Game Over, Ender

I was eating at an Indian Buffet the other day and overheard some folks who had gone to see Ender's Game - the main one talking was a true fan who was measuring the movie against the book. Now, I read Ender's Game some time back but I wouldn't want to be quizzed on it. Besides, the real question regarding any movie adapted from a book ought to be does it work on the screen - not "was it faithful to every detail of the book."  Ender's Game works, but not as good as a should have.

Harrison Ford starring in 'Grumpy Old Men Go to Space'

This weekend we went to go see it for ourselves (in IMAX, no 3D for this one although I think it would have worked well given all the zero G possibilities) and I'm fairly certain that most of the key elements of the novel were covered. There have been others that have already noted some striking similarities to other sci-fi classics including:

• Various aliens as bugs motifs (which is odd given there are far more insects on Earth than humans so maybe all the aliens ought to look like us)
• Jet flying into the mothership (and central control of drone ships from it)
• Harrison Ford (doing anything - he is becoming a cliche)

The film is visually striking and the pace is well metered throughout most of the film. The performances were fairly uneven though. We'll start with the standouts:

• Ben Kingsly - He doesn't always convince, but this time he does a good job although hes not given a lot of screen time. The tattoos probably deserve half of the credit.
• Hailee Steinfield - This girl has got Charisma. You may recall her standout performance in True Grit a few years ago (you know the one where Jeff Bridges sounded like he was chewing on biscuits the whole time). She practically steals the show in Ender's Game and deservedly so.

Jennifer Lawrence may be good with a bow and arrow but Hailee can act...

And that's about it. There's a lot of other folks running around doing things but by and large they're forgettable or ineffective. The two main stars; Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford fall into the ineffective category, the rest are just forgettable. 

Don't get us wrong; the film is hugely entertaining - much more so than recent sci-fi films like Star Trek (something about Darkness - BTW - why the heck is every film Dark now???) and After Earth (which was just silly), however Ender's Game could have been a lot more had the right talent been applied. Perhaps most disappointing was the rapid juxtaposition from the movie climax to the set up for the sequels. More time and care should have been applied to constructing that segue. 

Another bizarre aspect of this film was its use of video game like animation - they were trying to approximate Xbox 3000 I guess; anyway it didn't come off well at all. Assume the movie is taking place more than 50 years from now and then ask yourself why the graphics don't look any better than PS 4? 

Here is our Raving Ratings grid:

Category	Score
Acting	5.5
Story	8
FX	9
Cinematography	8
Animation	4
Script	6
Cliches* (low score=high cliche factor)	3
Total	6

 

Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

Read More

Summer Movie Blockbusters - 2011

The nights are getting shorter, the weather is getting warmer, Charlie Sheen is getting crazier and Osama Bin Laden is now on a seafood diet (or on something's diet) - all that adds up to Summertime 2011 ! And one of the best parts of our Summer each year is anticipation of the year's greatest movies or least the most entertaining ones - which tend to get packed into the two to three month window between late May and Mid-August.

It's time for this year's crop of Summer movie blockbusters. Since they haven't been released yet it is a bit of a guessing game as to which movies will actually dominate the box office but we're willing to apply our intuition and predict what we think will be big.

The creative team behind Super 8

Blockbuster Prediction 1 - Super 8
Top on our list is the much anticipated "Super 8." It's a sci-fi classic waiting to happen - directed by J.J. Abrams, produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Dakota Fanning's little sister, Alice - it's alien meets Ohio flick in the best tradition of the genre.

These kids were making their own movie before it showed up...

Now this doesn't appear to a cuddly E.T. type of situation - it looks like we'll be getting more War of The World's / Battle of Los Angeles with this action thriller. For those of us who live near Wright Patterson Air Force Base - we always knew they were shipping aliens here from out west - now we have the proof!

Next on our list is...

Blockbuster Prediction 1 - Cowboys & Aliens
This movie comes out after Super 8 and indicates a trend we will be witnessing throughout the Summer. Many if not most of the big releases are going to be sci-fi films - it makes you wonder why the sy-fy channel changed its name and decided to focus on men in tights instead of fiction. Anyway this movie, directed by Jon Favreau (both an actor and director - directed the Iron Man films) highlights a powerful cast including James Bond in exile (Daniel Craig), Harrison Ford and Sam Rockwell.

It is supposed to take place in Arizona but was filmed in New Mexico

There's something both exciting and dangerous about mixing genres like this (we just watched a flick called Aliens versus Ninjas the other night, not a pretty sight) - but with Steven Spielberg behind the scenes on this project and veterans like Harrison Ford in front the screen we're confident it will work out well.

The other sci-fi blockbuster contenders for this Summer include:

1. X-Men First Class (X-men as the original rat pack working for JFK)
2. Rise of the Planet of The Apes (digital chimps are better than monkey suits)
3. Apollo 18 (why no one wants to go back to the moon)

Some other Notable Releases include:

1. Fright Night (a remake of the 1985 classic with Colin Farrel and Doctor Who's David Tennant)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean something - we don't really know which one this is and figured we had to list it but c'mon - talk about beating a dead horse (a.k.a. Keith Richards)...
3. Hobo with a Shotgun - It seems impossible that people won't want to see a movie with a title like this, right? Rutger, you've come a long way since Bladerunner.
4. The Beaver - Again a title that's hard to ignore. What's even better; this is a movie where a crazy man (Mel Gibson) plays a crazy man. If only this movie had Charlie Sheen in it...
5. Cars 2 - They probably waited too long for the sequel, Paul Newman has been dead how long now?
6. And yes - we are merely going to ignore Transformers whatever the number is and hope it goes away.
7. Glee Live 3D - just kidding.

So there you have it - what's going to be big and what looks interesting for Summer 2011.


Copyright 2011, Raving Reviews™

Read More

More Classic Than Classic

The other day someone asked me what my favorite movie of all time was, without hesitation I answered back “Blade Runner.” While I think Artificial Intelligence is a distant second, Blade Runner will likely continue to hold its first place ranking for the foreseeable future. So why do folks like me still obsess over this movie, after all it is now nearly 30 years old (that’s frightening to admit by the way as 1982 is the year I graduated High School)?

For me, this film represents everything that a movie can be – a synergy of art and entertainment, a visual banquet and a symphony. The story is simple, the characters are complex, the direction is flawless and the performances are memorable. This was the movie that introduced us to Edward James Olmos, Sean Young and Rutger Hauer; it gave Harrison Ford a depth that we hadn’t seen before. Blade Runner also provided us with what I still believe is the single best soundtrack in motion picture history, scored and performed by Vangelis. The soundtrack was so powerful that it literally became one with movie, narrating it in emotional overtones which transcended the music. I still listen to that soundtrack to this day and it never, ever gets old.


Both the music of Blade Runner & Sean Young were beyond compare...

Blade Runner sets a mood, builds its own universe and then draws you in bit by bit. Even though it is Science Fiction, it felt like a combination of reality + film noir. There are some scenes that simply stood out for being visually unforgettable. One example that comes to mind is where Dr. Tyrell opens the patio of his penthouse suite and we see the sun streaming in to fill the luxurious surroundings. Director Ridley Scott used a variation of the same scene nearly 20 years later when filming Gladiator. Between Ridley and his brother Tony, the brothers Scott have directed or produced the majority of my top ten film favorites of all-time. These guys instinctively understand cinema, what works, what looks good, what compels us to experience movies rather than merely watch them.

The story told in Blade Runner also plays an important role in making it a classic. Like the Matrix, Blade Runner tackles a fundamental philosophical paradox and makes us question what is humanity; what does it mean to be human, to be real. And it confronts this dilemma without ever referring it directly. In other words, it makes us think and read between the lines to grasp the full scope of what is actually unfolding before us. This is not to say that the Scott brothers don’t know how to employ action, they surely do; but they prefer the Mozart version over say Jerry Bruckheimer’s Salieri. In a Scott film, action can and does further the plot without turning it into roadkill. And the parting message of the film is as true today as it ever was, the final truth about one’s humanity is usually most apparent when we are closest to losing it.

The performances in Blade Runner were nothing short of iconic. From Leo, to Joanna Cassidy’s Snake Dancer, to the Eye Doctor to J.F. Sebastian and the intellectually cruel Dr. Tyrell – the characters simply came alive. Sean Young really stole the show though – her picture even ended up on the Vangelis “Themes” soundtrack cover. She took the film noir replicant temptress and made her believable – both vulnerable and passionate, one of the great female leads of all time. In this movie she harnessed Marilyn Monroe level star power, it’s too bad Hollywood never gave her chance to repeat this type of performance.


Here are some interesting deleted scenes from Blade Runner

At the Tyrell Corporation, we have a slogan; “More Human than Human.” Even the dialog from Blade Runner has become iconic, with White Zombie turning this line into what is now a classic hard rock song in the 1990’s. I don’t think anyone ever could or perhaps ever should make a sequel to this movie – it is almost inevitable that fans of the original would be disappointed.

A true classic can stand the test of time all on its own.



Copyright 2011, Raving Reviews™

Read More