A Look Back: Batman Returns

In the first of a new segment of editorials, called A Look Back I will look at movies that were once the champions of their franchise, but have now been relegated to the history books as products of their time, eclipsed by superior films in its series or pieces of forgotten memory.

First I’ve decided to look at Batman Returns, the 1992 follow up to Batman and the last film in the series directed by Tim Burton, in it the Dark Knight faces off against three villains, The Penguin played by Danny Devito, Catwoman impressively played by Michelle Pfeiffer and businessman Max Schreck played by Christopher Walken.

Now prior to Christopher Nolan’s batman films, this one wasn’t too bad, an okay film but not a great one by any means, looking back however, the film is a complete mess, the storyline meanders, it doesn’t handle its three villains well and the film has the look of a large soundstage and backlot, Nolan’s films alluded to earlier, have a much better storyline, its use of multiple villains is the best of any film in this genre and it looks more real, with its use of soundstages minimal.

Foresight some have said is an interesting thing, and Batman Returns does not hold up 17 years after its release, now some may still have a fondness for the film, but it is clearly been bettered by far superior work.

Film Review - Dragonball Evolution (2009)

Warning: This review contains mild coarse language.

Dragonball Evolution tells the story of a young man called Goku played by Justin Chatwin and his quest for the seven mystic Dragonballs which when brought together will grant their finder a single wish, but there are forces both good and evil who will stop at nothing to find them.

And I pretty much have one thing I want to say in regards to this film: It is a complete piece of fucking shit and the worst movie to be released this year, and here is where my review splits in two, first off just on its own the movie is laughable, the special effects are poor, Chow Yun Fat is wasted and the film has the look of a low budget film.

Second, the storyline makes no sense as several key characters from the TV series on which this is based are gone, the most criminal omission being Kami, now in the original show, Kami and Piccolo were one being who were later split in two and from there Kami created the dragon balls and because of this, Piccolo was allowed to live despite being Goku’s enemy at that point in the series, the point being that if he died, so would Kami and the dragon balls would become useless, here none of that matters as Goku is also reduced to a whiny brat whereas in the show, he always kept going and knew how to win the day.

I could of course go on but I was a big fan of the TV show and to see it get this pointless treatment makes me pissed, so I’m giving this garbage a 0 out of 5.

Editorial - Would Frank Welker’s Return as Megatron have made any difference?

Recently I saw the new Transformers movie Revenge of the Fallen and one of the few positives about the film I felt was the return of Frank Welker as the voice of Soundwave, one of the key characters from the original TV show and like Megatron, a voice originated by Welker himself.

But like the first Transformers film, Hugo Weaving provides the voice of the character albeit heavily modulated but in this film you can tell its simply him doing his Agent Smith routine although one could also say and indeed some have said in their reviews of the film that Welker was really doing his Dr. Claw voice from Inspector Gadget for the character but there is one question at the heart of all of this that I wish to pose: would having Frank Welker also voice his more iconic role as Megatron in both of the live action films made any difference to how they turned out?

Well that depends on how you feel about it, on the one hand it would have been great to have had Welker voice Megatron and have indeed voiced my opinion on that when I reviewed both this film and the first film but I have also voiced the opinion that even if director Michael Bay reined his ego in and brought him in to voice the character it would not have made much difference in the long run.

And that is due to the fact that both of the live action Transformers movies were simply not very good with too much sexual innuendo, blatant rip offs of other films, very long running times and not enough emphasis on the transformers themselves which are also very poorly written, with Megatron being completely out of character in this new film.

So to sum it all up, Frank Welker voicing Megatron would really not be much of a good thing in the long run as I said before really due to the fact that like Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, he would have been wasted in what have been two very bad films and that’s my say on this.

Film Review - (500) Days of Summer (2009)

(500) Days of Summer stars Zooey Deschanel as a girl named Summer and Joseph-Gordon Levitt as the man named Tim who is completely in love with him, but Summer has her own ideas in regards to how love works.

(500) Days of Summer is a movie that I really enjoyed, the characters played by Deshcanel and Levitt were well developed as was the character of the younger sister, there were times where I smiled, chuckled and laughed but there were also a couple of problems I had with it as well, firstly the script is unfocused in that it jumps from day to day without a care in the world which undercuts the emotion of the story, second some of the voiceover narration and split screen effects were a little too forced for my liking and lastly, the screening I went to played the teaser trailer for Avatar before the film, which probably didn’t help matters all that much either.

But hey I think people of both genders will find a lot to like here, I did despite my reservations so I’m going to give it a 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Three Kings (1999)

Three Kings stars George Clooney, Mark Walhberg and Ice Cube as three US Soldiers who during the end of the Gulf War in March 1991 learn of a secret bunker which is said to contain stolen gold, but their quest for it will drag them into situations that they should not have any part in.

Now, this movie is not a bad film as there are some parts of it that made me laugh, such as the discovery of the cars and the early part of the film which I felt was wild and wacky and that put me in a good mood for the rest of the film, but the film turned into an action picture where the soldiers try to save the people living under Saddam Hussein’s rule and the action is actually quite good but I also found it hard to care for anyone besides the Walhberg character.

So there you have it folks, A movie that is good sometimes very good but not great by any stretch of the imagination so it skimps by with a 2 and a half out of 5.

Editorial - Too many People, Too little Time

For my latest editorial, I want to talk about something that has really gotten on my nerves recently and that is the notion of characters in a motion picture.

And why talk about this you ask, well I feel that this has become a big problem in the last few years of characters that don’t have any real reason to be in the film at all apart from explain a plot point, perve on their female co-stars and collect their paycheck and to illustrate this point here are a few examples.

Star Trek: If you read my review of JJ Abrams’s Star Trek reboot, you will learn that I was not too impressed with the film, and one big problem was the insertion of Leonard Nimoy, to me he felt like one character too many and that all he ever did in the film was explain the plot, meet his younger self, do the hand thing and collect his paycheque, personally I would like to have seen that screen time go to Eric Bana and have him explain the plot while he’s talking to Pike and it would also give the newer actors a chance to get more screen time themselves.

The Devil Wears Prada: Anne Hathaway’s character has a boyfriend who stares at her in a very perverted way throughout the film and turns into a complete grump because she misses his birthday party and her other friends think she has become a monster, personally get over it guys and again, those characters take us away from the characters played by Emily Blunt, Simon Baker and Stanley Tucci, who could have filled those roles easily through a rewrite of the script.

Transformers 2: A big one here with at least half a dozen or so characters that could have been removed, first off was The Fallen as in the actual character referred to in the title, he should have gone and allow that to go to Megatron and Starscream, who got too little screen time again, second is the parents, they should have gone and have Shia’s character living with Megan Fox and have the two of them go off to college, third is the college roommate again cut him out and let Fox take that role and lastly, Mudflap and Skids really should have gone thereby letting Bumblebee and the other Autobots fill their roles which may have gone a long way to filling in the middle of the film.

Spider-Man 3: This one is an example where a character is dictated by a movie studio, in Sam Raimi’s original idea for the film he wasn’t to use the character of Venom as he had never liked the character and felt he was for nerds, but Columbia Pictures had gotten so much correspondence over it “When is Venom going to appear?” that they forced Raimi’s hand and had the character crow barred in at the end of the movie, a move that made the film feel overlong and overstuffed.

And I could go on, but my point is that many movies bring in too many characters in order to either justify the main character’s actions or to move the plot forward, neither of which are really necessary, but the examples above will show that not all types of films are safe from this problem so make of it what you will.

Film Review - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the second movie in the Transformers series and this time the Autobots have formed an alliance with a secret division of the US military to weed out any remaining Decepticons after the destruction of the all spark at the end of the first film, but when Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers a shard of it while moving to college, the race is on to find it and set about an ancient prophecy.

Now, I have to say that Revenge of the Fallen was a big letdown overall; don’t get me wrong it was nice to see the return of Frank Welker as Soundwave, who nicely channels Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, a voice I thought I would never hear on the big screen and I loved Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and the fight sequence in the forest with Prime taking on Megatron, Starscream and Grindor all at once is wonderful.

But even with all those positives, sadly I can’t summon up any enthusiasm for this movie as a whole, as it was far too long by at least 45 minutes, I still wish that Welker had been given his rightful place as the voice of Megatron, there was no real through line to the story as it felt unfocused and in the end, all it did was signify sound and fury and special effects and lots of money that ended up not having any heart or emotion to it, as even the movie’s best moment comes undone by the end.

As for my final rating, I’m going to give this 2 out of 5 due to the positives above but apart from that, there wasn’t much to this movie at all that warrants an immediate ticket purchase and after last year’s Iron Man and The Dark Knight, this is a real shame.

Film Review - Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek is the eleventh film in the series and the storyline concerns a Romulan captain named Nero played by Eric Bana who wants to exact his revenge on Spock since he fails to save his home world of Romulus, while that goes on we also see the beginnings of a man named James T. Kirk and a ship named Enterprise.

Now here is where I have to go against the grain in regards to the response to this picture: Star Trek to me was a big disappointment, but it was not a total letdown as I did laugh at places, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg and Zoë Saldana are terrific in their roles and the pre credits sequence actually did rise up to the level of emotional depth that Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan had and it also did remind me of “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one” from that film.

But unfortunately the movie as a whole simply didn’t work for me, I thought it was too long, too repetitive with the special effects, wobble cam and snappy one liners and it all just for me at least got to a point where I was like okay, so what, big deal and I honestly don’t care any more.

So in closing, Star Trek scrapes through with a 2 and a half out of 5.