THOR- Review

Looking at the scoreboard as Marvel Studios doggedly continues to ramp up next year's blockbuster event, The Avengers, it becomes clear that not every part of the puzzle is coming together. The Incredible Hulk will feel disparate because Mark Ruffalo is going to replace Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, and Iron Man 2 proved that you can't let Tony Stark be Tony Stark while SHIELD are pottering around and teasing summer 2012.

So it's surprising then, that the God of Thunder turns out to be the most grounded character yet established for the upcoming Marvel team-up extravaganza. Thor introduces its titular character as an arrogant and short-tempered warrior from another dimension, called Asgard. He's heir to his father Odin's throne, but when he recklessly breaks a truce with Asgard's old enemies, the Frost Giants, he's exiled to Earth and relieved of his powers. Thor must prove himself worthy of his heritage in time to stop a threat that could consume both Asgard and Earth.

If ever one of the Avengers was going to be a tough sell, it would be Thor. After the Iron Man films and The Incredible Hulk spent time establishing the hyper-reality of the science behind their outlandish protagonists, Thor as a character is a straight-up god. Many of his allies are also gods, and many of his foes are demons or monsters. Handily, Thor manages to rejig elements of the character in order to establish Asgard as another dimension, which is apparently easier to swallow than polytheism.

Put it this way- I don't know that I could immediately see him working alongside Tony Stark, but after seeing the film, that's Tony Stark's problem and not Thor's. Chris Hemsworth brings the character to life in an astonishingly endearing fashion, making him a hugely entertaining spectacle as he's all discombobulated on Earth but also making him a genuine, certified hard-arse. He's the central piece of the puzzle, but he can't claim all of the credit for why Thor works so well.

Kenneth Branagh might not seem the obvious choice to direct a film like this, until you allow the more dramatic elements to breathe. I'm not saying that the royal rumblings between "All-Father" Odin and his two sons Thor and Loki are Shakespearean in scale, but they do require that we treat them seriously. Branagh lends the material the gravitas that it needs, casting Anthony Hopkins and Tom Hiddleston in the supporting role. Hopkins is admirably restrained for a god who wears a golden eyepatch and Hiddleston masks his character's intentions behind benevolent and nebbish expressions while maintaining an air of inscrutability that makes him a really effective character.

Luckily, Branagh doesn't skimp on the funnies either. When it's meant to be, it's a very, very funny film. It's not to say that the gorgeous Kat Dennings, who serves as the designated comic relief character, is always on the mark, but then most of the comedy comes from the culture clash, which rings out all the way through. The comedy serves to temper the full-on fantasy elements, in which a beautifully designed Asgard neighbours other realms, with names you won't remember ten seconds after they're mentioned. The weakest segment of the film is the early stuff before Thor's banishment, which feels like expendable backstory more than epic storytelling.

I'm finding it difficult to nail what makes Thor so special, but unusually I think it's probably something to do with the romantic throughline. Having annoyed me for the last couple of films I've seen her in, Natalie Portman returns to form as the scientist who gets more than she bargained for when the God of Thunder topples out of the weather anomalies she's been chasing. Portman plays it klutzy, but there's a real sweetness to her character, and her chemistry with Hemsworth really helps to ground the most ungrounded character in the Avengers' ranks.

Thor confidently strides across a rainbow bridge between full-blooded sword and sorcery fantasy flick and genuinely hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy. Crucially, it feels more like a tee-up to The Avengers than anything else we've seen so far, without ever letting Agent Coulson and the SHIELD crew overwhelm our hero. It's smashing fun on an unexpectedly grand scale, and a triumph in direction from Kenneth Branagh. A bold, boisterous and brilliant opening to the summer blockbuster season.

Thor is showing in 2D and 3D at cinemas nationwide from tomorrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------
If you've seen Thor, why not share your comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

The DC Animated Universe

Believe it or not, this post has been planned for a while now, and it's only serendipitous that it comes shortly after Warner Brothers announced that the live-action Justice League movie is on the cards. I'm not going to weigh in on the Batman reboot (though they really should wait until they get The Dark Knight Rises out into the world first) or the optimistic 2013 target date- I'm going to talk about some animated DC movies.

DC Universe Animated Original Movies are direct-to-DVD features, borne out of collaboration between DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. There've been ten thus far, with another Green Lantern film and an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One to come, and seeing as how I've been keeping track of their output, I've been meaning to sample some of their films here on the blog.

Their most recent release, still yet to be released in the UK, is All-Star Superman, based on the Grant Morrison-penned comic series and adapted for animation by the late Dwayne McDuffie. Superman has a brush with death that makes him more powerful than ever before, but also suddenly aware of his own mortality. He makes things right with the love of his life, Lois Lane, but he must also fend off the machinations of his enemies- most of all, Lex Luthor.

There are sequences in All-Star Superman that would be perfect in any live-action Superman film. The indisputable highlight of the film comes when Clark Kent interviews Lex Luthor in prison, and his presence allows Parasite to break out of his cell to go on the rampage. It poses an actual challenge to the Man of Steel- Clark has to protect everyone without revealing his identity to them, especially not his arch-nemesis. It's a fantastic idea, very well executed on-screen, but the pitfall is that it features in a film that also has some very ridiculous stuff.

I suppose if you subscribe to the notion that Zack Snyder should have kept the giant squid ending in his Watchmen film, you'll find some of the weirder stuff in All-Star Superman easier to swallow. Research shows that it's very faithful to the comic, but to me at least, that made it seem far too busy. There are too many opponents in this film, often introduced and written out all too  brusquely, for it to flow very well. The anime-influenced style of animation looks gorgeous, but the story could have been more focused.

It's only in comparison to this particular Superman story that a Batman story could look light by comparison, but that's not entirely what you get with Batman: Under The Red Hood. It's mired in continuity, but the basics of the story are as follows- it's been several years since Jason Todd, Dick Grayson's successor as Robin, was murdered by the Joker. Batman is still reluctant to work with members of the extended Bat-family, but he may need all the help he can get as the mysterious Red Hood begins to corral Gotham's terrorised criminals to his own end.

On the surface, this one looks like everything a Batman fan could want- a moody and atmospheric tale that's faithful to the comic it's based on, to the letter. The reason why Christopher Nolan is doing so well with his take on Batman is because he's being faithful to the comics but tempering that with new stuff. You can still be surprised by the plot of a Nolan Batman film, but it somewhat undercuts the detective story of something like Under The Red Hood if you figure out what's what before Batman does. That's certainly got something to do with the fact that I had already read Under The Red Hood before watching this adaptation, but that doesn't make it a bad film, by any stretch.

There's a stellar voice cast that includes Bruce Greenwood and Jason Isaacs, there's some very clever treatment of villains we don't see an awful lot of, like Ra's al Ghul and Black Mask, and the animation looks fantastic, as ever. However, it's like Nolan's films in the wrong ways. It imitates the style and the storytelling of The Dark Knight when you need look no further than the animated series from the 90s, or its movie spin-off Mask of the Phantasm to see that the animated adventures of the caped crusader do much better in their own niche than they do when they mainly target an older audience.

And finally, for this post anyway, we come to Wonder Woman, which is arguably everything an actual film about Wonder Woman should be. Goodness knows it's better than the Super Ally McBeal TV series rendition sounds. It tells the origin story of the Amazon princess as related in a reboot story arc in the 1980s. The mighty Diana has her first brush with the world of man when US Air Force pilot Steve Trevor crash-lands on the usually concealed island of Themyscira. The crash coincides with the release of god of war Ares, who has been kept prisoner on the island for centuries, and now wreaks a terrible vengeance against the Earth.

As with Under The Red Hood, I got the feeling that this could really have been a live-action film if Warner Bros. wanted to take it in that direction. Unlike Under The Red Hood, this has no continuity baggage- it's an origin story. It's a damn good one too, and although it's not above certain clunky bits of expositional dialogue and the jarring introduction of Wonder Woman's invisible jet, I struggle to imagine how a different live-action origin story could do it better. Especially as the voice acting is superb, with big names like Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Alfred Molina and Rosario Dawson being just as perfectly cast for their vocals as they would be if they made this script in live-action.

The animation is great, and the action is surprisingly brutal without ever exceeding the 12A barrier. It balances the action with a good-natured sense of humour- I quite enjoyed one scene where Fillion's Steve Trevor tries to loosen Diana up on a boozy night out, only to discover that she's not as susceptible to tequila as he is. But best of all, it's not only the action or the well-judged comedy that lends it maturity- it also manages to adapt the character without gentrifying either gender, males or females. Diana might be a bit of a Disney princess while hanging around on Themyscira, but she's more like one of the kickass ones.

Wonder Woman is easily the best of the DC Animated Universe efforts I've seen to date. It introduces the character in an exciting way, and prominently broaches the topic of gender inequality, but it's never one-sided or simplistic. I know Batman, and I know Superman, and despite knowing nothing about Wonder Woman, this film surpassed everything with those other characters that I've seen from this studio.

Batman: Under The Red Hood and Wonder Woman are now available on DVD. All-Star Superman will arrive on DVD in the UK later in 2011.
------------------------------------------------------------------
If you've been watching what comes out of the DC animated universe, why not share your comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Bloody Fuckin' Yeaah.

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments.

Kick-Ass begins with the musings of Dave Lizewski, a horny and unpopular high-school kid who has just one question- why has nobody ever tried to be a superhero before? It seems to him that everyone wants to help their fellow man, but without superpowers, few have the balls to actually do it. As you would, Dave goes and orders a scuba outfit and a luchadore mask off the Internet and becomes Kick-Ass. With the city of New York in the grip of an unscrupulous mobster called Frank D'Amico, Dave fails to realise that he's not the only hero on the scene, soon colluding with father and daughter crime-fighting duo Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. With no power, comes no responsibility.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Holy shit. Just... wow. I'm calling it now, there will not be another film as entertaining, as brilliant or as downright demented as Kick-Ass this year. I'd be happy to be proven wrong there, because the only thing on my mind coming out of this was how soon I could see it again, and just one film like this is enough to make 2010 pretty fucking special. It's really that good.

This sets the bar high for all future comic book adaptations in more ways than one. Not only is it hard to think of one yet released that's as great, but it also closely mirrors the plot of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, both mocking and celebrating the structure of that film. Its central mantra (see above) echoes the sombre one-liner delivered by Uncle Ben and there's a parallel with the relationship between the villain and the villain's son.

If the planned Spider-Man reboot (still a bad idea by the way) or any other superhero origin tale sticks to that same structure now, it will pale in comparison with this marvellous and loving parody of those conventions. No longer is it acceptable for Peter Parker to whup ass the very first time he dons red and blue tights, instead of ending up in hospital. Marc Webb has to nut up or shut up on that film, especially after Kick-Ass.

Of course, it's broader than that, also ribbing Superman and Batman in its nebbish representation of the monomyth. Aaron Johnson is terrific as Dave, instantly believable as a high-school pariah and yet you're also able to empathise with him right away. But just as his John Lennon was outshone in last year's Nowhere Boy, so is his title character outshone by Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz.

Yeah, I know, everyone's going to be talking about these two, but there's a fucking good reason for that. They're both incredible, as Big Daddy and Hit-Girl respectively, and I can't stress that enough. I've been saying for a while that Cage's niche is comedy rather than the professorial action roles he's been doing these last few years, and happily I was right. He's a hilariously violent and demented reincarnation of Adam West's Batman, clad in a costume reminiscent of Nolan's Batman.

And of course all of the controversy and hype have equally centred on Moritz. She sells the idea of an 11-year-old psychopath better than you'd ever imagine, and undercuts some of the poignancy around her character's lost childhood by just being so fucking hilarious. She's this year's equivalent of Heath Ledger's Joker- everyone who sees this will go ape-shit for Hit-Girl.

As for the rest of the cast, Mark Strong gives another reliable and villainous turn as D'Amico, while Christopher Mintz-Plasse might actually shake off the stigma of forever being McLovin' from Superbad with this performance as his son. It's fairly distinct from that more famous role, and he certainly holds his own amongst a flood of amazing comedy performances that might have well seen him sink the film instead. Really, he was one of the only things I was worried about when I went in, and he really surpassed all expectations.

You might have gathered that it lampoons comic movies, but there's a realistic undercurrent to all the admiring cartoonishness- in the world of Kick-Ass, you very much have to be rather unbalanced to go around fighting crime in a costume. Dave compares the enactment of his fantasies to being a serial killer at an early point in the film, and much of the central joke for the first hour or so is how outlandish the concept is- how ridiculous Dave looks walking down the street as Kick-Ass in broad daylight. You could never accuse the comedy of merely taking refuge in audacity though, because this is more or less laugh a minute for much of its running time.
When the joke starts to wear off with the idea of real-life superheroes, the emergent storyline picks up the slack. You care about Big Daddy's crusade, and about Dave pretending to be gay to impress the object of his affection, and about Chris' need for his father's approval. In this much, it's a totally immersive film. For instance, you might start out feeling bad for laughing at some of the more insane humour, but it draws you in with likable if not identifiable characters. And you'll stick with it even at its most outlandish.

A lot of people will claim that this glorifies violence, and that no one can really deny that it's not for the weak of stomach. To the latter, yeah, alright- go and see The Blind Side or something else if you're squeamish about that sort of thing. To the former, fuck no. If you think these characters are glamorous and come out of Kick-Ass wanting to be a superhero, seek help. It's sheer entertainment, and with a 15 certificate it's not really pushing the borders of decency anyway. And besides, the fight choreography and editing are really well done, so it's worth seeing for that too, amongst the nice choice of music, the performances, the cinematography, the gleeful deployment of the old Chekov's bazooka trope and... well, everything else about it.

I'll level with you, because if I'd have said this at the beginning, you might have listened and then not read a word I had to say. Critics and reviewers can't tell you about Kick-Ass. The Daily Mail will shit kittens and blame Jonathan Ross as they try to stir up a moral panic. Elsewhere, there might be some more positive rhetoric flying around like "Watchmen and Shoot 'Em Up in Quentin Tarantino's blender" or something like that. If that sells it to you, then fine.

But no, even if they like it, they can't tell you. Go and see this film. There's a pleasing sequel hook at the end that I would really love to see fulfilled if the cast and crew are capable of sustaining even half the level of awesomeness that this film keeps level for a whole two hours. I can only really sell it to you as two hours of sheer awesome, and hope to hell you go and see it. Thank me later. Bloody fuckin' yeaaah.

Kick-Ass is currently previewing in selected cinemas, and goes on wide release from April 2nd. So if you see it, and you bloody should, why not share your comments on the film and on my review below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.