When I first got word of the Fantastic Four making the transition from the comic pages to the big screen, I was only somewhat excited. I knew the basic story, but it wasn't something that I was overly anxious to see, despite the recent surge in comic book films. My interest level in the movie was piqued when I found out that the man who would be directing the film, Tim Story, is black. Story is the man behind the lens for both Barbershop movies, as well as the mildly amusing but completely unbelievable Taxi(Jimmy Fallon as a cop? Come on!! Gisele Bundchen as a bank robber? Give me a break!! Queen Latifah with a man??? Get the fuck outta here!!!!!) In this day and age, the revelation of the race of a film's director shouldn't be newsworthy, but we all know better. It's hard out here for a pimp, but it's even harder for black filmmakers to get opportunities to tackle projects outside of the requisite "urban films" which seem to recycle the same actors and plotlines over and over. Just how many black actors have to appear on the call sheet for a movie to be classified as "urban?" And how many times will Morris Chesnut and Gabrielle Union appear in a movie together? The world may never know......
At any rate, Fantastic Four premiered in the summer of 2005 and was received rather harshly. Critics didn't think that it measured up when compared to films with greater emotional depth such as Spider Man and Batman Begins. Fanboys had major issues with some of the casting decisions as well as the creative liberty taken with the origin of the film's chief villan. Nevertheless, FF tallied healthy box office receipts, which meant that a sequel was immiment. On a personal level, the movie wasn't as bad as some people made it out to be, and I was happy that Story was able to achieve a level of success, at least on a financial level, for such a big outing.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer picks up a while after the events of the first film. The first dysfunctional family of superheroes has moved up to a higher tax bracket, and they enjoy A- list celebrity status in the city of New York. The press is buzzing over the upcoming nuptuals between Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic(Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm/Invisible Woman(Jessica Alba). Johnny Storm/The Human Torch(Chris Evans) is still quite the ladies man, and Ben Grimm/The Thing(Michael Chiklis) has found a love of his own in the stunningly beautiful but visually challenged Alica Masters(Kerry Washington). *Side note #1:I know love and Alicia are blind, but at what point do you stop and wonder why the person you love is a hulking mass of rock?* Anyway, I digress. During all of this, there are areas of the world that are experiencing very unusual weather patterns, and General Hager(Andre Braugher) comes to Reed and company to try to get answers. We all find out that this is the result of the Silver Surfer, an intergalactic being who shows up on a cosmic surfboard, disrupts the wedding, and causes all kinds of chaos. As powerful as he is, the Surfer actually serves a higher power by the name of Galactus, who has to sustain his energy levels by destroying entire planets. Take that, global warming!!! The Surfer's job is to prep the planet for Galactus to show up and do his thing, and it's up to the FF to figure out what he's up to and how to stop him.
The trailers and TV spots seemed to indicate that this film would be several notches above the first in terms of plot, action, and character development, and in some ways, it was. The best thing this movie has going for it is the Silver Surfer, who was magically brought to life by Doug Jones, who has done equally good work in Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. There was a last minute change for the Surfer's voice, which was provided by Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne's melodic baritone really helps flesh out quite a bit of depth for the character, and when he glides above the stratosphere on his board, it really is a sight to behold. The rest of the movie, however, doesn't quite live up to the Surfer. Jessica Alba still seems out of her element as Sue Storm, but any excuse to put her in the body hugging blue suit is fine by me. *Side note #2:there's a scene where Alba and Washington share a tender moment, and I wanted to kick Tim Story square in the nuts for not taking advantage of the insane amount of hotness that emits from these two starlets. What I wouldn't give to have been in the director's chair that day* The Thing is played mostly for laughs, which is a shame, because there's a lot more to him that could have been presented to the audience. Julian McMahon returns as Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom, but his inclusion doesn't really add anything extra, and he still seems woefully miscast in the role, unable to really project the megalomaniac persona of the character. Everytime he was on screen, I felt the urge to schedule a rhinoplasty. Story also dropped the ball by choosing not to show Galactus as a physical being, which will send fans of the comic into a tizzy. There's a ton of product placement, one of the major ones being the Fantasticar, which was made by Dodge. I wonder if it's available for a test drive at the local dealership.
Rise of The Silver Surfer doesn't quite raise the bar for this franchise the way that X Men 2 did for that brand, but it doesn't come anywhere close to the levels of futility currently occupied by The Punisher and Daredevil. At it's core, FF is more light hearted than some of the other comic book film offerings. The fact that the heroes don't have to conceal their identities from the public frees them of the pressure and burdens that characters like Spider Man have to deal with. Finally, the 90 minute run time guarantees that it doesn't overstay its welcome. Overall, I give the movie 2 and a half stars.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Avast ye mateys!
Back in 2003, nobody expected much of anything from a film called Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of the Black Pearl. After all, the movie was based on a Disney theme park ride, and the last film to follow that model(The Country Bears) was a disaster. Add to that the fact that pirate genre was pretty much dead in the water(no pun intended), and you had all the makings of a colossal flop. Then the unexpected happened: the movie was good. You had a brisk, fast paced script peppered with lots of humor, and some very good CGI, but the one element that made the whole thing work was the character of Captain Jack Sparrow, played masterfully by Johnny Depp. Word has it that studio heads were expecting a brave, daring type of swashbuckler, never afraid to stare danger and death in the face, but were aghast at what they got: a loopy, somewhat sexually ambiguous type of character who would just as soon run than fight. Depp's gamble turned out to be the film's saving grace, and he even earned an Oscar nomination. The film earned more that $400 million worldwide and sparked a renewed interest in adventures on the high seas.
As with any movie that does much better than unexpected, Hollywood was very eager to give audience a follow up to this one, but one thing that may have worked against them was that since nobody expected the film to do well, the idea of a sequel was never throughly planned out. When it came time to film the sequel, Dead Man's Chest, director Gore Verbinski threw in a lot more than should have been. DMC opened to less than steller reviews in the summer of 2006. Much of the light hearted banter was missing from the script, and Captain Jack seemed to be off a step;nevertheless, the movie still posted a $132 million dollar opening weekend and left fans with one hell of a cliffhanger, which now brings us to the trifecta of this saga: At World's End.
When we last left off, the crew of the Black Pearl, led by Will Turner(Orlando Bloom, who is contractually obligated to only appear in movies where he fights with a sword) and Elizabeth Swann(Keira Knightly) decided to sail to the ends of the earth to rescue Jack Sparrow, who, along with the Pearl, was dragged down to an otherwordly place known as Davy Jones Locker. To accomplish this feat, they required the assistance of the once thought dead Captain Barbosa(Geoffery Rush), who was brought back to life by the soothsayer Tia Dalma(Naomie Harris), whose true identity is a key point of the film. The murderous Davy Jones(Bill Nighy) and his barnacled crew is now under the command of the East India Trading comany, led by Lord Cutler Beckett(Tom Hollander) who is using Jones to rid the world of all pirates. But wait, there's more. It turns out that all the pirate lords of the world have been summoned to a big meeting to decide the course of action that will ultimately determine their fate. There's lots of expositional dialouge about The Bretheren Court, nine pieces of eight, and things of that nature. But wait, there's more. Everybody in this film seems to have their own agenda, and there are so many double crosses, it's hard to tell who is on whose side. Will Turner makes a back alley deal with the pirate lord Sao Feng(a woefully undersused Chow Yun Fat) to keep a promise to a close relative, Feng is double crossed by the EITC, and Sparrow ends up making one deal after another to try to keep his own hide of out as much trouble as possible.
Jack Sparrow gets back to being his usual nutty self, especially during his time in Davy Jones Locker, which is somewhat like purgatory. The film also benefits from the return of Barbosa, and Rush brings much flavor to whatever scene he's in. There's also the much talked about cameo by Rolling Stones band member Keith Richards, who plays Jack Sparrow's father, Captain Teague. Rumor has it that Depp used Richards as a template for the character of Sparrow. We all know that Richards hasn't been right in the head for a while now, so there may be some truth to that. Knightley gets quite a bit to do in this third installment, and her character really gets to shine at times. Sadly, we don't get much of Governor Weatherbee Swann(Jonathan Pryce) or James Norrington(Jack Davenport), but Stellen Skarsgard get to play a key part as Bootstrap Bill Turner.
At an ass numbing 2 hours and 45 minutes, everything and the kitchen sink has been thrown in for what's presumed to be the final chapter in this saga. The film ends with a hint of a part 4, but at the same time, it's closed ended enough for this one to be the end. Overall, I give it 3 stars.
As with any movie that does much better than unexpected, Hollywood was very eager to give audience a follow up to this one, but one thing that may have worked against them was that since nobody expected the film to do well, the idea of a sequel was never throughly planned out. When it came time to film the sequel, Dead Man's Chest, director Gore Verbinski threw in a lot more than should have been. DMC opened to less than steller reviews in the summer of 2006. Much of the light hearted banter was missing from the script, and Captain Jack seemed to be off a step;nevertheless, the movie still posted a $132 million dollar opening weekend and left fans with one hell of a cliffhanger, which now brings us to the trifecta of this saga: At World's End.
When we last left off, the crew of the Black Pearl, led by Will Turner(Orlando Bloom, who is contractually obligated to only appear in movies where he fights with a sword) and Elizabeth Swann(Keira Knightly) decided to sail to the ends of the earth to rescue Jack Sparrow, who, along with the Pearl, was dragged down to an otherwordly place known as Davy Jones Locker. To accomplish this feat, they required the assistance of the once thought dead Captain Barbosa(Geoffery Rush), who was brought back to life by the soothsayer Tia Dalma(Naomie Harris), whose true identity is a key point of the film. The murderous Davy Jones(Bill Nighy) and his barnacled crew is now under the command of the East India Trading comany, led by Lord Cutler Beckett(Tom Hollander) who is using Jones to rid the world of all pirates. But wait, there's more. It turns out that all the pirate lords of the world have been summoned to a big meeting to decide the course of action that will ultimately determine their fate. There's lots of expositional dialouge about The Bretheren Court, nine pieces of eight, and things of that nature. But wait, there's more. Everybody in this film seems to have their own agenda, and there are so many double crosses, it's hard to tell who is on whose side. Will Turner makes a back alley deal with the pirate lord Sao Feng(a woefully undersused Chow Yun Fat) to keep a promise to a close relative, Feng is double crossed by the EITC, and Sparrow ends up making one deal after another to try to keep his own hide of out as much trouble as possible.
Jack Sparrow gets back to being his usual nutty self, especially during his time in Davy Jones Locker, which is somewhat like purgatory. The film also benefits from the return of Barbosa, and Rush brings much flavor to whatever scene he's in. There's also the much talked about cameo by Rolling Stones band member Keith Richards, who plays Jack Sparrow's father, Captain Teague. Rumor has it that Depp used Richards as a template for the character of Sparrow. We all know that Richards hasn't been right in the head for a while now, so there may be some truth to that. Knightley gets quite a bit to do in this third installment, and her character really gets to shine at times. Sadly, we don't get much of Governor Weatherbee Swann(Jonathan Pryce) or James Norrington(Jack Davenport), but Stellen Skarsgard get to play a key part as Bootstrap Bill Turner.
At an ass numbing 2 hours and 45 minutes, everything and the kitchen sink has been thrown in for what's presumed to be the final chapter in this saga. The film ends with a hint of a part 4, but at the same time, it's closed ended enough for this one to be the end. Overall, I give it 3 stars.
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