Pirates of the Caribbean!!

So late last Thursday night I jumped into the car and headed to the movie theater, my blood pumping with excitement as I headed out to the midnight sneak preview of the movie I’ve been waiting for all year long – Pirate’s of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I love going to sneak previews because of the great crowd that you get and the excitement and fun that makes it not just a night at the movies, but truly a memorable event. And Thursday night’s show did not disappoint.

The movie started at 12:01 AM, so I figured I’d get there about a 11:00 or so, so that I’d have plenty of time to get in line for a good seat. Well, obviously an hour early wasn’t quite good enough, because the theater was already packed when I got there. It was a great crowd, though. There were all kinds of people dressed up in pirate costumes, and one group singing “What Would You Do With A Drunken Sailor” out in front of the theater. They even had a girl with a fiddle accompanying them. And shortly before the movie started they came into the theater and sang for several choruses, getting the crowd clapping and singing along with them (I’m guessing they were actually seated in the other screen showing the movie, as they left after several minutes and I did not see them return). Somebody even had a car parked out front with a mast with small black sails on it attached to the roof, with a poster for the movie filling the rear window. It was just incredibly fun and exciting and everyone was cheering and clapping. If you’re ever able to attend a midnight showing like that, I say by all means do it. It is so worth it (especially when you have a boss who’s nice enough to let you come into work a couple hours late the next morning). :-)

As far as the movie itself goes, I absolutely loved it!! It was easily as good as the original, if not better – regardless of what all those naysayers might have to say to the contrary. And sadly I’m not just talking about the critics this time. They were actually fairly evenly split between loving the movie and finding it somewhat disappointing. No, I’m talking about your average moviegoers. I went online and read a fair number of comments from people on a couple of movie sites, and it was a little shocking how many negative comments were being made about the movie. This kind of upset me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see why that was the case (and it has nothing to do with the movie deserving those comments, because it certainly did not). Part of the issue, I think, is that people who are unhappy with something are a lot more likely to be very vocal in their bitching about it than people who are happy with it. So it stands to reason (by my way of thinking, anyways) that the people who didn’t like the movie or were disappointed with the movie are going to rush online to make certain the entire world knows how horribly upset they are with it, whereas people who really liked the movie will probably tell all their friends how great it was, and leave it at that.

And of course, the sad truth of the matter is, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is a movie that was pretty much guaranteed to get a fair amount of negative feedback regardless, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s not only a sequel, but a sequel to a very popular and successful, much loved movie. And while so many people make a point of saying that the sequel is never as good as the original, so many of them seem to go to the theater expecting it to be better than the original, and then are upset if it isn’t. So there was a lot of pressure on the filmmakers to top the original with the sequel (and a lot of the complaints about the sequel go to the idea that the filmmakers tried TOO hard to make sure it was bigger and bolder and funnier and more exciting than the original, and that in trying too hard, they actually made it less of a film. I don’t know that I agree with that, but you'll have to make that call when you see the film). The other problem that this movie has is that it isn’t just a sequel, it’s the center film of a trilogy. And there’s very much a difference between a movie that happens to spawn two sequels, and a planned movie trilogy. For examples of this, you can look at Empire Strikes Back, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, or The Matrix Reloaded (which, like Dead Man’s Chest, was a case where the second and third movies were filmed simultaneously). You can really see how the story structure and tone of these movies differs from movies like Spider-Man 2 or X2: X-Men United, which are simply sequels that managed to be successful enough to generate third movies in their series.

The problem you run into with movies of this type, and the reason that many people consider them each to be the weakest of the three films in their respective trilogies, is that the middle film (much like the 2nd act of a 3-act play) is all about transition. The first movie sets the stage, introducing the characters and the world they inhabit. This movie draws you into the world, developing the characters and letting you get to know them, getting you excited to learn more about them and discover what happens to them next. And of course the third film is your grand finale. It’s where the events of the previous two films reach their dramatic conclusion. The second film, then, is primarily there to take you from the first movie to the finale, and so you often don’t get a satisfying climax to that film (instead you get left desperately waiting for the final film to come out so you can see how it all ends – both The Two Towers and Dead Man’s Chest did this). And so it’s a lot harder to enjoy the movie just for itself.

Another issue with Dead Man’s Chest is that like Empire Strikes Back, a lot of people complained that it’s a much darker, more somber story than the original film (and it is – it remains to be seen if this darker style carries over into the third film, or if it returns to the more light-hearted nature of Curse of the Black Pearl). Now that’s not to say that it’s a grim, depressing movie. On the contrary, I’d say that there’s actually more humor in this one than in the previous (it’s funny as hell!). But the overall story is a darker, more serious one than we saw in the first movie. But unlike a lot of people, I didn’t find this to be a bad thing at all. I thought it made the movie that much more interesting (but I’m probably biased, as I tend to be much more drawn to darker films; it’s just my nature).

And while I’m on a tangent, I’d like to talk about movie critics, and people who seem to be overly-critical of movies (who I think spend too much time reading movie critics). The problem I see with a number of the comments I’ve read, and several of the more negative reviews I read clips of on imdb is that these people seem to be so focused on trying to find things wrong with the movie, and to find things to be critical of (which, at least in the case of the movie critics they can more or less justify as them doing their job), is that they don’t let themselves just relax and enjoy the movie. If you let yourself get drawn into the movie and absorbed with what’s going on, you’ll either not notice a lot of the nitpicky stuff that people complained about, or you’ll make a brief note of it and not give it much more thought because you’re too busy enjoying the movie! And let’s face it, if you’re determined to find something to be critical about, it’s pretty certain that you will. For example, numerous people complained that the movie was too long, and that the plot was too convoluted and it took too long to get to the main story (and I will admit, it does take a while for the main plotline to really start moving forward). But I’d bet money that if the main characters all met up in the first 10 minutes of the movie and were headed off together on their next adventure right from the word go, these same idiots would be bitching that the story was contrived and that bringing the characters all back together like that wasn’t believable, etc., etc., etc. There’s just no pleasing some people. However you do it, someone's not going to be happy about it.

I have to agree with one reviewer I read, who noted that while it did take a while to get to the main plot of the movie, having the various main characters each on their own little adventures all tied loosely into the titular dead man’s chest, and then finally bringing them all together later in the movie actually was nice because it DID keep the movie away from your standard Hollywood sequel idea of bringing all the characters back together to share in another adventure as they all quest together for a shared goal. To those people who found the story hard to follow or keep up with, or thought it was too convoluted and complex, all I can say is that you have my deepest sympathies, because you’re obviously a dumbass. I loved the story; I loved that it was complex and involved, and took a while to bring all the characters back together. I love that they brought back the two bumbling comic-relief pirates from the first movie instead of simply creating new characters to be the comic relief. I do have to admit that bringing back Commodore Norrington was probably unnecessary and a bit excessive as far as bringing old characters back goes, but at the same time I like his role in the movie (especially how it plays out at the end).

So now that we’re back on track discussing the movie, let’s jump into it and really go into what I loved about the movie (and what I didn’t love so much – while I’ll give the movie 10 out of 10 without hesitation, there were indeed a few minor complaints that I can agree can be made about the movie). For starters, the movie is funny as hell. Johnny Depp is once again brilliant as Captain Jack Sparrow, and is funnier than ever in this movie (some people complained he was trying to hard to be funny and it didn’t work as well as it did in the first movie – I say lighten up). He is once again the rogue and knave who’s pretty much out for himself and would sell out his own mother if it would get him out of a jam (and despite this, you can’t help but just love the guy). The mute pirate’s parrot is back once again to provide a few good laughs, and our hapless duo of Pintel and Ragetti (the goofball pirates) are as hapless as ever (although I do have to say they’re not quite as funny as they were in the first film; I was still really happy to see them return, though). Also back from the first movie is Barbossa’s undead monkey for a few humorous little scenes (for those of you who missed it, if you watch Curse of the Black Pearl all the way through to the very end of the credits, there’s an additional scene where the monkey goes back to the cursed chest of Aztec gold and takes one of the gold pieces, causing him to return to being undead).

The performances are all wonderful. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley all do a wonderful job. Naomie Harris is very fun to watch as the voodoo priestess/fortune-teller, and I was really impressed with Stellan Skarsgard as Will Turner’s father Bootstrap Bill (but he’s just a wonderful actor in general, so that wasn’t much of a surprise). And then there’s Davy Jones, played to perfection by Bill Nighy (who played the villainous Viktor in Underworld/Underworld: Evolution, and who was splendid as Slartibartfast in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). He is a very different villain from Captain Barbossa from the first movie, who was a very fun, charismatic sort of swashbuckling pirate villain. Davy Jones is much more the sinister, more darker villain. While not as fun a villain to watch as Barbossa, he still made a great villain, who really fit the darker nature of the story in the second film, and I think Bill Nighy did a great job with him. Also fantastic was the CGI to bring his character to life, with his crab claw and octopus tentacles around his head, he just looked incredibly cool!

This, sadly, brings us to the point where I have to discuss the big thing that disappointed me about the movie, and that was the CGI. For starters, the Kraken, while very well animated, was for some reason a little disappointing. I can’t even put my finger on exactly what about it I didn’t like, but whatever it was, when the movie was over I was just a little disappointed in how it came across (and I will admit they could have cut out a few of the tentacle-filled scenes – but I completely disagree with the people I read online who compared it to the overly long CGI battle scenes in King Kong, because I don’t think it was anywhere close to being as bad).

The biggest disappointment in the CGI department, though, would have to be with the crew of the Flying Dutchmen. In the trailers you see them rising out of the water, with the hammerhead shark character big and bold at the front of the screen, and so you’re expecting all these really cool aquatic animal/humanoid characters – and the shark head guy does indeed look really cool. But other than him and Davy Jones, most of the rest of the crew are just this hodgepodge of barnacles and corals and such, all kind of wedged together into a person. There’s almost no personality to them, and very few of them really stand out (although the scene where the one pirate’s head turns into a hermit crab is pretty damned cool). Which was a shame, because I think there was a lot of potential there for some visually impressive, memorable characters. Instead, most of them very much just blend into the background.

But that would have to be my only major complaint (and hardly a major one at that). The fight scenes are fantastic and just fun to watch (you just have to love swashbuckling movies for great sword fights). There’s wonderful comedy throughout, and many great performances. The story, while yes, being convoluted and drawn out and darker than the first film, was still very engaging and completely drew me into the movie so that the 150 minute runtime didn’t bother me at all. And there’s a fantastic jaw-dropping ending (which, of course, some people managed not to like – go figure) that had me, at least, desperately eager to see the third movie. I give this movie an unquestionable five out of five stars, and I know for a fact I will be seeing it at the theater at least once (if not two or three times) more. I absolutely loved it, I cannot recommend it highly enough!! And if you see it and disagree with me, feel free to post a comment and I’ll be happy to tell you that you’re wrong. ;-P

Oh, one final word for anyone who hasn’t see the movie yet or saw it and liked it enough to go see it again – just like in the first movie, there’s a brief little scene at the very end of the end credits that’s pretty cute and worth hanging around to see.

It's July already!

So it's July already. Hard to believe that the summer movie season is more or less half over already (especially considering there hasn't been much in the way of really great summer movies so far this year). It’s been a couple of weeks since my last entry, but I was out of town to see family for a weekend (and didn’t see any movies), and then I was out of town 4th of July weekend for a wedding. But that certainly wasn’t going to stop me from seeing that weekend's big release, Superman Returns! I didn’t see it Wednesday when it premiered because I was waiting until that Friday to attend a very special showing being put on by Muse Comics of Missoula, Montana (a wonderful store). The store actually booked an entire showing of the film, then gave a ticket to anyone who made a $10 donation to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund through the store (which I thought was very cool, as this is a great organization that I fully support). And why would someone pay $10 to see a movie when the regular ticket price is only $7 you ask (especially when it’s not even a sneak preview of the movie)? Well, the answer to that is that Muse Comics managed the astounding feat of getting comic book legend Jim Lee to come to Missoula for a signing before attending the showing with everyone.

Now for those of you not into comic books, this probably doesn’t mean much. But Jim Lee is one of the current greats of the comic book world, having drawn Superman, X-Men, and a number of other significant comics, as well as starting his own comics publishing company, Wildstorm (which has a whole slew of kickass comics), which he eventually sold to DC Comics. Not being a fanboy type myself, I didn’t stand in line to get any comics signed (and I have to say there was quite the impressive line to get his autograph), but it was pretty cool to go to the movie and be able to say that Jim Lee sat right behind me. And because of the nature of the event, it very much felt like a big premiere, even if it happened after the movie had been playing a couple of days. Jim Lee said a few words to the crowd, and everyone was really excited (cheering and clapping when the movie started, and when the Spiderman 3 teaser played, for example), and it was just generally a really great time at the movies (which is why I love attending sneak previews or special showings like this of big movies).

At this point I’d like to digress from the movie for a moment to talk about premieres/sneak previews. Especially with the bigger movies, they tend to be a big hassle to attend (standing in line for hours to get tickets (although this is becoming less of an issue now that theaters are starting to sell tickets before the day of the show, sell tickets online, etc.), followed by standing in line hours before the movie starts so you’re near the front of the line in the hopes of getting good seats), but I’ve always felt it was worth it. I was always the guy who took a half day off from work to stand in line for tickets for everybody to the big premieres (which is never a lot of fun, especially when it’s for a holiday movie like the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter films and it’s snowing and freezing cold), and I was more than happy to do it because I’m that big of a movie geek. Admittedly, I got lucky and never had to stand in line for the Star Wars prequels, because I’ve got a friend who’s a huge Star Wars geek who stood in line to get tickets for those (and to all those people who pitched tents and spent weeks/months in line to be the first to buy tickets, all I can say is – it’s just a damned movie! A few hours, maybe even half a day is one thing, but weeks?! Get a life!!). But back to the topic at hand. The reason I have no problems waiting in line for hours for these big premieres is because it is just such a fun experience to see the movie for the first time with a group of people who are just super psyched to see the movie. You won’t ever see me in costume or anything crazy like that (as I said, I’ve never really been a fanboy type of person), but it’s still fun to be around that crowd and to feel the energy and excitement that has people cheering and clapping when the movie starts and when the credits roll (and occasionally during really cool scenes in the movie). It just makes for a much more fun, memorable movie experience.

So back to Superman Returns (which I’ve actually seen twice now. I saw it Friday at the special showing, then again on Saturday with a couple of friends who had to work Friday night). I do have to say that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first two X-Men or Spiderman movies (but that’s partly because while I’m a big fan of the X-Men comics and was a longtime reader of Spiderman, I’ve never really been a big fan of Superman). It was still a really cool movie, though, and I liked it a hell of a lot better than I did X-Men: The Last Stand. Which probably shouldn’t be too surprising since it’s directed by Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X-Men movies. Bryan Singer is just such a great director (he’s probably one of my top five, and absolutely one of my top 10 favorite directors). He focuses so much more on story and characters than he does on events and action and big effects scenes, which is why I like him better as a director than Brett Ratner (who directed X3). Of course, I think even Bryan Singer would have had a hard time with X3, since it’s biggest problem was that the script was crap. But we’ve covered that already in a previous entry, so moving on!

There were a handful of scenes in Superman Returns that were way over the top and just kind of make you shake your head because they push limits of suspending your disbelief a little too far, but it’s Superman, so sadly that’s to be expected. But overall the story was really well thought out and put together. I’ve heard a number of complaints from people about the lack of action in the movie, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. And I have to shake my head at people who complain that Lex Luthor isn’t the bad, scary super-powered villain in the goofy costume like we’re used to from other superhero movies, because I say, “So what?” He is still a cool, fun to watch villain, especially when he’s played by Kevin Spacey. It so reminded me of another crazed megalomaniac character he played back in the 80s in a TV show called Wiseguy, where he played a wealthy arms dealer by the name of Mel Profitt. This is the show where I was first introduced to Kevin Spacey, and I’ve been a huge fan of his work ever since.

Also notable was the performance of Brandon Routh, the young unknown cast to play Superman. And having seen the movie, it’s obvious why he was chosen. As my buddy commented when we watched it, you’d swear he was channeling the spirit of Christopher Reeve. Their appearances are similar, and he just does such a great job with his mannerisms and the way he played the character to really, really make you think of Christopher Reeve's performance in the original films. It was outstanding. And finally I have to give kudos to Kate Bosworth (who I barely recognized without her usual blonde hair), who does a wonderful job as Lois Lane. She’s a very talented young actress that I look forward to seeing more of in the future.

So all in all a very enjoyable film, and hopefully the start of a renewal of the franchise (although I do have to say that as far as franchise restarts go, I was much more impressed with Batman Begins, but a lot of that is that it is both a darker film, and because I’m a much bigger Batman fan than I am a Superman fan). Certainly a movie worth going to see. Under normal circumstances it's probably not one I'd have seen at the theater twice, mind you (especially two days in a row), but that's how it goes sometimes. :-)

With 4th of July weekend being a long weekend, I made it to the theater that Monday to see the movie I'd missed the previous weekend when it first came out, Click. This was a pretty good movie, but certainly not a great movie. While Adam Sandler does a fantastic job, the biggest problem with the movie is that it is an Adam Sandler movie. Which is to say that there are numerous scenes of very juvenile humor that the movie would have been better off without. While this sort of humor works well in most of his movies, the nature of the story in this movie would have worked much better if they’d left a lot of that out. For example, there’s a running gag about the family dog constantly humping an over-sized stuffed duck that gets really old, really quickly.

The actors all did a great job. Kate Beckinsale is wonderful (and as beautiful and sexy as ever), and Christopher Walken steals pretty much every scene that he’s in (no surprise there at all). Sean Astin, David Hasselhoff, and Henry Winkler also give really solid performances. The story is pretty good, and very touching and heartfelt in spots, especially towards the end of the movie. I think with a little less emphasis on the humor (especially the more vulgar humor), this could have been a wonderful comedy-drama; instead we get an okay comedy with some dramatic elements to it. I’m glad I went and saw it, but I can probably only recommend it to Adam Sandler fans.

And so ends another entry. Next up we have my most-anticipated movie of the entire year that I had been absolutely dying to see – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Stay tuned!

The Fast and The Furious (Oh Yeah!!)

So I just went and saw The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and I loved it!! Which, I’m sure, is not too big of a surprise to anyone who knows me. Fast cars, kick ass racing scenes, and very hot, scantily clad Asian women – how can you go wrong? So let’s start with the critics’ reviews of the movie (since that’s always fun) and go from there. Not surprisingly, pretty much all the critics out there made negative comments about the plot and the acting. And much as I hate to admit it, I can’t really disagree with them too much. As tends to be the case with these sorts of movies, the plot is pretty thin and really pushes the bounds of believability (the flimsy excuse to get the main character to Tokyo was especially weak). And none of the acting was exactly Oscar caliber (but I do have to give props to Sung Kang, who plays Han – I was pretty impressed with his performance). But as anyone who was excited about this movie coming out is likely to tell you, who really cares?!

And much to my surprise, a number of movie critics out there actually got this point. As a matter of fact, you could probably break the reviews down into two categories. First are those critics who made their justified criticisms about the plot and the acting, but then went on to comment that fans of the genre aren’t going to care about this, and that it has great racing scenes and is visually just great to watch (which is absolutely the case – the drifting scenes are unbelievable!). Then there’s the second group (who in my opinion shouldn’t be allowed to review anything other than independent, art-house films), who make all their focus on the weak plot and unbelievable storyline, some of whom go so far as to say that there’s too much emphasis put on the racing and not enough on the plot. Excuse me??? Are you kidding me here?! I’m sorry, but going to see this sort of movie and complaining that there’s too much emphasis on the racing and not enough on the plot is about as idiotic as going to see a porn movie and then complaining that there was way too much time spent focusing on the sex scenes!!! DUH!!!

Normally I try to avoid commenting on specific reviews; for one thing, I generally read the review on imdb, which gives quotes from various critics and an overall view of how critics felt about the movie, which means I don’t actually read any critic's complete review (which is intentional, since too many critics have a bad habit of giving away plot points I’d just as soon not have revealed until I see them in the movie). And I don’t like being too negative or critical about specific people (you never know – they may actually find out about my blog and sue me or something; stranger things have happened, I’m sure). But in this particular case, I have to make an exception, because imdb had a critic’s comment that was so idiotic I actually had to track down and read the entire review. And I’m here to tell you, if you want to see a page of pointless and inane drivel that completely misses the point of the entire flippin’ movie, then go check out the review for this movie on USA Today's website. Oh my God! She not only complains that the acting in the movie will put you to sleep (who the hell is paying attention to the acting), but she has the audacity to recommend that if you’re into automobiles that you check out Cars instead! Yeah, because an animated kiddie movie with talking cars is going to be some much more intense and exciting and adrenaline-filled than a movie with REAL cars in REAL races!! How silly of me! (I do have to admit that I haven't had a chance to see Cars yet (I spent most of last weekend when it opened at a soccer tournament), so I can't comment on what sort of racing is in that movie, but all things considered, it's pretty easy to guess that there's no comparison between the two films).

Whew! Okay, got that out of my system. I’ve been fuming about that and needing to vent about it from the minute I read the review, before I even saw the movie. But now I have seen it, and I can now say with absolute conviction that any critic who didn’t say the movie was worth seeing by anyone who loves car racing is a complete hack who needs to find another line of work. Just because it’s not your cup of tea doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie, and you can’t judge every movie by the same narrowly focused classifications. You need to look at what type of movie it is, what the priorities are for the people who are likely to want to see the movie, and whether or not the movie meets those priorities. Which means that not every movie has to be vying for Best Picture! If it’s a horror movie, it needs to be scary; if it’s a comedy, it needs to be funny; if it’s an action movie, it needs to be fast-paced and action-packed. And if you can’t keep that in mind when you’re writing your review of the movie, you’re not only wasting your readers’ time, but you’re doing a complete disservice to those people who are actually trying to use your review to help them decide if it’s a movie they’d enjoy or not (which is why I don't pay any attention whatsoever to critics when deciding what movies I'm going to see).

Damn, I just can’t get off the critic-bashing rant today (guess that tells you how emotional I get over bullshit reviews of movies I like). But anyways, let’s get back to the topic at hand – The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Firstly, as you’ve probably guessed from the trailers, this one has a brand new set of characters with no ties to the previous movies at all. Which is fine, because as I commented on (repeatedly) above, that’s not what the movie is about. The movie is about racing. And specifically in this case, it’s about drifting, which I won't bother explaining to you because they do a pretty good job explaining it in the movie (and in the trailers for the movie, as far as that goes). All that needs to be said is that it is incredibly fun to watch.

So here's the plot in a nutshell: the main character goes to Japan to live with his estranged father (as mentioned above, the reasoning for this is pretty flimsy and falls completely within the realm of "only in Hollywood"), and once there gets involved in the world of drift racing. Not surprisingly, he knows nothing about drifting, and pretty much totals the car he borrows for his first race by slamming into walls, parked cars, etc., every time he tries to round a curve (the race takes place inside a parking garage of all places, with the racers racing to the top of the garage). But naturally he makes a few friends and slowly learns the ropes of drifting until he’s a top-notch racer. And at the same time, of course, he makes enemies with the best racer around by showing an interest in his girlfriend (who of course returns that interest). Kind of reminds me a lot of the original The Fast and The Furious, but that’s certainly not a bad thing. And things progress from there – I won’t bore you with the details; if you really want to know what happens, go see the movie!

In conclusion, all I can say is when you walk out of the theater completely pumped, and can practically feel the adrenaline racing through you, you know you’ve seen a good racing movie. And that’s exactly how I felt coming out of this movie. And there’s a little surprise at the end of the movie that is just really kickass that makes you feel just that much more pumped and excited and glad you saw the movie (at least it did for me). Hell, I’ll probably go see the movie a second time before it leaves the theaters. Take that, USA Today!!

The Break-Up

So I actually went and saw The Break-Up yesterday (despite it being an obvious chick/date movie). I went to the early matinee on Sunday, and there were a pair of older couples, a handful of women, and me at the theater (but I’m enough of a diehard movie buff that I didn’t even care that I was the only solo guy there). I went to see this movie for two reasons: one, I’ve always found Vince Vaughn to be incredibly funny, and two, the trailers for the movie made me realize just how hot (in a girl-next-door way, mind you, but still hot nonetheless) Jennifer Anniston really is (but I’d still take Angelina Jolie if I had to make a choice between the two – you go, Brad. And let me add – happy 31st birthday Angelina!! (June 4th – just happened to see that on imdb’s home page while I was writing this)).

The movie was both surprisingly good, and not nearly as funny as I expected it to be. Vince Vaughn isn’t so much funny as he is just obnoxious in this movie, but that’s not a bad thing, because that’s exactly what his character is supposed to be. Despite how you might feel from watching the trailers, once the movie starts you’re very quickly rooting for Jennifer Aniston’s character, because Vince Vaughn is really just a horribly inconsiderate boyfriend. And I noticed in the opening credits that he gets both producer and story writer credits for the movie, so it’s pretty obvious he had himself in mind when he wrote the role, which makes it really easy for him to inhabit the character and make you believe the character.

The movie starts out at a baseball game where Vince Vaughn first notices Jennifer Aniston, who’s actually there with another guy. He approaches her at the end of the game in the most obnoxiously charming way imaginable (pretty much acting just the way you’d expect a Vince Vaughn character to act), with Jennifer Aniston seeming less than impressed by him. But then the opening credits start with photo booth photos of the couple making goofy faces and poses (as most people seem to do when they’re in a photo booth), and then as the credits roll we’re treated to a very well thought out and presented series of photos showing the development of the couple’s relationship, from their early dating to shots of the couples’ bowling team that they’re on, holidays together, and of course them buying the condo that becomes the key focus during their breakup. When the credits finish and we see the couple again they’ve gone from having just met to having been dating for two years.

We start with the two people’s day jobs, and then when they get home that evening they pretty much go right into the big fight that leads to their break-up. Of course, Jennifer Anniston doesn’t really want to break up, she just wants her boyfriend to be more appreciative and more willing to do things for her and with her whether he personally wants to do them or not. And so the story of the movie is basically her various attempts to make him realize what he’s missing, make him jealous, etc., and his reactions to her attempts (one thing I do have to say – if Jennifer Anniston really wants to move past Friends and get fully into a movie career, she really needs to play characters that don’t immediately make you think of Rachel, which this character does in several instances).

One thing I found somewhat ironic, considering that the two actors involved supposedly are now dating after having made the movie together, is the fact that there are no lovemaking scenes, no kissing, no real intimacy of any sort between the two characters, since they’re basically fighting throughout the entire movie (the photos in the opening credits show numerous still shots of such moments, but that’s the only place). But hey, that’s Hollywood for you.

As I said before, this movie isn’t as funny as you’d think from the previews (something a number of critics complained about). There are certainly comic moments, and some really funny scenes, but mostly it’s more of a dramedy about two people who seem to really love each other, but who have very different personalities and backgrounds, and are at a crossroads in their relationship where they have to decide if they can overcome their differences in order to stay together as a couple. And they not only do a very good job with the story (regardless of what the critics think), but it also goes against the standard, cliched formulas you've seen done over and over again in romantic comedies (whether they do it right is something for each viewer to decide. I personally think they did). The ending is somewhat surprising, and VERY non-Hollywood, but it so perfectly fits the way the story and characters develop (and so plays out as more believable than the ending to the average romantic comedy) that I was really impressed, and just overall happy with the story as a whole when I left the theater.

I highly recommend this movie for couples, people who enjoy romantic films or relationship films, or for anyone who wants to see Jennifer Aniston’s bare butt (even if it’s not the best shot of it in the world, it’s still nice to watch). :-)

The Big X-Men Finale

So X-Men: The Last Stand premiered over Memorial Day weekend, breaking all kinds of records by the time the weekend was over. I’d hoped to get this review out a little sooner, but it was just been one of those weeks, and sadly by the time I’d gotten home from work every evening last week, I just didn't have the motivation to do much of anything, so I had a hell of a time getting focused on getting this done (but on the plus side, at least it didn’t take a month or more to do it!). With that said, I have to say that as far as the big finale to the X-Men trilogy goes, I was pretty disappointed. To be fair, I think Brett Ratner did a pretty good job taking over as director from Bryan Singer (which was of course my biggest concern before the movie came out, since I’m a very big fan of Bryan Singer’s, and he did such a fantastic job with the first two movies). And visually it was very exciting and enjoyable to watch (but that’s to be expected). The story, on the other hand, I have A LOT of complaints about. Now, before I continue any further with this review, I need to make two disclaimers:

Disclaimer #1: If you’ve never really read the comics and only know the X-Men characters/stories from the previous two movies, then you will probably very much enjoy the third movie just as much as you did the previous two. The vast majority of my criticisms of the movie are coming from someone who is a long-time reader of the comics. The screenwriters took a lot of liberties and did a lot of things with the characters especially that as a fan of the comics I was very unhappy with. So if you’re not a reader of the comics, don’t let my negative comments dissuade you from seeing the film – you’ll probably have little or no problems with it, and will wonder what the hell I’m so upset about.

Disclaimer #2: Some of the comments/criticisms in this review will be fairly vague and non-specific (which is going to be really difficult for me because there’s a lot that I’d really, really like to go into detail about). The reason for this is that any details I might give about the things I have a problem with would be MAJOR spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie. So on the off chance that one of my small handful of readers (assuming any of you are still out there after my long periods of no new entries) reads this review and hasn’t seen the movie yet, I don’t want to spoil it for you by revealing things that happen in the movie that are supposed to come as a surprise. So we’ll see how well I do venting my frustrations with the script without giving away too many surprises or key plot points.

Also, I’d just like to quickly say that I’m not going to make any comments about the critics’ reviews of the movie, because it is patently obvious that not only are they as clueless as always, but not a one of them has so much as looked at the cover of an actual X-Men comic, much less read one, so as far as I’m concerned, their opinions are completely meaningless here. And so with all that out of the way, on with the review. Let’s start with the positive (and there were certainly things about the movie I did like). For starters, the biggest thing I liked about the movie was that the various new characters (with one glaring exception, which I’ll get into later) were all great! It would have been nice if some of them would have gotten more screen time, but they were still great to see. Both Kitty Pryde and Colossus are both back (with Kitty, at least, played by a different actress than previously) with bigger roles than before, which I loved. The additions of Beast and Angel are both fantastic (Kelsey Grammer was unbelievably good as Beast), although it would have been nice to see Angel have a bigger role in the movie (he plays an important part to the story, but isn’t really IN the movie all that much). Another mutant addition that it was great to see (and something of a surprise as well) was Multiple Man, although his character was way under-used.

The character I most enjoyed seeing in the movie was Leech, a young boy whose mutant power is that he cancels out other mutants’ powers. The movie uses his blood as the source for the mutant “cure” that’s at the crux of the plot. The one thing I was curious about going into the movie, however, was that in the comic book Leech’s power actually has a radius effect, and any mutant getting too close to him is affected by his power (it's not just his blood). I was impressed to see that they did bring this into the movie, and used it to good effect as well. I also like the young actor who portrays Leech – Cameron Bright, who I previously discussed in my review of Ultraviolet. I'll be interested to see how his career develops, and whether or not he disappears off the map once he gets older, as numerous other young child actors have done.

Another pleasant surprise in this movie was the addition of Dr. Moira MacTaggart, a non-mutant character who is a big part of the comics. Her name appears in a list of computer files at one point in X2 (you pretty much have to pause the DVD at a certain spot and look closely to see it, something I did just to see how many of the names listed I could identify from the comics), and she finally appears in person in the third movie. Interestingly enough, she’s not actually in the end credits, and shows up on imdb as uncredited (which is somewhat strange considering that she plays a fairly sizable part for a secondary character – but that’s Hollywood for you). Which brings up something else I’ve liked about all three of the X-Men movies. In all of them, I’ve found that if you watch the end credits closely (or check out the movies’ entries on imdb), you discover all kinds of characters that although they make little or no mention of their names in the movies, they are actual characters from the comics. For example, Jubilation Lee, a young Asian girl who actually was first created for the original X-Men cartoon, and then moved into the comics from there, has appeared in all three movies, and is listed in the credits for all three as Jubilee (her "superhero" name), but is only shown in group scenes of the students during the films – her name is never given in the movies, but if you're a fan of the comics you can fairly easily pick her out and know who she probably is. So even though she has a minimal role, and never even uses her mutant powers, they still made a point of identifying her character in the credits, which I thought was kind of cool (especially since I always liked her character). I kept hoping they’d eventually give her a bigger role (like they finally did with Kitty Pryde in the last movie), but at least she’s in all the movies.

There are numerous other characters that are in this same category, but I’m not going to take the time and effort to name all of them (I do have to say, though, that I've always felt the inclusion of these numerous additional characters actually taken from the comics, whether you caught who they were before you saw them listed in the credits or not, was a nice bonus for the fans of the comics that the filmmakers didn't have to do, but did anyways). If you’re a fan of the comics, check out the credit listings on imdb (if you haven't already); you’ll be surprised at just what characters they actually have listed in the credits (although there are a few that I STILL haven't actually been able to place in the movies when I re-watched them).

One more character I do need to talk about, though, before me move onto other things, is the one character who had no business whatsoever being in the final movie, and that is Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut. Yes, he’s from the comic books, and is actually a fairly significant villain (also, for those who don't know, he's actually Professor Xavier’s step-brother, which is the main connection he has to the X-Men in the comics). There are two problems with including him in the movie, however. Number one, he was a fairly dumb and annoying character in the comics, and they make him an even dumber and more annoying character in the movie. Number two, despite how they might mislead you in the movie, Juggernaut is NOT, in any way, shape, or form, a mutant, which of course means he would have no place in Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants. All of Juggernaut’s powers came from a mystical crystal in his helmet (which is why he never took it off – without it he was powerless). So for the moviemakers to bring in not only an annoying character from the comics, but one who’s not even really a mutant, just really, really bugged me. This was an obvious weak spot in the film that could have been avoided (although there is one amusing scene with Juggernaut that I did like).

One last quick comment about the credits of the movie, and then we’ll move on. I love the fact that the movie featured R. Lee Ermey as the voice of an army sergeant. He is so perfect for that sort of role, and I just love it whenever I see him making a cameo appearance in a movie (he’s so the go-to guy whenever moviemakers need a great Army/Marine sergeant character, even if they’re just using his voice). And in looking at the imdb listing, I discovered that the movie not only featured the obligatory Stan Lee cameo, but there was also a cameo by Chris Claremont, a LONGTIME Uncanny X-Men writer and creator of numerous Marvel characters.

And now, onto some of the other things I liked about the movie. The actors all did a very good job, and even those who’s roles were way smaller than they should have been gave wonderful performances. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, visually the movie was indeed very exciting and top notch. And the action scenes were all very well done. But all of this was to be expected and so it's not exactly high praise for the movie (it would be a major criticism of the movie if these areas weren't well done, but it's not really a compliment to the movie that they were). The big problem is that the story has so many things wrong with it (in my opinion) that it really takes away from everything else. That being said, let’s get to what I found wrong with the movie.

Where to start, where to start. Well, I guess the first place to start is with Hollywood’s love of the trilogy. Three so seems to be the magic number. Yes, you do have a number of franchises that make many, many more movies than that, but by and large it’s all about the trilogy, and so as soon as the studio greenlights a sequel to a movie, it’s generally assumed that a third movie will be done, and then barring huge success, they’ll stop there (I also think that any more whenever there’s franchise potential, they’ll get actors to sign a three picture deal so that they know they’ll have them at a set salary for at least three pictures – which means that if there is a fourth movie, they have the problem that the actors can either opt out of further films, or ask for quite a bit larger salaries if the first three movies have been very successful). That seems to be the attitude that the screenwriters took on X-Men: The Last Stand – this is the last movie in the trilogy, so we can do whatever the hell we want to with the story and the characters. Which is exactly what they did. I won’t go into details because I don’t want to put in any spoilers, but they do some things to some of the major characters that really pissed me off, because it so goes against what’s in the comics. I think any fan of the comics would be upset with what they did.

Now, having said the above, I will concede that they do leave hints at the end of the movie that point to a possible fourth film (but let’s face it, that’s pretty much standard for ANY movie with franchise potential or that’s part of a franchise, whether there’s any plans whatsoever to do another movie or not, so that really means absolutely nothing these days). Oh, on that subject, if you do go to see the movie, make sure you stay all the way until the very end of the end credits.

Another aspect of the story that annoyed me, but wasn’t nearly as big a deal as what they did to the characters, is the state the country is in when the movie starts. Admittedly it has been three years between movies, but the student characters don’t really seemed to have aged that much (as far as how they’re portrayed in the film) and things at the school just don’t feel like that much time has passed (but maybe that’s just me). But the world at large in the movie shows enough changes to make it feel like even more than three years have passed. There’s a new president, and we have a brand new government department, The Department of Mutant Affairs, and mutants are a common, everybody knows about them minority in the country. It just feels like too many things have changed between the second and third films. And then there’s Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, the Secretary of Mutant Affairs. He shows up out of the blue (no pun intended), and when he arrives at Xavier’s school, he’s greeted like an old friend by Storm and Professor X, but Wolverine acts as if he’s never met him before. And we are given the impression that Beast was once an X-Man, but no details into his history or connection to the group or the school are mentioned; you’re just expected to assume that there is one, which just bothered me as being a weak point in the story that they just decided not to bother going into.

Another thing that bugged me was a group of mutants the movie shows getting together to protest the new “mutant cure”. My guess is they’re meant to represent, or are inspired by, the Morlocks, a society of mutants in the comics who live in tunnels underneath Manhatten because unlike the X-Men they don’t have cool superpowers, they’re just freaks of nature whose physical mutations are blatant and extreme enough to make them outcasts of society. Part of my reason for linking the group of mutants in the movie to the Morlocks is that one of the characters there who joins Magneto (the woman who can sense other mutants) is listed in the credits as Callisto, who in the comics rises to become leader of the Morlocks. But instead of showing us a group of obvious mutants (which would be REALLY easy considering the F/X make-up and CGI abilities that movie studios have these days), what we get is basically just a group of vagabond homeless people, some of whom are fairly obviously mutants. This, in my opinion, was just laziness on the part of the filmmakers.

Well this thing has gotten long enough that I think I’ll stop there. That should give you an overall view of my feelings about this movie. Again, if you’re not a big reader of the comics, most of my complaints will mean little to you, and if you liked the previous films, you should enjoy this one just as well. But as for me, I’m unhappy enough about some of the story decisions of the movie (among other things) that I won’t be bothering to see it a second time at the theaters (something I felt sure I’d do from watching the trailers and from how much I liked the previous movies), and it’ll be up in the air as to whether or not I pick it up on DVD. But that’s just me.

And so we conclude our latest entry. I actually have my review of this weekend’s movie, The Break-Up, completed as well, but it’s still sitting in Word (and it's way past my bedtime and I've got work tomorrow, so it's going to have to wait). So as soon as I get it copied into blogger and all the imdb links put in, it will be published as well; barring unforeseen delays, it should be up on Monday. Until then! :-)