So I Saw The Hunger Games...

I have A Story about The Hunger Games (that pretty fantastic YA series by Suzanne Collins which...look if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're under a bigger rock than I am...). When I first picked it up, it was at the recommendation of someone whose reviews I had really enjoyed online. So I set off for the closest library and indulged myself in some YA fiction. And got hooked. And had to immediately drive to two different libraries in order to pick up the sequel, Catching Fire. Which I finished and promptly put myself to work searching for the final book. The problem was, Mockingjay, the conclusion of the series, wasn't even published yet, let alone at the library.

So I put myself on the list for it. At position number 274. Which isn't that big a deal especially since I ostensibly had other things to read (like my school books). But then the Miami-Dade Public Library system set up a new thing where in order to check out books, you have to renew your library card each year, and in order to renew, your account has to be paid off. So. Since I had a bit of a backlog of debt I am very forgetful, you understand they turned off my card and cancelled my holds.

Including Mockingjay.

So I haven't finished the series and I hadn't re-read the books in a few years when the spoilers and casting photos and otherwise general tomfoolery for the movie began to seep into my Internet Spaces.

That was all to say: 1) spoil me and die, 2) I'm coming at the movie with a book-ish spin, and 3) Really. Spoil me and DIE

I'm gonna start off by saying that I actually really enjoyed the movie. But by far one of the best parts of it was getting to see it with my sister. Considering the SCoM rarely reads the same books I do, it was a pleasure to go see a movie based on a book we had both read. As well, because she absolutely adores the book, she finally got to see how I feel when my babies are put on the big screen.

This isn't going to be much of a review, if I'm being honest because I didn't take any notes as I usually do. However, the SCoM and I did have a discussion in the car on the way to the comic book store about the differences and how we felt about them, so that's what I'm going to discuss.

Regardless, ye shall be warned:

Right, so the movie opens pretty much exactly as the book does, with less of the flashbacks and various "setting up the setting" details we need in a book. The cinematography in this movie was excellent, as was the set design. The Powers that Be did a fantastic job in really capturing the colors and feel of the different areas. The grittiness of the outlying districts in comparison to the garish decadence of the Capitol was not something that was just explained, rather it pretty much punched us in the gut whenever there was a shot of backgrounds.

As well, for a book that is told pretty much from the confines of Katniss' head, the writers and directors and Jennifer Lawrence herself did a phenomenal job in conveying her turmoil and the roiling thoughts that are in her head. In addition to the acting Lawrence is able to do with just her eyes, the scriptwriters also nicely fleshed out the world of the book, giving us insight into the Gamemakers, the Sponsors, and all of the other background elements that Katniss hints at but can't really devote any of her thoughts to (as she's, you know, trying not to die). Providing the audience with the shape of the world as well as presenting the movie as if we are Capitol-dwellers watching it did a lot to convey the storyline.

But. Okay, here's the thing. When I read the book, I remember really disliking Katniss. When I re-read it a few days ago I changed my opinion slightly (I like her a little more now) but I distinctly recall kind of hating her. And a lot of the reason for this was the waffling and machinations she gets up to in her own head.

Being in Katniss' head throughout the book really lets us see that she is actually Acting Out the romance with Peeta because she becomes aware that this is the only way she and him are going to make it. By selling their story to the viewers, they might make it out of the games alive. Being in her thought process reveals to us, the reader, that not only does she understand the game, but she thinks that Peeta is playing it, too. And he's better at it than she is.

That's why the ending, when Peeta is so injured he physically cannot leave the cave, has blood poisoning, and is essentially dying in her arms is so important and such a turning point in the novel. It's the part where the stakes are high enough that she must make a senseless decision - she has to risk her life in order to save Peeta's, effectively cementing their relationship in the eyes of the viewers (and probably Peeta). But even at this part in the book, Katniss isn't sure of her true feelings. She actually says:

"I haven't even begun to separate out my feelings about Peeta. It's too complicated. What I did as part of the Games. As opposed to what I did out of anger at the Capitol. Or because of how it would be viewed back in District 12. Or simply because it was the only decent thing to do. Or what I did because I cared about him." (pg. 358-359, THG, 2008)

 Throughout the book, Collins makes it clear that Katniss is putting on a show. The packages she gets from Haymitch nudge her in the direction she should be acting, but she is very aware of the fact that she is playing a part for the viewers of the Games. Without insight into Katniss' mind, it is pretty difficult for that to come across for an audience of a movie.

My feelings about the movie, then, are confused. On one hand, I liked it. The visuals were gorgeous, the way they filled out the world was welcome, and the acting was a lot better than I really expected. As well, seeing it with a bunch of people who also read the books (and most of whom were 14 year old girls) was quite the...experience. There was a lot of screaming and people yelling at the screen, and yes. That's why I like seeing movies when they premiere.

On the other hand, I found myself constantly filling in the scenes with what Katniss was thinking during them throughout the novel. And in retrospect, while I liked the movie, I can't quite separate whether I would have liked it had I not had that supplementary commentary running in my head.

But my biggest nitpick has to be the end. When Peeta and Katniss are essentially trapped in the cave near the end of the book, they are hopeless. Katniss is just trying to figure out what she needs to say in order to be rewarded with the medicine she needs to save Peeta's life while Peeta is honestly just trying to survive. His wound is described as festering, he has blood poisoning and is nearly incoherent. He is so wounded, after the medicine he can barely walk and once they're free of the games, Peeta is given a false leg because even the Capitol couldn't save his.

The wound and its care are major plot points in the book and they dictate what Katniss does as much as her possible feelings for Peeta.

So while I can forgive a lot of the minor differences between the two mediums, making Peeta's leg wound a non-issue is not one of them. Taking away the stakes that result from the severity of his injury make Katniss' turmoil less apparent and appears to cast her as Peeta's actual love interest. Which, if that's the way they were going, should have been more apparent.

I felt the movie didn't commit to having Katniss and Peeta really be in love nor to Peeta being so injured Katniss has no choice but to save him regardless of her feelings. And that lack of commitment didn't do the film any favors.

I liked the movie, I really did. I'm just not sure as to some of the choices the writers chose to make. That didn't stop me from enjoying it. Nor did it stop me from crying when this happened:

Like a baby, I cried. Me and the SCoM both. Rebellion gets to me, okay?

Review: Captain America or How I Learned to Love the Bomb Cold

As usual, I am late to the Captain America party. I’ve never even read the guy’s comic and a furious Wikipedia search before I saw the movie only enlightened me a teeny tiny bit on the long and convoluted history of the Cap.

I know he’s originally from the 1940s circa World War II and that he gets frozen in ice or something to end up in our current timeline alongside Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers. I know he recently died (and maybe even came back as comic book heroes are wont to do) and there was some sort of drama with him being unhappy with the state of the government or mixed up in the most recent election…blah di blah.

I didn’t need to know any of that to enjoy the movie (the hallmark of a good comics-movie translation in my opinion).

When we went it was a Saturday, a full week after the movie had come out and the line for Captain America was out the door of the theater. There were hardly any seats available for us by the time we got there, and the crowd was wide and mixed. The packed-ness of the theater a full week and late-night showing later should have warned me that the movie was going to be pretty good.

I was not expecting it to be as great as it was.

The movie begins in the Arctic wastes, with what I’m going to guess is a present-day thingy since there are modern guys crawling around in a frosted-over ship. I will admit to being momentarily confused; if I didn’t know the whole “literally frozen in time” thing about the Cap, I’d think I had wandered into a showing of Transformers: Dark of the Moon by accident.

Luckily, it’s just the set-up, since we then flash back to a small store in some sort of Germanic place in what looks like WWII. You can just tell when it’s WWII, can’t you? That smoky feeling to the shots, the desperation as people run in their paperboy hats…

I was almost expecting this song and dance number...

 Anyhoo, an older man with “Going to Die” written plainly across his forehead is in his shop when Elrond barges in wearing what looks suspiciously like a uniform for the SS. What Elrond is doing being Evil so far from Rivendell is beyond me, but I’m going with it because he is a delicious bad guy. Right, Mr. Anderson?

In a great show of continuity, the glowing cube from the end of Thor puts in an appearance…many years before it was acquired by faux!Loki in the future where Thor takes place…  At least there’s a nice set-up for The Avengers going. Elrond discovers the cube hidden in an enormous carving of Yggdrasil that the old man has plainly on his wall. I mean, if you’re going to be hiding Asgardian tech in your workshop, perhaps an obvious homage to the Norse gods isn’t the smartest place to hide it? Just a thought…

They call the cube “the Tesseract,” in what I desperately hope is an homage to A Wrinkle in Time but probably isn’t. The old guy dies as we knew he was going to and Elrond holds the Tesseract aloft in all of its glowy awesome before…

We flash over to the World’s Fair circa 1942. Since there actually wasn’t a World’s Fair in New York City in 1942, we get our first not-so-subtle glimpse that even though this looks a lot like our universe we are actually in a parallel kind of place. Even though DC is the company with eight-thousand Earths, by setting up this funky thing, the director and writers very nicely establish the “neighbor universe” concept that is so important to our suspension of disbelief in comic book movies. All is not as it seems, and as we pan down the street in this could-have-been World’s Fair we meet Bucky and Steve, two men out for a night on the town, or rather Bucky is. 

Steve, all 80 pounds of him, is desperately trying to get the army to accept his application to be a soldier. He wants to fight, and he has the heart of a soldier if not the strength. It is almost impossible to ignore at this point in the film the amazing effects being put into place by the production team. Chris Evans, who we know to be this hulking figure of a man especially since he bulked up for the part, is a short, scrawny, tiny minuscule… I can’t even explain how little and small and sad they make him look. It’s obviously Chris Evans, I mean it can’t be anyone else, but it’s Chris Evans as he would have been if he was an asthmatic, malnourished nine year-old.

That's him. There in the front....the man behind him is only 5'4"...

Steve Rogers, this tiny man, walks into the recruitment office and falsifies his registration information for what seems the hundredth time. It turns out that our Mr. Rogers has been trying and failing to become a soldier in the US Army for quite a few months now, and each time he is rejected by dint of his lack of strength. This time, however, the officer who does his physical examination sees something else in the small-statured man: a fierce and overwhelming desire to help, a love of country that is miles wider than he is tall, and a humility that puts everyone else to shame.

The doctor, judging from his picture, might admittedly be a little crazy... also look! Stanley Tucci!

This examining physician however, is an escaped German, on the run from the tyranny of Elrond’s SS-like people. And like Einstein and his escape with the Bomb plans safely nestled in his head, Dr. Tucci has brought with him a serum that could very well change the outcome of this war and every war to follow.

He offers Steve the chance to join the United States Army, allowing him to finally carry out his dream. When he reaches the training facility, however, Dr. Tucci must prove to the higher ups and the beautifully clothed Peggy that this mere slip of a man is in fact the perfect test subject for their testosterone-enhancing serum.

To prove the caliber of Steve Rogers over the already present hulks of men, Dr. Tucci throws a live grenade into the center of the army training camp. There is a silence, a terrified silence, and then tiny, scrawny Steve Rogers breaks ranks and runs toward the grenade. He leaps on it and curls into the fetal position, completely covering the deadly object.

Poor baby. :(

At this point in the movie, our theater drew a collective indrawn breath mixed in with some escaping “aww’s.” Who could help it when you see little, shrimpy Steve Rogers, He Who Stands Up for Everyone Except Himself, fling himself on the grenade he thinks is going to end his life? This reaction to his attempted sacrifice shows just how much we really connect with selflessness and Goodness. The grenade, of course, is a dud.

This act of heroism in spite of his small stature proves his worth to the captain of the guard or whatever he is and the green light is given to go ahead with the super serum-ing. 

Rogers is taken to a back room, strapped into some sort of metal pod and injected with adamantium the super serum. The lights flicker, some sparks fly from the control panels, and the room rumbles. But then, with a “woosh” and a clatter, the pod bay doors open and out steps…

 …Da-yum...

Of course there is a secret not!Nazi spy who has infiltrated the testing room, and he proceeds to shoot kindly Dr. Tucci and scarper with the last bit of super soldier serum. Flexing his new muscles, Steve Rogers leaps to the rescue, following the spy out the door and down the street.

The ensuing “New Power Discovery” sequence is one of my favorites. Mostly because it shows instead of tells. The Captain’s heart and motivations are displayed better than if someone had explained how to move about now, or the limitations on his new strength. He just leaps into action because he feels compelled to – it’s the Right thing to do. 

I don’t know how he does it but Chris Evans just exults in the power that Rogers must be feeling in this moment. Like we saw in Thor, there is a deep and dark longing when your body won’t do what your heart and mind want and need for it to do. The Captain’s heart for the people was in a body that was three sizes too small (like a reverse Grinch) and he now has the physical power to go with the power of his heart.

Only...not like this at all...

The movie takes off from here, establishing Captain America as essentially a propaganda guy because he’s too important to go to the front lines. He is the first and last of the Super Soldiers because the last bottle of serum was smashed in the chase. That doesn't last, of course, and there are some awesome scenes wherein the Captain and his team (setting up a nice parallel to the Avengers by canonically establishing that Cap is a good leader) blow stuff up, ride into the sunset, and generally just cause mayhem. There is pain and sadness, but there are jokes and the pulling together of different groups. I wish the scenes with the team hadn’t been a montage, but I understand why they had to be.

Also there is a really phenomenal musical number.

But let me drop something (controversial?) here. Chris Evans, he of the cuteness and the adorable GQ magazine interview, is the best choice to play Captain America and he did an amazing job. He is hard as a rock and delectable and boyishly charming and adorable. I didn't know it was possible to keep the humility of the 90 pound weakling in the performance given by the hundred some pound strong man, but it's one of the reasons the movie really worked.

While Chris Evans as the Human Torch was funny in that kinda rapscallion way, he brought an air of wonder to his portrayal of Steve Rogers that I am not sure would have been possible by anyone else. One of the things that was really integral to the story was the fact that Steve Rogers was chosen as the recipient of the super soldier serum because he was someone that you would root for regardless of how he looked. He was one of the forgotten people, those whose hearts are twenty times larger than the shape afforded them by nature or God. It's as if the super soldier serum takes the potential for greatness found in the unabashed, loving and humble Steve Rogers and makes the outsides mirror the insides. It's like a wish fulfillment fantasy for the under-powered and the alone. 

The movie is the nice little lift that we  as a country needed: the good guys can win, there is hope for not only those who are weak and little and only trying to make their way in the world, but for those who are worthy, there is almost a sense of "it all gets better". Steve Rogers is a stand-in for every scrawny person who wished they could just be a little bigger and then they'd use their powers for good.

And what's wonderful about this is that he DOES. At no point does he falter in his goodness and representing what it is that he has been entrusted with. He doesn't take his new-found powers and wreak havoc on his erstwhile tormentors. He doesn't take his new strength and use it for his own goals. He submits to the authority he was willing to die to protect. He takes his new gift and uses it for the good of others rather than himself. If anyone deserves to have used new powers for a selfish reason at any point, it's Steve Rogers. And he doesn't. 

Like all the flack leveled against Superman for being too much of a Boy Scout, there's a lot against the golden boy persona of Captain America. A flimsy show of American supremacy? No. A Boy Scout with no real danger or turmoil to make his character someone the layman can relate to? No. But these are things I run across pretty often when folk describe the Captain.

If there is anyone deserving of angst and despairing and railing against his lot in life and what he is now thrown into, it is Steve Rogers. The movie really impresses upon you the inherent sadness of his situation. He loses everyone he cares about, he is thrust too quickly into a world he wasn’t even allowed to glimpse at the start of the movie. And yet he just takes it, looks at the adversity he finds himself in front of, assesses the situation, and then jumps in with the right thing. 

In our day of anti-heroes and fallen heroes, of villains being re-purposed and shades of grey, Steve Rogers and Captain America are the shining white light at the end of the tunnel. They stand as beacons for the rest of us. And yes, even beacons have shortcomings and even Good men have failings, but Captain America's intrinsic rightness is not one of them.

X-Men First Class: An Analysis...Kinda...

I am pretty sure I was the only person in my family of admittedly geeky people who was excited to see X-Men Origins: First Class. Let's face it, we've been burned by the series before and my people weren't ready to give the franchise that delivered such dissatisfying fare as X3 and Origins: Wolverine another chance.

But I am the kind of person who is still looking forward to The Legend of Korra even though the creators took the original show in a completely ridiculous direction and then vindictively stomped all over my fragile, shipper heart. (Who's bitter?) I watched all of the Underworld movies, Van Helsing, and Jennifer's Body.  I even went back for Glee's second season after the episodes stopped being about any kind of plot and started to be vehicles for musical careers.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I am an eternally hopeful participant in the TV/Movie game. I will give chances and throw myself on the mercy of the writers' good graces over and over again. I was fully expecting to hate First Class. I had remarkably low expectations after the unmentionable pile of refuse that was X3.

I am glad my assumptions were so grievously wrong.

X-Men Origins: First Class is not only a great X-Men movie (one of the top two hands down) but a good movie on its own.

Even though the movie-verse messes with established character timelines and canon, a little suspension of disbelief goes a long way and it's almost worth it in this case. The storyline is intricate enough to keep you interested while still relying nicely on things blowing up and people shooting beams out of themselves. The effects are really good, the writing is fun and funny, and the actors do very good jobs.

Plus, this movie presents the fun conundrum of all prequels: how did they go from This to That? The evolution of Charles, Erik, and the entire mutant/X-men backstory was really interesting and well-handled (at least with regards to the movie-verse's continuity).

Forewarned from here: The HMS Spoiler is all set to sail because I have nit-picky, analysis-type things to get into below. If you don't want to be spoiled, suffice it to say the movie is well worth watching. Go forth! Watch!

Anyone left? Good. Let's get into the fun stuff. >=)

The movie begins in the 1940s with what I assumed was the "Adagio for Strings" (it's not, but it sounds so similar, I am just gonna keep calling it that). What a way to start the movie. At this point I am expecting some sort of heart-rending Schindler's List-type cinema and I'm not really disappointed. Poor Baby Magneto is ripped from his parents in a concentration camp and so proceeds to rip the camp's gate free of its moorings. An extremely familiar looking man pulls Little Erik into his office promising him chocolates and happiness if he can move the proffered coin across the tabletop. Oh look! It's Kevin Bacon! Looking very old and slightly stretched and kinda evil... And his status as the villain of this flick is cemented when he shoots Baby Magneto's mother in cold blood, prompting a magnetic storm to occur in Bacon's adjoining Roomful of Torture Devices. Who keeps one of those attached to their office anyways? Damn Nazis...

Look at him scream, the poor Baby Erik

"So," Evil!Kevin Bacon says, "We unlock your gift with anger and pain. You and I are going to have a lot of fun together." I got legit shivers at this point even though Baby Erik spent so much time screaming in the last scene it read as funny rather than traumatizing. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, however, just got a whole lot easier.

This horrible reveal of Erik's powers and their Dark Side-nature is nicely contrasted with the tracking shot of what we know as the X-Mansion. Inside, Baby Charles wakes up, pads downstairs, and proceeds to Mind-bend a Baby Mystique into dropping her disguise. "Join me in my giant rambling house with missing parental figures!" he tells her in all of her adorable baby blueness. Or, you know, close enough.

Small Mystique is adorable

We skip forward in time to 1962 and the rest of the movie takes place in this halcyon time of potential nuclear disaster and really bad track suits.

The continual contrast between scenes of what Erik is doing (killing) versus what Charles is doing (studying) are...acceptable. If I hadn't felt as if the editor were trying to ram it down my throat, I'd have enjoyed it more. Nature/Nurture arguments are fun and all, but I like to have them after the movie, not in my head during the scenes where things are blowing up. We would still have seen the extreme differences in upbringing and outlook on life between these two guys without all of the overt switching.

I did, however, love the use of different languages throughout the scenes a lot. In a time that is categorized in our history as one of fear (and there is a scene later showing actual news footage that made me so glad I wasn't born yet) all of the different languages being batted around are really cool. The scene with Erik in the bar in Argentina switching languages at will is so awesome and cringe-worthy and yet serves to showcase his character really well. One of the things the constant language-switching does is really impress upon us, the Audience, how intelligent these guys are. It's one of the things that makes their break-up so interesting later: two brilliant men with vastly different opinions on something that affects the both of them... see, this is a more subtle version of the constant scene-shifts from earlier and it works a little better, in my opinion.

RE: Erik - There's a reason it's so fun to write characters motivated solely by revenge. They're a lot simpler and these characters will often push the edges of what is traditionally seen as "right" and "wrong", crossing into fun torture things while still being full of ennui and angst. Erik is so full of angst it is almost strangling him.

MAGN-ANGST-O

Charles' storyline by this point in the movie has dovetailed with Moira McTaggert's and he is in the process of convincing the CIA that mutants can be an important part of covert ops. A note on Moira, by the way: I really don't understand why the producers/writers would choose to make her an American CIA agent when her own backstory is so awesome and integral to the X-Men continuity (plus, she's Scottish! They chose to make her American, why?). They are really playing fast and loose with the canon...

Of course by the point in the movie where it was time to reconcile the two storylines (Erik's and Charles') I just kept getting "James Bond, JAMES BOND" vibes from Erik's side. I guess it's because the only Bond besides the newest ones I've seen is Octopussy and I swear that Bond wears a wetsuit just like Erik's. But the switching between the James Bond espionage scenes with Erik and the scienc-y CIA scenes with Charles are...interesting. It really kept me on my toes tone-wise and I don't know if I would have liked it if I weren't enjoying the movie so much.

Wetsuit looks like this.  Pretty much exactly.

When OMG a submarine comes off the bottom of Kevin Bacon's ship, we finally reach the crossing of the storylines. While I was enjoying the movie up until this point, it was only after this that I started really liking First Class. From this point, where Erik tries to raise the sub (from underwater because he is being dragged by the magnetic pull or something) and Charles talks him down, the movie became the prequel I wanted it to be. And also, it introduced me to the wonderful bromance of Charles and Eric. I still don't understand how these guys broke up. Or rather, I do, but pretty much all of their scenes together make me want them to stay together forever.

From here on out, the movie is about finding baby mutants, training them, and putting nods to the original duology in as often as possible (X3 didn't happen, I tell you!).

A break before I analyze the heck out of character motivations:  My notes just say "Beast! <3" for the introduction of Dr. Hank McCoy. ...Yeah. :)

Awww, isn't he adorable? And so full of Science and Wonder...

...and then he turned into a blue muppet...

What the movie does well at this point and for the rest of the film is really showcase the nebulousness of Charles' "goodness". He is going to be Professor X, upstanding member of society, leader of the X-Men and all around great guy, but right now? Right now Charles is a twenty-something year old who's just gotten his PhD in genetics and can't stop calling people splendid when they're uncomfortable with themselves.

He has that smug arrogance of the highly educated young adult. The "I-am-so-smart, Look-at-my-brains" proclivity with the added fun of being able to talk to people and affect their actions with his Mind. He's intrigued by the possibility of mutants and his PhD helps enable him to speak about it in a group setting. What his brains and his Brains don't do for him, however, is provide a justification for the manipulation he is doing.

Any way you slice it, telepathy is a kind of creepy power. And Charles is shown to have such great control he can literally force people to do things they don't want to do. This isn't a power to be taken lightly. And yet, while the movie goes out of its way to show the creepiness inherent in being able to control metal (Erik's initial tantrum plus his slaughter of all of the Nazis he can find come to mind) it does a lot less with the invasion and control Charles constantly exhibits.

I mean, Xavier is the guy who mind-bent Baby Mystique out of her disguise, outed Dr. Hank as Beast just by shaking his hand, psychically removed Erik from the magnetic pull of a submarine, put three soldiers to sleep while running, controlled a soldier to turn his head and look through his eyes, penetrated a fellow-mutant's mind (more than once), and physically controlled an officer on a Russian ship to do something he had absolutely no intention of ever doing. And that's just the stuff I can remember four days after I saw the movie.

Charles isn't really into this whole "gotta catch 'em all" collection of baby mutants for the good of everyone, he is pretty selfishly doing it to study mutants in their natural habitat (search your feelings, you know it to be true!) and build a family of which he is the unequivocal head. He is oligarchic at heart and while his actions reflect that, they're never cast in a Bad Light. Fridge logic at its best, right?

The training scenes really serve to showcase my idea that Charles Xavier is secretly a terrifyingly selfish force. While he builds secret bunkers for children who explode (coughHavokcough) and races Dr. Hank around the grounds repeatedly, Charles gives off the impression that he is training these children to better protect the world when it comes time to save it. But at this point in the movie the CIA base has already been destroyed, the only black character (Darwin! And he had such an awesome power and a level head!) has been killed, and the mutants have been kicked out of the government. Charles brings them all to his childhood home, outfits everyone in hideous tracksuits, and goes about ensuring that these kids are going to be competent killing machines to aid the cause of a group that doesn't want their help.

Yet he is seen as the benevolent and altruistic leader of the newly formed X-Men. I am not going to say that Professor X isn't altruistic and loving and the best and most kindly bald-headed leader for the X-Men he could be. But Charles? Charles is kind of a dick. (sorry, Mom)

In my notes I wrote that Charles is like Dumbledore only more meddlesome, which isn't right. Charles is like Dumbledore in that he thinks 3 steps ahead, but not in every direction, just 3 steps ahead in the direction he is going to force the world into. He's a formidable personality, but not a Good one.

It offers up a nice contrast with Erik, who's not Good but motivated by revenge, something typically depicted as a thing only Evil people will do. It affords the question of which is "better": selfish motivations that help other people peripherally or revenge which is pretty focused on yourself without really hurting anyone else (….except the objects of your revenge...they bite it...hard).

The training scene also presents an interesting scenario: Charles is stronger than Erik is but only insofar as he is able to provide support. He's the squishy in the Raid group, hanging back and using his mind to provide information, control the enemy, and be the leader. As a general, he plays by the tried and true "stay in the car" methodology of battle. Which is fine. You don't want your mages up in the front pulling aggro and dying all over the place. You keep them back and Charles does just that. Ostensibly, the training sequence is about showing Charles pushing all of his mutants to their full potential, but really he's testing them. And what he does to Erik, invading his mind, making him cry, sharing his memories with barely a blink of the eye, it squicked me more than made me appreciate what he was doing.

Charles may be the pin upon which the picture turns, but Erik is the heart and you feel more for his plight than that of the spoiled, manipulative Xavier.

Case in point: while everyone is running about in tracksuits, moving giant satellite dishes, and catching mannequins on fire, Charles is...not training. He is too good for it, apparently.

Sometimes Havok sets the entire ROOM on fire...

For all of his insistence that the kids are normal, he still manages to forget that they are just normal kids. Kids who are finally among people they don't have to be afraid with. His blow-up at their harmless jubilation made me angry. Possibly that's where this anti-Xavier tirade comes from... But come on! I could be onto something here! ;)

Seriously though, can I be a telepath, please? I promise to be less creepy than Charles.

Anyhoo, the rest of the movie, after the training scene, is all about the X-Men flying in on their awesome super-sonic jet and making the entire world angry with them. The fight scenes are well-choreographed and, call me cheesy, I really love watching movies where people spend time training and then kick butt at the end. That's not a cliché for me, it's one of my favorite tropes. So Banshee flying around and using his sonar, Havok blasting things with his chest... all of it was cool and worth watching and felt right.

Plus, suits!

But of course, we couldn't end the movie without the Chekhov's Gun (the Magneto helmet) making an appearance and the break-up between Erik and Charles is almost heart-rending. Erik as the cause of Charles' paralysis? After their chess-playing, night on the town, Russian-invasion friendship? So sad! But it nicely resolved a problem I'd been having, namely the disparate attitudes each of the men was taking toward mutant integration and place in society. 

There's such nice continuity expressed by these chess games.

Erik magnetically manipulating all of the missiles and finally letting them fall into the ocean only to save his friend? Very nice. If it was a bit of a cliché, I was willing to accept it because it had been built up to so well.

Charles, for all of his flaws really does want the mutants to keep living and thriving and learning (he might just want to study them, though. He did write his doctoral thesis on mutations) while Erik wants them to be Special. Both of their ideas have merit. Both of them could be construed as Right.

And so this movie did pretty much exactly what it meant to do: threw up a cloud of fog obscuring the motivations and Rightness of two characters who we have seen as diametrically opposed in the past. What side are you on? It's not as simple as the first 2 movies would have you believe. And set in a time-period where black and white was essentially the norm (Russians are bad, U.S. is good, etc, etc) such a lovely shade of grey was a brilliant contrast.

7.5 on the Richter Scale of my Heart

Movie Review: Thor or “Damn; I wasn’t expecting Awesome.”

I am not going to pretend that I know a lot of Norse mythology. I’m a little better versed in that of the British Isles and the more general Anglo-Saxon stories. And Tolkien. I know a lot of Tolkien. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know a bit about the Norse on a purely superficial level. And coming at Thor from that side, I cannot complain even a little bit.

When the pictures from the set started leaking last year, I was saddened. I don’t know anything about Marvel’s Thor. I didn’t even give him the Wikipedia treatment I’ve bestowed on the Bat-Family and the Green Lanterns. I wasn’t sure where the producers were planning on going with these horribly tacky golden costumes and the shoddy looking sets. How could any of that live up to the true Asgard of myth or even Marvel’s version, whatever that might be?

Because really. What is that? 

I am so happy to be wrong in this case. Thor was easily the best movie I’ve seen this year.  Easily.

From the start the film was just a rolling lightning storm of fun and good characters and sympathetic storylines lovingly crafted by a great team.

Forewarned is forearmed: The HMS Spoiler sails from here on out. Just a little, though. In this review, she barely leaves port (except at the end when I spoil a major plot point).

The movie opens with Natalie Portman and her loyal assistant Norah storm-chasing a crazy electrical discharge. They banter and drive a little crazy and otherwise show that they’re the scientists of this particular Avengers-origin flick, but it’s all entertaining. Then their Science-Land-Rover hits someone.

We flash back (after Portman flips the man over and he is a Hunka Hunka Burning Thor) to Asgard, the city of golden spiraling towers and backstory. With my tiny amount of Norse myth I recognized a lot of it (except maybe the treaty between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants…does that happen?) and was so happy with the subtle appearance of Huginn and Muninn that I didn’t even mind that Freya was slightly Hera-esque rather than her badass self.

Look at this crazy Coruscant-looking place of Beauty...

But that is a tiny, tiny nitpick when you consider how well the bond and general conflict was set-up in the span of just a few minutes. Thor: hot-headed older brother; Loki: more level-headed younger brother who is an excellent liar (‘cause that won’t come back to haunt us); The Warriors Three: A Dashing Swordsman, a Very Tall Dwarf, and a Ninja with a morning star; and Lady Sif: Best summed up by the quip made later in the morning when she is described as “Xena.”

Them Warriors 3

Sif in her badassery

Their relationships with each other, the easy camaraderie but deference to their superiors, the sense that this group of heroes had been into battle and into other mischief for years was conveyed in a few short scenes and the general greatness of the writing.

When Someone lets some frost giants in and spoils Thor’s coronation, his anger and retaliatory actions set up the main conflict. Thor, Loki, and the Warriros + Sif go to the Frost Giant’s world via the awesome wormhole-rainbow-bridge that is the Bifrost to “get answers.”

...it looks much cooler in the movie, I swear...

Right, Thor. I’d believe that if ya’ll weren’t armed to the teeth. As expected, pitched battle breaks out and I am so glad it does. Besides being excellently choreographed and beautifully shot, the fight scenes really serve to underscore what is going to be a big deal in a few scenes.

Thor is Amazing at being Thor. He wields Mjolnir with a strength and ease that erase any potential doubt anyone could have as to whether he deserves to wield it. The warriors and Sif and Loki are by no means slouches. They are each extremely proficient and obviously well suited to the tasks of battle. But Thor blows them all out of the water with ease. So when he is cast out of Asgard and stripped of his power for his lack of control and oh…starting a War, you really understand exactly what it is he is missing.

That short guy? It's Thor taking names.

Odin banishes Thor to Midgard (Earth…and the South Western desert apparently) where he is just a remarkably buff human. Odin also lays a gaes on Mjolnir (which he also tosses through the Birfrost) essentially Excalibur-ing it. “Only those worthy of kingship can draw this sword hammer from this stone,” etc.

We pick up the story when Natalie hits Thor with her Science Rover (an occurrence that will become a running gag, and yet, like pretty much everything in this movie, never gets annoying or old) and takes him to the hospital because he is wandering around the desert forsooth-ing and generally acting crazy.

Thor’s interactions with humanity are pretty darn funny. When he hears of a crater in the desert filled with a hammer-like thing, he immediately goes to a pet shop and demands a horse. Upon being told by the befuddled employee that they don’t have those there, just cats and dogs, Thor (all 6 foot something of him) demands one large enough to ride. It’s little things like that interaction and his smashing of mugs in the diner where he breakfasts that just really deliver the movie on little golden plates directly to your heart. Thor is adorable on top of being powerful and you really like him.

Plus look how cute he looks in his plaid and his trying to fit in to humanity. :)

What these moments also do is highlight how we as a society would be apt to view someone who claimed to be a superhero or a god – like a crazy person. Until Natalie fetches him from the hospital, Thor is strapped to a table and treated with great suspicion. He is dismissed as a nutjob by everyone, even Portman and her sidekicks, and I thought that was an interesting commentary on how we view Difference and the Exceptional: with derision and slight pandering. And fear. We don’t really want to acknowledge the possibility of something as alien as a Thor, and I thought the movie did a good job of showing that and then turning it on its head.

Poor crazy Giant Man.

My absolute favorite Favorite part of the movie, however is Thor and Loki’s relationship. With the exception of Iron Man and the Nolan Batmans, I haven’t really been impressed with the acting in a super-hero movie…ever. And even in Iron Man, that was more RDJ being his awesometastic self rather than really great, emotional acting.

But Thor…oh this movie. Let’s begin with Loki and his completely understandable fall from favored Asgardian to villain. It seems inevitable, but at the same time you feel so deeply for Loki and his plight. I turned to my brother at a certain point in the movie, thrilled because they had kept part of the myth I do remember: that Loki is a frost giant. And the revelation in this case is so poignant, mostly (I think) due to the wonderful acting of Tom Hiddleston who plays Loki with this underrated sadness that breaks you. 

Although they've done him such a disservice with this bug helmet...

You can see, in the few scenes they share, both the love and the brother-ness inherent in the two Asgardians. From the beginning when Loki goes with Thor and the warriors to the Frost Giant world, fighting with the more subtle magical arts rather than the brute force utilized by his companions, to the end when Loki visits Thor in the S.H.I.E.L.D jail, their love seeps through the screen.

 Loki’s story is almost as painful as Thor’s. An identity crisis is a painful thing but his is just… Once he learns of his gianty roots, Loki almost resigns himself to death. All of the years being the weaker son with the assurance that “he’s a proficient mage” never being enough when your brother is Thor.

You can almost see the years behind their relationships. The years Thor probably spent protecting his little brother. Thor who can break through mountains; Loki who could charm them into moving.

(I was apparently ficcing in my seat as I wrote those last two ‘graphs in my notes at the movie…)

But regardless of my interpretation, Loki and Thor’s relationship is moving and it really hurts. And when Thor reaches Mjolnir the first time (after it’s been surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D stuff and Hawkeye makes an appearance) his collapse as he realizes that he very probably will never go home is the stuff sad cowboy songs are made of.

Look at this sad cowboy. *tear*

I was ridiculously impressed with Chris Hemsworth’s acting in that scene as well as Loki’s. I believed their relationship just as much as I was hurting watching Loki lie to his brother all in the name of proving himself to Odin. Oh familial politics and myth.

On top of everything else, the cinematography and effects were gorgeous, I wanted Norah’s boots and Natalie’s jacket, and the music was subtle while still being appropriately epic.

There is really nothing bad to say about a movie where the first half hour reads like a really epic D&D campaign complete with prestige classes.

Straight up D&D campaign. And it doesn't suffer for it.

200 kilawatts out of 200 for this. Go see Thor. And for Odin’s sake, stay ‘till after the credits!

…I can’t wait to see The Avengers next year. J

Review: Your Highness

Two nights ago we had the dubious honor of seeing David Gordon Green’s Your Highness before it officially comes out on Friday.  (As I’m still waiting to see Sucker Punch and Insidious, I was more likely to see one of those this weekend than this…don’t judge me…)

Okay, dubious honor makes it seem as if I didn’t enjoy the movie, but that’s not really true.

Your Highness, starring James Franco, Zooey Deschanel, Danny McBride, Natalie Portman, and Justin Theroux is essentially a deconstruction of every fantasy epic to ever grace our TVs. You know pretty much exactly what you’re getting into within the first few seconds of the movie, as the narrator makes fun of the various tropes of fantasy filmmaking as he sets up the story.

Yarr, thar be spoilers ahead! If yer boots shake in fear at the sight of the Spoiler Ship, don’ read no further…

About 100 years before the events of the movie, a prophecy was set in motion: when the twin moons of whatever planet this movie is set on eclipse each other, a powerful warlock will be able to impregnate a virgin and conceive a dragon baby that will wreak havoc on the populace. Yes, dragon baby.

The warlock is stopped just in time by the Knights of Good Golden Knights (I think) who shoot an arrow through his neck and rescue the maiden. Huzzah for the Knights of Good. It’s great we got this introduction because they literally will not be mentioned again until the last ¼ of the movie.

Fast forwarding about 100 years, and we see Danny McBride, strung up, awaiting a hanging by the Highland Dwarves (a silly folk) who forget that, as an average human, his feet hit the ground in the dwarf-sized gallows. He breaks free of his restraints and, along with his faithful manservant Courtney, McBride proceeds to run across the countryside, getting into bar brawls and getting high before he arrives home. Turns out, he is the second son of the King, Prince Thadeus.

Thadeus and Courtney

After the king shows us how absolutely useless the second son is (yeah, we know he’s a screwup; yay for transparent character arcs!) the first son shows up: James Franco with flowing brown locks and a vapid smile.

Once Franco appears on the screen, his bumbling happiness mixed with how good he is at warrior-ing and being the Prince really serve to make the movie a lot more fun.

/grin

Franco’s Bride-to-Be, Zooey Deschanel, is brought in as the Princess who was raised in a tower and has no idea how to perform simple tasks. There are a few really fun scenes where she Deschanels about the castle, dancing and eating in that I’ve-never-seen-a-fork-before manner. It’s funnier than it sounds and serves to set up the impetus of the story: the evil warlock (he who will impregnate a virgin for his dragon baby) comes to the castle in a swirl of robes worthy of Maleficent and with the aid of his three moms (I couldn’t quite figure out if they were saying something positive about lesbians and polyamory or if they were three facets of the warlock’s real mother, Morrigan-style) steals Zooey and her Deschanels back to the tower.

"Nooo! You can't take The Deschanel!"

Franco is crushed. First his brother doesn’t show up to be best man at his wedding (severely ticking off Franco’s knight-friend who gave his right arm [literally] to fight with the Prince) and now his fiancée gets stolen. So he sets off on a quest, and McBride and Courtney, threatened by the King with disinheritance, come with him.

So they begin their quest, going to see the wise wizard whose head looks like one of the mushrooms in Zangermarsh. He gives them a magic compass that will direct them to a labyrinth, at the heart of which is the mystical Sword of Unicorn which is the only thing that can kill the warlock.

In the forest, Courtney stumbles upon one of their retinue conversing with the evil warlock and the brothers get set upon by their own knights, led by the one-handed one who is feeling really betrayed by the fact that he wasn’t the best man.

On their own now, the brother princes begin their quest to find the labyrinth and the warlock-killing sword, meeting up with all sorts of characters like a group of maenad-type women and the ogre who rules them, a giant, evil, five-headed gila monster, and Natalie Portman – a badass in leather armor.

I spent a lot of the movie wondering when she filmed this in the space between Black Swan and pregnancy...

The movie ends up with Danny McBride wearing a minotaur’s penis around his neck, Courtney stabbing things with a pitchfork, and Natalie Portman being awesome. (yeah, I have no idea...)

I really enjoyed the movie (I know I’m being a little harsh, that’s just my style…you should see how I treat my own writing…). It was fun and funny and I had a good time watching it. It’s got the traditional fantasy-epic holes (if there is only one blade in the world that can defeat you, why would you give it to the admittedly silly Highland dwarves? Smelt that shit!) but those are part of what makes any kind of fantasy movie fun.

It pokes fun at itself and breaks the fourth wall in places (not by talking to us, but by being aware of itself…meta-fantasy?) and is just an overall fun ride. The scenery and the special effects are really nice. I wish I knew where they filmed because it’s LotR-like in places…probably on purpose. All of the magic effects were really cool and I am such a sucker for swirly colorfulness, they could have been shooting puppies and it would have been okay.

Major props to Justin Theroux who plays the evil warlock Leezar with such scenery-chewing awesomness, you almost feel sorry for him at the end. Pretty much every scene he is in is worth watching.

Plus, he has truly awesome Evil!Hair

My only complaint with the movie is that McBride’s character, our titular hero, is supremely unlikable. The traditional movement of a character from screw-up to hero is passed over here with McBride’s prince barely learning anything from his quest. It would be okay, I guess, if the other characters weren’t so nice. I just feel awful for Franco who is legitimately a good guy and he’s saddled with a brother who doesn’t really care at all. McBride’s Prince felt like Seth Rogan’s character in Knocked Up, except instead of growing up at the end, he just…stays in the same place. And because everyone else (even Courtney!) are essentially good, it just highlights how selfish Prince Thadeus is. Even the warlock appears to be a nicer character.

I like good character arcs in my movies, or, you know, any kind of growth. It can be reverse growth for all I care, but something... It rankled a little that McBride’s character is treated like a hero when he’s done nothing to deserve it but lie to everyone and rest on the triumphs of the other characters (again, even his comic-relief manservant).

I can’t figure out if that was the intention or not, but it was the only sour taste in a movie that otherwise proved to be a really good time.

Ultimately, Your Highness is full of really well done fight scenes, epic scenery shots, and some lines that I just want to use all the time, forever.

I give it 7 arrows from a quiver of 10.