As the above overly literal title, if we can call it that, suggests I have seen a metric fuck ton of summer movies. This due in part to the fact that it's something to do on Saturday in the early afternoon, for the most part. Aside form having my Saturday morning's free typically, I blame the wildly vacillating quality of cartoons...fuck that's sad; I do consider myself a bit of a cinephile with far more pedestrian leaning tastes which seem to grow more prosaic as I spiral aimlessly through the miasma of malaise that is adulthood. With that little bit of good old fashioned fanboy self loathing, which is what I should probably call the site, covered let's get on to the talkies (in an approximation of chronological viewing order)
The Amazing Spider- Man
I had rather low expectations for this film when. It seemed, as gleaned from trailers, to be a joyless reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. I did not have much faith in the dude from
Social Network. I was leery of the Lizard as a movie carrying villain. I did not know if the tonal shift would really work as there was something fitting about the anachronistic aw shucks-ery that seemed
to permeate the pop art cum action franchise of Raimi. I was mostly wrong though. As you've already made your decision to see this movie, you oh fictional, illusory reader, I feel that my purple opining may be more irrelevant than usual. By that same token, irrelevance is the crux of the genre fare vanity blog... back to the movie
It by and large worked. Yes, you're watching a fair approximation of the first film. Yes, Garfield is actually likable in the film and brings the snippy prankster Spider-Man that Maguire's rendition did not embody. And that is at the heart, so to speak, of this mandated reboot, due to issues of rights. The film is not the same pop art pastiche that Raimi provided. IT does embody the slightly grittier space of Super Hero film making of a post Nolan Batman summer super hero blockbuster. And it works, by and large.
THe reason that it works, frankly, is that there is simply a stronger supporting cast in it, and a more likable, in my opinion, Spider-Man. Martin Sheen steals every scene he is in, and Sally Field reminds me that
Smokey and the Bandit movies existed. Emma Stone is a better Mary Jane as Gwen Stacy, she's sassier, than Kirsten Dunst. (In doing so, she adds a much needed level of personality to the sainted and sullied comic psuedo heroine...all she ever really did was die and be perfect/ have bastards with Jack disease/ powers in an oft maligned story arc, rightly so). Anyway, the film is geared toward the slightly more modern film goer, as the last franchise closed up shop not that long ago. It is not "total ass". The Lizard looks less silly in the film after a while. His motivations in this modern world, and world of suspended disbelief does make his motivations shoddier. He never seems fully justified in his motivations, and his plans are scurrilous at best. He is merely the needed villain... He's serviceable I guess you'd say. So the review is that it was a decent reboot of the franchise, and that's about it really.
Savages
I went to see this at the behest of a female associate. I am not trying to absolve myself of seeing this film, merely providing contest. Needless to say though, we did have something to talk about after the film. On the one hand, you have Oliver Stone's return to the realm of madcap violence/ escapism. On the other hand, you have a patently ridiculous affair, not an insult, that does not go far enough, insult. In our desensitized times, I wonder if the film went far enough really, as per ultra violence. Yes, there are some grizzly things unfolding on screen, but for a movie that was touted to me as a return to
Natural Born Killers form, I felt that it did not go far enough with its frenetic descent into the blood letting. Also, the dialogue is a bit corny in spots #wargasms. And that's really the issue with the film. It is again serviceable. The cast fully inhabits their scene devouring archetypes. Taylor Kitsch is not immediately repellent to my, the target demographic. Everyone is okay. There was a bit much as per dude ass in the film. Bottom line: enjoy it on the television. While there are moments of mad spectacle, there are not adult theater prices worth.
The Dark Knight Rises
It's really good. Sure, the myriad twists and turns are predictable to fans of the Bat. No, nobody is going to top Heath Ledger for captivating menace. THe set pieces may not be as crazy as DKR, but they're still at the top for the summer. Anne Hathaway steals scenes. Bale's Batman voice is still goofy. Tom Hardy's Bane voice is also kinda goofy, think Bronson. But at the end of the day it fits into the pre established franchise, obviously. It's a fitting conclusion to the trilogy. If you don't see it, the terrorists win (back in my day we called white people terrorists). Personally, I found it to be less thematically ham fisted than
Batman Begins, yet not as engaging as
The Dark Knight, although much of that is attributable to Ledger, obviously. The movie works; I did not think the first hour dragged, and some of the plot holes in the film will bother me, um, forever is the word. Overall though, it's winning summer entertainment really. Hence the shortness of the review; your mind is made up on the issue of being entertained. Seriously though, go to the movies and see it. It's worth the adult admission for the sheer spectacle of it all.
The Watch
As a fan of "The IT Crowd", and amateur Richard Ayoade impersonator, I was willing to forgo my initial apprehensions about the quality of this film. Then, I read the myriad negative reviews of the film and tempered my expectations, as I have done with many a thing in life. Then, I saw the movie. It is a movie. It has a beginning and ending and actors and a soundtrack, and I'm sure at some point a script. At the same time though, it's kinda shitty really. IT seems like everyone is on board for the proceedings, but at the same time it's just that the film isn't really doing anything new. IT has some good moments, and they are all more or less in the trailer. To that end, it is predictable to a fault, and it squanders a good cast. Everyone is operating form a comfort zone of sorts, and things don't gel as well as you would expect them to. It's not utterly humorless, but it is nothing that you haven't seen everyone else do better in another film really. And that's about it really.
