Saturday 13 September 2008

Wanted - Did you say action?


First impressions right after leaving the cinema:
I've just watched 1 hour and 50 mins pure action, and I didn't react badly to it,
I would rather be trained by these professional assassins than by V (from V for Vendetta) which I find a bit funny,
and I feel so bad for those rats!

The good: the direction and art direction in this movie is amazing. Instead of making a gritty, dark action film, he made a stylized, shiny and over the top action film, that despite all the horrible things that happen still seem rather light, which I think it had to be, to be able to sit through it. The action sequences feature bullet time, rewinding, experimental camera angles and effective zooming. Everything from the shooting to the cgi works perfectly together and if you are interested in art direction and/or action direction, it's a must see. And.. that's really the only reason to see it.

The plot is very basic, with no fleshed out characters, and plot twists you can see a mile away. I understand that the film is based on a comic book with no real story, but I would think it would be possible to write an action film script with actual plot twists. The predictable plot twists also ruin the few moments in the film that are supposed to be touching. The big supposedly touching moment in the film, right after the most spectacular shooting yet, ends up just being a "meh" moment. Besides for Wesley, an account manager that doesn't care about anything, not even the fact that his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend, but for some reason has a very strong will to live, none of the characters have much personality. They're there to do their thing, being an expert knife fighter, or a bomb expert or the devoted romantic interest, and their one dimensionality ends up making you not care at all when the big fights ensues.

It's obvious that Bekmambetov went into this project wanting to create a pure, visually stunning action film, and that he has managed admirably, but you end up wondering if the film had been better if they'd just cut out all the plot elements put in to try to make you care, and make the plot seem stronger. No plot is actually better than a weak plot, but is it really impossible to write a good plot for an action film?

Monday 1 September 2008

Star Wars: the Clone Wars


The Clone wars is the newest production from Lucasfilm, a company known for beating dead horses. And they don't disappoint with this animated feature. Set between the second and the third film, this one tells the story of Anakins and Obi-Wans fight to save a little Hutt child together with Anakins new apprentice, the fiesty Ahsoka Tano.
Featuring already known characters in a different filmstyle is dangerous enough on its own, and the voice actors trying to sound like Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen manage to make the experience completely unreal. While the animation on its own is very good (though the characters look more like puppets than animated characters) the strange similarities and differences in the animated characters as opposed to their actors takes some time to get used to.

The biggest problem with this film isn't its voice actors or animation, it is its story. This film is a film made for children, through and through. There is no context, no conflict and no psychology. Set between the second and the third film, this film could have given us a strong storyline further describing Anakins path to the dark side, especially considering his trip back to Tatooine, or at least a bit more about the war. As it is it introduces a completely new character that has no impact on the story or the world (or Anakin for that matter) and tells us how the Jedi secured the flight routes through Hutt territory, which apparently gives them a big advantage and might even win the war for the Republic (have you ever heard about this before?).
Riddled with plot holes, the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka develops hugely in what is shown as only a few days, with Ahsoka learning Anakin's character and actions by heart after their first fight, to such a degree that she can predict his moves and thoughts.
The war parts are also disappointing with extremely old tactics and with the whole droid army as comic relief. With all their faults, slow reactions and general stupidity (a droid not understanding coordinates?) you end up wondering why the clone army is loosing. Even when taking their low numbers into consideration, the enemy's uncanny ability to get themselves and others killed should give a low-numbered smart army the upper hand.

The story and the idea is on its own not a bad one, but it is badly executed. If the point of the film is to recruit new, young Star Wars fans, why put it in-between two films with a story line that requires some knowledge of the Star Wars universe to follow, but if the film is for the old fans, why make such a disconnected story that doesn't develop the world or the characters we know? I also question if the Clone wars are the right place for a children's story. Is watching one and a half hour with non-stop violence and war okay for children as long as we make the ones killed comical and stupid, and remove the blood?