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| Summer Blockbusters
I’d really hoped to go to a lot of the big summer movies once school got out. So far I’ve made it to one, and that one came out before finals. The only reason I went was because I got a free ticket. So much for my big plans.
But I have been watching the reviews and the box office numbers, and if this hasn’t been a sorry summer for popcorn lovers, I don’t know what is.
First, let me explain how I’d determine a true summer blockbuster, a real success. The movie would have to be a hit with critics and audiences (neglecting no major age group), make a boatload of money, and stay in the top five (preferably the top three) for most of the summer. Obviously, we haven’t had one of those yet.
Mission Impossible III could have been a hit. This is the only big summertime movie I’ve seen, and I liked it. The problem is, Tom Cruise is loathworthy jerk, and his movie failed because of him. The true impossible mission these days is to make a movie with Cruise in it that people would want to see.
Everyone thought that X-Men: The Last Stand would be summer’s salvation, but it seems to have already faded from the collective memory. A lot of people really loved it real fast, and just as quickly forgot about it. At some point I’ll probably want to see this one, but I hear that I shouldn’t expect anything great.
Back 30-odd years ago Hollywood decided to avoid movies having anything to do with Jesus (thanks to boycotts led by people like Dr. Dobson). So I was rather excited to see that The Da Vinci Code was getting a respectful treatment. The way I figure it, any movie that gets people into a serious conversation about Jesus can’t be all bad. But this movie, apparently, put people to sleep.
Cars is a tricky one. Yes, it’s been popular with almost everyone, and made a lot of money, but it’s still a children’s movie. That means that it’s a bit more restricted in its audience and popularity from what I’d like to see in what I’d call a hit summer movie. Yet for what it was intended to be, there is no denying that Cars has been a rousing success.
Up until I started reading early reviews, I’d pinned my hopes on the red ‘S’ of Superman Returns. It’s my contention that the last few true blockbuster movies have come from the pages of the comics (the Spider-Man films, and last summer’s Batman Begins), and Supes seemed like the character to give summer it’s first, well-received, well-loved movie. Well, we’ll see, but I’m not smelling any super-mania in the wind.
If Superman, the boy scout of the universe can’t save summer, then our last hope is in a pirate. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest sounds like it will be fantastic, the second chapter in a great series. I’d like to hope that the Pirates series is creating a thrillingly new and creative universe, every bit as wonderful as Middle Earth or a galaxy far, far away. | | |
| Old Story, New Storyteller
Boy meets girl. Girl meets monkey. Monkey dies. Boy gets girl by default. Even if you haven’t seen either the original King Kong, or Peter Jackson’s new telling, you know the story. It’s a simple, and very old, story of impossible love and tragedy. And like most tragedies, we don’t really know how to react to it. We’re sad, but yet, Kong was a monster—in the long run, the girl will be happier with the boy… right?
There are some stories that impact us so deeply we just have to keep going back to them. They inspire us, they make us want to be more, to do something, to tell our own stories just like they did. For Peter Jackson, that story is King Kong. Honestly, I’m not sure why. My sister and I watched the original a few years ago and found it to be a special effects extravaganza, with little plot. But if that’s the film that made Jackson want to be moviemaker, and thus got us The Lord of the Rings movies, I’m fine with that.
I love stories where you can feel that this was the tale the storyteller had to get out. There aren’t many out there, but when you find them, you find a gem. Knowing Jackson’s love for Kong, I was hoping that anyone could see his storyteller’s love in his version. Another thing I am noticing is that I really enjoy movies made or set in the 1930’s and 40’s. Even though times were hard, there were more opportunities then, more room for imagination; dreams were okay, and reachable. So, obviously, I was hoping for a movie that would impact me as deeply as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Did it? No, not really. But I’d be willing to take another look.
Jackson loves Kong, that is evident. Isn’t it interesting that the story of an ape’s love for a little blonde has become one of our culture’s most enduring myths? That that myth comes from a movie impresses me all the more. In a way, this new King Kong isn’t a remake of the 1933 version, but a new telling of the myth, fleshed out and expanded on by a man who loves the story.
How has Jackson done? Well, I think that the whole world stands in agreement that he indulged himself a bit too much and that the movie is way too long. There’s really not too much about that first hour that sticks in my mind. It seemed good at the time, but now, more like the first hour of a totally different, but very good, movie.
That Jackson kept that first hour to develop his characters so that we really got to know them was admirable. Naomi Watts glows (pun intended) as Ann Darrow, and every moment she’s on the screen we love her more. It’s easy to see why Kong fell for her during her vaudeville routine; we already had back in New York.
I keep hearing over and over again that Jack Black was horribly miscast as Carl Denham. I didn’t see that. He played his part very well. Any complaints about the Denham character should be taken up with the writers, not the actor. Black pulled off a convincing performance of a guy who is frightened and selfish enough to do anything to get his own way. Somewhere deep inside he has a heart, as Jack Driscoll comments that Denham tends to destroy anything he loves. At the very end of the movie, in the last and most famous line, Denham has his epiphany.
Ah, that Jack Driscoll! The only movie I’d seen Adrien Brody in before this was The Village, where he had the mental capacity of an 18 month old. He’s really a very good actor. Unfortunately, in order for King Kong’s love triangle to work, you need all three characters: boy, girl, monkey. Discoll ceased to be a significant character after that first hour (the one we all promptly forgot about as soon as it was over). So much for a love triangle. Jackson tried to make him count, especially in the last half hour, but by that point, I didn’t care about him anymore.
There were a host of other characters along the way. These are the ones Jackson should have cut out to make for a more manageable movie. Yes, Jimmy, the ship’s boy with the mysterious past was very interesting, but the movie would have been King Kong without him. Same goes for the movie star, first mate, captain, cook and cook’s assistant. That they all got major character development really didn’t matter.
But I do have say, Andy Serkis probably had the best part in the movie, even though he did get killed off, and I don’t mean his turn as Kong. Lumpy, the grizzled, nasty old cook, with his tommy gun in one hand and frying pan in the other, was the guy I wanted to play. Too bad he died the most hideous death in the entire movie.
Kong himself was amazing. I was convinced. Somewhere they found a 25 foot gorilla to play the part. Expect another Free Willy campaign soon. Even though he didn’t get any dialogue, Kong got all of the character development everyone else did. He was convincingly simian, and he was nearly human, just as he should have been.
And all of those other special effects were fantastic too. The entire Skull Island portion of the movie (about half the film), was filled with dangerous critters, and they all looked real. I’m very critical of computer work, but this was enough to make me forget I was watching computers. It’s what made the movie engrossing enough that I didn’t hate it.
Engrossing, yes. There were probably 15 minutes to half an hour where there was no dialogue, and I didn’t even think about it until someone started talking again. To me, that is the mark of some fine film making.
So did I like King Kong. Yes! Does it go in my top 10 favorite movies of all time? Definitely not. If you’ve got three hours to kill over Christmas break, give it a look. Kong is a movie that really fills the whole movie screen, never to be contained on your home TV, no matter have big a screen you have at home.
Beauty, the Beast, some guy named Jack Driscoll, and a Kiwi, make a pretty good movie. | | |
| What This Blog Is All About
I’m supposed to be writing about TV and popular culture in this blog, but most of the time I’m writing nothing. With the new TV season finally starting, I guess it’s time I started writing something more along the lines of, well, something.
Because I’m two weeks behind in LOST, I’ll start with my thoughts about the season premiere of Smallville.
Smallville 5x01
How about those new opening credits? I’m sure a lot of people are going to complain about their being a little too cheesy, but I like them. They’re slick and colorful, which is what Smallville (and the WB, for that matter), is all about.
The best thing about the new opening credits is that Erika Durance is in them. For awhile I was afraid that Lois was going to get away, but we should, in theory, be seeing her every week!
As for the episode, it was alright. The “last survivors of Krypton” thing seemed a little contrived (just like it does every time it gets used), but it worked. My biggest questions, of course, are how Clark found his way out of the Fortress of Solitude, and how he kept Chloe from getting some serious windburn.
Did anyone else notice that at the end Clark, with no powers, was wearing white? Regular viewers know that Clark’s clothes are almost always symbolic. White, in this case, would obviously represent the “new” Clark. I don’t want to say the “cleansed” Clark, as that would suggest that there was something wrong with his abilities. No, I think that white is to reflect his new beginning as a normal human.
Not that he’ll be wearing white all the way through the next episode, but it is was a good way to end the episode. | | |
| The Best Movie to Come Out in the Last Year That You’ve Never Heard Of
Anyone remember Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? It was a little movie that came out last September and was expected to be a big hit. I don’t know why, I don’t recall Burger King offering any Sky Captain toys. The movie crashed so badly that it’s not even on the $5 wrack at your local Wal-Mart. It’s a real shame too, because it could’ve been the beginning of something big.
Sky Captain draws inspiration from the Saturday matinees of old. So in effect, it’s Indiana Jones with airplanes, or Star Wars in New York. If you liked either one of those franchises, you’d love Sky Captain, and if Speilly or Lucas had had their names on the poster, everyone would love the movie. But no, some nobody named Kerry Conran (from Flint, MI!) directed this movie, his first movie no less, and made magic like we haven’t seen from Lucas since the 80’s.
Now I’ll be honest, the little bit of plot Sky Captain exhibits is more or less simply an excuse to take us on one wild ride after another. But amidst all the thrills, the keen-eyed and educated will see an ode to great movies. King Kong is not only alluded to, but I understand, actually seen briefly. The Wizard of Oz is referenced, shown, and the title song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, used as the title song for Sky Captain. Fans of the 1940’s Fleischer Superman cartoons will immediately see similarities. And even Lucas’ classic Star Wars movies are subtly honored.
While many of its inspirations, and its very feel, are very old, Sky Captain is also a study in making old things new. Instead of using sets, the entire movie was filmed in front of a blue screen. For the most part, only the actors are real. And yet, not even all of them are still alive! Hollywood’s golden age is here emulated, and yet new technologies and storytelling techniques are used to a stunning effect.
Any artist knows when they see the work another artist has dreamed of his entire life, even if no one else recognizes it. For example, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novels aren’t simply the sort of books that Tolkien had always wanted to read, they were the books that he’d always wanted to write. Sky Captain, silly as it is, was obviously something that creator Kerry Conran had been dreaming of for some time.
As an artist still waiting to create my personal masterpiece, I appreciate seeing a movie made with so much love and imagination as is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. | | |
| (This is a movie review I wrote back in April of ’04. With the release of the new The War of the Worlds, I thought I’d remind everyone of the great 1953 version.)
Last night AMC was showing The War of the Worlds. I’d just watched it last week and was impressed enough with it to watch again. The reasoning being that IT IS ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTIAN MOVIES EVER MADE! Sad thing is, it was made in 1953 and was never intended to be Christian.
For the sake of space (ha!) I’ll cut down the summery to the main points. Mars invades. We don’t like them and they don’t like us. They have better guns than we do. Mankind is getting everything kicked. We have no hope of saving ourselves. The end. Just looking at those things, it’s very much like the book, but everything else is different. Got it? Good.
Sadly, the movie has not aged well. I don’t know how people saw it in 1953 (probably with their eyes), but the directing and acting here can be pretty bad. Up until the end there is a great temptation to MST3K it. But by the end... not so much. The special effects are still impressive today in most instances. My biggest gripe is that the Martians look too sad or frightened.
Cheesy acting, doomsday plot, decent special effects... see where I get Christian movie from? I’m kidding. This really is a good movie. But to convince you, I’ll have to ruin the ending, so brace yourselves or just go rent it right now before you read any more. Still with me? Alright. We don’t die. We don’t win, no, but human life survives on Earth. If you’re still afraid of having the ending spoiled DO NOT read the next paragraph.
So the Martians are killing us all. Our scientist hero pulls together a team of coworkers from the university he works at to find a way, possibly a biological way, of killing the invaders. However, there are riots in LA and their supply trucks are taken over by a mob desperate to escape the city. The team is separated and all the hero wants is to find the girl who is probably hiding in a church. He runs down the empty streets to every church he can while the Martian ships are tearing down the city around him. When you see them take out a sky-scraper, causing it to implode, you know what this reminds you of.
He searches the Presbyterian church. Not there. He searches the Catholic church. Not there. He searches the Baptist church, and she is there. At each church he sees Christians praying for a miracle and singing the great hymns. After he finds the girl they stand together in the church listening to the destruction outside. It sounds like Hell is knocking on the door. Suddenly the whole church is shaken and then silence. The congregation makes their way outside to see that a spaceship has crashed across the street (which just happened to me this morning, but that’s another story). The Martian pilot is dead. Our hero turns to the church members and says, “You people prayed for a miracle. I guess you got one.” And all the church bells begin to ring.
Good, huh? It gets better. The narrator comes on to explain what happened as we see pictures from all over the world of the damage we’ve suffered. The narrator explains that it was the germs in our air, which we have grown immune to over many years, that killed the Martians. “It was the tiniest things,” he intones, “that God in His providence provided, that saved us.” The movie ends with crowds of people who have run to the safety of the mountains standing on the hillside singing a hymn. And chills run up my spine.
In a post 9/11 world this movie is an excellent reminder of where our strength comes from. It’s not in our weapons, our plans, or our science, but from God. Who would have thought that Hollywood could ever have said it so well? | | |
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