Fantastic!
By Aaron 6/19/2007

Which was worse, Silver Surfer or World’s End? What a terrible way to look at a movie. It’s like not even giving a movie a chance to be good.  Where Pirates lacked depth and piggy-backed off of a three hour second installment, Surfer went places and developed superheroes that honestly, are pretty unswashbuckling-ly lame. I should clarify before I continue. What I mean is that the Fantastic Four are unfortunately weak source material that is not quite as glamorous as sexy pirates played by Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp.

Back to Surfer. The Surfer looked sweet – sure everyone is saying he looks just like T2. But honestly, this is EXACTLY the way the surfer should look. And the surfer was on the page before Cameron had his stroke of genius.

Also, the acting was really good. Julian McMahon is great as usual, playing Doom as a cold, calculating force carefully executing a cunning plan. Chris Evans is pretty good in this second installment, taking his character farther and making him more than just a playboy. Hell, even Michael Chiklis gets some pretty good time here to do some stuff out of The Thing costume to show some range. What makes this movie better than the first movie is that Ioan Gruffudd quits his wooden soldier routine and starts acting, turning the boring Mr. Fantastic into a real character. Continuing the trend in acting growth is Jessica Alba who actually stops sucking and sleep walking through her lines like she usually does. Instead she displays some good timing in delivering her witty lines and actually conveying some emotion in her scenes. In the first movie, I thought Alba would never work as a blonde, but the whole white-blonde thing they have going on in this movie makes it work. Plus, she even starts to show a little chemistry with Ioan.

The movie actually had some pretty strong scenes that went beyond traditional comic fare, breezing past movies like X-Men, The Hulk, and the other terrible pretenders. The movie has some real themes that most comic book movies avoid – real love. Not just falling in love, or desiring someone you can’t have, but the entirety of it all – having someone, cherishing what you have with that person, realizing that is makes you complete and searching for that – and all in less than ninety minutes. Plus the movie crams in another powerful theme about making choices. Reed has to seemingly make a choice between his work and Sue, and the two of them have to make a choice between their relationship and their privacy, and their responsibility as the Four. This choice also rings through the other theme, as Johnny has to make a choice between the life he wants to live. More importantly, the entire ending is so perfect because it forces a painful choice for someone who already sacrifices so much – and this in turn is tied into the power of love.

What also makes the movie more than just a comic book movie is that the movie takes some time to have some development, some dramatic scenes without the unending drive of comic book action scenes where heroes battle all-powerful villains. Instead, Surfer shows four people who are blessed with power who don’t have to use their powers to do everything. Rather they live lives where they try to do good without blowing up Sandman, they try to lend themselves to important scientific discoveries. Their lives, even out of costume are hounded by the media, which adds a new dimension that makes their characters more complex.

I also liked how Doom crept back into the story. Doom lives a harrowed life after his run in with the four and he struggles to regain his life while nursing his desire for power. [MILD SPOILER] But when he’s introduced to the four as a new ally by the general, alarm bells go off in your head and when they describe how the Surfer gets his power, it becomes crystal clear what Doom had planned all along. This power grab is similar to Doc Oct’s in Spiderman 2 when the Doc desires more tridium because he wants to perfect his invention even though deep down he knows it could lead to complete destruction. Doom’s aspirations are similar in that he doesn’t really know that his plan could lead the destruction of the planet he wants to rule, not destroy.

All in all, this movie is clearly my favorite of the sequels/threquels of the summer because it builds on the prior movies instead of just recycling old jokes with expensive antics. So I’d give it seven salty stix (just like the stix I gave to Spiderman 3).

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.