Category: Film

Monsters vs Aliens

Monsters vs Aliens
Monsters vs Aliens

At long last I finally caught Monsters vs Aliens yesterday. I was hoping to take my little cousin to see it about a month back, but she had already been invited to see it for a classmate’s birthday and we ended up seeing 17 Again instead.

As with every major cartoon these days, the voice “talent” is impressive. Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen and Kiefer Sutherland amongst others in this case. The only problem I had with the voices were that their synchronisation seemed a little off with the mouth movements in the earlier scenes. Visually it’s up there with most other films of this ilk, though Witherspoon’s character Susan/Ginormica seems to be built like a Barbie doll – all legs and no torso.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Army secretly hordes monsters. Aliens invade. Monsters are granted their freedom if they destroy the aliens.

There are plenty of cookie characters to please the kids, and a lot of slapstick. Explosions and destruction is as prevalent as in a mid-budget Michael Bay offering. The plot’s about as complicated as any large summer event film, as well. What sparkled for me, though, were the subtle jokes and references that most kids won’t get.

Without giving a spoiler, watch for the missile with “ET GO HOME” written on it. Listen very carefully and you’ll hear a few bars from that film’s title music in the background.

Overall, it was fun but not a classic. Given this came from the same stable as Shrek (see if you can spot a very small cameo appearance from him!), I was expecting a little better but I have no major complaints. It was certainly an entertaining 90 minutes.

Oh, and don’t leave too early. After the first 60 seconds or so of the credits, there’s an extra scene!

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Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek
Star Trek (2009)

Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming. Hollywood have finally taken something old, turned it into something new and – somehow – made it utterly freaking awesome at the same time. Star Trek has to be the single best “reboot” (I bloody hate that phrase) of any franchise so far. By a country mile. And then some.

Plot in a nutshell: Imagine a kind of Star Trek: Origins with some lovely tweaks and you’re there. If you don’t know the history of Star Trek, find a spotty person with no friends at a convention. They’ll be happy enough to spend the rest of your life explaining it to you.

What makes it so good? Well, pretty much everything. The story’s well done. The characters are as familiar as they could be… and yet subtly changed just enough so they don’t appear their old, dated selves. The cast are superb – Karl Urban could be DeForest Kelly and Zachary Quinto is the perfect Spock. The dialogue’s awesome – there’s a “phasers to stun”, a couple of “live long and prosper“s and a “dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a physicist!” Sadly there’s a lack of “She cannatak it” from Scotty, but we’ll forgive them that one. It comes close.

Above all, it’s damn entertaining. The humour level is spot on and the effects are bang up to date without being the focus of the film. What I think I liked most, though, is that we already know the characters. What we’re seeing is the formation of a team that most over-30s have a great knowledge of. Finally we’re seeing exactly how they came together – or one version of it. The plot allows the creative team and the scriptwriters to tinker with previous versions, but they’ve done so subtly.

I will be amazed if they can follow this with a sequel even half as good. I know I’ve thrown a lot of hyperbole your way, but believe me I was grinning like a loon after the first 15 minutes (the opening sequence isn’t exactly humourous). I didn’t even punch crap out of the two idiots next to me who kept repeating bits of the dialogue and pointing out the characters to each other. I must have been immersed.

See it. If you’re a sci-fi fan or Trekker/Trekkie then please just go if you’ve not already got a ticket. If you’re not a fan, go see it anyway. If this doesn’t convert you then nothing will.

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Merantau

OK, random blog posting title. Merantau is the name of a film from Indonesia due to be released there in autumn this year. I just watched the trailer and it looks amazing. If you like Tony Jaa and the like, then definitely check it out and keep your eyes open for it. It’s in Indonesian but the trailer has English subtitles so I assume it’ll have an international release as well.

I just realised that Ong Bak 2 is finally out as well. Off for a dig for that…

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X Men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The fourth of the recent X-Men films, Wolverine takes a step back in time to fill in some gaps from X2. There are no great surprises for anyone who’s read the comics and there’s really not a lot of plot. More a sequence of set pieces and shots of Hugh Jackman looking to the heavens and roaring. Or squealing in his earlier incarnations.

Some characters such as Stryker, who appeared in earlier films (though set later in Logan’s life) are played by different actors but on the whole, the cast is OK. The special effects are pretty good in most places, which important as there’s very little else in the film to get excited about. Except maybe Mr Jackman in the buff (yes, Leah, I’m looking at you).

Plot-in-a-nutshell: young boy growing up discovers that he and his brother both have mutant powers. They run away, grow up and one goes bad. He hunts for the good one so the army can “help” him and they meet other mutants on the way.

No spoilers, but anyone who’s remotely familiar with the comics will know the story anyway. My main quibble is fanboy related. We all know Wolverine gets his invulnerability from Adamantium being bonded to his skeleton. We see the procedure in the film (and briefly in X2). Needles go in, squirty-squirty, out comes the superhero.

So if all they’ve done is plate his skeleton, how come his bony claws turn into sharp knives? Shouldn’t they just be shiny bony claws?

But I digress. The film’s entertaining enough for its running time, but it’s a little like X3 – all eye candy and little plot. The final battle scene has some rather nice destructions in it along the scale of the Golden Gate Bridge being ripped up but after all’s said and done there’s a lot more story in the X-Men canon that could have been used.

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District 9

Tell me this doesn’t look like a rather awesome film. “Presented By” Peter Jackson and by a first-time feature film director, Neill Blomkamp, the visuals look superb and the trailer’s simply intriguing. District 9 is due out in mid-August. Definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye out for.

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