When assignment goes terribly wrong Clay and his special ops team “The Losers” fake their own death and go rogue, hiding out in South America until they can find a way to take out the man that tried to kill them Max. When Aisha appears on the scene she offers The Losers a chance not only to go home, but a way to find Max an kill him.
The Losers is one in a long line of comic book adaptations, and Sylvian White does not shy away from this, even using panels from the book in the opening credits sequence. The film is funny, action packed and full of stars that I like – so it took me awhile to identify what I thought was off about the film, and I finally realized it came down to two things: the tone and the ending.
The film, like the book is an action comedy. This is something that is deceptively hard to do, especially when your main characters are basically assassins and with the exception of Joss Whedon or Phil Alden Robinson, I can’t think of many people that can do that tone really well. While I enjoyed the comedy and the action in The Losers I couldn’t shake the feeling the whole time that I was at times watching two separate films that didn’t seem to fit together very well. Then there’s Max…the villain…he needed an image and dialogue makeover because not only was he really not villainous or funny but I found him downright cheesy – straight out of a B movie.
Then there’s the ending. I understand The Losers is a series and they’re probably hoping to turn the film into a franchise if they can, but the ending bothered me. The only thing I can think to describe it is that the ending felt so intentionally open ended; there was only a half resolution and nothing was really wrapped up. On top of that there continued to be post-ending sequences over the credits – while funny, they didn’t fit.
What did work greatly about this movie was main cast. Every one of the “Losers” was cast perfectly. I am a huge fan of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana so I am always willing to watch either of them for two hours, and in this film they both kick some major butt. Then there’s Chris Evans, also known as the new Captian America, and that man is charismatic as hell and the only one that could pull off that level of comedy, geekiness and bravado in one character.
The Losers is enjoyable. But it struck me as the popcorn of comic book movies. I almost feel as though the writers should have pulled away from the source material just a little to make sure the film felt like a complete movie, not just the first part of a series.
Director: Sylvain White
Writers: Peter Berg & James Vanderbilt
Clay: Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Aisha: Zoe Saldana
Jensen: Chris Evans
Roque: Idris Elba
Pooch: Columbus Short
Max: Jason Patric
Cougar: Oscar Jaenada
Showing posts with label zoe saldana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zoe saldana. Show all posts
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Avatar
Avatar. I’ve officially seen it in all three formats it’s available in – Imax 3-D, digital 3-D and Standard. It’s phenomenal in all three. Hoo rah.
If you haven’t seen it yet go see it and support James Cameron making more movies.
If you haven’t seen it yet go see it and support James Cameron making more movies.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Avatar
Like any movie that wows me in a game changing way, I had to see Avatar a second time as quickly as possible. This time I saw it in 2D, or standard format to those confused by dimensionality (lil bro, you know who you are). I was shocked by the differences in the viewing style.I was pleased to see that Avatar works in any format. Cameron knows how to craft a story and he pulls you in. Even without 3D you are concerned about Jake, Neytiri & the Na’vi people and you desperately want to be able to step foot on Pandora with them. This is an engaging story of a love, and a world that you want to be a part of – it’s just good storytelling. What did surprise me is that each way you can view Avatar is a totally different viewing experience.
In 2D in some ways parts of the world of Avatar looked more real – the skin on the animals, the close-ups of the Na’vi faces, the grittiness of part of the world – I could see textures better and it fel like seeing the object they filmed. The 2D experience was much grittier in a good way, Cameron didn’t forget the visceral feel that is needed to the visuals among all of the animation and special effects.
However, as amazing as the film is in 2D, 3D is a whole different ball game. The way Cameron used 3D in Avatar is completely unlike anything I’ve seen before. You literally feel like you are walking through the jungles of Pandora and that you are following Jake around. The very first time Jake opens the eyes of his Na’vi body and is blinking while he tries to focus, you almost feel as though you too are trying to focus your eyes on the surroundings. There was even a time or two that most of the audience tried to swat away bugs or ash that was on screen. This is the closest you can come to actually being on Pandora and making it real.
I can’t wait to see this film again. I desperately hope I can see it in 3D one more time and that perhaps the 3D version will be released on DVD, though I doubt it will be the same quality as the theatrical experience at all.
Jake: Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Avatar
Jake Sully is a paralyzed former Marine who gets a tragic, lucky break. His Twin brother Tommy was part of the Avatar program on Pandora, he had his DNA blended with the native peoples so he can be linked into the Avatar body and interact with the natives, but Tommy was killed and now The Company is afraid of losing their investment so they ask Jake as his twin to take over Tommy’s Avatar. Jake soon is caught up between the Marine Colonel that wants to exterminate the natives to get to their natural resources and Dr. Augustine who founded the Avatar program because she believes there is a greater wealth to Pandora than their natural resources.
Jake soon meets the natives princess, Neytiri who believes their diety has given them a sign that Jake is significant to them. Jake must learn the ways of the people in 3 months and get them to leave peacefully or face destruction. What Jake never expects is that he would feel more alive in his Avatar than in his human body.
James Cameron hasn’t made a narrative film since Titanic, and I have to say that I was a naysayer when I found out one of the great delays with Avatar was the 3D process. After seeing the film I have two things to say ; firstly, that Avatar was worth the 12 year wait, and secondly, that the 3D is the most astounding use of the technology I have ever seen.
I am a 3D hater, and I don’t want to make it sound like Avatar is all about technology and not a good movie. It’s actually quite the opposite. Avatar is a great movie on its own, but the addition of the 3D element takes it to a whole other realm for the audience. Most 3D is gimmicky and doesn’t add anything to the story, which is why I dislike it; but with Avatar Cameron managed to use the medium for it’s ideal purpose – the 3D pulls you into the story and makes you feel like you are on the planet with Jake & Neytiri. You forget you are watching 3D.
Cameron typically does stories that focus on strong women, and I was a bit surprised to find out that Neytiri was not the main focus of this film – Jake was. However, Jake is a great, well rounded character with a strong arch and played very engagingly by Sam Worthington. On top of that, instead of one strong Sarah Connor figure you get 3 strong women in Avatar - Neytiri, Grace Augustine & Trudy. These women play the spectrum of strong women. Neytiri is the native princess that learns to accept Jake and protect her people, Grace is the scientist who is not afraid of the military and fights for the planet and Trudy is a fighter that learns the difference between orders and what is right.
I would love to give a play by play of this entire movie, how geeky I was about it and what I loved, but I truly think this is a movie that has to be experienced. I encourage you all to go see it and be willing to shell out the extra bucks for 3D, you will be glad you did.
Director & Writer: James Cameron
Jake Sully: Sam Worthington
Neytiri: Zoe Saldana
Dr. Augustine: Sigourney Weaver
Col. Quartich: Stephen Lang
Trudy: Michelle Rodriguez
Parker Selfridge: Giovanni Ribisi
Norm: Joel Moore
Col. Quaritch: You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and gentleman.
Jake soon meets the natives princess, Neytiri who believes their diety has given them a sign that Jake is significant to them. Jake must learn the ways of the people in 3 months and get them to leave peacefully or face destruction. What Jake never expects is that he would feel more alive in his Avatar than in his human body.
James Cameron hasn’t made a narrative film since Titanic, and I have to say that I was a naysayer when I found out one of the great delays with Avatar was the 3D process. After seeing the film I have two things to say ; firstly, that Avatar was worth the 12 year wait, and secondly, that the 3D is the most astounding use of the technology I have ever seen.
I am a 3D hater, and I don’t want to make it sound like Avatar is all about technology and not a good movie. It’s actually quite the opposite. Avatar is a great movie on its own, but the addition of the 3D element takes it to a whole other realm for the audience. Most 3D is gimmicky and doesn’t add anything to the story, which is why I dislike it; but with Avatar Cameron managed to use the medium for it’s ideal purpose – the 3D pulls you into the story and makes you feel like you are on the planet with Jake & Neytiri. You forget you are watching 3D.
Cameron typically does stories that focus on strong women, and I was a bit surprised to find out that Neytiri was not the main focus of this film – Jake was. However, Jake is a great, well rounded character with a strong arch and played very engagingly by Sam Worthington. On top of that, instead of one strong Sarah Connor figure you get 3 strong women in Avatar - Neytiri, Grace Augustine & Trudy. These women play the spectrum of strong women. Neytiri is the native princess that learns to accept Jake and protect her people, Grace is the scientist who is not afraid of the military and fights for the planet and Trudy is a fighter that learns the difference between orders and what is right.
I would love to give a play by play of this entire movie, how geeky I was about it and what I loved, but I truly think this is a movie that has to be experienced. I encourage you all to go see it and be willing to shell out the extra bucks for 3D, you will be glad you did.
Director & Writer: James Cameron
Jake Sully: Sam Worthington
Neytiri: Zoe Saldana
Dr. Augustine: Sigourney Weaver
Col. Quartich: Stephen Lang
Trudy: Michelle Rodriguez
Parker Selfridge: Giovanni Ribisi
Norm: Joel Moore
Col. Quaritch: You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and gentleman.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Star Trek
Honestly, the true test of how much I genuinely love a movie is how often I watch it or talk about it. Last year I genuinely fell in love with Iron Man and I am relatively sure it’s landing on the list of my all-time favorite films. This year I am falling head over heels for Star Trek and if the love affair continues it could also end up on my favorite films list.
What was so great about this viewing was that I got to watch Star Trek with an original Trekkie – my grandmother. My grandmother has followed the Trek universe since the first episode of the original series premiered and has been a faithful fan ever since. I considered this a true test of how the film would hold up against a real fan, someone who fell in love with the series because of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Gene Roddenberry. She filled my childhood head with the world of the Federation, always had the coolest collectibles and would call foul when she saw the shows do something stupid; if there was anyone that I would genuinely listen to if they cried foul over Abrams updated Trek it would be her.
My grandmother loved Star Trek. A original Trekkie to the core, she told me that she thought Abrams understood the series perfectly and it was a great movie, her favorite Star Trek movie in years.
I challenge anyone out there that thinks Abrams defiled Star Trek to take on my grandmother. She knows her stuff better than most of the haters out there, and above all else since she’s been around the series since its inception she remembers that the series is supposed to be about the characters, the explorations and most of all the adventures – science always took a back seat when Rodenberry was at the wheel.
McCoy: Permission to speak freely, sir?
Spock: I welcome it.
McCoy: Do you? OK, then. Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you making a logical choice, sending Kirk away? Probably. But, the right one? You know, back home we have a saying: "If you wanna ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don't leave your prized stallion in the stable."
What was so great about this viewing was that I got to watch Star Trek with an original Trekkie – my grandmother. My grandmother has followed the Trek universe since the first episode of the original series premiered and has been a faithful fan ever since. I considered this a true test of how the film would hold up against a real fan, someone who fell in love with the series because of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Gene Roddenberry. She filled my childhood head with the world of the Federation, always had the coolest collectibles and would call foul when she saw the shows do something stupid; if there was anyone that I would genuinely listen to if they cried foul over Abrams updated Trek it would be her.
My grandmother loved Star Trek. A original Trekkie to the core, she told me that she thought Abrams understood the series perfectly and it was a great movie, her favorite Star Trek movie in years.
I challenge anyone out there that thinks Abrams defiled Star Trek to take on my grandmother. She knows her stuff better than most of the haters out there, and above all else since she’s been around the series since its inception she remembers that the series is supposed to be about the characters, the explorations and most of all the adventures – science always took a back seat when Rodenberry was at the wheel.
McCoy: Permission to speak freely, sir?
Spock: I welcome it.
McCoy: Do you? OK, then. Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you making a logical choice, sending Kirk away? Probably. But, the right one? You know, back home we have a saying: "If you wanna ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don't leave your prized stallion in the stable."
Friday, May 8, 2009
Star Trek
In this Trek universe James Kirk has grown up rebellious and fatherless because the day he was born his father died saving the lives of the U.S.S. Kelvin crew as it was being attacked by a futuristic Romulan ship captained by Nero. Meanwhile, Spock grows up on Vulcan experiencing a different kind of emotional rift as he is half-Vulcan/half-human and must decide which lifestyle he should choose. Spock enters Star Fleet and rises through the ranks, but Kirk shuns Star Fleet until he is shamed and challenged by Capt. Pike. Three years into the academy Vulcan sends a distress call and Star Fleet sends all of the cadets into active duty allowing Kirk, Bones, & Uhura to join the rest of the Enterprise crew. Once nearing Vulcan Kirk realizes that the disaster Vulcan is experiencing isn’t natural, but the same thing that attacked the Kelvin 25 years before.
Star Trek is unlike any Trek movie I have ever seen and it is all the better for it. JJ Abrams and his writers truly dug into the roots of Star Trek and decided to bring the series back to its core with the original characters, and they returned the original adventurous attitude as well. This is Star Fleet without rules, the impulsive space adventure we all truly want and we get the added bonus of having a Federation universe that is not at peace, it is still at war with the Klingons, Romulans and doesn’t have all the answers.
What is so remarkable about this film is the characters are perfectly acted and written so that they are instantly identified with the originals we know and love without being charicatures or far too predictable. Zoe Saldana is sultry and attitude driven as Uhura; Simon Pegg is hysterical & lovable as Scotty; Anton Yelchin is young, excitable & overzealous as Chekov; John Cho is the perfect blend of cocky & naive as Sulu. On top of that Zarchary Quinto & Chris Pine are beyond perfect representations of Spock & Kirk for a new generation. Not only do they really understand the core of these characters but they understand their relationship and how each man begins to inform the other.
That being said, the single show stealing actor is Karl Urban. Urban was born to play McCoy. From the moment you first hear him, before he ever walks on screen you know that Bones is coming and he captures your attention. He is filled with attitude, heart and that biting wit that always made McCoy a crowd favorite. This may be a bit of Trek heresy but I think that Urban is a better McCoy than Deforest Kelly. Urban is so good that you forget that the other actors are doing phenomenally as well.
What was so great about the writing for these characters is that the writers thought about how to get what the fans would expect in there without making it seem out of place or smack of cliché. Each character has their signature line thrown into the movie, but it happens so naturally that you wouldn’t realize those lines are important unless you are a fan, and eve in you are a Trekkie you might miss them on first viewing.
This movie did the impossible. Abrams has managed to reinvent the Star Trek wheel without throwing the car out of alignment. He pays enough homage to the original films that hard core Trekkies can appreciate it (if they get over their grudges and get to the theatre) but change the timeline so the original films can still be valid. Trek now exists in an alternate timeline. As if that weren’t enough, Abrams has opened Trek up, and people that are completely unfamiliar with the world of the Federation can discover it in an incredibly approachable way.
Go see this movie.
Director: JJ Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
James T. Kirk: Chris Pine
Spock: Zachary Quinto
Old Spock: Leonard Nimoy
Nero: Eric Bana
Capt. Pike: Bruce Greenwood
Leonard McCoy: Karl Urban
Uhura: Zoe Saldana
Scotty: Simon Pegg
Sulu: John Cho
Chekov: Anton Yelchin
Sarek: Ben Cross
Amanda Grayson: Winona Ryder
Nero: James T. Kirk was a great man... but that was another life.
Star Trek is unlike any Trek movie I have ever seen and it is all the better for it. JJ Abrams and his writers truly dug into the roots of Star Trek and decided to bring the series back to its core with the original characters, and they returned the original adventurous attitude as well. This is Star Fleet without rules, the impulsive space adventure we all truly want and we get the added bonus of having a Federation universe that is not at peace, it is still at war with the Klingons, Romulans and doesn’t have all the answers.
What is so remarkable about this film is the characters are perfectly acted and written so that they are instantly identified with the originals we know and love without being charicatures or far too predictable. Zoe Saldana is sultry and attitude driven as Uhura; Simon Pegg is hysterical & lovable as Scotty; Anton Yelchin is young, excitable & overzealous as Chekov; John Cho is the perfect blend of cocky & naive as Sulu. On top of that Zarchary Quinto & Chris Pine are beyond perfect representations of Spock & Kirk for a new generation. Not only do they really understand the core of these characters but they understand their relationship and how each man begins to inform the other.
That being said, the single show stealing actor is Karl Urban. Urban was born to play McCoy. From the moment you first hear him, before he ever walks on screen you know that Bones is coming and he captures your attention. He is filled with attitude, heart and that biting wit that always made McCoy a crowd favorite. This may be a bit of Trek heresy but I think that Urban is a better McCoy than Deforest Kelly. Urban is so good that you forget that the other actors are doing phenomenally as well.
What was so great about the writing for these characters is that the writers thought about how to get what the fans would expect in there without making it seem out of place or smack of cliché. Each character has their signature line thrown into the movie, but it happens so naturally that you wouldn’t realize those lines are important unless you are a fan, and eve in you are a Trekkie you might miss them on first viewing.
This movie did the impossible. Abrams has managed to reinvent the Star Trek wheel without throwing the car out of alignment. He pays enough homage to the original films that hard core Trekkies can appreciate it (if they get over their grudges and get to the theatre) but change the timeline so the original films can still be valid. Trek now exists in an alternate timeline. As if that weren’t enough, Abrams has opened Trek up, and people that are completely unfamiliar with the world of the Federation can discover it in an incredibly approachable way.
Go see this movie.
Director: JJ Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
James T. Kirk: Chris Pine
Spock: Zachary Quinto
Old Spock: Leonard Nimoy
Nero: Eric Bana
Capt. Pike: Bruce Greenwood
Leonard McCoy: Karl Urban
Uhura: Zoe Saldana
Scotty: Simon Pegg
Sulu: John Cho
Chekov: Anton Yelchin
Sarek: Ben Cross
Amanda Grayson: Winona Ryder
Nero: James T. Kirk was a great man... but that was another life.
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