I recently watched Bryan Singer's original X-Men. It certainly seems like the start of this new wave of Super Heroics we're battling these days, but other than that I found it to be incredibly sophomoric. Of course, I was never much of a fan as I felt it just never captured the spirit of the characters. Fanboy problems, ya know? Hugh Jackman is dashing as all that, but is that what we really want out of Wolverine? Apparently it is since we've gotten seven outings from the actor with no end in sight. First Class is certainly my favorite in the series thanks to Fassbender & McAvoy, and the time travel story placing them alongside Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen is enticing. But the only hope this film has of working is in relegating the majority of the cast to the sidelines. Too many faces, not enough plot. A concern we've expressed enough on ITMOD. The new trailer out of the UK looks fun enough. Fassbender & McAvoy still look like the best element.
Thanks to the blog Existential Ennui, I just found out that Ben Wheatley, the guy behind A Field in England, one of my favorite films of last year, is attached to direct an adaptation of a book I've been wanting to read for nearly thirty years. J.G. Ballard's High Rise. When I was a young lad, I found a book about various ways the concept of the City of the Future has been explored in art and literature. And one of the books mentioned was High Rise. But, gasp, I could not find a copy to save my life. Heck, I could barely even find any other evidence the book ever existed.
However, it was finally reprinted (first US printing?) in 2012, and I now own a copy. Which went right into my 'to read' pile and has been sitting there for two years. OK, so I just moved it closer to the top. I've got a lot of books to read. Don't pressure me, man.
I can't wait to see what Wheatley does with this very cool concept. And somehow his voice mixing with Ballard's feels right. Of course, right now, he's only 'attached' to the project. It's not a sure thing that this film will get made, or that by the time it is, Wheatley will be at the helm. Still, I find it exciting news to wake up to, and hope all goes well. And I have time to read the book so I'm not a total poser-chump.
Mushrooms!!!
Oh, yeah, and fangirl favorite Tom Hiddleston is currently attached as the star. That's cool by me. If you can't get Michael Fassbender, there's Hiddleston.
If I remember correctly, the trailer seen below for Bryan Singer's X-Men epic is the exact same one we saw at this year's San Diego Comic Con. I certainly have the same feelings now that I did back then - Wow! How great it is to see all those actors in one film.....and how on Earth is one film going to do all that talent justice. The answer is probably that most of those folks are going to get the shaft. Halle Berry's Storm will have one thunderous moment, Ellen Page & Anna Paquin will get their chance to look weepy, and Shawn Ashmore will stand behind the real stars of the film. It certainly looks like Hugh Jackman's movie, but I'm hoping for some solid screentime from the headmasters both old & young - give me plenty of Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, & Michael Fassbender. Deliver some kickass sequences with those folks and I'll be happy. Of course, Bryan Singer hasn't made a good movie since The Usual Suspects and my expectation for this film is dim. All these actors are going to be tripping over themselves and the fanboys in the crowd will be left with a muddled mess. Please prove me wrong.
If the film never delivers at least I got to be a part of the Hall H extravaganza. The pictures seen below were taken by me from the second row of that beautiful 7,000 seated ballroom. Nerd Meca for sure.
Just four more months left to the year. September, October, November, December. Summer is behind us; it's time for Hollywood to unleash the Oscar Bait heavy hitters. Don't know if you've picked up the mood around ITMOD lately, but Matt & I are desperate for some real-deal cinematic entertainment. So far this year I've seen 54 films. I've liked a bunch, but I've only LOVED two films (Only God Forgives & The World's End). That's fairly depressing. And going into this prestigious Fall Season, I don't see a lot of options to perk up my mood. None of the films listed below are there due to their content. The plots do not really interest me, but the filmmakers behind the camera certainly do.
Honorable Mention - Oldboy: I am not anticipating Spike Lee's Oldboy remake, I'm dreading it. Josh Brolin & Sharlto Copley are perfectly paired as the tortured & torturer, but I just cannot imagine this film sticking the original's epic revenge twist. And judging by what little I've seen of the trailer, this Spike Lee Joint doesn't even seem bothered with pulling off the Korean climax. So...good, right? Be it's own thing. Maybe focus more on the original comic? Well, except the trailer seems to rob every other beat from Chan-wook Park's film. Beards, umbrellas, hammers. Color me cautiously curious.
5. The Monuments Men: I think George Clooney is one of the most fascinating, if not all-together successful, actor-turned-directors out there. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night and Good Luck, Leatherheads, Ides of March. Each of his movies are wildly different from the next. Not just in plot or tone, but in visual style. Name me another actor/director that has as strong an eye as Clooney? You can't. Good Night and Good Luck is probably his strongest effort, but I've also really enjoyed the oddity of Confessions, and I think Leatherheads is ridiculously charming. But Ides of March was just a basic political melodrama with strong performances, but a blah predictable screenplay. I'm happy to see him tackling this oddball WWII art caper flick, but is this just a period piece Ocean's 11? There could be worse things.
4. The Wolf Of Wall Street: Martin Scorsese makes a movie, I get excited. And with its Kanye score and Matthew McConaughey chest thumping, I absolutely adored the first theatrical trailer. My only concern is that this is just a Social Network wannabe. Asshole Leo tossing midgets, lobsters, and orange juice and making boatloads of cash off all us American suckers. We've had a lot of Rise & Fall stories throughout the years, and Scorsese himself delivered two of the greatest with Goodfellas & Casino. Does he have a third one in him? I sure hope so.
3. Thor - The Dark World: Pre-Avengers, Kenneth Branagh's Thor was my favorite of the Marvel Studios movies. Chris Hemsworth is the single greatest spandex discovery since Christopher Reeve. His smile owned that movie. It was a romcom fish-outta-water adventure that didn't need to bother with brooding responsibility a la Iron Man or a dozen other super hero flicks. All Thor cared about was having fun at the movies. But now Branagh is out, Game of Thrones's Alan Taylor is in, and The Dark World promises to deliver the Empire Strikes Back. Not sure if that's what I want from the mighty god of thunder, but Jason Aaron's comic has brought new levels of enthusiasm to the character, and I'm fascinated to see if Hemsworth's lackadaisical brute can handle the doom & gloom.
2. The Counselor: Frankly, given my absolute frustration surrounding Prometheus, I am simply stunned that Ridley Scott's latest has not only made my Top Five, but my Number 2 to boot. Just goes to show you the power of Michael Fassbender. Not too mention Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz viciously chewing up a scenery supplied by Cormac McCarthy. Guns, drugs, and jaguars - Oh My! This project was born out of the director's inability to adapt McCarthy's hateful western, Blood Meridian, so cross your fingers that this flick brings the rage found within the printed page. Although, I'll simply settle for some Black Rain blood squibs.
1. Inside Llewyn Davis: IMDB's short synopsis reads, "A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961." That doesn't really get the heart pumping, does it? Of course, that's the charm of the Coen Brothers. They can seemingly take any subject and transform it into a comedy, a drama, a western, a noir, a whatever. With the exception of Intolerable Cruelty, every single one of their movies has landed in my end of the year Top Ten. I expect the same here. You've got Coen stalwart John Goodman, but a lot of fresh faces as well. The lead Oscar Isaac has been on the verge of a breakthrough for nearly the last ten years (Robin Hood, Sucker Punch, Drive), and given enough critical praise & audience acceptance Inside Llewyn Davis might be his ticket. Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, F Murray Abraham, and Neelix round out the supporting cast. I certainly like these faces.
Wow. Say what you will about the actual film, this painting from Deviant Artist Djano23 is stunning. I love it. LOVE IT. I want a giant reproduction of it hanging above my bed right now. The Wife will totally be into it...even if she really did hate the film.
Still reading comics, though my rate declined considerably this week. Not a lot of movies. A couple more Jean Rollin films, to remind me why I think being a filmmaker in the 70s in France may have been one of history’s best jobs.
The Moon-Spinners: A couple of snooty Brits show up unexpected and unwanted to a village on Crete to sample some of the local color. But there’s some funny business going on, and Eli Wallach is at the center of it. It’s a pretty good caper film, with a nice exotic location.
Hot Tub Time Machine: “Well that makes sense.” In the 80s, our movies kept looking back to the 50s. Now, in the 2010s, we seem to enjoy looking back to the 80s. This movie, featuring a…yes, a Hot Tub Time Machine, is a shockingly funny, often crass but oddly sensitive look back to that crazy time of T&A movies and hard partying, when rocking hard enough, skiing, and wacky fashion were the name of the game. I feel like I enjoy this movie far more than I should. But it is a good look at friendship, even when it involves friends who are a-holes.
The Venture Brothers Season 3: “I gotta go where the blacktion is.” I love that this is basically a show about failure. Professional and personal failure. Romantic and physical failure. And the overall failure to achieve dreams both grand and intimate. As perverse and offensive as it is on the surface, there’s a deep bitterness that rings true. And season three has a lot more animated penis than you might expect.
The Iron Rose: OK, let me get out my Jean Rollin checklist. Pretty young woman? Check. A graveyard? Check. Lots of beautiful shots of various random locations? Check. Choppy editing? Check. Not a lot of ‘plot’ type business going on? Check. The only thing missing is Rollin’s signature wall to wall nudity. There’s shockingly little actually, when he gives himself plenty of opportunity to put in more. Like most of his films, it doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it’s an oddly captivating bit of fluff. I guess his work is more like a painting that is nice to look at, but doesn’t seem to say much.
Alien: Resurrection: My love of this film has diminished over the years. I think in part, I had Star Trek VI Syndrome (aka: Revenge of the Sith Syndrome). You know, when the previous movie is so bloody awful that even though the next one sucks, it seems pretty good, because it’s SO much better than the previous. Anyway, the movie has some great stuff. Some really cool scenes and sets and costumes. There are some great ideas. But the script is wonky and some of the performances are not good. Winona Ryder especially is really awful but she’s not alone. The CGI ranges from good to crap, though it’s generally better than Alien 3’s. It’s probably the most overtly sexual of the films. In fact, probably the only one to expand on the first film’s hints.
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors: These episodes really don’t work, but they’re kind of fun because you get to see all the old actors back, not just Doctor incarnations, but a few of his companions, too; all the way back to Susan for crying out loud. Sadly, they also drag out The Master…yet again. The Death Zone, huh. The actor playing the first Doctor does a fair job, but it’s still a bit distracting having someone other than Hartnell in the role. John Pertwee looks amazingly good. Patrick Troughton is starting to show his age, but is pretty spry. Tom Baker is only a few years retried for the role. Seriously, they drag out so many companions. There’s a fairly interesting mystery/revelation. Not much plot, really. Just ‘here they are’…‘there they go’…‘yup, that was them.’ But considering how many long lost actors and characters they needed to work into the story, it’s pretty well done. And remember to always reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.
Spy Game: As Brad Pitt was starting his transition from young shaved chimp to older actor (Oceans 11 being the turning point), he made this Tony Scott actioner. Head games, twists, turns, betrayals, and all kinds of spy business are committed to tinted, quick-cut, and generally Scotted film. He hadn’t reached the levels of Man on Fire or the extreme levels of Domino by this point, keeping things much more in the style of Enemy of the State. In fact, this would probably be a good companion film for that. Redford is less insufferable than usual, which is nice. A solid 90s spy/Mid-East conflict film along the lines of The Siege or The Peacemaker.
Requiem For a Vampire: How many clown shoot-outs did the last movie you saw have? If the answer is zero, then you’re missing out. Two young women dressed as clowns (who are likely Doors fans), wander around the French country side in that way women do in Jean Rollin films. I’d love to be the dialog editor on a film like this. Girl 1: “…” Girl 2: “…” Girl 1: “…” Classic. Obviously, there’s a graveyard (it is a Jean Rollin film). And there are beautiful girls and beautiful scenery. Not a lot of plot or talking. It has that vague logic-free feel of dreams, which I think might be the thing that keeps bringing me back to his movies. Its not that they’re good. They’re not. Yet, they’re oddly compelling in a way that transcends their schlocky Euro-trash T&A horror movie status.
Dragnet: As a boy, I thought this movie was the bee’s knees. It’s so 80s goofy. Back when Tom Hanks was the clown prince (well before his Oscar days). I absolutely loved the jokes, which are, to say the very least, corny. I loved the performances, especially Christopher Plummer. Today?…Well, it’s OK. There are some very funny bits, and Christopher Plummer is still awesome. But let’s be honest. It’s a dumb movie that pretty much spits in the face of the original show.
Prometheus: Well, it’s never pleasant when a highly anticipated film doesn’t live up. I try, and generally succeed, not to build up films too much before seeing them. Oh, sure, I want certain ones to blow me away, but generally, I’m just happy if it doesn’t suck and extra happy if it’s awesome. However, when a movie like this comes along, having SO much good going for it, yet doesn’t end up being all that great, I get pretty bummed. As so often happens, the biggest failure is in the writing. There’s a potentially cool story, but the end is crap. There is only one interesting character, and he isn’t explored very much at all. And if anything, this movie has too many connections to Alien, considering it really isn’t a prequel (seriously, think about it; it’s not; though yes, it’s in the same universe). I’ve never liked Ridley Scott’s idea that the alien was some kind of bio-weapon. I think it diminishes them as a species, taking away the glory of their evolutionary struggle. So, in a way, I was never going to be completely happy with this film. But, getting beyond that, after enjoying a lot of the first two thirds, the movie started to loose me when they introduced a new character, then totally lost me when they introduced…well, someone else (I’m not telling). And the finale was no good at all. The film looks flippin’ amazing, and there are some truly gorgeous images, both natural and very unnatural. The tech design is nice and the sets impressive. But it certainly doesn’t have the memorable and loveable characters that Alien had, which would have gone a LONG way toward making this a good film. Leaving the theater, I felt much like I did upon finishing Hellboy 2, empty. I want to grab the film by its shoulders and scream, ‘Why aren’t you better!?’
A thought I had after watching Prometheus is that a lot of folks making science fiction, especially in the realm of film (and TV) don’t really seem to get or like science. There is a lot of backward, superstitious thinking and fear, of technology, of the unknown, of truth. I think in part, it goes back to the fear that Lovecraft tapped into, the fear of understanding. I think for a lot of people, understanding that they are not important; that the universe will not register them or their lives in any grand-scale way; that they are, like everyone else, the product of millions of years of undirected, unplanned natural processes; makes them feel some kind of soul shaking terror. This fear creeps in to a lot of sci-fi movies, and it’s in Prometheus. There’s a difference between rational fear, that of a real danger and the fear of understanding. Rational fear makes you do things like properly prepare and attempt to avoid unnecessarily dangerous situations. Fear of understanding makes you stop looking, stop going forward. It makes you turn to musty old books of fairy stories, written by bronze age savages. It makes you hate well educated people (calling them elitist, as though knowledge is dirty). It makes you hold on to fetishes to ward off evil. It makes you ascribe will to natural phenomena. And give meaning to things that have none. I wish that movies, science fiction especially, featured a lot less magical thinking, and a lot more genuine thinking. Less fear of the unknown (which is really fear learning) and more love of the question.
I'm gonna do science on you so hard!
Now, Prometheus isn’t as science hating as movies like The Happening, Knowing, or 99% of science fiction made in the 70s. But the scientists act more like priests and failed seekers than men and women of science. The only one who seems to actually know what’s up is the one character in the film I genuinely cared about, the android. He seemed to be the only one to be curious and respectful of what he found. So, of course, he’s kind of a villain. Apparently to be a hero in a modern science fiction film, you’ve got to ‘let go’ and ‘just believe’ in some clap-trap. You certainly can’t use logic, ask questions, test a hypothesis, weigh results, or formulate a theory. No wonder we haven’t been to the moon in 40 years and 60% of the population thinks The Flinstones was a documentary.
As I said, I didn’t get as much comic reading done this week as I did last. But I read some fun stuff. Brad said he had some more comics to pass off to me, so those will be coming up.
Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America was one of the first of Marvel’s ‘mainstream’ comics I think I read. I liked all the Cold War and World War II themes and deep history. The art was sure nice. And generally, I liked the story and writing. But, as I tend to do with long running comics, I got distracted and don’t think I ever finished the second story arc, Red Menace. I’ve kept up in the most passing of ways with the progress of Captain America since, through his death, the Civil War, replacement with Bucky, rebirth, etc. But I didn’t read any of the actual comics for any of that. So last week, Brad gave passed me the first five issues of the Bucky centered comic series Winter Soldier. Issue one gets right into it, with the Winter Soldier (Bucky) and Black Widow infiltrating and spy-smashing. Right off, there are lots of connections to both of their pasts with the Russians during the Cold War. Sleeper agents, mad science, and nefarious deeds. And a heck of an end. This is generally more my cup of tea than say the X-Men or the Avengers. I prefer the semi-realistic/semi-pulp vibe of Cap and Bucky and the spies and soldiers to the mutant powers. The art in this is strange. It looks at times like degraded photographs.
“I’m not losing my mind here…That gorilla just used a jetpack, right?” Issue 2 of Winter Soldier has the mystery getting deeper and the duo in hot pursuit of all kinds of shadowy figures. A brief appearance from Nick Fury doing some serious butt kicking is a nice aside.
The third issue of Winter Soldier features more investigation and weird tech, and lots of references to the larger Marvel universe and its recent history. As someone who doesn’t read much Marvel, it’s sometimes interesting to hear characters talk about events like the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Reed Richards and such. And what’s up with Dr. Doom? I guess we’ll find out.
The plans within plans begin to unravel and be revealed, as the stakes are raised. Dr. Doom is a bit too Saturday morning cartoonish, and doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the comic. I guess they’ve got to keep him in line with how he’s normally portrayed, but it’s weird. I like all the spy stuff, and the assassination business. Even the crazy cyborg chick who wants to start a war is pretty cool. But I don’t know. Doom is kind of goofy.
The Longest Winter storyline of Winter Soldier wraps up in issue 5. The finale is pretty much one long action scene, with lots of jumping, machine gunning, and the like. The post climax revenge bit is pretty cool though. Overall, the five issue story is pretty good, though again, Doom is pretty silly. He seems like a character that could be pretty cool; a super-genius ruler of his own nation, in a kickass armored suit. But I think he’s just always been written like an old time movie serial villain, missing only a mustache to twirl.
What do you get when you put Garth Ennis on a Marvel MAX line? Well, lots and lots and lots of expletives, mostly. And some violence on occasion. Fury: My War Gone By could be a pretty cool comic. Issue one goes back to the 50s during the buildup to the Vietnam war. We find Nick Fury exiled because of an act of heroism that didn’t go unpunished. As various forces play chess in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Fury watches, trying to make the best of his lot. The look and feel is very retro, with a gritty, ugly look at life for soldiers during a tenuous peace. No superheroes or what have you. Just men and a woman in the sweltering heat as all hell rolls toward them. That all said, the constant use of expletives starts to feel almost like a parody at times. And what is it with comics that you can show all kinds of violence, but you can barely even talk about sex, and certainly not show it? I guess it’s the same on TV, though. There’s a weird phenomena in the Marvel universe, where a lot of their characters have been alive and relatively fit and young for a very, very long time. I’d kind of like to see them deal with that a bit more. Fury is a very, very old man. The Black Widow, though still looking quite young, has been active since what, the 50s? Many of the X-Men, Reed Richards, and others have been going fairly strong since the 60s. Shouldn’t that do something to people?
I guess the powers that be at Marvel felt they had to restart Captain America around the time of the recent film. I’m not sure why, as it’s still Ed Brubaker writing and follows the ongoing story. Getting past that, I still like Brubaker’s take on the character, with World War II always weighing heavily on his consciousness. I don’t know if Bravo is a new invention for this story. I’ll have to look. I’ll have to see how this series goes.
Keeping with the Captain America theme, I read the 70th Anniversary Issue (#616). It’s a collection of shorts with a kind of retrospective feel. The one really frustrating thing is that the Bucky story, Gulag part 1 doesn’t have a part 2 in this book, nor do I know where it appears. Still, the other stories are all self contained and as with most anthologies, vary in style and quality. My favorite is probably Howard Chaykin’s Opaque Shadows. My least favorite is easily Operation: Tooth Fairy, which is just goofy in look and content.
In preparation for the upcoming first meeting of Lisa’s new graphic novel book club, I read the first Astonishing X-Men (review coming after meeting).
A lot of this week was spent in a sort of anticipation of seeing Prometheus, plus, I’ve been kind of busy on a lot of nights, so I didn’t get to the reading I wanted to. I’m hoping this next week will not only give me a bit more reading time, but also some good weather to hit the road on my bike. I would not lament a week without a near constant threat of rain.
So apparently we now live in an age where we get Trailers for Trailers. And even though this bit of marketing manipulation sickens me on some level, I still find myself getting rather pumped my the brief seconds glimpsed in the Trailer-Trailer below. "The Most Anticipated Film of the Year." Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that 20th Century Fox, ignore Dark Knight Rises as best you can. But the real trailer will hit the net on Saturday.
The Midnight Marauder has blessed us with a series of wickedly cool posters for Ridley Scott's upcoming Prometheus. There are a lot of films I'm looking forward to this year, but this maybe-Alien prequel is right there at the top behind QT's Django Unchained and The Dark Knight Rises.
