Prometheus vs. Alien

One of my 'ones to watch' for 2012, I really got hyped about Prometheus on the run up to it's release.  I've now seen the film, and spent the last few days reading what everyone else has to say about it.

If you haven't seen it yet...you might not want to read on.  There will be spoilers.

One of my favourite reviews so far has come from @infamouskidd's article on Aintitcool.com, here's the link if you want to check it out:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/56298

Some reviews have been quite scathing, soap boxes have been dusted off and claws sharpened.  Others go too far the other way, rose tinted glasses and blinkers must have been handed out on the way into the cinema.

The reason I like Billy's is because it's, in my opinion, remaining objective on what appears to be turning into a bit of a marmite topic.

On a side note, this is clearly the most hilarious review of Prometheus ever:

http://badassdigest.com/2012/06/08/sam-strange-remembers-prometheus/

Whilst Ridley Scott had to reference the links to the Alien story pre release, for contextual reasons as well as to heighten anticipation, it's the constant connections and comparisons I was trying to make that took away from the overall film.  The most important thing for me with relation to the Alien films were that I found out about 'the spaceship' and 'the guy in the chair'.  Beyond that, Prometheus has to be viewed as a film of it's own.

I found the film to be visually stunning.  Also creative and ambitious in it's story telling.  I could have ambled along towards the ending that we were all expecting.  Instead it aimed for some real flourishes, which in my opinion it pulled off.  The idea of our creation by a race who then go to great lengths to destroy us is very thought provoking.  Also the 'black ooze' which manifests itself in various different ways throughout the film I found very interesting.  Whilst it's been heavily criticised, the fact is that the Aliens from the franchise we know and love are birthed from the ooze, and you could argue that the acidic xenomorphs are the stuff of nightmares, so I find this variable manifestation quite poetic.

I also particularly like Fassbender's David.  I genuinely felt that sense of being morally unburdened, his curiosity is childlike and untethered by thoughts of consequences and ramifications.

The one thing that lets the film down for me is the character development, or lack of.  Again a feature of many people's criticisms, though one I believe to be justified.  The two best characters are Meredith Vickers and David.  Charlize Theron manages to execute Meredith's slide from cool and in control, to out of control and panicked perfectly.  Whereas early in the film, we feel sorry for David when he is mocked for trying to mimic his human counterparts.  Before a great scene at the end with Noomi Rapace, where David claims to feel fear and I adopted the same mocking nature that earlier had made me feel sorry for him.  The biggest disappointment in terms of character development is Idris Elba's Captain Janek.  I'm a great fan of Idris (for anyone who isn't familiar with his work, go and watch Luther), so I was very excited to see him included in the cast line up.  He has some great moments, and a very heroic sign off, 'HANDS UP!'.  The only problem is that he has the kind of insight that someone only gets from experience or a bloody past, but we never even get a whiff of what those experiences may have been.

Overall Prometheus is a hugely enjoyable film that I will be watching again.  The best thing about it, everyone will come away with something different.  I could sit and pick over elements of the film and the story for hours, but you just have to see it for yourself.  I just wish I could go back in time to advise myself to forget about the Aliens franchise before going to see it the first time, and to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Do I jump on the bandwagon?...

I want to start by making a confession.  I'm a fan of the Twilight franchise, and by this point I have yet to read any of the books.  My only experience is the films.  This is the complete opposite to the norm for me.  I went to great lengths to make sure I'd read the Harry Potter books before I saw the corresponding films  The books always have more to offer in my opinion.  Everyone can take away something unique for themselves.  Their imagination makes it that way.

So the question is, do I want to go down the same road with The Hunger Games?

Until the release of the film, I knew nothing about the series.  The same can be said until I recently went to see the first instalment of the franchise.  Since then I've done a little homework into the series of books behind the film(s).  Suzanne Collins has achieved great success in tapping into the lucrative market of adolescent/late teen/young adults, with excesses of time and money.  You have all the big hitting themes in there, poverty, famine, social uprising, politics, even love found and love lost.  Although I've reached that age where I see all of these things happening outside my door, in the world.  I suppose I need to read the books themselves to really pass judgement, but what's making me wonder if I have time to devote to them, is the film.  Here's why...

We start with the main premise of the film, The Hunger Games themselves. Boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 fighting to the death.  Immediately you start to draw comparisons with Battle Royale (itself a film adapted from a novel, involving children fighting each other to the death).  Although it was less restricted by it's target audience (Battle Royale was certificated 18, and banned for a long period of time following it's release), with Battle Royale you felt the stark terror and sheer confusion of the children's situation.  This was a bunch of school children that had been taken against there will and forced to fight to the death!  The Hunger Games, well that whole concept just felt soft around the edges.  The one time you felt the terror, panic, and hopelessness of Katniss' situation was when she entered the tube just before the start of the games.  This was helped in part by the great sound editing, making you feel as though you were in there with her as the doors slid shut and all exterior sounds we muted out.  Beyond that, I just wasn't made to feel the injustice of the situation they were faced with.

This same numbness was, to me, present throughout the other elements of the film too.  Don't get me wrong, I got the themes that the film is trying to broach.  The poverty of the districts in comparison to the money and advances of the Capitol.  The 'big brother' government.  Even the love story thrown in for good measure.  If we take the love story element in direct comparison with the other great teen franchise, Twilight, there you have the edgy backdrop of vampires and werewolves.  Great catalysts for romance, lust and love.  And whilst The Hunger Games comes at it from the 'we need to ham it up for the sake of our survival, but am I really falling in love with you?' angle, again, I'm just not feeling it.  It's all thinking and reasoning.  I'm not feeling it.  As it is with the other themes mentioned above.

Part of the problem for me, is my final gripe, the incoherent back story to flesh the whole thing out.  Now I must admit that as a sci-fi fan, a loose back story is something that I should be accustomed to.  In a lot of cases I let a great wealth of things slide in this department.  Sometimes though, it just niggles me.  Gets under my skin, and I have to start picking at the holes.  This was one of those such occasions.

What happened during the uprising?  Did the districts exist before this point, or were they created afterwards?  What circumstances lead to people living in the Capitol, or is it purely a birthright?  The lack of answers to these questions, for me, meant that all the other ideas and concepts struggled to gain traction.

That brings me back to my original question.  Do I go down the same road with The Hunger Games as I have with Twilight.  Continuing to watch the films without reading the books?  Or would reading the books make me more forgiving of my perceive shortcomings within the films?

Make time for Cabin in the Woods...

It's been a while since I went to see Cabin in the Woods, so it's about time I share my thoughts on it with you.

I mentioned in an earlier post that my first experience of Cabin in the Woods was during an article on BBC's website.  The article spoke about too much information being given about the plot of a film during it's trailers.  Here's a link to the article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16972394

In the article it makes reference to viewers witnessing a force field barrier.  A bird flies into it, apparently giving away vital plot details.  I will agree only that it gives away the fact that a force field barrier features during the film.

The films opens with a sequence during which 2 men are walking through some kind of complex having a conversation about an upcoming project they're about to start work on.  It's very reminiscent of 80's america, workmen with their lunch boxes, the only thing that's missing are the hard hats.  What this sequence does is throw the cat among the pigeons from the word go.  You immediately know that something isn't right.

From there it continues along more familiar, formulaic lines.  To the point where after about 20 minutes I was sitting in fear that I was about to witness another teen slasher horror.  Then I realise that something very special is happening.  The witty Whedon dialogue, the familiar faces (for Whedon fans you'll notice faces from Doll House, Buffy and Angel), and the sublimely layered and drip fed storyline.  All of a sudden I'm in nerd/scifi/film lovers heaven.

The story is expertly brought together as well as being amazingly imaginative.  I know I've previously made reference to the gut-stabbing unicorn, but to go from innocent midterm holiday in the woods, to devil worshipping, human sacrificing, multi national corporation is something to behold.  With some sexy wolf kissing thrown in for good measure (it's just not right I tell you!)

Put in it's simplest terms.  Cabin in the Woods is a brilliant film for the casual viewer, and a tour de force for lovers of the genre.

Joss puts it very well in his own words during an interview with Total Film:

"On another level it's a serious critique of what we love and what we don't about horror movies. I love being scared. I love that mixture of thrill, of horror, that objectification/identification thing of wanting definitely for the people to be alright but at the same time hoping they’ll go somewhere dark and face something awful. The things that I don't like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into torture porn and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances. Drew and I both felt that the pendulum had swung a little too far in that direction"

I loved the spectacle of The Avengers, and as a huge Marvel fan, this is by default my top film of 2012 (this is my Oscar winner).  Cabin in the Woods, this takes my Palme d'Or.

Pre Spoiler Alert!!

It has been brought to my attention that in my last post I didn't give any warning before talking about a plot detail from Super 8.  Granted it was a minor plot detail, and one that is glaringly obvious and in no way a twist.  Yet still, a plot detail none the less...without warning.

So I would like to take this opportunity to provide a pre spoiler alert.

Especially if you are a close friend of mine.  One who has an exceptionally good DVD collection that is completely without filler (seriously, not one in the whole lot that I wouldn't gladly watch).  Who also seems to take on average 5 months to see a film once it has been released, almost 12 in the case of Super 8.  It was released in August 2011 for crying out loud!

Yes Matt, this is for you.

My next blog post will go into detail about Cabin in the Woods.  I've held off for as long as possible, but it's just too good a film to not talk about.

Go and watch it now.

Just for the record (and to avoid any notion of exaggeration), it has been 291 days since the release of Super 8 on August 5th 2011.  It has then been 39 days since the release of Cabin in the Woods on 13th April 2012.  When citing Matt's tendency to procrastinate in seeing films, I used these as the examples which gave me the average of 165 days, or 5.42 months.  I rounded it down to 5.  Although in fairness I then hammed it up by saying it was almost 12 months since Super 8's release.

The youngsters steal the show...

With it's current run on Sky Movies Premier, I watched Super 8 again the other evening.

I remember leaving the cinema when I saw it first time round, with the feeling of disappointment at what I considered to be a sickly and overly sentimental ending.  I specifically remember sitting on the edge of my seat, saying "please don't let go of the locket" repeatedly.  Needless to say, Joe let go, and I was reminded that one of the producers was the same man who brought us E.T and *batteries not included, and I did indeed have my heart warmed.

Watching Super 8 again achieved 2 things:

- Dispelled the feeling of disappointment I felt following my first viewing.

- Reminded me that the child acting in Super 8 is some of the finest I have ever seen.

The last time I remember seeing children carry a story so well on the big screen was Stand By Me, and for me that film has to much of a special place in my heart to ever be bettered.  And whilst Steven Spielberg wasn't involved in Stand By Me, he has been responsible for bringing some fantastic child acting performances to our cinema screens:
- E.T
- The Goonies
- Empire of the Sun (featuring a very young Christian Bale)
- A.I Artificial Intelligence (with one Haley Joel Osment)
It's quite clear that among many of his talents, Spielberg has an eye for picking out a great child actor.

If you have yet to see Super 8, get on it.  The same can be said for any of the other films I have mentioned above.  If you haven't seen Stand By Me, every moment you spend from now not watching it, is time wasted.  Thinking about it, it's time I watched it again myself.

Sometimes you just feel like a bit of a snack...

We all like a snack every now and then.  I particularly like an onion bhaji.  My local Indian takeaway, Everest Tandoori, do a lovely onion bhaji (among other things) that is roughly the size of an average burger patty.

Retuning home from work a few evenings ago, I was excited to see what treat my lovely wife had in store for me.  All day she had been sending me messages, saying she had bought me the greatest gift.  It went without saying that the gift was a food item (the way to this man's heart, is indeed through his stomach), and when I arrived home she opened the oven and the familiar aroma of onion bhaji came wafting out to greet me.

As my wife pulled the oven tray out though, I could see that this was no ordinary bhaji.  It was a monster!  Larger than my fist:

To try and put it into context a little better, I also took a photo of the bhaji next to a tin of baked beans:

Now I'm not a huge frequenter of curry houses, I like Indian food, but the majority of that I eat is takeaway.  But this is the biggest onion bhaji I have seen (in the flesh so to speak).  And larger than an apple, it was almost a meal in itself.  Definitely something to brush your teeth after eating though!

I'm a fan of larger than average foodstuffs, and I'm an even bigger fan of people who make things as large as humanly possible.  So needless to say, I've had a rummage round the internet to find the World's biggest onion bhaji.

The current record is held here in the UK, by a team who created their behemoth at Bradford College's International Food Academy (IFA).  Their gigantic creation weighed in at 95kg, and measured almost a metre around the middle.  Even the engineering department had to get in on the action, to help design bespoke cooking equipment!

Please aspiring record breaker out there, attempt to go one bigger.  And let me come and help eating it!!

Old fashioned values...

I often enjoy revisiting the good old action films of the 80s and 90s.  The wise cracking good guy, the (usually English) bad guy, with pet/sidekick/shady boss person at the other end of a video link in tow.  The good guy always wins, gets the girl, then the credits roll.

Why do I enjoy the trip down cinematic memory lane?  Because it's good fun.  Simple.  Mindless.

I'm not always in the mood for a Requiem for a Dream, The Piano, or Momento style trip to the outer reaches of my psyche.  Sometimes after a hard day at work, I want to relax, crack open a beer, but most importantly, not have to think to hard.

With the above in mind, Lockout is a return to good old fashioned 'action film making' values.

Elevated from B movie status, in my opinion, with the inclusion of Guy Pearce, it offers, thrills, spills, wise cracks, and is strictly uncomplicated.  Add to that, a seemingly genuine chemistry shared by Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace, especially in the closing scenes (see my post 'High School Drama Productions' http://brightsidegerman.blogspot.com/2012/04/high-school-drama-productions.html for why this scores points with me) and you have good value for money from your trip to the cinema.

The only fly in the ointment is a decidedly dodgy motorbike chase at the beginning.  With it's heavy use of CGI and wild camera work, it feels like an amusement ride at Universal Studios.  It could quite easily have been left out, at no detriment to the film.

Parallels to Snake Plissken, and John Carpenter's Escape from New York and L.A films have been drawn in a great many reviews.  It's understandable why.  Guy Pearce's wrongly accused and disgraced CIA agent Snow is forced into a seemingly suicidal rescue attempt of the President's daughter (sounds familiar).  Only this time it's in space, and instead of the deadly threat of Plutoxin 7 as an incentive to play ball, Snow has a space station cum prison facility full of psychotic, escaped convicts for motivation.

The antagonists come in the form of brothers Alex and Hydell.  The latter played by Joseph Gilgun, who is a particular favourite of mine from shows such as This Is England, and Misfits.  Apart from a hideously out of place scottish accent from Gilgun, his character has menace still without taking himself too seriously.  The main of the two brothers, Alex, then ends up seeming a damp squib by comparison.

It's not a hot tip for the Oscars, and it won't be breaking any records at the box office.  But long live films like Lockout.  Making regular trips to the cinema enjoyable since 1983.