(Freya-dæg) Titans Clash, Movies Crash

Introduction
Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

{Bubo the mechanical owl's cameo - utterly pointless or an affectionate nod the 1981 original if you've seen it. Image from Poop Creek, Oregon}

Back To Top
Introduction

Clash of the Titans is a rather curious movie. Definitely all Hollywood with its CGI and key male-demographic-type writing, but before judgment is made, let's weigh its case.

Back To Top
Plot Summary

After the gods won a war with the titans, their parents, one of the gods (Zeus, Liam Neeson) makes humanity so that their prayers can power the gods' immortality. However, humanity eventually gets frustrated with the gods' unresponsiveness and decides that it would be better off without them.

Enter the movie's hero, Perseus (Sam Worthington), the son of Zeus and the unnamed wife of Acrisius, erstwhile king of Argos. Acrisius is virulently anti-gods, so when he finds out that his son is Zeus' he demands that both his "befouled" wife and his bastard son be killed. But Perseus survives and is raised by a foster family of humble profession (fisherman).

Perseus winds up back in Argos where he meets Andromeda, hears Hades (Ralph Fiennes) threaten the city with the kraken because of the queen Cassiopeia's boasting of Andromeda's beauty, and winds up looking for a way to defeat the kraken. He's helped along his way by a cast of characters, including a mysterious woman named Io (Gemma Arterton) who has watched over him from his youth. Perseus succeeds, Andromeda is saved, and he becomes king, though he refuses to indulge his divine nature by joining Zeus in Olympus.

To its credit, the movie's plot follows the original myth of Perseus and Andromeda more or less properly. Aside from some details, the biggest change is that Perseus relies much less on divine help in the film. Names are also changed, mostly for the convenience of pronunciation and coherency, I imagine. After all, how can an audience member be expected to make out ancient Greek names over the sound of themselves chewing handfuls of popcorn?

Back To Top
The Good

Although they aren't strong enough to carry the movie alone, this flick puts forth two good characters.

Perseus himself is interesting because he isn't just some "chosen one" who struggles with his being chosen, but he actively works to do as much as he can "as a man" - refusing to take advantage of his divinity. When he does take advantage of that side of his nature, he doesn't exactly go through a conflict of conscience, but, the movie deserves some points for effort. Especially since main characters in this genre have a tendency toward a flatness that rivals a carpenter's level on an empty office desk.

The other character worth watching for is Io. Although her back story is altered from her myth, she's still given one, and one that acknowledges the rapacious nature of the gods. As Perseus' guide throughout much of the adventure she's fairly well-defined and *spoilers* when she's killed */spoilers* it comes as a real blow.

This impact comes because Io's one of the more developed characters in the movie and partially because there's not much else with the depth of her relationship with Perseus. Unfortunately, this impact is practically reversed when Zeus himself reverses her story's twist at the end of the movie.

Since Immortals is a movie in a similar vein, though for whatever reason not in as rich a portion of that vein, as Clash of the Titans, it's also to this movie's credit that it outdoes Immortals in two key areas.

First, Clash of the Titans acknowledges the fact that the gods are the titans' children, and accurately shows the kinds of mythological dealings that go on between the gods themselves. Second, Clash of the Titans is superbly lit. Rather than every scene being dark and drear with lots of grays and browns and blacks, this movie has bright forests, a dank underworld, and a shimmering Olympus.

The idea that prayers feed the gods' immortality is cool, and its nicely complemented by Hades' being fed by humanity's fear.

The animations that accompany Hades are also really well done - from his smoky black wings, to the blue flames that take over the regular orange ones when he enters a fire-lit room.

Back To Top
The Bad

However, the animation falls apart elsewhere. The giant scorpion monsters that Perseus and his friends fight, for example, look like they're green screened in at some points - they look like they're separate from the actors rather than interacting with them. Likewise, the Stygian Witches' shared eye, looks less like a goopy orb than it does a ball of organized white, red, and black yarn.

The movie's plot offers nothing new, and though it's expansive scope puts it on par with John Carter, Clash of the Titans falls short of really having much "pulp appeal."

The major reason for this lack is the movie's utter failure to make us care about princess Andromeda. She's seen giving Perseus some water, giving some bread to the poor, and being chained up for the kraken to snack on, and that's it. While Perseus is off questing for a way to beat the kraken, shouldn't she be talking about her imminent death with her father? Maybe the unnamed religious fanatic could have some interaction with her?

Moreover, in Hades' original threat, the kraken isn't what needs to be sacrificed to, the kraken is what comes if there is no sacrifice. Hanging Andromeda out for the kraken just as the beast is lurching from the sea should only be putting a tidbit out for it before it gorges itself on the city.

In fact, that is the movie's biggest failing. The fate of Argos hangs in the balance, but the audience is given no real reason to care if Argos is destroyed or not, and further, if Andromeda is eaten or not.

Too much time is spent with Perseus and his companions on their journey and not nearly enough is spent back at the city with the princess. While they're on the road, Perseus and his gang hardly even talk about Argos - there isn't even a line like "What was life like back in Argos?" or "Why's King Kepheus so eager to turn away from the gods?"

Perseus is as much of an outsider as we are, and yet he seems entirely indifferent about the place that he's saving. As such, the audience can't help but follow suit.

Back To Top
Judgment

Clash of the Titans has slick production values and is acted like your standard episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, but the story’s cast of characters is like that in a big old RPG. However, unlike classic console RPGs that have characters and story going for them, Clash of the Titans has neither. Not consistently anyway.

The plot is poorly constructed, and aside from the slight variation in Perseus' character from other "chosen ones" and the interesting portrayal of Io, the movie really has nothing to offer but a few cool pieces of animation, refreshingly varied lighting, and a neat explanation of the purpose of prayer.

Unfortunately, even if these details were laid on an altar and ritualistically burned, no god's wrath would be appeased. So, Freya, fly high, and worry not about this one, though it offers a pretty face and mesmerizing eyes, its arms are weak and its purpose flabby. There are better picks for film Valhalla.

Back To Top
Closing

Keep an eye (or both) on this blog - next Monday it'll host a logical look at wind power in Ontario, Wednesday there'll be a blog entry on the newest news, and on Friday a write-up on the good in The Darkest Hour will be up for the reading.

Back To Top

[Freya-dæg] Aliens and Last Hopes and Powers - Oooh, Myyy!

Introduction
Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

{Two teenage kids, a football field, and visible force-type powers - what could possibly go wrong? Image from MsMariah's Space Blog-yssey}

Back To Top
Introduction

I Am Number Four is a movie that rightfully spelled the end of its franchise.

Now, it's not that the movie is outright bad. No. Rather, it's because it doesn't play enough to its own strengths. One of the common criticisms of the flick is that it's a mash-up of a number of other genres (thriller, sci-fi, action, romance, teen), and that criticism definitely holds up.

In fact, just like the new kid in school (or our hero in the movie's case) who tries to hide his quirks in order to fit in, this movie puts far too much effort into being hot genres and mimicking popular movies of its time that it completely loses sight of just what it actually is and turns out as unoriginal and somewhat convoluted.

However, it still has something, and that something is slightly remarkable.

Back To Top
Plot Summary

A young man of high school age (John, played by Alex Pettyfer) is hiding a secret. For he's not really human at all, but some kind of alien refugee. And now, the alien species that destroyed his home planet and his people (the Mogadorians) is in hot pursuit, and he's revealed as his peoples' last hope (and member, at least at the movie's beginning).

Although John tries to fit in as a regular human teen and remain invisible, he's always doing something out of the ordinary that forces him and his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant) to move from place to place.

The movie follows John and Henri in their newest locale: Paradise, Ohio. John falls in love with a local girl (Sarah, played by Dianna Agron), there's a bit of romance, the Mogadorians find him, someone close to him is killed, and John and the small group that he's gathered by the movie's end successfully face off against the Mogadorian band that's currently after him.

With the immediate threat of the Mogadorians dealt with, and on the advice of Henri, John and the mysterious Six (Teresa Palmer) set out to find the rest of the survivors from their planet (since, apparently, there are actually four more).

What exactly happens when all six of John's species come together is left ambiguous, but it's said to be good, and it's the stuff of sequels. Sequels that will probably never be.

So, given its fairly bland plot, what's the good of this movie?

Back To Top
The Good

In spite of the standard storyline, the movie itself - the way it tells the story, the writing at points, and the sci-fi elements - has a kind of "pulp appeal." Just as was the case with John Carter, it has a kind of 90s JRPG feel to it. There's some imagination at work in the details and the aliens, though these seem to have been toned down since the movie is, after all, trying to be almost all genres to all people.

Nonetheless, the movie's action is consistently impressive; the action sequences are tight and short. This movie's fight choreography is excellent, and in it all of the attacks and counters and blocks look like they're being thrown for real. So the animators definitely need to be congratulated on this count.

Characters are not this movie's strong point, but one character stands out: Sarah.

She's the token love interest, but with a twist. Rather than being some humdrum local girl, the quarterback's babe, she's the quarterback's ex-girlfriend. However, she's not torn up about it and trying to force herself on John as some sort of replacement.

Instead, she's entirely over the quarterback, and openly dreams of what the world holds for her. She's a photographer and runs a blog that's so popular locally that everyone seems to know her name. The fact that she's totally cool with John just spontaneously looking through her private scrapbook is definitely questionable, but otherwise, she's a gem amongst coal.

Back To Top
The Bad

The rest of the movie's characters, however, are much less undeveloped.

The main is just a handsome guy with chiseled abs that loves to display these for the camera time and again.

The quarterback is your standard high school jock, though, out of nowhere, he apparently still has feelings for Sarah.

The nerd character is, well, a nerd.

And Six is just an aimless blonde bad-ass who blows shit up and uses big guns while speaking with an English accent.

Characters are not the movie's strength.

The CGI used for the monsters in the movie is also lacking. Rather than being clear and crisp, its dark and murky. This works from an atmosphere point of view, and is consistent with the dark tone of the scenes in which these creatures show up, but even then crisper textures would make them look all the more real.

But where most of the characters are good attempts, the animation is hit and miss (remember those fight scenes!), and the plot itself is unoriginal, the acting is where this film takes its biggest spill.

The only character on screen that's acted well is Henri, John's guardian.

John himself is too emotionless at the wrong times (in the scene where he and Sarah first kiss he looks more dumbfounded than impassioned even though they both go in for the kiss at the same time); the quarterback plays the jock well, but clumsily brings in emotions; and Sarah, though seemingly eager for the romance and her photography, plays the rest of her role lukewarmly.

The epitome of this off acting, though, is delivered by John when he so wittily replies to Six's exhortation to "I just saved your ass" with "you should be watching your own ass" delivered in a strange teenage deadpan:

I Am Number Four Clip by the_penmin

Back To Top
Judgment

Now, this movie does have the same sort of "pulp appeal" that John Carter had, and the idea of a teenage love interest whose fairly self-sufficient and actually matures and becomes stronger after a breakup rather than more and more obsessive (*cough* Bella Swan *cough*) are both great things.

But what sets this movie far apart from the unfortunately under-viewed John Carter is that the bulk of I am Number Four falls flat.

The movie's plot is derivative, the acting lame, the CGI not quite crisp enough. Nonetheless, this is the sort of movie that you might want to have playing while you're doing a lengthy, quasi-monotonous task, like baking bread or a making a bulk batch of cookies.

Plus, the movie is based on a co-authored book. I'm less intrigued than curious, but I would still give it a flip through, and so a little bit of the "Green Lantern Effect" is at work here as well.

So, Freya, raise this one up, but feel free to do so whenever you're next in the vicinity.

Back To Top
Closing

Next week check back here for the first part in the next four part series on a major issue, an article on some of the newest news, and the hunt for the good in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans

Back To Top

John Carter: The Poor Labelling Continues with "Flop"

According to Disney (as reported by the Globe and Mail), John Carter is a flop. A movie that cost the studio $200,000,000,000.

Some critics have panned it as a corporate product (as James Kendrick has it) or as a movie that's like a bad mattress, firm at either end but saggy in the middle (Rick Groen of the Globe and Mail). It definitely can't be denied that the movie's got a shiny polish, or that it does have a middle section that involves a lot of zigging and zagging about.

But, having just seen the movie, it's clear that neither of these qualities take away from a movie that's as pulpy as its source material. Things are fantastical, and there's a lot of wandering around the world of Barsoom in the movie's middle, but the characters are fine - surprisingly deeper than what you'd expect from an big-budget action movie.

Plus, unlike another sci-fi/fantasy romp that involves a 19th century American (*cough* Jonah Hex *cough*), John Carter's main character, John Carter, actually develops and changes as a human being.

And the sets and effects don't take away from the story since they match the overall feel and atmosphere quite nicely. Heck - even the alien characters don't go Jar Jar and upend the whole movie by being obnoxiously pandering.

So with an intriguing plot that's at home among the epic stories of Final Fantasy III/VI or Breath Of Fire II, pretty impressive sets, costuming that makes the Barsoom society real, fight choreography that is entrancing to watch, and two strong lead characters, what went wrong? Why is John Carter an official "flop"?

Marketing. And, possibly, timing.

At the theater last night the first showing of the Hunger Games was sold out, though the movie was playing on three screens.

Granted, John Carter came out two weeks ago. But, even that is too close to the buzz behemoth that is the Hunger Games.

Stepping away from sheer timing, ask yourself, before John Carter hit the screens did you hear anything about it? See any previews that really grabbed your attention?

Just compare this official trailer posted on youtube:

With this fanmade trailer from The John Carter Files: Granted, it may be difficult to remember seeing anything for a movie with a name that sounds so generic (taking "Of Mars" out of the title is another stroke against the movie's marketing), but the Disney trailer puts the emphasis on the wrong places. The Disney trailer hypes the movie's action and makes no mention whatever of the legacy that Burroughs created with his novels, possibly their most interesting aspect to non-fans. And using whatever was at hand in the movie's content and source material was necessary to really get people out to see this one, since the movie doesn't have many big stars to boast of. In fact, Willem Dafoe (as Tars Tarkas) is really the only big name in the movie's roster (sorry David Schwimmer!). Setting that aside, Taylor Kitsch (as John Carter) and Lynn Collins (as (Princess) Dejah Thoris) both play their parts well enough to ensure that they'll get more gigs. In the end, John Carter's lack of star power is really the only sturdy stroke against it. Though, when you're someone who recognizes the name Michael Chabon in the list of screenwriters, things like a movie's star power really don't matter as much as marketing execs may think. Back To Top