Even if Halloween is still a few months away, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a good scream fest. What better way to celebrate Halloween in June (Give it time it’ll catch on like Christmas in July) then by watching a terrifying movie? It will save you money on your air conditioning bill with all those spine tingling chills, and you get some sweet make out time. Science has proven that fear is a wonderful aphrodisiac. Why? Who cares but it’s been proven by scientists, in their science outfits, in labs.
Where was I? Oh right, a Halloween themed movie for those non-Halloween nights.
Trick ‘r Treat is set in an Ohio town celebrating Halloween like they’re Greenwich Village, look it up, and visited by a spirit whose only purpose seems to be announcing impending doom and being a creeper, A creeper in an outfit made of adorable shabbiness. The main stories are about a serial killer and his latest victim with an angelic child who testifies what we’ve all been thinking about Charlie Brown. Next we got some pretty, I guess they are pretty, girls out for a night on the town. Including TrueBlood’s own Anna Paquin who decides to wander through town, alone, and later a dark forest...alone. It’s a horror film and pretty girls do rather silly things. Please note it is Anna Paquin by herself, and if you watch Trueblood than you can guess what happens to her. My favorite segment involves a town legend about a bus of drowned schoolchildren and some jack o lanterns with a revenge plot worthy of a Shakespearian play. Tie it all together with a bitter old man, and his adorable little dog, who learn the true meaning of Halloween.
One of the best features of this movie is how the stories interconnect. It’s linear only in the sense that you see what happens over the course of a night. The film jumps between different moments occurring simultaneously a second watch is necessary to pick up on all the little details. If you prefer more shock and less intestines, then this is a film for you. Everything from costumes, whether childish or slutty, to candy bars, to pumpkin carving are rendered creepy and dare I say gruesome. Yes, I do say. There are a couple hokey gotcha moments but those are few and far between with plenty of gruesome deaths involving children and drunks.
If you see one Halloween themed film not involving men in coveralls or overly complicated traps, let it be this one. Everything about this film oozes Halloween, the costumes, the pumpkins, the falling leaves, the decorations. It’s what I wish Halloween was really like, all the tradition, and the threat that those traditions are really there to protect us from something darker.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
TNT's Falling Skies Live Blog
Falling Skies is a new show airing in the summer season on TNT. My initial reaction was that I don’t really go to TNT looking for great science fiction dramas. They are the station you go to for reruns of Charmed. Regardless of my expectations for TNT as a network Falling Skies drew me in. I can’t ignore a show with Steven Spielberg attached to it.
The basic premise of the show is that aliens have invaded earth. The show doesn’t bother with the nitty gritty details of how the invasion happened or try to show us flashy graphics of alien space ships fighting the human military. We lost that’s it. End of Story. Except that is isn’t.
We follow a band of rebels. The 2nd Massachusetts to be more specific. Our liaison into this chaotic broken world is Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) a former history professor. When the show starts he becomes the second in command of his group of rebels when the larger group is forced to break up because the alien scanners are getting better at finding them. He has two sons, the young Max (Maxim Knight) and his oldest Hal (Drew Roy).
Falling Skies premiered June 19th at 9pm. The first hour of the two part series premiere focused more on the aliens. Leading a scouting party to find food Tom, his son Hal, and a band of rebels go out to collect food for their group of rebels and civilians. On this trip they encounter not only all of the types of aliens that we need to know about to understand the situation they are in but also Tom’s third son Ben (Connor Jessup) who was lost and believed dead. They make it out of the food expedition alive and decide they need to go and save Ben.
The second hour of Falling Skies takes a different turn. Here we see Tom and his group scouting an building that they believe to be an arms stock house. Tom wants to go search for his son right away but he realizes that he needs to play ball with the rest of the military command if he wants to stay alive. At the arms stock house they encounter John Pope the more than slightly psychopathic leader of a group of marauders who enjoy killing the “Skitters” for fun and don’t really want to interact with other people. The rest of the episode focuses around Tom and his son escaping Pope. Through his conversation with Tom, Pope reveals himself to be a much more thought provoking character than one might expect from a man who for all intents and purposes sounds like a murderer and a criminal. After a daring escape Tom gets his people home and prepares to go out to find his son.
The following is a live blog transcript that I wrote during the commercials. You’ll have to excuse any confusion, I wasn’t intending to write a plot summary here only my initial reactions to everything that happened. I’ve marked where the commercials were and the break between hours. I hope you enjoy.
LIVE BLOG
During the first commercial.
I’m liking Falling Skies so far. We’ve gotten a really rough idea of what the situation in the world is like. I really dug the kids explaining the history. It gave a really interesting and slightly innocent perspective of the horrors that must have happened.
Then we get right into the action. I didn’t have to wait very long to see what the aliens were like. They are called skitters and they are kind of like lizard spiders. They key here slipping information without making it sound like intentional monologuing. Particular little touches, like
the use of action figures sitting on the war table obviously being used as markers for troops was a nice little touch. Already the world feels like a war torn place. But people are hanging together.
During the second commercial
First commercial down and now we get to see a little civilian life. The main character, who’s name I still haven’t caught, is a professor and now the second in command of the troops and a group of civilians. They are ordered to split up and move out. Apparently the reason the rebellion has been able to work so far is because the “skitters” scanners can only get groups of people that are big. But that number is getting smaller, so the people need to break into smaller groups.
During the third commercial
Alright we’re only two commercials in and I’m already a little tired of the “Hey this guys a professor he talks about history all the time” gag. Maybe its just me but that is specifically the kind of characterization that I dislike. Its almost as bad as if he’d just kept saying “I’m a professor” over and over again. The show was doing a really good job not jumping the shark in its first episode, a frequent problem with heavily sci fi theme’d TV shows. I get that its hard to build characters quickly and that in television you need to get your characterization across quick to hook people but I’m a little disappointed. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and move on.
During the fourth commercial
A quick note between commercials so that I can get this on the record. I think they are setting up the arrogant military leader, the guy in charge of the group we’re following, not the white haired guy in command, to die. They are setting up the non military main character to be the leader of everyone.
Alright. So this looks like the group that will be the main characters. It’s a little stereotypical; the rebellious son of the main character, one Asian guy, one black guy, a Hispanic guy, a kid who looks a little too young to really be a fighter, and the girl who will inevitably become the love interest of the main characters son. The father is learning how to let his son go out into battle. It looks like we’re really trying to hit every militant apocalypse archetype ever.
During the fifth commercial
So the main character’s son is alive. His third son. Although he’s been captured by one of those neck slugs. The ones that don’t come off without killing the person “wearing” it. Here’s the seed of another story arch. I don’t hate that the story is a little predictable so far. I’m kind of being sucked in anyway. I like that they just called the robot things “mechs” when film and tv shows shy away from popular science fiction terminology to avoid seeming cheesy it doesn’t always work. This seems like some kid who played too many video games called them that one time and it just caught on. I think it works. I like when genre shows don’t shun their own genre. Same reason I think people in zombie movies should reference zombie movies.
During the sixth commercial
The getting the food from the store part pretty much went exactly the way I expected it would. There was no way they were going to get in and out without a fight.
I liked the way the alien died. I kept thinking, I hope that they don’t take the easy way out and have them suddenly relate to the alien because he’s in pain and dying. They didn’t and that was a good move. It regained my hope for the show.
We’re halfway through now. On the to the second half.
During the seventh commercial and the end of the first hour of the show
Now the show is starting to hit its stride. I’m definitely enjoy it more now. I think every show gets to have an awkward first hour. Especially a show with so much sci fi in it. You have to really sell aliens and robots hard or it just comes off as cheesy 90’s television. I think we’re past that point.
Interesting talk with the bio teacher. I really hope that we’re working toward the captured humans being kidnapped and turned in to the mechs. Not that I really think that would be nice of the aliens, but it would be an interesting plot twist.
Speaking of sci fi archetypes I don’t think you’re allowed to make a post-apocalyptic genre piece without a little in human fighting. In the case of an alien attack and invasion we will be our own worst enemies.
During the eighth commercial
Man this guy is a dick. Good sign though. I can respect a show that can create a character that I hate on a very basic level. It’s really not as easy as you think. They get a lot of credit for that. I’m not sure why he had a sword though. I guess a lot of psychotics are into showmanship. I like how even he recognized the stereotypes of the characters. It’s a little silly when even characters in the show are pointing how you’re playing into typical archetypes.
I wasn’t really clear on how they got captured really. Seemed to me like they could have just walked away. But I’ll bite and go along.
During the ninth commercial
First off I want to ask, where do people get those kidnappers head sacks? I’ve never seen them in my daily life but every crazy terrorist seems to have a bunch of them.
I take back everything bad I said about the psychopath. All of the stuff about creating characters that you can hate still applies. The leader of the military forces is still plenty hate-able. If he doesn’t die before the end of this episode I’ll be confused. They are really building that up.
Getting back to the psychopath, he’s not my favorite character so far. He’s really pessimistic but it’s important to show not everyone will just sacrifice and blindly follow the military resistance. I hope he sticks around. He’s a little too crazy to really fit in, but he’d make a great second in command for when the main character, who’s name I still haven’t caught, becomes the head of the resistance group.
During the tenth commercial
The psychopath is really showing off that he’s not too bad of a guy. He’s still really evil, but he’s redeeming himself enough that he is probably going to stick around. I was kind of hoping that the military guy would do something stupid, save all the main characters but get himself killed in the process. I know it’s coming. They need to just get it over with.
End of the show. These are my initial reactions to the show after it ended.
Wow, the main characters got out of captivity fast. So fast that I missed it actually happening. It was nice to see them not lose their big gun and all their food though. That was a really great final battle. Unfortunately my prediction that the main military guy would die didn’t happen, so now I just look like a mean and spiteful person. In fact from the preview for next week it looks like he’ll probably be sticking around for a while. Where is my hat, I think I need to eat it.
The flip side of that is that it looks like the psychopath will also be sticking around too. He had some of the best lines in the entire show. I didn’t get back to my computer in time to remember it correctly, but his line about how being the leader of post-apocalyptic marauders was tiring was fantastic. I don’t want to say that he single handedly saved the show, but well, he single handedly saved the show. Personally for me he made the difference between me thinking it was worth the two hours and actually being excited to see what happens next week.
Overall I liked the show a lot. I think it had a weak first hour, but as I mentioned before that is a problem suffered by many science fiction shows. As a show runner you need to balance getting out the information about what is going on, what are the rules of the show universe, and give a rough idea of the extent of the science fiction all without really showing your hand or over doing the cheesiness that tends to come with science fiction television. Its a hard medium to do good science fiction in and I certainly give them a lot of credit for doing it.
The second half of the show really brought it all together and sucked me in. The addition of the non-rebellion militants was a good way to balance out the really alien-heavy science fiction of the first half. Here Falling Skies can learn a lot from The Walking Dead. Ultimately the show has to be about the characters and their interactions. Yes there are aliens/zombies, but that is only the foundation upon which the characters will build the show. That is the difference between most 90’s alien shows and truly great science fiction.
The basic premise of the show is that aliens have invaded earth. The show doesn’t bother with the nitty gritty details of how the invasion happened or try to show us flashy graphics of alien space ships fighting the human military. We lost that’s it. End of Story. Except that is isn’t.
We follow a band of rebels. The 2nd Massachusetts to be more specific. Our liaison into this chaotic broken world is Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) a former history professor. When the show starts he becomes the second in command of his group of rebels when the larger group is forced to break up because the alien scanners are getting better at finding them. He has two sons, the young Max (Maxim Knight) and his oldest Hal (Drew Roy).
Falling Skies premiered June 19th at 9pm. The first hour of the two part series premiere focused more on the aliens. Leading a scouting party to find food Tom, his son Hal, and a band of rebels go out to collect food for their group of rebels and civilians. On this trip they encounter not only all of the types of aliens that we need to know about to understand the situation they are in but also Tom’s third son Ben (Connor Jessup) who was lost and believed dead. They make it out of the food expedition alive and decide they need to go and save Ben.
The second hour of Falling Skies takes a different turn. Here we see Tom and his group scouting an building that they believe to be an arms stock house. Tom wants to go search for his son right away but he realizes that he needs to play ball with the rest of the military command if he wants to stay alive. At the arms stock house they encounter John Pope the more than slightly psychopathic leader of a group of marauders who enjoy killing the “Skitters” for fun and don’t really want to interact with other people. The rest of the episode focuses around Tom and his son escaping Pope. Through his conversation with Tom, Pope reveals himself to be a much more thought provoking character than one might expect from a man who for all intents and purposes sounds like a murderer and a criminal. After a daring escape Tom gets his people home and prepares to go out to find his son.
The following is a live blog transcript that I wrote during the commercials. You’ll have to excuse any confusion, I wasn’t intending to write a plot summary here only my initial reactions to everything that happened. I’ve marked where the commercials were and the break between hours. I hope you enjoy.
LIVE BLOG
During the first commercial.
I’m liking Falling Skies so far. We’ve gotten a really rough idea of what the situation in the world is like. I really dug the kids explaining the history. It gave a really interesting and slightly innocent perspective of the horrors that must have happened.
Then we get right into the action. I didn’t have to wait very long to see what the aliens were like. They are called skitters and they are kind of like lizard spiders. They key here slipping information without making it sound like intentional monologuing. Particular little touches, like
the use of action figures sitting on the war table obviously being used as markers for troops was a nice little touch. Already the world feels like a war torn place. But people are hanging together.
During the second commercial
First commercial down and now we get to see a little civilian life. The main character, who’s name I still haven’t caught, is a professor and now the second in command of the troops and a group of civilians. They are ordered to split up and move out. Apparently the reason the rebellion has been able to work so far is because the “skitters” scanners can only get groups of people that are big. But that number is getting smaller, so the people need to break into smaller groups.
During the third commercial
Alright we’re only two commercials in and I’m already a little tired of the “Hey this guys a professor he talks about history all the time” gag. Maybe its just me but that is specifically the kind of characterization that I dislike. Its almost as bad as if he’d just kept saying “I’m a professor” over and over again. The show was doing a really good job not jumping the shark in its first episode, a frequent problem with heavily sci fi theme’d TV shows. I get that its hard to build characters quickly and that in television you need to get your characterization across quick to hook people but I’m a little disappointed. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and move on.
During the fourth commercial
A quick note between commercials so that I can get this on the record. I think they are setting up the arrogant military leader, the guy in charge of the group we’re following, not the white haired guy in command, to die. They are setting up the non military main character to be the leader of everyone.
Alright. So this looks like the group that will be the main characters. It’s a little stereotypical; the rebellious son of the main character, one Asian guy, one black guy, a Hispanic guy, a kid who looks a little too young to really be a fighter, and the girl who will inevitably become the love interest of the main characters son. The father is learning how to let his son go out into battle. It looks like we’re really trying to hit every militant apocalypse archetype ever.
During the fifth commercial
So the main character’s son is alive. His third son. Although he’s been captured by one of those neck slugs. The ones that don’t come off without killing the person “wearing” it. Here’s the seed of another story arch. I don’t hate that the story is a little predictable so far. I’m kind of being sucked in anyway. I like that they just called the robot things “mechs” when film and tv shows shy away from popular science fiction terminology to avoid seeming cheesy it doesn’t always work. This seems like some kid who played too many video games called them that one time and it just caught on. I think it works. I like when genre shows don’t shun their own genre. Same reason I think people in zombie movies should reference zombie movies.
During the sixth commercial
The getting the food from the store part pretty much went exactly the way I expected it would. There was no way they were going to get in and out without a fight.
I liked the way the alien died. I kept thinking, I hope that they don’t take the easy way out and have them suddenly relate to the alien because he’s in pain and dying. They didn’t and that was a good move. It regained my hope for the show.
We’re halfway through now. On the to the second half.
During the seventh commercial and the end of the first hour of the show
Now the show is starting to hit its stride. I’m definitely enjoy it more now. I think every show gets to have an awkward first hour. Especially a show with so much sci fi in it. You have to really sell aliens and robots hard or it just comes off as cheesy 90’s television. I think we’re past that point.
Interesting talk with the bio teacher. I really hope that we’re working toward the captured humans being kidnapped and turned in to the mechs. Not that I really think that would be nice of the aliens, but it would be an interesting plot twist.
Speaking of sci fi archetypes I don’t think you’re allowed to make a post-apocalyptic genre piece without a little in human fighting. In the case of an alien attack and invasion we will be our own worst enemies.
During the eighth commercial
Man this guy is a dick. Good sign though. I can respect a show that can create a character that I hate on a very basic level. It’s really not as easy as you think. They get a lot of credit for that. I’m not sure why he had a sword though. I guess a lot of psychotics are into showmanship. I like how even he recognized the stereotypes of the characters. It’s a little silly when even characters in the show are pointing how you’re playing into typical archetypes.
I wasn’t really clear on how they got captured really. Seemed to me like they could have just walked away. But I’ll bite and go along.
During the ninth commercial
First off I want to ask, where do people get those kidnappers head sacks? I’ve never seen them in my daily life but every crazy terrorist seems to have a bunch of them.
I take back everything bad I said about the psychopath. All of the stuff about creating characters that you can hate still applies. The leader of the military forces is still plenty hate-able. If he doesn’t die before the end of this episode I’ll be confused. They are really building that up.
Getting back to the psychopath, he’s not my favorite character so far. He’s really pessimistic but it’s important to show not everyone will just sacrifice and blindly follow the military resistance. I hope he sticks around. He’s a little too crazy to really fit in, but he’d make a great second in command for when the main character, who’s name I still haven’t caught, becomes the head of the resistance group.
During the tenth commercial
The psychopath is really showing off that he’s not too bad of a guy. He’s still really evil, but he’s redeeming himself enough that he is probably going to stick around. I was kind of hoping that the military guy would do something stupid, save all the main characters but get himself killed in the process. I know it’s coming. They need to just get it over with.
End of the show. These are my initial reactions to the show after it ended.
Wow, the main characters got out of captivity fast. So fast that I missed it actually happening. It was nice to see them not lose their big gun and all their food though. That was a really great final battle. Unfortunately my prediction that the main military guy would die didn’t happen, so now I just look like a mean and spiteful person. In fact from the preview for next week it looks like he’ll probably be sticking around for a while. Where is my hat, I think I need to eat it.
The flip side of that is that it looks like the psychopath will also be sticking around too. He had some of the best lines in the entire show. I didn’t get back to my computer in time to remember it correctly, but his line about how being the leader of post-apocalyptic marauders was tiring was fantastic. I don’t want to say that he single handedly saved the show, but well, he single handedly saved the show. Personally for me he made the difference between me thinking it was worth the two hours and actually being excited to see what happens next week.
Overall I liked the show a lot. I think it had a weak first hour, but as I mentioned before that is a problem suffered by many science fiction shows. As a show runner you need to balance getting out the information about what is going on, what are the rules of the show universe, and give a rough idea of the extent of the science fiction all without really showing your hand or over doing the cheesiness that tends to come with science fiction television. Its a hard medium to do good science fiction in and I certainly give them a lot of credit for doing it.
The second half of the show really brought it all together and sucked me in. The addition of the non-rebellion militants was a good way to balance out the really alien-heavy science fiction of the first half. Here Falling Skies can learn a lot from The Walking Dead. Ultimately the show has to be about the characters and their interactions. Yes there are aliens/zombies, but that is only the foundation upon which the characters will build the show. That is the difference between most 90’s alien shows and truly great science fiction.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
X Men First Class Or How I Learn to Screw Continuity and Just Go With It
X-Men: First Class is a brotherly prequel sequel to the on-going X-Men movie franchise. The film follows a young doctoral candidate Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his adopted sister Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). Their childhood experience growing up as mutants is paralleled by Erik Lehnsherr's (Michael Fassbender) much more violent youth as a Jewish boy in a Nazi prison camp. Charles is contacted by Agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) after she stumbles onto a possible plot to start a third world war being masterminded by group with strange powers. As well as being an expert on human mutation, Charles Xavier is also a mutant himself. Charles and Erik cross paths for the first time when they both attempt to confront Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), the mutant mastermind and Nazi doctor responsible for the death of Erik's mother. Although Shaw escapes in his convenient submarine Charles convinces Erik to join him in finding other mutants like themselves to form a government sponsored team of mutants to fight Shaw and get revenge.
From here on the film follows the typical super hero mold. Charles and Erik seek out and gather a team of mutants. They deal with self doubt and risk the temptations of their darker natures. There is even a pretty good training montage after the team is attacked and decides they need to be more prepared. They move on the enemy, avert a world war, but ultimately remain fractured as Erik takes his revenge and assumes the role of Magneto, the moral heir of Shaw minus the Nazi collaboration.
The film is set roughly somewhere before and after X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and for the most part before the rest of the X-Men series. Fans of the comic books and the films will notice that X-Men First Class exists as a temporal abnormality. Although featured prominently as the second in command to Shaw in First Class, Emma Frost (January Jones) is shown as a child (Tahyna Tozzi) in Origins: Wolverine, which should take place later on the timeline. We also witness Hank McCoy’s (Nicholas Hoult) transformation from man to Beast even though he shows up in his non-hairy form in X2. The film also ends with an explanation of how Charles loses the use of his legs, even though we have seen him, much older, in The Last Stand able to walk to meet young Jean Grey.
Although the film has more temporal abnormalities than a typical episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I found that they were easy to overlook. The film is a return to the fonder days of X-Men when we enjoyed the first movie and still had fresh memories of the 90's cartoon. Turning over the film to director Matthew Vaughn of Kick Ass and Stardust fame was apparently the kickstart the series needed to get out of its Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine slump. Although the story was still by Brian Singer, First Class features a fresh group of writers and producers. Their take on the X-Men universe actually works quite well, all fact checking aside. I quite enjoyed their take on working the X-Men super hero names into the story. This is always a challenge to do without making it seem forced or come off as just plain silly. Having the teens pick names for themselves during a late night drinking session worked organically and only came off a little awkwardly.
One of my only complaints coming out of the theater was that of all of the thousands of mutants they could have picked for the original X-Men they chose some of the most uninteresting characters. While I'm sure Angel, not to be confused with the other X-Man named Angel featured in The Last Stand, has a very important role in the X-Men universe, it doesn't really make any sense why Charles and Erik would go out of their way to pick up a erotic dancer if they knew they were organizing a strike team.
Technically the film holds up to its predecessors. Personally I would have enjoyed a slightly darker, sepia-toned feel to the film to really set it apart from the rest of the series. I got the feeling that the problems with continuity were less fact checking errors and more of a discrete effort to distance themselves from the rest of the series and really do an X Men movie their own way. It helps that their own way happened to be a pretty good one.
It is also important to note that this is the first film of the franchise to not blatantly feature Wolverine as a main character. In fact, outside of a small but humorous cameo, Wolverine is almost entirely not in the film. Finally it seems that producers are realizing that one of the strengths of the X-Men comic series was that it was an organization that featured many faces and many powers. First Class is truly an ensemble piece and not a vehicle for telling more of the Wolverine story. Hugh Jackman is a fantastic actor and Wolverine is certainly one of the most well known X-Men, but after three films that highly featured his story and one prequel entirely devoted to him I continue to find his back story flat and uninteresting. Hopefully this means that we can look forward to more X-Men movies absent of Wolverine.
Considering that both The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine were failures with the X Men fan base and critics alike, First Class is a definite step in getting the franchise back on track. I know that I certainly enjoyed it quite a bit.
From here on the film follows the typical super hero mold. Charles and Erik seek out and gather a team of mutants. They deal with self doubt and risk the temptations of their darker natures. There is even a pretty good training montage after the team is attacked and decides they need to be more prepared. They move on the enemy, avert a world war, but ultimately remain fractured as Erik takes his revenge and assumes the role of Magneto, the moral heir of Shaw minus the Nazi collaboration.
The film is set roughly somewhere before and after X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and for the most part before the rest of the X-Men series. Fans of the comic books and the films will notice that X-Men First Class exists as a temporal abnormality. Although featured prominently as the second in command to Shaw in First Class, Emma Frost (January Jones) is shown as a child (Tahyna Tozzi) in Origins: Wolverine, which should take place later on the timeline. We also witness Hank McCoy’s (Nicholas Hoult) transformation from man to Beast even though he shows up in his non-hairy form in X2. The film also ends with an explanation of how Charles loses the use of his legs, even though we have seen him, much older, in The Last Stand able to walk to meet young Jean Grey.
Although the film has more temporal abnormalities than a typical episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I found that they were easy to overlook. The film is a return to the fonder days of X-Men when we enjoyed the first movie and still had fresh memories of the 90's cartoon. Turning over the film to director Matthew Vaughn of Kick Ass and Stardust fame was apparently the kickstart the series needed to get out of its Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine slump. Although the story was still by Brian Singer, First Class features a fresh group of writers and producers. Their take on the X-Men universe actually works quite well, all fact checking aside. I quite enjoyed their take on working the X-Men super hero names into the story. This is always a challenge to do without making it seem forced or come off as just plain silly. Having the teens pick names for themselves during a late night drinking session worked organically and only came off a little awkwardly.
One of my only complaints coming out of the theater was that of all of the thousands of mutants they could have picked for the original X-Men they chose some of the most uninteresting characters. While I'm sure Angel, not to be confused with the other X-Man named Angel featured in The Last Stand, has a very important role in the X-Men universe, it doesn't really make any sense why Charles and Erik would go out of their way to pick up a erotic dancer if they knew they were organizing a strike team.
Technically the film holds up to its predecessors. Personally I would have enjoyed a slightly darker, sepia-toned feel to the film to really set it apart from the rest of the series. I got the feeling that the problems with continuity were less fact checking errors and more of a discrete effort to distance themselves from the rest of the series and really do an X Men movie their own way. It helps that their own way happened to be a pretty good one.
It is also important to note that this is the first film of the franchise to not blatantly feature Wolverine as a main character. In fact, outside of a small but humorous cameo, Wolverine is almost entirely not in the film. Finally it seems that producers are realizing that one of the strengths of the X-Men comic series was that it was an organization that featured many faces and many powers. First Class is truly an ensemble piece and not a vehicle for telling more of the Wolverine story. Hugh Jackman is a fantastic actor and Wolverine is certainly one of the most well known X-Men, but after three films that highly featured his story and one prequel entirely devoted to him I continue to find his back story flat and uninteresting. Hopefully this means that we can look forward to more X-Men movies absent of Wolverine.
Considering that both The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine were failures with the X Men fan base and critics alike, First Class is a definite step in getting the franchise back on track. I know that I certainly enjoyed it quite a bit.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Summer Movie Preview: JUNE
Thank you for tuning back in for the second part of our summer movie preview. The summer so far as seen big hits where we expected them, with Thor and Pirates, and a few unexpected hits with Fast Five and The Hangover II. We’ll be coming at you today with movies from June. Unfortunately we’ve decided treat the second half of the summer movie preview like The Hobbit film and split it up a little.
Ryan: June kicks off with X-Men: First Class a prequel showing the origin of Professor X and Magneto. For some reason I am just not psyched about this movie the way I should be. Maybe it’s how horrible the third X-men movie was or maybe I am just not interested in seeing the two old dudes of the X-Men world as young men. However, it is the only noteworthy release for this weekend so I’ll probably be standing in line.
James: I’ll admit that I too am a little scared about this next X-Men movie. The character I never liked in the previous films was always Wolverine and so the fact that this movie leaves him out for the most part seems like a good sign. I’ll blatantly use this space to remind everyone that they should follow up on X-Men Origins: Deadpool and make sure that actually happens.
Zoe: I am trying so hard to not get excited for this movie because the last two X-Men movies sucked and the last movie I was really excited for was Sucker Punch. But OMGBEAST!
Ryan: June 10th offers two movies, Super 8 and Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer and that is the last I will talk about Judy Moody. Super 8 on the other hand looks great and I am really excited to see if the Spielburg aesthetic continues throughout the movie and if that stops being cool after the first 10 minutes. I suspect it will not. This weekend is an easy pick, Super 8 all the way.
James: I’m going to say that even if it is not the highest grossing movie this summer, Super 8 will probably be the most remembered movie of this summer. From what I’ve seen of the trailers I have high hopes for it to be another Close Encounters or E.T. I’ve been betrayed by Steven Spielberg’s more recent movies but I can see signs that this movie will be his return to greatness.
Zoe: I have no overwhelming desire to see either of these movies but that’s more because I don’t respond well to giant mystery trailers. Scotty really wants to see this though, so I’ll get dragged.
Ryan: June continues and brings us The Green Lantern and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. I am very hopeful for The Green Lantern and am a big fan of Ryan Reynolds, but the first trailers did not look fantastic. However, subsequent trailers have looked much better and I am hoping that we see a good Green Lantern movie. Never really read Mr. Popper’s Penguins and I seem to think Jim Carrey stopped being funny a decade ago. James what are your thoughts on these films?
James: I loved Mr. Popper’s Penguins as a child, but don’t expect more than the standard fare from Jim Carrey these days. Which isn’t to say it’ll be bad. As for The Green Lantern I have two concerns. The first is that the story of the Green Lantern is a little harder to swallow for the average movie goer. It tends to be a little more steeped in comic book lore than something like Superman, which could be boiled down to “really strong super guy.” My second concern is that the movie relies quite strongly on CGI. Never during the course of the filming of the movie did Ryan Reynolds ever actually put on a costume outside of a motion capture suit.
Ryan: I kind of agree with you but I think it’s the “intergalactic cop portion” more so then the “can create anything he imagines” part of the story that is going to be the hard sell.
Zoe: I have never read Mr. Popper’s Penguins and I was apparently also the only person not impressed by the Green Lantern trailer but Ryan Reynolds is pretty
James: But he did divorce Scar Jo. I’ll never forgive him.
Ryan: The weekend of June 24th brings us Bad Teacher and Cars 2. I am hoping that Cars 2 is going to be Pixar going back to fix a less then perfect movie and not a desperate cash grab, but only slightly hopeful. Bad Teacher on the other hand has me furious almost to the point of boycotting. I know that it is comedy, but I do not think any movie should be made that tries to imply that teacher’s have an easy job or don’t work hard. The myth is persistent enough without Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake to help prop it up.
James: I think in a choice between Cameron Diaz’s next flop and Fast and Furious For Kids I’ll be staying home this weekend. Why out of all their series Pixar decided to bring back their lowest grossing movie of all time has always confused me. Yes it produced a lot of toy cars, but does Pixar really need to make the extra money? I expect a little more integrity from Pixar. I’ve also never really been able to believe Justin Timberlake as an actor so.... Although I guess I have to support any movie about teachers that does use the “Hard working teacher who believes in their job trying to teach idiot city kids how to learn” plot line.
Zoe: You know that feeling when you’re pretty sure that you’re making the wrong decision but you do it anyway? My movie sense is telling me that Bad Teacher will be bad and Cars 2 will be Pixar good but I’ve never seen Cars and Bad Teacher kind of looks funny. I can’t defend it.
Well that was June and all of its movie glory. It is both a month of highs and a month of lows. There will be good time and there will be bad times. I think we can all expect at least a couple good movies but it is an important month as it marks a middle point of both the summer and the better of the summer movies. Catch us next time for the conclusion of
Summer Movie Previews
Same ScreenFix time, Same ScreenFix channel
Ryan: June kicks off with X-Men: First Class a prequel showing the origin of Professor X and Magneto. For some reason I am just not psyched about this movie the way I should be. Maybe it’s how horrible the third X-men movie was or maybe I am just not interested in seeing the two old dudes of the X-Men world as young men. However, it is the only noteworthy release for this weekend so I’ll probably be standing in line.
James: I’ll admit that I too am a little scared about this next X-Men movie. The character I never liked in the previous films was always Wolverine and so the fact that this movie leaves him out for the most part seems like a good sign. I’ll blatantly use this space to remind everyone that they should follow up on X-Men Origins: Deadpool and make sure that actually happens.
Zoe: I am trying so hard to not get excited for this movie because the last two X-Men movies sucked and the last movie I was really excited for was Sucker Punch. But OMGBEAST!
Ryan: June 10th offers two movies, Super 8 and Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer and that is the last I will talk about Judy Moody. Super 8 on the other hand looks great and I am really excited to see if the Spielburg aesthetic continues throughout the movie and if that stops being cool after the first 10 minutes. I suspect it will not. This weekend is an easy pick, Super 8 all the way.
James: I’m going to say that even if it is not the highest grossing movie this summer, Super 8 will probably be the most remembered movie of this summer. From what I’ve seen of the trailers I have high hopes for it to be another Close Encounters or E.T. I’ve been betrayed by Steven Spielberg’s more recent movies but I can see signs that this movie will be his return to greatness.
Zoe: I have no overwhelming desire to see either of these movies but that’s more because I don’t respond well to giant mystery trailers. Scotty really wants to see this though, so I’ll get dragged.
Ryan: June continues and brings us The Green Lantern and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. I am very hopeful for The Green Lantern and am a big fan of Ryan Reynolds, but the first trailers did not look fantastic. However, subsequent trailers have looked much better and I am hoping that we see a good Green Lantern movie. Never really read Mr. Popper’s Penguins and I seem to think Jim Carrey stopped being funny a decade ago. James what are your thoughts on these films?
James: I loved Mr. Popper’s Penguins as a child, but don’t expect more than the standard fare from Jim Carrey these days. Which isn’t to say it’ll be bad. As for The Green Lantern I have two concerns. The first is that the story of the Green Lantern is a little harder to swallow for the average movie goer. It tends to be a little more steeped in comic book lore than something like Superman, which could be boiled down to “really strong super guy.” My second concern is that the movie relies quite strongly on CGI. Never during the course of the filming of the movie did Ryan Reynolds ever actually put on a costume outside of a motion capture suit.
Ryan: I kind of agree with you but I think it’s the “intergalactic cop portion” more so then the “can create anything he imagines” part of the story that is going to be the hard sell.
Zoe: I have never read Mr. Popper’s Penguins and I was apparently also the only person not impressed by the Green Lantern trailer but Ryan Reynolds is pretty
James: But he did divorce Scar Jo. I’ll never forgive him.
Ryan: The weekend of June 24th brings us Bad Teacher and Cars 2. I am hoping that Cars 2 is going to be Pixar going back to fix a less then perfect movie and not a desperate cash grab, but only slightly hopeful. Bad Teacher on the other hand has me furious almost to the point of boycotting. I know that it is comedy, but I do not think any movie should be made that tries to imply that teacher’s have an easy job or don’t work hard. The myth is persistent enough without Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake to help prop it up.
James: I think in a choice between Cameron Diaz’s next flop and Fast and Furious For Kids I’ll be staying home this weekend. Why out of all their series Pixar decided to bring back their lowest grossing movie of all time has always confused me. Yes it produced a lot of toy cars, but does Pixar really need to make the extra money? I expect a little more integrity from Pixar. I’ve also never really been able to believe Justin Timberlake as an actor so.... Although I guess I have to support any movie about teachers that does use the “Hard working teacher who believes in their job trying to teach idiot city kids how to learn” plot line.
Zoe: You know that feeling when you’re pretty sure that you’re making the wrong decision but you do it anyway? My movie sense is telling me that Bad Teacher will be bad and Cars 2 will be Pixar good but I’ve never seen Cars and Bad Teacher kind of looks funny. I can’t defend it.
Well that was June and all of its movie glory. It is both a month of highs and a month of lows. There will be good time and there will be bad times. I think we can all expect at least a couple good movies but it is an important month as it marks a middle point of both the summer and the better of the summer movies. Catch us next time for the conclusion of
Summer Movie Previews
Same ScreenFix time, Same ScreenFix channel
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