I am not sure where to begin with this movie.  This will most likely be the first review of this movie on this site.  So will just share what I think of the movie and allow one of my more eloquent reviewers give a full synopsis.  Well, first thing first…it is brilliant.  This is not a summer comic book movie.  This is a strait up flick.  There is no over the top, no reason for it action sequence.   Everything in this movie is part of the story.    Christopher and Jonathan  Nolan wrote not a script about a comic book character.  They wrote a story about crime, corruption, terrorism and then added comic book characters to it.  The main feelings of the movie is fear and dread.

Heath Ledger.  Wow.  I was worried when I heard that Ledger was tapped to do the rule of the Joker.  When he enters the movie there really is a level of menace that you can feel.  Holy shit did he land that character.  You will actually fear the Joker.  Which is what you should do.  Jack Nicholson  was ok….he got the crazy part but not the sense of malevolence that the Joker generates.  In the movie the Joker refers to himself and an agent of chaos.  And that is the Joker.  He is madness personified.  Which is what is freighting about him.  But he is not random…no he has a plan that is well thought out….creative and just plan EVIL.  That is will this Joker will always called the best…the Joker became evil again.  For Batman to really work you need him to fight something evil.  The Joker is the most evil character in DC universe.

Aaron Eckhart.  Mr. Eckhart, one of my fellow reviewers called into question your acting chops…I would like to apologize on the behalf of Attack of the Movie Watchers.com  for this slight.  You owned the role of Harvey Dent.  I will never accept another actor playing that role.  After a scene in which Dent describes why he likes Batman…I was sold.  Mr. Eckhart you are Harvey Dent

Maggie Gyllenhaal….Thank god!  Hate Katie Holms.  Gyllenhaal is a great actress and took the role of Rachel Dawes away form Holms and the audience is thankful.

The rest of the cast is from the first movie….and as ways on top of things.  Only beef I have is Christian Bale’s Batman voice…dude stop with the voice.  Use another one…this sounds bad when you try to “Sound” like Batman.  However, his performance and Batman the best one ever.  Of all the actors who have played Batman Bale really has it down.

This movie was not a disappointment. I left the theater at 3 am not tired but jazzed. Christopher Nolan has proven his talent as a director and as a writer. This movie will kick your ass and you will not only like it but you will be pissed that it is over.

In a word: Awesome.

I’m always a fan of movies that stay true to the original story. I read the tpb editions of DC: The New Frontier a few months before the dvd came out on the advice of a friend who swears by this story as stongly as he does the work of Alan Moore or Frank Miller, though we disagree on Miller. 

With JL:TNF, Darwyn Cooke transports us to the 1950’s, a time when good old fashioned American know how had beaten the Nazis a decade earlier with the help of the Mystery Men (who later became known as the Justice Society of America), but with the Nazis defeated and the threat of Communism looming potentially around every corner, McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee forced the JSA to quit in disgrace when they would not reveal their identities and swear loyalty oaths with the exception of Hourman who is later killed by federal agents.

Many heroes quit or simply left the country, feeling alienated by the government. Ironically one of the few who didn’t feel alienated was an alien by the name of Superman. He, along with Wonder Woman went on to serve during the Korean War to surpress the enemies of the United States.

And that sets the stage for what comes next.

I found it quite easy to look back on that period of history with not a little shock at the paranoia of the time, but when I look at modern events I realize its not so far in the past. There’s a great point in the movie where a random guy in a bar questions why the Flash wears red. “Red is for Commies!!” A simple throw-away line which drives the point home.

This movie has charm in every scene, (though it earns it’s PG-13 rating early on) from test pilot Hal Jordan (David Boreanaz) wanting to see the stars close up, to the green, shape-shifting Martian (Miguel Ferrer) wandering the streeets of Gotham City trying to solve a mystery along side the Batman (Jeremy Sisto), the voice work is great I thought Sisto was a very believable Batman, and I’m a fan of Kevin Conroy who has been voicing Batman since 1992. It’s a crime that this movie wasn’t released in theaters.

But I think the best casting choice was Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, although it could be argued that it was typecasting. I loved that the animators even made Wonder Woman just a couple inches taller than Kyle Maclachlan’s Superman, because in case you forgot, shes an amazon. 

Every part of this movie just seems to spring from the page! Even the animation style is true to the art of the comic itself… and I just realized I’ve written almost 6 paragraphs and not even touched on the actual plot. How did I do that?

Anyway, the bad guy isn’t Lex Luthor, it’s not even human. It isn’t even evil, not really anyway. It sees a problem with the world and makes a solid attempt to correct the problem. Not even Superman can stand against it.

This story was partly born out of Kennedy’s “New Frontier” speech, which is just as relevant today as it was in 1960 if not moreso. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a movie with a good message.

If you remotely like super-hero movies, see it. If you are a fan of comics, see it. If you have kids who are about 10-12yrs old who like comics, see it.

This movie has been touted as the best movie put out by DC’s production company, I’m comfortable putting in just behind Batman Begins. Yes, it’s still that good.

“What happens when make-believe believes it’s real?”

This was the tag-line for Guillermo del Toro’s beautiful fantasy, translated for Western audiences as “Pan’s Labyrinth”. I learned of this film several months in advance and actively made every effort to ensure that a) I knew where it would be shown in my city. b)  All my friends knew about this movie too. I would stop into the Lagoon or Uptown theaters in the months leading up to the opening to ensure that it was indeed playing in Minneapolis. Apparently I wasn’t alone in that.

When a group of us got to the Uptown Theater on opening night in scenic Uptown Minneapolis, there was a line stretching around the corner down Lagoon Av. We waited for about twenty minutes in line; we were not dissappointed.

Doug Jones, the actor who protrayed Pan and the scary Pale Man appeared in person and introduced the film after saying a few words which amounted to a sincere “I put a lot of time and love into this and even learned some spanish for this part (though he was dubbed over), I hope you like it”. Ever since I saw the original Hellboy, I’d been a fan of Doug Jones, if I heard he had a part in a film, I’d make an effort to see it. I saw FF:RotSS only because Jones was slated to play the Silver Surfer (one of my favorite comicbook characters ever!) though, it was decided (wrongfully) to have Lawrence Fishbourne to voice the Surfer. Having only heard his voice for the first time in that packed theater, here is an actor who had basically managed to convey a wide-range of emotions and ideas without using language. 

The movie itself takes place in a fascist Spain during World War II. The harsh reality of war is contrasted by a fantasy world which at times can be no less grusome. Ofelia, a young girl who, with her mother, has come to live with her new stepfather, a especially ruthless captain of the Spanish army who is attempting to root out a group of rebels hiding out in the woods. Ofelia discovers one night that an insect flying about her room is actually a fairy which beckons her to follow it into the woods where she finds a labyrinth deep underground, at its center is the Faun (Pan), who claims to know her true identity and her secret destiny. But unless she completes three tasks by the time of the full moon, she will never see her true father.

This movie clearly had me at the title.. if not beforehand. Given my love of mythology (did you notice the ‘-satyr‘ in my name?), and my interest in seeing  Guillermo del Toro’s take on the myth of the faun and a pivotial point in world history. My only complaint, if it can be called that, is that I would have enjoyed this movie more had it been dubbed and not in subtitles. Yes, I’m so uncultured that I have trouble “reading” a movie… it’s a fault that I readily admit to. However this takes nothing from the visuals, costuming, or acting of this film.

Simply, this movie is stunning on all levels.

I found the young Ivana Baquero very believable as the intrepid and imaginative Ofelia, I tend to be watchful of child actors who obvious mistakes in their lines, but for all I know Ivana was protected in this by the language barrier, in my ignorance and the fact that she won several awards as a young and promising actress I’ll assume she did an okay job. I think it’s worth noting also that this movie won 67 seperate awards, including 3 Oscars. I trust that Guillermo has enough space on his mantle for his future endeavors.

This is the second movie about the characters created by Mike Mignola. Guillermo del Toro once again take the helm of this franchise. The movie is beautiful to look at. Like Pan’s Labyrinth the fey and other mythical creatures do not look fake or computer generated (George Lucas please take note). The cast is almost the same as the first Hellboy expect Rupert Evans is not in it and del Tore adds another one of Mignola’s characters Johann Krauss, which is voiced by the awesome Seth MacFarlane.

The story was interesting. A the dawn of time elves, goblins, trolls and the other mythical races lived along side humans. The humans wanted more of the land and started a war with the other races. The first war the humans won and many of the races were killed. The goblins came to the king of the elves with a proposal. The goblins will build an army of machines that will destroy the human army. The Army is controlled by a crown that only one of royal blood can where. So the next time the humans attack the Golden Army is there to fight them. The Golden Army feels nothing…pain, remorse nor mercy. The humans are defeated and are verge of being annihilated. Seeing the devastation the Elven king makes a truce with the Humans. The crown that controls the Golden Army is split into three pieces.

The son of the Elven king Prince Nuada believes that the humans cannot be trusted and goes into exile until the day his people need him to kill the humans. This is where the movie begins. The Prince begins his war with the humans by stealing the piece that the was given to the humans. He does this by releasing two boxes full of “tooth fairies”. These things are fucking wrong. You will not like the idea of the tooth fairy after this movie.

I had a lot of fun with this movie. The story was cool the cast did a great job and del Toro did once again an amazing job. Go see the movie and then go out and get some of the graphic novels that this story is based on. The Hellboy series is great.

An open letter to M. Night Shyamalan:

I consider myself a fan of your work.  I have seen every one of your movies in the theaters, including the truly awful Lady in the Water.  Every time I see a new preview of your movies, I think to myself: finally, this one will be good.  I think I have to stop now.

I just watched The Happening, in the theater, like a good kid.  While I was intrigued by the concept, which I won’t give away here, the execution was terrible.  I understand the genre you were trying to reinvent — the environmental disaster movie.  But frankly, both the Simpsons Movie and Day After Tomorrow achieved better results.  And even they aren’t exactly high cinema.

My conflicts with The Happening are many.  First, let’s talk about style.  The movie was heavy handed just for the sake of being heavy handed.  You attempted to manufacture drama, rather than let it unfold slowly onscreen.  It was basically two hours of ominious sound effects and unneccesary dramatic pauses punctuated by exposition and people killing themselves in creative ways. 

Secondly, what happened to the acting?  You chose very capable actors, Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo and Zooey Deschanel.  Yet, they spent two hours looking dumbfounded.  So, you shot all of their reaction takes from below, so we could look up their noses while their nostrils flared in confusion. 

Finally, let’s talk about the resolution.  I won’t give it away, but basically you painted yourself into a plot corner. There was no real way to resolve the plot, so you didn’t.  You just stopped the movie.  After all the time you spent building tension, the ending just fizzled. It didn’t feel desperate, as it should.  It just felt bland and disappointing. 

Now, I have enjoyed several of your movies.  But, I just don’t know if I will be rushing out to see your next one. At least, not in the theaters.

Wanted staring James McAvoy as Wesley Gibson, Morgan Freeman as Sloan, and the sexy tattooed Angelina Jolie as Fox, didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Yes, it was a suburb action movie. And don’t get me wrong, I loved every minute of it. However, it left me a little bit cold once the lights came up and the credits had finished rolling.

Warning! - If you haven’t seen the movie and are planning on it, don’t read any further. Go see the movie, enjoy Fox’s short nude scene and the amazing gun battles, and then come back and read my blah blah blah…

Wesley Gibson is a cube jockey that suffers from what he thinks are intense panic attacks. They debilitate to the point where is unable to stand up for himself in anyway. At work he is pray to a boss with a low-self esteem who lashes out at those she perceives to be weaker. At home, he his girl friend pushes him around and sleeps with his best friend. His life is complete crap.

Then one day, a seemingly normal day (Don’t all movies like this start out on a normal day?) that quickly becomes life changing, Wesley is thrown into a fight between The Fraternity and a rogue assassin. Wesley quickly, I think too quickly, embraces his newly discovered talents. There was only a moment where he hesitated, tried to go back to his mundane life.

I don’t know what I wanted here, but Wesley seemed to embrace his new life and exit his old one far too quickly. I wanted more character development, more choice.

Wesley did have his Red Pill / Blue Pill moment. Once he agreed to begin training, he went through a Fight Club style hazing. He was tied to a chair and beaten until he was able to voice his real reason for wanting to join The Fraternity.

I have to say that I liked the training part of the movie, but on some level, I just did not buy that Wesley could so quickly transform into such an effective killing machine in such a short time. I think that it could have easily been fixed with a little more attention to how the passage of time was portrayed. As it is now, you have to believe more than a few days have passed. I would have liked to have seen some signifiers that his training took time. I don’t know how much time, but in order to have mastered the fighting arts as seen in the movie, perhaps a year (I don’t know, perhaps that would have made him less super.)

The one thing that I’m still out on is that The Fraternity took its orders from Fate. Fate spoke to The Fraternity through binary as woven into a large tapestry. It is an interesting idea, a Faith based on loom that spells names. I also liked how easily the faithful could be led astray by Sloan’s devious misinterpretations.

Which brings me to the end of the movie, the climax. Sloan reveals that every member of The Fraternity’s name had come up when Wesley produced Sloan’s own. Fox being the true believer fulfilled Fate’s mission killing the remaining assassins and her self with one bullet. It was a good scene, I’ll admit it. However, I don’t like that ending. It is too simple. It raped everything up to neatly.

Yes, the movie does not stop there. Wesley has his revenge on Sloan, but where does that leave the story. I guess that I’m becoming addicted to the never ending sequels. I want more. I want a bigger story. I want to know what Wesley will do next. Will he rebuild The Fraternity? I just don’t know.

Side note: Fox is the hottest character that Angelina Jolie has played to date. Her Tattoos are amazing. I sure hope that there is a prequel or a movie about how she joined up with The Fraternity. I think that it would even be a better story than Wanted.

The Soulless Machine

What can I say? I’m completely hooked on the John Adams HBO miniseries. It provided a needed respite from work on my thesis today, work that goes as well as it can. I wrote or I guess I should say that I completely rewrote eleven pages of my short story Tagger. I trust in my wife and writing partner when she says that I these pages are improved over the originals. I’m afraid that I’m too close to project to be less than partial.

Part 2: Independence is the story of how the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia came to vote upon a declaration of independence from Britain. In my mind this decision was swift and unanimous from the beginning. However, many of the Thirteen Colonies did not so swiftly join. Much deliberation and oratory was necessary to finally arrive at the vote of twelve, none against, and New York’s abstention.

Much happened before the vote and this is where the brilliance of the Adams can be scene. Adams would have been the first to admit that he did not have the appetite and the patience that politics required. Enter his friend and fellow mentor Benjamin Franklin (played by Tom Wilkinson), who helped Adams with his political maneuvers. These maneuvers included enlisting Thomas Jefferson (played by Stephen Dillane) to compose the first draft of the Declaration of Independence because he was a Virginian, at that time one of the most powerful of the Thirteen Colonies and because Adams had read Jefferson’s earlier work and knew him to be of moral and like mind.

Part 2: Independence also contains a few side stories that are note worthy. The first is the enlistment of George Washington (played by David Morse) to lead the Massachusetts Militia. Washington is humble and cares for the men in his charge. There is an amazing scene where Washington calls on Abigail Adams at the Adams’ farm. Washington is seeking a needed respite from his worries over his men and the increasing number of Hessians that the British have enlisted. Abigail’s learned company does much for his disposition, but not even her witty banter can keep his mind from his troops.

The other interesting side plot is that of an inoculation against the bloody pox. A pox is known to have infected George Washington’s the troops. Abigail Adams takes is shown in the film to be obsessed with keeping her children save from it. She calls upon a doctor to inoculate her and her children. The scene is gritty and adds a lot to the film. I don’t know about it accuracy, more information can be had about it at Boston 1775 in the post No Pox Party in John Adams. What I found shocking was how the virus was obtained. The doctor had an infected man in the back of his cart from whom he cut pustules in to a clear dish. From there the scene cuts to a room where the doctor makes a small cut in the arm’s of each Adams then presses the puss into the wound.

It is going to be hard not to run up the street and get the next disk. To view all my reviews of the miniseries, click this tag: John Adams HBO Miniseries

The Soulless Machine

John Adams is going to be an amazing seven part HBO miniseries. I just finished Part 1: “Join or Die.”  It has a huge cast, including Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams. I’m going to review each Part as I watch it, this is to as much as anything, slow my watching of it. I tend to be quite the marathon couch potato. To view all reviews of the miniseries, click this tag: John Adams HBO Miniseries.

“Join or Die” is the story of how John Adams becomes involved with the Sons of Liberty. This segment does a good job of portraying Adams’ reluctance to side with Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and the common rabble that use violence to elicit change. Adams is a man of Law and principal. He struggles with the idea of an ordered society of laws, laws that uphold the King’s justice.

I tend to read more about what takes place after the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. I did not know that Adams defended Captain Preston and the British troops who opened fire on the crowd, killing 5. It was even more surprising to learn that Adams won the case, or rather was able to bring about an acquittal. I guess that shows how much I know about the birth of my county. Like most boys, when I was in school I focused on the gore of the revolution, the tar and featherings, the Tea Party, all the exciting stuff that young boys like.

I really like the casting choice of Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams. They have a strange distant but loving chemistry that I feel fits the chaste time period. I know that it is cliché, but behind every good and honest man, there is a woman to keep him good and honest. One scene in particular reminded me of my own marriage. Abigail Adams has just finished reading John’s closing remarks for the Boston Massacre and is providing feedback and criticism. John, not unlike the way I take feedback from my wife about my writing, does not what to edit out all the little things that make him feel brilliant and smart, but overcomplicate and way down his argument. It was a brilliant and loving moment.

A lot more history happens in “Join or Die,” before the ending scene where Adams rejects the comfort of the gilded carriage for his simple horse. Adams and the other Massachusetts’ delegates ride out of town under the protection of the Sons of Liberty to part of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. 

The Soulless Machine

What can I say? I’m a sucker for the high gloss action movie’s with super powers. Jumper, newly on DVD, is one of those guilty pleasures. I’m even going to role-up a character like Griffin (played by Jamie Bell), meaning that my character will be able to jump, for an upcoming game that colovillis will be running.

Hayden Christensen’s acting wasn’t so hot. His character, David Rice, was not very interesting either. I mean, really, you have this amazing ability to be anywhere you want by thinking it and you go back for the high school crush. I mean really. The movie even showed how he could have any smoking hot woman he wanted from any country. I just have to say that this was a sad story line, just sad.

However, don’t let that stop you from seeing this movie. The special effects were really good (it’s too bad you can’t see it on a big screen). The fight scenes were amazing. I really like the idea of being able to jump and entire bus at someone-that was way cool. 

The revenge seeking Griffin, who had been on his own since early childhood, was a lot more engaging. He was on a mission to kill the paladins, led by Roland (played by Samuel L. Jackson), who’s sole job was to hunt down Jumpers and kill them because they are an affront to God. Only God can be omnipresent, which is a logic error. Jumpers could only be in one place at one time, and the definition of omnipresent is all places at once.   

I’m going to look for this movie on the cheap and add it to my movie collection. If you’re looking for fun, this is it.

The Soulless Machine

PS. Check out my Summer Movie Line Up.

The Incredible Hulk is second of Mavel Comics summer movies. It stars Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt. The movie is not a sequel to Ang Lee movie that was released in 2003…and thank god for that. Lee’s vision of the Hulk was ass. He did not bother reading of even looking at the source material for the character. Lee decided that the Hulk was about the relationship between a father and his son….The Hulk, Mr. Lee it’s a FUCKING JEKYLL AND HYDE STORY. This movie barrows from not only the comics, but it also gives a giant shot out to the T.V series as well.  Which is great. Lou Ferrigno not only gets a minor role in the movie but also does the voice of the Hulk. Which by the way fucking rules…they had the Hulk talk. He is not quoting the bard but he say “HULK SMASH”!!! That is why I went to the movie in the first place.

This is not a thought provoking movie…it is about the Incredible fucking Hulk!! Do not go to this movie expecting some earth moving experience. If you go into thinking I am going to see a cool comic book movie you will be happy. This movie would be on most nerds top ten list if it had come out last year. But unfortunately it came out the same summer as Iron Man…oh Robert Downey Jr. shows up as Tony Stark….so fucking sweet. And that is the problem. Iron Man was so awesome that most superhero movies are going to look like butt compared to it. That is what kinda sucked for The Incredible Hulk. The movie is a solid B+ but because it came out in the same summer as Iron Man, which raised the bar on the genre.

Go see The Incredible Hulk, get some pop corn and have some fun. Watch the big green guy kick ass and take names. Watch Ed Norton put on a great performance…ignore Liv Tyler, she sucked….hot yes but she sucked.