Unlike last year, I have now somehow managed to see all of the late-June movie releases that I wanted to in 2013, as of a couple of nights ago. Perhaps a little late, but there was a lot of good stuff to see! Two reviews coming right up.
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Starring: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Helen Mirren
Director:Dan Scanlon (Tracy) Rating:G -◊-◊-◊-◊-
It’s been a long time since the original Monsters Inc, a movie I fondly remember watching in the cinemas as a kid all the way back in 2001. The movie was instrumental in building a quite frankly phenomenal track record for Pixar Animation Studios, a run of form that only grew even more impressive over time until it finally began to lose steam a couple of years ago with Cars 2. The studio became well-known for surprising its audiences by finding clever new ways of tugging at their heartstrings, as well as delivering messages with at least some degree of subtlety. Following last year’s good but unusually by-the-numbers effort Brave, however, there has been somewhat of a backlash against the company. A rather undeserved backlash. Critics and general audiences alike had come to expect a certain sentimental ingredient in their Pixar films and when it stopped coming, their collective sigh of disappointment descended on Hollywood like a grossly overinflated black cloud, particularly after Disney’s Pixar-less Wreck-It Ralph turned out so well last year.
Here it is: The latest big and blockbusting effort to make Superman relevant to the masses again. I saw it four days ago.
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Starring: Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams
Director:Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
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Man of Steelwas one of my most anticipated films of 2013 and it had been so for a while, despite the fact that I am not a comic book reader and never have been. There were just so many fascinating questions to be answered – could Christopher Nolan‘s influence on the Superman mythos translate into another superlative movie despite the unavoidable need for the inclusion of superpowers? Would General Zod prove a worthy villain in yet another reboot of the character? And how would Zack Snyder‘s post-Sucker Punch direction factor into things? Having seen it now, when all is said and done, it turns out Man of Steel is a rather difficult film to review. Or at least to score. It has been tormenting me for days.
It’s a wonder Brad Pitt‘s new zombie virus outbreak film World War Z has even come out in cinemas, given its well documented production troubles. The script, adapted from a well received but difficult to film novel trilogy, was almost completely re-written and re-shot along its tumultuous journey to our screens. It was only the determination and stubbornness of Pitt‘s production team that allowed it to scrape through. And at the end of the day I’m glad it did.
Every one of these days is going to offer so very, very much.
About a year ago I sung the praises of the month of June right here on Vagrant Rant, mentioning a handful of promising entertainment media releases releasing that month that made it a truly exciting time to be a fan of movies and videogames. Well, quite frankly, the 2013 edition of June smashes the 2012 version on promise alone. My word, look at just ten of the things that will be available to us this month (in chronological order): Continue reading →
I did something very similar to my The Expendables experience to accommodate this blockbuster release; I only watched the first Star Trek film the night before seeing its sequel.
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Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch Director:JJ Abrams (Mission: Impossible 3, Super 8) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
At the start of this week I held the same position on Star Trek as I always had: I couldn’t care less. I had always been a Star Warsfan first and foremost and anything that Trekdid was in my mind vastly inferior. It couldn’t possibly hope to match the excitement and grand operatic scale of George Lucas‘ brainchild franchise, and no matter how iconic the characters of Trekhad become over time, they didn’t hold a candle to the likes of Darth Vader, Yoda and the like. But, like many other Star Wars fans the world over, my attention was forcibly grabbed recently by the news that JJ Abrams, the director of the Star Trekreboot of 2009, would be in charge of Disney’s upcoming Star Wars trilogy. So I watched the 2009 movie on Blu-Ray, was promptly stunned by its quality, then went to see its freshly released sequel in theatres the very next day. And boy, do I think Star Wars is in good hands now.
Marvel Studios’ first follow-up to last year’s breakout hit The Avengers has just hit Australian cinemas and I saw it last night.
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Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley
Director:Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) Rating:M -◊-◊-◊-◊-
It was just about one whole year ago that Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers single-handedly changed the face of the comic book movie sub-genre, illustrating in truly emphatic fashion that sometimes when you manage a risk as skilfully as Marvel Studios did, it can pay off in a big, big way. Five separate superhero movies led up to that blockbusting success and Hollywood is now abuzz with talk of people who want to emulate its winning formula. But Marvel Studios itself is not done with The Avengers. Not by a long shot. A gigantic sequel is coming and for that to pay off in any kind of similar way, another build-up of movies needs to happen. At least that’s what the Disney-owned company has suggested. So Iron Man 3 has the task of kicking off what people are calling the “second generation” of Marvel features.
It was a wise decision to start with the “man in steel”, as not only has Robert Downey Jr‘s portrayal of Tony Stark proved to be the most bankable of the four Avengers leads, but the character also has arguably the most number of dangling questions left over from the end of that super-movie (You could make a case for Thor in this regard, but if you do then have no fear – he has a movie coming out later this year as well). Stark had a hell of a traumatic experience saving the world from one of its own missiles – an experience that very nearly killed him – and the effects of this are visible from the very beginning of Iron Man 3. Stark’s ego has been cut down considerably by the otherworldly things he has seen. He is shaken up.
This article was written by deldog30, a high school teacher with a deep fondness for comic books and the culture surrounding them.
—Written by deldog30—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
Man of Steel is the upcoming Superman reboot from director Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300) and producer Christopher Nolan. I have been counting down the days until this film’s release for some time now, and my level of anticipation has grown to the point where I have been consuming as much Superman-related media as a can. From comic books, animated movies/TV shows, even the classic films starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel himself (Yes I have even been dabbling in some Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman).
Below (in no particular order) are five reasons why Man of Steel has the potential to be the best film of the year. .
1. Superman is a great character.
Superman is indeed a great character and has been since his creation in 1932. It is only the greatest of characters that stand the test of time, and lend themselves to a variety of interpretations. Superman, alongside Batman and Wonder Woman, is no doubt among the greats. I cannot wait to see another interpretation of this character, this time on the big screen. It will be interesting to see how Snyder chooses to handle Superman’s great power combined with his compassion for humankind and his willingness to protect life even at the cost of his own. Here’s a taste of Superman’s sheer awesomeness: In the comic book All-Star Superman, after learning of his imminent demise he wastes no time and goes to work to help as many as he can before his time is up. Rather then searching for a cure for himself he literally cures cancer for the benefit of others; it is this selflessness that makes him so great. .
Think of this next guest post as a companion piece to the Battleship movie review I posted last year. It’s written by the rather Canadian Foxtale.
—Written by Foxtale—
—Edited/formatted by Vagrantesque—
When I first heard that Battleship was going to be a movie, my first thought was “How?” That thought was pretty quickly answered when I jumped online and checked out the trailer. I assumed straight away, as most people must have, that someone had decided to get Giorgio A Tsoukalos to write an American patriotic piece and he somehow snuck in his favourite subject matter.
If he hasn’t already used this movie as evidence of Ancient Aliens, he’s losing his touch.
But then I went and saw the movie. And I’m not sure if it’s just my overimaginative use of deconstructive theory that led me to this Alternate Battleship Hypothesis, but I think this was one of the most subversive films of 2012. While on the surface, Battleship appears to be a cheesy showing of Americans shouting “MURICA” and winning the day through good old freedom and American ingenuity, I think underneath the script writer was brilliant.
I realise this film has been covered in a previous Vagrant Rant post, and so I’ll leave it to you to read that for the surface criticisms (for which there are many). I’ll deal with the underlying themes, for hidden in this movie is a brilliant commentary on American over-aggression against foreign foes, a realistic view of how first contact might play out, and some good old fashioned paranoia over China.
Man, there is a lot to say about this one. I saw it two days ago, though it’s been in Aussie cinemas for a couple of weeks already.
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Starring: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis Director:Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man) Rating:PG -◊-◊-◊-◊-
Expectation is a funny and powerful thing when it comes to movies. When I first saw the trailer for Oz the Great and Powerful, I was quick to dismiss it as a stylistic rip-off of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Considering that film got precisely two things right (Johnny Depp‘s performance and Danny Elfman‘s score) I wasn’t optimistic and didn’t make any plans to see Oz at all. A couple of intriguing reviews later, though, and I was ready to give it a chance. What I got was something quite unexpected and something that arguably doesAlice better than Alice.
So I feel the overwhelming need to post this new trailer for Despicable Me 2, which just debuted a matter of hours ago, because it has relevance.
In my anticipated 2013 movies list that went up only this week, I had only a teaser to link to. Now there is this. Suffice to say I am even more keen for this movie now!
Vagrant Rant 