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The Wolverine (2013)
Wolverine / Logan goes solo for the 2nd time
The man with the adamantium skeleton is back. No "X-Men" word in the title, just his name, Wolverine AKA Logan goes solo for the second time after X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Hood, 2009). The comic story arc of Wolverine in Japan is well known among X-Men-philes. So expect to see Katana wielding samurai and ninjas.
The prologue shows Logan being held captive by the Japanese troops in Nagasaki during WW2. The American B-52 bomber was coming to drop the A-Bomb, he saved Yashida's life, a Japanese soldier. Switching back to current time, we see Logan had nightmares about his former lover Jean Grey (Famkee Janssen returned, remind me of the creepy Leonardo Di Caprio character's wife in Nolan's Inception). The remorse Logan is haunted by his past, the guilt consumes him in many ways. He went for secluded life in the wild, this is where the plot picks up after the event in X-Men: The Last Stand (Ratner, 2006).
This fish-out-of-water plot shows how Logan is called upon to bid farewell to his long time friend, a dying old man Yashida, who he saved half a century ago. Yashida is grateful for Logan's deed and wants to repay him by offering something that everyone has, except him: Mortality. The so called mortality curse possessed by Logan has already been made clear in the previous X-Men Origins movie. The idea of wiping off the Wolverine's memory is essentially the same as ending his life. Things get knotty when Yashida's grand daughter, Mariko is hunted by Yakuza gangs, this is where Wolverine cross swords (or cross swords with claws for that matter) with his opponents.
If there is one movie the bankable star Hugh Jackman guarantee to carry a movie on his own, it is the portrayal of the resentful feral mutant which makes him always watchable. From the three X-men movies, to the spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine, down to the eye catching cameo appearance in prequel X-Men: First Class. Having said that, in this latest chapter, the lack of memorable supporting casts and the decent script let him down big time. Logan's supposedly love interest, Mariko, besides he saves her from suicide and escape with her during the funeral scene, where is their sudden mutual affection coming from? Pure bad writing, period. Then there is the red-haired Yukio, bodyguard (do not ask me why) of Logan, who serves little purpose in the movie.
I will not be the minority who think Logan fighting with the gun-trotting Yakuza members is not as exciting as fighting with another equally matched mutants, is it? The lack of worthy villains soften the intensity factor. The blonde who played the forked tongue mutant, who I reckon her special ability is ..... spreading disease (?) and superhuman strength (?), hardly a third tier X-Men character in special power hierarchy. Are we suppose to believe she can challenge Wolverine's superiority? Then there is this finale's villain (the name I should remain a secret) disinterested me by the time the plot got to there.
The funeral set piece is one of the highlights and the prologue is the best scene in the entire movie, it just went down hill afterwards. The plot does not bring anything new to the table, aside from he is in a culturally different territory and temporary loses the self-healing power. I yawned as much as Wolverine's adamantium claws pop out from his fists throughout the movie. As far as a X-Men theme movie goes, I am surprise by the bland effort.
My movie review at www.sowyau.blogspot.com/
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
A Very Tired John McClane
Bruce Willis, I first came to know him since the TV series era, Moonlighting (from year 1985 to 1989), the non stop bickering between him and Cybill Shepherd, the wonderful chemistry from the odd couple. This Moonlighting Theme Song reminds me of used to glue to the show regularly on channel TV3 on 11:30pm (or is it 12:30 midnight?). Saying that kind giving away my age. I am not that old, mind you.
The previous Die Hard movies are always about the right man at the wrong place and wrong time. The reluctant hero is always forced to take matters into his own hands in a confined location with race against the clock. Bruce Willis reprised his role as New York City police detective John McClane for the fifth time.This time, His NYPD badge means nothing when he goes to Moscow looking for his now grown up son Jack (Jai Courtney did not annoy me with his performance here), who was imprisoned for an assassination incident. The problem escalates when a high rank ex-Russia government officer executes a sinister plan to smuggle nuclear weapon (whole lots of uranium based canisters) for reason that I did not fully aware (sorry I must have blank stare moment during the scene they mentioned it). Obviously the father and son team up to stop them.
No brainer to say it is always a tough act to follow the first Die Hard, I mean this was the movie which re-invented the action genre back in late 80s. Those days, it was a timely antidote to the invulnerable action movie protagonists such as Arnold, Stallone, Van Damme, Norris who so used to blast off their enemies without making much sweat. Two decades later you still find the concept of "Die Hard on a...... (fill in the blank: train, stadium, boat, bus, plane etc). Die Hard 2 and 3 did not embarrassed their predecessor. When it comes to the forth one - Live Free or Die Hard, you start to feel hmmm..... this is really stretching the point of being a proper Die Hard movie.
Let me tell you what is wrong is AGDtDH: The plot and John McClane. I did not have the EXCITEMENT of watching a Die Hard movie. What happen to the wise cracking everyman hero that I used to know? McClane mocked the villains delivering witty lines, and oh who can forget his smirk! I dare you not to cringe at some poor dialogue, "You know what I hate about the Americans? Everything!", the carrot chewing villain scorned, the said villain with his superior have about one tenth of Hans Gruber on Flamboyant Metre scale. The same villain's SWAT-like team possess one tenth of Simon Gruber's IQ, They line up and are shot down one after one like a sack of spud. I was expecting to see the vulnerable McClane, but what I get here is him doing some superhero stunt with his son. And the indisputable proof of how much Die Hard's writing had fall from grace is the repetition of "I am on vacation", McClane quipped four times through out the movie, as if the screenwriter wants to coin another immortal catchphrase from "Yippee ki yay, motherf**ker". The "I am on vacation" line is totally corny and out of place.
Bruce Willis looks bored and tired. (Read: not acts to look tired, but Bruce seems not really bother to be in McClane role). The only saving grace is the high tempo cars chase scene at near beginning of the movie, where McClane Sr hijack a Mercedes Unimog SUV in pursuit of an armoured tank like vehicle which in turn on the trail of McClane Jr. Overall It is only a half-ass effort from the movie studio to cash in the diminishing Die Hard brand, in other words, a stripped-down sequel nothing more than a poor attempt made to appeal to younger audience.
My movie review at www.sowyau.blogspot.com/
X: First Class (2011)
An Excellent Beginning of X-Men movies
For those who debate on whether the latest turnout from Marvel's Mutant is a reboot or prequel, will whole heartedly agree that it need to be better than the last dismal X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Hood, 2009). In fact the feral mutant feature tarnished the X-Men movie brand so badly, it needed Logan's superhuman healing ability to revive the X-Men franchise.
For that noble reason, we go back to the 1940s and 60s, where we find out more about the two pivotal mutants. Before the principal of X-Men known as Professor X, he was Charles Xavier; before Magneto becomes the magnetic field controller, he was Erik Lehnsherr. First Class tells the story of the early years of two most influential mutants, how the young Charles met the blue shape shifting Raven, who became his few and far between best friend; meanwhile somewhere in German concentration camp, Erik was one of million victims of Nazi's atrocious regime.
20 years later, follow by years of Nazi's imprisonment, the vengeful Erik search and trackdown his all-powerful evil guardian Sebastian Shaw (played by the evergreen Kevin Bacon), Kevin played the new villainous Sebastian, the leader of another mutant group, known in the comic as Hellfire Club. Kevin Costner starred in Thirteen Days (Donaldson, 2000) may have presented a more historical accurate version of the Cuban Missile Crisis, First Class certainly re-creates the more intriguing alternate history by interlacing the involvement of the X-Men in the notorious Cuban Missile Crisis. The war between Homo Sapiens and Homo Superiors is always been the backbone of X-Men movies, the leaders of two mutant groups, who fight for the same course. i.e. to protect their own kind against the human's onslaught and discrimination. The subtext of skepticism in self-acceptance is even more noticeable in the subplot of Mystique and Beast. Here in First Class, we witness the first of many to come encounters between Charles and Erik, mind you, it is not all sparks and flares when two of them met, by contrary, they share some of the tear jerking moments such as where Charles delves into the fond childhood memory of Erik in order to amplify his metal control ability. The truth is, there are more than enough material to make a feature length movie about Erik and Charles, let alone the inclusion of Sebastian Shaw and the first ever intake for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngster, hence bring us the movie title, X-Men: First Class. Rising stardom actors James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender wear the Cerebro device with ease as they handle their roles as the young Charles and Erik convincingly. Their hands are not tied by the need to impersonate the older counterpart characters in the movie sequel. However, rest assure that you will be able to relate them to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as you re-visit the sequels.
Take my review with a pinch of salt if you only want to hear from a die-hard comic X-Men fan, be that as it may, I do not have a faint idea whether this movie is faithful to the comic. All I knew is, in some aspect, it is slightly contradicted timeline in previous X-Men movies, does it matter to me? No, when I witness the cameo which is many times funnier than Stan Lee The Marvel Comic God. Does it upset me when they contradicting the age of Moira MacTaggert as in X-Men 3? I forgot about it when I look at the amazing bar scene where Erik tracked down the Nazi "pig farmer" and "tailor", a heart pounding built up suspense before one of them makes the first move. What makes First Class so special is, there is a collective of indie aura, a seductive 1960s vibe attach to it, suspiciously due to the teaming of director, the Brit Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman the co-writer. It reminds me of Vaughn's Kick-Ass (2010), another comic book adaptation movie whom leaps out of the big studio artistic confinement. It does not only rely on money shot climatic battle, the way Charles and Erik compliment other so well, I will watch it even without the the sub-plots of young mutants' recruitment and Sebastian Shaw orchestrating the nuclear war.
Unlike most superhero comic movies, It belongs to the same Superhero comic movie hall of fame, along side with Christopher Nolan's two Batman movies and Bryan Singer's double X-men. Yes, you heard me there, it is THAT inspiring! Hey, all the while I thought in a X-Men movie universe, it is a cardinal sin without Wolverine playing the main lead, well, I was gladly wrong. What happen next with this exciting beginning, there are lots of potential to be fulfilled, uncharted territory can be explored. Let us celebrate the re-born of the franchise, roll on First Class: Graduation Year.
My movie review at www.sowyau.blogspot.com/
Avatar (2009)
Slight Off The Mark Effort by James Cameron
Oh Mr. James Cameron, where art thou? Your disappearance from the movie-dom seems like an eternity since you sink the big ship years ago. To make a comeback following up your most successful movie seems like a mountain to climb. I am aware all these years you are waiting for the technology to be "matured" enough; waiting for the movie studio to grow some guts to allow you to flex your muscles.
And here we are, the long awaited, 12 years in the making sci-fi epic. A movie that fully utilize the most groundbreaking technology so far, an entire new world was created using photo realistic CGI, blending actors with motion capture animation technology. One of the most expensive movies ever made to date, and certainly the most ambitious one even by James Cameron's standard.
Avatar is best described as Dances With Wolves (Costner, 1990) meet Pocahontas (Gabriel & Goldberg, 1995) in another world. It is year 2154, a large non-government corporation (akin to Aliens' Weyland-Yutani Corp.) are colonizing a moon called Pandora light years away from Earth. They wish to drive away the native inhabitants Na'vi, a blue skin, 10 feet humanoid away so that they can mine the invaluable mineral found on that moon, before they use Plan A (read: full scale war), they create an avatar to assimilate into their tribe, to study them; to educate them. This avatar is a hybrid DNA of human and Na'vi, to enable human participant to remotely control their avatar to explore the harsh and unknown territory of Pandora. The way of how all these Avatars work, just think of how Neo and co. plug into the simulated reality of The Matrix except here in Pandora, everything is real..... Well, you get the idea.
Jake Sulley (by Sam Worthington), a former Marine paralysed below the waist, came in to the Avatar Project replacing his twin deceased brother. Jake (his avatar with his consciousness) met a female Na'vi, a tribe's princess, Neytiri (by Zoe Saldaña with the help of motion-capture technique). Both of them did à la John Smith-Pocahontas by the time the Corporation execute Plan A, prompting Jake to make a tough decision on which side he is taking.
Avatar suffered from a rare James Cameron's missing trademark: Lack of a strong character(s) that I normally root for. For a movie clocked in at 2 hours 40 minutes, it is a cardinal sins committed by J.C. not to offer us any real depth in all major characters, not even Sigourney Weaver (who played Dr. Augustine as a leader of the Avatar Project and a mentor to Jake) is at her usual best. Do not even mention the one dimensional, stereotype chief villain. Only Zoe Saldaña's Neytiri deserved some praises. Maybe I am too busy enjoying all the gorgeous visual stuffs.
The experience of watching this movie is similar to dating a beautiful face-surgical constructed, breast enhanced woman except she is an empty vessel once you are close to her. It is far from Cameron's best (Terminator 2 takes the crown, follow by Aliens (1986)), yet it has firmly become the beacon of future movie making because it raises the benchmark of 3D CGI in a movie format.
Avatar is a special effect-driven movie, truly a case of style over substance. Although almost 20 years on since I first watch his T2: Judgement Day (1991), I am still in awe at that superb crafted movie even after the umpteenth times of viewing. J.C. is always so great at crafting a solid story that enhances the visual effect even more, but he missed it this time with his own superficial script and the afore-mentioned lack of strong characters. Just like most eye candy movie, it is full marks for the looks but underneath is an aura-less chassis.
My movie review at www.sowyau.blogspot.com/
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
A grand finale to the epic superhero comic adaptation trilogy
Christopher Nolan does not make simple movie anymore, does he? I was emotionally exhausted right from the start to finish in this captivating 2 hours and 45 minutes of viewing, I barely have time to digest the richness of its storytelling and it lingered in my mind long after experienced it.
The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) is a fitting epic ending to the most compelling, ambitious superhero movie trilogy ever. In term of audaciousness, the closest I can think of is another DC Comics, Watchmen (Snyder, 2009), without a doubt you are looking at the pinnacle of superhero comic movie adaptation in these two. Both have equal brooding style, Watchmen has a superior narrative style because it is benefited from a direct existing material while Nolan's Batman trilogy punches pure entertainment with accessibility to both general audience and comic geeks.
By the 3rd part of trilogy, gone are the days of the main characters' introduction, where we are straight to the engrossing pay off time.Batman's vehicle evolved from Tumbler who looks like tank to a two-wheels Batpod to The Bat that fly with ease (yes, Lucius Fox confirms that it comes in black colour). The story sets 8 years after the event of The Dark Knight where Bruce Wayne went into long hiatus. The newcomer Anne Hathaway plays the role of Catwoman. Under normal circumstances, she and Catwoman do not belongs to the same bracket, but somehow she pull it off with the seductive performance coupled with the touch of insecurity from her. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays as a closed aide to Commissioner Gordon. Meanwhile, Marion Cottillard is an important figure in Wayne Enterprise.
The main villain, Bane is played by Tom Hardy where his presence on the screen is downright menacing. He is physically tough and hulky. He may not be as intimidating as Joker, but somehow I fear for anyone who is near to him because he seems like he would snap the neck of the person standing next be it his henchmen or enemy. I really felt for Batman during one of the brutal knuckle fight with Bane. He absolutely gives Batman a painful thumping. On the grand scale, he masterminded a sinister plan for the downfall of Gotham City. He strikes the people of Gotham with fear, he actually gives the Gotham citizens some faint hope before striking it down with furious vengeance, all before the eyes of a helpless Bruce Wayne. Given the fleshed out background story, it is obvious Bane is the most complex villain in TDK trilogy.
I am pleased that we are now at the second decade of the golden age of superhero comic movie adaptation where there are plenty of choices we are spoilt of. The sky is the limit as far as CGI is concern, nowadays no matter how transcendent the comic is, the cinema medium just easily lift the concept from the comic book panels. While Joss Whedon's The Avengers is fun, loud, a kind of borderline juvenile stuff, TDKR on the other hand is a serious, realistic, brooding, Gothic feel drama. It stings to say this because I am a huge follower of Joss. Let me reiterate that The Dark Knight Rises is an epitome to action-orientated movie; not just limit to superhero comic adaptation genre. Whoever wants to remake a movie about Batman after Christopher Nolan, I wish him/her best of luck.
My movie review at www.sowyau.blogspot.com/
Madhouse (2004)
one of the hidden surprises of the year
i have seen it. i always like movie theme like horror cum mental institution. e.g. session 9, house of haunted hill remake springs to my mind. lance henrikssen has only a small role here. anyway, in madhouse, i found it creepy, disturbing and scary throughout the movie especially the first time we see the "basement lock up patients" scenes. the sound design/effect is very very vigorous. this is another movie which got a 'clever' ending, it's not a 'scratching my hairs' kinda ending but rather a 'WoW" ending. i truly recommend it.
to anyone who wish to know my selection of favourite horror movies, here it is: - the shining - psycho - the ring remake - the grudge (original) - jaws - the exorcist - the eye (hong kong) - dead end .......etc etc