Some Spoilage May Have Occurred

Prometheus (2012) 124 mins.

"What you're feeling is entirely natural."

Part rehash of unused bits from Jodorowsky's Dune, part prequel/remake of Alien/s, part Ridley Scott retrospective, part H. R. Giger tribute, Prometheus is as much an homage to science fiction movies (especially those of the late 70s and early 80s) as it is a science fiction movie in its own right.

At times the plot seems to exist chiefly (perhaps only) to serve the visuals, and some of the actions and motivations have an almost comic book-ish/cartoony "Rule of Cool" derivation. Once the action begins in earnest, actions and motivations become more "believable" through the internal logic of the story, which begins to sweep us along in a tide of incidents and events. That is, once the characters and their actions are acceptable to us as unbelievable, their further unbelievable actions are rendered practically believable.

I won't get into the science. It is a movie, after all. The advisability of using your (one and only) starship as your (one and only) lander, mistaking a breathable atmosphere with one which is completely benign, the late foolhardiness of establishing a "quarantine" on a ship with a yawning cargo bay after the first away mission, the silliness of sending a first party to a major structure right after the mission chief has mandated a "No Contact" protocol, the character of a biologist not interested in humanoid corpses but enthralled with a dangerous-looking faceless cave-snake in a room full of black oozing slime... The entire first act is movie science fiction piled upon top of more movie science fiction. But it's a movie! So who cares?

Of course, as a Ridley Scott science fiction movie, it's as much a horror movie as a science fiction movie. As expected, there's body horror aplenty, which I'll leave you to squirm through for yourself. Added to the Phildickian body horror, there's also a nice helping of Lovecraftian creepiness, as well, from the Giger-rich continuing body horror of the environment to the Inscrutable Alien Gods (and their out-of-control bioweapon pet) who'd rather kill us or lay eggs in our brains than talk to us or explain why they made us.

It seems as if the old man in the movie trying to make a deal with a devil of a demigod to restore his lost vigor is our auteur himself, trying to recapture the days when having the name "Ridley Scott" attached to a science fiction movie brought along with it an air of stylish mystery and guaranteed box office. If that's the case, Ridley fares better than the character, because the film is of course stylishly beautiful in its own harsh way, and was boffo box office, to be sure.

There are some really nice touches early on, with homages to Scott's own movies, and such films as 2001 and Jodorowsky's unmade Dune. Some wonderful subversions and inversions of tropes, as well as dozens served up whole. The acting was stellar, considering the plot. I'm not sure if Idris Elba is awesome or putting me on, but either way I liked what he did.

The visual nods to Alien/s start to pile up, and the big fanboy moment of the very final scene  weakens (and cheapens) the movie, but it also establishes the tone for us, in case we thought riding off looking for bigger trouble (with a back-stabbing AI for company, on a ship full of living death and the murderous gods who created it) was supposed to be a happy ending for our heroine.

 I liked it. As a science fiction movie, it's more movie than science fiction. Cool horror flick.

I'm rating Prometheus as Not Bad. It seems the fire it's stolen may have been its own.

Three Stars: Not Bad.

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Do It! Try!

Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) 90 mins.

"I didn't read Dune."

Imagine a comic book by Jodorowsky, drawn by Moebius, with designs by Giger and Foss. Imagine a comic strip. A storyboard. A movie. A miniseries. By the guy who wrote, directed and starred in El Topo. Starring his son, the kid from El Topo. With Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and Mick Jagger.

Like Stanislaw Lem's fictional book reviews of books that don't (yet) exist, the legend may be better than the artifact. But it's one hell of a legend. And that's one hell of a comic book. Definitely the kind of thing I'd like to see IDW publish in their Artist's Edition series.

I've written before about the huge legacy of concepts from Dune that can be found in Star Wars; many visual examples are shown here as well. Jodorowsky's take on Dune is interesting. He considers it a work of the kind of stature of the Bible or Shakespeare, an epic or mythological saga or oeuvre to be reinterpreted many times by various auteurs. Certainly it has been, influencing not only Star Wars but Warhammer 40K, as well.

I've included Jodorowsky's Dune in Category One: Seventies Monster Flashback. The film and the project, as well as most (if not all) attempts to adapt the novel, can all be considered as monsters. All have proved to be. The "graphic novel" shown in Jodorowsky's lap in the film and the above photo, would be the monstrous mother of all comic books for me, Heavy Metal-meets-Savage Sword-meets-Prince Valiant-meets-Holy Mountain. The ultimate midnight movie that never got made.

Also, I had a monster of a flashback. I read Frank Herbert's 1973 introduction to the new anthology of his short fiction that just came out, put a Tangerine Dream station on my Pandora, ordered Jodorowsky's The Borgias from the public library (collab with Manara!), and moved Metabarons closer to the top of the "To Read" pile. I'll have to get The Incal and look for a Chris Foss retrospective.

Jodorowsky himself was like a drug. I don't know if I've encountered anybody quite like that since the Seventies. I'd like to have partied with that guy, Leary and Robert Anton Wilson. I may not run out and read Dune right this minute (for the seventh time), but he did inspire me to go work on my own stuff. What Harlan Ellison would call batshit crazy, but in a good way.

To my friends who recommended this: You were so right. See it.

Five Stars: Great, if only for the semi-legendary surrealistic aura.

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Seventy-Two Minutes

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015) 72 mins.

Almost Lovecraftian in its visual homages to eldritch lore.

Throne of Atlantis is a surprising movie. It covers a lot of ground in its 72 minutes. Old Boomer that I am, some of the "New 52" material leaves me forgetting to forget all that I already know about these characters, and try to see them anew, as if I was ten or twelve all over again. Once I remember to unload that continuity baggage, it makes it easier for me to enjoy their latest material.

Easier, but of course I still have some critiques. The dialogue again has a sort of anime-influenced info-dump feel at times. At times the plot is both epic High Opera and just a little too pat (as is the dialogue). The dialogue tries a bit too hard to my ears to be "edgy" and "hip" and "adult" but I guess that makes it the perfect PG-13 movie, huh? Because what is a PG-13 rating if not an advertisement for ten- to twelve-year-olds?

Based on the time limit and the intended audience (fifty-three-year-old twelve-year-olds) I'll give them a bit of a pass on most of my quibbles. I don't know if anybody really learns anything, but Aquaman undergoes a little character arc. Of course, because of the time restriction (80 minutes is the target), Acts Two A and Two B are combined, but then that's just how these things are done. Welcome to the Upside-Down World, and Hey Look Out! both happen at the same time, closely followed by Dirty Deeds Done with Dastardly Delight, coupled with All Is (Seemingly) Lost.

In the end, it's a bit of a fairy tale, a bit of a coming of age movie, a bit of a buddy film and a bit of a love story. The war story provides the backdrop. The action, once it really gets going, is not only just what you'd expect, it has some slightly interesting takes on the usual tropes. I'm really going to have to start a body count for the dead parents in these movies. They're positively Disney-esque in their commitment to the Monomyth.

I've been a bit remiss on this blog so far in not giving any fractional ratings, but this movie really brings out the schoolboy in me. They succeeded in (almost) making Aquaman cool again. For that alone it gets the passing grade, if nothing else. The language and the ultra-violence seemed to serve the plot and the style in the final analysis, jarring as it seems during the early scenes. These ain't Daddy's DC Comics movies, kids. Not anymore.

Can't give it an F (three stars is kind of a failing grade). Can't give it a B (four stars is too strong of a recommendation). Somewhere between B minus and C plus. Better than Not Bad. Right on the edge of Good. Three-and-three-quarters? Somewhere around a 79.

Three Stars Plus: Better Than Not Bad.

 

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Commitment To A Bit



Europa Report (2013) 89 mins.

 

"I don't know what greater measure of success they could've achieved."

Europa Report is a sterile, tight, cramped, claustrophobic, voyeuristic little movie. For what it is, it's an excellent movie. For its commitment to its main message, for understanding the kind of people who make science, and for not flinching from its inevitable ending, I give this movie a Five Star rating: Really Good.

You won't be blown away by its action scenes, or swept up headlong by its pace. It's a quiet, desperate, sweaty little film, but in in its own way it's very effective.

Taking from the style of movies like Moon, it expands and extrapolates on the documentary style and dry delivery of the New Hard Science Fiction. If you enjoy that sort of thing as much as I do, you may enjoy it as much as I did.

Much in the vein of some of my favorite movies, from Silent Running to 2001, a very well-done science fiction movie which keeps the emphasis on the science.

Five Stars: Really Good.

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World Lines

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) 131 mins.

"You and I are gonna be good friends..."

Strangely, for a guy who's read as many X-Men comics as I have, the movies never really blew me away. I liked First Class, but I have to say the movies had less effect on me than even the cartoons. Days of Future Past is a good X-Men movie. Better than Not Bad, I suppose I'd rate it Just Plain Good.

The Kitty Pryde appearance was cool. I liked the Young Hank character. I appreciate Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I liked focus of the movie being on Wolverine, and on the Xavier/Magneto/Mystique triangle. The plot was pretty predictable. The action was pretty cool.

A good movie. Some might say great. Others might say not bad. Just Plain Good is OK by me.

I rate it as Good. Four Stars.

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Reset the Day

Edge of Tomorrow AKA Live Die Repeat (2014) 113 mins.

"How many times have you been here?"

Excellent. Brilliant. Crisp. Tasteful. Restrained. Action-packed. Well-plotted. Perfectly paced. Doesn't fall victim to its own conventions; it delights in them and brings us along for the ride. Not a pat ending. Totally open to interpretation. Not a victim of destiny, we exercise our own will to influence outcomes. Performances are stellar.

Trope-tastic. Anime-influenced. Action Girl. Magic Girl? Tsundere? Kuudere? Emotionless Girl? Stoic Woobie? Groundhog Day. "Hard" Science Fiction. Military Science Fiction. Twenty Minutes in the Future. Power Armor. Real Robot. Disaster movie. Alien invasion. Robots Eat My Face. Reset the Day. Buddy film. Road picture. War movie. Love Story?

If you're sure about the ending, rewatch it. Completely enigmatic. Which makes it even better.

Here we go again. Reset the day?

Five Stars: Really Good. Superlative, actually.

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It's Real

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) 122 mins.

"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!"

Guardians of the Galaxy is a Five Star movie. It does what a movie is supposed to do. It entertains. This movie also manages to enthrall, amuse, amaze, delight and enlighten, and it seems to do all of these things with a light, deft hand.

As the kind of kid who read Warlock and Silver Surfer back in the Seventies, just the fact that I'm watching the world of Kirby and Starlin being enacted in blockbuster style on the big screen is a dream come true. That Marvel was wise enough to use the Abnett/Lanning material as a springboard is icing on the cake. The quality of those characters and their designs was so solid that the movie just needed to not suck.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a great comic book space opera action movie. One might even say an object lesson in how to make an excellent one. A fun, funny, exciting, action-filled, character-driven movie with some great takes on some of my favorite Marvel characters, from Drax to Gamora to Thanos to Yondu to Ronan the Accuser. Old school King Kirby style Cosmic Marvel goodness served up as a Losers/Suicide Squad "works well with other sociopaths" barn-burner.

It even gives Marvel Movie fans a chance to bone up on the Cosmic Corner of the Marvel Universe, since it will certainly need to play a larger role in the Marvel Movies, to give the heroes ever more dangerous foes, and continually up the stakes from Metropolitan to Planetary to Cosmic and Multi-Universal.

This is how it's done. My friends who like good movies loved this, comic book fans or not. Science fiction fans or not. Space opera fans or not. If you like good movies, you may like this Really Good movie. One might even say great.

Five Stars: Really Good

Category 2: People Power

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