Let me get this off my chest right from the get-go. The best way to enjoy J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness is to watch it in IMAX 3D, switch your brain off and simply enjoy the ride. The visual spectacle should be able to remove all your concerns about plot holes, character motivations and illogical actions.
Iron Man 2 was only half a movie, in my humble opinion. The first half was quick-paced and exhilarating but then the wheels came off and the movie came to a tired conclusion. The sequel did well at the box office but one sensed that director Jon Favreau had lost interested in the franchise that he had kickstarted. So when it came to talk about the third Iron Man movie, Favreau passed and Shane Black came onboard.
Truth be told, I was excited when I saw the first trailer for sci-fi Tom Cruise action movie vehicle Oblivion. It looked intriguing. Of course, a trailer really does not tell you anything about the movie itself. I was also excited by the fact that Oblivion was an original premise (based on a story co-authored by director Joe Kosinski) and perhaps was hoping that it would be as good as District 9, Moon or Inception.
It isn’t.
Ultimately, Oblivion is a huge disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is a visual treat throughout. For most of the first thirty minutes or so, Oblivion comes across like Wall-E meets I Am Legend (the Will Smith remake), updated with cool gadgets, weaponized drones, sexy encounters between Jack Harper (Cruise) and his colleague Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) and menacing ones with alien beings called ‘scavengers’. The setting is a dystopian future (2077) where the earth is dying after a war with aliens (which humans won, it seems) and humans are about the leave the planet and start a new life on Titan.
However, things are not as they seem (when are they ever?) – Harper has memories of another woman (strange, as his former memories have been removed), he meets this woman when her ship crash lands on earth and Harper is captured by the ‘scavengers’ and discovers the truth.
From then on to the hackneyed resolution, the movie degenerates into a sequence of cliches, with planet-sized plot holes and pedestrian acting – Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones‘ Jamie Lannister) and even poor old Morgan Freeman – and by the time the ending comes, the promise of ‘original’ sci-fi movie genre is utterly lost. Apparently, director Kosinski himself stated that Oblivion pays homage to science fiction films of the 1970s. Seriously? Well, perhaps superficially but whilst Oblivions certainly borrows heavily from the dystopian worldview of movies like Omega Man, Soylent Green, Zardoz, Logan’s Run, Silent Running and the Planet of the Apes series, it has none of the imagination, gravitas or even consistent writing that was a hallmark of the decade.
Oblivion is now showing in the cinemas.
Ghost Child is a made in Singapore horror film, inspired by the “Toyol” or “Kwee Kia” of South-East Asian mythology. At its Facebook page, the plot is described thus -
Struggling to accept the death of her mother, Kim suddenly has to deal with a new mother in her life. Her dad, Choon, brings home a woman one day and announces his decision to marry her. A series of mysterious incidents start to occur soon after.
Once again, director Gilbert Chan takes on a horror film with local flavour and like 23:59 before, largely succeeds in connecting with its target audience (i.e. teenagers). The film manages to be effective in terms of delivering scares (without almost any gore whatsoever) due to dynamic editing and an excellent sound design. In addition, the lead actors (Chen Han Wei 陈汉玮, Jayley Woo Jiaqi 胡佳琪, Carmen Soo 苏慧敏) have done enough to establish sympathy so that their horror is shared with the audience.
Story-wise, much is unexplained – which is either puzzling or mysterious, depending on your perspective – but at least there are no lulls in the narrative whatsoever as any excess is trimmed to a minimum to keep the action moving. On that score, the film succeeds.
Check out the trailer below.
Ghost Child opens in cinemas on March 7th.
Originally entitled Jack the Giant Killer, this latest Hollywood foray into the classic fairy tale update (Snow White and the Huntsman, Hansel and Gretel) looks like it might actually be worth the trouble. Directed by Bryan Singer – whose last two movies Superman Returns and Valkyrie were decidedly less than stellar – the movie tells the familiar story of a young farmhand (Jack) who must rescue a princess from a race of giants after inadvertently opening a gateway to their world.
Point of order. Despite the title above, this is not a year-end ‘best-of’ review of 2012. Why? It’s simply too much effort and after years and years of putting these features together, it all becomes pretty tedious and pointless. Fast. As you can guess from the featured photo above, pop culture is getting increasingly ridiculous with each passing year, so here’s my attention deficient summary of the year that we say farewell to in a matter of days…
Lunarin – The Midas Session, Nada Surf – The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, Laneway Festival (Laura Marling, Feist and Girls), Jeff Litman – Outside, Cheating Sons – Time Trails (Live at Esplanade Recital Studio), Lambchop – Mr M, Sweet Diss and the Comebacks – Emerald City Love Song, Brad Brooks – Harmony of Passing Light, Friendly Fires (live at Avalon), The Observatory – Catacombs, Shelves – s/t, OMD (Live at Esplanade Theatre), Orbital – Wonky, James Morrison (interview), Bitch Magnet reissues, Music Matters, ShiGGa Shay – They Call Me ShiGGa, Rick Murname – Wednesday Child, Pugwash – The Olympus Sound, Keane – Strangeland, Marvel’s The Avengers, Fringe Seasons 4 & 5, Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here (DVD), The Newsroom Season 1, Hot Chip (live at Avalon), Empra – s/t, Amazing Spider-Man, SING A NEW SONG, Prometheus, Breaking Bad Season 5 (Part I), Indus Gendi – I’ll Be Good If You Say Yes EP, Stone Roses (Live at Indoor Stadium), The Dark Knight Rises, Rufus Wainwright – Out of the Game, Peter Lacey – Worlds End Amateur Melodramatic Society Ball, Metric – Synthetica, Baybeats Festival, The Beach Boys (live at Indoor Stadium), Cosmo Jarvis – Think Bigger, Peter Doggett – The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s, Metric (Live at the Esplanade Concert Hall), The Pretenders (Live at F1), Joe Bonamassa (Live at Esplanade Concert Hall), alt-J (∆) – An Awesome Wave, Regina Spektor – What We Saw From the Cheap Seats!, The Whigs – Enjoy the Company, Nelson Bragg – We Get What We Want, Ingrid Michaelson (Live at the Esplanade Concert Hall), Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill – League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 2009, The Sam Willows – s/t EP, Kate Miller-Heidke – Nightflight, Looper, Mumford & Sons – Babel, Simon Townshend – Looking Out, Looking In, Chromatics – Kill For Love, Thunder Band Slam, The Bootleg Beatles (Live at Marina Bay Sands), Jersey Boys Musical, Christmas in Singapore, Fred Perry 60th Anniversary Party, Classic Albums: Peter Gabriel – So (DVD), Sarah Cheng De-Winne – Brand New, Troy Chin’s Bricks in the Wall, Tay Kexin – Get Set Go EP, Uncanny Avengers, Regina Spektor (Live at Esplanade Theatre), Another Sunday Afternoon – The Bookmark, The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness reissue.
*whew*
…still there’s more…
This first installment of director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, sub-titled “An Unexpected Journey”, clocks in at almost 3 hours long and has been deliberately crafted to (hopefully) re-create the awe and wonder that Jackson achieved with Fellowship of the Ring all those years ago.
As regular PoP readers will be aware, I was less than impressed with the disaster that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine – it was simply a bad movie and totally wasted the opportunity to develop one of the most interesting Marvel characters. But of course, due to the movie’s immense success, a sequel was always going to be on the cards. According to reports, the James Mangold-helmed The Wolverine is based on the classic Wolverine mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, which is set in Japan. Looking at the new poster (above), it’s clear that a strong Milleresque vibe has been assimilated to appease and excite comic book fans. To be honest, I have low expectations (I still believe that Hugh Jackman is totally wrong for Wolverine but that’s another story) but it’s wait and see for the time being…
The Wolverine will be released on 24th July 2013.
2013 is on the horizon and the movie studios are letting us know that there is much to look forward to next year in terms of scifi and superhero movies. Here are a bunch of new trailers that have caught the eye and captured the imagination.
Coldplay just released another peek into their tour film Live 2012, which will premiere on EPIX this Saturday (Nov 17). The special will be released on DVD for purchase on Nov 19th. This new peek reveals exciting live footage of their hit “Clocks” -
Virtuoso award-winning guitarist Pat Metheny explains what his “Orchestrion Project” is all about -
“Orchestrionics” is the term that I am using to describe a method of developing ensemble-oriented music using acoustic and acoustoelectric musical instruments that are mechanically controlled in a variety of ways, using solenoids and pneumatics. With a guitar, pen or keyboard I am able to create a detailed compositional environment or a spontaneously developed improvisation, with the pieces on this particular recording leaning toward the compositional side of the spectrum. On top of these layers of acoustic sound, I add my conventional electric guitar playing as an improvised component.
In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Peter Gabriel‘s So, several reissue editions of the seminal 1986 album are now available. In addition, So, is also given the Classic Albums treatment and this DVD contains ‘The Definitive Authorized Story of the Album’ together with 35 minutes of Bonus Features.
(Secret Service PR Press Release)
That’s the big question that industry insiders, fans and musicians have debated endlessly over the last several years. It’s also the title of a new documentary from musicians Adam Russell (Story of the Year, D.R.U.G.S.) and Ryan Phillips (Story of the Year, Greek Fire) who recently started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of the film, which will explore the evolution of the music business over the last decade with interviews from musicians, producers, managers, record labels and more.
Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead is/was a genre-defining horror classic with some of the grossest scenes ever committed to celluloid (tree rape, anyone?). This remake updates the original with Fede Alvarez at the helm and has Raimi and Bruce Campbell on-board as producers. Does it have any chance of coming close to the beloved original? Watch the redband trailer and make up your own mind. Not for the faint of heart – you have been warned! Hitting cinemas in April 2013.
The Man with the Iron Fists promises to be a campy kung fu classic with a tag line to kill for – “You can’t spell Kung Fu without F and U”!!! To get us geeks in the mood, check out the character trailers below for Bronze Lion (Cung Le) and Madame Blossom (Lucy Liu).
Time travel has provided some of the most inventive scifi movie concepts in history. For me personally, two of my favourite movies involved time travel viz. 12 Monkeys and Back to the Future. Unfortunately, time travel as a concept can also be highly problematic and has ruined many a promising scifi movie – Star Trek: First Contact comes quickly to mind.
Well, it’s all over the interweb so it must be true. Disney will release Ant-Man on Nov 5th, 2015. Directed by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), the movie has been in development hell for the longest time and so this is exciting news indeed! However, considering that this release date is after that of Avengers 2 raises the important question of whether Ant-Man and Wasp will be in the Avengers sequel. I certainly hope so!
According to Indiewire.com, David Fincher has turned to crowdfunding to finance the adaptation of Eric Powell’s comic series, The Goon! You can find the campaign over at Kickstarter. Closer analysis will indicate that $400,000 is needed to put together a full-length story reel based on Powell’s script. But what’s in it for donors? Well, amongst other things, blog access, t-shirts, limited edition posters and original artwork AND a day at Blur Studio where’ll donors will get an all-access tour and meet the filmmakers… along with a special screening of the finished story reel! Of course, depending on how much you DO give…
Check out the campaign video below.
(Press release)
Cybergeddon is a digital blockbuster from the visionary storyteller and “CSI” creator Anthony E. Zuiker, set to debut September 25, 2012 on Yahoo!. Cybergeddon follows agent Chloe Jocelyn (Missy Peregrym) as she investigates a slew of seemingly unrelated cyber-attacks with fellow agent Frank Parker (Manny Montana) and incarcerated master hacker Chase ‘Rabbit’ Rosen (Kick Gurry). Chloe and her team must crack the worldwide cybercrime ring led by Gustov Dobreff (Olivier Martinez) before it is too late. In a world where everyone is connected, everyone is at risk. Cybergeddon will officially premiere worldwide on September 25, 1.00pm Singapore time, in a series of nine digital chapters – three per day over the course of three consecutive days.
Check out the trailer.
The second trailer for Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s Hobbit has landed. By all accounts, An Unexpected Journey certainly appears to be lighter in tone than the Lord of the Rings trilogy – the original book was written for children, after all – and the stars of the film would definitely be the fun-loving DWARVES, represented by Gimli in LOTR but this time in full force! It’s all looking very promising but whether or not the decision to make three movies is justified or not, remains to be seen. In the meantime, look forward to December!
Batman Begins was – after the risible Batman Forever and Batman & Robin – a shot in the arm for the Batman movie franchise and the superhero film genre. Director Christopher Nolan together with writers Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer presented Batman in a more realistic and darker tone. Batman Begins was a critical and commercial success and paved the way for the even greater things to come.
A Wizard of Oz prequel directed by Sam Raimi. Sounds like a winner right?
Here’s the plot summary - When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
A prequel that works? We’ll see…
We are a week away from the movie event of the year – forget about The Avengers – The Dark Knight Rises is the real deal! Four years ago, after watching The Dark Knight, this is what I wrote.
“One imagines that it would be difficult for director Christopher Nolan to follow this wonderful movie achievement but it will be intriguing to see him try.”
The more I see of writer/director Rian Johnsons’s time-travel flick, Looper, the more I think that this is going to be one of the best scifi films of the year. Already, I am totally sold on the fact that the two leads – Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – play the same person at different ages in a life-and-death struggle with each other! All possible through that wonderful scifi device called time-travel. Wonderful!! Check out the trailer. Looper opens in late September.
Remakes can be tricky. Early on, the producers talked up the new version of Paul Verhoeven’s classic Total Recall as being more a adaptation of Philip K Dick’s short story We Can Remember ItkFor You Wholesale rather than a straight remake of the original movie. WRONG! As it is clearly apparent from this latest trailer, this is a straightforward remake of the movie as there are no three-breasted ladies or actual trips to Mars in the short story. Fact is, the short story would make a boring action movie if faithfully adapted. So is there any point to repeated the whole exercise once over again. Well… I think so. Based on the trailers, the effects and action sequences look pretty good and having Bryan Cranston on board as the villain of the piece never hurts. Also, the combined eye candy of Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale should make up for Colin Farrell’s anticipated over-acting. I mean come on, look at the image above and not picture Arnie in that chair. Try…
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