[Movie] Crimson Peak was Interesting.

So I have to be about the hundredth person who thinks they might have been a little cheated by Crimson Peak. Let's face it, the next major holiday is Halloween. This is prime time scary movie territory. With the crimson and black ghosts popping up in the trailers, one would definitely think of this as just the right kind of movie for the season. Unfortunately, the ghosts don't really seem to make it more than halfway through the movie before they're abandoned for more of a thriller/mystery vibe. Not that I'm complaining about the thriller vibe. It was very well done. I enjoyed sitting in the theater trying to get one step ahead of the story. (Normally this is not a problem for me.) However, I wanted more ghostly ghastliness.

The manor house served as the perfect setting for something very Edgar Allen Poe with its blood red clay tainted water and the massive hole in the ceiling causing it to snow indoors. Then there were the outdoor shots of the snow also dyed crimson by the clay. Made the entire front yard look like a massive field of battle. Exceptionally pretty in its dilapidated state like an old matron seeking her youth through make-up. Yet it wasn't used up to its full potential. I guess I was looking for something more The Haunting of Hill House from it, making the very house party to all the secrets.

All in all, I thought the acting was well-done. Tom Hiddleston (Thomas Sharpe) stole the show for me, of course, though I still have a hard time not thinking Loki when I see him. I guess there are just some roles that leave indelible marks on a watcher's consciousness. This is not to say that the women, Mia Wasikowska (Edith Cushing) and Jessica Chastain (Lucille Sharpe), weren't mesmerizing, just that my eyes gravitated toward him and the expressions he gave. The three of them together however made the movie. In the pivotal scene of confrontation with the pounding on the door, it is the interaction between the three of them that makes it work. Charlie Hunnam (Dr. Alan McMichael) isn't an afterthought, but he certainly isn't as captivating as the other three.

I suppose I should back up a second and discuss the actual plot of the movie: Down and out heirs with nothing to peddle but their name seek funding for a mining gadget. During their attempts to secure funding, the male heir falls for a wealthy heiress who could be the end of their financial woes. They marry. Come to find out, the man is already married and has been several times, killing each of his successive wives for their money. The ghosts of these murdered innocents still haunt the family manse and make several attempts to warn the young heiress of her oncoming fate.

Things I saw coming: The brother-sister relationship. After Lucille mentions they were often left in the nursery alone while their parents traveled, that part sort of wrote itself in my mind.
The revelation of Lucille as the killer of Edith's father. No offense to Thomas, but he just doesn't have the spine to actually kill someone.

Overall, Crimson Peak was a pretty drama with some horror elements, not a horror movie. Will I watch it again? Probably once it comes out on DVD.

Thinking about "Maleficent"

So took the time to go see "Maleficent" starring Angelina Jolie. I'm a little bit of a fairy tale junkie though I tend to avoid the Disney versions as much as possible so I was interested to see how they were going to change the story.

Before I got there, I had my suspicions that Maleficent was going to be turned into an anti-hero. That seemed the most logical way to make her a somewhat likable character. It can be difficult to create a story centering on a villain that people will actually like. The only downside was, as I internally predicted, they gave her a tragic backstory to facilitate her turn to bitter and evil. I had been hoping they would find a better way to do that, but why fix what isn't broken, the trope works. It automatically makes the character at least somewhat sympathetic, a necessary quality.

One thing I did find very interesting was how Maleficent seems it have fallen victim to one of the pixies' gifts to Aurora, the gift of being beloved. Despite her desire to hate her, and her sometimes impatience with her, Maleficent finds herself just as charmed by the girl as everyone else. It gives her a chance to grow as a character, so much so that she wants to take away the curse and feels bad when it comes to fruition.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie with its good points and its flaws. They took a lesser used fairy tale (there are how many different versions of Cinderella and Snow White) and refreshed it. 

Looking at Transcendence

I went to see "Transcendence" (starring Johnny Depp) and found myself immediately seeing it as a cautionary tale about the overreaching of technology. However, after some consideration, that might be too easy because the technology itself doesn't necessarily cause a problem. Instead, it is the movement of technology without limitations that causes the problem.

Several times in the movie, Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is characterized as someone who had no real interest in changing the world. Yet when he becomes the computer, he suddenly has this desire to change everything for the better. If he didn't have that desire before, where did it come from considering that him as a computer is supposed to be a direct copy of the man himself? However, when you add his wife, Evelyn Caster (Rebecca Hall), you find out where this desire comes from. She wants to change the world for the better. She is the one who sees technology as a way to erase the damage done by human beings.

Therefore, it is not necessarily the technology itself, but the connection of technology with human drive that causes the problem. Am I saying we shouldn't want to change the world for the better? No, but this comments on Ian Malcolm's old saying, "They were so busy seeing if they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." Pinn, the computer program used to underpin Dr. Caster's electronic self, was said to be unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. One of the things about right and wrong is knowing when you've moved from one to the other. Sometimes the line is very thin and easily missed.

So is this a cautionary tale about technological drive or human drive?

Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I felt like this could have been a lot shorter. Yes, there were fun parts and OMG SMAUG (awesome!) but it feels like all we're doing is bridging some sort of gap. Yes, we're putting in all the details from the book, and there is technically more story after Smaug turns Lake Town into so much rubble, but truthfully, couldn't we have jumped like half of this, put in the stuff from after the destruction, and thus skipped having to have a third movie?

Well, we could have, but truthfully, then it doesn't square with its predecessor (or sequel which was made a movie first) as a trilogy.

In a way, this is so capitalistic, it's sickening, but in another way, it makes it easier to skip the stuff in the middle by simply watching the first and third movie when they inevitably come out as a DVD boxed set.

Anyway, my .02 cents on the subject of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Inception on Ideas

Inception, as a word, means simply beginning or start. In truth, ideas are the beginning of many things. Without an idea, you cannot plan. Without an idea, you cannot dream. Without an idea, you cannot achieve. Ideas are of paramount importance. In Inception, (2010, Director: Christopher Nolan) the idea is brought to the forefront from its place behind the scenes. There are three things about ideas the movie focuses on: the genesis of, complexity of, and pervasiveness of ideas.

Read the full article on Associated Content.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Despite his eccentricities there has always been something endearing about Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps it is his eccentricities that make him wonderful. Either way, I remember being fascinated by him as a child, along the same era I devoured The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Just the idea of being able to understand the clues and catch the bad guy all without having to be big, buff, or even remotely athletic. Exactly the kind of thing that would appeal to an ailing intellectual child like myself.

So I started seeing trailers for “Sherlock Holmes” (2009) starring Robert Downey Jr. and that little kid in me crosses its arms, stamps its foot, and says we are not going to see that because Sherlock Holmes does not act like that. (Don’t lie, we’ve all had this happen over the last ten years as the entertainment industry reappropriates characters and remakes movies for better or worse.) However, as often happens, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself sitting in a darkened theatre on Christmas day feeling the mixed butterflies of anticipation and apprehension.

Then the movie started…

Remember the little kid, the one who said no way, nuh-uh, this is not happening? It was actually happy within the first five minutes of the film with Sherlock going up against the man in the dark and describing both the man’s problems and how he would dispatch him in a rather dry clinical tone. Sherlock was still more action-y than I remember the man being, but truthfully I feel that was necessary in order to compete for the attention span of the American public. We are just not happy unless something blows up or someone is getting the snot beat out of them. Yet the parts of the movie which made me really happy were: Sherlock’s intellect and the Sherlock/Watson dynamic.

The detachment Sherlock shows toward the things going on around him and his encyclopedic knowledge are two of the things that make Sherlock great. And no Sherlock story would be complete without the grand reveal, made all the more fun by the fact that Lord Blackwood is holding on for dear life throughout the entire exposition. I admit to thinking he was going down before Sherlock finished going on about the entire set up. Made for a great moment though, especially when he finally does fall and hang.

The interaction between Holmes and Watson has seen a major revamp as well. For me, Watson has always been an overweight gentleman with glasses who could not have fought his way out of a paper bag and was really only along to hold Holmes’s bag while he did the heavy lifting. (This might not be entirely true but that’s what I remember of the pair of them.) In this newest installment however, Watson has seen an update to make him more of an action hero as well. He’s a lithe man with a cane who not only fights but fights well enough to hold his own with or without Holmes. Nothing will quite beat him taking on giant Frenchman.

Anyone who has seen the movie will probably ask why I do not going into the relationship between Holmes and Adler or the great reveal of Moriarty. Neither of these things interest me all that much. Moriarty’s reveal at the end of the movie is woven into the overall fabric quite well, but other than making me think there will be a sequel in the future, it does not do much for me. The character of Irene, like Mary, is really just a token outside force proving the two boys aren’t wholly wrapped up in themselves.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie. It makes me want to go back and reread the original stories just to remind myself of what Sherlock Holmes was like before Hollywood got its grubby paws on him because for me, the book will always be better than the movie.

Preliminary Thoughts: Gamer

Watching the previews, the first thing coming to mind for me about Gamer (2009) is the idea of punishment and where our system could go. According to the plot, a new game has come out which uses prisoners as, one could call them sprites, and in return if the prisoner survives for 30 sessions, then that prisoner will be allowed to go free.

I am intrigued by the idea as I am by most alternative punishment systems from penal colonies to freezing criminals in ice cubes. Though I do immediately wonder two things: placing their lives in the hands of children and allowing a criminal who has just been through a traumatic experience back on the street.

Good ideas, probably not. As World War II and Vietnam has taught us, Post-traumatic Stress disorder is a very real thing and can get innocent bystanders killed. Not to mention, children, even if things are explained to them, are going to have a hard time equating their in-game death to the death of a human being. All video games have no consequences. When you get right down to it, no one’s world is going to end if you die in game. Though the idea of a game having major real world consequences goes back as far as War Games (1983) and more recently the horror movie, Stay Alive(2006).

This is in no way to be considered a review of the movie, I have not seen it yet, but simply the thoughts coming to mind from the trailers. I look forward to seeing Gamer after it comes out on September 4th.

Is G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra a touch of nostalgia

A touch of nostalgia? Not quite. Looking at the plot, characters, and action sequences, the movie does hit a lot of high notes. Unfortunately, it does not manage to hit them all. The overall plot was quite old school G.I. Joe. It is still the good guys versus the bad guys with the entire world on the line. The Joes and Cobra still have the best high tech toys, shown best through Duke and his original crew taking on the Cobra attack squad. One major high note, they managed to work in the old laser noise the show was known for. For that, high marks.

However, my single biggest problem with the movie was the character of Baroness (Sienna Miller). It was already shown in the previews she was not going to have her trademark accent. Every word coming out of her mouth does not sound like it should be followed by ‘Hiel, Hitler’. That was a bit disappointing. Not the most disappointing thing about her character though. Her real name is Ana Lewis, she used to be a blonde, and was once Duke’s fiancée (Channing Tatum plays Duke). It was enough to set off a random bout of blinking followed by a spontaneous what! Adding to that the revelation that her supposedly dead brother Rex (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)is Cobra Commander and she is being controlled by nanotechnology and I just had a hard time wrapping my head around it all.

The character of Destro (Christopher Eccleston) is given some historical context, though the why is a little iffy. As important as the character is to push the plot forward, the opening vignette showing his background seemed tacked on. The movie could have run just as well without it and no one would have missed a thing.

Cobra Commander is actually a man named Rex Lewis, Baroness’s brother, disfigured by a fire, who worked under Dr. Mindbender (Kevin J. O'Connor). Considering Rex is wearing a monocle, I thought he was Dr. Mindbender. After all, he was doing Mindbender’s job of creating new technology for Cobra.

Then there is Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), who actually seems to be less crazy now that he is no longer wearing the raccoon make-up and running with a biker gang. He manages to play a pretty pivotal role in the story despite barely being involved in anything at all directly.

Characterization seems to have been something of a problem. The Joes were well done. The Cobra operatives needed serious work. While the changes and additions might have been interesting or necessary, they were also rather distracting.

Now what to say about the action sequences, they were beautiful, well-done, and gripping. My favorite, oddly enough, is Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) versus Snake Eyes (Ray Park) as children. While not as CGI dependent as some of the other scenes, I still find it the most entertaining because Snake Eyes spits food in Storm Shadow’s face. Not exactly an expected tactic, but amusing just the same. The longest sequence is Duke and Ripcord running through Paris with the accelerator suits. This sequence has some amazing acrobatics in it. My favorite is the landing from going over and through the train. Both Duke and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) end up flattened on top of a car and have a short discussion about the suit and its manual. A bit of levity to pull back from the tenseness of the situation.

Overall, I would not recommend seeing G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra for the similarity to the old cartoon show. I would recommend it as a decent action movie.

Follow up from HERE

The Coming of G.I. Joe

So G.I. Joe joins the ranks of cartoons turned into feature films. I know I am of the generation that grew up with Snake Eyes, Duke, Scarlet, and all the other characters of the G.I. Joe: Real American Hero 80’s cartoon show. I was actually in Europe as a child in the 80’s and 90’s so I remember my grandmother having to tape the show on Saturday morning and then mail them to us in Germany on VHS. (Yes, VHS, remember those bulky things?) So despite the distance, I still got a chance to watch all the great missions the G.I. Joes went on. (I learned the word Patagonia and used it every chance I got for a week. It was great.)

However, just like with Transformers (which now have two movies) I am slightly apprehensive about this cartoon being brought to the big screen. There are so many possible chances for things to be done absolutely wrong. The overall plot should have been easy enough to pick out in our current era of militarism and black ops movies, but the characterization is what made the show for the children. We all had someone we wanted to be. Rather it was getting to be General Hawk, the man in charge, or Snake Eyes, the silent ninja, those characters were what made the show. There is a great chance for this to be done well or this could be the next biggest travesty besides adding neon to Batman.

It comes out on Friday(8/7) expect an after-action report. Check for times HERE.