The Avengers: Why it did not suck - Will Lau

The Avengers is the quintessential summer blockbuster. It's every movie goer's dream come true. It has delivered in every way possible and has overcome several serious roadblocks that I personally attribute to movies of this ilk. I don't say this lightly and do not dish out this sort of praise easily but this film is the greatest super hero film ever made and one of the greatest movies every made, period.

Ensemble Cast

The first obstacle and he biggest obstacle to overcome for these sorts of movies is overcoming the ensemble cast issue. Ensemble cast movies generally don't work. It's easy for me to paint these movies with the same coloured brush but let's face it, most of the time production companies try to cram stars and characters into one movie to make a bigger box office dent, it becomes somewhat of a nightmare. Interactions between the characters are compromised by trying to equally divide up screen time, dialogue and importance to the general plot of the movie. What you usually get is a convoluted mess that leaves the audience dumbfounded about the plot and trying to figure out what happened to the $15 bucks that was in their pocket 2 hours ago. Some great examples of this are Grown Ups(2010), Be Cool(2005), Star Wars(Ep 1-3), Valentines Day(2010), Pearl Harbor(2001), Crash(2004), around the world in 80 days(2004), anything with Julia Roberts in it, anything with Jackie Chan in it, most things with Nicolas Cage in it.

So to say that I was skeptical about a movie made up of this calibre of stars from their own movies is a ghastly understatement. Not only are there some serious names involved, but the characters themselves are huge in their own right. They have very specific details and character traits that hardcore fans will hate them for if they don't get it right. Not to mention the interrelationships that are REALLY important for a movie like this. They must make their interactions fun, yet not over the top. The humour as to be just right without becoming clownish. There must be some depth between each of the characters without overly focusing on one relationship over others.

The Forbidden Kingdom - Mike Gregory

The Forbidden Kingdom - Mike Gregory

I love this movie.  Maybe I’m just a sucker for this kind of movie, with the little guy standing up for himself, but I love this movie.

The Forbidden Kingdom is part Karate Kid, part Neverending Story.  Jason Tripitikas, a play on the name Tripitaka from Journey to the west is a bullied, pushed around nobody kid.  He frequents the local pawn shop / movie store where he devours any and all old school Kung Fu movies (or Gong Fu as the movie uses)  He dreams of being a bad ass, “Learn Kung Fu, kick ass, get the girl” as Hop the pawn shop owner puts it.  Jason is forced to help rob the place by the local bully, things go bad from there and Jason tries to run away, falls from the roof and wakes up in magical “forbidden” kingdom.  Now in this fantasy world, Jason has to return the Staff, free the Monkey King, and defeat the evil jade warlord to save the kingdom.

The Story is nothing fantastically new, the Journey to the west story has been used in several movies and games over there years, and I have to admit the first time I watched this movie, I was a bit let down.  I was expecting more action between Jet Li and Jackie Chan.  That was one of the big selling points of the movie.  For the first time ever, the two the most popular Kung Fu actors teaming up for an epic fantasy film. Fight choreography was also done by Woo-Ping Yuen, another legend in the business.  I was expecting more action between the two stars, but there sadly was only 1 fight.  The first time I watched the movie, I think I was just waiting for the fights, so hyped to see how it would go down between the two stars and just considering everything else filler.  The 2^nd time I watched it, I fell in love with the movie.

Minority Report - Bernard Ho

When the name ‘Steven Spielberg’ is mentioned, one’s mind automatically conjures up images and memories of his most cherished works from Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters of a Third Kind, Jurassic Park, and three-fourths of the Indiana Jones series.  I am a huge fan of his films, and there is little doubt that the aforementioned films highlight Spielberg’s mastery of his craft. 

However, I find that one film in his extensive filmography is unjustly overlooked, namely Minority Report.  Based on a short story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), Minority Report was released in the summer of 2002 and was a critical and commercial success.  For some reason, though, you would be hard pressed to find someone talking about it 10 years after its release with the same awe and appreciation as they would about Spielberg’s other work.  Here is my attempt to get someone, anyone, to revisit the film or see it for the first time.

The film posits a not-too-distant future in which a government agency (PreCrime) uses precognitive psychics (precogs) to predict and stop future murders.  There are many memorable scenes showcasing great technical skills in the special/visual effects and cinematography and A-game acting from all the main players.  The plot, in the form of a murder mystery, unfolds naturally and is driven by the motivations of the characters instead of plot contrivances.

Blade Trinity - Will Lau

Blade Trinity - Will Lau

If you've seen this movie you'd be sitting in disbelief as you've witnessed how David Goyer has dismantled a perfectly good franchise the same way Joel Schumacher demolished Tim Burton's Batman.

Blade 1 + 2:

Blade through the first two movies had consistently been a dark, edgy movie franchise and thats what made Blade. The dark atmosphere that went along with the quiet, yet intense personality of Blade was in perfect balance. There was a bit of subtle humor here or there to keep it interesting but overall the atmosphere stayed consistent. The first 2 films had meticulously added detail and personality to ensure that even though this was not your average vampire movie, that its still had a realistic vampire feel with dark scary looking characters, and vampires that acted like they were superior to humans in every way. Believability and credibility is never been an issue.

Basically Blade was a no nonsense, no mercy vampire killer with little or no remorse for the thousands of vamps that he tears apart.

Hulk (2003) - Bernard Ho

Ang Lee’s Hulk presented a strange paradox to movie-going audiences when it was released in 2003.  On the heels of recent successes based on comic books such as X-Men (2000) and Spiderman (2002), Hulk was the first of its kind that tried to fully reconcile the source material with artsy independent film-making.  While many have written this attempt off as foolhardy, myself and a handful of others consider this level of ambition to be one of the film’s hallmarks and strengths, and believe Ang Lee and his creative team deserve applause for trying to think outside the box. 

The usual counterargument that I have heard is that there is a difference between intention and execution.  In other words, to echo another green fictional character “Do or do not.  There is no try.”  True, but I do believe that the execution really works if one can forego preconceptions of what a comic book movie should be, and instead evaluate the film as it is actually presented.

What is presented is a family drama played out on a large canvas afforded by the creativity of Hulk creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, not to mention numerous writers and artists at Marvel Comics.  To play out those family dynamics, Lee cast a solid group of proven actors.  Hulk is really a story about children learning to cope with the trauma that their fathers have unknowingly inflicted upon them.  Jennifer Connelly and Eric Bana portray characters at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how they cope with the past, with Connelly’s Betty Ross living with a lingering and perpetual pain and Bana’s Bruce Banner repressing memories until they manifest physically during his transformations into the Hulk.

The Grey - Mike Gregory

Let me first start out by saying this type of movie is right up my alley, so I may be a little biased here.  Any movie with people trying to survive against a giant creature, monster or vicious animal out to kill them will get a watch from me.  I watched Anaconda 2, Komodo and Abominable, a lance henrickson yeti movie….so

On that note, I really enjoyed the Grey.  Directed by Joe Carnahan, whose last movie The A-Team, also starring Liam Neeson was a really pleasant surprise.  I’m definitely on board for his next movie, whatever its about.  The trailers make the movie out to be Liam Neeson vs. Wolves, but it’s much more than that.  The movie is a tense, well paced, story of survival not only against the wolves, but also the elements, their own hunger, and a test of their faith.   The characters were surprisingly well developed, and not just wolf food, they have families and loved ones they want to get back to and reasons to fight to stay alive.  You genuinely care for them, and feel for them whenever someone does die.   I loved the power struggle between the people as well, and how it directly mirrored the wolves.  If I remember correctly, not longer after one of the wolves challenges the alpha, the same thing happens with the survivors with one character challenging the alpha for leadership of the group.  Faith also plays a large role in the movie, with both sides represented.  Some with blind faith, everything happens for a reason attitudes, and others who don’t buy it at all.  There was a scene with one of the characters begging for help, “show me a sign”, with a very cool outcome.

Captain America - Will Lau

Captain America 

This movie was an excellent showcase about how to do a summer comic book movie right. Especially with a well-established character in the comic book realm that you’re trying to make relevant to the audiences of today who, due to modern technologies and sources have a much shorter attention span then they may be used to. 

Directed by Joe Johnston who is famous for directing The Rocketeer which has sort of a similar style of this future meets 1940’s clash. He is also famous for Jurassic Park 3 which I know a lot of people disliked but personally I thought was great and a redemption to the abomination that was The Lost World, Jurassic Park 2 which he didn’t direct.

 

The reason I think this movie worked so well and the reason I enjoyed it so much was that they didn’t just rush into making this movie with this stereotypical action hero mentality where they introduce you to this character and here he is and he’s going to be your hero damn it and things are blowing up. The bad guys are going to be killed, and wham bam there you have a ready-made formula movie ready for packaging for DVDs and posters and lunch boxes. Instead, they took the time to flesh out the main character’s personality, where he comes from, what drives and motivates him.  They touch upon these ideals that he’s supposed to embody and at the same time avoid being too drawn out, like a prepackaged section to the movie.