WONDER WOMAN PILOT (2011) (a review)

WONDER WOMAN PILOT (2011) (a review)

This was a very high profile pilot made for the 2011 fall season. It was written by David E Kelley (Ally McBeal) and starred Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights) and Elizabeth Hurley. It didn't get picked up. Lots of negative buzz. So how was it? Bad, but let's talk about it.

The story: Wonder Woman, aka Diana Prince (Adrianne Palicki) is a vigilante who is accepted and even loved by the police. She finds out people are being filled with illegal steroids to try to give them super-powers and she tries to take down the woman behind it.

Was it good?

No. And there are a lot of things we could talk about at being bad -- especially the first scene where she is running down the middle of the street which just looked ridiculous -- but let's start with the big one: story.

The idea of her hunting down someone giving people superpowers is interesting, but that never seems to be the focus. The big thing is never that someone is trying to create their own superheroes, it's just illegal steriods. Yawn. They had a cool idea and just didn't sieze it. And it goes to that other big question -- What's this about? If the external side is fighting the bad guy, then what's the internal...and I really couldn't say. There are some weird things in here -- like a long conversation where she while discussing a line of Wonder Woman dolls complains about the size of the breasts on the doll even though her boobs are being pushed up to her chin by her costume. There are other things pointing to the idea of her feeling alone, that being famous and loved isn't all that, but again none of that really seems to be the emotional focus.

So you watch the pilot and just think why??? Why make it, why bother, why was this interesting??? I don't know.

There are a lot of other things wrong. People complained about the costume, but that could be fixed. The acting wasn't great and the fight scenes were lame, but again there's a possiblity those could be improved over time. The humor doesn't work and it's a weird mix when they are struggling to get the drama to work. They also don't talk about WW's origin or anything -- they just throw her out there as a woman who runs down the middle of the street and is cheered by people and makes toys based on herself. Why not have an origin story? Why not start at the beginning?

I've seen good pilots that didn't get picked up (Global Frequency was pretty cool), but this one wasn't close.

*** (actually you don't have to avoid it since it was never picked up) ****

GREEN LANTERN (2011) (a review)

GREEN LANTERN (2011) (a review)

This is the big budget ($200M+) comic book adaptation. It's the first big superhero movie by DC that wasn't Superman or Batman. It starts Ryan Reynolds with Blake Lively as the girlfriend. Directed by Martin Campbell who directed Mask of Zorro and the sequel...which I never even knew existed before I just looked it up.

The story: Hal Jordan (Reynolds) is a test pilot who finds a crashed alien ship. Inside the ship, the alien gives him the Green Lantern ring which gives him the power to create anything he can imagine. However, he needs training so he goes off into space to learn about the Green Lantern Corps, a whole bunch of Green Lanterns from around the universe who fight evil, and to learn to not be afraid. Back on Earth, this other guy has been infected by a bad space alien and he has mutated into this weird dude and taken Jordan's girl hostage so he has to save him, but then an even bigger space alien appears and now Jordan has to fight this final alien that could destroy the world, and he has to do it without the help of the Green Lantern Corps who are worried that they will lose.

Was it good?

No.

It wasn't horrible-horrible, and I'm sure kids would like it, but as a movie that might also appeal to adults the way the Batman or Spider-Man or Iron Man or X-Men or even Thor did, it's really bad.

First, I didn't like Reynolds as the superhero. Reynolds, for me, is basically a smart ass. Which is fine for a comedy like THE PROPOSAL or his role in SCRUBS, but for this movie, where he occasionally has to give dramatic superhero lines at key moments...well, none of them worked for me.

Then there are a lot of things that didn't connect. Like Hal Jordan is a fearless fighter pilot. Then he gets the ring and suddenly he is afraid? How does that make sense? Or the whole idea of the Green Lanterns is to not give in to fear, but the reason why the Lanterns won't help Hal fight the big bad evil is because they are afraid of what will happen if they lose. Huh? Aren't they supposed to be the ones without fear?

I also didn't get the love story. I mean, they know each other and maybe used to be an item, but then aren't and why? Then he's a superhero so they are a couple again? Really? That's all there is to it?

The Marvel movies work when they take a person with an interesting problem (can't get the girl, manufacturing weapons, etc) and then find a way to externalize it into a superhero story. Here, I don't know what the story of Hal Jordan was supposed to be. It wasn't about not being afraid -- he wasn't afraid before! It's not about the girl. It's not about anything.

It's part of the reason why the movie, for all the action and special effects feels so hollow.

It's a shame. I was hoping to like this. I was hoping that DC had figured out how to make movies out of their characters so we could get a Flash movie and Wonder Woman and all the other cool DC characters. Instead, this looks like a huge step back for them.

Still, for kids it's good enough to see. For adults, if you are interested then you can wait until it's out in dvd.

**** RENTAL ****

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011) (a review)

X-MEN FIRST CLASS (2011) (a review)

This is the reboot of the X-Men franchise after two successful X-Men films by Bryan Singer, a less successful movie by Brett Ratner, and a semi-successful Wolverine movie. It features a young group of X-Men and an all new cast, but with cameos by the original Wolverine and Mystique. It stars James McAvoy, Michael Fastbender, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence and a bunch of others. Directed by Matthew Vaughn (who was going to direct X3 but left the project).

The story: A young Erik Lensherr (who will become Magneto) sees his mother is killed in a concentration camp as the camp leader, Sebastian Shaw tries to get him to exhibit his powers. Meanwhile, a young Charles Xavier and a young girl he takes in named Raven (later to become Mystique) are studying mutations. Xavier is brought into a government project about mutants and Erik comes to join him as they gather a team of mutants. Shaw is trying to escalate the tension between USA and USSR to invoke a new world war from which mutants will rise as the dominant species. Xavier and Erik and their young mutants go to stop them and prevent the war, even as humanity is turning on mutants and even as Xavier and Erik begin to turn on each other.

Was it good?

Kind of? I mean, in some ways it was campy fun, it some ways it was pretty cool, and in some ways it felt pretty dumb. The problem these origin stories have is that we know how they will all end up, so unless you have something really cool in there a lot of it feel kind of hokey -- like when Xavier gets shot and then can't feel his legs. It's a tough line to walk -- part of the fun is seeing how people get to where we know they will be, but since we already know it the twists and turns can feel like obligation than storytelling.

I also didn't really understand the whole evil mutant plot. I mean, a nuclear war? How is that good for mutants? A world without tv and pro sports -- that's what they want? None of it really made sense to me.

There was a lot of good stuff. One nice things about the X-Men movies is that it makes it easy to talk about being an outsider and wanting acceptance and what that means. It makes them instantly work on levels that many, many action/blockbuster type movie don't. Here, it was a lot of stuff we have already heard before, some of which worked and some didn't. The problem is that the movie just didn't feel well constructed around it's theme. And for a movie that was supposed to launch a new franchise it was weird that they essentially solved all the "how they got there" questions in the first movie.

Still, there was a lot to enjoy. It isn't the best X-Men movie, but it's worth a watch.

*** RECOMMEND ***

GREEN HORNET (a reivew)

GREEN HORNET (a reivew)

This is the latest movie versoin of the 1940's superhero. The movie stars lovable doofus Seth Rogan as the Green Hornet and Jay Chou as Kato.

The story: Britt (seth Rogan) is the fun loving, incompetant son of a wealthy newspaper owner. When his father dies, he has to take over the family business. He and the chauffeur (Jay Chou) get drunk and go out where they fight some thugs who are trying to hurt a girl. They get such a kick out of it they decide to become superheroes. But with a twist, they decide they will pretend to be villains while really being heroes. During this Britt uses his ownership of the paper to enflame anger at the Green Hornet while engages in a turf war with a dangerous mobster. This also angers the District Attourney who doesn't want articles printed about crime in his city while he is trying to turn for re-election. Eventually all this comes together -- the mobster, the DA, his fathers death -- all the while Britt and Kato fight over a girl.

Was it good?

No, but it wasn't as horrible as you might think. The problem is the story is WAAAAYYY too slow to get going. Action movies tend to be driven by the villain, but really the villain is almost an afterthought until the movie is over half over, and it is a full 3/4 into the movie until all these threads come together. And, oddly enough, instead of a hero movie where the hero is reacting to the villain, this is a movie where the villain is reacting to the hero's plan. Unfortunately this undercuts a lot of the tension since for the most part he could just stop at any time and everything would be fine. So for an action movie, it is lacking in tension.

Now, there are movies that get away with this but they do it by giving the character something they are desperate to achieve, so the audience watches that as they build into the main action thru-line. This is what happens in SPIDER-MAN and BATMAN BEGINS. Spider-Man has Peter Parker and MJ -- that's what the story is about, a boy who loves a girl. BAT-BEGINS has Bruce Wayne trying to deal with the death of his parents and find himself again.

This movie...not so much. It's like they tried to make the superhero version of TOMMY BOY, but it just doesn't quite work. They should have made it more like a superhero version of FLETCH. Move up the action, add some mystery elements early on to catch the viewer's attention...

Even then, the movie isn't horrible. It is just awkward and for the first half not very compelling to watch. If you are doing something else, then throw it on in the background and it'll be pretty enjoyable and there will be plenty of spots where you will want to look up and watch. So while I couldn't recommend it to see in the theaters, I'd recommend it to rent, especially if you are multitasking.

*** RENT (to watch while multitasking) ****