Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim is the first thing in a long time with Guillermo Del Toro's name on it that I really enjoyed.  Visually it was surprisingly beautiful. The action was kinetically charged. Funnily enough, the physics of it all felt a little too real for the style of action which ended up being immense, powerful, and momentous. While there wasn't much to say in praise of the characters, archetypical relationships, or even the plot, if you went in with expectations to the contrary you would find yourself in the wrong film. It was over-the-top squeal inducing fun which managed to make me go, "whoa." more times than I expected. It was uber-heavy giant robot on monster action with the occasional laugh (mostly courtesy of Charlie Day) and I loved every minute of it. The only real criticism I have about this movie is in regard to the sound which was often too overwhelming in the down moments to make out some of the dialogue and the soundtrack was basically one song repeated over and over and over. Otherwise, brilliant film. Beautiful entertainment. 8/10

More Things I've Seen Somewhat Recently

To prove I haven't stopped going to the movies and that I do still have opinions about the films I've seen I'm gonna run down a quick list of everything I've seen in the last couple months with a brief blurb and a rating. In no particular order.

Iron Man 3 - A new direction for Iron Man which despite a slightly toned down vibe is more exciting and just as enthralling as all of the previous installments. It's brilliant for playing off of elements from the Avengers and brings Tony Stark back down to Earth in the most wonderful way. My favorite Iron Man yet. 9/10

Star Trek: Into Darkness - A strangely paced follow-up to 2009's Star Trek which trades the fluid plot of it's predecessor for spurts of story. Well acted with rewarding action, this sequel delivers an entertaining ride if not one quite as ground-breaking as the former. 8/10

42 - An excellent movie which "plays the race card" with a graceful balance of sensitivity and austerity. Like race relations sports films before it, 42 handles the subject matter with an intriguing combination of sport and personal story while being perhaps the most visually beautiful and movingly penned of its kind. 9/10

Oblivion - An overwhelming (at first this is great but afterwards is a little disappointing) sci fi epic which manages to acceptably combine a plethora of classic science fiction elements into something un-originally fresh (bit paradoxical). Excellent soundtrack and decent story make for an enjoyable film. 7.5/10

Man of Steel

It's been almost a year since I wrote a full review of a film. The last one I did was The Dark Knight Rises so I think it's a bit fitting to return with another DC film.

Man of Steel starts out with an impressive sequence during which Zack Snyder channels the spirit of James Cameron and unleashes some sci-fi action that sets the pace for the film (even if it doesn't really resurface until the second half). This brings me to the first topic of discussion; the action.

Zack Snyder is a masterful action director and this is undeniably an epic work to add to his already impressive portfolio. The opening sequences were incredible because they took a distinctly more science fiction approach, something that has been lacking in sleekness in other Superman iterations. It was fast paced and alien and awesome but it had a purpose and that itself was really interesting to think about. Then we're slapped down to Earth where more typical Superman action starts to take place, trucks end up impaled by telephone poles and large structures get lifted. But because it wasn't "Superman" doing this stuff and because it was happening in little chunks amid more personal struggles we were following a journey, watchin Kal-El's development as a person. And then about halfway in we get to the big action, the Superman of modern comics action, and everything exploded. The fight scenes in Smallville were incredible, granted, but from that point on the movie kind of dissolved into one over-the-top ongoing action sequence that literally beat you over the head.

While the action was really incredibly designed it was disappointing that the film chose to abandon some of the more contemplative and developmental elements in favor of an onslaught of stylized destruction. Particularly so because these elements, like Clark's connection to his father and mother or his connection to the last survivors of Krypton, were actually powerfully presented. They just weren't presented prominently or long enough. The first half of the film was wonderful because it introduced Clark Kent in an artistic and compelling manner. Something which I don't think any previous Superman managed to do. It made you care about his character and his family. Above all it made you feel that Kal-El was an outsider and you could connect with and understand his struggle to fit in on an alien planet.

I feel like this has turned into more of a critical summary than a review so I'll talk about a couple other filmmaking elements before I wrap up.

I was hopeful, impressed, and then finally not as excited as I had hoped about Hans Zimmer's score for the film. I felt like his score for TDKR was a departure from the excellence that he and James Newton Howard had achieved with TDK but the teasers and previews for MoS presented emotion and depth which got me incredibly excited for the soundtrack. This however may have biased my opinion for the film as a whole. As I was expecting more contemplative and compelling on-screen action I expected the entire score to reflect that. As I've previously mentioned the film kind of dissolves into an hour long slug-fest so those musical ideas largely go out the window. That's not to say the score wasn't great. It fit the action 100% and it is one of the most pounding and dramatic scores that Zimmer has ever produced. Perhaps his best percussive score.

Cinematography was amazing. Snyder has one of the sleekest styles in Hollywood which made his partnership with Amir Mokri perhaps the greatest film directorial pairing in recent sci-fi action history.

Writing was pretty good though a little heavy handed at times. It was definitely engaging and what's most surprising is that the slower moments of the film were the more intriguing. The dialogue between Clark and Zod (particularly the vision sequence) was fantastic and despite the over-the-top superhero narrative quite a lot of the film didn't feel too convenient.

Which brings me to my final point. I'm not sure whether it's a writing or an acting issue. I did not enjoy Lois Lane's character or the majority of the characters from the Daily Planet. Not because they were particularly weak characters but because they felt out of place and unnecessary. Lois Lane was the biggest "convenience" of the film, that she could be involved in such a wide space of the action despite having such a minimal connection to Clark bothered me. And the connection to the Daily Planet was even weaker. The sequences involving those characters felt trivial and weightless compared to everything else that occurred. In fact because the film chose to focus on the action so prominently there was little time for much development of a relationship between Clark and humanity and thus scenes that didn't revolve around Clark were sort of jarring in that they felt vastly less important. It was also for this reason that scenes like the ultimate fight between Clark and Zod had less gravity than they should have had.

In summation: Man of Steel is an incredible superhero film helmed by a team of masterful filmmakers. The style of which both ascends and grounds the character of Superman and which stylistically and narratively introduces a rebooted Superman which can fit into the new genre of gritty superheroes (I can definitely see the strengths of this film and the Dark Knight trilogy playing into a potential Justice League film, but with conflicting films like The Green Lantern and a lack of any other Justice League live action features DC is a long way away from that). While the film had some heart it was greatly overshadowed by a slew of manic action and disappointingly this action became less entertaining than the quieter moments of the film. And despite the brief glimpses of relatable human emotion ultimately the film sacrificed itself (Jesus style) in favor of (admittedly impressive) fight scenes. Final verdict: 7/10

Adventures in Netflix: The Cabin in the Woods

This is another big film that I didn't catch in the theaters, was a little embarrassed to have to watch on netflix, but ultimately was glad it was provided. I heard a lot about this movie before I saw it so I was a little bit biased as I sat down. The majority of people who told me about it said it was great, revolutionary even. I don't exactly disagree but I'd like to pose an argument against those comments. The movie was a different take on the entire horror/slasher genre simply because it understood and outwardly embraced the formulaic nature of said genre. Instead of simply making a movie that fit the formula it made a comment about that formula. The whole film is a setup, people in this facility are making supernatural things happen to your stereotypical group of teenage(ish) friends. They know and comment to the audience that things happen the way they do in scary movies because it is in fact a ritual. It's akin to the fourth wall being broken as it breaks down the formula for you. Then, the main characters escape the formula and break into the puppet-master realm. While this is a nice concept, a self-aware slasher, I have a problem with the execution. The film does indeed use itself to make comments about the formula of horror films, but it does nothing to subvert that formula, and in the end, despite some twists and its meant-to-be-progressive attitude, it still follows the formula almost to a tee. At one point in the film one of the central puppet masters basically remarks that he is rooting for one of the kids to survive because she's got heart. Then immediately afterward he's back orchestrating her death in typical slasher fashion. If the intention of this film is to be revolutionary in its portrayal of slasher films it's not enough to have a character mention in passing that it's too bad a formulaic character has to die by the formula if they then continue to use them as part of the formula. Recognizing that the formula is stupid but then using the formula is just hypocritical. Toward the end it seems like the characters escape the formula because they are no longer playing the game that's been laid out for them. However, though they've escaped their planned demise they're still part of the movie formula, it's now just in a different skin.

So that's my issue. It is revolutionary in the sense that it's a horror film that unravels horror films and reassembles them in a transparent mesh. That's what it'd have you think, but it's not really a reassembly so much as it is taking the formula and replacing classic elements with elements that know they're elements. Similar elements nonetheless. All that said, this is still a ridiculously entertaining film. There are some really really brilliant moments and uses of classic horror techniques. The idea that this horror stuff is all part of a bigger darker circle is an interesting concept. And, despite this film still being indisputably categorizable as a horror film, it's still a unique film that hasn't been conceptualized before. 4/5 Stars.