Hugh Jackman goes on a Japanese holiday to learn about the Samurai, fight Yakuza gangs, and battle ninjas in a quest for redemption.
Have I got the plot correct?
You can make your own mind up about the film after you go to your local cinema and enjoy the 130-odd minutes of a Japanese family feud interspersed with silky sword swinging action starring our favourite mutant.
I feel like I have so many more questions about The Wolverine after watching it than I did beforehand.
Of course we have Jackman reprising one of his most famous roles as the adamantium-infused hero Logan - better known as Wolverine, but that is the only character from the series to appear in this film (ignoring the mid-credits sequence).
He is an older Wolverine than what we are used to (even though he doesn't age), but more crucially he is a lot more embattled by inner demons. He is plagued by hallucinations of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen reprising her role from the three original X-Men films), and lives a hermit-like life.
It is the battle with inner demons that becomes the focal point of the film.
His inner battle is shown with countless visions or Jean Grey-interrupted dreams, and a physical battle with an inner demon-like device/creation continues to hammer the importance of his battle.
While this forms the main theme of the film, the plot itself leaves the United States of America as soon as possible, after Wolverine is asked by Yukio (Rila Fukushima) to accompany her to Japan to pay final respects to Ichiro Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), a man he saved in Nagasaki in World War II who is now on his death bed.
There he meets Yashida's granddaughter Mariko (played by Japanese model Tao Okamoto in her film debut), and protects her after her life becomes threatened due to her inheriting everything her grandfather owned.
Wolverine/Logan and Mariko grow closer as the film progresses, their relationship developing as they face whatever is thrown at them - including Wolverine's sudden morality.
Despite a fun action sequence inside, on the side, and on top of a bullet train, the first hour or so of the film could not go any slower.
It is supposed to be set after X-Men: The Last Stand, so one would assume we would pick up where we left off with the title character. Instead we're reintroduced to Wolverine almost from scratch, including the tired obligatory scene where our hero confronts a few men at a local bar.
Thankfully the pace picks up a bit in the second half, with one of the best sequences of the film shared between a fully fit Wolverine and Shingen Yashida (Mariko's father, played by Hiroyuki Sanada).
Svetlana Khodchenkova plays the role of mutant villain Viper well, but even she is eclipsed by Will Yun Lee's Kenuichio Harada. Harada is a childhood friend of Mariko and is head of the Black Ninja Clan, a group of ninjas sworn to protect the Yashida family. Lee's plays his part well - he doesn't overact the role, and he lets his skill with sword and bow do the talking.
Finally, the 3D option may be better left untouched. Sure it's great to watch the film and see the landscape have some depth, but it does not seem to add much to the viewing experience. It is as if it was released in 3D "just because they could", but all that does is lessen the product.
The Wolverine: 126 minutes (2013)
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Lockout
A science fiction film directed by Luc Besson - what could possibly go wrong?
That is not a sarcastic rhetorical question, I am actually quite the fan of Besson's work on The Fifth Element and, even though it isn't science fiction, Taken.
So forgive me for having some highish hopes for Lockout.
The story for Lockout is not a bad one.
In 2079, a CIA Agent named Snow (Guy Pearce) is arrested for the murder of undercover agent, and is threatened with incarceration in an orbiting maxiumum security prison (MS One) - which happens to be located in space and the prisoners serve their sentences in stasis.
The daughter of United States President Warnock Emilie (Maggie Grace) happens to be on board MS One where she is investigating claims the stasis is affecting the prisoners minds and causing dementia and psychopathy.
A psychopathic prisoner escapes custody after being brought in for questioning, then releases all prisoners in the facility. Snow is convinced to go in and save Emilie, and the rest of the film follows their fight out of the complex.
You probably missed Lockout when it was released, but the less you know about it the better.
The script is terrible, the jokes are bland and the path the story follows is quite predictable.
The only good thing is the performance by Pearce, who does a fantastic job with the tools he's been given.
Lockout: 95 minutes (2012)
That is not a sarcastic rhetorical question, I am actually quite the fan of Besson's work on The Fifth Element and, even though it isn't science fiction, Taken.
So forgive me for having some highish hopes for Lockout.
The story for Lockout is not a bad one.
In 2079, a CIA Agent named Snow (Guy Pearce) is arrested for the murder of undercover agent, and is threatened with incarceration in an orbiting maxiumum security prison (MS One) - which happens to be located in space and the prisoners serve their sentences in stasis.
The daughter of United States President Warnock Emilie (Maggie Grace) happens to be on board MS One where she is investigating claims the stasis is affecting the prisoners minds and causing dementia and psychopathy.
A psychopathic prisoner escapes custody after being brought in for questioning, then releases all prisoners in the facility. Snow is convinced to go in and save Emilie, and the rest of the film follows their fight out of the complex.
You probably missed Lockout when it was released, but the less you know about it the better.
The script is terrible, the jokes are bland and the path the story follows is quite predictable.
The only good thing is the performance by Pearce, who does a fantastic job with the tools he's been given.
Lockout: 95 minutes (2012)
Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim may not be the best film of 2013, but it's certainly one of the most enjoyable.
It is a spin on the popular alien invasion plot, but instead of them from coming space, the "kaijus" come from a portal located between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean - hence the title. According to the dates used throughout the film they first appeared in 2013, and have continually assaulted coastal cities over a seven year period (most of the film is set in 2020).
The science fiction adventure pits Guillermo del Toro in the director's chair for the first time since Hellboy 2 in 2008, with Charlie Hunnam (Green Street Hooligans, Sons of Anarchy) taking on lead status as Raleigh Becket.
We meet Raleigh and brother Yance at the start of the film as two of a group of people that enjoy rock star profiles. They are Jaeger pilots, and together control the giant machines (Jaegers) designed to combat the kaijus. Pilots are linked to each other by neural links, sharing memories, experiences and feelings so they can control the Jaegers.
The brothers go out to stop the attack of a kaiju, but are soon overpowered. Yance is killed in the attack while they are still connected, while Raleigh spends the next five years working on the construction of a great wall the length of the Pacific coasts to keep the attacking kaiju out.
The screenplay for this film is not exactly an Academy Award-winner, but the film's fight sequences are fantastic, even if del Toro over-indulges in destroying every city he can lays his eyes on.
I was not overly sold on supporting characters Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), who I did not think added too much to the story at all. Sure they were written into the script to give us a more scientific understanding of the kaiju (and how can you defeat aliens with science?), but their fast-talking presences were simply bizarre. Ron Perlmann's cameo as Hannibal Chau adds some more laughs to the film, including his post-credits sequence.
Idris Elba steals the show as Stacker Pentecost, the tough, battle-hardened African-American commanding officer. Elba gets all the one-liners, including an Independence Day-esque speech which you may recognise from the commercials ("Today, we cancel the apocalypse!"). Rinku Kikuchi performs brilliantly as Mako Miri, who becomes Raleigh's partner in the Jaeger Gipsy Dancer.
My biggest gripe with the film is nothing to do with the story, instead it's the casting of an American and an Englishman as the Australian Jaegar's crew.
No disrespect to Robert Kazinsky and Max Martini, but they pull off potentially the worst Australian accents I have ever heard. Sure they play their roles well, but if you want an Australian crew for the Australian Jaeger, consider a pair of Australian actors.
If you're a fan of the Michael Bay-produced Transformers series, kaiju films and stories (like Godzilla) or of science fiction in general, you'll love Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim: 132 minutes (2013)
It is a spin on the popular alien invasion plot, but instead of them from coming space, the "kaijus" come from a portal located between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean - hence the title. According to the dates used throughout the film they first appeared in 2013, and have continually assaulted coastal cities over a seven year period (most of the film is set in 2020).
The science fiction adventure pits Guillermo del Toro in the director's chair for the first time since Hellboy 2 in 2008, with Charlie Hunnam (Green Street Hooligans, Sons of Anarchy) taking on lead status as Raleigh Becket.
We meet Raleigh and brother Yance at the start of the film as two of a group of people that enjoy rock star profiles. They are Jaeger pilots, and together control the giant machines (Jaegers) designed to combat the kaijus. Pilots are linked to each other by neural links, sharing memories, experiences and feelings so they can control the Jaegers.
The brothers go out to stop the attack of a kaiju, but are soon overpowered. Yance is killed in the attack while they are still connected, while Raleigh spends the next five years working on the construction of a great wall the length of the Pacific coasts to keep the attacking kaiju out.
The screenplay for this film is not exactly an Academy Award-winner, but the film's fight sequences are fantastic, even if del Toro over-indulges in destroying every city he can lays his eyes on.
I was not overly sold on supporting characters Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), who I did not think added too much to the story at all. Sure they were written into the script to give us a more scientific understanding of the kaiju (and how can you defeat aliens with science?), but their fast-talking presences were simply bizarre. Ron Perlmann's cameo as Hannibal Chau adds some more laughs to the film, including his post-credits sequence.
Idris Elba steals the show as Stacker Pentecost, the tough, battle-hardened African-American commanding officer. Elba gets all the one-liners, including an Independence Day-esque speech which you may recognise from the commercials ("Today, we cancel the apocalypse!"). Rinku Kikuchi performs brilliantly as Mako Miri, who becomes Raleigh's partner in the Jaeger Gipsy Dancer.
My biggest gripe with the film is nothing to do with the story, instead it's the casting of an American and an Englishman as the Australian Jaegar's crew.
No disrespect to Robert Kazinsky and Max Martini, but they pull off potentially the worst Australian accents I have ever heard. Sure they play their roles well, but if you want an Australian crew for the Australian Jaeger, consider a pair of Australian actors.
If you're a fan of the Michael Bay-produced Transformers series, kaiju films and stories (like Godzilla) or of science fiction in general, you'll love Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim: 132 minutes (2013)
Monday, July 15, 2013
Mutant Chronicles
You know you're up shit creek when you have Ron Perlman in the starring role.
Now don't get me wrong, Perlman is one of my film heroes. Whenever there's a film with him in it I know it's going to be awesome - even if it's in a bad way.
Mutant Chronicles takes the cake.
There are "bad but so good" films, and there are "no seriously shithouse" bad films. Mutant Chronicles is of the latter.
Going for $6.98 at JB Hi-Fi Coffs Harbour I shouldn't have been surprised, and I remember mentioning at the time it was going to be bad but I was still keen.
But just how bad wasn't a reality until I sat through it.
The budget must've been sent on swords, green screen and software, as the severely lacked in every other department. The only relatively good part of the film was the idea behind the plot.
Mutant Chronicles is set in 2707 after humans have exhausted the Earth's natural resources. The human population split into five corporation-led factions who fight over whatever is left. Now, there was an ancient battle between humans and mutants which the humans won, sealing the mutants beneath the surface of the planet. That gets us to the start.
You can predict what happens.
Two warring factions are fighting somewhere (they never say) and reopen the seal, releasing the mutants who then over-run human settlements. A "fellowship" of human representatives from each faction go down to the mutant stronghold where they seek to shut down the machine which is turning captured humans into the mutants.
The script is terrible, with too many poorly executed, non-funny jokes, while the representation of blood is comical. It's as if they've added it in paint on a Windows Me computer or something, it's terrible.
I love a bad film every now and again, and I usually get a ripper of a laugh out of them, but you'd probably want to avoid Mutant Chronicles like the plague.
Thank Christ the film only went 105 minutes instead of the 200+ it had advertised on the cover.
Mutant Chronicles: 111 minutes (2008)
Now don't get me wrong, Perlman is one of my film heroes. Whenever there's a film with him in it I know it's going to be awesome - even if it's in a bad way.
Mutant Chronicles takes the cake.
There are "bad but so good" films, and there are "no seriously shithouse" bad films. Mutant Chronicles is of the latter.
Going for $6.98 at JB Hi-Fi Coffs Harbour I shouldn't have been surprised, and I remember mentioning at the time it was going to be bad but I was still keen.
But just how bad wasn't a reality until I sat through it.
The budget must've been sent on swords, green screen and software, as the severely lacked in every other department. The only relatively good part of the film was the idea behind the plot.
Mutant Chronicles is set in 2707 after humans have exhausted the Earth's natural resources. The human population split into five corporation-led factions who fight over whatever is left. Now, there was an ancient battle between humans and mutants which the humans won, sealing the mutants beneath the surface of the planet. That gets us to the start.
You can predict what happens.
Two warring factions are fighting somewhere (they never say) and reopen the seal, releasing the mutants who then over-run human settlements. A "fellowship" of human representatives from each faction go down to the mutant stronghold where they seek to shut down the machine which is turning captured humans into the mutants.
The script is terrible, with too many poorly executed, non-funny jokes, while the representation of blood is comical. It's as if they've added it in paint on a Windows Me computer or something, it's terrible.
I love a bad film every now and again, and I usually get a ripper of a laugh out of them, but you'd probably want to avoid Mutant Chronicles like the plague.
Thank Christ the film only went 105 minutes instead of the 200+ it had advertised on the cover.
Mutant Chronicles: 111 minutes (2008)
Mercury Rising
The premise of Mercury Rising is a unique one to say the least.
A top-secret United States government code called Mercury - which happens to be uncrackable by any computer on the planet - is hidden inside a common puzzle book. It remains hidden for some time until a nine year old autistic boy named Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) cracks it - sending the NSA into damage control.
We are introduced to Special Agent Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis) as one of a group of bank robbers in the middle of a heist. He's protecting an 11 year old named James, who was dragged into the situation by bank robber Edgar. Jeffries begs his superiors for more time to resolve the situation, but just as he finds a peaceful solution, the FBI task force storms the building and kills both Edgar and James.
Lt Colonel Nick Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) despatches assassins to eliminate Simon and his parents, who he sees as a grave liability to security.
The assassin (Peter Burrell, played by Lindsey Lee Ginter) gets two thirds of his job done, but leaves the house before eliminating Simon due to approaching sirens. Jeffries is sent to investigate what is believed to be a murder-suicide at the Lynch premises, but finds Simon hiding in a closet.
Jeffries and Simon grow closer together as the film progresses, and they are joined by a woman named Staceey Siebring (Kim Dickens) at a coffee shop. All the while Jeffries gets help from fellow agent Tommy Jordan (Chi McBride), who knows Jeffries is not guilty of an assumed crime (the warrant of which was sent out by Kudrow).
It is an interesting film with a predictable end, and it follows a somewhat predictable path. The fact Simon is autistic gives the plot another branch to explore, as Jeffries encounters several problems associated with the condition along the way (need for routine for example). One thing I didn't understand was the need for Simon to walk around with his eyes looking up to the sky or an angle the whole time. Whether I don't know enough about autism to comment, that was the belief at the time, or it was just a way for the director to show he "was not normal" I'm not sure. It didn't seem right though.
In terms of the rest of it, it's pretty much what I expect a normal Bruce Willis film to be like. He gets to kill some bad guys but be the most human and he'll almost certainly knock off his one of the major villains, while the other villain perishes in spectacular fashion. Classic Willis.
Mercury Rising: 111 minutes (1998)
A top-secret United States government code called Mercury - which happens to be uncrackable by any computer on the planet - is hidden inside a common puzzle book. It remains hidden for some time until a nine year old autistic boy named Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) cracks it - sending the NSA into damage control.
We are introduced to Special Agent Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis) as one of a group of bank robbers in the middle of a heist. He's protecting an 11 year old named James, who was dragged into the situation by bank robber Edgar. Jeffries begs his superiors for more time to resolve the situation, but just as he finds a peaceful solution, the FBI task force storms the building and kills both Edgar and James.
Lt Colonel Nick Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) despatches assassins to eliminate Simon and his parents, who he sees as a grave liability to security.
The assassin (Peter Burrell, played by Lindsey Lee Ginter) gets two thirds of his job done, but leaves the house before eliminating Simon due to approaching sirens. Jeffries is sent to investigate what is believed to be a murder-suicide at the Lynch premises, but finds Simon hiding in a closet.
Jeffries and Simon grow closer together as the film progresses, and they are joined by a woman named Staceey Siebring (Kim Dickens) at a coffee shop. All the while Jeffries gets help from fellow agent Tommy Jordan (Chi McBride), who knows Jeffries is not guilty of an assumed crime (the warrant of which was sent out by Kudrow).
It is an interesting film with a predictable end, and it follows a somewhat predictable path. The fact Simon is autistic gives the plot another branch to explore, as Jeffries encounters several problems associated with the condition along the way (need for routine for example). One thing I didn't understand was the need for Simon to walk around with his eyes looking up to the sky or an angle the whole time. Whether I don't know enough about autism to comment, that was the belief at the time, or it was just a way for the director to show he "was not normal" I'm not sure. It didn't seem right though.
In terms of the rest of it, it's pretty much what I expect a normal Bruce Willis film to be like. He gets to kill some bad guys but be the most human and he'll almost certainly knock off his one of the major villains, while the other villain perishes in spectacular fashion. Classic Willis.
Mercury Rising: 111 minutes (1998)
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