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Non-Review Review: Battleship

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Darren

Battleship is a big American blockbuster. And, to be fair, it falls pray to a large number of the pitfalls of those sorts of films. There’s more action than thought. There’s lots of CGI filling the scenes. It rigidly adheres to a formula. It’s characters aren’t developed beyond shallow archetypes. However, I can forgive most of these flaws because Peter Berg actually makes this fun. I can very honestly and shamelessly admit that this was the most fun big dumb blockbuster that I’ve seen since Independence Day or perhaps The Rock. And that’s quite a compliment. It’s never anything more than it claims to be, but does well not to take itself too seriously.

Something to sea...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alexander Skarsgård, aliens, battleship, Berg, blockbuster, Brooklyn Decker, cgi, film, Hopper, liam neeson, michael bay, Movie, non-review review, peter berg, review, Rihanna, Stephen Hawkins, Taylor Kitsch, transformers, United States | 7 Comments »

The Top 30 Under-Reported News Stories of 2012…

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Darren

Today is a very special day. We’re officially a third of the way through 2012. It’s been a pretty solid year for movies, and it’s been an interesting year for movie news. However, some news stories haven’t had quite the traction that I would have expected, and might have passed readers by. So, to celebrate getting through the first third of 2012, here’s the 30 most underreported movie-related news stories of 2012.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: April Fools Day, black and white, george clooney, jean-luc picard, liam neeson, michael bay, Michael Fassbender, Navy, patrick stewart, Practical joke, quentin tarantino, robert downey, roland emmerich, Sex & The City, star trek: the next generation, StarTrek, Terrence Malick, William Shatner, Wrath of the Titans | 4 Comments »

Hey Zeus, Meet Jesus: Wrath of the Titans & Judeo-Christian Archetypes…

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

Somewhere, an expert on Ancient Greek mythology is crying. Probably a lot of experts on Ancient Greek culture. As enjoyable as Wrath of the Titans might be in offering charming (if a little shallow) spectacle, it doesn’t necessarily offer the most faithful depiction of Ancient Greek deities. It isn’t the only film to get things drastically wrong – Disney’s Hercules comes to mind. Presenting these mythical characters and creatures for modern audiences and sensibilities, the archetypes are skewed and twisted to conform to religious associations which most audience members might find familiar. In particular, these sorts of films often adopt a decidedly Judeo-Christian view of Ancient Greek gods. However, watching Wrath of the Titans, I couldn’t help but feel that the film was not only acutely aware of that narrative shortcut, but perhaps even cleverly exploiting it – developing the character arc of these ancient gods and transitioning them into the archetypes that we know and recognise.

Oh my gods...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Ancient Greece, clash of the titans, Clash of the Titans (2010 film), greek, greek mythology, hades, Jonathan Liebesman, liam neeson, Perseus, ralph fiennes, Sam Worthington, Titans, Wrath of the Titans, zeus | 17 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Wrath of the Titans

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

Wrath of the Titans is effective spectacle, and certainly nothing less. It offers a large-scale canvas for director Jonathan Liebesman to offer us large-scale set pieces involving lots of mythical monsters, tonnes of fire and some decent action sequences. I’m one of the few people who enjoyed Clash of the Titans for what it was, and Wrath of the Titans isn’t an especially different beast. It offers the same level and quality of sound and fury helping distract from some storytelling problems. There are, of course, differences between the two films, both nothing especially drastic. While I wasn’t always engaged with the film, I did enjoy for what it was.

Giving the old man some stick...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: clash of the titans, film, Jonathan Liebesman, liam neeson, Movie, non-review review, Perseus, ralph fiennes, review, Sam Worthington, Toby Kebbell, Wrath of the Titans | Leave a comment »

New Battleship Trailer

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Darren

The guys over at Universal just sent on this latest trailer for their summer blockbuster Battleship. Being entirely honest, I’m not quite sold on the nautical adventure yet, if only because it looks a little bit too much like Transformers… but with boats. Still, I’m willing to be convinced, and I think the movie could work, if it manages to avoid the heavy-handed dour seriousness that sucked the fun out of Michael Bay’s film series. There is, after all, plenty of room for fun in blockbuster cinema and I hope this could offer the fun of something like Real Steel. Personally, I think it’d be worth it simply to hear Liam Neeson utter the line “they sunk my battleship” with the utmost gravitas. (I don’t actually know if he does, but that’s really been something I’ve been hoping for since he was cast. I’m actually 100% serious, I’m imagining the dramatic pauses and everything.)

Anyway, here the trailer is. Make up your own mind on it and let me know.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Alexander Skarsgård, battleship, Brooklyn Decker, Hasbro, liam neeson, michael bay, peter berg, Rihanna, Taylor Kitsch, transformers, universal studios | 10 Comments »

Right In Time: Are Some Concepts Just Too Silly For Movies?

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Darren

I think it’s happened to all of us at some point. We see a poster for a film, or the start of a trailer that looks fascinating – all the right talent is involved to grab our attention, the technical stuff looks well-executed, it’s stylish and smart… and then we catch the plot of the film. It’s a plot that kind of makes us pause, drawing an almost unconscious, “huh?” from our collective lips. Maybe we read it twice to try to make some sense out of it, but there’s no joy. It still sounds as absolutely and impossibly silly as it did when we first read of the plot. It has happened to me quite a few times over the years, as I’ve found myself wondering how the hell such a concept could work on the big screen. I’ll confess, it happened when I read the plot summary for In Time, directed by Andrew Niccol, which drew this appropriate response…

More at The Shiznit...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Adjustment Bureau, Andrew Niccol, arts, Charlie Kaufman, Day of the Triffids, film, huh?, In time, liam neeson, Lone Ranger, Manhattan, richard donner, superman, superman ii, suspension of disbelief, wait... what?, what?, wtf | 31 Comments »

Five More Creative Ways to Make Green Lantern 2 A Better Film (Rather Than Just “Darker and Edgier”)…

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Darren

Green Lantern was a disappointment. Along with Marvel’s Daredevil, the Green Lantern series has been perhaps the strongest mainstream superhero title published in the past decade, and Warner Brothers couldn’t manage to produce a decent film. This was supposed to be the company’s first superhero franchise outside of the tried-and-tested Batman and Superman properties, and it fell flat. Nevertheless, Warners have vowed to press on with the sequel, daring to produce a “darker and edgier” follow-up to the film. Ignoring the fact that not all superheroes need to be “darker and edgier”, it still ignores the fact that the problems with Martin Campbell’s would-be franchise launcher had very little to do with being too light or soft. Here are five pieces of advice that the executive would do well to take on board, before deciding to simply “go darker.”

The sequel... Dark Green Lantern...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Abin Sur, Batman in film, Christopher Nolan, Doctor Polaris, films, green lantern, green lantern 2, hal jordan, Han Solo, liam neeson, Movies, parallax, sequels, star wars, Warner Bros | 2 Comments »

A Bluffer’s Guide to the Dark Knight Rises Rumours…

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Darren

This week has been a bit of an early Christmas for movie geeks such as myself, with Warner Brothers unveiling both the teaser poster and the teaser trailer to The Dark Knight Rises, the much-anticipated closing chapter to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. When we know a bit more later in the year, I’ll dig into the movie in a bit more depth, but it occurred to me that a lot of fans on-line are throwing out concepts and references that might seem a bit foreign to the uninitiated. I can’t imagine how strange it must be for a non-comic-book-fan to hear titles like Knightfall or “Lazarus Pits” thrown into casual conversation. So I’ve put together a bluffer’s guide to all the speculation and rumours, so that you can hopefully understand a bit more of what nerdy geeks like myself are talking about when we casually reference stuff like “I will break you!” It should be stressed that all these are 100% rumour, and not meant to reflect the film, but to help understand geeky references in discussions about the film. Sort of like a handy guide to the “offside rule”in soccer or such.

Welcome to underground comcis culture...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bane, batman, Batman in film, Batman: Knightfall, bluffer's guide, bluffing, bruce wayne, Christopher Nolan, film, film rumours, Knightfall, lex luthor, liam neeson, movie rumours, Movies, ra's al ghul, rumours, Talia Al Ghul, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, the dark knight rises rumours, United States | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Next Three Days

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Darren

The Next Three Days is actually, when it gets down to it, quite a clever and inventive little prison break movie, with a strong central performance from Russell Crowe, with a smart script and a great supporting cast. However, the problem is that, for a prison break movie, the actual prison break only takes up a relatively small amount of the film. While it’s clear a great deal of care and research went into the production, and it feels like Paul Haggis is really showing his work, it throws the pacing off a bit, and feels almost like we’re watching the episodic adventures of a guy planning to break his wife out of prison.

This couple really needs a break...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brian Dennehy, DVD, elizabeth banks, escaping from prison, film, jailbreak, liam neeson, Movie, Movies, next 3 days, Next Three Days, non-review review, Olivia Wilde, paul haggis, prison break, review, russell crowe, the next 3 days, the next three days | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Darkman

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

Spider-Man wasn’t Sam Raimi’s first foray into the world of superheroes. Darkman stands as one of the very few earnest superheroes created originally in the medium of film (as opposed to being adapted from comic books or other pulp fiction), and it’s certainly an interesting and entertaining feature. Going on to produce two direct-to-video sequels, some books, some comic books and even a computer game, the character is the very definition of “cult.”