Weekly Review -- Skipping class

Vampire Academy (2014) -- I have never read Richelle Mead's popular series. Being a genre fan and feeling like watching a fantasy film, I thought I would give this bloodthirsty spin on teen angst a shot recently.

The cinematic problem with elaborate literary worlds is that they rarely translate well to the screen. Time constraints are a definite part of the reason, but so are attempts to endear a particular work to an audience that might not necessarily be part of the devoted fan base. The need for exposition needs to be balanced with bringing a rich realm to life and not every film can achieve that feat. While it does have its darkly humorous moments, Mark Waters's Vampire Academy resembles its poster upon viewing -- flashy yet empty.

Half-vampire and half-human Dhampir Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch) was sworn to protect Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry), member of a peaceful vampire race that co-exists with humans. Studying at St. Vladimir's Academy, the Dhampir students are taught to become the Moroi guardians against the Strigoi, a race of immortal vampires that hunt and kill. After Rose and Lissa's psychic bond reveals that Lissa is in danger, the two escape the school. They are eventually located and taken back, but the visions persist...

The film plays out like a combo of Mean Girls and Clueless with a supernatural twist. Unfortunately, it cannot even compare with those two charmers. Whatever it accomplishes through barbs aimed at the high school experience is hampered by atrocious acting -- Deutch being the exception -- as well as a lack of chemistry and an overload of supporting characters that we know and care very little about. It is too bad, since the novels seem like fun reads and Mead had researched vampire mythology from beginning to end in order to create a fascinating world. There are some nice details, such as the aspect of donors and Dhampirs being the only ones that are able to go outside in the daytime, but the film is in dire need of more engaging elements. The adaptation appears to be scratching the surface of Mead's creation; some expository scenes and character development would have done the trick for cinema audiences. 

As I mentioned, Deutch is the sole actor that manages to flesh out her character. She has spunk and charisma and her Rose is tough, smart and witty; I loved every scene she was in. The connection with Dimitri (Danila Kozlovsky) did not work for me, though. I could not buy the two as a potential couple, partly due to the perceived age difference and partly due to the shoddy dialogue. Fry does what she can with her two-dimensional role, and I am willing to give her leeway due to Lissa being an overprotected royal, but her portrayal still feels underwhelming. Gabriel Byrne seethes with megalomania as the villain, yet another underwritten part. The rest of the cast fell flat for me, with their characters blurring together into one of two categories -- the Love Interest or the Bad Girl -- and making me forget them as soon as the credits started rolling. 

Even though Vampire Academy might appeal to its target demographic, it is still a generic entry in the paranormal pantheon. It is not well thought out, it does not offer anything new and it merely cashes in on the craze. In any case, with "The Strain" and Dracula Untold coming up, I am hoping that we are leaving the teenage/lovesick/feisty creatures behind and moving in a different and more serious direction. Personally, I am looking forward to these works, because I know that our beloved bloodsuckers can do so much better.

5/10

Summer Review #2 -- X-Men: Days of Future Past

I loved X-Men: First Class. I loved it so much that I saw it twice in theatres. I could have gone to see it every weekend during the summer of 2011, since I would have discovered something new with each viewing. It goes without saying that I held my breath for the sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

And it delivers on every level.

This time around, we find Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his protégés fighting a war against the Sentinels, invincible robots that had been designed by genius CEO Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) to exterminate mutants and all those helping them. The mutants are losing fast, so a decision is made to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) into the past and have him change history. Back in 1973, he finds out that Xavier is a changed man and that Trask plans on using a certain mutant's DNA to build the weapon that will eventually exterminate the species...

It is impossible to describe how delightful this film is. The Pentagon scenes are innovative and exciting, while the Paris meeting scene and the stadium sequence took my breath away. Each scene leads to a new visual surprise and each plot point leads to a new revelation. Just like in First Class, the filmmakers intertwine the mutants' adventures with historical events, an element that makes for a unique revisionist science fiction hybrid. Simon Kinberg's screenplay is unafraid of mining depths of emotion to put the beloved characters through the wringer and Bryan Singer's direction is sharp and to the point. The director is so familiar with the terrain that making this film probably felt like a second home. Both the seasoned fans of the comic books and the fans of the trilogy and the 2011 film will enjoy this sequel. 

Once again, the cast is terrific. I loved seeing the original trilogy's actors return to the narrative, as well as the First Class alums and new additions. Dinklage is one of the most charismatic actors working today and Evan Peters has a lot of fun with faster-than-fast Quicksilver. By the way, does anyone else think that Peters would make a great Alex DeLarge if A Clockwork Orange was ever remade? Not that I am condoning classic film remakes, but there is just something ominously humorous about his acting style that makes me see him as the iconic gang leader. Jackman has some incredible moments of levity and has excellent chemistry with the new cast. Michael Fassbender again succeeds in telling us volumes about the tortured and fanatical Magneto through merely a look, while James McAvoy delves into some surprisingly dark places to portray the metamorphosis that Xavier goes through. I also really liked Josh Helman (Animal Kingdom) as the young William Stryker. He possesses an appealing menace that suits the villainous character and I hope to see him in future installments.

A stunning achievement in filmmaking, X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the best sequels that I have ever seen. It is everything that makes a summer blockbuster and more. It is emotional without being melodramatic, grandiose without an ounce of kitsch and, to top it off, gorgeous to look at. Beauty and brains? Now that is a reason to travel back in time and never look back.

10/10

Weekly Reviews -- Live to tell

Captain Phillips (2013) -- True stories are the backbone of literature and cinema. We learn about ourselves and the world around us by learning about someone's courage, accomplishments or life path in general. Based on a 2009 hijacking, Paul Greengrass's Captain Phillips is part drama and part action film, a gripping hybrid that never lets up.

On a routine mission transporting food cargo in Africa, Captain Richard Phillips's (Tom Hanks) ship is abducted by Somali pirates. Led by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi), the group plans to exchange the ship and crew for millions of dollars from the insurance company. When Phillips ends up being the lone hostage, the stakes are raised, while the Navy attempts to rescue the captain and his crew...

The one aspect of Captain Phillips that stands out is the extraordinary feat that Greengrass achieves with the Somali kidnappers' characters. Through only a few sequences, he successfully outlines their situation and places their decisions within a framework of despair. Not once do we see them as stereotypical villains and not once do we wish that the screenplay would simply kill them off. Instead, we feel for these young men, whose potential is wasted with every second that they spend immersed in criminal activities. That old saying about not having a gun to one's head, about making one's own choices? It does not really apply in countries where crime and corruption is a way of life, where there is barely any or no access to education, where the wealthy decide the fate of the poor with every individual murdered and every child sold into slavery. Sure, some people choose to live outside of civilization because they "just want to watch the world burn", in the immortal words of Alfred Pennyworth, but there are many others that are born into a certain life or forced into it through circumstance. 

Tied in with significance of crime is survival as another concept examined in writer Billy Ray's screenplay. The life that the Somali live is survival of the fittest, in sharp contrast to the problems that Phillips and his wife are discussing in the first scenes. When the couple wake up, they have breakfast and drive to the airport; when Muse wakes up, he goes off to hijack a ship. A line is drawn between the two worlds from the onset, making it clear that, though they may collide, they will never be unified.     

Along with Greengrass's trademark hand-held camera, the brilliant cast makes us feel as though we are watching a documentary about the event. What is there left to say about Tom Hanks? The actor excels at playing everymen facing insurmountable odds, from Philadelphia to Castaway. Here he once again employs his chameleon-like ability to become a working-class guy, one that has to fight both for his and his crew's survival. Abdi is a true talent, infusing Muse with a knowing, ruthless pragmatism that can only come from pure hopelessness. The character never says much and does not have to. It is through his lack of verbalization and body language that his grim rationalization is made clear and, later, it is through his calm demeanor that his resignation to the outcome is apparent. There are also good supporting turns by Faysal Ahmed and Max Martini, as Muse's uncompromising cohort and a military operative respectably, but it is the peculiar connection between Phillips and the kidnappers that keeps us riveted from beginning to end.

Captain Phillips is not a tale of heroes and villains or an adventure fantasy about good triumphing over evil. It is a tale of living through unimaginable chaos, of hanging on to life even when it might be slipping out of your grasp. It is a film about ordinary people caught up in the randomness of violence, a narrative that keeps us from taking sides and keeps us rooting for the human spirit.

10/10

Trailerblazing -- No Good Deed

No Good Deed (2014) -- September 12, 2014 -- directed by Sam Miller -- starring Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson, Leslie Bibb, Kate del Castillo, Henry Simmons

I love films that revolve around battles of wills and the hero or heroine's ingenuity. There are simply not enough thrillers being made today and the first thing from this trailer that strikes my fancy is the suspense that I have not seen in a long time. Elba has not played many villains -- the complex, calculating Stringer Bell from "The Wire" is the only one that comes to mind -- and possesses a unique charisma and authority, so it will be fantastic to see him play a new kind of part. Henson is a terrific chameleon - check out two completely different characters in Hustle & Flow and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, among others -- and I have missed seeing her since "Person of Interest". Based on this footage, the two have a palpable dynamic, which is what this type of story hinges on. The trailer does give out a lot of information, but thankfully no spoilers, so we might be in for a nice surprise in terms of potential twists and turns. I look forward to No Good Deed and hope that it inspires filmmakers to revert to old-fashioned excitement.

Summer Review #1 -- Godzilla

Having never seen a Godzilla film -- and I am working on remedying that fact -- and having loved Gareth Edwards's Monsters, I was excited to see his take on the Japanese hit. The film does not disappoint. This is a globetrotting adventure that boasts an incredible cast and human story, as well as fantastic effects and entertaining action.

Fifteen years after a nuclear reactor accident, engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) keeps trying to prove that the Japanese government is concealing the true cause of the disaster. When he meets up with his estranged son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and the pair crosses paths with a pair of scientists (Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins), they discover that the truth goes back to World War II and that it may be more than humanity can handle...

I am a huge fan of Monsters and the subtle, organic way that Edwards had chosen to depict the human reaction to an alien invasion. The filmmaker does the same thing with Godzilla, weaving multiple thematic threads and rooting the tale in a story about family and history. He never forgets the origins of the cautionary narrative, though, which is evident even in the innovative opening titles that combine the actors' names with "redacted" information. This is as much a tale about humanity's arrogance and affinity for conflict as it is a popcorn flick. Edwards and writers Max Borenstein and Dave Callaham have created a blockbuster with a conscience, all the while recognizing that no stakes can be high enough without good characterization and complex relationships. 

As far as the effects go, they are spectacular on the big screen, especially the skydiving sequence, the bridge scene and the monster battles. Godzilla's new look is equally impressive -- that tail! On another note, the film looks ominously beautiful, thanks to Seamus McGarvey's (Atonement, The Avengers) steely cinematography.

The cast is terrific. Cranston and Juliette Binoche make their characters truly relatable; their last scene together is devastating. Taylor-Johnson does a great job as a leading man and shares sweet chemistry with Elizabeth Olsen. I do feel that Watanabe, Hawkins and David Strathairn occasionally get lost in exposition and are not given much to do, but the upcoming sequel might change that. I also look forward to seeing the talent that the second film attracts.   

Godzilla is a great start to the summer movie season and an excellent sophomore effort by a visionary filmmaker. It offers two hours of edge-of-your-seat sequences, but manages to ground the fun in realism. Count me in for the sequel.  

8/10

Trailerblazing -- Snowpiercer/Lucy/I Origins/Gone Girl

Snowpiercer (2013) -- June 27, 2014 -- directed by Joon-ho Bong -- starring Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer

Since this film is populated by actors that continuously pick intriguing projects, it is guaranteed to be worth seeing. The story of a classist society on a train journeying across the post-apocalyptic world boasts a terrific cast and a grey-tinted, grinding set design. I love the aesthetic juxtapositions that the trailer offers, as well as the uncompromising approach to the subject matter -- no, I do not like glitz with my apocalypse. One of the most captivating actors around, Swinton was born to play the eccentric, autocratic leader. Spencer and Bell are good additions to the cast -- I do not think that either of them has done a movie like this one before. On another note, I am happy to see Evans in a dark piece like this one, playing a character radiating grit and determination. I find that he does not get too many chances to show how talented he really is (watch Sunshine and Puncture, while we are at it). All in all, Snowpiercer seems like a great dystopian classic in the making.

Lucy (2014) -- August 6, 2014 -- directed by Luc Besson -- starring Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Analeigh Tipton

I had never thought of Johansson as an action heroine. Then she became Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. the Black Widow, and gave us some of the most impressive work of her career. I like the idea of Johansson's cool energy combined with Besson's kooky ingenuity and it is nice to see the filmmaker going back to form in such a big way. Freeman is always a formidable presence -- that voice! I cannot stress enough how much I love the cinematography, which comes as no surprise, being that it was done by Besson's frequent collaborator Thierry Arbogast. The idea of using 100% of brain power is not exactly original -- think (the rather underwhelming) Limitless -- but it is a matter of content here, and the concept is wrapped in a dynamic package that promises to grip us from start to finish. I cannot wait.

I Origins (2014) -- July 18, 2014 -- directed by Mike Cahill -- starring Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi

Examining a philosophical topic in a new light is a rare thing in today's cinema, often dominated by blockbusters and ways to make a quick buck. From the looks of the trailer, Another Earth helmer Cahill's new work is a tender, sumptuous examination of life, death and several other concepts tied into our humanity. I also love the usage of color combined with the mysterious nature of those numbers. Both Pitt and Marling always make interesting career choices, so it is fantastic to see the two actors in one film. I Origins seems like one of those narratives that are incomparable -- true originals that find beauty in the world and manage to expand on its meaning. The only issue I have is that the trailer gives away much of the plot; at the same time, more surprises might well be in store, so we should not be griping. In a time of year when Godzilla roars and Transformers fly, it is nice to see a story that takes imagination to a whole new level through thoughtful symbolism. 

Gone Girl (2014) -- October 3, 2014 -- directed by David Fincher -- starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Missi Pyle, Tyler Perry

Disclaimer: I have not read Gillian Flynn's wildly popular thriller yet. Therefore, I can only review this trailer from the standpoint of an avid moviegoer captivated by a good story. From what I know, this one is a doozie. The tale of a missing woman and her husband that emerges as the prime suspect is full of ambiguous characters and peppered by jabs of dark humor. With his opus of morality tales like Se7en and The Social Network, Fincher is the perfect director for this adaptation -- hey, he was even Flynn's first choice. As far as the casting goes, Affleck has shown he was a better director than actor so far in my opinion, save for Good Will Hunting and Argo. However, he does possess an all-American, apple pie wholesomeness that can surprise you with a swerve into volatility. I have never been a huge fan of Pike's, finding her to be too one-note in her portrayals, but I trust Fincher with his choices. After all, this is the man that gave us films such as Fight Club, which showcased Brad Pitt at his most satirical, and the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which gave us Rooney Mara at her darkest. The trailer is haunted by a suitably ethereal cover of Elvis Costello's "She" -- suffice to say, this is a far cry from Notting Hill. This film looks like one not to be missed.