Based on the Comic Character "Thor" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Story by Mark Protosevich and J. Michael Straczynski
Screenplay by Ashley Miller & Zack Stentz and Don Payne
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
I've always said I though Thor was a terrible property to adapt to the big screen, and that the only reason to do it would be to get him into the Avengers movie. Well, it seems both happened, and only the second one will seemingly make any sense in the long run. That, and the fact that this film grossed its budget overseas before it even opened in a US theater.
The only real problem with this film is the fundamental problem I mentioned. Thor exists in such a fantastical, brightly colored world, that it's tough to relate that to present day America. It's even harder when you have to deal with rainbow bridges, armor that would make Lady Gaga feel stupid, and unexplainable teleportation.
The problem with a film like Thor is it's usually most effective in its natural setting, and here that would be Asgard. If they stuck with the fantasy elements, the film would've worked on every level. The problem is, the whole mythology of Marvel's Thor is that he ends up coming to our present day Earth. So not only is this an epic story of deities, it's a fish-out-of-water comedy. Somehow, those two concepts just never seem to jibe.
Don't be mistaken, this is still a well made, and entertaining film. It just never had the opportunity to even come close to Iron Man or Spider-Man, not only because the character is secondary in popularity, but it's just an odd duck. Thor, in the comics, fits nicely into the brightly colored panels of a comic book, to adapt that style to film is seemingly impossible, as Branagh has made two distinctly separate films. One concerns the mythical Asgard, where Thor has to deal with his own arrogance, family strife, and the competition with his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) for their father Odin's (Anthony Hopkins) throne.
Once Thor is banished to Earth though, it basically becomes an episode of the sitcom Perfect Strangers where the character is so far from this culture, he doesn't understand even the simplest of modern concepts. I understand that's the nature of the character, but did we really need to watch half a movie of "fish out of water" moments?
There are many redeeming qualities, for one, the spectacular cast. Stellan Skarsgard, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Clark Gregg, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson...and introducing Chris Hemsworth. From what I've heard in interviews, most of the actors were psyched based on the fact that Branagh was directing, being an actor beloved by other actors does indeed have its advantages.
Amazingly, Chris Hemsworth was able to overcome all doubts and come through as a solid Thor. In many ways he reminded me of Heath Ledger, full of charisma, energy, and physicality. In one intense scene with Anthony Hopkins, he manages to hold his own. Good pick, Marvel, you've made a star.
The technical aspects are what we've come to expect from these films, big action set pieces, highly detailed sound, and huge f/x spectacles. However, here, I don't feel it jibes well with the rest of the story, as most of the big action takes place in Asgard, and since Thor doesn't have his powers on Earth, it only helps to divide the two settings within the film.
Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) is supposed to be the connecting factor, and he is great in his scenes. All the stuff that is hinting towards The Avengers Initiative is well played and fun to spot, but in the end, it's not enough to put this film on the level with other big Marvel films.
In the end, it feels like what it is: A movie that simply had to be made to sell The Avengers movie, because unlike Hawkeye, he's a much more well known character. I don't think I'm alone when I say I would've rather seen a Hawkeye movie, but I suppose Thor does its job. It sets up The Avengers, and made its money back.
The actors, action and Avengers set ups save Thor from mediocrity, but not by a lot. With that said, it doesn't seem to matter, as seemingly any Marvel character can make money at the box office, so I doubt that any lessons will be learned from this film, let's just hope they aren't learned on The Avengers.
8.4/10 (B)
Monday, May 9, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Drive Angry (2011)
Written by Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier
Directed by Patrick Lussier
Right from the opening, Drive Angry sets the bar high. Joining a car chase midway through, it all comes to a quick end as Milton (Nic Cage) questions the men he just chased down before blowing them away. It feels like it will be a fun ride, unfortunately, the rest of the film never lives up to its opening.
The film has all the right elements to be a bloody romp through the American southwest, instead it becomes a fantasy horror film in plot and tone, but in the end the whole thing feels like you've watched 5 different movies. And that's the problem, you only watched one.
The Accountant (William Fichtner) is hunting Milton, for reasons that are explained in the end of the film (which, really, if you couldn't figure out from the beginning who he is and what he's doing, you're watching the wrong movie) when there was no explanation required. Instead, they wasted about 4 scenes going over this.
Who cares exactly who he is? The coy reveal at the end is like taking a shit on a Jack in the Box restaurant table. People might be stupid, but they're surely notice the even worse stupidity going on around it. Far too often, I'm sure that's exactly how it felt.
The only really effective characters are Jonah King (Billy Burke) and The Accountant, and hey, surprise, both of them are the best actors in the film. Nic Cage is stuck in his usual rut, playing a shitty-haired, tough guy with no respect for the rules, blah blah blah. Cage has played this same character over and over now, but at least with stuff like Bad Lieutenant he was going batshit insane going for it all (hence the multiple failures) but here he doesn't even try. He just looks tough and shoots stuff.
I've seen it all before, and what's troubling is I've seen all of Drive Angry in about 40 different films. The chases are the same, the f/x are arguably worse, the shootouts are mindless (and ultimately pointless), and Amber Heard is given literally nothing to do. "Look pretty and make faces during the chase scenes" is probably about the extent of the direction she received.
This is one of those "money" films, where everyone knows it's not great, but they do it for the money. Sadly, in this case, this movie petered out horribly, arguably the worst money loser of 2011 so far. This was a movie that just couldn't win from the script. I suppose when you make a few hundred million for a studio though, they don't mind if your little $25 million indulgence doesn't work out.
Because you'll be back to make Halloween 3-D, and that will make $25 million opening weekend, guaranteed. Done and done. I've seen many of Lussier's movies, and sadly this is still one of the best.
With all that said, despite the silliness, the bad acting, the shitty script, the boring direction, it's still somehow a decent action film. Nothing more, nothing less. This is one of the many scripts that was made specifically because it was written in such a way that 3D could easily be applied (or was the goal from the outset), and these days, that alone is often a greenlight.
I recommend this to fans of 80's action films, Nicholas Cage, and occult horror (even though the scenes depicting occultism are so laughably stereotypical and bad), because there's some scenes to be enjoyed here. Tom Atkins arrives for 5 minutes to steal the show from everyone except Bill Fichtner. If you like violence, action, and John Carpenter's Vampires, you might like this. I don't know why, but Vampires seems like a good comparison, although it's overall a better film (for those that have seen it....exactly) they both feel like it's stuff we've all seen before, because we have.
I realize my overall review seems negative, but ultimately, I'll watch this again. It's just not one of those films that blew me away, or even utilized its genre status to go as far as it could. The whole thing just feels half-assed from everyone involved, it seemed like they did it against their will. Who knows, maybe they did.
8.2/10 (B-)
Directed by Patrick Lussier
Right from the opening, Drive Angry sets the bar high. Joining a car chase midway through, it all comes to a quick end as Milton (Nic Cage) questions the men he just chased down before blowing them away. It feels like it will be a fun ride, unfortunately, the rest of the film never lives up to its opening.
The film has all the right elements to be a bloody romp through the American southwest, instead it becomes a fantasy horror film in plot and tone, but in the end the whole thing feels like you've watched 5 different movies. And that's the problem, you only watched one.
The Accountant (William Fichtner) is hunting Milton, for reasons that are explained in the end of the film (which, really, if you couldn't figure out from the beginning who he is and what he's doing, you're watching the wrong movie) when there was no explanation required. Instead, they wasted about 4 scenes going over this.
Who cares exactly who he is? The coy reveal at the end is like taking a shit on a Jack in the Box restaurant table. People might be stupid, but they're surely notice the even worse stupidity going on around it. Far too often, I'm sure that's exactly how it felt.
The only really effective characters are Jonah King (Billy Burke) and The Accountant, and hey, surprise, both of them are the best actors in the film. Nic Cage is stuck in his usual rut, playing a shitty-haired, tough guy with no respect for the rules, blah blah blah. Cage has played this same character over and over now, but at least with stuff like Bad Lieutenant he was going batshit insane going for it all (hence the multiple failures) but here he doesn't even try. He just looks tough and shoots stuff.
I've seen it all before, and what's troubling is I've seen all of Drive Angry in about 40 different films. The chases are the same, the f/x are arguably worse, the shootouts are mindless (and ultimately pointless), and Amber Heard is given literally nothing to do. "Look pretty and make faces during the chase scenes" is probably about the extent of the direction she received.
This is one of those "money" films, where everyone knows it's not great, but they do it for the money. Sadly, in this case, this movie petered out horribly, arguably the worst money loser of 2011 so far. This was a movie that just couldn't win from the script. I suppose when you make a few hundred million for a studio though, they don't mind if your little $25 million indulgence doesn't work out.
Because you'll be back to make Halloween 3-D, and that will make $25 million opening weekend, guaranteed. Done and done. I've seen many of Lussier's movies, and sadly this is still one of the best.
With all that said, despite the silliness, the bad acting, the shitty script, the boring direction, it's still somehow a decent action film. Nothing more, nothing less. This is one of the many scripts that was made specifically because it was written in such a way that 3D could easily be applied (or was the goal from the outset), and these days, that alone is often a greenlight.
I recommend this to fans of 80's action films, Nicholas Cage, and occult horror (even though the scenes depicting occultism are so laughably stereotypical and bad), because there's some scenes to be enjoyed here. Tom Atkins arrives for 5 minutes to steal the show from everyone except Bill Fichtner. If you like violence, action, and John Carpenter's Vampires, you might like this. I don't know why, but Vampires seems like a good comparison, although it's overall a better film (for those that have seen it....exactly) they both feel like it's stuff we've all seen before, because we have.
I realize my overall review seems negative, but ultimately, I'll watch this again. It's just not one of those films that blew me away, or even utilized its genre status to go as far as it could. The whole thing just feels half-assed from everyone involved, it seemed like they did it against their will. Who knows, maybe they did.
8.2/10 (B-)
Norwegian Ninja (2010)
Written and Directed by Thomas Cappelen Malling
Just when I thought I'd seen the wackiest films Norway has to offer, I finally get Norwegian Ninja. Arne Treholt was a Norwegian intelligence officer, and in 1984 he was arrested for High Treason, because he supposedly sold secrets to Russia and Iraq. Upon his arrest, it was found there was little evidence against him, but he was quickly sentenced to 20 years (maximum sentence in Norway) and locked away. It gets weirder. Eight years into his sentence, Treholt was pardoned by the new governmental regime. People to this day claim Treholt was set up, and it was a vast conspiracy against him and his intelligence team.
This wacky comedy purports to be the real story of Arne Treholt, Norwegian Ninja. From here, I will ignore any real world facts, and examine the plot of the film. Treholt (Mads Ousdal) lives on a quiet island off the coast of Norway, where he trains and feeds his crew of Ninja, who live like hippie farmers on the island. Every once in a while, they have to spring into action, to protect the national security of Norway, with ninja fighting styles, secret flying machines, and Batman-style hidden passages.
When Treholt and his company respond to a threat, they realize they've been set up by a rival government agent, Otto Meyer (Jon Øigarden), they set a massive plan into motion. The trouble is, Otto is the leader of a ring of terrorists, who commit terror acts to justify the government operations he runs. Treholt singles out a ninja from his crew, and gives him a special assignment, to save all of Norway.
Filled with zany action, miniatures on strings, and tons of wacky greenscreen shots, this is a fun movie. The concept is novel, and for all the speculation involved in the Treholt case, it could very well be true just as easily as it could be fake. That's not the fun here though, the real fun is Mads Ousdal as Treholt, and the many genre conventions explored in this film.
The technical execution is weird, because some shots are really well done and serious, and then the next shot is a dogfight involving two toy airplanes. The exploitation of genre seems to be the first priority for this film, the actual story falls to second priority. With a movie this goofy though, it's not unexpected, and it lightens the whole nature of the film. After all, this could have been made as a serious spy thriller, and would be no less a movie for doing so. But the choice to turn it into a balls-out comedy is an interesting one, and for the most part, I think they did a damn fine job telling "the true story".
A definite recommendation to EuroSpy fans, as that's where most of the ribbing comes from. A fun film, and surely a future cult classic.
8.7/10 (B+)
Just when I thought I'd seen the wackiest films Norway has to offer, I finally get Norwegian Ninja. Arne Treholt was a Norwegian intelligence officer, and in 1984 he was arrested for High Treason, because he supposedly sold secrets to Russia and Iraq. Upon his arrest, it was found there was little evidence against him, but he was quickly sentenced to 20 years (maximum sentence in Norway) and locked away. It gets weirder. Eight years into his sentence, Treholt was pardoned by the new governmental regime. People to this day claim Treholt was set up, and it was a vast conspiracy against him and his intelligence team.
This wacky comedy purports to be the real story of Arne Treholt, Norwegian Ninja. From here, I will ignore any real world facts, and examine the plot of the film. Treholt (Mads Ousdal) lives on a quiet island off the coast of Norway, where he trains and feeds his crew of Ninja, who live like hippie farmers on the island. Every once in a while, they have to spring into action, to protect the national security of Norway, with ninja fighting styles, secret flying machines, and Batman-style hidden passages.
When Treholt and his company respond to a threat, they realize they've been set up by a rival government agent, Otto Meyer (Jon Øigarden), they set a massive plan into motion. The trouble is, Otto is the leader of a ring of terrorists, who commit terror acts to justify the government operations he runs. Treholt singles out a ninja from his crew, and gives him a special assignment, to save all of Norway.
Filled with zany action, miniatures on strings, and tons of wacky greenscreen shots, this is a fun movie. The concept is novel, and for all the speculation involved in the Treholt case, it could very well be true just as easily as it could be fake. That's not the fun here though, the real fun is Mads Ousdal as Treholt, and the many genre conventions explored in this film.
The technical execution is weird, because some shots are really well done and serious, and then the next shot is a dogfight involving two toy airplanes. The exploitation of genre seems to be the first priority for this film, the actual story falls to second priority. With a movie this goofy though, it's not unexpected, and it lightens the whole nature of the film. After all, this could have been made as a serious spy thriller, and would be no less a movie for doing so. But the choice to turn it into a balls-out comedy is an interesting one, and for the most part, I think they did a damn fine job telling "the true story".
A definite recommendation to EuroSpy fans, as that's where most of the ribbing comes from. A fun film, and surely a future cult classic.
8.7/10 (B+)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)