To start things off, I want to direct you to the trailer so if you haven't seen it you can and understand what I'm about to talk about...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA2pPv4T2YE
Now that you have...
Holy shit does this film look awesome!
Some might see it as a very cheap looking film, but you shouldn't be threatened by this because the film is utilizing the "found footage" style that has been popularized by The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. What makes it different is that this is found footage from the 70's, thus the quality is that of typical documentary footage people see of the Apollo missions. Which is a good thing in my opinion. The fact that the filmmakers are aiming for a realistic look when it comes to the set and the footage itself is a very good sign.
So, to start things off, I'd like to take a look at the two people who we will be sharing the cramped conditions of the lunar lander for the duration of the film. In an earlier overview of the film I did last year I had said that there were two possibilities as to whom we'd be watching A. The members of the original crew slated to be on Apollo 18 before it was cancelled and B. A secret crew we didn't know about. Considering the fact that this movie is being called a "conspiracy thriller" in some sites, it seems like B is the more likely scenario. This is proven by the fact that in the trailer one of the astronaughts is named "Banes" or "Haines" I think it's Baines. And since there was no Baines on the official list for the mission in real life it's now a certainty that this is a secret crew. Baines is the poor soul who we see get infected by the alien pathogen in the trailer. The other astronaught isn't named in the trailer. These two astronaughts seem to be your run of the mill horror movie protagonists. As to whether or not we will care about them is still up in the air. But what they find on the moon might just be more interesting.
Skipping ahead to the segments of the trailer where we see what looks like a camera being dragged off into the shadows on the surface of the moon and the instance where our heroes find footprints moving AWAY from their landing site are all hints that something otherworldly is going on. It's obvious the creature stalking them is an alien, it's even shown in the trailer crawling around in Baine's helmet before it infects him. However, what is more interesting is what they also find along with alien monsters.
Footage from the trailer hints that there were other people on the moon before Apollo 18. We see one of our heroes pick up a broken helmet buried in the lunar soil along with some bodies. Who are they? Judging by the lander that is shown near the end of the trailer I'd say it was a Russian team of cosmonaughts who went to the moon before the start of the film. What were they doing before they were killed by the alien is yet to be known, however this twist (even though it's spoiled in the trailer) is rather interesting.
From a critic's standpoint I am still ambivalent as to whether I should be excited for this film. It does look like "Paranormal Activity: In Space!" However, it doesn't mean it's going to be bad. The sci-fi horror fan in me is hoping for something atkin to Alien meets Paranormal Activity. The cramped feeling of the lunar lander interior definitely gives viewers a sense of claustrophobia as they are crammed in with our heroes. Plus it looks like Baines goes nuts halfway through the film and tries to commit suicide by breaking the lunar lander's windows, killing our unknown astronaught as well. Interesting stuff, with the potential to get truly suspenseful the longer they're on the moon.
So here's what I expect this movie's going to seem like:
Act 1: Shows our three astronaughts (Baines, the Lunar Module Co-Pilot, and the Command Module Pilot) on their way to the moon where we are treated to some character development to make us care. They land on the moon and do some routine procedures and take some footage.
Act 2 is when things start to turn south. Strange things creeping about the lander and split second shots of stuff roaming around the motion activated cameras. They discover the remains of the Russian team. The alien knocks out their communications with the command module and thus the rest of the world. Bains gets infected by an alien and begins to go insane.
Act 3 has our unknown astronaught being forced to either incapacitate or kill Bains in self defense but not before he damages the lunar module irreparably. The last astronaught is forced to use the Russian lander to call for help and possibly find a way to get back to the CM. However the alien gets to him before he is able to get to the lander.
Whether or not it will be like this is up in the air. We can only hope it will be a terrifying "alien-esque" like film with some good moments of intense suspense.
Until then, keep a watchful eye on this one. It could be worth watching
Showing posts with label alien. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alien. Show all posts
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, November 12, 2010
They came from the stars... to take our braaaiiinnnss!!! A Review of Universal's Skyline
As my go to guy for film reviews, The Movie Preview Critic, would say: "What's up good movie lovers?"
I just came back from watching the sci-fi alien invasion flick Skyline and now I'm going to dish out some good ol movie review moves on this one.
WARNING this is SPOILER FILLED! If you hate being spoiled don't continue any further!
First off, I'd like to go a little deeper behind the movie Skyline. This film is directed by The Brothers Strause, who had the misfortune of directing the second AVP film for their debut into directing films. These guys have had it bad since then on many AVP fan forums, and I honestly have to say I cannot hate on these guys like most people. I've seen the behind the scenes of AVP 2, and while the movie was horrible, these guys did seem to enjoy making the movie. These guys look like they love movies, and I cannot fault them for wanting to direct a movie that covers two popular franchises. I can however fault Fox for a number of reasons, and obviously if The Brothers Strause were here they'd probably tell me what a nightmare it was working under Fox. Remember, these are the guys who think they can boss Tony Scott around on how to make another Alien film.
However, I did have my doubts when I heard that The Bros. would be making yet another alien-based movie. After all, they did direct AVP 2. However, when they discussed about their approach to this film, I couldn't help but give the movie a little more consideration. First off, they took a more independent approach, with an aversion to studio involvement. Most of the filming took place in The Bros. own home, that's how independent it was. Second, the effects looked great, The Bros. started out with working on numerous computer effects for numerous films, so if there's something they knew how to do it was make effective computer created effects. Third, they put their own little twist to the formula of an alien invasion movie: the aliens use our own curiosity against us. Using blue lights to seize control of our bodies and pull us up to the mother ship.
However, I was still reluctant to see this movie. It was only my morbid curiosity and the minor insistence of a friend that put my butt in the theater.
What I saw was a mix of stereotypical alien invasion movie cliches and a few new twists that truly didn't make a whole difference to the overall film. What does change the feeling of this movie is the ending, which completely blew my mind in it's surprisingly ballsy and original splendor.
However, the first and second acts are most definitely the worst parts of this movie.
The first act instantly attempts to drag us in by plunging us right into the beginning of the invasion as hundreds of blue lights fall from the sky and begin to attract people like moths to a flame. The group of people we focus on here are evidently the remnants of a drunken party as tables are laden with empty alcohol bottles and couches laden with unconscious women. These people awaken as the light shakes the earth and one, a guy named Jarrod (Eric Balfour who I remember from Syfy's Haven), is hooked like a fish on a line by the blue light.
Cut to a few hours earlier where we see Jarrod and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) arriving in LA to visit their friend Terry (Dr. Turkleton or Donald Faison, I'm going to call him Turkleton for the rest of the review cuz I luv me some Scrubs) who is celebrating his birthday. We have a couple other relative no-name alien cannon fodder such as Turkleton's girlfriend and someone who I think is Turkleton's secretary. This act was probably the worst of the two acts as the film struggles to introduce the audience to the people we should be caring for, and the only ones I end up caring for are Turkleton (cuz he's Turkleton) and Jarrod (cuz I like his goatee, oh and he's the kind of guy who likes to help people with their luggage). I couldn't help but notice that the movie can't even properly explain what it is that Jarrod and Turkleton actually do for a living. Judging by the fancy apartment I can only guess that Turkleton is doing something that pays well for no particular amount of effort, oh and he apparently is "talented at it" because Jarrod explains everyone in his home town knew he (Turkleton) was "going places." Basically, you have to be Sherlock Holmes (or at least someone who habitually watches crime procedurals or Psych) because it's only through what these characters have or you see do in only two shots that you get what these people do in the normal world. Jarrod, for instance, is evidently a struggling artist, judging by the book he carries around on the plane filled with pretty colours and the small scene where he says he's "barely surviving."
Elaine, Jarrod's girlfriend, suddenly announces to him that she's pregnant (if you didn't pick up on it when you saw her go into the bathroom to puke in the MORNING at the start of the film or the fact that she was feeling SICK on the plane in the MORNING. Then you must be Helen Keller. Actually I take it back, you don't have to be Sherlock to work these things out. You could be Helen Keller and still figure out she's with child!) much to Jarrod's surprise. However, I'm not sure if the fight they got into ended by the time they went to bed even though they seemed to be fine enough to stay in the same bed by the next scene. There isn't a scene where they work things out and assure one another that they'll get through this. Who needs good character development when you've got an impending alien attack coming up?!?
The rest of act one follows as such: The aliens attack, people argue about what's going on, aliens attack, people argue, aliens, argue, until they finally agree on leaving the apartment building to escape the city. One thing I couldn't help but feel annoyed about was how Turkleton's girlfriend felt it was a good idea to act like a jealous bitch during an alien invasion. Sure I can understand the lady felt betrayed about Turkleton sleeping with his secretary during the party but seriously, there are friggin aliens swallowing up all the people in Los Angeles, there's a time and a place! The only way I could see this sub plot being needed is if, through the adversity of the alien apocalypse, Turkleton and his girlfriend find reconciliation and grow as a couple. But this doesn't happen, Turkleton gets eaten by a giant monster that shoots tentacles out of its hand like a frog's tongue (this is the one and only death I mourned, well no I mourned the death of the old guy with the dog cuz he's an old guy with a cute puppy dog, but of all the main characters Turkleton was the only death I mourned.)
The second act starts with the concierge appears and saves our heroes from one of the smaller aliens. It is here that we realize why the aliens have come: they use our brains to control their bodies!!! I am not sure why they replace the brains they've got with ours (or how a species that does this even managed to evolve. Seriously think it through: if aliens needed other things' brains to do anything, how did they become a dominant species?), but it's a motive and it's slightly original. The second act kinda goes through the motions as our heroes argue on whether waiting for help or trying to escape the city is a good idea again. As the hum drum of alien invasion sets in, we are give segments where Jarrod, who at this point has been exposed to the strange alien light three times, is beginning to show some odd side effects such as a weird alien crossword puzzle on his chest and the occasional burst of superhuman strength (he lifts the concierge into the air like the Predator lifted Arnie in the first movie). Soon, the inevitable military counter-attack occurs, however, I actually really enjoyed the fast-paced dog fight over the Los Angeles skyline (see what I did there?!?!?). I will admit that this is pure CGI porn. As predator drones and stealth bombers try to punch a hole through the enemy offensive to shove a nuke down their gooey throat I couldn't help but feel like a big gambler at the horse races. The one bomber in particular had me rooting for it more than I have been rooting for our heroes. So when the bomber finally manages to launch it's payload (get your mind out of the gutter!), the entire city is engulfed in a brilliant light.
Here I predicted that, like in Independence Day, the alien mother ship would've been unscathed, but much to my surprise the nuke actually took it out! I was surprised when the ship came crashing down to earth in a blaze of nuclear fire. However, this didn't call for a sigh of relief as almost instantly the alien menace poured out of the wreckage thoroughly pissed off! I then found myself groaning, not because the movie was bad, but because of the shot of the alien ship reassembling itself. This was one of the scenes that set this movie apart from other alien invasion movies because it actually managed to change the formula up: these aliens aren't indestructible, they are very much destructible but they are also tenacious. A car can crush one of these aliens, you can cut them down with an axe, but if you don't put them down for good they will put themselves back together like some sort of bastardized version of the Iron Giant.
By this point, Jarrod is really feeling the effects of the alien light, where the slightest disturbance can set him off and make him all "dark eyed." All he wants to do is get out of town with his girlfriend and his unborn child before the aliens or the radiation kills them (I'm pleased that a movie actually acknowledges the threat of radiation after a nuke goes off). So he intends on taking Elaine up to the roof to signal for one of the many choppers that show up to drop troops to combat the aliens to come a rescue them. The concierge and Turkleton's girlfriend remain in the apartment where they soon suffer horrible deaths at the hands of the aliens. The concierge, a portly latino man, has one of the most predicable one liners in the entire movie. the very second you see him about to light off the gas from the stove you can already hear him saying: "Vaya con dios, you (insert nasty insult here)!"
While cliche fills the 20th floor of the apartment, Jarrod and Elaine try to signal for one of the choppers to save them. Sadly, the aliens get to them first, and they are beamed up into the mother ship. I sat in the theater wondering if this was how the movie would end: with our heroes getting their brains sucked out and the earth is left in ruins. It's a path not so commonly taken in most alien invasion films, but I couldn't help but think it was a bit anti-climactic.
So this brings us to the ending. The one redeeming factor for this movie. The one thing that made me really enjoy this movie after it dragged me through a really basic alien invasion storyline. It is this ending that made me walk out of the theater thinking that this movie was actually really good.
The ending is this: after we are shown various parts of the earth being picked clean by the aliens the scene cuts to Elaine inside the alien ship. She watches in horror as Jarrod's head is removed and his brain taken to be "processed" (not the movie's word, mine). Elaine is about to be "brain-ified" when the aliens realize she is pregnant. They take her to another holding room where women are being subjected some horrible procedure that I think if the movie actually showed would've given them an X rating. Meanwhile we are shown where the harvested human brains go to get implanted into alien bodies. Here we see what evidently is a normal blue glowing brain being implanted into a flying alien. Then we see a red glowing brain pop up and it is quickly transferred into an alien that looks kinda like Dog from Half-Life 2. This alien looks confused and dazed as we soon realize this is Jarrod's brain, somehow the continual exposure to the light has made his brain immune to the implantation process and he quickly fights his way to Elaine and saves her. The movie ends with Alien-Jarrod quickly putting himself between Elaine and the nightmare creatures in the mother ship.
This ending left me wanting to see the epic fight that they only tease us with in between the credits. This ending was such an unexpected twist for me that I couldn't help but exclaim: "Holy f***in s**t!" I was pumped after seeing this ending, so much so that I am already itching for a sequel just so we can watch Alien-Jarrod kick some major alien ass all to protect his gal and their baby.
So was Skyline a worthy movie to go see? No. It was a typical alien invasion movie. The characters are poorly developed, the movie follows the basic formula for an alien invasion movie, and it still manages to be predictable even though it had an unpredictable ending.
Is it a good movie? It's better than most of the films I've seen come into theaters recently. Though I'd have to say it's asking a lot if I said that it is worth watching just to see the ending. To be honest, I would've been more interested in seeing a movie that would probably end up being the sequel. The idea of Jarrod being Elaine and their baby's body guard in the post-apocalyptic alien infested world just seems like a more interesting film to me. It's an idea I'd like to see be made into a movie. I mean how can you go wrong with something like that? You have kick ass alien vs alien battles and the internal struggle of a family where the father is a monster. I say it's a win/win situation!
Whatever the case, whether or not The Bros. Strause do end up making a sequel or not, I can safely say I walked out of the theater surprisingly satisfied that I watched Skyline.
So the verdict:
I give Skyline three glowing brains out of five for it's fantastically surprising ending yet it's very predictable formula and underdeveloped characters.
I just came back from watching the sci-fi alien invasion flick Skyline and now I'm going to dish out some good ol movie review moves on this one.
WARNING this is SPOILER FILLED! If you hate being spoiled don't continue any further!
First off, I'd like to go a little deeper behind the movie Skyline. This film is directed by The Brothers Strause, who had the misfortune of directing the second AVP film for their debut into directing films. These guys have had it bad since then on many AVP fan forums, and I honestly have to say I cannot hate on these guys like most people. I've seen the behind the scenes of AVP 2, and while the movie was horrible, these guys did seem to enjoy making the movie. These guys look like they love movies, and I cannot fault them for wanting to direct a movie that covers two popular franchises. I can however fault Fox for a number of reasons, and obviously if The Brothers Strause were here they'd probably tell me what a nightmare it was working under Fox. Remember, these are the guys who think they can boss Tony Scott around on how to make another Alien film.
However, I did have my doubts when I heard that The Bros. would be making yet another alien-based movie. After all, they did direct AVP 2. However, when they discussed about their approach to this film, I couldn't help but give the movie a little more consideration. First off, they took a more independent approach, with an aversion to studio involvement. Most of the filming took place in The Bros. own home, that's how independent it was. Second, the effects looked great, The Bros. started out with working on numerous computer effects for numerous films, so if there's something they knew how to do it was make effective computer created effects. Third, they put their own little twist to the formula of an alien invasion movie: the aliens use our own curiosity against us. Using blue lights to seize control of our bodies and pull us up to the mother ship.
However, I was still reluctant to see this movie. It was only my morbid curiosity and the minor insistence of a friend that put my butt in the theater.
What I saw was a mix of stereotypical alien invasion movie cliches and a few new twists that truly didn't make a whole difference to the overall film. What does change the feeling of this movie is the ending, which completely blew my mind in it's surprisingly ballsy and original splendor.
However, the first and second acts are most definitely the worst parts of this movie.
The first act instantly attempts to drag us in by plunging us right into the beginning of the invasion as hundreds of blue lights fall from the sky and begin to attract people like moths to a flame. The group of people we focus on here are evidently the remnants of a drunken party as tables are laden with empty alcohol bottles and couches laden with unconscious women. These people awaken as the light shakes the earth and one, a guy named Jarrod (Eric Balfour who I remember from Syfy's Haven), is hooked like a fish on a line by the blue light.
Cut to a few hours earlier where we see Jarrod and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) arriving in LA to visit their friend Terry (Dr. Turkleton or Donald Faison, I'm going to call him Turkleton for the rest of the review cuz I luv me some Scrubs) who is celebrating his birthday. We have a couple other relative no-name alien cannon fodder such as Turkleton's girlfriend and someone who I think is Turkleton's secretary. This act was probably the worst of the two acts as the film struggles to introduce the audience to the people we should be caring for, and the only ones I end up caring for are Turkleton (cuz he's Turkleton) and Jarrod (cuz I like his goatee, oh and he's the kind of guy who likes to help people with their luggage). I couldn't help but notice that the movie can't even properly explain what it is that Jarrod and Turkleton actually do for a living. Judging by the fancy apartment I can only guess that Turkleton is doing something that pays well for no particular amount of effort, oh and he apparently is "talented at it" because Jarrod explains everyone in his home town knew he (Turkleton) was "going places." Basically, you have to be Sherlock Holmes (or at least someone who habitually watches crime procedurals or Psych) because it's only through what these characters have or you see do in only two shots that you get what these people do in the normal world. Jarrod, for instance, is evidently a struggling artist, judging by the book he carries around on the plane filled with pretty colours and the small scene where he says he's "barely surviving."
Elaine, Jarrod's girlfriend, suddenly announces to him that she's pregnant (if you didn't pick up on it when you saw her go into the bathroom to puke in the MORNING at the start of the film or the fact that she was feeling SICK on the plane in the MORNING. Then you must be Helen Keller. Actually I take it back, you don't have to be Sherlock to work these things out. You could be Helen Keller and still figure out she's with child!) much to Jarrod's surprise. However, I'm not sure if the fight they got into ended by the time they went to bed even though they seemed to be fine enough to stay in the same bed by the next scene. There isn't a scene where they work things out and assure one another that they'll get through this. Who needs good character development when you've got an impending alien attack coming up?!?
The rest of act one follows as such: The aliens attack, people argue about what's going on, aliens attack, people argue, aliens, argue, until they finally agree on leaving the apartment building to escape the city. One thing I couldn't help but feel annoyed about was how Turkleton's girlfriend felt it was a good idea to act like a jealous bitch during an alien invasion. Sure I can understand the lady felt betrayed about Turkleton sleeping with his secretary during the party but seriously, there are friggin aliens swallowing up all the people in Los Angeles, there's a time and a place! The only way I could see this sub plot being needed is if, through the adversity of the alien apocalypse, Turkleton and his girlfriend find reconciliation and grow as a couple. But this doesn't happen, Turkleton gets eaten by a giant monster that shoots tentacles out of its hand like a frog's tongue (this is the one and only death I mourned, well no I mourned the death of the old guy with the dog cuz he's an old guy with a cute puppy dog, but of all the main characters Turkleton was the only death I mourned.)
The second act starts with the concierge appears and saves our heroes from one of the smaller aliens. It is here that we realize why the aliens have come: they use our brains to control their bodies!!! I am not sure why they replace the brains they've got with ours (or how a species that does this even managed to evolve. Seriously think it through: if aliens needed other things' brains to do anything, how did they become a dominant species?), but it's a motive and it's slightly original. The second act kinda goes through the motions as our heroes argue on whether waiting for help or trying to escape the city is a good idea again. As the hum drum of alien invasion sets in, we are give segments where Jarrod, who at this point has been exposed to the strange alien light three times, is beginning to show some odd side effects such as a weird alien crossword puzzle on his chest and the occasional burst of superhuman strength (he lifts the concierge into the air like the Predator lifted Arnie in the first movie). Soon, the inevitable military counter-attack occurs, however, I actually really enjoyed the fast-paced dog fight over the Los Angeles skyline (see what I did there?!?!?). I will admit that this is pure CGI porn. As predator drones and stealth bombers try to punch a hole through the enemy offensive to shove a nuke down their gooey throat I couldn't help but feel like a big gambler at the horse races. The one bomber in particular had me rooting for it more than I have been rooting for our heroes. So when the bomber finally manages to launch it's payload (get your mind out of the gutter!), the entire city is engulfed in a brilliant light.
Here I predicted that, like in Independence Day, the alien mother ship would've been unscathed, but much to my surprise the nuke actually took it out! I was surprised when the ship came crashing down to earth in a blaze of nuclear fire. However, this didn't call for a sigh of relief as almost instantly the alien menace poured out of the wreckage thoroughly pissed off! I then found myself groaning, not because the movie was bad, but because of the shot of the alien ship reassembling itself. This was one of the scenes that set this movie apart from other alien invasion movies because it actually managed to change the formula up: these aliens aren't indestructible, they are very much destructible but they are also tenacious. A car can crush one of these aliens, you can cut them down with an axe, but if you don't put them down for good they will put themselves back together like some sort of bastardized version of the Iron Giant.
By this point, Jarrod is really feeling the effects of the alien light, where the slightest disturbance can set him off and make him all "dark eyed." All he wants to do is get out of town with his girlfriend and his unborn child before the aliens or the radiation kills them (I'm pleased that a movie actually acknowledges the threat of radiation after a nuke goes off). So he intends on taking Elaine up to the roof to signal for one of the many choppers that show up to drop troops to combat the aliens to come a rescue them. The concierge and Turkleton's girlfriend remain in the apartment where they soon suffer horrible deaths at the hands of the aliens. The concierge, a portly latino man, has one of the most predicable one liners in the entire movie. the very second you see him about to light off the gas from the stove you can already hear him saying: "Vaya con dios, you (insert nasty insult here)!"
While cliche fills the 20th floor of the apartment, Jarrod and Elaine try to signal for one of the choppers to save them. Sadly, the aliens get to them first, and they are beamed up into the mother ship. I sat in the theater wondering if this was how the movie would end: with our heroes getting their brains sucked out and the earth is left in ruins. It's a path not so commonly taken in most alien invasion films, but I couldn't help but think it was a bit anti-climactic.
So this brings us to the ending. The one redeeming factor for this movie. The one thing that made me really enjoy this movie after it dragged me through a really basic alien invasion storyline. It is this ending that made me walk out of the theater thinking that this movie was actually really good.
The ending is this: after we are shown various parts of the earth being picked clean by the aliens the scene cuts to Elaine inside the alien ship. She watches in horror as Jarrod's head is removed and his brain taken to be "processed" (not the movie's word, mine). Elaine is about to be "brain-ified" when the aliens realize she is pregnant. They take her to another holding room where women are being subjected some horrible procedure that I think if the movie actually showed would've given them an X rating. Meanwhile we are shown where the harvested human brains go to get implanted into alien bodies. Here we see what evidently is a normal blue glowing brain being implanted into a flying alien. Then we see a red glowing brain pop up and it is quickly transferred into an alien that looks kinda like Dog from Half-Life 2. This alien looks confused and dazed as we soon realize this is Jarrod's brain, somehow the continual exposure to the light has made his brain immune to the implantation process and he quickly fights his way to Elaine and saves her. The movie ends with Alien-Jarrod quickly putting himself between Elaine and the nightmare creatures in the mother ship.
This ending left me wanting to see the epic fight that they only tease us with in between the credits. This ending was such an unexpected twist for me that I couldn't help but exclaim: "Holy f***in s**t!" I was pumped after seeing this ending, so much so that I am already itching for a sequel just so we can watch Alien-Jarrod kick some major alien ass all to protect his gal and their baby.
So was Skyline a worthy movie to go see? No. It was a typical alien invasion movie. The characters are poorly developed, the movie follows the basic formula for an alien invasion movie, and it still manages to be predictable even though it had an unpredictable ending.
Is it a good movie? It's better than most of the films I've seen come into theaters recently. Though I'd have to say it's asking a lot if I said that it is worth watching just to see the ending. To be honest, I would've been more interested in seeing a movie that would probably end up being the sequel. The idea of Jarrod being Elaine and their baby's body guard in the post-apocalyptic alien infested world just seems like a more interesting film to me. It's an idea I'd like to see be made into a movie. I mean how can you go wrong with something like that? You have kick ass alien vs alien battles and the internal struggle of a family where the father is a monster. I say it's a win/win situation!
Whatever the case, whether or not The Bros. Strause do end up making a sequel or not, I can safely say I walked out of the theater surprisingly satisfied that I watched Skyline.
So the verdict:
I give Skyline three glowing brains out of five for it's fantastically surprising ending yet it's very predictable formula and underdeveloped characters.
Friday, July 9, 2010
"5 o'clock, guess what time it is..." My review of Predators
*SPOILER ALERT*
The following review has alot of information on the film Predator and Predators. If you haven't seen them (especially Predator shame on you if you haven't!) then don't read this review if you hate being spoiled by sorry saps who like to review films for their own sakes and not yours.
In 1987, the world was introduced to a creature so hell bent on finding a thrilling hunt that it was willing to cross the galaxy and hunt special forces members mucking about in Central America. Yes, I'm talking about Predator. The film that gave us Ahnuld Schwarzenegger covered in mud shouting "get to de choppa!" while a near invisible alien hunted him and the rest of his musclebound squad one by one. The film has gone down in history as a classic monster movie/action film/sci-fi film.
Unlike it's descendants.
Predator 2 gave us a pissed off Danny Glover, an underused Gary Busey, and alot of unnecessary violence and unarousing nudity. Sure, we got new Predator stuff like all the new toys and vision modes. Hell we even saw an alien skull on the wall of the predator ship (which when I first saw sent me spinning in geek Ecstasy). But that was just the beginning of a long line of disappointment.
Alien vs. Predator and its sequel AVP: R were shoddy, poorly developed, and parody-esque in their delivery of our favorite movie monsters. You had no care for the humans (who you should care about in any movie, otherwise there's nothing the audience can emote with.). In fact, most of the characters in these films I wished would die horrible deaths, which most did, but that's not what needs to happen in a film like this. In the end we were disappointed, sick, and we just tried our best to forget these nightmares and move on with our lives without a good predator sequel.
Then Predators is announced.
I was very skeptical, at first. I thought it would be a hammy re-do like anything else you see Hollywood shit out these days, even with names like Adrien Brody and Robert Rodriguez stamped on the film. At first I was like "great, Fox is beating the dead horse with a stick again" but as I peered into how the filmmakers approached the project I was surprised. First off, Fox made an attempt to keep their slimy claws out of the picture, leaving Rodriguez near total control of the picture. This is good, considering he was dealing with the studio who cancelled Firefly and Family Guy (twice!). Second, they wanted to bring the story back to its roots, the jungle, the characters, etc. It was going to be a movie about the characters fighting for their lives, characters they wanted viewers to care about. This was a good sign.
Then, they cast Adrien Brody, the slow guy from The Village, as the main protagonist. "Wtf?" I asked myself. He's not really a guy I could believe could take on a predator. I'd rather have Danny Glover, arthritis, braces, and all fight another predator than have Brody. However, seeing initial images of Brody as Royce, I was starting to believe he could be rather good in the role. He put on 25 pounds of muscle for the role, and he looked like a soldier. I was starting to shed some of the pessimism left by the AVP films.
So over time I waited until the film came out, and at 12:02 am Thursday night, I finally got to see what all the fuss was about.
Predators is a film that will satisfy you if you are like me, who suffered through the AVP films and wished they never existed, I was very satisfied with the film. It had characters I liked (even if only 3 of the characters' names were mentioned). I was rooting for these guys, even though some were murderers. Adrien Brody rocked as mercenary Royce, the loner who finds himself leading this motley crew of killers. Even though he had the whole "batman voice" thing going on, it wasn't as ridiculous as Christian Bale's. Surprisingly enough Topher Grace was very good as serial killer/doctor Edwin, who was very unsuspecting until the end. Alice Braga was great as Isabelle a tough yet soft-hearted sniper with "an excellent ass." (if you've seen the movie you get the joke). Walton Goggins was the comedy relief as Stanz, a criminal on the most wanted list who was about to be executed. He had most of the new cheesy quotes, and was overall very entertaining. However, some of the characters were meant for cannon fodder like Danny Trejo's character who died in what seemed like the first 5 minutes (I'm not sure if this is really true). The same goes for the character Mombassa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), who isn't really all that developed (however in the age of the internet we all know his backstory from the character videos but still some more Mombassa scenes would've made for a more emotional scene when he's killed). Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov) is the big bear-ish Russian who is actually quite a nice guy even though he's carrying a heavy friggin' mini-gun around in the jungle (ol' painless didn't come in a bag this time).
Then there's Lawrence Fishburne's character, Noland. Fishburne takes a different route this time as Noland, not going for the "Morpheus/Yoda" approach and more the "crazy guy from War of The Worlds." When he's not being the main source of exposition and backstory to explain the details of the movie, he's talking to his imaginary friend (funny and creepy) and talking about "the lovely men, oh la la." In the end, Noland is just a crazy man trying to survive. This results in him trying to kill our heroes with smoke (which I find very ineffective as a method of killing your dinner guests.) so he can salvage their weapons. Alas, he is reduced to red cgi paste by a predator cannon. Overall, the characters were very good, the acting spot on (if sometimes corny or over the top, "raping bitches" and pulling a Tom Hanks/Wilson routine aside), and overall, I loved every single one of the characters.
How about the story? Is it any good? Well, yes. I mean it's very straightforward. Simple even. You've got our heroes dropped onto a Predator hunting planet and are forced to fight together to save themselves from becoming trophies for the new Predators. Royce is a bit of an asshole for most of the movie, but in the end he has a change of heart and an awesome showdown with the main Predator. Mainly the story focuses on the characters, the humans, and their attempt to survive and return home. There is an instance where I worried that they were taking the AVP route with the whole "enemy of my enemy" thing, but this time it worked as it wasn't a team-up but rather an "exchange of services." Over all, the story was just as good as the original film's.
What about the Predators? And the other new creatures introduced to the story? The Predators are finally back to their former glory. No longer cartoonish linebackers or gangly lion tamers, and certainly not heroic. These are monstrous hunters, and this film does a great job of making them fearsome antagonists once again. While slightly unnecessary, the new "breed" of Predators (or Super Predators as they've been known to be called) prove to be even nastier than their predecessor from Predator. This is shown by their different forms of hunting, they are more brutal and savor the fear of their prey. It doesn't matter if you're unarmed, it's still fun for them. They even like to tie up other predators and hunt them too. As for the new look they sport, it's a nasty twisted version of the classic look from the original. The Super Predator we actually see with its helmet off is only seen for a few seconds. It's a nasty look, and suits this breed well, but as to whether or not it's here to stay is another matter, and while I hope we'll see more classic versions in any sequels to come, the super predator look I'm still ambivalent of. "I didn't hate it" is all I have to say.
The fight between the classic predator and the super predator was awesome. While I was sad to see classic die so horribly, it was understandable considering it was up against this mean mother.
As for the idea of other creatures on the planet along with humans, I could see alot of potential for some interesting fake outs in future installments like the one we see in Predators. The "bug man" (or stickman as he's known on the forums) was very strange, and I kinda wanted to see more of him. Perhaps an explanation as to why the predators deemed it to be a worthy prey, and why they get dropped in cages and not like how the humans are dropped. Why do bugs seem to "live" in them? As to how this could be expanded on in any sequels, I'm slightly shaky. It could be cool to see some new meat land on the planet and have to work with these bug men, but then alien team ups haven't been too credible in the past (Enemy Mine being the one exception, but even then that's a stretch). Perhaps some more fighting between the humans and the bug men as they evade predators? I don't know, either way it's a possibility worth exploring if done right (but then the AVP films were worth exploring if they had been done right too).
There are also the predator dogs that we see in the film. They are only used once, and I was disappointed by this. Obviously these dogs could be used for more than just testing the human's reactions in an attempt to study their tactics. Again, this film has laid out the groundwork for another brilliant idea that if executed correctly could be completely awesome. I also like to mention that while about 80% of the dogs we see are cgi, they didn't distract me from the film in any way.
The visuals are quite impressive for a movie with this budget. But then District 9 had 30 million while this has 45, so it's not really a surprise that the visuals didn't come out looking like a sci-fi original movie. I didn't even think about the fact that this planet is conveniently similar to Hawaiian jungles, because not every jungle has to look like Pandora. By now most just figure "there are billions of stars and of those billions of stars one must look like Pandora, another looks exactly like the Mojave Desert, and another looks exactly like a jungle in Hawaii." The whole argument is moot, if Star Trek can get away with it why not anything else?
What I really liked in this movie (apart from the characters) was the action. It's been a while since I've buried my nails in the armrests of my seat, and I did just that. Even the fights I thought would be a little hokey, like the samurai/predator sword fight, were awesome (sure I figured Hanzo would've died off screen like Billy in Predator since they practically remade that scene shot by shot, but I guess this predator felt like a sword fight with Hanzo was more honorable than quickly offing him like the Predator did with Billy). The "shoot from the hip!" scenes were awesome, and the final battle between Royce and the super predator will go down as one of my most favorite fight scenes in a movie.
My only problems with the movie are small. Again, the lack of character development for Mombassa and Danny Trejo irked me a little. The fact that only three of the characters in the film actually give their names to each other (Nikolai, Royce, and Isabelle. The latter and former at the very end of the movie). Some of Stanz's jokes were almost too cheesy for me "Man when I get home, I'm gonna do soooo much cocaine!" is a line that sounded like he never snorted a single speck of cocaine in his life not even by accident (but I still laughed). Again, I found myself wondering why the Classic predator is given the role of the "good guy." Sure, in this instance it's a more believable situation it was a "you scratch my back I scratch yours" sort of thing, but still it irked me a little. Why so many decapitations? Royce decapitates so many things with ease in this movie I kept thinking "I thought it was hard to cut someone's head off, especially a super strong alien hunter's head." He even cuts the head off a pred-dog while it's in mid-leap, and I wonder if it's not so hard to decapitate something after all (it was a cinch for the immortals in Highlander after all).
Apart from those, I honestly couldn't find anything wrong with the movie. It was a great sequel to an awesome film, something fans definitely deserve after the last few horrible movies. I enjoyed it, and I do hope that the good reviews I've been hearing encourage people to go see it, because this is definitely one film that science fiction fans, action fans, horror fans, and any mixture of the three can enjoy. That, and the more money it makes the better chance a sequel can be made, and I want to know what happens to Royce and Isabelle!
The following review has alot of information on the film Predator and Predators. If you haven't seen them (especially Predator shame on you if you haven't!) then don't read this review if you hate being spoiled by sorry saps who like to review films for their own sakes and not yours.
In 1987, the world was introduced to a creature so hell bent on finding a thrilling hunt that it was willing to cross the galaxy and hunt special forces members mucking about in Central America. Yes, I'm talking about Predator. The film that gave us Ahnuld Schwarzenegger covered in mud shouting "get to de choppa!" while a near invisible alien hunted him and the rest of his musclebound squad one by one. The film has gone down in history as a classic monster movie/action film/sci-fi film.
Unlike it's descendants.
Predator 2 gave us a pissed off Danny Glover, an underused Gary Busey, and alot of unnecessary violence and unarousing nudity. Sure, we got new Predator stuff like all the new toys and vision modes. Hell we even saw an alien skull on the wall of the predator ship (which when I first saw sent me spinning in geek Ecstasy). But that was just the beginning of a long line of disappointment.
Alien vs. Predator and its sequel AVP: R were shoddy, poorly developed, and parody-esque in their delivery of our favorite movie monsters. You had no care for the humans (who you should care about in any movie, otherwise there's nothing the audience can emote with.). In fact, most of the characters in these films I wished would die horrible deaths, which most did, but that's not what needs to happen in a film like this. In the end we were disappointed, sick, and we just tried our best to forget these nightmares and move on with our lives without a good predator sequel.
Then Predators is announced.
I was very skeptical, at first. I thought it would be a hammy re-do like anything else you see Hollywood shit out these days, even with names like Adrien Brody and Robert Rodriguez stamped on the film. At first I was like "great, Fox is beating the dead horse with a stick again" but as I peered into how the filmmakers approached the project I was surprised. First off, Fox made an attempt to keep their slimy claws out of the picture, leaving Rodriguez near total control of the picture. This is good, considering he was dealing with the studio who cancelled Firefly and Family Guy (twice!). Second, they wanted to bring the story back to its roots, the jungle, the characters, etc. It was going to be a movie about the characters fighting for their lives, characters they wanted viewers to care about. This was a good sign.
Then, they cast Adrien Brody, the slow guy from The Village, as the main protagonist. "Wtf?" I asked myself. He's not really a guy I could believe could take on a predator. I'd rather have Danny Glover, arthritis, braces, and all fight another predator than have Brody. However, seeing initial images of Brody as Royce, I was starting to believe he could be rather good in the role. He put on 25 pounds of muscle for the role, and he looked like a soldier. I was starting to shed some of the pessimism left by the AVP films.
So over time I waited until the film came out, and at 12:02 am Thursday night, I finally got to see what all the fuss was about.
Predators is a film that will satisfy you if you are like me, who suffered through the AVP films and wished they never existed, I was very satisfied with the film. It had characters I liked (even if only 3 of the characters' names were mentioned). I was rooting for these guys, even though some were murderers. Adrien Brody rocked as mercenary Royce, the loner who finds himself leading this motley crew of killers. Even though he had the whole "batman voice" thing going on, it wasn't as ridiculous as Christian Bale's. Surprisingly enough Topher Grace was very good as serial killer/doctor Edwin, who was very unsuspecting until the end. Alice Braga was great as Isabelle a tough yet soft-hearted sniper with "an excellent ass." (if you've seen the movie you get the joke). Walton Goggins was the comedy relief as Stanz, a criminal on the most wanted list who was about to be executed. He had most of the new cheesy quotes, and was overall very entertaining. However, some of the characters were meant for cannon fodder like Danny Trejo's character who died in what seemed like the first 5 minutes (I'm not sure if this is really true). The same goes for the character Mombassa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), who isn't really all that developed (however in the age of the internet we all know his backstory from the character videos but still some more Mombassa scenes would've made for a more emotional scene when he's killed). Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov) is the big bear-ish Russian who is actually quite a nice guy even though he's carrying a heavy friggin' mini-gun around in the jungle (ol' painless didn't come in a bag this time).
Then there's Lawrence Fishburne's character, Noland. Fishburne takes a different route this time as Noland, not going for the "Morpheus/Yoda" approach and more the "crazy guy from War of The Worlds." When he's not being the main source of exposition and backstory to explain the details of the movie, he's talking to his imaginary friend (funny and creepy) and talking about "the lovely men, oh la la." In the end, Noland is just a crazy man trying to survive. This results in him trying to kill our heroes with smoke (which I find very ineffective as a method of killing your dinner guests.) so he can salvage their weapons. Alas, he is reduced to red cgi paste by a predator cannon. Overall, the characters were very good, the acting spot on (if sometimes corny or over the top, "raping bitches" and pulling a Tom Hanks/Wilson routine aside), and overall, I loved every single one of the characters.
How about the story? Is it any good? Well, yes. I mean it's very straightforward. Simple even. You've got our heroes dropped onto a Predator hunting planet and are forced to fight together to save themselves from becoming trophies for the new Predators. Royce is a bit of an asshole for most of the movie, but in the end he has a change of heart and an awesome showdown with the main Predator. Mainly the story focuses on the characters, the humans, and their attempt to survive and return home. There is an instance where I worried that they were taking the AVP route with the whole "enemy of my enemy" thing, but this time it worked as it wasn't a team-up but rather an "exchange of services." Over all, the story was just as good as the original film's.
What about the Predators? And the other new creatures introduced to the story? The Predators are finally back to their former glory. No longer cartoonish linebackers or gangly lion tamers, and certainly not heroic. These are monstrous hunters, and this film does a great job of making them fearsome antagonists once again. While slightly unnecessary, the new "breed" of Predators (or Super Predators as they've been known to be called) prove to be even nastier than their predecessor from Predator. This is shown by their different forms of hunting, they are more brutal and savor the fear of their prey. It doesn't matter if you're unarmed, it's still fun for them. They even like to tie up other predators and hunt them too. As for the new look they sport, it's a nasty twisted version of the classic look from the original. The Super Predator we actually see with its helmet off is only seen for a few seconds. It's a nasty look, and suits this breed well, but as to whether or not it's here to stay is another matter, and while I hope we'll see more classic versions in any sequels to come, the super predator look I'm still ambivalent of. "I didn't hate it" is all I have to say.
The fight between the classic predator and the super predator was awesome. While I was sad to see classic die so horribly, it was understandable considering it was up against this mean mother.
As for the idea of other creatures on the planet along with humans, I could see alot of potential for some interesting fake outs in future installments like the one we see in Predators. The "bug man" (or stickman as he's known on the forums) was very strange, and I kinda wanted to see more of him. Perhaps an explanation as to why the predators deemed it to be a worthy prey, and why they get dropped in cages and not like how the humans are dropped. Why do bugs seem to "live" in them? As to how this could be expanded on in any sequels, I'm slightly shaky. It could be cool to see some new meat land on the planet and have to work with these bug men, but then alien team ups haven't been too credible in the past (Enemy Mine being the one exception, but even then that's a stretch). Perhaps some more fighting between the humans and the bug men as they evade predators? I don't know, either way it's a possibility worth exploring if done right (but then the AVP films were worth exploring if they had been done right too).
There are also the predator dogs that we see in the film. They are only used once, and I was disappointed by this. Obviously these dogs could be used for more than just testing the human's reactions in an attempt to study their tactics. Again, this film has laid out the groundwork for another brilliant idea that if executed correctly could be completely awesome. I also like to mention that while about 80% of the dogs we see are cgi, they didn't distract me from the film in any way.
The visuals are quite impressive for a movie with this budget. But then District 9 had 30 million while this has 45, so it's not really a surprise that the visuals didn't come out looking like a sci-fi original movie. I didn't even think about the fact that this planet is conveniently similar to Hawaiian jungles, because not every jungle has to look like Pandora. By now most just figure "there are billions of stars and of those billions of stars one must look like Pandora, another looks exactly like the Mojave Desert, and another looks exactly like a jungle in Hawaii." The whole argument is moot, if Star Trek can get away with it why not anything else?
What I really liked in this movie (apart from the characters) was the action. It's been a while since I've buried my nails in the armrests of my seat, and I did just that. Even the fights I thought would be a little hokey, like the samurai/predator sword fight, were awesome (sure I figured Hanzo would've died off screen like Billy in Predator since they practically remade that scene shot by shot, but I guess this predator felt like a sword fight with Hanzo was more honorable than quickly offing him like the Predator did with Billy). The "shoot from the hip!" scenes were awesome, and the final battle between Royce and the super predator will go down as one of my most favorite fight scenes in a movie.
My only problems with the movie are small. Again, the lack of character development for Mombassa and Danny Trejo irked me a little. The fact that only three of the characters in the film actually give their names to each other (Nikolai, Royce, and Isabelle. The latter and former at the very end of the movie). Some of Stanz's jokes were almost too cheesy for me "Man when I get home, I'm gonna do soooo much cocaine!" is a line that sounded like he never snorted a single speck of cocaine in his life not even by accident (but I still laughed). Again, I found myself wondering why the Classic predator is given the role of the "good guy." Sure, in this instance it's a more believable situation it was a "you scratch my back I scratch yours" sort of thing, but still it irked me a little. Why so many decapitations? Royce decapitates so many things with ease in this movie I kept thinking "I thought it was hard to cut someone's head off, especially a super strong alien hunter's head." He even cuts the head off a pred-dog while it's in mid-leap, and I wonder if it's not so hard to decapitate something after all (it was a cinch for the immortals in Highlander after all).
Apart from those, I honestly couldn't find anything wrong with the movie. It was a great sequel to an awesome film, something fans definitely deserve after the last few horrible movies. I enjoyed it, and I do hope that the good reviews I've been hearing encourage people to go see it, because this is definitely one film that science fiction fans, action fans, horror fans, and any mixture of the three can enjoy. That, and the more money it makes the better chance a sequel can be made, and I want to know what happens to Royce and Isabelle!
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