About time for another catch-up of upcoming movies of interest (to me anyway, I know no-one else reads this).

JJ Abrams new "secret" project -"Super8".  This is being virally marketed much the same way that Cloverfield was.
Only a teaser so far but looks interesting at least:




Fresh insanity from Japan, for an upcoming animated TV show called "CatShitOne".  Based on a Manga series called "Apocalypse Meow", it's basically a war movie with cute animals representing different countries.  There is more details on the Wikipedia page




Very excited about this next one.  It's Luc Besson's latest project "Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Adèle Blanc-Sec", and looks like a female Steampunk Indiana Jones, with dinosaurs.  It's French, but the trailer is subtitled.  Personally I think this looks amazing:

Next is George Clooney's latest "The American".  Clooney is one of my consistent favourite actors, he really has that "old Hollywood" charm about his work and this is no exception as it feels very much like something from late 60s / early 70s in tone and style.  Sign me up for this one:




I know next to nothing about The Green Hornet, except for the Bruce Lee conection to the old TV series.  Main draw for this is the director, Michel Gondry, who was responsible for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a number of amazing music videos.  There are a couple of flashes of his trademark camera tricks here, and the trailer looks quite good fun, but we'll see:




"Predators" is the sequel to the 80s classics.  Hopefully going to wipe away all memory of the AvP movies and get back to some great action - starting with a good director and a stellar cast is a positive start I think.  Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburn, Danny Trejo... I'm there when it opens next weekend




Finally, this just landed today - teaser trailer for the latest from David Fincher.  Called "The Social Network", it's the story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.  Just having Fincher attached guarantees my ticket:

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Categories: Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers | want

I considered writing a short piece looking back at 2009, but eventually decided against it as it was a pretty lousy year for me all in all.  On the work front, a major crisis in February didn't help, I lost some long-term friends through that, but did make some new ones so I guess that balances out.  It was an odd year that I'd rather put behind me.

There were some great movies last year though - most notably "Zombieland", "Let the right one in" (definitely my film of the year), "The Hurt Locker", "Watchmen" (the 4-hour full version anyway), "Benjamin Button", "Up", "Star Trek", "District 9", "Terminator Salvation" (not a good Terminator film, but a good generic action movie), "Moon", "Sherlock Holmes", and of course "Twilight" (heh, just kidding folks!!!).  There were some others I saw which I thought were ok, a couple of outright disappointments, and some which I missed which I will definitely be getting on disc (Coen Bros "A Serious Man" being top of that list).

All in all a pretty good year for movies, even most of the big "blockbusters" were actually worth the time and money of going to the cinema.  3D is seemingly back in a big way, only time will tell if it's going to stay a gimmick used to cover up lazy plotting and lack of characterisation, or if it will actually be used inventively to enhance a great film instead of just shoving things in your face because it can.

So, 2010.  "Dark Horizons" movie site has been running a multi-part guide to the upcoming movie goodness for the next year, so I thought I'd post a few things that have caught my eye:

Number one on my can't-wait-for list is "Kick Ass" - just wait until the Daily Mail get a load of Hit Girl, a foul-mouthed 12 year old chopping bad-guys legs off.  Here's the second trailer, but I seriously recommend checking out the Red Band trailer:

"Kick Ass" - UK April 2010(?)


The re-imagining of the A-Team just looks like fun...
"The A-Team" - UK July 2010


One of my earliest cinema memories is Clash of the Titans, and I'm a bit protective of it.  However, the director Louis Leterrier didn't make a bad job of "The Incredible Hulk" (which I liked very much until the two very badly done CGI monsters started smashing the city up at the end) so here's hoping.
Clash of the Titans - UK March 2010


"The Eagle of the Ninth" - in 140AD an entire Roman legion disappeared in the highlands of Scotland.  I remember reading about this when I was at school so it has my attention - plus it has Kevin MacDonald directing, who made the excellent "Last King of Scotland" and "State of Play".  No trailer or UK date yet.

The Expendables - as Dark Horizons says "Stallone's $80 million tribute to 80's action cinema is a much-anticipated love letter to a time when men were men, computer effects were non-existent, and hard R-rated violence and politically incorrect humour was the norm.".  Might just have to switch my brain off for this one:


Inception is Chris Nolan's follow-up to "The Dark Knight".  He seems to be keeping his cards close to his chest with the odd but striking imagery in the trailers.  Definitely one to see on as big a screen as possible:
"Inception" - UK July 2010


The first Iron Man movie was a hoot-and-a-half, this looks to follow on nicely.  Anything with RDJ in it is high on my list anyway:


Dark Horizons sums up "The Killer Inside Me" nicely - "Everyone figures Lou Ford, a West Texas sheriff, to be a normal kind of guy. They don't see the ruthless, sociopathic murderer underneath and as victims pile up, suspicions begin to emerge.".  Extended trailer below really piques my interest.


That's enough for now - part two to follow.

Tags: awesome, coen bros, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, sci-fi, space, trailer, watchmen, youtube, zombies
Categories: Geek | General | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers | Watchmen

I should prefix this by saying there are a few minor spoilers if you haven't seen the movie, but nothing that will completely come as a surprise or ruin a first viewing.

I held off seeing Avatar until almost a month after it's release for a few reasons.  Main one was I've become much more hype averse over the past 5 years or so, seemingly my brain has caught up to the notion that it's usually in the media's interest to go on and on and on about something even (or sometimes especially) when it's below par.  Secondly, after my original thoughts when the trailer came out I was waiting to see if it did actually fall on it's arse.

It didn't.  Guess that told me, eh?

I'm very, very glad I saw it in IMax 3D.  This is really the way the film is supposed to be seen, and I really cannot knock the design or execution of the effects at all.  It is genuinely mind-blowing at times.  I did have a problem with the 3D at the very start and in the initial sequences in the base, every object seemed to be demanding attention from my eyes and it was quite tricky to follow things at first.  This did change a lot in the forest, and the effects really come to life (excuse the pun) there.  The plant life is astonishing both in design and look, and the 3D really works perfectly.  Best examples are the anenome-like creatures floating around, and the ash falling in the aftermath of the first major battle.  Beautiful.

We are so close now to having digital actors it's untrue - many, many times during the film it seemed that Zoe Saldana's Neytiri was just her wearing prosthetics and makeup, it looked that good.  They've fixed the dead-eye problem too.  I did feel that the other Na'vi weren't quite as good but that is to be expected I suppose as even a $500m movie has to constrain somewhere.  Sigourney Weaver's avatar looked spookily like her but this meant that it looked to me like more of a caricature rather than a believable creature.

Being able to achieve all of these remarkable effects is the very reason James Cameron waited 14 years from original idea to finally being able to realise his vision.  It sure as hell can't have taken 14 years to put the story together - in fact I would love to see the original idea notes for the film from way back then as I would be surprised if it wasn't a massively different plot, certainly not the bundle of old ideas he's put together here.  It seems as if in the past decade spent filming in remote areas and underwater JC has developed a healthy respect for the Earth but also a massive loathing of humankind.  It's fair enough to produce a film dealing with environmental issues and taking a swipe at the blood-for-oil mentality, but it is another to try and pass it off as something original by wrapping it up in (admittedly astonishing) special effects.  It felt at times as if the film was just a big 3D shovel with "Humans Bad, Nature Good" written on it, hitting me in the face.

There are enough posts on the web pulling the plot apart and showing that it's just a rehash of "Pocahontas", "Dances with Wolves", "Fern Gully" and so on, so I'm not going to bother with all that.  I will say I found the story very predictable at every stage - not once did I think "wow, really didn't see that coming", everything from Jake being accepted into the tribe, to getting the girl (and how he did it), to what came thundering out of the forest to finally see off the troops at the end of the battle.  The "Noble Savage" thing has been done to death, but in this the Na'vi were just protrayed as SO GOOD it was untrue - even when it became clear to the main Big Warrior Na'vi that this fake half-breed thing was going to take his bird he didn't do anything about it!  No demands of a fight to the death or anything!  Then when all the tribes (which had only been vaguely mentioned once in passing until then) were visited there was not a hint of any bad-blood between them.  What are the chances of that?  Even if you look at untouched tribes on Earth that's not realistic, they're still animals for pete's sake.  Or is it just me being cynical?  The people who feel suicidal that they can't go and actually live on Pandora would probably disagree with me, I'm sure...

Obviously people go to see films for different reasons, some just want a firework show which they go back to see again and again because it's so pretty, but I like to think back a week, month, year later and think "That film was just great, the character of xxxx was so great", and remembering dialogue or set-pieces.  I've thought almost nothing about Avatar at all over the past week except for today when getting ready to write this.  It's mostly gone from my mind already, which is a real shame for something that is actually an important moment in cinema.

Still, I didn't actually pay for the ticket, and I can't complain about losing 3 hours of my life or anything.  I think people should go and see it, but only in the way it was intended.  I doubt I'll see it again, and definitely won't be getting the Blu-Ray.  That just won't work until we have 3D TV - I'm kind of reminded of the Simpsons episode where Homer quits drinking and tries to watch a baseball game while sober, "I never realised how boring this game is...".

Anyway, I'd like to see the following things happen next:

1 - It should clean up the tech awards at the Oscars, but definitely NOT get anywhere near the Best Film award.
2 - JC makes "Battle Angel Alita" next before (or instead of) 2 more Avatar sequels as he has threatened.
3 - Give David Fincher the money and this technology for him to go and take another run at "Rendezvous with Rama".  That story actually deserves the treatment
4 - Keep Michael Bay and Roland Emerich the hell away from this tech, on pain of death.  At least Cameron knows how to direct an action scene.

8/10 in IMax 3D.  5/10 if I'd seen it in 2D or on DVD.

Tags: awesome, fincher, geek, movies, opinion, rant, reviews, robots, sci-fi, space, spoilers, weapons, tech
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | rant | Reviews | Sci-Fi | spoilers | tech

When a massive alien spaceship stops over Johannesburg, South Africa, the occupants have to live somewhere... That somewhere is the slum known as District 9.  The citizens of Johannesburg don't want them there, and after 20 years of trouble turning to rioting it is decided that they should be moved 240km outside the city.

Easier said than done.

Wikus van der Merwe is the civil servant charged with organising the move on District 9, taking a team of other civil servants and armed police officers into D9 to issue eviction notices.  This is all filmed in a documentary style reminiscent of "Cloverfield", but also containing "behind the scenes" comments from people so much like an uncut documentary I suppose.  It's amusing at first but then quickly becomes distubing seeing how the aliens are treated as scum, not even "second class citizens" but as objects of derision and hatred - they are referred to constantly as "prawns", even to their faces. The officers are quick to shoot first and ask questions later.  Wikus is a lively, friendly man but when things start to go wrong all that quickly changes.

I'm not going to go much deeper into the details as that would provide spoilers and you should really avoid them for this film - I'm certainly glad I did.  The movie is continually surprising, even when it treads down paths that for other films might be seen as cliche or obvious ideas, it manages to pull them off.  I found very little to dislike, the pacing is spot on and considering the $30m dollar budget the effects are extraordinary.  I believe that Neill Blomkamp was previously involved in SFX work, so knows exactly what will work on camera and look real in this dirty and gritty environment.  No shiny CGI work here.  The creature effects are very good, only occasionally making you see the aliens as "just CGI" - everything feels real.

The film style does change about a third of the way through, moving from documentary style to a more traditional narrative, but the film is then occasionally spliced with news footage and short snippets of other broadcasts so the style never totally goes away and hence the flim doesn't suddenly feel disjointed.  It all works very well and gives a unique slant to the project.

While not being preachy at all, District 9 manages to deliver a hard-hitting social commentary, obviously stemming from the filmmaker having seen apartheid first-hand in South Africa.  It's a movie that does make you think, and change your mind about things as the film goes on.

Great plaudits must also go to Sharlto Copley who plays Wikus - as a first-time actor he does an amazing job, and is certainly someone to watch.  His portrayal of Wikus is key to the emotional effect of this film, he really makes you first dislike then come to care about Wikus.

All in all, very highly recommended.  I'd give it 9 out of 10, and cannot wait for the DVD release.  There is room at the end for a sequel, but I think I'd prefer this one to stand on its own - I feel the sequel that suggests itself would likely require a much higher budget and with that come inevitable studio interference and demands.

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Categories: Geek | Movies | Reviews | Sci-Fi

Couple of things to keep an eye on this week. First the new teaser trailer for "Inception" - from Chris Nolan, the man behind "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight".

Draws obvious visual parallels with "The Matrix", but I think Nolan has earned our trust so let's not judge too early eh? And not a blue elf in sight...

Second, some good news  (well, for me anyway).  "Moon" has got a release date in the UK and it's not too far away.  16th November is the date for the diary.  I was really pissed off that this only got a very limited release over here - it was in fewer cinemas and for less time than "Blood the Last Vampire" for gods sake. After the critical acclaim and the fact it was directed by David Bowie's son you'd think it would have gotten a bit more attention, but no.

Anyway, here's the trailer to show you what you (most likely) missed:

Very "2001", "Solaris","Silent Running"...

Oh and one more thing, "Terminator Salvation" is getting an "R" rating for the DVD in the US.  Guess that means it will be a 15 over here as the BBFC seems to be less paranoid about boobies on film than the Yanks.

 

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Categories: blu-ray | Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers

So the trailer for Avatar has finally been released on to the web (after a very funny "leaked" spoof version I should add).  It's here for you to see:

Now to my thoughts... I watched it the first time and immediately twittered that it "looks like a Final Fantasy game cut scene."  I think I was both spot-on and being a bit disingenuous.  You see, this film is being hyped up by many Cameron fanboys as being the holy-grail of Sci-Fi, that somehow Jim is returning to save the science fiction movie!!!

I hope so.  I really do.  At least the first few shots of this movie do look like Aliens / Starship Troopers alright... but then the big blue fuzzy aliens appear.  This does not look so good.  When the Fanboys pronounce that Cameron is back, what they really want is dropships, load-lifters, phased plasma rifles in the 40-watt range, all that.  What they might be getting is a Jim Cameron-penned love story.

This could be Cameron's "The Phantom Menace".  Just as 10 years ago we had an extremely eagerly awaited Sci-Fi movie (with one of the all-time great trailers, I should add) which ended up actually being one or two memorable action scenes interspersed with a bunch of racial sterotypes arguing over trade agreements.  And as in 1999, this year we have a small independent sci-fi movie in the wings winning plaudits all over and completely outshining the incumbent.  Then it was "The Matrix", this year it's "District 9".

Honestly I hope I'm wrong.  Watching the trailer again I begin to think that it will probably look astonishing in 3D.  But shiny visuals are not the be-all-end-all for movies (at least not for me any more, as my friends will attest when they were going on about Transformers et al) - there has to be something compelling there.  Cameron has already publicly stated that this is more like "Dances with Wolves" in space.  Centainly a great pinnacle to hold your work up against, but not likely to impress the fanboys who just want more "Aliens".

We shall see in December.

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Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers