Tag: movie

Blogger/Writer reported missing; teacher assumes identity

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Been missing me?  Wait, don’t answer that…I probably don’t want to know.  But I have been absent due to school starting back up.  I’m trying to hit stride but feel a step slow.  It’s been a jerky start to the 2009-10 school year.  I’ll get going soon and my postings will become semi-regular again.

I have much to talk about, so I’ll spread it over a few different posts.  What to say first?  I know…movies.

It has been a while since I watched two movies back to back and could call them both good films.  For one of these films, the “experts” agree with me; the other, I seem to be in the minority.

Yesterday I saw DISTRICT 9.  It was very good.  But more than that, it was unique.  It reminded me of something you might read in Analog or Asimov’s, the way the aliens were characterized as no more or less human than the humans while still very different.  It was, on the surface, a dark action movie full of all the government greed (here the role of government played by a corporation) and bloodlust the cinema has taught us to expect.  But that was the surface.  This was a movie about people (some human, some not) interacting under extreme circumstances.

The leading actor did an excellent job that was not at all diminished by being utterly unknown.  The CGI was superb to the level one would expect with the name Peter Jackson attached to it.  Some of the science may have been a bit hinky, but who cares?  It was a groundbreaking film that bridges a gap between SF film and literature.  Still a lot of action, but a lot of story here, too.  Go see it.  Eat lots of popcorn.  And you have my permission to laugh when people and/or parts of their bodies are turned to wet red mist.  It is funny in a morbid way, so yuck it up.

The critics seem to agree with me on D-9.  They rave about it almost as much as they panned the movie I watched on BluRay a few nights before.  That’s right, I watched PUSH and I loved it.

Don’t get me wrong, PUSH is not the groundbreaking accomplishment that DISTRICT 9 is.  In fact, PUSH is a fantasy film in sci-fi clothing.  Not just because psionics have been so widely frowned upon in science fiction circles, but because a Mover, a Watcher, a Pusher, a Shadow, a Sniffer, and a Shifter teaming up to take down a bunch of Bleeders and a powerful government entity (Division) is not so different from a Human a Dwarf, an Elf, a Wizard. and some Hobbits teaming up to take down a bunch or Orcs and a dark empire.  Fortunately, PUSH had a lot of what Tolkein brought to LotR, namely the sense that the story’s universe was much larger than the film could possibly encompass.  I had the distinct feeling that the film was based in an RPG universe, but agin that did as much to heighten my enjoyment of the movie as to dampen it.

The main character’s story was rich and (mostly) believable.  I’ve liked Chris Evans (lead actor) since I saw him in the first Fantastic Four movie.  The guy has charisma and can become a character (maybe not in a Heath Ledger kind of way, but that may be asking too much).  And Dakota Fanning was excellent in her role.  No other actor managed to damage the performances of these two leads, though few added much either.

I do think the film suffered a bit in the editing room.  Perhaps that was just my desire for a fuller picture of things.  I was engulfed in the world the way I seldom am, more so than even watching DISTRICT 9.  Was it art?  No.  Was it good SF?  definitely.

I must confess to having a quirky appreciation for some odd movies.  Consider the only three films I have owned on both VHS and DVD: Clerks, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Spawn.  (Yes, that Spawn.)  I’ll stand behind Clerks to the end.  From Dusk Till Dawnstarts with damn good storytelling and characterization only to turn their world on its head (as an encounter with vampires probably would).  And Spawn…even poor scrit, overacting, and silly special effects couldn’t stifle the cool images and some badass nostalgia.

Anyway, I suggest you see both DISTRICT 9 and PUSH and make your own judgements.  Neither is flawless but both are entertaining.  One will become a classic, the other a cult hit.  We will surely see a DISTRICT 10 sometime soon.  And PUSH 2?  Its worldwide gross and productions cost seem to be about equal, so I have my doubts.  Oh well.

Finally saw Watchmen

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

209px-posterfeb1aI wanted to rush out opening weekend, but I’m too old for that kind of thing.  Me in a packed theater with a hundred people who could already tell you what they did wrong before the previews started…nope.  Mostly because I couldn’t get a sitter.

Let me preface my opinions with the fact that I have never read the graphic novel.  I have only read blurb comments from other reviewers.  This is 99% my own unbiased theatrical experience.

It was awesome.

This film will stay logged as an example of character development.  Heroes always have dark pasts, but the differences in how they deal with the darkness is stunning.  I will try to stay spoiler-free, so if I reveal something, it’s because it happens early.  Like the Comedian’s death.  It was a stroke of brilliance on someone’s part that a character that dies in the opening sequence can be as vile as you can make him without havng to worry about lost sympathy.  No matter how much I disliked him, I didn’t have to worry about his comeuppance; it already happened.  And his jaded, villainous character was still unquestionably a hero.  The casting for him was excellent.

In fact, all the casting was great.  Ozymandias may have been a little on the model side, but it kind of worked.  The nerdy Nite Owl, the too sexy to be that naked Silk Spectre…but Rorschach stole the show for me.  Hard core to the verge of evil yet held fast to a very personal code.  The subtle elements (like Nite Owl’s problem with…wait, no spoilers) were nicely worked in and believable.

Let’s not forget Dr. Manhattan.  I told my wife I was going to shave my body and paint myself blue for Halloween.  She laughed.  Apparently I lack his physique.  It’s good to know, however, that if I am atomized in some nuclear experiment and come back glowing blue, at least I will be anatomically correct.  No Ken dolls here.  Anyway, his character was interesting in his alienness, especially the struggle to maintain humanity.  I think that could have been done better (read: more subtly), but it was pretty good as it was.  He maintains concern (at least feigned) for humanity while losing his ability to connect with anyone human-to-human.  No more on that, but again, this is all setup, not major storyline developments.

The film’s execution was fantastic, a little CGI heavy at moments, moments that really called attention to the moments of CGI-free action.  In otherwords, I felt a couple soundstages looked like soundstages (burning building) while other scenes looked like screensavers (that big thing of Manhattan’s).  But 90% of the film maintained a good balance.  The shots that were ripped straight from comic art were excellent.

I can’t talk about the movie without talking about what caught me most off guard: the sex.  Nite owl gets naked (with a glimpse of everything), Silk Spectre gets naked (thank you for that), Dr. Manhattan is usually naked, and there are some other moments more Desperate Houswives than they are HBO.  As my wife put it, “I didn’t expect that much naked.  It wasn’t all just gratuitous flesh; the scenes were plot-line appropriate and tastefully done (except for the one that wasn’t supposed to be tasteful).  My wife and I both approved.  She also approved of the taste of reality the women’s bodies had (faces had wrinkles, breasts were not plastic, etc.).  All in all, a nice tablespoon of sex to go with the plateful of violence.

There were images that were quite graphic (violence side here, we stopped talking about sex; keep up).  Blades, broken bones, doge, innards…but nothing so grotesque as to churn my notoriously weak stomach.  I cringed but never cowered.  I probably have a higher threshold for violence in my cinema than many people, but my threshold for gore is at or below population average.  Still, some harsh situations (Rorschach’s backstory, Comedian and Jupiter).  I get worse feelings watching 24 on FOX.

To sum up, it was an excellent movie for those that likedark and gritty in their superhero stories.  It’s got great character development, varied characters, a much more complete story than 300, more grit than any X-men movie ever will, the right dose of sex for audiences that believe such exists, and no big name actors to pack the seats.  That’s right, none.  Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre) will probably make it big off of this and Jackie Earle Haley’s notoriety should spike (Rorschach), as should Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s (Comedian or Denny on Grey’s Anatomy).  Those are my predictions.  I also expected Lord of the Rings to make a box office draw out of Viggo Mortenson…so consider my track record.

That’s all for now.  I may break it down a bit more in the future, say when the BluRay comes out.  So much more to say but I don’t want to spoil it.  Especially you writers out there, watch this film.  It’s good.

-Oso