It's been a disappointing year so far in Cinemaland. I don't know if it's just that I've gotten older but year after year I find myself less excited for the new batch of film releases. That's not to say that the movies are necessarily getting worse (that argument opens a really big can of worms that I may get into in the future) as I find good and bad movies every year. It's just that I haven't really been blown away by a trailer or gotten caught up in any one movie's hype machine. In any case, here is a rundown of the high profile films I've seen so far in 2010.
Alice in Wonderland
I have to admit that I was tentative about this film. I have a strange relationship with Tim Burton. I like most of his movies but I find him to usually favor style over substance a little too much. And most times, I find his style a little too over-the-top and distracting. Plus, I still haven't forgiven him for Batman Returns (Batfans, don't bother getting your panties in a bunch. I like the movie for what it is, a Tim Burton movie and not as a Batman film). So it was with much trepidation that I approached his reimagining of Alice in Wonderland.
Burton has been at the top of my list for directors to tackle a remake of The Wizard of Oz if it were ever to be made. I felt that his weirdly gothic style would be an interesting fit for Oz. That and I think he's at his best when handling fairy tales. I also really wanted to see him tackle the flying monkeys. So I find it out that I never considered him for Alice in Wonderland. Having now seen the film, I don't even know why I was tentative. His style probably fits Wonderland more than Oz, with the wonderfully bizarre creatures and people populating the world.
Overall, I liked the movie. I thought it was a good "sequel/reimagining". Johnny Depp was typically bizarre as the Mad Hatter but the movie was stolen by Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen. It's hard to steal a movie from the likes of Johnny Depp AND bizarro nutzoid Crispin Glover but she succeeds in every scene they are in together. My main complaint with the film is Mia Wasikowska. I find her performance fairly flat and overly understated. I understand that this may have been intentional to balance out the hijinx of the previously mentioned actors but it didn't work for me.
Clash of the Titans
This was a movie I actually was excited to see. I had read about a year ago that Lawrence Kasdan (one of my favorite screenwriters) was handling the script. My excitement was cooled a couple weeks before release when I found out that Kasdan was replaced by the dude that wrote Aeon Flux. Major disappointment. Although the visuals were good, none of the movie made any sense. they decide to make Perseus a tough hero who hates the Gods but then has him turn on a dime for no real good reason. He literally receives gifts "out of nowhere". They introduce characters that go nowhere and serve no real purpose. I just don't understand how they could go from a writer like Kasdan (who wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark and co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back) and go with the Aeon Flux guy. This movie could have been something really great but missed the mark by an incredibly wide margin.
Iron Man 2
Even though I really liked the first Iron Man, one of my favorite films from the summer 2008, I wasn't really that hyped for this movie. I think it was because the first image I saw associated with it was of Mickey Rourke in full Whiplash regalia on the racetrack and I thought it looked terrible. Surprisingly, his character and look in the finished film didn't really bother me. I thought it fit well in the established universe. I also thought that Robert Downey Jr turned in another good performance has Tony Stark, with equally good turns by Gwyneth Paltrow and Sam Rockwell.
My major problems were with Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson. Don Cheadle just seemed to be sleepwalking in the role, with none of the bluster or fire that I've come to expect from him. I'm not saying that Terence Howard was necessarily better but I found Cheadle's performance flat in this movie which is disappointing because he is capable of so much more (and honestly I was expecting more because I love his work in other films). Although Scarlett Johansson certainly looked good in the leather catsuit as Black Widow, she felt oddly out of place in the movie. Maybe it's because I was expecting her to actually BE RUSSIAN which is a major part of her character and I thought would tie in especially well since Rourke's character was also Russian. But alas, it was not meant to be and I wasn't impressed. Last is Sam Jackson who is the perfect physical embodiment of Nick Fury from The Ultimate line of Marvel comics. So why does he now just play a parody of himself? At no point did I ever feel like he was Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. He just seemed like Sam Jackson saying lines as Sam Jackson would. For a perfect example of this, check out the scene with Tony Stark in the donut shop. Terrible.
Also, enough with the Iron Mav vs. other "Iron Men" thing. I'm ready to move on. Please have the Mandarin next.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of TIme
This was a movie I was teetering on whether to see it or not. I loved The Sands of Time as a video game. It had memorable characters, frustratingly smart puzzles, and an excellent action and control system. Overall, I thought the movie was good. It was an entertaining way to spend 2 hours. Sure the plot was hokey but at least it made sense. No one's performance really stuck out as particularly bad with almost everyone putting in a good effort. The action (particularly the Parkour stuff) was really well done as was the cinematography. I thought that the banter between Dastan and Tamina was well-written, though tthe chemistry between Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton could have used some work. It was definitely a light-hearted and breezy affair, the kind of movie that is perfect for pure escapism.
The A-Team
I can't say enough how much I liked this movie. To me, it's the sleeper of the summer. I went in with very low expectations and was really impressed by the performances, the story, the characters, and the action. I have some familiarity with the show, enough to remember the personalities of the characters and I thought that this movie really embraced them. Murdock was just the right amount of looney tunes, with Face quite the narcissist. I loved Hannibal Smith's commitment to his men and his country, something that I thought would feel really out-of-place in today's cynical world but was embodied perfectly by Liam Neeson. The only sour point would be "Rampage" Jackson as BA Baracus. Unfortunately, the dude had some big gold-plated shoes to fill and he just doesn't have the same charisma or bravado as Mr. T. He plays his part well enough but you feel that he is completely out of his league with the actors around him.
Paramount needs to take some notes from Carnahan and company on how to approach Mission Impossible. I say reboot the whole thing and fire Tom Cruise. Do an actual remake that features Jim Phelps, Rollin Hand, Cinnamon Carter, etc. But now that Neeson is playing Smith, who could play essentially the same type of role with Phelps?
Toy Story 3
I am not ashamed to say that this movie made me cry. Twice when I saw it the first time and once more on the second viewing. Toy Story was a fun movie, introducing the world to the first fully CG full length feature film. It was a really good buddy movie that was funny and sentimental in all the right places. Toy Story 2 improved on this by really focusing on the concept of forgotten toys and the obsessive nature of collectors. The flashback in part 2 that shows Jessie's owner Emily finally moving on, set to the Randy Newman penned, Sarah McLachlan sung tune "When She Loved Me" was heartbreaking, really making you feel the sadness and the longing of a toy abandoned by her owner. I remember seeing this scene in the theater and was amazed at how effective the combination of music and animation was and how moved by it I was (I had choked back a few tears). None of this could prepare me for Toy Story 3.
While the pacing of the film wasn't as tight as its prequels, it more than made up for it by expanding the roles of the other toys. There is a "jailbreak" scene that occurs in which all the toys must play a part, akin to the roles in Ocean's Eleven. This all leads up to a very emotional conclusion as the toys must face the fact that Andy has grown up and is moving on to college. Again, I was surprised by how moved I was by this film. The animation was incredible (the detailed fur on Lottsa Huggs bear in particular), the performances were pitch perfect, and the music was top notch. But really, it just came down to Pixar's uncanny ability to pull at the heartstrings in a very honest, natural way. And again, they really made you feel the moment from a toy's perspective.
Eclipse
I've already written a full review of Eclipse that you can read below. Overall, I liked it. It was the best film out of the "saga" so far. The action and direction really knocked it out of the park in this one. Now if they could just work on the wigs.
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