Posts Tagged ‘Movies’

There’s a lot to love about comic books: The iconic characters. The vibrant artwork. The dynamic stories. The seemingly boundless opportunities to educate, entertain and inspire the imagination. And no matter the change or advance in the technology that puts these creations into our hands, whether scrawled on the back of a paper grocery bag or sketched on a Mac Pro with a Cintiq, whether read in a paperback digest purchased at a grocery store or delivered in an app on your Galaxy Tablet, it took one or more real people to conceive, execute and deliver them to your hungry eyes.

Comic book writer, indie filmmaker and all-around good dude Brandon Jerwa is making a documentary that focuses on those insanely creative people who — more often out of love than money — work endlessly at bringing comic books, graphic novels and cartoons to life. Called “Untold Tales of the Comic Industry,” the film is basically a collection of interviews with a huge scope of writers, artists and editors telling it like it is — what got them into comics, what they see is good and bad about the industry, where they see it going. Here, why don’t I let Brandon tell you more:

“Untold Tales” is down to its last 46 hours or so of trying to raise the remaining $3,000 of its $18,000 goal on Kickstarter, that crowd-sourcing site that has become the lifeblood for hundreds (thousands, more likely) of self-started creative projects. I’m asking you — both as a financial backer of the film and a guy who likes to see worthy endeavors happen — to consider donating even just $1 (though hopefully more) to help Brandon make this thing reach its full potential, and if you can’t, to please share the Kickstarter page or video (or this post) with your circle of internet influence.

Either way, the film will get made, but reaching the funding goal ensures it gets made with the best interviews and best opportunities for distribution possible. It’s come so far; I’d hate to see the funding goal not happen in these crucial final days.

I don’t often write about other media (well, not except in short bursts on Twitter, I suppose), unless I’m helping promote a friend or colleague who deserves some light shone through the mainstream fog. But occasionally, I consume a movie, book or comic on which I just have to comment, and hence we have today’s quasi-review on X-Men First Class, which debuted in movie theaters this weekend to the tune of $55 million.

Actually, this is going to be less a review than simply sharing why I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. If you want a real review, go to Rotten Tomatoes and surf away.

Briefly: I loved this movie. I loved the look, the feel, the delicate balance of emotional drama and whimsical adventure. I was smiling or gasping the entire time, and not just because it was big and dumb and loud (like, say, Thor) or because of geek-pandering Easter eggs (though, to be fair, there were plenty). No, it’s because X-Men First Class was just a wild ride, and one brilliantly scripted, mostly well-acted and exhilaratingly scored. More specifically:

• The human drama was tangible and believable. Actually, I’ve heard minor complaints that the first third of the movie was too slow because of the focus on establishing the diametric between Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. I thought it grounded the film, and everything else was set up so perfectly around that.
• The peril was palpable. I don’t want to give away anything to those who haven’t seen the film, but there are some gruesome scenes of real violence, just the kind of harrowing stuff you’d expect if “evil” mutants actually existed. It’s the first time I actually considered how scary it would be to have people around in our world who have even the slightest enhanced abilities.
• It’s worldly, and set in an unmistakable era. Sure, there’s a certain Forrest Gump effect with the placement of our heroes and villains behind the scenes of one of the modern world’s most dire crises, but it helps make the consequences of the film’s circumstance feel like a real potential global impact, instead of just “oh no, the X-mansion’s been attacked again.”
• It’s fun. The two Bryan Singer-directed X-Men films — as groundbreaking as they were for their time — were dark, not terribly well-acted, and certainly not peppered with any of the whimsy of X-Men First Class. Somehow, Matthew Vaughn balances the seriousness of the subject matter (and especially Erik’s plight of revenge) with the Bond-esque thrills and comedic moments of the film.
• It’s all about James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Seriously, these two knock it out of the park, completely redefining Professor X and Magneto while developing their characters further than few other interpretations ever have. And seeing Xavier as a fast-talking post-grad swinging his way through Oxford University’s co-eds? Sheer genius.

In the wake of the weekend box office ($55 million domestically, I believe), there has been talk of the film not being a “hit,” because it didn’t bring in opening weekend numbers like Thor, Iron Man or even the original X-Men trilogy did. But I think the word-of-mouth on this is so good, it’ll have much better legs in theaters, and instead of geeks bitching about “continuity” from the comics or even the three prior X-films, they’d probably be better off looking at this like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek — a newer, flashier, exciting take on an old formula.

But that’s just my two cents.

Like the rest of America this weekend, I ventured to my local cineplex to catch a showing of that quaint indie flick everyone’s talking about, Iron Man 2. As you probably know, I don’t really like reviewing things, but I have been trying to figure out why the first Iron Man film was so much better than this sequel – or at least why I enjoyed the original more – and in the process, started making lists in my head of the things I liked and didn’t. Now you get to share in that process:

Pj’s Four Favorite Things About Iron Man 2

1. Suitcase armor – Well, duh. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve probably seen the scene where Tony Stark’s armor forms around him from a red-and-silver suitcase – a very comic book moment. How can you not love that?
2. Captain America’s shield – Clever moment tying together Stark’s father to the iconic patriotic superhero, amusingly punctuated by S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson asking Tony if he knows what the shield is even as Tony’s using it to prop up a steel conduit.
3. Black Widow in action – Really, it’s not just because Scarlett Johansson is in a skin-tight suit. While her take-down of Happy Hogan in the boxing ring earlier in the film was amusing, Natasha finally getting to cut loose by taking out an entire building’s worth of armed security forces single-handedly was brilliantly choreographed and just plain awesome.
4. Final battle – I guess if you’re still reading, you know this post has been a little spoiler-ish, but I’ll still try to not give away too much. But I think I’m safe by saying Rhodey and Tony teaming up to kick the metal arses of dozens of robot drones and a vodka-fueled Mickey Rourke in giant armor was a goddamn delight.

Pj’s Four Least-Favorite Things About Iron Man 2

1. Drunk party scene – While not nearly as bad as the “evil Peter Parker singing-and-dancing” scene from Spider-Man 3, Tony Stark stumbling around and pissing himself in the Iron Man suit was just … ingratiating. I get that it’s there to establish his frame of mind and Rhodes’ obtaining of the armor, but it was just ludicrous and over the top, DJ AM’s (R.I.P.) appearance notwithstanding.
2. Justin Hammer – I love Sam Rockwell. I love every character he’s every played. He was brilliant carrying Moon as a one-man tour-de-force. But combined with scenes such as the aforementioned drunk Iron Man debacle, Rockwell’s over-the-top performance as a moustache-twirling “evil” CEO detracted from the realism that anchored the first film and enabled it to be pure awesome. Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark is already glib and showy – having a buffoon attempt to one-up that so obviously just didn’t work for me. Especially the scene where Hammer awaits Ivan Vanko’s deplaning with a gourmet meal inside an airplane bunker. It was camp, plain and simple.
3. Randy’s Donuts meeting with Nick Fury – You’ve seen the snippet from this, right? Where Tony’s armored up, sitting inside the iconic giant donut, eating donuts when S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury shows up to chastise him? That was clever. But taking the scene inside the donut shop for Natalie/Natasha’s reveal as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was amateur hour. I mean, here’s this top-secret espionage organization having a meeting in a public place with everyone in their silly costumes.
4. Length – The Randy’s Donuts and Stark birthday party scenes – along with many other iffy moments – give Iron Man 2 the feeling of a film that crammed in a lot of scenes that sounded cool on paper but should have been left on the cutting room floor, making the film leaner and meaner. And less damn silly.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It was enjoyable. But it felt very full of itself, like director Jon Favreau got a little cocky following the success of Iron Man and just went balls out with everything he could. And really, you can’t blame the guy for trying, but if there’s to be a third film – and after Iron Man 2 hauled in $133 million in three days, does anyone think there won’t be? – Favreau (and writer Justin Theroux) would do well to trim the fat and avoid the mistakes of other superhero film franchises such as X-Men and Spider-Man (both of which were bloated and nonsensical by their third installments).