The Wolverine

Today is reviewed one of the summer's blockbuster movie: The Wolverine.

The main character needs no introduction. The most famous X-Men, James ''Logan'' Howllet ,a.k.a Wolverine, gets his second solo movie after the disappointing Wolverine: Origins.

This time it takes place after X-Men 3, and Logan is living a life of reclusion. In the beginning of the movie we see a flashback of Logan's life, during WW2. As the planes bomb Nagasaki, we see Logan saving a young japanese soldier from the explosion, revealing his mutant healing powers. The soldier becomes very grateful to him, despite seeing his monstrous powers. Then back to the present, the same soldier sends a subordinate, Yukio, to get him. Its seems that the soldier Logan saved, Yamada, is a succesfful business man in Japan, and wants to say goodbye to Logan. Then in Tokyo he meets with Yamada, as he says that he can make him mortal (by mortal, loosing his healing powers), Logan declines and Yamada dies. While attending the funeral logan saves Mariko, Yamada's grand-daughter, but soomehow his healing powers are minimal, so he doesn't recover from wounds as usual. Then the story between Mariko and Logan ensues taking a romantic note, and he keeps the entire movie protecting her, until the final when he takes on the bad guy.

The plot of the movie is real simple, and is loosely based on an arc from the comics, and when I say loosely....it's really loosely.

THE BAD THINGS:

1. Even without healing powers, logan's claws don't make him bleed. Witchcraft!
2. The fight on the Shinkansen is one of the most lame action scenes I've seen to date.
   
   


3. Harada somehow isn't the Silver Samurai, and is a ninja servant for Yamada...who uses bows.
4. The Silver Samurai is now an adamantium giant robot. What?
5. The romantic relationship between Mariko and Logan happens too fast. Of course in the comics it happens, but in the movie felt forcefull.
6. A high-tech tower on a classic japanese village. Wooden houses and Hight Tech Metal Tower.
7. The ''two-handed sword" scene.
8. Viper. Probably the worst sub-villain in a Marvel movie. I don't even know why she is with Yamada, as originally she is a HYDRA official. Oh well, fuck logic.
9. Despite being without healing powers, Logan gets shot by a shotgun and barely flinches, and continues like it was nothing.

THE GOOD THINGS:

- Logan beying tormented by killing Jane.

- The after credits clip introducing the X-Men: Days of Future Past (which I reccomend seeing the movie's site)

- Hm.....

The movie overall is bad. Once more they kill a character from the Marvel Universe, as if Deadpool wasn't enough. The story and the action scenes are so bland it hurts. It makes me afraid of watching another movie with Wolverine in the title. I just hope they don't make one with Daken, as I still want to like him.

The judgment:

Plot - 2/5 - Almost nothing from the original story went into the movie version, wich is bad since in the ads it said "Based on the aclaimed comic arc". Which is not. C'mon you just wanted to shoot on Tokyo.

Soundtrack - 2/5 - it's that bad, yes.

Visuals - 3/5 - It has some nice effects. I like the tower despite all that was wrong with it.

Performances - 2/5 - They're bad from the beggining to the end. I just don't have words to describe it.

The Wolverine gets 9/20.

An Adventure in Space and Time

In the awake of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who commemorations, there were many special features (including a special episode, already reviewed at POPinions by Tiago Gonçalves) to celebrate the event. From documentaries (like the Doctor Who Ultimate Guide) to the object of my review today, the biopic An Adventure in Space and Time, I already watched most of what BBC put out in the days around November 23rd. Some better than other, today I will bring you my thoughts about a short movie (about 85 minutes long) about Doctor Who's first steps.

Doctor Who original logo, back in 1963

An Adventure in Space and Time was written and produced by a long time collaborator of the regular Doctor Who show: Mark Gatiss (writer of episodes such as The Unquiet Dead in 2005 or Victory of the Daleks in 2010; readers may also recognize his name as creator and actor in well-known shows like The League of Gentleman-a personal favorite of mine-and Sherlock-also highly recommended). The film narrates the story of how what is now known as the First Doctor was cast and the show was produced and focus on two vital characters for this to happen: William Hartnell and Verity Lambert.

William Hartnell (on the left) and Verity Lambert (on the right);
they were vital, as the first actor to play the role and the producer
of the show to make Doctor Who the long-lasting success it is today.

Hartnell (played by another well known name, David Bradley, that readers may know from the Harry Potter movies as the unfathomable Mr. Finch) is a seasoned actor worried about typecast after his last role. Against all odds, a young, but fierce producer, a impeccable Verity Lambert played by Jessica Raine (of Call the Midwife fame), cast Hartnell to a new show on BBC, an educational science fiction show for everyone at home, from children to elders. The film then depicts how, being a grumpy old and progressively sick man, Hartnell goes from being hated by the original cast, to being loved by them and to being hated by the cast that comes and goes, with him being the only constant in the show. I have to say that it can be a heartbreaking film when you realize that Hartnell, at first suspicious of the show and not sure at all of its ability to be successful, ends up being the only one sincerely caring about it. All of this while he fights against himself, as his health makes it difficult to him to memorize lines and being at all aware of small slips on camera.

David Bradley as William Hartnell; not only they resemble
each other, but Bradley delivers an amazing performance.

All in all, it is my opinion that An Adventure in Space and Time stands by itself in the midst of the paraphernalia being produced for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, and it is a good film to watch on a rainy evening: warm, interesting and compelling.

Plot - 4/5
An Adventure in Space and Time is a biopic, but explores really well the story behind the story and it is compelling.

Visual - 4/5
The action takes place in the 60s and the visual is on line with that; on top of that, the usual quality one can find in a BBC production.

Sound - 4/5
The most interesting thing in the sound department is also a plot device: the audience is guided to the process of generation the familiar sounds on Doctor Who (the same happens with the visuals, were we follow the creation of the sets); apart from it, nothing relevant to point out, except that none of the sounds, either music or sound effects, dragged me out of the film.

Performances - 5/5
The high point of the film, specially when David Bradley is on screen.

 
Final Score - 17/20
An Adventure in Space and Time is a good way to celebrate the anniversary of your favorite time traveler and maybe even be a interesting film for someone completely unaware of Doctor Who. We, here at POPinions, definitely recommend you to go watch it.

Alien

A movie with a poster like this is enough to get me to the theatre and watch it. It has a single premise for what we should expect "In space no one can hear you scream" and a lot of people screamed because of this movie. This movie took a generic tittle and made it so iconic that this movie or this "Alien" is the one thing that we associate with that generic term of alien. With that said we can only assume that this is a masterpiece that everyone should watch but if you don't believe me, watch the teaser.

But, before I analyse the movie, I'll give some trivia about it:

• The director, Riddley Scott, said about the movie that Star Wars is a fairy story while this (Alien) is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre of Science Fiction.
• It has only 7 actors plus the voice of Mother and a young african student that was picked by Riddley Scott from a bar to be inside the Alien suit.
• Sigourney Weaver's cast was done so late that she made it in the real scenarios that were used on the movie.
• John Hurt was a replacement actor. When the original actor began filming he became so ill that had to be dismissed. Riddley went on the middle of the night to Hurt's home, pitched the movie and, without reading the script, Hurt accepted the role and on the next morning he was on the studio to shoot.
• The script was considered weak and had to be rewritten several times and almost nothing was left from the original one.
• The movie was only greenlighted due to the success of Star Wars, Alien was the only thing the studios had to produce in a short time to capitalize that success.
• The Egyptian Theater made a 48 hours marathon of the movie and there was a line of people to see it during all that time.
• Many directors were approached to direct the movie but rejeted it. When the movie was finally greenlighted and the producers were desperate, they invited a Riddley Scott because they had saw his first movie (The Duelists) at the Cannes International Film Festival and he accepted the job.

The distressed ship

In many ways, to talk about this movie is to talk about Riddley himself because of how much of him is in this movie. This was Riddley's second movie and he took the job very seriously since the moment he saw the script. He was in London when he was approached to make the movie, the next day he was in Los Angeles where he accepted the job and in the day after that he was back to the United Kingdom. In the next three weeks he drawed the whole storyboard and returned to Los Angeles to show it, he got to double the 4 million dollars of budget to 8 million. So it is fair to say that Riddley Scott had a glimpse and saw what the movie could be from the start while many didn't.

The casting responsable in the UK said that when the castings started, Riddley asked for actors who could take care of themselves to be able to focus on the visual side of the movie and with that info we enter in the review of the visual part of the movie. We all know that this movie relies on the animatronics and puppets, they had to be perfect and believable otherwise the movie would be a B-series flop.

Here's a fact that demonstrates the importance of the visual aspect of the movie; Riddley spent 400-500 thousand dollars of the 8 million budget to make the "Space Jockey" set that was only used once. Eventually that scene was crucial to the "Prometheus" plot so I guess it was money well spent.

The inspiration for the alien came from the painting "Necronom #4" by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger. Riddley Scott had to fly to Zurich to talk to him because he was afraid of flying. Riddley put him in charge of designing the "face-hugger", the "chest-burster" and all that had to do with the "Alien", including the spaceship were they were found while Michael Seymour and his team were in charge to make everything else of Riddley's vision real. In the end it was Roger Dickin who finished the "face-huggers" and the "chest-burster".

The half-million dollar "Space Jockey".
Riddley used his kids to shoot this scene and make it look bigger.

H. R. Giger's "Necronom #4"

They also had to be inventive to make it look real when everything else failed...it would be impossible to use animatronics at the time to show the inside of the egg, so they used cow's stomach and the "face-hugger" was actually Riddley Scott's hands in rubber gloves. With that much work on the details it is no wonder that the final product is more of a art work than a movie. It is really a masterpiece. The sets created offer the viewer a sense of claustrophobia due to the narrow corridors that seem to go nowhere and the ilumination is superb, either it makes us fear every dark corner of the screen or it has so many lights flashing that makes us paranoid.

For that paranoia it greatly contributes the directing, we almost never see the alien until the last scene and the slow pace of the movie keeps us waiting for something really bad to happen that only gets worse with the progress of the movie and the details that are focused. The performances are so convincing that at some time we really think we are inside the ship Nostromo. Another fun fact about the performances is that contrary to popular belief, the cast knew that the "chest-burster" scene was going to happen, after all they had read the script, what they did not know was that there was going to be blood exploding from Kane's chest...real (cow) blood...everywhere. In the first take the "chest-burster" did not ripped the t-shirt but it was kept in the movie anyway.

The "egg-chamber"

Sigourney Weaver is a real badass in what was his first main role in a movie, but it is not the best performance. Still today I don't trust people called Ash due to Ian Holmes performance, it is one of the best "android" performances ever, by the end of the movie I really hate Ash but I still prefer Fassbender in Prometheus and the duo Harrison Ford/Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner. The rest of the crew made their job really well, specially Tom Skerritt as Dallas, the captain of the ship.

As said before, the script was rewritten several times but the final product is something to be proud of. There is not much about it but the twists and turns of the movie make it special and the thing that makes it great is...Riddley Scott who took the best out of it. A cargo ship stops because of a distress call, they stop only to find an "abandoned" ship. "Abandoned" because it was filled with eggs from an "Alien" origin. One of those eggs hatches and hugs the face of a crew member who is taken back to the ship, later the Alien bursts of the chest of the crew member and starts to hunt everyone on the ship which is on his way to Earth. The crew reataliates and the hunter becomes the prey. We all know that it ends well because it is a movie but I'm not spoiling anything else for those who have not seen the movie.

Kane among the eggs

The soundtrack is a classic orchestrated score which gives a sense of epicness to it. And to talk about the sound effects I can resume it to a story. The first test screening of the movie was a flop because the sound of the theatre wasn't that good. When they've screened it in a better movie theatre in Dallas, people fainted and tried to run off the movie theatre during the movie. It's that good!

When I was growing up there were two movies that managed to keep me out of sleep for a couple nights. Alien was one of them, Jurassic Park was the other one. Still today I am not able to enjoy the truly glorious sound of the movie with the volume almost all the way up, it's always much lower than usual. That's how horrific and magnificent this movie is to me.

Plot - 4/5

Visual - 5/5

Sound - 5/5

Performances - 4/5

Final Score - 18/20

V for Vendetta

Remember, remember

The fifth of November

The gunpowder treason and plot

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

- English Folk Verse, The Fifth of November (c. 1870)

It was 1982. Margaret Thatcher was the conservative Prime-Minister of England and Ronald Reagan had just began his first term in the White House. The Iron Wall divided the world in two and the Doomsday Clock marked four minutes to midnight. There was fear in the world and Alan Moore, a relative unknown comic book writer come to Quality Comics, a newly formed British publishing house,  with the idea for a post-apocalyptic story. From 1982 to 1989, V for Vendetta was released and it is still so relevant know, with the Wall gone and the world changed, as it was when those treats were a reality.

Promotional Poster for V for Vendetta

This is not a review on the comic. Despite its success, V for Vendetta was not a mainstream success. It would be only in 2006, with the release of the movie I am about to review, that Alan Moore’s brilliant book would come into mainstream. Curiously (or not, for those familiar with Moore’s approach to his work being transported to other media), Alan Moore disassociated himself with the movie, to the point where he asked his name to be taken out of the credits. To a point, I can see how Moore feels about his work and the movie, though inspired by the graphic novel, has differences in tone, approach and theme. But let’s go to the point of business…

Another promotional poster for V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is, in essence, a movie about Evey Hammond and how she gets in the eye of the storm of political turmoil. Sometime in the near future, a series of wars, plagues and terrorist attacks throw England into a dictatorial government, led by Adam Sutler’s party Norsefire. One night, during the mandatory curfew, Evey finds herself involved with a mysterious figure calling himself V. V is a revolutionary anarchist, never reveling his face and hiding it behind a Guy Fawkes mask, uses Fawkes history as a motif to rally the English against Sutler’s rule and return the democratic and freedom spirit to England.

This movie can be viewed in many different ways: an action movie, a mystery movie, a thematic movie and so on… It is probably all of that. It is not, though, without problems. The directorial work, by James McTeigue, is, in my opinion, subpar and that is not so evident because of the screenplay and the main characters interpretation. The filming is boring if you are focus on it, without taking any risks, and some shots are awfully done, especially the bullet-time shots.

The cast, mainly of British origin, leaves me with bittersweet feelings. Natalie Portman (as Evey) and Hugo Weaving (V) are superb in different ways. Portman sells the transformation of Evey over the arc of the movie with excellence while Weaving is able to show a multitude of emotions with his face hidden by a mask the whole movie. Of notice are also John Hurt, a personal favorite of mine, who I unfortunately feel was underperforming in this movie, and Stephen Fry, that delivers a multilayered intellectual comedian trying to be subversive in a world controlled by a dictator and his censors. The remaining interpretations are subpar in my personal opinion and I even feel that Stephen Rea hurts the movie with his Inspector Fynch, a vital character in the story.

Weaving and Hurt

Dario Marinelli was in charge of the soundtrack. Throughout the movie, I felt that the soundtrack was trying too hard to lead the audience into some emotions and that pulled me out of the movie a bit. Where Marinelli delivers perfectly is when songs are inserted into the background or even are integrant part of the plot, in special the amazing Cry Me a River by Julie London. Of notice, since we are touching the issue, is the inclusion of scenes of 1934’s The Count of Monte Cristo, with Robert Donat as Edmond Dantes and of which V is a ferocious (even childish) fan. When epicness is needed, Marinelli steps down and leaves it for the classics: in a sort of circular idea, part of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky is heard twice, always when a sort of climax is about to happen.

All in all, V for Vendetta is an entertaining movie that carries with it a powerful theme and message.

Plot 4/5

With small details that made me cringe a little, V for Vendetta still is a well plotted movie, not unlikely due to the source material from which it spawned.

Visual 3/5

Though the cinematography feels right and delivers completely, the direction is sort of boring and riskless.

Sound 4/5

Like I discussed above, the soundtrack feels leading at times, but the inclusion of other songs is perfect. Also, the sound effects during the movie are more than adequate (even in fight scenes, though it is a Hollywood movie and suffers from the usual over-the-top sound effects during action scenes!).

Performances 4/5

The high rating in this category is more due to the amazing performances of Portman, Weaving and Fry than of the overall cast, but it would be a shame to punish them for the rest of the cast. Also, I think some of the shortcomings in the performances may be due to the director inability to direct than to the cast itself.

Final Score 15/20

V for Vendetta is a good movie that deserves watching and, I dare say, rewatching. In times like the ones we live, it is impossible not to resonate with the audience and the idea that:

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

- V, V for Vendetta

Weaving and Portman

Shaun of the Dead

Back in 2004, long before the zombie hype with The Walking Dead that we see today, Shaun of the Dead was released. This British zombie comedy film was written by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) and Simon Pegg (Spaced), starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Paul) and directed by Edgar Wright. It almost sounds like a home-made movie but it’s not. This "6-million-dollar-budget" film grossed about 30 million dollars and won a place in everyone’s heart who saw the movie.

If I had to make a resume to a friend of mine who haven’t seen the movie it would be something like this:

“Shaun is not having a good day, so he decides to turn his life around by getting his ex to take him back, right in the middle of the bursting of a zombie apocalypse... All he has to do is survive... And get his ex back… And her friends… And to save his mother and stepfather... And his friend Ed. And to have a pint at the Winchester. GO WATCH THE MOVIE NOW!”

This was the first film in the Cornetto Trilogy (2007’s Hot Fuzz and 2013’s The World’s End are the other two). Between them there are only few things in common that make them a trilogy and they are the Cornettos, the fences and the Wright/Frost/Pegg trio who write, direct and star on all of them, so it’s not a real trilogy.

The greatest thing about it is that if we look at it only as a comedy, it is great. If we look at it only as a zombie film, it is also great. This is the first great thing about it, it is very well written. Sure there are some minor plot holes that only those who are picky will find but there isn’t a single dull moment during the movie whether it is by how much we are laughing or how much we are feeling scared for the characters life. 

Ed (Nick Frost) on the left and Shaun (Simon Pegg) on the right.

 

The cast also helps to make it awesome. While watching the movie we recognize almost all of the actors in it. Nick Frost and Jessica Hynes were in Spaced, Tamsin Graig and Dylan Moran were in Black Books, Martin Freeman Lucy Davies were in the UK version of The Office, Penelope Wilton was on Downtown Abbey, Bill Nighy well…it’s Bill Nighy and many, many more. They really seem to be in character all the time. We really believe that they (well, most of them) are who they are pretending to be and that there really is a zombie outbreak.

One of the most distinct things in the movie is Wright’s style of directing. If we watch any other film or series that he has made we can clearly see that there is a personal touch in every single one of them. One of the most distinct traces are the references he uses to other movies and TV shows which can be seen the tittle of this movie, Shaun of the Dead is a direct reference to Romero’s Dead movies. I will definitely see Ant-Man and any other movie he directs next.

The pack trying to pretend they're zombies.

The movie was all shot in London and during the movie we see it change as the zombie outbreak spreads to be a total apocalyptic scenario. The empty streets and abandoned vehicles and buildings are amazing. There is little CGI used and that is a big plus for me because I think of characterization and animatronics to be an almost lost art. The movie industry is abusing on CGI when there should be a balance between what it’s really shot and what is added after. The blood looks real and the zombies are great. Sure there could be a little more gore because it is a zombie movie and all zombie movies have lots of gore, Romero set the standards to follow in everything that relates to zombies, but this is no ordinary zombie movie, it is also a comedy so I understand they had to be careful in what they could show to the audience at the theaters. 

The sound effects are almost perfect. They give the movie transitions a sense of action that makes them almost organic inside the movie’s flow. The music used in the background is also a plus. It gives us a cheering and light side during the comic scenes while being dark during the “horror” scenes which helps to create suspense and fear during those scenes. I really enjoyed the use of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now which symbolizes the way how Wright and Pegg managed to blend Comedy and Zombies in one package only.

Even though it only grossed 30 million dollars, the movie was critically acclaimed. Stephen King said it was “destined to be a cult classic”, Quentin Tarantino considered it as one of the 20 best movies since 1992 and George A. Romero was so impressed with Pegg and Frost that invited them to appear on 2005’s Land of the Living Dead which they did, as zombies.

To tell any more than this is to spoil all the fun I had when I saw it in 2007 when it was released in DVD at my country. This is a must watch movie, I recommend it to everyone.

Plot - 5/5
As I said, I think that the story grabs the viewer to his seat. It is pure entertainment.
 
Visual - 4/5
Maybe due to the budget there are few scenes that really use CGI and it worked for the best. The zombies and the blood looks incredibly real and the use of a desolated London as background was a delight to see.

Sound - 5/5
Awesome soundtrack and great use of sound effects during the transitions. The zombies sound like proper zombies.

Performances - 4/5
A great cast that delivers good performances. Due to the comical nature of the movie they would need to look as scared as silly and they were really good doing that.


I give Shaun of the Dead 18 brains out of twenty...hmm...braaaaaains!

Happy Halloween to everyone!

PS: Dressing as Shaun would be a great costume to wear tonight.