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Movie Observations
11 years ago
Caught a triple-feature last night of Hercules, Guardians, and TMNT back to back to back, and here's my takeaways on each of them:
Hercules:
1) They did an excellent job modifying the story in a plausible manner; can't say much more about it, though, without giving spoilers.
2) Incredible fight and battle choreography, but that's to be expected of modern action films.
3) The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) has really grown as an actor; he really fell into the role and played it consistently.
4) Great humor throughout that seemed to go subtly unnoticed by the audience... that or they were an exceedingly and unusually polite bunch.
5) Ian McShane did an awesome job as the seer, and Rufus Sewell (of A Knight's Tale fame, if I'm not mistaken) again was excellent in his role. In fact, the acting by the main featured cast was excellent throughout, although McShane is possibly one of my more favorite actors, now: his delivery is always just plain spot-on, and I love that gravelly tone to his voice - it really adds a lot of character to his... eh, characters.
Overall: 3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars, but trending towards 3.
Guardians of the Galaxy
1) Although subject to some usual superhero flick stereotypes (antihero makes good, hero gets the hot chick, backstabbing villain, etc.), very well put together from a story standpoint, tightly paced, and well-designed characters and script.
2) Yondu is a fuckin' badass. And the moment he showed up and Rooker started jabbering in that cowboy voice I loved the character; easily one of my more favorite characters of the film.
3) Lee Pace was fantastic as Ronan. His presence, mannerisms, and even that rumbling basso voice were all perfect for the role. They also executed the character well, with superhuman strength and a casual brutality about him that made him menacing even when he was simply standing around.
4) Thanos didn't appear much, but he was done quite perfectly: doesn't lift a finger, but you know he has all the power to simply level anyone who disobeys him. A very menacing, looming presence in his short time on screen. Curiously, Thanos is completely uncredited, except on IMDB.
5) I still remember Dave Bautista (then Batista) from his WWE days, and it's nice to see that he's also grown as an actor; he was excellent as Drax the Destroyer. In fact, Drax had many of the most hilarious lines from the movie, and he made it quite clear that jokes don't go over his head.
6) The heroes all had copious amounts of badass moments; even Star Lord and Rocket - without specific superpowers - are simply awesome with a gun in their hands and their toys.
7) The after-credits teaser scene was a real nice homage, and perfectly befitting the Collector character.
8) Speaking of the Collector, Del Toro reprises his role from Thor: Dark World - which I haven't actually seen - but which I can only imagine is a nice touch and connection between the storylines. In other cross-appearances, Carina appears in both films played by the same actress, and so does The Other (Chthon).
9) The visual effects, though well-done, were still a bit off top notch in that the animation and modeling wasn't quite as realistic as it could be. More of an artist's nit, really.
Overall: 4 of 5 stars.
TMNT
1) The humor was great, the fight scenes were well-choreographed and interesting, and the pacing was crisp.
2) They ruined the storyline and mixed elements together. If you're expecting something true to the source material, this isn't it by a long shot; they attempted to re-imagine the characters and their backstories, and dropped the ball in a bad way.
3) They messed up the Foot Clan, turning them from a fanatical league of ninja into a paramilitary organization.
4) They messed up the Shredder, and especially his introduction. The first live action movies got it perfect, never allowing you to see his face until late in the film, and gave him an actor with a rumbling, growling voice that made him sound menacing and intimidating. Though they found a good actor with a nice voice, the guy they got for this one just isn't as intimidating a stage presence as the first live action movies. I will say that the first part of his entrance, though, was quite badass, but they dropped the ball with the rest of it.
5) The turtles seemed to have no qualms about killing, as I counted at least several Foot who had to have been killed by their injuries when the turtles smacked them into walls and trees. I do wonder if they intended to kill the female Foot, too, because of how her vehicle flipped, although the action was moving fast enough that I don't know if she jumped out first. All in all, it just seems antithetical to their nature in the comics, first films, and cartoon shows, where they were quite vigilant to not inflict serious bodily harm at any given time; I prefer that imagining of them.
6) They goofed up the characters of O'Neil and her cameraman; the cameraman wasn't quite geeky enough, for one.
7) Megan Fox made a bad habit of breathing heavily in either excitement, fear, or exhaustion way too often. She pretty much spent half the movie breathing like she just climbed ten flights of stairs, and also tried way too hard to be Jamie Lee Curtis in action scenes, screaming her way through most of them. Maybe I can't just get the fact that she's a conceited bitch, but even setting that aside, her acting was quite wooden, as she pretty much only had three modes the whole film: Breathing Excitedly, Staring Intently, and Screaming Badly. They could have done a better job by casting a lesser-known actress with more formal stage training, and saved themselves money.
8) Splinter's character wasn't executed like I would've liked; he was less of a sagely, gentle old master and more of a crotchety old man. I much prefer the character as designed in the original live action films and the cartoons.
9) The turtles, on the other hand, were all executed perfectly, which is probably actually the most important part of the film; they all stayed true to their former screen presences. The focus did feel much too heavy on Michelangelo, though, as he often dominated their scenes by about half and let the other three split the rest of the time between them. Donatello and Leo didn't get as much screen time as might have done them justice, making it feel as if the film was more about Rafael and Mikey than the other two.
10) Character designs for the turtles were a bit overwrought, as they suddenly became these massive, hulking strongmen. Donatello, for some reason, also had an excessive amount of gadgets on him, a departure from the original material that they probably thought would look cool but only made his design too complicated and tacky. A similar ruination happened with the Shredder, as they overdetailed his armor and for whatever reason decided that it needed to be powered and oversized, turning him, too, into some kind of hulk. Visual effects for his armor were pretty awesome, though, like the flying blades which were just sick.
11) In a similar vein, the entire film got Bayed and Bruckheimered: the turtles all suddenly gained superhuman strength - a departure from the original material - and had the ability to lift and move ten-ton cargo containers with their bare hands; this was an obvious move to try and keep up with other superhero flicks, but took the characters too far away from what they were supposed to be. In order to balance that, of course, and keep the Shredder a threat, they had to give him a powered suit and give him superhuman strength, too. The entire thing ended up being contrived and took away from the spirit of the source material.
Verdict: the original live actions were superior. Michael Bay proves once again that he knows exactly how to take an awesome concept and fuck with it until it barely resembles the original, wrecking the characters in the process and making them too stereotypical and one-dimensional. His entire MO is really just to take concepts, add copious amounts of unnecessary explosions, superhuman feats of strength, flipping vehicles, and ridiculous VFX, and then push the product out there with massive hype to turn coin. To be fair, however, a different director was in charge of the project, so I might want to avoid films made by him in the future; I just couldn't tell quite where the Bay influence ended and the director's began.
Overall: 3 stars of 5, trending towards 2, however.
Hercules:
1) They did an excellent job modifying the story in a plausible manner; can't say much more about it, though, without giving spoilers.
2) Incredible fight and battle choreography, but that's to be expected of modern action films.
3) The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) has really grown as an actor; he really fell into the role and played it consistently.
4) Great humor throughout that seemed to go subtly unnoticed by the audience... that or they were an exceedingly and unusually polite bunch.
5) Ian McShane did an awesome job as the seer, and Rufus Sewell (of A Knight's Tale fame, if I'm not mistaken) again was excellent in his role. In fact, the acting by the main featured cast was excellent throughout, although McShane is possibly one of my more favorite actors, now: his delivery is always just plain spot-on, and I love that gravelly tone to his voice - it really adds a lot of character to his... eh, characters.
Overall: 3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars, but trending towards 3.
Guardians of the Galaxy
1) Although subject to some usual superhero flick stereotypes (antihero makes good, hero gets the hot chick, backstabbing villain, etc.), very well put together from a story standpoint, tightly paced, and well-designed characters and script.
2) Yondu is a fuckin' badass. And the moment he showed up and Rooker started jabbering in that cowboy voice I loved the character; easily one of my more favorite characters of the film.
3) Lee Pace was fantastic as Ronan. His presence, mannerisms, and even that rumbling basso voice were all perfect for the role. They also executed the character well, with superhuman strength and a casual brutality about him that made him menacing even when he was simply standing around.
4) Thanos didn't appear much, but he was done quite perfectly: doesn't lift a finger, but you know he has all the power to simply level anyone who disobeys him. A very menacing, looming presence in his short time on screen. Curiously, Thanos is completely uncredited, except on IMDB.
5) I still remember Dave Bautista (then Batista) from his WWE days, and it's nice to see that he's also grown as an actor; he was excellent as Drax the Destroyer. In fact, Drax had many of the most hilarious lines from the movie, and he made it quite clear that jokes don't go over his head.
6) The heroes all had copious amounts of badass moments; even Star Lord and Rocket - without specific superpowers - are simply awesome with a gun in their hands and their toys.
7) The after-credits teaser scene was a real nice homage, and perfectly befitting the Collector character.
8) Speaking of the Collector, Del Toro reprises his role from Thor: Dark World - which I haven't actually seen - but which I can only imagine is a nice touch and connection between the storylines. In other cross-appearances, Carina appears in both films played by the same actress, and so does The Other (Chthon).
9) The visual effects, though well-done, were still a bit off top notch in that the animation and modeling wasn't quite as realistic as it could be. More of an artist's nit, really.
Overall: 4 of 5 stars.
TMNT
1) The humor was great, the fight scenes were well-choreographed and interesting, and the pacing was crisp.
2) They ruined the storyline and mixed elements together. If you're expecting something true to the source material, this isn't it by a long shot; they attempted to re-imagine the characters and their backstories, and dropped the ball in a bad way.
3) They messed up the Foot Clan, turning them from a fanatical league of ninja into a paramilitary organization.
4) They messed up the Shredder, and especially his introduction. The first live action movies got it perfect, never allowing you to see his face until late in the film, and gave him an actor with a rumbling, growling voice that made him sound menacing and intimidating. Though they found a good actor with a nice voice, the guy they got for this one just isn't as intimidating a stage presence as the first live action movies. I will say that the first part of his entrance, though, was quite badass, but they dropped the ball with the rest of it.
5) The turtles seemed to have no qualms about killing, as I counted at least several Foot who had to have been killed by their injuries when the turtles smacked them into walls and trees. I do wonder if they intended to kill the female Foot, too, because of how her vehicle flipped, although the action was moving fast enough that I don't know if she jumped out first. All in all, it just seems antithetical to their nature in the comics, first films, and cartoon shows, where they were quite vigilant to not inflict serious bodily harm at any given time; I prefer that imagining of them.
6) They goofed up the characters of O'Neil and her cameraman; the cameraman wasn't quite geeky enough, for one.
7) Megan Fox made a bad habit of breathing heavily in either excitement, fear, or exhaustion way too often. She pretty much spent half the movie breathing like she just climbed ten flights of stairs, and also tried way too hard to be Jamie Lee Curtis in action scenes, screaming her way through most of them. Maybe I can't just get the fact that she's a conceited bitch, but even setting that aside, her acting was quite wooden, as she pretty much only had three modes the whole film: Breathing Excitedly, Staring Intently, and Screaming Badly. They could have done a better job by casting a lesser-known actress with more formal stage training, and saved themselves money.
8) Splinter's character wasn't executed like I would've liked; he was less of a sagely, gentle old master and more of a crotchety old man. I much prefer the character as designed in the original live action films and the cartoons.
9) The turtles, on the other hand, were all executed perfectly, which is probably actually the most important part of the film; they all stayed true to their former screen presences. The focus did feel much too heavy on Michelangelo, though, as he often dominated their scenes by about half and let the other three split the rest of the time between them. Donatello and Leo didn't get as much screen time as might have done them justice, making it feel as if the film was more about Rafael and Mikey than the other two.
10) Character designs for the turtles were a bit overwrought, as they suddenly became these massive, hulking strongmen. Donatello, for some reason, also had an excessive amount of gadgets on him, a departure from the original material that they probably thought would look cool but only made his design too complicated and tacky. A similar ruination happened with the Shredder, as they overdetailed his armor and for whatever reason decided that it needed to be powered and oversized, turning him, too, into some kind of hulk. Visual effects for his armor were pretty awesome, though, like the flying blades which were just sick.
11) In a similar vein, the entire film got Bayed and Bruckheimered: the turtles all suddenly gained superhuman strength - a departure from the original material - and had the ability to lift and move ten-ton cargo containers with their bare hands; this was an obvious move to try and keep up with other superhero flicks, but took the characters too far away from what they were supposed to be. In order to balance that, of course, and keep the Shredder a threat, they had to give him a powered suit and give him superhuman strength, too. The entire thing ended up being contrived and took away from the spirit of the source material.
Verdict: the original live actions were superior. Michael Bay proves once again that he knows exactly how to take an awesome concept and fuck with it until it barely resembles the original, wrecking the characters in the process and making them too stereotypical and one-dimensional. His entire MO is really just to take concepts, add copious amounts of unnecessary explosions, superhuman feats of strength, flipping vehicles, and ridiculous VFX, and then push the product out there with massive hype to turn coin. To be fair, however, a different director was in charge of the project, so I might want to avoid films made by him in the future; I just couldn't tell quite where the Bay influence ended and the director's began.
Overall: 3 stars of 5, trending towards 2, however.
