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“Terminator: Genisys” Obsesses Over Time Travel and Erases Past Glory
All four previous entries of the franchise use a time-traveling event as the kernel of a larger story, and the best two films (which I don’t even need to name explicitly) relegate this to the very beginning of the first act. Terminator: Genisys limps along its narrative by using time-travel plot elements like a crutch. The result is a film without a logical plot, populated by paradoxical characters and foolish plans. Occasionally, things get so muddled and unclear that characters are forced to halt the drama on screen to provide expository dialogue, but even these shoehorned explanations fail to settle the questions that arise. Due to the various temporal contortions of this film, we realize that Terminator: Genisys is not merely a sequel in the Terminator franchise, but a stealth re-boot of the whole storyline. Sadly, the plot of Genisys erases the events of the previous films as though they never happened and leaves this once-great franchise an incoherent husk of its former self.
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Variety Article Discusses the Fight for Gaspar Noé’s “Love”
Today, an article in Variety details the struggle to prevent far-right wing elements of French politics from stamping Gaspar Noé’s Love with an Under-18 rating (our equivalent of NC-17 in the States). The piece is articulate and informative, and likely portends the difficulties that Love will face in other nations as well. If you’re at all interested in discussions of film standards, censorship, the treatment of sexuality in film, or things of that nature, I would suggest you give it a read. I will stay away from recounting the particulars of the story, and instead react to how I anticipate this will affect the latest offering from Noé here in the States. I may hop on an anti-censorship soapbox, as well.
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Star Trek Less “Trek-y”, Guardians of the Galaxy More “Emotional”
Over the last week or so, details regarding a pair of space adventure sequels have started rolling in, and while there isn’t much to interpret as of yet, I do think it is interesting to consider the choices being made by these two franchises. I am speaking, of course, of the Star Trek franchise, and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, both of which are set to release films in the next two years (the former in July 2016, the latter in May 2017). It is interesting to consider these franchises side-by-side, as both are basically space operas but differ wildly in terms of tone and execution. And, despite being the more nascent franchise, I am of the opinion that it is the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise which actually has a brighter future – especially with regards to the next entry.
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First US Trailer for “Legend” Focuses on Tom Hardy’s Portrayal of Kray Twins
If you’ll recall, a couple of weeks ago The Martian was moved up over two months for an October 2nd release. There, it will compete with the Robert Zemekis film The Walk and Brian Helgeland’s Legend, starring Tom Hardy (twice). And, while we’ve had a couple of different looks at The Walk (which I always want to call “The Wire” at first – I wonder if that will ever stop), we only got our first full look at Legend late last week with the first official US trailer, and it looks like October 2nd is shaping up to be a spectacular weekend for film fans. Have a viddy:
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A Game of Musical Chairs Set Off by Alicia Vikander’s Casting in “Bourne 5”
This whole week has been a whirlwind of casting news, kicked off by the announcement of the new Spiderman. Again, castings that were supposedly set in stone (and reported upon in the movie news) have proven less solid by the time the ink finally dried. In this case, Alicia Vikander has officially been named the female lead opposite Matt Damon in the fifth film of the Bourne franchise. This casting clears out two other roles which Vikander was reported to be very close to signing on for: The Circle, starring Tom Hanks, and the Assassin’s Creed film with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Once Vikander’s name fell from consideration for these roles, the respective producers wasted no time in filling them: Emma Watson will play the role in The Circle, and Ariane Labed has been chosen for the Assassin’s Creed role.
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A Wordless Tribute to the Great James Horner
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“Independence Day: Resurgence”, The Future Disaster (Movie)
When the Independence Day sequel is released next year, it will be just shy of 20 years after the original alien invasion disaster film debuted. Fox has announced that the film will officially be titled Independence Day: Resurgence and has provided a brief synopsis. In the years since the invasion, humanity has reverse-engineered the alien technology to create a planet-wide defense system in case more aliens attempt to invade. Of course, they do anyways, apparently with even more advanced technology. Most of the stars not named “Will Smith” will be reprising their roles, and we also got a couple of cool photos of a spaceship / mech. So, I am excited, right? Far from it – this will be an unmitigated disaster.
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“Burying the Ex” Dramatizes the Shambling Remains of an Undead Relationship
When reacting to the trailer for Joe Dante’s Burying the Ex, I remarked that it could be interesting to use the zombie story as a metaphor for a doomed or stale relationship. This film barrels down that road with fervor, and the result is an awkward on-screen relationship that despite literally decaying, just will not die. The film opens with Max (Anton Yelchin) and Evelyn (Ashley Greene) clinging to a relationship that just doesn’t work. They are horribly mismatched from the get-go: she is a vegan tree-hugger with a cause and a blog, and he works at a Halloween shop and loves monster movies and gore. Thankfully, we don’t waste time discovering how these two got together or see the early parts of their relationship, we just see the death throes. It is annoying that the only thing keeping them together from Max’s perspective is the sex – but even the melt-your-face sexiness of Evelyn isn’t enough after she re-decorates their apartment and forces him to go vegan with her, to his credit. When he finally decides to pull the trigger, and he sets up the breakup location, Evelyn is killed while crossing the street.
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Finally – Tom Holland is the New Spiderman
You would be forgiven for thinking that the powers that be had already decided on the new Spiderman for the second reboot of the beloved web-slinger and his introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many movie news outlets were quick to anoint Asa Butterfield a couple of months ago, but all of them were quick to pepper these “stories” with nebulous phrases like, “in the works”, “in discussion” and “about to ink deal”. This is a common and frustrating eventuality in the movie news cycle: intent on breaking the story and generating as much traffic as possible to their site, many of these online outlets throw up garish headlines declaring that so-and-so is involved in such-and-such. Then, when you actually click and read the article, you realize that it is all basically hearsay. This infuriates me. I make a concerted effort not to post any news item until the ink is actually dry on the contract, so now that such a thing has happened vis-a-vis Spiderman, I must say that I am at least a little concerned.
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First US Trailer for “Dragon Blade” is a Confusing, Quick-Cutting Nightmare
What the Hell is this Dragon Blade trailer? When was the last time that a swords and sandal epic was actually worth anything? Well, here we get a major film produced in China starring Adrien Brody, John Cusack, and Jackie Chan. The film was originally titled, “Tian jiang xiong shi”; literally, “Celestial General, Heroic Army” which is an infinitely better name than the generic “Dragon Blade”, especially since I am pretty sure there will be zero dragons and zero mystical blades. The plot focuses on a battle in antiquity over control of the Silk Road between corrupt Roman generals and Chinese tribes during the Han Dynasty. Somehow, I have watched this trailer three times and have managed to avoid even a single seizure from the dozens of quick cuts. I have, however, scoffed aplenty at the flat line readings, ridiculous dialogue, and downright confusing plot. Have a look:
Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs
