GeekReads

Long story short: I had a wad of off-peak movie tickets to burn before the end of the month, so I’ve seen more movies in March than I’ve had time to blog about (been busy gardening :-P) Jenny, who’s a huge movie buff, couldn’t be happier. Meanwhile I’m stressing about the huge backlog of posts… so here’s a quick sci-fi round-up to bring myself up to speed, featuring I Am Number Four, The Adjustment Bureau, and Limitless.

I Am Number Four

It's Justin Timberlake with Iron Man hands!

Let’s get the painful stuff over with first: this movie makes no pretence of the fact that it’s a cheap cash-in, remixing various popular sources (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Iron Man, et al.) into a new franchise. It doesn’t try to hide the fact that there will be sequels, baking future-pointing elements into the plot, but having suffered through The Last Airbender I consider this a small mercy.

The film is set in the familiar sci-fi/fantasy story breeding ground of the American high school. The writers didn’t try to tie in the protagonist’s discovery of super powers with a coming-of-age puberty metaphor, and yet I found that oddly discomforting – a narrative no-man’s-land where the characters are too old for a younger audience and too young for an older audience to relate to.

A paint-by-numbers franchise (literally!) that might be named for its affinity to Vietnamese restaurant menus: not number 1, Pho tai (rare beef noodle soup), but the one further down the list with the extra stuff which is alright if you like that sort of thing (brisket, tripe, tendon balls, etc.), but not quite as good as the original.

The Adjustment Bureau

Is it just me or has Emily Blunt been Photoshopped beyond recognition in this poster?

The Adjustment Bureau is loosely based on a short story written by Phillip K. Dick, called Adjustment Team. By his own admission, Dick wasn’t very good at writing titles and his stories have a tendency of being bestowed with new titles when they’re filmed: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? became Bladerunner, and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale became Total Recall. Then again, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly and Paycheck all made it through unscathed.

A few weeks ago I read a really excellent essay of his called How To Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later. There, he philosophises about the nature of reality, drawing deeply from the Christian faith and the Bible. Adjustment Bureau never explicitly talks religion, but it’s very much like that essay and is probably true to the source material in that sense – fans’ protests about it being turned into a love story notwithstanding. Due to a mistake by one of the members of the Bureau, politician David Norris (Matt Damon) accidentally gets a peek under the surface of his perceived reality, revealing a religious subtext – a “divine plan” in which he is forbidden to pursue a relationship with Elise (Emily Blunt), a wild spirit whom he meets and falls in love with after suffering a crushing election defeat.

Despite being intellectually engaged by the premise, about halfway through I noticed Emily Blunt’s cleft chin, and it ended up bothering me throughout the rest of the movie.

A great movie to see with friends (or on a date), for its discussion topic potential.

Limitless

One thing that clearly isn't limitless: the poster designer's imagination

Yet again I find myself at odds with Hollywood values. On one hand Limitless avoids being yet-another-morality-tale ramming the value of one’s true (unaided) potential down our throats, but then on the other what does result is a story where using drugs, taking shortcuts and screwing over other people leads to success. Hmmm…

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a struggling writer who stumbles across his ex-wife’s drug dealer brother – ostensibly cleaned up and working for a pharmaceutical company testing a new miracle drug that lets people use the 80% of untapped potential in their brains (this is a myth, btw). After taking the sample that he gets given, Morra tears through a huge chunk of writing in a matter of hours. When he goes back for more, he finds his source murdered, but discovers a hidden stash of the drug and gets himself into way more than he bargained for.

Logic was never going to be a strong point in the conceit of having somebody become a super-genius, and if you think about it too much beforehand your brain would fill up with “if he’s so smart why didn’t he just…?” type questions before the movie even starts. Suffice to say: just go with it.

I’m fairly tardy with my reviews at the best of times, so I was quite chuffed to discover that my 3 most recent reviews had a thing in common, allowing me to knock off all 3 in one go. Righto then. Toodle-pip. On with the show, wot wot!

Nation, by Terry Pratchett

It might look like a Discworld book, but it ain't a Discworld book

Terry Pratchett is a prolific author by any account, with 38 Discworld novels to his name and several childrens’ books on the periphery (although I say this in the same sense that one would refer to The Hobbit and The Silmarillion as “merely” peripheral works to The Lord of the Rings). It’s a decent body of work, selling over 65 million books worldwide, so when he was diagnosed with early onset alzheimers disease he could’ve just stopped there, having left a pretty decent legacy (also, his daughter Rhianna is a distinguished writer in the interactive space; which is to say video games). But no, Sir Terry just keeps on cranking them out, and not just in his Discworld comfort zone either.

28 years spent crafting a fictional world naturally gives one respectable insight into what makes them tick, and Pratchett unleashes the full brunt of his experience in Nation. In just over 400 pages he brings to life an entirely new world (albeit based on the real one), and a roster of characters every bit as rich and ripe with potential as any he’s ever created for the Discworld.

Another great thing about seasoned authors is their efficiency with words. Pratchett doesn’t waste a single letter; the narration in the first couple of pages contains more story than lesser authors muster in an entire chapter.

The King’s Speech

C-c-can you hear th-th-the drums, F-f-f-ernado?

If I didn’t have a self-imposed rule about writing something for every movie I see in the cinema, I’d have skipped reviewing The King’s Speech. Yeah, the movie was enjoyable and the acting was OK but it didn’t have anything I’d singled out as a “wow” factor. So Colin Firth did a good impression of a guy with a stammer – that’s what actors are paid to do. For some reason this reminds me of the scene in Tropic Thunder where Robert Downey Jr. is lecturing Ben Stiller about going “full retard” and I reckon Firth’s going to go home empty handed (my money’s on Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network).

Also, there’s something I want to ask: girls, please tell me, is Colin Firth really a good actor, or do you like him because he’s the embodiment of Anglophilia due to his having been – and remaining – the definitive “Mr. Darcy”?

To me he’s one of those actors where I can’t see the character for the man. Whenever he’s on screen I have no trouble thinking “yep, that’s Colin Firth” whereas y’know how in some movies, you get so engrossed in the character that you struggle to remember the actor or actress’s name? Yeah, he’s not one of them.

Gnomeo & Juliet

Oui, c'est en français. J'aime mieux que la version anglaise.

What! An animated feature that isn’t from either Pixar or Dreamworks?! And it’s not half bad either, you say? Yet it’s true, I actually enjoyed this one very much.

Firstly, let me dispel what’s likely to be the biggest fear for those considering this movie: Gnomeo and Juliet isn’t a remake of Shakespeare’s play with gardening puns. Neither does it get bogged down in the seriousness of its premise of having garden gnomes that come to life when humans aren’t around – it’s not Toy Story, but in a good way.

The whole thing is played for laughs, and never takes itself seriously at all, which makes it a buckets of fun all round.

Call me strange, but my favourite thing about the whole movie was how every time the characters touched, or made contact with another object, there would be a little stony “chink!” sound that I found really satisfying for some reason.

I only wish that I travelled often enough to make a habit out of this; here’s another round-up of the movies that I watched on the plane on a recent holiday to Europe:

How To Train Your Dragon
I loved this movie! It’s got a smart script, well constructed plot, an appealing character design and style (it’s my cup of tea, anyway) and dragons. What more could you want?

Hiccup is a viking chief’s son, living in a village that is constantly attacked and raided by dragons, their worst enemy. Unlike the other vikings however, Hiccup is a scrawny boy with more brains than brawn. One day he manages to injure a young Night Fury dragons with one of his inventions, and going for the kill, decides to show it mercy instead. This leads to a cautious relationship between the two, which leads to a greater discovery which has implications for  both sides.

Obviously I didn’t get to watch this in 3D like it would’ve been in the cinemas, but it’s obvious that certain scenes (especially the flying sequences) were created specifically for it. Regardless, it was still quite exhilarating.

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
The sequel lives up to the charm and warmth of the first, with a perfectly cast roster of comic stereotypes, given a lively and funny script. Emma Thompson returns as the crooked-nosed, gap-toothed, wart-covered witch, who takes it upon herself to help out the mother of a family of brats. In this instance, the mother is the always delightful Maggie Gyllenhaal, farm wife and mother of 3 kids during a time where her husband has been called away to war. Add to the mix a couple of cousins from the city, spoilt and pompous, who’ve never had to do a hard days’ work in their life.

Through the course of the movie, scenarios appear where the children must learn five lessons: to stop fighting, to share, to work together, to be brave and to have faith. As per the original, each time the kids succeed in learning one of the lessons, one of McPhee’s facial blemishes disappears.

It’s a quintessential children’s film, with poo and fart jokes, baby animals, and old-school morality, and has both feet firmly planted in the traditional Disney style (think modern-day Mary Poppins), so don’t expect savvy street smarts and in-jokes for adults.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
I haven’t read the book, and now probably don’t need to. The movie portrays a fairly engrossing murder mystery, telling how framed and disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by ex-CEO of Vanger Enterprises, Henrik Vanger, to help determine the fate of his great-niece Harriet, who disappeared 40 years ago.

The controversy with this movie (and the book, I’m guessing) is its graphic depiction of violence against women. The original Swedish title of the book, translated, means “Men Who Hate Women” and although the plot ostensibly seems to speak out against sex crimes, the character of Lisbeth Salander – genius hacker and goth nutcase – seemed to me to contradict that. I still can’t fathom why, having witnessed her mother being physically abused by her father, being abused and raped herself, and being portrayed as being lesbian in one scene, she still manages to have a sexual desire (I wouldn’t call it love) for Mikael.

Dunno. Just from seeing this movie, I’m not seeing where the “phenomenon” of Stieg Larsson comes from, except maybe from a pent up desire by society to see the hidden forms of violence against women unmasked. What are your thoughts?

The Last Airbender
I only really watched this out of desperation, due my inability to sleep on the plane and also because I was suffering badly from diarrhoea caused by something dodgy that I’d eaten during a brief stay in Hong Kong, and needed distraction.

Other than an early trailer, I hadn’t seen or heard anything about this movie except that it didn’t really live up to peoples’ expectations. Let’s just say that I had no expectations, and it didn’t even live up to that. The script was unrelentingly clichéd right from the start, and the acting little better – particularly Noah Ringer as Aang, the eponymous boy monk who has the ability to do tricky things with air. I’m not familiar with the source material, but I can imagine that fans would be cringing at this effort.

Be warned: the movie is “Part 1″ and leaves an entirely unsatisfactory feeling at its conclusion (if only because the poor takings from this first instalment will probably mean that the conclusion won’t be bankrolled).

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The number of kids’ movies on my playlist partly reflects my childish tastes, but also the meagre September offerings. It included the excellent Kick-Ass and Date Night, both of which I greatly enjoyed, but I’m not the type that watches movies more than once if I can help it. The other recent release titles within my favourite genres were Clash of the Titans, and The A-Team, neither of which appealed at all.

International flights might be long and arduous, but if you’re travelling with a decent airline, at least you’ll always get to see the latest movies. We had a fantastic experience with Singapore Airlines on our trip to Hong Kong – everything was great, including the surprisingly decent food (ice-creams!), the attentive service (more drinks!), and how we both managed to sleep during the flight (unusual!) – but it was like a dream-come-true for Jenny, the movie buff.

I don’t think it was by design, but the people that did the in-flight entertainment magazine must have seen that a lot of the recent releases seemed to involve time in some manner, so they made it into their theme for the month hence the several flicks featuring either a temporally-inspired name or plot device.

Here’s a bunch of brief reviews for the ones that I watched – counting in both directions. Jenny watched a few different movies and even managed to squeeze in one more than me (she watched Terminator Salvation, Julie & Julia, and My Sister’s Keeper instead of Museum and Pelham). Yeah, we watched a lot of movies :-)

The Time Traveler’s Wife
It was always going to be difficult to film this one. Not only because of the huge number of fans created by the success of the novel, large portions of which you’re likely to piss off not matter what direction you take, but also because of the cerebral nature of the time-travel plot device, which requires more than a visual cue here and there to pull off. When the main character age is denoted by his haircut, you know that the screenplay writers have given up trying.

Still, they managed to hit most of the major marks of the novel. Claire and Henry are capably played, although it won’t likely win any awards for Rachel McAdams or Eric Bana. The writers understandably omitted the sub-plot with Henry’s suicidal ex-girlfriend, and also, thankfully, the wacky rebound relationship between Claire and Gomez at the end. I’m also somewhat surprised at Hollywood’s restraint, since there is nary a naughty bit to be seen, despite the frequent erotic sections in Niffenegger’s text.

I still have no idea what all the hoo-ha was about with the movie’s release being delayed by almost a year, but now that it’s out, go see it. It’s not all that bad.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
I missed this one at some kind of anime film festival last year, and have been looking for it on DVD since, so I was delighted to see this on the playlist on the flight. The story, albeit with a typically wacky Japanese twist at the end, tells of Makoto, a girl who inadvertently gains the ability to travel backwards through time. She uses this ability to avoid or undo all the bad things that happen to her, only to learn a hard lesson about consequences.

It’s very warmly drawn and animated, with realistic characters and emotions taking centre stage ahead of the plot device. I feel that this is kinda the movie that Time Traveler’s Wife should have been, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was easily my favourite movie of the lot.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle for the Smithsonian
This one didn’t have much to do with time, unless by a stretch of the imagination you count how the exhibits only come alive at night. It’s a sequel in the pure Hollywood sense of the word: bigger cast, bigger budget, bigger um… y’know, just bigger. It has exactly the same plot as the first one – set things straight with the rogue exhibits before the night is out and the game is up – but contrived so that it could be set in the Smithsonian.

They didn’t just up the ante on the architecture though, it also calls upon a greater number of cameos from famous people both in the sense of actors as well as historical characters. It gets very silly as it goes along, but is otherwise an enjoyable mindless flick. It probably helped that I was watching it during the equivalent of a very late night by Australian time.

The Taking of Pelham 123
What is it about John Travolta? I’m not a seasoned movie reviewer or anything, so take this with a pinch of salt, but it’s like he overacts in every role that he’s been in recently: look at me! I’m John Travolta! Check out my range of emotions! I’m a great actor!

I didn’t get this movie. The plot didn’t make sense, and at the end when Travolta gets his comeuppance I have no idea why he bothered with the whole thing in the first place, and left me wondering why I’d wasted the previous 90 minutes or so hoping to find out.

500 Days of Summer
Summer is the name of the girl. Ha ha. The rest of the movie is just about as awful as that joke, plucking randomly from the timeline of the relationship between the hapless main character, Tom, and the bizarre eponymous love interest played by Zooey Deschanel.

I get the feeling that I’m missing out on some kind of overarching philosophy about love (having read somewhere about how love usually runs through its full range within the first 500 days or something), but I’m not sure I would agree with it even if I did. It’s jaded in the same way as a lot of “modern” love stories – I’m an old codger at heart and like my love stories to be coherent and have happy endings.

The philosophy wouldn’t be the only thing I missed, having no clue why Summer suddenly shows up married halfway through the movie, although it was probably shown in one of the montages that went far too quickly for my sleep deprived brain to process. Or, it could just be that I forced myself to watch a chick flick and my brain refused to parse it.

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Phew. There you go. I’ll be back with more book reviews pretty soon too. The keen beans among you may have noticed that I’ve updated my “currently reading” headline twice recently, meaning two more book reviews are in the pipeline. Ah, if it isn’t work, it’s holidays. Where does one get time to blog? :-)