MAN OF STEEL

The much anticipated DC comics superhero movie "Man of Steel" produced by the Christopher Nolan of the well-known "Dark Knight Triology" did not live up to my expectations. It spent many years in its conception and casting before the movie was finally made. Heavily shrouded in secrecy and hyped to be a different and darker take as a departure from the earlier movie failure "Superman Returns", there were some hits and as many misses for this latest remake.

Starring Henry Cavill as the new leading man, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and other actors such as Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, this over two hour long movie was so packed in cation in the later part of the movie that it was a blurry mess for me. It was so deja vu watching the movie because the scenes of the city's mass destruction and alien space crafts resembled many recent action packed movies like "Transformers" or that involved alien invasions etc as the Man of Steel battled the evil Zod and his henchmen from Krypton.

The movie deliberately detracted from the comics and earlier movies in some ways in an attempt to inject some freshness into a superhero character that we all know too well and to create some mystery behind the Man of Steel. First of all, there was a radical change in the superhero's outfit to keep in time with the new age and gone was his embarrassing red underwear worn on the outside. They tried hard not to refer to the superhero as Superman and inferred that the famous S insignia was just a symbol of hope.

I have never seen a scruffy, bearded Superman but here he was looking more like the hairy Wolverine than the clean cut Superman that we all know of. The first hour of the movie was spent exploring how the troubled and confused young boy with superpowers tried to cope with his unusual and extraordinary abilities by hiding who he really was from everyone and subsequently was lost and ran from place to place after he failed to save his human father Jonathan Kent from a tornado. He only found his calling after he discovered a Kryptonian spaceship in the arctic, communicated with his birth father Jor-El through a hologram and learnt about his true identity and destiny.

I guess Henry Cavill fits the bill as the darker superhero with a lot of baggage but I am not used to his constant frown on his forehead. I did not like Amy Adams as Lois Lane and felt there was something missing about her. In my mind, Lois Lane is much more feisty than what was portrayed. In fact, I found her annoying as she was superhero's main distraction from saving the world. Never mind if many military men and civilians were killed, saving Lois seemed to be the order of the day when it came to the Man of Steel. Smooching was fine even though there was mass destruction and death around.

Unfortunately, I feel there was so much potential to this movie which was not tapped. For instance, they was a lot of inference to Lex Luthor with his name on buildings but there were no cameos of him or other superheroes like Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern etc from the Justice League, which was a formula that the Marvel Comics used to great success in the other superhero movies involving the Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and so on. There was also no suspense created in crafting a character in the movie as a possible upcoming superhero like Robin in the Dark Knight series.

I guess movie making is getting more and more difficult by the day. When the audience is used to see something in several movies, the formula loses its freshness and appeal. Unless the directors and producers come up with something new, movies with age old formulas become run of the mill and will soon descend into boredom. 

Having said that, if they make a sequel, I will still catch it no matter how bad it is. A superhero will always be an extraordinary being with the limitless ability to do what the common lay person cannot do. That in itself, is the allure of a superhero movie.

STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS

I watched Star Trek: Into Darkness today but this isn't the reason why I am so excited that I must post about this today. 

I saw the trailer for the new Superman movie starring Henry Cavill and I feel it is rather promising and seems quite dark compared to the earlier movie starring Brandon Routh, who has a very clean cut image. This Superman did not seem to have it too easy and appeared to have gone through a lot and in fact, seemed to harbour a lot more secrets. Well, this is just my interpretation based on the trailer alone.

Back to the movie I watched today, the newer Star Trek hit the screen in 2009 and this sequel came 4 years later. Starring the same actors Chris Pine as James Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, this latest movie continues the adventures of Captain Kirk and Spock's as they explore the galaxy although I won't go into the details.

Alright, the new Superman movie will be screening in about a week's time and I am so looking forward to it.

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION

This week, I caught the above sequel starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Lee Byung-hun, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona etc.

Channing had only a brief role as Duke, the leader of the elite G.I. Joes team, and was killed off early in the movie. Dwayne who played Roadblock, took over the leadership role as one of three Joes who survived a surprise attack on them. He enlisted the help of General Joseph Colton, acted by Bruce, with the two other Joes (Lady Jaye and Flint) and Snake Eyes etc to investigate the matter to avenge the deaths of their teammates.

Lee Byung-hun had a meaty role again as the bad ninja Storm Shadow who initially with the bad guys Firefly, Cobra Commander and Zandar, joined forces with Roadblock and team to redeem himself from the accusation of assassinating his uncle the hard master. He did asians proud by reprising his role as a formidable opponent from the dark side.

I didn't like it as much as the original movie and the best part for me were the ninja fighting scenes on the cliff-faces. The opposing ninjas of two, Snake Eyes and Jinx, were dueling against many red suit ninjas and were swinging from cliff to cliff, much like spiderman.

On a side note, I noticed square-jawed D.J. Cotrona, who reminded me of a younger Tom Cruise, much like I noticed Tom Hardy in the 2010 movie "Inception" before he was cast as Bane in the 2012 "The Dark Knight Rises". If I am a talent scout, I would definitely say he has the potential to be a bigger star. Interestingly, I found out that he was cast as Superman in Warner Bros. movie "Justice League: Mortal" but due to the writers' strike in 2007-2008, the film was never made. What a pity! However, if he has it and his performance made producers and directors notice him, then we would surely see more of his films coming our way sometime.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Today's weather - sunny

I didn't have much high hopes of this movie but after watching it, I was pleasantly impressed. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this is the last of a 3-part trilogy on the DC comic superhero character Batman. The first two movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were released in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

Hemmed by a cast which included Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman, Michael Caine as the butler Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, as well as new characters Selina cum Cat Burglar played by Anne Hathaway, Bane by Tom Hardy, John by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, other cameos included Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman. I am happy that this new installment wasn't a disappointment in the making and it was worth the wait for four whole years before it came to the big screen.

I shan't dwell on the storyline but I am very glad that the movie-makers introduced new twists or surprises to an otherwise mundane plot. One of my favourite character actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt really came a long way since his days on the TV series "Third Rock from the Sun". As John Blake, the audience was treated to a surprise at the end when it hinted that he could be the new Robin, who is the other half of the well-known Batman-Robin pairing portrayed in the comics. Interestingly, in one of the scenes, Joseph's police uniform spotted the familiar initial GC on his sleeves, which I suppose stood for Gotham City. Anne provided a different girlish portrayal of the Cat Burglar, which was a fresh take that bore absolutely no resemblance to the classic Cat Woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the late 80s. Then there was Tom Hardy, whom I last remembered as one of the characters in the movie "Inception" of recent years. Just take a look at the photos below on how much he bulked up in a matter of months to play the role of Bane. Sadly, he was almost unrecognizable with the mask on this face and there was only one blink and you will missed it scene of his actual face in the entire movie. Such ballooning in body weight must have a toll on a person's health, I guess? What a sacrifice actors have to make!

And yes, I am looking forward to see the new movie "Man of Steel" on the most well-known DC comic superhero Superman in 2013, which is a year away, after watching the short trailer played before the movie started.

DYLAN DOG: DEAD OF NIGHT

I am not one to watch movie previews because I hate to jostle with the crowd and it gets especially complicated when they are talkers in the movie. Yes, I call them talkers because they just go on and on and never stop talking at the movies, despite my expression of annoyance by hushing them. It just spoils the entire movie experience for me and it is always a joy to own the cinema and watch it in peace and quietness with nary a soul around.


Anyway, after watching the movie 'Dylan Dog: Dead of Night', I understand why it is not doing well. The pace was dreadfully slow, the script was boring and the narration by the living investigator Dylan Dog, played by the ex-Superman Brandon Routh, was distracting. I am not going into details about the movie because I don't think it is worth the while doing so.


I feel sorry for Brandon Routh and do not understand why he took up the role. If he thought this movie is going to revive his flagging movie career, he is very wrong. In fact, I think it does more harm than good for him. His suave chiseled good looks, bushy eyebrows, big eyes and unbelievably big body could not save the day or rather, the movie, from a slow painful death. Sam Huntington, who was Jimmy Olsen in 'Superman Returns' starring alongside Brandon's Superman, played his partner Marcus in this movie and provided some comic relief but even so, failed to deliver the movie.


A link is shown below on this movie:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Dog:_Dead_of_Night

BRANDON ROUTH

The late Christopher Reeve was the most iconic Superman back in the 70s. Then there wasn't a remake of the series from the 80s onwards until the 2006 'Superman Returns' starring Brandon Routh as the lead character Clark Kent aka Superman.

I just read in issue 1066 of 8 Days that Brandon was dropped as Superman in the upcoming sequel as it was considered a flop despite the movie making US$391 million worldwide. Gosh, with that kind of money, how many third world countries can it feed and yet that is not enough for him to reprise his role?

Can you really blame him? Is it his fault for his portrayal of a flat and boring Clark Kent? He is tall, not so dark but handsome, and I think he does a decent job of acting as the down-to-earth and nerdy character. Everyone knows that Superman does not have as much character depth as other superheroes e.g. Batman, Spiderman, who went through much more in their normal lives before becoming a superhero. So no, I kind of pity him because I don't think the flop should be attributed to him alone. In fact, I felt the storyline was very weak right from the start and that brought him down as well. He is as much a victim of the whole failure as the movie company.

So, is he considered a celebrity? What does it mean to be a celebrity? Do I want to be one and what does it take to be one? Just look at the photo below. As Brandon does not possess the typical square-jawed face epitomized by the cartoon character, some of the promotional posters of him were doctored to show him having blue-eyes, a wider face and broader neck. So it is no longer the real him anymore.

I don't want to be a celebrity kind of celebrity and would rather be a certain kind of celebrity. I don't want to lose the real me in the whole process. Get it?