue to be now. Moore does have a point that the film could just as well have been set in America if it's dealing with all of that, but then there wouldn't be the established fan-base of V for Vendetta, so the War on Terror is made to have reached a point of major amplification in Europe in some near-future years.
Even if V FOR VENDETTA isn't the anarchist fable which protestors bear the mask in tribute to, it is undoubtedly a left-wing film (libertarians have become much more right-wing prominent under the Obama Administration though), with some of its major concerns involving homophobia and Islamophobia, which have been points of criticism for neo-conservatives, the former especially, and especially in recent years. The film is surprisingly touching on the pro-gay front especially, including significant subplots of a public figure who's also a closeted homosexual, and the memoir of a lesbian girl's coming of age and finding love as she's rejected by her family, and then arrested and killed with her lover under the conservative theocracy in power. You can call that an extreme if you want, but that's exactly what's happened moralistic fascist societies throughout history, including Nazi Germany.
In contrast to the Hollywood stereotypes, V FOR VENDETTA keeps the action pretty slim, with only a few action sequences, and even with the R rating open to it, only one scene is particularly bloody. With THE MATRIX-creators, the Wachowski siblings, writing and producing, the action is stylish as you might expect though, with ultra-fast and sometimes slo-mo martial arts and showers of bullets. Even still, it's a film more about ideas than action or style. The ideas are not necessarily always as substantial as they could be, but it's no definite case of style-over-substance.
The acting is great, with Hugo Weaving filling in for James Purefoy six weeks into the shoot, and creating a terrifically magnetic screen presence even whilst his face is covered throughout the entire extent of the film, and Natalie Portman adopts an unusually convincing British accent and gives full commitment to the role, including the famous shaving of her actual hair off onscreen.
So even if you're not one of those mask-wearing wankers from the news, watch V FOR VENDETTA today. It's a good movie.
ENDER'S GAME (SCI-FI) 2.5 out of 4 stars Directed by Gavin Hood Starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Aramis Knight, Moises Arias, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley PG-13 for some violence, sci-fi action and thematic material. Verdict: Although I have no comparisons to offer to the source material, ENDER'S GAME is an intriguing meditation on ethics in warfare, but shaky and unimpressive in areas of character and plot progression, and a little cheesy besides. YOU MAY ENJOY ENDER'S GAME IF YOU LIKED: STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013) HUGO (2011) ELYSIUM (2013) TITAN A.E. (2000) SILENT RUNNING (1972)
Orson Scott Card's ENDER'S GAME is one of the most revered works of science fiction literature of the last 50 years, but before the film neared its release, I had been scantily informed about any details of its characters or story. As such, I went into ENDER'S GAME without assumptions or anticipations beyond the film's marketing campaign, which apparently is pretty vague about the workings of the story, not to spoil anything.
The film is set about 120 years into the future, where it has been 50 years since Earth suffered a devastating attack by an alien race called the "Formics" (prudently adopting the aliens' name from later books in the series, rather than the original book's "Buggers"), and emerged victorious thanks to the heroic sacrifice of the legendary Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley). Now, humanity's International Fleet is preparing for the next invasion by training youth soldiers recruited from the most brilliant strategists, most brilliant of them being Andrew "Ender" Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), who Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) is convinced is the child to lead the fleet's forces into battle. Ender is sent to the Command School, a space station where the best candidates train for battle against the Formics in grueling competitions, and where Ender must also contend with the nastier competition outside of the battle simulations, where he clashes with his spiteful classmates. Published in 1985, Ender's Game foresaw the prevalence of issues of importance today such as the nature and effect of video game violence on the children who play said games, drone warfare, and the prominence of internet and e-mail. But since the 1980s, Hollywood has been struggling to get a movie made of it, dealing with its author's reluctance to approve a production, due to the cerebral nature of the material making a translation to the screen difficult, and in the past 15 years, attempts at actual production development have been on and off as prominent talents have tried and failed to bring the film about.
Unlike JOHN CARTER, based on A Princess of Mars, another science fiction literary classic which faced an arduous path (a significantly more troublesome one) to the cinema screen, writer/director Gavin Hood's ENDER'S GAME makes it to the delivery stage with many of its ideas still intact and fresh. Admittedly, judging by what I had picked up about the story, in addition to author Orson Scott Card's conservative vitriol over gay rights, I assumed that the film would have a Michael Bay-esque, jingoistic approach to warfare, about a young boy becoming a great war hero, which was refreshingly the opposite of the fact. ENDER'S GAME is an interesting treatise on the ethics of warfare and a militaristic society. Everyone wants security, but how we get it matters, and there are questions about virtues and vices of fighting for defense and further
preemptive measures.
Unfortunately, while the ideas are strong, the execution is not always smooth. The biggest trouble for the film is showing the development of its characters, particularly Ender, as his emotional conflicts and authoritative developments are moved along herky-jerkily, but Butterfield's acting is deft nonetheless, within the weakness of the script. A montage or some more efficient suggestion of the passage of time would have been desirable, as well as some earlier establishment of Ender's authoritative coolness, because when he suddenly fills the shoes of commander and successive ranks, his smooth charge of command seems so suddenly assured, it prompts me to smirk. There's also a moment when Ender temporarily resigns, which probably would have been better left out if not given sufficient focus as is the case here, because we're left knowing only that the adolescent boy left the orbital training station and is now living like a hermit by a lake. We don't know how he was able to leave a spacecraft where the Col. Graff so clearly wants him to stay and has proven his deftness in getting what he wants, or why he has a lake house, or how long he's been there. Furthermore, there were several elements essential to the concept which I didn't comprehend as well as I think I should have, especially the notion of a youth-dominated military. It is an issue that's addressed, and thankfully, it isn't condoned in the 'Narnia' sense either (seriously, what is up with those books?), but simple throw away lines about children learning and recognizing patterns more easily seems insufficient for such an integral point of the plot. Other issues involving the manner of warfare and some of the adult characters are a little fuzzy as well, but not as big an issue. I suppose these things are more fleshed out in the source material, but an adaptation needs to work as well for the uninitiated.
The film thrives on ideas though, and the increasingly dark elements offer a compendium of ethical dilemmas in combat, as well as food for thought on the delicate balance between a war hero and a war criminal. ENDER'S GAME is not the "must-see" movie of the year, nor is it the smartest, prettiest, most thoughtful or most anything of movies this years really, but it's moderately substantial and appealing entertainment.
