July 2008 - Film Cipher

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Film Cipher - July 2008

The Forbidden Kingdom - A Cliché Walks Into A Bar...

July 26th 2008 13:50

Have you ever sat down to watch a new movie, and mere minutes in, started to get that feeling of Déjà vu? Ever have that feeling persist throughout almost the entire movie? This is what watching The Forbidden Kingdom is like. One big slideshow of all the tried and true plot points and twists of all the other 'safe' time travel movies that came before it.

The plot is fairly simple to explain. An American teenager who is obsessed with kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself travelling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King and defeat the evil Jade Warlord. So it's pretty much just Journey To The West, only this time the powerful Monkey King is imprisoned, and we follow the clumsy future boy.

The Drunken Master returns! But only every now and again...

But of course, nobody went to see this movie for Journey To The West, or for a grand tale of Chinese lore. No. We all wanted to see one thing... Jet Li vs Jackie Chan. The match of the century right? Well not really... They do fight once in order to give us our fan service and avoid the wrath of thousands of angry consumers. But the whole thing is less Kung Fu, and more Wire Fu.

The fighting in general is standard Hollywood fair. The choreography is well done, and as always, Jackie Chan manages to tell a story with his fists, making it all very pleasing to watch. I must admit that even I got a little excited when I saw him pull out the Drunken Fist style, which still fits him like an old glove (Also note that this is just another testament to the whole 'it's been done' feel of the movie). Jet Li's fighting however feels a little stale. While Chan's is standard fair, not really moving up or down from what we're used to, Li's fighting is a significant drop in quality compared to a lot of his other movies. When he said he was done with 'Martial Art's Epic's', I always thought he meant the metaphorical and deeper meaning stuff, not his own skill.

Of course, there are other actors in this movie. The cute Yifei Liu plays admirably as Sparrow, the tormented girl who's parents were killed by the warlord and is out for revenge (Nothing new or interesting here...), Michael Angarano is the protagonist from the future, who begins with no real knowledge of Kung Fu, but ends up learning to defend himself to an acceptable level (Though he never becomes insanely good, this is still a very 'safe' role), Collin Chou plays the evil Jade Warlord, and is probably the poorest performance in the entire movie. He gains and looses this ridiculous lisp throughout the entire performance, and though he always try's to be a despicable bastard, it's just so hard to take him seriously (Just try NOT to see him channelling Evil Betty from Kung Pow). And the aptly named seductress, Bingbing Li... Who joins the party a little late, but performs well enough as the 'mini boss' evil witch character. (I wanted to find fault with her... But she's just too damn sexy).

Even this look is Cliché! He does it in every movie!

Safe really is the best word for this movie. It takes no chances, makes no tough choices, and refuses to use any idea that hasn't been found to be successful in at least 12 other movies of it's kind. This doesn't mean it's a bad movie. Cliché's are cliché for a reason, and that is that they work. It's a fun movie, and one where if you take the mindset that it'll just be a popcorn flick (That is, a movie used as an excuse to eat that golden food of the gods), then you should have fun and come out the other side having enjoyed it, for all it's faults.

The Verdict: Don't put this one at the top of your list. There are far better movies out right now that are more worth your time. But if you really want to see another Jackie Chan or Jet Li movie, than this should satiate your appetite for the time being. Just don't expect anything from the movie, because you're not getting anything you haven't already seen before.

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The Dark Knight - Supervillains Done Right

July 17th 2008 15:43

So here it is. The movie everyone's been waiting for. And I do mean everyone. Not just the comic book geeks... Not just the Batman fanatics... Everyone who has an interest in movies at all has been saving their pocket money for the day that the film hit the theatres. It's THE movie of the midyear line-up, and very likely that one movie that most casual movie goer's see this year. And as comes with the territory, this means that the whole thing has been hyped beyond all belief, and couldn't possibly live up to expectations... Or could it?

If I need to explain the premise of this movie, than you must have been hiding under a rock for the last year or so. Batman is back, and the dark city of Gotham is finally starting to clean up, with the help of Lt. James Gordon, and the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Things are looking up, and it seems as though soon, the city will no longer need Batman to protect it. But of course, that notion is enough to make almost anyone laugh... And laughter is indeed heard, as Gotham's newest & oldest tormentor begins to leave his mark...

Before I go any further, I'm going to get this out of the way. Yes. Heath Ledger is the shining star that brings this whole production into it's own. His portrayal of The Joker sent shivers down my spine, as he made me cower, just as often as he made me laugh. He nails every scene with absolute precision, as every single line of dialogue that is sprouted from his lips is solid 24 carrot gold. This movie is unsurprisingly less about Batman, and more about The Joker, and the way he views humanity.

Why So Serious?!

And that is enough of that. There's a movie underneath all of Heath's presence that needs to be reviewed, and damn it I'm going to try and do just that.

As with the last one, I found a few issues with the new direction that the series has taken. The Bat Tank... The complete lack of any bat cave in this one, now replaced with that brightly lit room we saw Morgan Freeman showing off the Bat Tank's capabilities, and Wayne Manor replaced by a penthouse suite. These are more personal gripes really, and don't impact the film all that much. But the one thing that still pulls and tugs at my sensibilities, is that Bruce Wayne is portrayed as a young playboy fool who squanders his money on cheap thrills and women. And as much as this is a cover, it's one that has never sat well with me.

Christian Bale performs admirably enough, despite my misgivings about his character, really coming through in the action scenes, and managing to maintain a believable personality when confronted with the horrible acts of terrorism by The Joker. But to be honest, he fades into the background against the superb acting of the other cast members.

Unlike the Bat Tank, the Bat Bike is actually pretty cool

Aaron Eckhart also does a superb job as Harvey Dent, and eventually two face, finally giving us a true representation of the villain, as opposed to what we got with Tommy Lee Jones all the way back in 1995. Unlike Tommy Lee's character, this Two Face actually listened to his coin flips.

Atop everything else, the script holds no punches. The Joker's anarchistic views on the world are one of the highlights in the writing, and while Heath must be commended for bringing the character alive, we must give a lot of credit to the Nolan brothers for building such a fantastic point from which to push the character from. This is one movie that they will always be able to look back on, and remember fondly as one of their greatest triumphs.

For the first time in years, I left that cinema, completely blown away. I went in with all the build up and more hype than a 6 year old on a sugar rush, and I actually walked out of that room in disbelief. I expected it to be so good, that I just knew it would be bad. But what do you know? It turns out that a licensed film really can be great.

The Verdict: What are you doing still reading this review? Go see the damn movie already! I have every intention to own this film, and will likely watch it many more times, if only for Heath's portrayal of The Joker. Go to the cinema. Watch it. Love it. But the DVD.

Get going already!

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Saw IV - Admiral Ackbar's Warning

July 13th 2008 13:33

WARNING! This review contains spoilers pertaining to the previous Saw Movies. Read at your own discretion

A long time ago... In the future... In a galaxy far far away... One fish-like creature uttered a phrase that has echoed throughout the annals of time itself... “It's a trap!”. This famous phrase has been etched into our minds, and now it faces us once more. But it now adorns a far lesser podium. It is the inexplicable tagline for Saw IV.

Now I don't think I need to remind anyone of the blindingly obvious, that this is the 4th installment in the Saw franchise, which means that, even before I so much as thought of watching it, I knew that I was likely to be subjected to a serious case of sequel-itis. And my assumptions were not proven wrong. It goes without saying that devout fans of the series will probably dance the streets in their gore filled love letter to James Wan and Leigh Whannell, even though they apparently had no hand in the writing of this one, they were still part of the film as can be expected, taking on the roles of executive producers.

The story is once again a convoluted tie in with the previous movies in the franchise, and as usual, requires an in depth understanding of the previous films if you are to have any hope of comprehending it's intricacies. This time we follow the not so enigmatic lead, Detective no first name Rigg, played by Lyriq Bent. Apparently he held some important role in Saw II, but by this point I had no memory of who this guy was, or why I should care. It was only after the film when I looked him up to get the actors name that I found out that he was actually in any earlier films. But I digress. He must run about one of Jigsaw's carefully planned out Rube Goldberg machines, in the killer's attempt to teach him the important life lesson that he 'can't save everyone'.

Almost every character that they could conceive of makes a return at one point or another, and every twist is given another hard tweak towards redundancy. The whole film follows the idea that Jigsaw is able to manipulate events so far ahead of time, that he can control the lives of everyone even from beyond the grave, as we all remember, he kicked the bucket sometime in the last 2 or 3 minutes of the previous film. This however falls flat in the last few moments of the film, as it's final twist proves that he wasn't thinking quite as far ahead as the whole film leads you to believe.

Unlike that fake death at the end of Saw II, he's just not coming back from this one

And this segways nicely into my next paragraph like an over paid executive on a... Well... A Segway. Whatever realism that the first 3 movies exhibited is all but abolished in Saw IV. One of the big draws of Saw's take on horror, was that, while far fetched, it was believable. It all seemed like something that really could potentially happen to you or someone you know if some psychopathic mastermind ever decided to try and teach humanity a lesson. And because deep down, every single human being feels guilt over some offense they have committed in their sordid past, this thought is reinforced, which amplifies the films presence ten fold. The problem with Saw IV, is that try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to believe that all the events that were put into motion would stay exactly as they would be needed to stay, right up until the last possible moment when the characters came into contact with them.

While all the previous films took place in a room, or a small enclosed complex of some sort. Saw IV takes things to the streets, and has our main protagonist running from place to place around the city, once more twisting the idea so that the 'hero' is in no real danger, just that the people he encounters are, and his choices will decide their fates. This also takes a bit of the bite out of the suspense, but it's forgivable... I mean, it worked alright in Saw III right?

When the film isn't trying it's best to be as gore filled as possible, the other side of the story is a mix of an episode of Law & Order, and Lost. We follow the remaining members of the police force that haven't been either strapped into a trap, or been asked ever so politely to run around the city finding said strapped in people. As they try to crack the case, always one step behind Rigg, and consequently, Jigsaw. They uncover a good deal about the man behind the crimes, and we get a lovely series of scenes about Jigsaw from before he started playing with pointy objects and an advanced engineering degree. It shows something of a slideshow look at 'the fall of John Kramer, and the rise of Jigsaw'.

The first trap ever created by Jigsaw. It's allot more conservative than his later ones.

If you've seen the other 3 movies and just can't get enough of James Wan and Leigh Whannell masturbating in your face for an hour and a half, than it's an alright movie overall. Just don't expect it to live up to expectations. Here is where I would say something along the lines of “Saw IV. It's a trap alright!”. But I won't because that would be incredibly tacky of me (And yet, I've still said it even though I've taken the high road. This is what we writers like to call 'having our cake and eating it too').

The verdict: It's a rent movie. Grab it if you're up for some pointless brain bending and gore second only to the Hostel movies. But then I'm sure you'd get the same experience from performing a frontal lobe removal on yourself, taping it, and then watching it played back while still under the effects of the anesthesia (Just saying...).

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August 2008

4 Posts

July 2008