“The writer has to have patience, the perseverance to just sit there alone and grind it out. And if it’s not worth doing that, then he doesn’t want to write.”
Elmore Leonard
1925-2013
Monsters University (2013)
Rated G
Disney/Pixar Animation
I’m growing disappointed in Pixar’s (Disney’s?) recent case of sequelitis. With an impressive run of original work—admirable not only for storytelling prowess, but for dedication to characters and CGI craft–it’s sad to see a recent spate of do-agains.
Still, I enjoyed Monsters University, a prequel to one of my favorite Pixar features. The latest film takes us back to the land of the monsters, at a time when Sully and Mike W. were rival college students.
I like the breeziness of the plot—a fraternity competition to determine the most fearsome frat on campus. The stakes are higher for young Sully and Mike, since their continued enrollment at the university depends upon a victory. Some old favorites are back—Randall!—albeit in younger form, and a new crop of scary-funny characters make the rounds.
It’s not as good as the original, lacking the freshness of the concept of a monster society and infinite doors that connect it to the human world, but it doesn’t embarrass itself and, like the original, finds space for warm touches of humanity (monsterity?).
While I’m not going to beef on the Toy Story movies (together they work as one great film), with Cars 2, it’s offshoot Planes, and a Finding Nemo sequel on the way, I’m longing for Pixar to get back to original work.
Pacific Rim (2013)
Rated PG-13
Warner Bros.
Through an interdimensional fissure deep within the Pacific Ocean emerge the Kaiju, massive monsters that lay waste to cities around the globe. And by massive, I mean these suckers can cradle the Statue of Liberty. By way of response, the world’s governments create Jaegers, equally massive robots to combat the Kaiju. And by massive, I mean these suckers can use a naval battleship as a baseball bat.
OK, right there: if that premise triggers eye-rolling, this isn’t the movie for you. If you’re in, though, this is a rockem-sockem giant monster feature that evokes the best of classic Japanese Kaiju movies (Godzilla, Mothra), while not taking itself too seriously.
Jaegers are operated by two human pilots who link minds to share the daunting burden of being mentally and physically jacked in to the machines. The linked minds allow shared personal experiences between the pilots, thus some level of character development. Our heroes are Raleigh and Mako, respective American and Japanese partners who quickly overcome differences and fears to effectively operate their Jaeger. Props to the screenwriters for allowing the Raleigh character (Charlie Hunnam) to sidestep the cliché of him being a bad boy with a bad attitude who needs to learn to be a team player. Too bad it doesn’t sidestep the cliché of the emotionally wounded heartthrob who must overcome his trauma to be the hero he is meant to be.
Edris Elba has a couple of strong scenes of dialogue as the leader of the Jaeger resistance (“Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!”), and great character actor Ron Pearlman (Hellboy), as usual, makes the most of his limited screen time as a black market dealer. Everything about this movie is big, and it’s big fun.
The Wolverine (2013)
Rated PG-13
Twentieth Century Fox
I like Hugh Jackman. I like the X-Men movie series, despite the fact that I’m having trouble these days seeing daylight between them. But the mutant-trying-to-cope-in-society trope is starting to show its gray hairs. Aside from the locale change (mostly in modern Japan), nothing seems particularly fresh here, but it’s dumb fun. I struggled to place this film within the proper timeframe of the ongoing series, but it doesn’t really matter. This was made to be a standalone picture featuring of one of the most popular X-Men characters.
Jackman’s great, whether he’s brooding over lost love, struggling with something close to immortality, or springing into action with those adamantium claws. A hand-to-claw fight atop a bullet train is the best sequence in the film.
If you’re a series fan, or will watch anything starring Jackman: See it.
Other summer movie reviews:
| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive
On 7th Ave.
Empire State of mind.
On the No. 2
The cityscape.
The hotel.
The arrival.
The Garden State!
Headed to N.Y. with the family for a birthday celebration. Eastbound and down.
After Earth (2013)
Rated PG-13
Sony – Columbia Pictures
Yes, it’s a project of hubris (Will Smith turned down Django Unchained for this?), and yes, director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Happening, The Last Airbender) is in a rut. Even so, After Earth isn’t all that bad. I wouldn’t measure it against the current crop of summer movies, but it’s one of those watchable flicks you stumble into while flipping through one of your hundreds of cable TV channels.
In the distant future, man has long ago departed earth for more hospitable climes. Nova Prime is our new home and Smith’s Cypher Raige is the leader of our peacekeeping Rangers. Rangers take on the S’krell, alien beings bent on our destruction. The S’krells hope to vanquish us with their vicious Ursa creatures which, though blind, can hunt by sensing fear. Cypher discovers how to defeat the Ursas by “ghosting,” which is a method of controlling one’s fears, thus becoming invisible to the creatures. He is legend. Now if only he could connect with his distant son Kitai (Jaden Smith), who strives to prove himself to himself and his doubting father.
Father and son each carry the burden of guilt over the loss of daughter/sister Senshi, who died defending young Kitai from an Ursa. So with the pieces in place, father and son are goaded by wife/mom Faia into using a Ranger training exercise as a bonding getaway. Things get bad when their spacecraft encounters an asteroid shower, worse when it crashes on quarantined earth, worse still when the captured Ursa brought along for training purposes escapes the wreaked vessel.
With the ship’s distress beacon flung miles from the scattered ship, and Cypher critically injured, it’s up to Kitai to traverse the hostile environment, with the Ursa on his tail, to retrieve the beacon. Can the son overcome his fears? Prove himself to dad? Avenge his sister?
Will Smith’s role in this is limited. This is a showpiece for his son. Jaden is serviceable, though he lacks his dad’s effortless charm and needs a few more laps around the acting track. To be fair, he’s younger than his dad was when Will got his start, and Jaden carries the burdens as well as benefits of nepotism. But he doesn’t embarrass himself and involved me in his plight. It’s a decent time-waster, but you can waste that time once it comes to TV.
| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive
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- This Place: A new collection is here!Marvin Brown’s new collection of short stories, A Place Where Things Collect, is now available! In this haunting collection from horror author Marvin Brown, the boundaries between life, death, …
- Featured Book of the WeekMy short story “The Wet Knot” appears in the anthology Strangely Marvelous Creatures, edited by Robert Pope. Click here to purchase.
- New collection is “masterful horror”
