craigoxbrow

The follow-up to the follow-up to Brick, Looper sees Rian Johnson stray out of writing and directing thrillers into a half-thriller half-thoughtful SF movie. Still plenty of slang and inappropriate machismo, but then it slows in pace dramatically, some of the worldbuilding pays off, and it becomes sort of a thinking person’s (time-travel action movie redacted as spoiler).

The worldbuilding is a nice balance of the totally necessary and the there just for style, and while you can make some educated guesses you might not spot which is which to begin with.

Not too sure about the mechanics of time travel, but they're consistent. (I think.)

And the makeup to make Joseph Gordon-Levitt look like a young Bruce Willis is a bit creepy, not entirely consistent, and occasionally makes him look like Wes Bentley.

And it hangs on one big coincidence which could have been avoided. Grrr.

Best original SF film of the year? I guess, maybe. Last year's "best original SF film of the year" was better, I think.

Trailers: Argo, one of those next-couple-months’-movies-in-general roundups including The Hobbit, and not one but two attempts to launch action-hero franchises named after the stars of series of books. (Seriously, guys, if you want to launch a franchise, give the first film a film-specific title or subtitle. Dr. No was called Dr. No, not James Bond.)

The Dark Knight Rises. I'll just say if you liked Batman Begins you might well like it more than I did, as it's very much a sequel to that with some housecleaning from The Dark Knight in a few scenes, but if like me you were lukewarm to it and only really liked The Dark Knight you may be disappointed, as it shares a number of the things I didn't like first time out.

(Doing my best not to be influenced by the context it has been given, but I'll note that two jokes were met with uncomfortable silences in the packed screening room.)

Being ahead of a plot twist (unusually) didn't help. I wonder how obvious it was to not-comic-y people? A scene apparently getting shifted in continuity doesn't help either.

And Catwoman doesn't feel like she belongs in the same Batman story as Bane. Although I loved the bit where she stabbed Owen from Torchwood in the leg after he lampshaded how insane her shoes are.

And strange how plot points recur across different interpretations - consider how Tw-Face gets taken out in both Schumacher and Nolan's films, or now... there's this.

(He's just one distracting "hey it's that guy!" appearance in a minor role, by the by.)

On the whole, above The Amazing Spider-Man, not as disappointing as Prometheus, had things I liked, but they're mostly tricks and surprises so I'm unlikely to go see it again.

Trailers:

Well, Man Of Steel uses music from Lord Of The Rings instead of the John Williams Superman score, so that's different. The segmented metal snakes S logo is sort of horrific. Still amused that we're getting a Captain Rugged movie.

Skyfall looks like a big international espionage action movie with the same plot as the first Mission Impossible. Um.

And Total Recall and Judge Dredd Versus The Raid.

And apparently a Keith Lemon movie. Not a visage I wanted to see on an IMAX screen when I'm three rows from the front.

And a video game that David Goyer apparently wrote - it seems he really likes the "villain posing as freedom fighter" plot strand.

Hey, there's an Avengers movie! It's pretty good, too!

(For serious, today was my last chance to see it again in big 3D, so off I went.)

New trailers: The Hawkeye-dentity, Brave, a logical place for Spidey and Batman, and less so for the new Ice Age.

The Raid has been touted as the best action movie of the year (by Empire, with a five star review) and... well, probably, if you define "action" as excluding superheroes or fantasy or SF. In action terms it's very impressive, but it's no Hard Boiled and it's no Die Hard as they compare it. At no point do I really care about anybody. And I know it's a martial arts showcase, but some of the kicking scenes feel very forced, especially to the end, compared to the mix of gun battles, hand-to-hand and other combat earlier one. So do a couple of the plot points, which in a film with so little plot is something of an issue.

Still, better than my last trip to the flicks.

Trailers: Prometheus (the no-dialogue like-the-classic-Alien-trailer one, thankfully for the spoiler-averse) and some other stuff I promptly forgot.

It's probably okay to talk about The Cabin In The Woods by now. But I'll put a link in here just in case...

Link goes to unhidden bit

Trailers: Silent House (English-language remake) and The Pact (full-length remake of a creepy short that ends abruptly) are both "poltergeists are scary again?". Amanda Seyfried Is The Punisher. (Well, okay, actually the plot hook for Gone looks quite interesting.) The Dictator?! Guy Pearce's Other SF Movie This Summer - Not The Good One. Jason Statham In What Appears To Be A Remake Of Mercury Rising. And The Avengers baby! The older trailer, still with the international title. Huh.

Not John Carter Of Perfect, John Carter Of 3D wasn't that great a use, but certainly John Carter Of Worth Going To See On A Big Screen. John Carter Of Mocap CG Characters worked very well. John Carter Of Michael Giacchino Score was very John Williams but not as hummable after as his Trek or Up (or Medal of Honor) themes. John Carter Of Cameo By James Purefoy was a standout.

John Carter Of Trailers: Navy Seal Recruitment Video: The Motion Picture, Battleship, God Of War II Wrath Of The Titans and... AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! eeeee

I knew I'd like The Muppets but I was hoping I'd love it, since I love the Muppets. Lots of fun but could have been packed with more, I think. Could have given Amy Adams more to do for starters (and Chris Cooper, and Animal, and Bobo the Bear... mostly Amy though). Made me laugh a lot but not constantly, didn't quite make me well up. Not quite.

Coincidentally, today I got the first book of The Storyteller comics. It's lovely.

Trailers: Brave (eeee) and a Toy Story short (fun) and the Tarsem Snow White and some other stuff.

James Bond is her sidekick.

She's about four times more awesome than necessary to resolve the plot (and subplots) in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In complexity terms it's a bit like dropping Batman on an unusually nasty episode of CSI. Which may be why she doesn't actually join the main plot until halfway through.

Not having read the books, I was prepared for the almost unrelenting grimness of the subject matter and some of the events, but not for the horrible-but-minor-origin-story-ness of Lisbeth's first subplot and the "uh, really?" daftness of some of the plot twists.

Still a great intro sequence.

Trailers: Young Magneto versus sex addiction, Liam Neeson Versus The Arctic Circle (having already defeated Paris and Berlin he needs a larger target), MIB3 looking a tad out of place, Clint Eastwood versus J. Edgar Hoover, and Steven Spielberg, Loki, Sherlock and a horse versus the Kaiser. None having any of the "gotta see this opening day" factor of the trailer for above.

Puss In Boots is fun. Has nothing to do with the story "Puss In Boots", as one might perhaps think, but instead ties in mostly with "Jack And The Beanstalk" by way of "Humpty Dumpty", Zorro naturally, and, er, Gorgo.

Trailers: Journey 2 The Mysterious Island with Michael Caine, the Rock and the Rock's chest, Madagascar 3 (3?), The Muppets bay-bee! and A Monster In Paris which is a terrible trailer regardless of the qualities of the movie.

In other news: well, darn.