Hellboy II: The Golden Army

First Hit: Despite a lot of interesting looking creatures this film is a bomb and definitely wasn’t worth seeing.

I’m not sure why I went to see this film, maybe I was just curious or because I admired Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful work in Pan’s Labyrinth.

The quick story line is: There is the all powerful Golden Army of the underworld which is currently sleeping because of a truce between the underworld and humans who had previously waged epic battles. Whoever has the golden crown will have control over the Golden Army which is virtually indestructible.

When the truce was finalized, the crown was broken into three pieces, one held by a human, one by the king of the underworld, and the third by Princess Nuala (played by Anna Walton) daughter of the king. The son of the king, Prince Nuada (played by Luke Goss), who is also the twin of the princess, dislikes the truce and runs off into hiding. When he learns that part of the crown, owned by the humans, was being auctioned off, he comes up to the human world and steals this one part of the crown.

Hellboy (played by Ron Pearlman) and his cohorts (played by Selma Blair, Abe Sapien and others) are called in to investigate this other world invasion because they have powers of their own and will assist the human government in finding out what is going on.

The Princess senses the danger of what her brother will do and joins Hellboy and his band on stopping the prince from obtaining the final piece of the crown and the map indicating where the Golden Army is being hidden.

There are battles throughout this sequence  between the Prince and Hellboy and crew. In the end you already know who wins already so I don’t need to go any farther.

This film is a mess. It meanders and the story line is wasted and was very uneven in its quirkiness. Add poor acting and the constant shift between comic book characters and an attempt at making the film believable, we end up with a fully grown mess.

Overall: This film is a full on groaner.

The Dark Knight

First Hit: Despite some strong performances and good effects this film is overly convoluted and more complicated than it needs to be.

I don’t particularly like films that overcomplicate stories. The Dark Knight is one of them.

At the end of the film I tried to recall the trip or excursion I was taken on during the previous two hours. I thought about why the story evolved the way it did and was that story clear. It is especially to this last point which had me frustrated about this film.

While watching the credits roll by, I couldn’t understand why the director and writer made this film so complicated with unnecessary plot twists and turns. Generally plot twists and turns are used to create interest and suspense but in this film it they just made it hard to understand.

Cleaning this up, a half hour could have been cut from the film, but then again that would have meant less special effects on which a large portion of this film is based.

Simply, the Joker (played by Heath Ledger) is causing havoc in Gotham. Because his thefts aren't about the money, the city government can't seem to find him, learn anything about him, or get a handle on what is going on. The Joker is about creating chaos and having a worthy and challenging opponent such as Batman (played by Christian Bale).

There is this whole story written around mob money being laundered in separate banks, then a plan to consolidate it, and all the money being controlled by some Chinese criminal which created needless complexity to the root of the story.

The simple fact is that there is a criminal named the Joker who is a criminal because it suits him and he does his deeds just for the sheer pleasure of them, to create chaos and unnerve society. Then you have, as the Joker would say, “The Batman”, who is both liked and disliked by the community because he is a vigilante crime fighter that helps the community by capturing the criminals that the government can't capture, but a good and strong police force wouldn’t need a vigilantly.

The Batman, like the Joker, are individuals, loners as you will, and are outcasts from society. The Joker is looking for a worthy adversary to “complete” him and Batman wants to retire so that he can have a more full life with Rachel (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and know the city is in safe keeping.

So the Joker is enticing Batman out to compete, as individuals, and to see who is the best. Herein lies the real story. It wasn't about mob money.

Christopher Nolan directed this wonderfully shot film. However, as previously mentioned, the plot was overly and needlessly complicated and the rapid cut editing took away from the beautiful shots of Gotham at night. Nolan got extremely strong performances from Ledger, Aaron Eckhart (as Harvey Dent and Two Face), and Morgan Freeman as (Bruce Wayne’s Chief Operating Officer). It is hard for me to rate Christian Bale’s performance because there aren't enough intimate conversational scenes as Bruce Wayne or The Batman. There are lots of shots of him swooping, standing on tall buildings, and fighting but that is it and therefore there wasn't much acting, just moving. Heath Ledger gave a very strong performance as the Joker and it was obvious he really made this character his own. Aaron Eckhart was outstanding as Harvey Dent, a shining light and hope for the city of Gotham, and Michael Caine was his usual elegant self as Bruce Wayne’s butler, friend and confidant.

Overall: This was a good movie and worth seeing, but I don’t believe it is a great movie. Some of the performances are very strong and many of the action sequences are very well done as well but the over complication and excessive quick cuts take away from more fully enjoying the performances.

Hancock

First Hit: Started off interesting and faded as soon as the writer and director tried to make it more interesting.

There have been a huge number of superhero films in the last couple years. After a while they all sort of run into one another with the same kind of story lines and effects.

The true surprise was this year's Iron Man which was truly a fun film (recommend this film). The interesting thing about how this one begins is that the hero sleeps on park benches, drinks copious amounts of alcohol, and rarely cares about the fallout of his superhero actions.

Interesting setup for a superhero film and Will Smith is just the person to play this role. He has the look, feel and acting chops to create this character.

The film starts off with a couple of scenes where the premise is laid down but then the films starts to take shape after he saves Ray Embry (played by Jason Bateman) from being hit by a train. Ray is a public relations guy who decides to make Hancock his next project. Ray tells Hancock that he can help him change the public’s perception him if he follows his plan.

An additional developing story line is the interesting and intense looks between Hancock and Ray’s wife Mary (played by Charlize Theron). As Ray’s PR plan begins to work Mary and Hancock have a scene in the kitchen which shifts the whole film into a new and different film.

At this point this movie joined the ranks of one superhero fighting another superhero and loses its way. They tried to make it interesting and in the end made it uninteresting.

Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan wrote the script and Peter Berg directed this film. I’m not sure where the idea came from to not stick with just one superhero but expand the concept to two heroes but this is where the film fell down and tried to become an odd love story and a search for power. I think there was enough of a story line in the starting premise to make an in-depth film about Hancock and his search for his life and how it might fit in this world. Also, there could have been more made around the struggles that Ray was having as a PR man. However, the film makers went with a gimmick.

Overall: Some of the scenes are funny but I was disappointed where the film went.

The Incredible Hulk

First Hit: The second version of this comic book character is much better than the first, but nothing special.

This is the version I was hoping to see the first time through. Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner as someone with depth, intelligence and thoughtfulness.

The film begins with Bruce hiding out in an expansive (fly in shot is great) poor section of a large city in Brazil. We find Bruce working a shift in a soft drink bottling plant where, as a gringo, he isn’t favored by other male workers who push him along with prodding and baiting him to react.

However, the boss likes him because he can also fix electronic problems with an overhead crane. We also see him in his little hole-in-the-wall home communicating via computer with someone in the US named Mr. Blue (played by Tim Blake Nelson).

Mr. Blue is attempting to assist him in discovering a cure to his propensity for becoming the Hulk when he gets angry. There is also a scene where Bruce is learning to control his anger and heart rate through a form of meditation.

All this is to say that there was a lot of effort to make Bruce a human being first and the Hulk second. This was effective and made the film interesting because Norton made this person someone worth caring about.

However, the film is pretty standard in the chase and be chased genre with the eventual winner known.

Edward Norton does an excellent job of bringing humanness and thoughtfulness to the Hulk. Liv Tyler is sweet and uninspiring as his girlfriend Betty. William Hurt playing General Ross, Betty’s father, and the person who is the pursuer of the Hulk, phoned it in. There were members of the audience who applauded, as did I, when Lou Ferrigno, as a security guard, showed up on screen.

Overall: This would be a good film to see on video and otherwise save you money.

Wanted

First Hit: Some good acting but a dumb premise.

The story is about Wesley (played by James McAvoy) who is tired of his life. He is stuck in a job he hates working for a woman who is abusive while his live-in girlfriend is having sex with his best friend and work mate. He is also susceptible to instantaneous anxiety attacks.

To show us how invisible he is, we watch him Google his name and nothing comes up, there are no entries for his name. While purchasing his long standing prescription for anti-anxiety drugs; Fox (played by Angelina Jolie) walks up to him, tells him she knew his father, that his father died the night before, and that the man pointing a gun at him at that moment is going to kill him.

From this moment on Wesley’s life is going to change. He is scurried off to meet a group of characters led by Sloan (played by Morgan Freeman). The group is called the “Fraternity” and they are assassins. The Fraternity’s roots go back hundreds of years and they get their assignments from a cloth weaving loom (Yes, a bit far-fetched). Wesley decides to become part of the group because he wants to avenge his father’s death by a rogue assassin.

Wesley goes through some arduous training and become a great assassin because it is in his genes to be able to slow time and action down.

McAvoy is a strong actor and shows his abilities by being able to shift from being intimidated, to extremely anxious, to anger, and then to smooth clarity in just seconds. Jolie is very adept at being a strong beautiful woman who lives on the edge. Freeman plays the smart heavy as only he and his voice can. The acting is good but the story way too far fetched by making a loom decide who lives and dies. Lastly, although it might be a neat trick and cinematically cool to let people curve a bullet’s path, I can just imagine people trying to curve bullet shots like they do in the film. It isn’t going to happen and I think some innocent real people are going to get hurt.

Overall: Some of the visuals were fun to watch. The acting was, at times, very good, but overall the premise wasn’t believable and therefore the film fell short of being good.