D.O.A. at the Movies: Maze Runner

Maze Runner

I watched all the clips of The Maze Runner movie, and follow the Maze Runner Trilogy and the author James Dashner on Facebook.  I had a few concerns going into the film:

I didn’t like that Teresa and Thomas couldn’t speak telepathically, though in retrospect I can see where that complicates things in a two hour movie.

 

From the clips, I didn’t think I’d like the actor playing Thomas, he seemed kind of gravelly voiced and flat.  In fact, Dylan O’Brien as Thomas completely nailed Thomas and his confusion as he entered the Glade and it’s world, and he had the honesty and vulnerability of Thomas in the book, so I was really pleased.

I really liked the portrayals of Alby, Newt, Minho, Chuck and Gally.

I didn’t care for the Teresa character, but having read the entire book series, I think I just don’t like her as a character so I was swayed by that.

I would like to have seen more time spent on the really well organized society the boys created.  More time could have been spent in the Maze itself.

The way out of the Maze and the final battle there was way cooler in the book, and I think they should have stuck with that.

Since they were varying from the book in so many places, they could have altered Chuck’s fate, right?  Sometimes the film version can have a happier ending than the book.

Filming is already set for the sequel : The Scorch Trials to come out in late 2015.  That was a great adventure, and I can’t wait to see how they bring it to the screen.

Saturday Night at the Movies: Man of Steel

Superman is my all time favorite super hero.  Those are the first comics I collected, buying them for ten cents apiece from a drugstore rack.

To my teen self he was handsome, he was romantic (though I always preferred Lana Lang over Lois Lane), and he always triumphed over the bad guys.  His heart was huge enough to encompass all humanity.  He was clever and always outwitted even the most brilliant opponents.

Superman had two sets of loving parents.  There was a terrible sadness inherent in his life at the loss of Jorel and Lara, and then Jonathan Kent.  The man who can do anything can't have what he loves most.

The Fortress of Solitude!  A place to go when he just needed to be alone and think or contemplate or solve some problem.  Everyone needs such a place.

Krypto and Supergirl!  Two beings who were like him, relieving the intense loneliness of being of a different people than the ones here who he loved and protected.

In this movie Clark is bullied throughout his life, the guy who is too gentle to fight back.  He lives drifting from low paying job to low paying job.

In his past is Kevin Kostner as a gruff laborer who does not accept Clark's abilities and he demands he hide them.  He wants Clark to stay his hand and not save others who are in danger, even himself, just to hide who Clark is. 

Ten seasons of Smallville's John Schneider, a warm, loving man who sought to protect his adopted son, but who always guided Clark to do the right thing, to make the choices that helped others even at the risk of exposing Clark's identity, that is the core of Jonathan Kent's character.  A generous decent man representing a humanity worth saving.

Martha Kent played by Diane Lane?  A straggly beaten down woman.  A fit mate for Costner's Jonathan but not the emotional core of warmth, strength and goodness that is Martha Kent.

Theoretically they did this because....?  They wanted to emphasize the otherness of Superman.  So Jorel and Lara and Krypton (which was awesome) get more screen time.  

Jorel as played by Russell Crowe is smart, swashbuckling, incredibly wise, and the man has a bright vision of Kal as someone who can lead the human race to greatness, even as his own world crumbles.

He has love enough for his son to send him away with the key to a future Kryptonian race embedded in his small body. Jorel is able to appear on earth to help guide his son intellectually, morally, strategically.

Enter General Zod, escaped from the Phantom Zone with his crew of evil unfeeling cohorts.  Bent on destroying Kal in revenge for his being imprisoned, and determined to harvest the future of Krypton from Kal's dead body.  Because that is what he was bred to do.

Lois Lane.  I've never liked her since my early comics days.  Selfish, nothing in her tiny head but getting the next story.  Played by many actresses in various repellent ways as befits the character.  Supposedly Superman is drawn to her beauty and bravery.   Only Teri Hatcher on Lois and Clark has made her appealing.

Until now, in a real surprise to me, Amy Adams plays a strong, determined Lois who is warm, loving, accessible.  Who you want to root for not smack.  She was able to be what Diane Lane's Martha was not, an embodiment of all that can be right with humanity.  She reaches out to this lonely, sweet super being and represents something worth saving at any cost. 

Henry Cavill as Superman is a surprisingly vulnerable person, determined to do the right thing just as he should be.  When he tells a general he is an American, and he grew up in Kansas, for heaven's sakes, we know he is in truth as much one of us as he is that other alien species represented badly by Zod.

All in all, a better reboot than I expected from previews.  I think they have a solid ground to build on.  Will we see Jorel again?    Why not send Zod back to the Phantom Zone with his cohorts instead of the old "snap"?  Let's have lots more of Laurence Fishburne's Perry White.   Rebuild the Kent farm so it doesn't look like it is so broken down, yech.

Saturday Night At The Movies: Oz the Great and Powerful

I finally got around to watching Oz the Great and Powerful.  I hadn't seen it in theaters because I didn't like James Franco as the lead and the "romantic storyline" emphasized in trailers really did not seem like the Wonderful Land of Oz.

The plot has small time carnival player Oz schmoozing his way through performances with a new young woman frequently playing the part of an audience member who assists him in his tricks.  He gives them a pep talk before the show and "his grandmother's music box" (of which he has a seemingly endless supply in his pockets) to show how captivated by them he is.

A show goes awry when a little girl in a wheelchair asks him to fix her legs so she can walk again.  She believes in him, she says.  Stopped mid-speel, he is a bit annoyed and hasn't a quick and slick answer for her except no.  The audience, filled with an unusual amount of rowdy and disbelieving farmers, demands that Oz help her.

As they toss objects at him, he flees the stage, only to have the circus strongman chase him as well on behalf of another circus performer (his wife) lovingly holding a music box.

Safe for a moment in his wagon he is visited by a girl who he has more than the usual connection with, but he fobs her off with his tale of dreams of being a Great Man rather than a Good Man.

In crashes the Stongman, Oz disappears through an escape hole in the floor and he's off to climb into a beautiful balloon with Oz emblazoned on it.  Cue the tornado to whirl him to Oz.

Landing in Oz, he is met almost immediately by a beautiful woman in a red velvet hat and jacket with tight black leather pants.  As quickly as you can say Anachronism the movie has problems. 

Doe-eyed Theodora, a witch who seems knowing yet helpless, falls for Oz immediately and plans to be his queen.  Our slick showman is happy to produce a music box and dance the night away with her, but of course he has no attachment.

Off to the Emerald City which has been watched over by Theodora's blatantly evil sister Evanora since the tragic death of the former Wizard King.

 

The Land of Oz does have some wonders to behold.  Colors are sharp and practically scream look here, look here.

The first view of the Emerald City, done with technology that should be wondrously advanced since 1939 looks like a cheap backdrop painting.  Once in the city, you just see the throne room, no tour on the way to the palace to take in the beautiful city as seen for the first time through the eyes of newcomer Oz.

Later as he is finishing a tour given by Evanora you see the city at night from a height and it looks huge and complex.  It just isn't the introduction to this place which is the heart of Oz that it should have been.  

The great wonder that captivates our showman is a treasure room full of gold and jewels.  It is the contemplation of having this treasure that motivates our con man to leave the city at night, flying monkey companion Finlay in tow, to kill the "evil" witch Glinda.

The illusions Oz produces with the help of "tinkers" are really a great bit of showmanship, worthy of a humbug wizard.    I liked the explanation for how Oz became a face in a cloud manifest, seen by few.

The only person Franco has any chemistry with in the film is the China Girl.  I don't know why but in every scene he has with her, he is warm and charming and he connects to another human being, even though she is made of china. 

Saturday Night at the Movies: It's ALWAYS a Good Day to Die Hard!

We went to see A Good Day to Die Hard last night.  Despite reviews from critics (aka The Bozo Patrol) we knew we would like any Die Hard movie.   From the franchise one and three are our favorites.  

This installment has John McClane heading off to Russia to get his boy out of jail.  Time to warm up the explosions!  He arrives to "rescue" John Jr. right in the middle of a complicated attempt from an opposing faction to extract political prisoner Yuri Kamarov from a trial.  As the explosions begin John rushes in and tries to save his kid.  His kid, who turns out to be CIA is supposed to grab the prisoner and run to safety with him. 

Yipee Ki-Yay, like that goes well.   Soon John Jr. and the political prisoner are off on a fantastic chase scene through the streets of Moscow with bad guys (aka Scumbags) chasing in an armored vehicle and John Sr. chasing them in some sort of Jeep like truck.

Jack (aka John Jr.) apparently detests dear old dad, and his interference here doesn't help.  Soon father and son are working to get the Russian prisoner and his secret files out of the country.  I must say Jack takes a beating and you can feel his pain, while John is there all bloody and beaten and looking like he's rested and ready to hit the beach.

I didn't care for Jai Courtney who plays Jack in the previews but he turns out to be a perfect son for hard ass John.  He even calls him dad in a dire moment.  Then claims he didn't say that at all. Wouldn't be cool for a McClane man, nooo.

My favorite scene is at a safe house where the baddies break in and Jack and Yuri duck and dodge while John stands there blasting away with a gun.  Mr. Unstoppable.

Bust a move, guys!

John Carter (of Mars)

I went into the film not expecting too much given the varying reviews and my impression from trailers.

What a great movie. I just loved it. It had action, adventure, sense of wonder, and romance!




It follows a civil war captain named John Carter as he is recruited by the the local fort to help fight Apaches. His stellar war record makes him seem key to the local efforts.

While he was off doing heroic deeds in the Civil war, his family suffered and he has vowed not to take part in someone else's wars again. He wants to find gold and get rich and that is it.




As he is caught in a fight between soldiers and natives he rescues the man he had just fought to escape and they find safe temporary harbor in a cave. The cave is all John has been looking for and more. It is filled with gold and strange spider symbols. Out of nowhere, a man materializes and attacks John. John shoots him and grabs an amulet from the dying man who is muttering something in an unknown language.

Suddenly John is lying on his back in a very strange desert. Things only get stranger as he finds he can (after many stumbles and hard landings) jump very high and very long distances.

He comes upon a nest of hatching squalling eggs with bizarre green creatures coming forth. Unfortunately for John, the guardians of the eggs, the Tharks, arrive in all of their tall green four armed glory.




He becomes a pawn among these creatures who wish to use him to fight their enemies. John doesn't take to being recruited by these creatures any better than he liked being railroaded by the soldiers on earth.

Enter Deja Thoris, drop dead gorgeous, guns blazing from her amazing airship, swords ready when she is shot down. John can't help but go to her aid and soon they are fighting side by side.




This tale of a planet torn by strife plays out wonderfully. Grand battles, incredible feats of strength and daring leaps by our hero. The villains are almost likeable in some cases--I felt a bit sorry for Sab Than, also a pawn of sorts in the grand scheme of the calmly evil Therns.




I really liked having Edgar Rice Burroughs as Carter's nephew Ned frame the story. He was such a good kid, and well deserving of his uncle's fortune and trust.




The ending left plenty of room for a sequel, which I'd love to see asap.

See a good movie, get the good trailers! Tons of good upcoming trailers: Prometheus looks action packed, Madagascar 3!!!!!!!! You got to move it move it....and The Avengers looks just TOO GOOD.

D.O.A. at the Movies: Descendants

I have a shiny new movie buddy so we went to see Descendants yesterday afternoon since there was absolutely nothing else out I wanted to see.

The story is Matthew King (George Clooney who has been an unlikeable heel in my book since his role in ER) has a wife in the hospital who is in a coma after an accident. He has two wild and ill behaved daughters (one ten, one seventeen) that he can't quite cope with.

The he finds out that his wife has no brain activity/response etc and she has an Advanced Directive that demands they pull the plug in such a situation. While trying to cope with this and figure out how to tell family and friends, his older daughter lets him know that she wasn't getting along with mom because mom was having an affair.




What follows is a slow acceptance of his wife's imminent death and a determination to meet the man she was having an affair with face to face, both to tell him off and to give the man a chance to see his wife a last time.

Characterization was really well done for every character, especially George. He was perhaps clueless about the workings of his family but he struggled to do the right thing by his daughters and friends and ultimately his wife.

I'm used to action packed films so the very slow pace of this movie was a bit hard for me. I do think they could have cut out at least a half hour of the film that they spent sloooowly panning over the landscape of Hawaii, the flowers, and George's face in closeup. His acting was very fine, but not that fine.

I cringed when they put the wife's ashes in that beautiful, pristine Hawaiian water.

One of the things I love about going to the movies is seeing previews. The previews for this one were all just terrible looking movies. Ack. Could not say what a single one was but they were theoretically touchy feely character driven films.

D.O.A.'s Two Second Movie Reviews

I've been working my way through my DVD collection and it is summertime, my favorite movie season, so here in very brief are my thoughts on the films I'm watching.

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Made with Make Beliefs Comix

Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time

From the few reviews I read before going to see the movie, I expected it to be pretty badly done. Still, if you grew up watching every Science Fiction "B" movie you could as I did, you'd expect to like the film anyway. Your enjoyment of films, as with anything in life, wil be dependent on what you bring to it. I bring with me a huge love of adventure, fantasy, and good story.

I thought Prince of Persia was wonderful. It had elements of Arabian Nights stories and films, and it was true to the game world from which it came. Some games don't adapt well to other mediums. I think this film has all the elements that are enjoyable in the games, but the world is deeper and richer, and more time is spent on character.

The basic story: a street rat is brought to live as a son of the king after the king witnesses the boy rescuing another boy with great flair and acrobatic derring do. Dustan enjoys a good life with his family and is loved by his father and brothers.

When they are grown and on the road, they get word that the holy city of Alamut is making and selling swords to their enemy. They conquer the city and Dastan comes into possession of a dagger which can turn back time one minute. Having this does not stop his father from being murdered and Dastan getting blamed. Soon he is on the run from his own people with the princess Tamina in tow.

As they flee, Tamina reveals there is more than just the dagger at stake, and they must return to Alamut before the invading forces find the secret beneath the city that can stop time altogether.

I found Jake Gyllenhaal to be a fine Prince. If you've ever played the games, he is just the sort of easy going, smart talking character that I'd expect. He handled the amazing leaps and bounds across rooftops and along walls in pure princely fashion. He was charming with the princess and their banter was alot of fun.

The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is full of action and romance but I also really liked the emphasis on family, honor and doing the right thing.