7 Minutes in Heaven: My The Dark Knight Rises Prologue review

DISCLAIMER: I'm gonna spoil the shit out of this.

I had the pleasure of checking out a screening tonight of the Prologue to The Dark Knight Rises and boy was 7min, worth the 2hrs I waited.

The prologue begins as mysterious as the opening of The Dark Knight does, we don't know what is quite going on, but we are hoping that is all comes together in the end. The Dark Knight prologue was meant to introduce one of the iconic characters in the DC and Batman universe: The Joker. This prologue introduces and resurrects a character from the DC and Batman Universe: BANE.

Here is a brief description of the prologue, If you don't want to read it skip the italicized portion.

A car ride through a field leads to a plane on a private airstrip with a CIA agent standing at the front. The men who exit the vehicle are a Dr. and three men wearing black hoods over their heads. The hooded men apparently have information about the "masked man"; Bane. Once in the air the CIA agent begins the to hold hooded men out the plane asking for information about Bane and his wear a bouts. Bane reveals himself as one of the hooded men. Bane explains to the agent that the reason for allowing him to be captured was to apprehend the Dr. they now have in custody and make sure he did not spill any beans about him or his plans. The agent believes that Bane is trapped but all the while there has been a second plane hovering over the one Bane is in and men have zip lined down to the plane, sabotaged it, and recovered Bane in a way that definitely one ups the bank heist.

Afterwards there is a about a 15 to 20 sec sizzle reel that literally made me JIZZ IN MY PANTS! Which included, a Bat-plane, big fights, the tumbler, the bat-pod and also an iconic shot of Bane holding a broken Batman cowl in the rain and just throwing it away like it was garbage.

Then I JIZZED AGAIN.

The Dark Knight bank heist prologue echoed so skillfully of Michael Mann's HEAT. The precision of the position all the masked players played, the timing and betrayal, had the Joker not revealed himself at the end it could have been any other movie. When Inception came out there were many great similarities the movie had for example, The Matrix or Dark City, but none rang so true than Nolan had made his version of a James Bond movie, he continues it here with this prologue. Had Bane not revealed I would have half expected for a version of James Bond to zip down from the opposite plane.

Now most of the criticism around the interwebs is that Bane is really difficult to understand, which I must say is my only criticism but on the other end, Nolan is still editing, thank God for ADR.

While watching you can really feel like every shot and scene is their for a purpose and not just because it will "look cool". There is a method to the way Bane operates and this prologue definitely was a fantastic preview of his grand, ruthless, and brilliant villainous mind. The sizzle reel at the end really makes me want to say that Nolan will out do The Dark Knight, but even with this I want to keep my hopes at bay.

Then again if anyone can out do Nolan, its Nolan. I will be there Bat cowl on and all on July 20, 2012 when The Dark Knight Rises opens in IMAX and regular theaters.

Dueces!
StuntmanBob

Movie Review: GREEN LANTERN

I'll preface this with saying that I haven't read the plethora of Green Lantern comics out there, but as I continue to educate myself on the character, I can honestly say that the movie does not live up to the writing or the drama in those great books!

Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds as test pilot Hal Jordan, who is chosen by the Green Lantern Corps to be the first human to wear a powerful ring and defend the universe. The movie is directed by Martin Campbell who has rebooted the James Bond franchise twice (Goldeneye and Casino Royale) as well as The Mask of Zorro.

The opening of this movie is a brief history of the Green Lantern Corps and the villain Parallax, from there we are witnessed to the escape of Parallax by some alien astronauts and then the selection process begins. The initial trailers to Green Lantern looked quite horrible; the CGI just did not look complete at all and ridiculous. Thankfully for the finished film they darkened up the green and energy coming from the suits which make them look a bit more plausible. That's really only one of the few highlights of the film.

Ryan Reynolds does an okay job at portraying Hal Jordan, but his demeanor and leading man qualities did not convince me that he was having doubts about himself being apart of the Corps. The moments where he was expressing his self doubt to Blake Lively, who only serves as eye candy, are really tough to get through. Its one of those times where someone should be screaming "ACTING!" at you. This self pity became contradictory often because directly after those scenes Hal Jordan would be doing something very heroic and with out fear, that was completely opposite of how he was "apparently" feeling.

Pete Sarsgaard plays Hector Hammond, who after performing an autopsy on Abin Sur, comes into contact with the yellow power of fear. His figure is transformed into a Hunchback of Notre Dame type and is played off in the movie as Jordan's doppleganger. I see what they were trying to do in showing a parallel between these two men and how having this great power thrust upon them affects their lives, but Hammond's story feels more fleshed out than Jordan's. Pity I couldn't get fleshed out journey's of both men.

Mark Strong who plays Sinestro is pitch perfect! I wish he was more of the villain in this movie, I think it would have proved to be a better movie overall! I really disliked Michael Clarke Duncan as the voice of Kilowog, Jordan's fight instructor, because you could tell it was him! I hate that someone actually thought "oh this character looks like it could be voiced by a big black guy", yea let's get him! I mean have some originality with your voice castings please!

The home planet of the Lantern's is called Oa. It's truly something to behold, you can tell most of the time was spent on the design of getting that right and not the story. Shame, again, I couldn't have both.

The training sessions Jordan goes through on Oa after becoming a Lantern are pretty cool. The ring that the Lantern's possess can create anything their mind thinks up through will power; the stronger your will, the stronger your creation. So you have this ring that can create anything and the movie really underuses this ability. The end fight between Jordan and Parallax was entertaining but the power to create things from sheer thought didn't reach its full potential! I'll be honest that the effects for the creations where really good, but still I wasn't wowed.

Despite my negativity, I was honestly childishly entertained. There are some redeeming moments in this movie and of course the very heavy CGI action takes my thought away from the lackluster story. This is due to my low expectations going into the movie. Another movie that I would always compare to Green Lantern, trailers wise, was this summer's THOR. Both movies were trying to break new ground in the superhero genre by meshing two worlds together. THOR I believe is the victor in this case, mostly because in that movie you had sets and things that set the actors apart from their environment; not to mention interact with. Green Lantern suffers from having way too much CGI. I understand Oa is an alien planet and all, but does the rock have to be CGI? I think some practical sets for the planet of Oa could have helped ground the movie a bit more and helped with the power of the Lantern's on Oa and on Earth.

Green Lantern is a very lazy superhero movie. It gives us the cliffnotes version of the heroes journey and thus makes Hal Jordon's character development really cardboard and like I said earlier contradictory. This movie had the potential make break new ground with a superhero who powers are defined from the get go as alien, but the motivation and work was not there to comfortably mesh these two worlds together so that I could care for the characters and marvel at the scope.

If you have kids, take them, you'll enjoy it for what it is, but then forget it soon after. But I suggest a matinee, DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE!

I hope the next Green Lantern movie, if there is one, is a reboot.

Dueces,
StuntmanBob

Jonah Hex Trailer Review

(sigh)
Jonah Hex, which opens June 18th 2010, stars Josh Brolin as a brutally scarred/former confederate soldier/demon looking cowboy, who is an assassin for hire and is out for revenge against the men who murdered his family and turned his face into spaghetti. (sigh). Pretty simple revenge tale but at first glance I am not really holding my expectations at a high level.

Its seems as though that since a lot of the mainstream comic super hero's have gotten their time in the limelight, Hollywood is looking towards lesser known characters to bring to the big screen. Hex comes from DC Universe and from what I've heard and researched, its never been a super popular character but the comic is still around and doing very well.

My first introduction to the character of Jonah Hex is when I was a little kid watching Batman: The Animated Series and I vaguely remember there being an episode where Jonah Hex made an appearance. I just remember wanting to string that piece of skin hanging off his face like a banjo. Give me a break I was like 10 or something. Anyway, he looked creepy. I've never read any of the comics of Jonah Hex, so for those of you have and are looking forward to this movie, I apologize, If I "just don't get it".

The movie is written by Neveldine and Taylor. The ADHD minds behind the Crank films and Gamer. Originally they were tapped to direct, which to be honest, I would have liked to have seen their style taylored to a supernatural western.

Now let me indulged you with talk of the cast.

ACTORS:

Josh Brolin: I think Josh Brolin is a solid actor, the last movie I saw him in was "W", directed by Oliver Stone in which he eerily played former President George Dub-ya Bush. Didn't really think much of the movie it self but his acting was great. I'm glad to see that he's getting into the comic book game. For the most part, in this trailer, his portrayal of Hex is kinda of, Clint Eastwood meets The Man without of Face. If you expected more, than your hopeless. Anyway I really wish they would have gotten a bit more gritty and graphic with his make up. I mean Hex was scary looking! SCARY, being the keyword here. In the trailer he just looks like a cheap version of Two-Face.

Megan Fox: Who ever thought that Megan Fox could be a linguist should be shot! Her western accent in this trailer and the delivery of her lines through stints of breath annoy this shit out of me. I know Ms. Fox gets a lot of flack for being a dud, but I'd like to believe there is more behind the curtain. I just find it kind of annoying that she's cast as the whore like girlfriend to Jonah Hex. If your going to make a western but add this absurdity to it, like crows coming out of peoples mouths and machine guns on horses, then why not mess around with the roles of women and other norms of the time. Could Megan have been another awesome assassin type henchmen of Quentin Turnball; John Malkovich's character?.... Maybe. OR...dare I say it, Hex's wife, who I'm assuming gets killed? She coulda been the Steven Seagal of this Executive Decision*.

John Malkovich: I love it when Malkovich plays these villainous types, he's really good at them, but after a while everything starts feeling like his role in Con-Air; Cyrus the Virus. I'm expecting to see a deleted scene on the Blu ray to this movie where Malkovich actually holds up a bunny and threatens to shoot it, if anybody moves. He's also rockin some hardcore mutton chops which look pretty badass on him. If anything Malkovich's absurtity in this role will be a saving grace of the movie.

MIchael Fassbender: "Paris when it sizzles", If you haven't seen Inglorious Basterds, stop reading, and watch that shit! NOW! I've seen Fassbender in two movies; Basterds and Hunger. He was brilliant in both and if I have any reason to see this movie its cause of him. He plays an explosives obsessed, knife throwing henchmen of John Malkovich's character; Quentin Turnball. While I wish his villainous debut was in a more better looking movie. I anxiously await to see what he turns out.

The animated movie Horton Hears a Who was Director, Jimmy Hayward's first theatrical release and while I haven't seen it, the fact that he's making the jump from animation to live action is very very intriguing to me. I'm not familiar with much of his work but I'm interested how he'll do. Just recently I've heard that Brad Bird, the director of The Incredibles and The Iron Giant will be directing the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series. So, I mean, its pretty cool to see directors of mainly animation movies getting their turn at the live action films.

Its obvious that this movie has action and one-liners but I hope there is more to the story than just that. I mean they lightly touch on Hex being something supernatural, but then, never really address it again in the trailer. He can bring people back to life but still needs guns to kill people? While I'm not looking to run out and see this movie, I will eventually go and check it out in the hopes that there is something redeeming about it.



*Steven Seagal was in a movie called Executive Decision, in which about 20-30min. into the movie he willing dies for the team. One of the greatest roles he's ever held.


Dueces!
StuntmanBob