Thor

Prometheus

This ain’t gonna be my best review, cuz I wasn’t feelin’ it. Glad to have that disclaimer outta the way.

I don’t care about the backstory of Prometheus.  I know it’s the latest effort by the acclaimed Ridley Scott (American Gangster), but other than that I know nothing about it.  I later discovered that it was intended as a prequel to the Alien franchise, Scott’s hit science fiction offering starring Sigourney Weaver as a space traveler who becomes infected/possessed by an alien.  I wasn’t particularly intrigued by the trailer, but the buzz around Prometheus began to swell, so I thought – why not check it out? The cast looked good, if nothing else.  I’m a fan of Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Charlize Theron (Hancock), and Idris Elba (Thor).  Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) was another noteworthy addition.

Rapace stars as Elizabeth Shaw, one of a cadre of intergalactic space travelers who are heading across the galaxy in a quest to uncover the secrets of the universe.  She is joined by Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green, Devil), who shares her rabid curiosity.  In total there are about seven or eight crew members, and their ship is piloted by Elba’s character Janek.  After landing on a foreign planet, two members of the crew discover a mysterious black goo.  They also learn that the human race descended from some early alien species bearing slight resemblance to humans now, only much larger.  Elizabeth is fascinated by the idea of learning about the inception of humanity and wants badly to know who or what created the human race and why.  They think the key to learning this will be instrumental in helping their home planet.  Elizabeth’s curiosity is premised on the idea that we were created by benevolent beings for a meaningful purpose.  This reminded me of the tenets of Christianity, as Christians believe that they were created with love by God in His own image.  However, the crew soon learns that our distant intergalactic ancestors were not so magnanimous in their creation of mankind.  When they encounter one in their exploration, he seems like he doesn’t appreciate being disturbed.  Meanwhile, the two members of the crew that discovered the black substance have been infected by it.  One is dead and the other barely alive.  Charlize Theron’s character is the leader of the crew, and she refuses to let the infected member return to their ship.  Unbeknownst to her, Elizabeth has also been infected, much like Sigourney Weaver was in the previous Aliens movie.  Elizabeth manages to oust the creature from her body, but it is still contained on the ship.

That was a very basic plot synopsis.  I really don’t know what else to say about Prometheus, other than I didn’t care for it.  It was not a bad movie, but it just didn’t do anything for me.  I probably got some of the finer points of the plot incorrect; but it doesn’t really matter, it’s close enough.  I was drawn in the by cast, and I did find them capable – but that was about it.  I asked others what they enjoyed about the film and they mentioned Noomi Rapace’s resilience.  I agree that her character was a strong one, and I do think she is a wonderful actress.  However, it wasn’t enough to say that the movie was ‘good.’  Charlize Theron’s role was almost entirely inconsequential.  No big deal.  Neither was Idris Elba.  His American accent was horrible.  I should have listened to my first instinct and avoided this movie, mainly because Sci-Fi movies are not my preferred genre.  I don’t like the average Sci-Fi movie; I only enjoy the very high concept ones like Inception or Avatar.  I usually give letter grades for movies, but I think I should abstain in this case, because it wasn’t a bad movie; I just didn’t care for it.  Remember those pass/fail classes you took in college, where no letter grade was given, you simply just pass or fail?  Prometheus gets a pass.

Snow White & The Huntsman

You have probably noticed as I have, that occasionally Hollywood releases the same types of movies at the same time.  For example, in 2010 there was Knight & Day and Killers, two very similar movies released within a month of each other.   There are other examples, but the most recent would be earlier this season when both Disney’s Mirror Mirror (starring Julia Roberts) and Universal’s Snow White & The Huntsman were released.  The former looked like children’s fare, while the latter appeared to put a different, darker twist on the classic fairy tale.  I was also drawn in by the cast, which included blonde beauties Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers) and Charlize Theron (Hancock).

Theron stars as Ravenna, the evil queen that we’re all familiar with.  In the movie she is both beautiful and cunning, a narcissist who will stop at nothing to maintain her beauty.  Kristen Stewart (Twilight) is Snow White, princess of a thriving kingdom.  When she is just a young girl her mother dies, leaving Snow White and her father behind.  Distraught and vulnerable after his immense loss, the King falls prey to the to the beauty of a prisoner his men encounter on a sojourn in the woods.  He marries the beguiling dame, thus making her queen of his kingdom.  The honeymoon is over almost instantly, and the new queen reveals her true motives.  She murders the king, drawing youth and beauty from the taking of another life.  She banishes Snow White, imprisoning her within the castle walls.  Everyone thinks she is dead, and years go by.  The once thriving kingdom has grown black and joyless.  Every day the Queen asks her “mirror” who is the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.  One day it tells her that another has emerged who is more beautiful.  It is Snow White, and her life is in danger.  She has supplanted her nemesis, a woman who views beauty as power and will stop at nothing to keep it.  Each life taken by the Queen restores and freshens her beauty and youth, ensuring that she is the fairest in the land.  Her mother instilled in her at a young age the importance of her beauty, and now there is a sort of supernatural force enabling her.  Snow White gets wind of the Queen’s plans for her and escapes into the Enchanted Forest.  Unable to retrieve her, the Queen enlists the help of the Huntsman, played by Chris Hemsworth.  This guy might end up being typecast as the big brawny hero in all of his movies, because other than Thor I don’t know what else he can do.  Oh well, there’s nothing wrong with using your physical attributes in character portrayals. If he’s capable of greater thespian feats, I’m sure we’ll see it eventually.  Dispatched by the Queen to capture Snow White, The Huntsman intends to follow her orders but changes his mind when he meets Snow White and has cause to question the Queen’s motives.  He ends up protecting her, and they navigate the Enchanted Forest together, along with the dwarves they have befriended.  The longer Snow White lives, the weaker the Queen becomes – because Snow White threatens her beauty and thereby her vitality.  The Queen’s true age is beginning to show and she will stop at nothing to remain eternally beautiful.

That’s the basic plot of the movie, which for the most part was very good.  I’ll admit that my eyelids got heavy at one point, but I attribute that to the warm weather and a momentary lull in the action.  Snow White and The Huntsman spent a lot of inconsequential time in the woods, and it was at that point that I nodded off briefly.  I enjoyed the movie, because I appreciated the more independent, warrior-like dimension they added to the classic character.  Snow White was not a helpless damsel in distress; she was a princess who fought for her kingdom fearlessly.  The Queen was a more complex villain, and Charlize Theron is so beautiful that her natural attributes lent themselves perfectly to the storyline.   Was it the best movie of the season?  Of course not, but Snow White & The Huntsman made for an enjoyable day at the movies. Grade: B+


 


The Avengers

My mom reads my reviews, so I’ll censor myself a bit for this one.  Suffice it to say that the excitement I feel when I see a good movie trailer is akin to the adrenaline that coursed through the veins of the women who used to throw their panties on stage at Marvin Gaye et al.  When I saw The Avengers trailer, I didn’t throw my panties at the movie screen.  But I could have.  Oh yeah, I wanted to.

This is my favorite movie going time of the year.  The Oscar movies tend to come out some time in the fall, but it’s the summer (and early spring) that gives us the popcorn fare we love.  There was no question I’d be front and center for The Avengers, even if I couldn’t swing the midnight showing.  The excitement in my theater was nearly palpable, and we were all in for a treat.  If you’ve seen Iron Man, The Hulk, or Thor – you’ll at least be somewhat familiar with these Marvel mainstays.  The movie begins with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, Meeting Evil), head of S.H.I.E.L.D., a covert government organization charged with protecting American interests on domestic and global levels.   It picks up where Thor left off, as Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth, The Cabin in the Woods) nefarious brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston, War Horse) has obtained the tesseract, an otherworldly energy source that can destroy the planet.  He wants to harness its power and bring humanity to its knees, enslaving the populace.  Fury knows that he can’t stop Loki on his own, after witnessing him take out an entire room of armed security forces.  His first call is to the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, We Bought a Zoo), a spy who is already in the fold.  The other members of the team will require varying degrees of persuasion.  Starks (Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) is in.  Thor comes forward of his own volition to battle his brother and fellow Asgardian.  Captain America (Chris Evans, What’s Your Number?) is a soldier who is accustomed to taking orders and as such, requires the least prodding.  Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, The Kids are All Right) is the most reluctant of the bunch, as he’s spent the better part of a year trying to keep his cool.  Rounding out the group is Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner, MI: 4), a recently rogue agent who was temporarily under Loki’s powerful spell.  Hawkeye and Black Widow are a tandem, bound by a shared mysterious past.  The movie highlights each hero’s skillset, and by the end they have accepted the values of teamwork and cooperation while forming an unbreakable bond.

The plot wasn’t terribly important, and it’s about what you’d expect: good guys unite to defeat the bad guy, whose wish list includes the subjugation of all mankind.  Some have an issue with the simplified plot, but I don’t.  I mean, it’s always a variation of the same theme.  I didn’t have a problem with the plot but I did have an issue with Loki’s reasoning that humanity’s natural desire is to be enslaved.  Quite the contrary, humans have an innate desire for freedom – so I thought writer Joss Wheedon could have tweaked that element a bit more.  It’s my only very minor criticism in a movie that was otherwise perfect.  What I enjoyed most about the movie was the interplay between each superhero.  Each character in his/her own right is capable of saving humanity, but it will take a concerted effort to defeat a foe as formidable as Loki, who has enlisted an entire interplanetary army to help him.  There was a natural chemistry among all the actors, and I can tell they genuinely had fun making this movie.

The Avengers succeeded where other superhero movies have failed.  Just because a movie is family-friendly does not mean that it has to be corny.  Spiderman 3 was horribly cheesy, and Superman Returns was equally bad, for similar reasons.  There has to be a middle ground between the darkness that Christopher Nolan brings to the Batman franchise and the corniness of those two aforementioned movies.  I believe The Avengers had the right balance of heft and fluff, if that makes sense.  It wasn’t all smiles and sunshine, as Black Widow has a shady past, Captain America is woefully out of touch, Thor is dealing with the worst form of sibling rivalry, Hawkeye needs redemption, and The Hulk is just trying not to spazz out.  The dialogue and interplay between characters was well worth the price of admission.  I think people should refrain from superlatives though.  This was not the best superhero movie ever made.  As long as Batman is still considered a superhero, that distinction remains with The Dark Knight.  That being said, The Avengers is a must-see summer blockbuster.  Grade: A+