Three films
Jul. 31st, 2013 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcJust realised I've got out of the habit of doing a write-up of films I've watched. So here's a quick comment on the last three films I saw at the cinema. All contain spoilers.
Iron Man 3
Really good. Having a running plot-point that Tony reallydidn't want to talk about what happened in New York worked well, aknowledging the Avengers film without tying this story into it too much.
I liked the twist with the Manderin; really when a character was created in the sixties as Fu Manchu with added anti-communism, you can't actually run him straight. The 90s Iron Man cartoon made him a generic supervillian type. The Iron Man Armoured Adventures cartoon went for the more interesting idea of a Well-Intentioned Extremist kid who was actually friends with Teen Tony before they learnt each others' secret identities.
The film went for the double-whammy of updating the "He's everything America hates" concept and then having the reveal that this wasn't true at all. In the process they made Aldrich Killian more of a villain than he was in the comics, but I can live with that.
Speaking of the comics, I read all Warren Ellis's Iron Man run, and this was the first time I had the slightest idea what Extremis actually did. Seperating it from "thing Tony injects himself with to get remote control of his armour" was a good move.
I spent longer than strictly necessary trying to work out if the kid was a reference to a comic book character I was unaware of. I eventually decided he wasn't.
Star Trek Into Darkness
I enjoyed this one too.
I liked the references to Section 31 and the model of the NX01 in the Admiral's office. It's good to make a nod to the fact that Trek's history was only changed after a point. (On the subject of the NX01, it still bugs me that this version of the 1701 looks smaller than Archer's ship.)
I hadn't realised that Scotty's transwarp beaming extended the range of the transporter to interstellar distances (although the speed Enterprise was going at, I suppose it must have). If you can do that, I'm not clear why you need a Starfleet.
Since the Carol Marcus reveal was obvious to any Trekker, I'm glad they didn't pad this out too much. We've been introduced to an Admiral Marcus, she's a blonde scientist, do the maths. She was an interesting character, and I'm glad it looks like she's going to be a regular.
The Khan reveal ... well it might have been a shock if two newspapers hadn't both told me that John Harrison was an alias and there was a nice twist for long-time fans. So thanks for that, newspapers. Cumberbatch was, of course, excellent in portraying someone with a fundemental conviction that he's better than everyone around him.
And the story itself certainly moved along. Klingons! Evil Starfleet! Uhura and Spock talking about their relationship! Old Spock saying "I can't tell you what to do next, but it's this"! All the regulars get something to do, even if they aren't on the ship. (Scotty resigning in protest counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome in my book, and then because of that, he gets the big infiltration scene.)
Not sure about Wrath of Khan Remix Album towards the end. But fundamentally, I liked the message of the story, which is that if the people who's job it is to enforce the rules start thinking this entitles them to break the rules themselves, we're all in trouble. They didn't even kill Khan!
Talking of whether or not to kill the villain...
Man of Steel
Okay. I enjoyed this, but I can really understand why people didn't.
I liked liquid-metal Krypton, which made a nice change from the glowy ice crystals. And I loved that Jor-El's service robot was named Kelex; a nice nod to the comics.
The characterisation seemed solid, allowing for the fact that this isn't Superman. It's Clark Kent learning to be Superman. I sat through ten years of that on television, I can cope with two hours of it at the cinema. And I've always prefered the more human "Clark is who I am, Superman is what I do" character to the "perfect alien hero who walks among us".
(One of my problems with the current comics is that they pay lip-service to the former characterisation, but it's more like "Superman needs to be Clark to remind himself what humans are like". Otherwise, presumably, he'll become the Kryptonian Victorious...)
I didn't like the continual flashbacks, especially since they seemed to have been cobbled together from different drafts of the script in which Jonathan had very different ideas about his son's powers. Seriously is he early-Smallville "They'll cut you up" or The Movie "You have a destiny"? If he's supposed to develop from one to the other, that really doesn't come across.
And then there's what happens to Zod. Do I have a problem with it? You bet. Do I think it ruins everything and makes him Not Superman? Weell...
The thing is, like I said, he's not Superman, not yet. And he's in a desperate situation without any real experience in how to deal with things like this. I can accept he gets it wrong.
And, after all, I started reading comics in the 80s. As far as I'm concerned, "Superman kills Zod" is how the story goes. And at least in this version, he does it to save lives, not acting as the executioner of a powerless Zod.
But if they'd made it clearer that this was Clark going too far and realising that Superman Doesn't Kill (like Batman being about to shoot Joe Chill in Year Two before the Reaper does it for him) I'd be happier.
Iron Man 3
Really good. Having a running plot-point that Tony reallydidn't want to talk about what happened in New York worked well, aknowledging the Avengers film without tying this story into it too much.
I liked the twist with the Manderin; really when a character was created in the sixties as Fu Manchu with added anti-communism, you can't actually run him straight. The 90s Iron Man cartoon made him a generic supervillian type. The Iron Man Armoured Adventures cartoon went for the more interesting idea of a Well-Intentioned Extremist kid who was actually friends with Teen Tony before they learnt each others' secret identities.
The film went for the double-whammy of updating the "He's everything America hates" concept and then having the reveal that this wasn't true at all. In the process they made Aldrich Killian more of a villain than he was in the comics, but I can live with that.
Speaking of the comics, I read all Warren Ellis's Iron Man run, and this was the first time I had the slightest idea what Extremis actually did. Seperating it from "thing Tony injects himself with to get remote control of his armour" was a good move.
I spent longer than strictly necessary trying to work out if the kid was a reference to a comic book character I was unaware of. I eventually decided he wasn't.
Star Trek Into Darkness
I enjoyed this one too.
I liked the references to Section 31 and the model of the NX01 in the Admiral's office. It's good to make a nod to the fact that Trek's history was only changed after a point. (On the subject of the NX01, it still bugs me that this version of the 1701 looks smaller than Archer's ship.)
I hadn't realised that Scotty's transwarp beaming extended the range of the transporter to interstellar distances (although the speed Enterprise was going at, I suppose it must have). If you can do that, I'm not clear why you need a Starfleet.
Since the Carol Marcus reveal was obvious to any Trekker, I'm glad they didn't pad this out too much. We've been introduced to an Admiral Marcus, she's a blonde scientist, do the maths. She was an interesting character, and I'm glad it looks like she's going to be a regular.
The Khan reveal ... well it might have been a shock if two newspapers hadn't both told me that John Harrison was an alias and there was a nice twist for long-time fans. So thanks for that, newspapers. Cumberbatch was, of course, excellent in portraying someone with a fundemental conviction that he's better than everyone around him.
And the story itself certainly moved along. Klingons! Evil Starfleet! Uhura and Spock talking about their relationship! Old Spock saying "I can't tell you what to do next, but it's this"! All the regulars get something to do, even if they aren't on the ship. (Scotty resigning in protest counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome in my book, and then because of that, he gets the big infiltration scene.)
Not sure about Wrath of Khan Remix Album towards the end. But fundamentally, I liked the message of the story, which is that if the people who's job it is to enforce the rules start thinking this entitles them to break the rules themselves, we're all in trouble. They didn't even kill Khan!
Talking of whether or not to kill the villain...
Man of Steel
Okay. I enjoyed this, but I can really understand why people didn't.
I liked liquid-metal Krypton, which made a nice change from the glowy ice crystals. And I loved that Jor-El's service robot was named Kelex; a nice nod to the comics.
The characterisation seemed solid, allowing for the fact that this isn't Superman. It's Clark Kent learning to be Superman. I sat through ten years of that on television, I can cope with two hours of it at the cinema. And I've always prefered the more human "Clark is who I am, Superman is what I do" character to the "perfect alien hero who walks among us".
(One of my problems with the current comics is that they pay lip-service to the former characterisation, but it's more like "Superman needs to be Clark to remind himself what humans are like". Otherwise, presumably, he'll become the Kryptonian Victorious...)
I didn't like the continual flashbacks, especially since they seemed to have been cobbled together from different drafts of the script in which Jonathan had very different ideas about his son's powers. Seriously is he early-Smallville "They'll cut you up" or The Movie "You have a destiny"? If he's supposed to develop from one to the other, that really doesn't come across.
And then there's what happens to Zod. Do I have a problem with it? You bet. Do I think it ruins everything and makes him Not Superman? Weell...
The thing is, like I said, he's not Superman, not yet. And he's in a desperate situation without any real experience in how to deal with things like this. I can accept he gets it wrong.
And, after all, I started reading comics in the 80s. As far as I'm concerned, "Superman kills Zod" is how the story goes. And at least in this version, he does it to save lives, not acting as the executioner of a powerless Zod.
But if they'd made it clearer that this was Clark going too far and realising that Superman Doesn't Kill (like Batman being about to shoot Joe Chill in Year Two before the Reaper does it for him) I'd be happier.
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no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 04:02 pm (UTC)I hadn't realised that Scotty's transwarp beaming extended the range of the transporter to interstellar distances (although the speed Enterprise was going at, I suppose it must have). If you can do that, I'm not clear why you need a Starfleet.
Because if they actually dealt with the implications of that properly then they'd be infringing on Stargate's franchise rights.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 05:22 pm (UTC)(Specifically, I suspect, to establish that he's not simply the Chris Reeves Superman played by a different actor. And blame Superman Returns for making it necessary to clarify that.)
My favourite comics podcast, House To Astonish, was unsure about introducing a new Batman in a Superman film for precisely that reason. It's unlikely to have space to establish who this Batman is, and that he isn't the Nolan/Bale version.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 09:23 pm (UTC)(Actually, I quite liked Returns. And Quest for Peace.)
no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 05:48 pm (UTC)My immediate reaction to STID was, "Worthy of the mantle Star Trek II." I may change my mind when I see it again - unlike 2009 when I saw Star Trek three times opening weekend, I've seen STID only once - but the people who claim that the callouts to The Wrath of Khan are inappropriate because this set of the characters are too new to each other are, in a word, wrong. I cried.
As for MoS, while I liked it as I watched it, most of the complaints about it in terms of vision of the character(s) are things that bothered me even as I was watching. It's not a Superman film, and actually it seems to know that because it avoids using the word. But it was built up as one and that's why people have issues. We were expecting a Superman film, were told to expect one, and are therefore cranky to have got Smallville The Movie instead. Personally I wish, if they wanted to do a Batman teamup, they'd've done it in the first film so Superman would have had to be not-omg dark in contrast.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 09:21 pm (UTC)I don't think the WOK shoutouts are inappropriate because the characters are too new to each other - the emotional connection between them all was very clear to me and the best bit of the film. I just felt they were a distraction. I want to watch this movie, not be reminded of a different one.
Which yes, is ironic for the guy who loved that MoS named a robot after one that appeared in a John Byrne comic. But that's an injoke in an early scene; it isn't part of the actual story. (To the best of my recollection, at no point does Zod demand anyone kneel, and the film's all the better for it.)
no subject
Date: 2013-08-01 01:17 pm (UTC)For me callouts to the previous films were part of the raisin deeter (pardon my French), for STID and MoS. Or, in at least once instance in the later, failure of callout. This Zod's motivation was different and I never expected him to demand anyone kneel before him, but I kept waiting for him to say something like, "I've discovered his weakness. He truly cares for these people." And, given the conclusion of the character arc, I felt it a definite lack.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-01 01:29 pm (UTC)It's not a line that instantly makes me think "Oh, you're quoting the other version", so it wouldn't trip the same reactions in my head as "Kneel before Zod!" or "KHAAAAAN!!"
References are fine, and I agree they should be there. It's the memetic lines that knock me out of the fiction in the same way as Juggernaut quoting some YouTube gagdub of X-Men The Animated Series in The Last Stand.