Watchmen Review
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Well the most anticipated movie since The Dark Knight hits theaters today. And everyone is on the edge of their seats to see if Hollywood can pull off 4 (Iron Man, Hulk, The Dark Knight) successful comic book movies in a row. Although that raises the question of does Watchmen even qualify as a comic book…but that’s another show. So to answer the question before you all die of anticipation: Yes.
Zack Snyder seems to have an incredible talent for adapting still art into motion. However you feel about the quality of 300 as a film, you cannot deny that Snyder did what no one else had been able to do when making a comic based film, he made the move look and feel like the literature. Snyder accomplishes the same thing in Watchmen. Never for a minute do you doubt that you are seeing the world of Watchmen come to life before your eyes. The characters and costumes and environments are lifted beautifully right from the pages of Dave Gibbons’ amazing art. The writing in the film is word for word lifted from the novel throughout most of the movie. Even though some lines have been moved around or given to different characters, there is hardly a moment of dialogue in the film that you won’t remember Alan Moore having written. Visually the film is incredible. Aside from recreating perfectly the alternate 1985 New York City, the characters look remarkably identical to their original incantations. Notable differences include Silk Spectre II and Ozymandis. I really don’t think anyone is going to complain about the recreation of Ozy’s costume, lets be honest. And Silk Spectre’s change was an understandable one. Rorschach looks absolutely amazing, and the work done with his mask in the film is perfect. The film is absolutely beautiful. The colors and textures of the environments really work to serve as a visual representation of the current in film emotion. The bright colorful scenes are as vivid as possible, and the dark cold foreboding sets are as terrifying as any haunted summer camp.
Tyler Bates reunites with Snyder to provide one more incredible score. Though thinking back I really can’t think of a score that Bates did that was not amazing. But what really got me was not the original score, but how well the licensed music was used. Song’s like All Along The Watchtower not only fit in with the movies time but serve as a great narrative to what is happening on screen.
One of the largest problems with comic adaptations is finding the right people for the right roles (See: Ben Affleck in Daredevil, Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3, Nick Cage in Ghostrider, George Clooney in Batman And Robin) and amazingly enough every role was casted perfectly. Billy Crudup’s voice for Dr. Manhattan was perfect, depicting the absolute lack of feeling and caring and emotion that makes me hate the character so much. Jeffery Dean Morgan’s performance as The Comedian actually made me change my opinion as to who my favorite character in Watchmen is. I could keep going, but I would literally be naming the entire cast one at a time. Take my word, that every actor gives an amazing performance and brings the characters to life in ways that even the greatest optimist could not have predicted.
My one complaint with the film comes in it’s length. Clocking in around 2 and a half hours, naturally the movie drags at some points. Not that the story was ever really uninteresting, but there were a few times where I found myself actually bored with the movie, and just wanting it to end. This is not a movie for the casual film goer, or someone who just enjoys comic book movies. This film is for Watchmen fans. Not that it is impossible for someone who has not read the novel to enjoy it, but it will be very overwhelming for someone with no previous knowledge of the story.
Oh, and there is a lot of male nudity. Not something that really bothers me in films, but this time round enough really was enough. Credit to the filmmakers for not shying away from it, but really. But a small issue.
The final word is that this movie was great. The more I think about it the more I enjoyed it. Yes it is long, yes it tends to drag on in parts. But there is so much to look at and see that it is very easy to get lost in the film. And it is hard to ignore a film full of great performances. I am very glad this movie finally got made, I think right now was the perfect time for it. Watchmen is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Resident Evil Degeneration Review
I think it’s been over stated by now that I am a huge Resident Evil fan. So after the 3 horrible attempts at live action film (not even the lovely Mila Jovovich could save those crapfests) the idea of a full length CGI Resident Evil movie, made by Capcom nonetheless, was unbearably exciting. In the hands of anyone else I would have expected a terrible production, but with Capcom handling things, I was pretty certain the movie would not disappoint. And I was right.
This movie is awesome. Really. Amazing awesome. First lets start with the story, without getting into too much detail and giving too much away. Degeneration takes place one year after Resident Evil 4. Clair Redfield is working with TerraSave, an organization focused on aiding in recovery from biological attacks and disasters. Their main campaign is against WilPharma Corporation, that seems to be responsible for human testing of the T-Virus, which has fallen into the hands of terrorists and the black market since the fall of Umbrella Corporation. Senator Ron Davis is at the forefront of supporting WilPharma, and has a shady past of his own, including being in on the decision to nuke Raccoon City. Claire finds herself at the same airport as the Senator, right when a t-virus outbreak occurs. Believing it to be another terrorist attack, the government acts sending in a top special agent to handle things; Leon S. Kennedy. Leon, still on a mission to discover the remnants of Umbrella, of course comes in to save the day. The story progresses through a deep running conspiracy both within WilPharma, and outside of it. Leon and Claire are reunited once again and do battle against the infected zombies, eventually uncovering the conspiracy, including the return of the G-virus. I really don’t want to tell much more of the story than that, as it really is a great one and I don’t want to spoil it.
Resident Evil Degeneration is a pure CGI film, based on some Motion Capture. The movie looks incredible. Absolutely amazing. The animation is beautiful. There are some scenes, particularly those involving the G-virus mutation, that look horrifyingly real. This is definitely some of the best CGI to date. The camera direction is even more amazing. The directors really went out of their way to give the camera life and make you feel like you are watching a live action movie adding camera shakes and grand sweeping shots. I was really blown away. The voice acting is top notch, with Paul Mercier returning to voice Leon, which is a great treat for continuity concerned fans like myself. The sound and music are also amazing. As is pretty standard with Resident Evil.
I really wish that Degeneration was the next Resident Evil game, as the story was immensely more interesting than what I’ve seen from Resident Evil 5 so far. I really hope that Capcom makes one or two more full length features like this, to fill in some more gaps in the Resident Evil saga. Perhaps one based around what Wesker has been up to since the fall of Umbrella…though hopefully Resident Evil 5 will give us some of that information. Or even more interesting, maybe a film solely about Umbrella Corp, from the begging to the end, kind of like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles was supposed to be.
Anyway, bottom line. Whether you are a fan of Resident Evil, or just a fan of zombie flicks in general, or just a fan of CG animation, this movie is a must see. I was totally amazed and completely impressed. A great, great, must see. I have no complaints about it, totally honest. Watch it. Find out for yourself. I know this movie got some negative feedback from some other reviews, but I never really got a good reason why, and I am curious. So let me know why, if you didnt like it.
Bioshock moving from the small to the silver
With all the recent sucess and hype over good comic book movies (Batman Begins, Iron Man, The Dark Knight) it was only a matter of time before another video game movie rolled our way. With last years announcement of Gears of War being optioned for a picture, it seemed only natural that similar games would soon follow suit. It has been announced now that Bioshock, 2k Games underwater twist on the first person shooter, has been picked up by Universal pictures. Bioshock will be Universal Picture’s first video game based project since 2005’s Doom and one can only hope that the studio is going to try despratly to make up for that disaster. In was revieled in an interview with Variety that Pirates of the Caribbean‘s Gore Verbinski will direct the film. Verbinski talked about the characters and amazing art deco style of the game is what made him interested in the film. “I think the whole utopia-gone-wrong story that’s cleverly unveiled to players is just brimming with cinematic potential, of all the games I’ve played, this is one that I felt has a really strong narrative” the director told Variety. He said that the characters were vastly impressive and would make for an incredible translation to cinema. I’d have to agree. There is no set production or release date, however the feeling is that the studio would like to begin production as soon as the scrip is compelete. Reports indicate that John Logan (Sweeney Todd, The Aviator) will be writing the script. This, coupled with the recent announcemtn of a Bioshock sequle, makes a big year for the world of Rapture.
Iron Man
To start, I am going to keep this as spoiler free as I possibly can. I will also try to be as unbiased as I can…but that won’t be easy. It’s no secret that I am a huge Iron Man fan, and have been anticipating this movie more than any other in recent history. So on with the review.
With the recent plague of terrible comic book movies (Spider-Man 3, Super Man Returns) the announcement of an Iron Man movie made a lot of fans fearful for what might happen to one of the most powerful and central characters in the Marvel Universe. Personally all of my fears were laid to rest with the casting of Robert Downy Jr. as Tony Stark. Downy Jr aside, Iron Man’s cast was beyond impressive for a comic book movie, with almost every actor in the film being an Oscar Nominee. That, plus the massive media attention and the desperate need for a good Marvel movie (DC hit gold with Batman Begins), rose expectations of Iron Man to a level that was hard to believe. Let me assure you, expectations were met, and exceeded.
Iron Man could esaily be described as another super hero origin story, though that would be selling the film short, it is so much more. In reality Iron Man is almost two films in one. The first part is your origin of Iron Man. Basic plot faithfully lifted from the pages of Iron Man V4, Stark is attaked in the middle east, held prisoner, and forced to create a device (the mark one armor) to escape. As his triumph over his captors comes to a close, it seems that the movie could have ended right there and been perfect. But it didn’t.
With the origin of Iron Man wrapped up, Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr, Zodiac) returns home and throws himself full on into the development of a newer and better Iron Man armor, and sets out to save the world. In the process Tony finds himself in a battel of ‘wits’ with his robot assistants, whom provide most of the comic releife (well that which isnt provided by Stark himself). One might go so far as to claim these characters to be this generations R2-D2. Aided by world class assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) and best friend James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes (Terrence Howard, Crash) Stark battles the exile from his own company, and friend turned super villian Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski) in an attempt to create a world at peace, rather than war.
The movie is more faithful to the source material than perhaps any comic movie so far. Fans will have an issue with Jarvis’ role (who is fatured as Stark’s super advanced AI rather than his butler), it is understandable to change the character, seeing as having three ‘side kicks’ in the movie would just clutter up the screne. Another small change would be the relationship between Tony Stark and enemy Obadiah Stane. Stane in the comics is a rival buisness man, rather than the friend/mentor that he is in the film. To be honest I rather prefer the film’s take on Stane, as it makes for a more dramaic conflict between the two. Robert Downy Jr is flawless as Tony Stark. Never once did I think I was watching anything but Tony stark as Tony Stark. Downy Jr’s preformance is absolutly flawless, and he suceeds in translating a character from page to film better than anyone else in the history of modern cinema (as far as this critic is concerned anyway). Jeff Bridges worked better as a villian than I thought possible. As long time fan of Bridges, I was very interested to see how he would do has the antagonist, rather than his norm. He did not dissapoint. In fact I’d say that it was one of his bet preformances ever. Paltrow worked very well in her role, and the chemestry between her and Downy Jr was as natural as anything you’d hope to see on screne.
In a movie like this it is easy to see how the characters can take a back seat to the action. Indeed this is a major concern with most comic book adaptations. It would be terribly wrong not to give credit to Stan Winston and ILM for their work in this film. The Iron Man armors were amazing, and all the effects were absolutly beautifly done. The final fight scene was just a wonder to watch. The Live action blended seemlessly with the CG throughout the entire film. But as great as the action was, and the fighting flying mechanical marvels, it all took a back seat to the story of Tony Stark developing from loveable asshole playboy billionaire, to the super hero who genuienly wants nothing but to save the world.
While I love this movie for being arguably the best comic book movie of all time, I am also saddned by the fact that it is a comic book movie, becuase it will never get the reckognition and credit it deserves. Though maybe Iron Man will be the movie that breaks the norm. Perhaps this is the film that gets Super Hero movies put into a positive light and taken seriously. Becuase I can easily think of no fewer than 5 well earned Oscar Nominations for this movie, chief among them best actor and best adapted screne play. Heres to hoping.
In closing, this movie is amazing. It is fun, it is funny, it is action packed, it is dramatic. You laugh you cry you cheer. Even times when you know what is going to happen (I mean you knwo that Stark isn’t gong to die) you are still kept on the edge of your seat waiting to see what will happen, and who willmake it out alive. Even seeing it a second time, I was kept on my toes waiting to see what was going to happen next.
Oh, and make sure that you stay after the credits.
Juno (no, not the Capitol of Alaska)
Ever since that cinematic disaster known as Napoleon Dynamite, I’ve been a little gun shy of the major release indie film circuit. Until I actually sat down to watch it, all the info I had on Juno was second hand, and none of it came to me in a positive light. Thea reason that I did finally watch it was the film’s best picture nomination for this years Oscars, a nomination that I think it seriously deserves. The thing that truly amazed me about this movie was how real life it was. You always hear about dark gritty street crime or war movies being called ‘genuine’ or ‘real’ or ‘honest’. Juno is one of the few movies I’ve seen that is actually and honestly just about real life. Not once while watchign this movie did I have trouble believing it to be true or real or possible, and many times I found myself relating it to my own high school experiences. This is as much a result of Diablo Cody’s writing, as it is of the actors, every single one of whom gave an amazing performance. I’m willing to go so far as to say, that every one in this movie, gave the best performance of their career in this film. For someone early in the industry like Michael Cera that is not that powerful of a statement, but it holds true for an actress the calibre of Jennifer Garner, whom I have never liked as much as in this movie.
The plot is simple, high school girl gets pregnant, has to tell parents, has to tell boy friend, has to figure out how to deal with it. And the movie, though it sounds less than impressive, really is that simple. Ellen Page (X-Men: The Last Stand) gives an amazing and heart warming (really I mean it) performance as 16 year old high school student and soon to be mother, Juno MacGuff. I found myself falling in love with the character instantly, and Page’s performance is so down to earth and real, it is hard not to. Juno finds herself pregnant after one night with best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) and decides to take care of the situation on her own, leaving Bleeker out of the picture to continue living his life unaffected. After she finds herself unable to go though with the abortion, Juno decides she has to tell her father Mac (J.K. Simmions, Spider-Man Trilogy) and step mother Bren (Allison Janney, 10 Things I Hate About You). In the end, Juno decides to give the baby up for adoption and with her best friend, Leah (Olivia Thirlby) begins the search for the perfect adoptive parents.
Enter Mark and Vanessa Loring. On the surface, they seem like the perfect upper middle class suburban couple. Jennifer Garner (Alias, Elektra) gives a flawless performance as Vanessa, the hard working business woman who wants nothing more to be a mother, and is terrified of the prospect at the same time. Vanessa plays every by the books (including the baby books) and her hurried overly concerned slightly awkward character is coupled perfectly with her husband Mark’s (Jason Bateman, Smookin’ Aces, Dodgeball) laid back and collected attitude. Together the two of them appear to Juno to be the perfect parents for her child, and soon after she begins to build a friendship with Mark over a mutual hatred of the music each other enjoys, and the gory B movies of the 70’s.
Through the events of the movie, 16 year old Juno handles her situation with a strength and maturity that would be impressive in someone twice her age. So when the moment comes that she finally does let all of her fear of the situation overcome her, it makes for such a powerful and emotional scene, you can’t not be moved. And what was an awesome character is made even more so by Ellen Page’s absolutely amazing performance. I suppose that is why she earned the Best Actress nomination for this years Oscars, an award I whole heartily hope she wins.
I don’t want to get any deeper in what actually happens, not for the sake of spoilers (lets face it, it isn’t the most unpredictable movie ever) but there are a few unexpected turns. And the movie is such as should be experienced as freshly as possible. Juno combines a great script (featuring great dialogue and endlessly entertaining characters) with flawless performance from some of the industry’s best. I’d put this one on the Must See list. For sure.
The Final Stage 