Avatar.OMG.

Okay, in the interests of full disclosure, for those of you that haven’t read my previous post, yes, I am in Avatar. I was an extra, and I’m on screen for approximately four seconds of the two hour and forty minute running time. I got to see it tonight in a free preview put on by The Rock radio station.

So with that out of the way, I now have to try and sum up what I just saw. We’ve been hearing for months about how Avatar was going to revolutionise film forever. Hype like that is hard to live up to, but here it is folks: Avatar really is like nothing you’ve seen before. Light spoilers ahead only.

The story is something you’ve seen before. It’s been described as Dances With Wolves in space, which isn’t entirely unfair, but it’s more of an eco-parable, borrowing from the modern themes of environmentalism and military incursions for the purpose of mining natural resources. The plot and dialogue are good enough, the characters are strong and most have some sort of story arc. But let’s face it, they only had to be adequate in this context, becuase they’re really just an excuse for James Cameron to kick your eyeballs out the back wall of the theater.

I cannot stress this enough: SEE THIS FILM IN 3D AT THE CINEMA. That is the only way you will get the full effect of what Cameron has done. You can see every dollar of the reputed $200 million that was spent up on the screen. You just don’t get any sense of how it looks up there by watching the TV ads or internet videos. The Na’vi are beautifully realised, as is the military tech that Cameron has been doing so well since Aliens. Weta Workshop have done an incredible job, and if they don’t get the VFX Oscar then the Academy should just stop giving them out.

Also Oscar worthy, in my opinion, is Zoe Saldana’s performance as Na’vi woman Neytiri. The quality of the motion capture and effects work mean that her character work shows through completely. Saldana inhabits the character with a feral beauty and dignity, and her expressions and movements do more to make the Na’vi believable than any of the other actors.

EDIT: I rushed this review out last night, and forgot to mention the outstanding work of Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch. He is one tough, mean badass sumbitch, and imbues the action with a real sense of menace. With a dangerous adversary like Quaritch out there, you really don’t know whether your favourite characters are going to make it through.

So to recap, don’t go into Avatar expecting a new story that you’ve never heard before. DO go into Avatar expecting to see that story told in a new way, and expect that new way to blow you away. James Cameron has raised the bar on the visual spectacular to a point that even he will have trouble matching. See it. See it in 3d.

Famous at last – kinda

CBS 60 Minutes made this Avatar interview available with James Cameron as an embed. I can’t embed it here since it’s a hosted WordPress blog, but I’ve linked to it below over at CBS. I was shocked to find that at around the 59 second mark you can totally see the back of me! I was privileged to spend a day as an extra, and watching James Cameron and Stephen Lang work was something I’ll never forget.

I’m to the left of the shot wearing a blue shirt. Yeah, that’s right, the balding guy…

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5737218n&tag=api

EDIT 23/11/2009:

Thankfully this has been posted on YouTube by a couple of people, so here’s an embed of part one of the story.

R. Pats has a lot to answer for

Just watched The Haunted Airman. We needed a DVD that we could agree on, and this seemed to fit the bill. It’s an adaptation of a book called The Haunting of Toby Jugg by Dennis Wheatley, which I read when I was younger. It freaked the crap outta me then, and I’ve been waiting a long time to see an adaptation on the screen. My wife suggested it because it contained a healthy dose of one Robert Pattinson.
Turns out it was a made-for-TV BBC production packaged up on DVD to cash in on R. Pats’ new-found fame with the tween set. And it was awful.
See, when you’re adapting something, it usually pays to do more than just take the central premise and then turn it into something unrecognisable. The novel was tense and cerebral. The “film” was dull, slow and pointless, culminating in a nonsensical ending that made me wish I’d been more astute in Video Ezy and realised what a pile o’shite I had in my hands while I still had the chance to grab something else.
In a word: disappointing. Avoid, even if the tween in your life (or your wife!) is begging you to hire it.

Star Trekkin’

I’ve been fortunate enough to catch three movies on my “watchlist” in the past week: Wolverine, Flight 666 (Iron Maiden doco) and Star Trek. I’ve been a bit slack on blogging movies I’ve seen recently, having not bothered to record my thoughts on Role Models or Zack and Miri Make A Porno. I may well have continued slacking, but The Ascot asked me to provide a Star Trek review for their newsletter, so I’ve been stung into action.

First off I have to declare my colours as a Star Trek fan (but not a fanatic – no prosthetic ears or Klingon dictionary for me!), and also a fan of JJ Abrams. Consequently I went into the new Star Trek movie with high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The writers have done a fine job of interlacing aspects of classic Trek mythology and events into a story that rather cleverly allows for new adventures of a young crew. It’s not giving too much away to say that the script messes around a bit with time, but leaves very few obvious holes to get hung up on.

The cast give magnificent performances that are engaging enough for new viewers, but will recall the original players to existing fans. I have to single out our own Karl Urban for his Bones McCoy. He stamps his authority on the character while still giving a pitch perfect nod to the original actor DeForest Kelly.

Special effects pretty much shame every other Star Trek outing – the budget that Abrams had really shows here as being well above any of the other Trek films, and technology in effects is put to good use. Abrams also avoids the trap of CGI effects that are too obviously computer generated. The ships and planets have a real depth and weight on screen that can often be missed with CGI.

Overall I have to give this a solid 4.5 stars out of 5. There were only a couple of things that prevented this being a 5 star effort for me, but I can’t clue you in without getting into spoiler territory. Rest assured that they are minor nitpicks, and this is a must-see film.

Valkyrie follow up and Inglorious Basterds

After wondering out loud about whatever happened to Bryan Singer’s version of Logan’s Run in my last post, I conveniently came across this story on Ain’t It Cool News. Seems that Bryan Singer’s resisting the temptation to step back into Superman’s world, presumably because he would have been required to retread the Superman origin story again as part of a franchise “re-boot”.  Not surprising given he largely avoided rehashing the ground covered so well by Richard Donner, Christopher Reeve and co back in the day.

Also of interest is the freshly released teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds featuring Brad Pitt, and yes, Basterds is spelt that way in the title. It’s looking like an August release, hopefully worldwide – I don’t fancy waiting an extra three months for a new Tarantino fix. Some of it looks a bit hammy (Hitler in the trailer immediately had me thinking of Mel Brooks!), but Tarantino’s take on WW2 is a must see for me.

Check it out at Yahoo

Ride of the Valkyrie

Much has been made of the fact that no-one in Valkyrie speaks with a German accent. While the opening of the film has Tom Cruise vocalising a letter he’s writing in German, that’s about as far as it goes. From what I’ve read, it was a decision made by the cirector Bryan Singer presumably to ward off any media focus on Tom Cruise’s ability to do a credible accent. Given the fact that comedians and critics alike still reference Kevin Costner’s inability to master an English accent for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves back in the nineties, he may have had a point. Unfortunately, it is actually distracting given the mixture of accents in the film, which is really a shame as the film itself is a fine effort.

There’s a difficult line that historical films have to tread when the outcome of the events are well known in history. It’s pretty obvious to anyone with a basic grasp of history that the plot to kill Hitler failed. Therefore the filmmakers must find a way to evoke tension without relying on the “will they pull it off” scenario. In Valkyrie Singer manages to derive the tension from demonstrating just how close the conspirators got. There are moments late in the film where I found myself almost wondering whether the film would use dramatic license to show an alternate “what might have been” history.

There’s a stellar cast in action here, but this almost serves to handicap the film, as expectations bred from such an ensemble aren’t really met here. Overall Valkyrie is a competent if unspectacular film. I was surprised to hear that this was in the works as last I’d heard Bryan Singer was supposed to be directing a remake of Logan’s Run after he wrapped up Superman Returns. With a bit of luck his next project will be something that gives him a bit more room to move than the strictures of the historical drama/thriller of Valkyrie.

A solid effort, but not one that I’ll be rushing to buy on DVD. Seven M&Ms out of ten.

The Bond Identity

When the Bourne Identity was released it changed the way action movies were thought about. Much of the visual hyperbole of the genre was replaced by gritty “realism” and steadycam shots. The marriage of the Bond mythology with this new style of storytelling was done well in Casino Royale, particularly as the film sought to capture the essence of Bond, returning to the Bond of Ian Fleming’s novels and moving away from the humour drenched cariacature that Bond of the movie world had become.

The success of Casino Royale showed that this was a popular treatment, with fans appeased over the perceived break with tradition by a movie that delivered solid action, performances and storyline. Anticipation was therefore high for Quantum Of Solace, the follow up to Casino Royale directed by Marc Forster.

It’s difficult to sum up my feelings about Quantum Of Solace. It is a good action movie that plays out well as a revenge flick. It ticks all the Bond boxes, with fast cars, expensive suits, beautiful women and exotic locations. The problem that I had with the film was that it felt like it was ticking the boxes. Many of the familiarities were conjured up by attempts at cleverness on the part of the filmmaker – references to Bond’s drink of choice and way with women felt injected rather than natural, a hamfisted nod to the fans.

When I first saw The Incredibles, I was most reminded of Connery-era Bond. The island lair, the sneaking around, the traps and contraptions. The locations were certainly there in Quantum Of Solace, but instead of scenes like Blofeld’s volcano lair, we’re treated to an eco-friendly desert hideaway, replete with hydrogen fuel cells. Bond has always made slightly topical films, but in this case the global climate chaos motif is writ large on the whole film – even the villain, Mr Greene, uses the cover of an eco-friendly tycoon.

With the story arc that started in Casino Royale being wrapped up by Quantum Of Solace – it pays to rewatch Casino before seeing Quantum – there is promise for more films, especially given the presence of the sinister Quantum organisation, the spiritual successor to SMERSH from the Bond of old. Overall the rebooted Bond is picking up some nice momentum, and it would be nice to see the elements that have been introduced into the rebooted franchise starting to expand and grow.

Overall I enjoyed Quantum Of Solace and the way that it tried to still be a Bond film while living up to its responsibilities as a modern action movie. I do have some reservations about the removal of some of the elements that made the franchise so much fun, and hope that like Christopher Nolan and co managed to do so well with the revamped Batman franchise, the Bond team can start to push the boundaries a little more to capture the fantasy elements of the character and his deeds. A solid three Snifters out of five. Or it would be if Snifters hadn’t been discontinued. I need to find a new rating system. Any ideas?

Tales of the drunk ‘n’ monkey

This is it folks, the match up of the millennium. The bout you’ve all been waiting for. Two giants of martial arts on the silver screen finally come together in the same movie. In The Forbidden Kingdom, Jackie chan and Jet Li collide, and the results are a joy to behold. Fortunately, the movie’s not bad either.

The Forbidden Kingdom is an Americanised version of the story of the Monkey King, played with glee by Li, and the quest of the seeker to return his staff. In this film the seeker is an American teen who is obsessed with martial arts films, played by Michael Angarano. I shudder to think what must have been going through this kid’s mind when he was told “hey, you’ll have to do fight scenes with Jackie Chan and Jet Li”. Must have blown his mind!

The seeker is joined on his quest by the drunken monk, played by Chan in his finest Drunken Master form, and the mysterious sparrow, who refers to herself and everyone else in the third person. Along the way they must battle the Jade Warlord and his army, and the lady with white hair.

While purists may be let down, this is both a love letter to the martial arts genre, and a pretty decent retelling of the story, albeit one that is definitely aimed at a younger audience – think Karate Kid meets The Neverending Story. While much is made in the promotion of Chan vs Li, this is just a small component of the film. Their fight is epic though, and incorporates many of the classic styles from kung fu movies.

Overall this is worth a watch, and the costumes, sets and scenery are up to the standards of other films in the genre, although not given as much screentime as in other films. I found it to be an entertaining watch, and thought Chan and Li were right in their element, and really made the film stronger than it might have otherwise been. Eight Snifters out of ten from me.

You woke up the baby

In any other year, there’s a good chance that Hellboy 2 would have been my favourite movie of the year, and the best comic book adaptation. The fact that this year also blessed us with Dark Knight is desperately unfair to Guillermo Del Toro. Tolkien fans can be in good heart that the Hobbit is in safe hands, and more than Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy 2 is the film that proves it.

This is Guillermo’s Lord Of The Rings. Hellboy 2 carries the same air of melancholy, and of things passing that were so pervasive in Rings, and is such a large part of the appeal. I think it’s fair to say that Guillermo’s grasp of character driven fantasy will help him knock Hobbit out of the park.

The core cast is strong, and the characters in Hellboy 2 really come into their own this time out. Liz is given more to do this time, and it really bolsters the dynamic between her, Abe and Hellboy. The addition of Johann Kraus, voiced brilliantly by Jeremy Irons, also adds a great foil to Hellboy’s loose attitude. There were a couple of characters that didn’t entirely do it for me though. Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss, reminded me a little too much of Richard the goth from the IT Crowd, which made it harder to take him seriously – more a result of me bringing my own baggage to the film than any deficiency on the actor’s part. I also found Jeffrey Tambor’s character a tad too boorish in this instalment, which is a shame, because I really enjoyed him in the first film.

There is so much to love in this film. The fantasy world of the film is so incredibly imaginative. The characters’ motivations are clear and true to their personalities, not contrived and plot driven. The Golden Army is spectacularly rendered. All in all I highly recommend this film. I wasn’t in the best mood when I saw it, and I still loved it to death, whcih I think is a great acid test for a quality film. I give it nine Snifters out of a possible ten, and can’t wait to see it again. This is one of those films that you just can’t wait to own on DVD so you can enjoy it over and over at your leisure.

Cameo cream

Tropic Thunder has been out for a while in the States now, and opened here last week. By now most people will have seen it, but that still doesn’t mean that I’m going to spoil what I feel is the high point of the movie: an unpublicised role for one of today’s leading actors. The cat’s been out of the bag for a while, long before the movie came out, but the role is hilarious, and really should serve to rejuvenate this actor’s popularity. He literally had me doubled over in tears of laughter at one stage.

So how’s the rest of the film? Excellent. This is the stuff that Ben Stiller is made for. His schtick in films like the Focker movies and the Heartbreak Kid is really quite annoying, and done better by others – although it’s a formula I have no taste for anyway. When Stiller turns his hand to satire, he is razor sharp and merciless, and the result is brilliant. It’s no coincidence that Tropic Thunder, which skewers Stiller’s own entertainment industry, is the best work that he has done in years – since Zoolander definitely, and possibly the best thing he’s done, period.

Robert Downey Jr is having a good year, with Iron Man and now this film – I can’t comment on Charlie Bartlett, having not seen it. He’s hilarious, and it’s ironic that in order to parody a talented actor, he brings his own considerable acting talent to bear – just another reason why the film works so well.

The rest of the cast do well, but for me Downey and the unnamed actor really set the pace, and with something of an ensemble cast, they can’t all have that much to do.

Overall I rate this film eight Snifters out of ten. If all of Ben Stillers work (acting and directing) is going to be like this, then I might suddenly consider myself a fan.