Disappointing Summer Movies
It’s been a disappointing summer for blockbusters, for me.
I had so many sure-fire hits lined up on my Gotta-See list: Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy II. How can you go wrong when you’ve got A-list stars like Angelina, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith, Ron Perlman? Directors like Guillermo Del Toro, who did a masterful job on Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and the first Hellboy (2004), but somehow drained all the fun and angst from the sequel. And Peter Berg, a good actor, directed The Kingdom (2007), but gave us Hancock, which held such great promise, but succumbed to dumb twists and predictable patterns, which hurts especially since it purported to be about a NONtraditional superhero.
Wanted, which I would have guessed should have been my favorite of this summer, took the coolest ideas (boomeranging bullets, and prophetic tapestry) and somehow flat-lined them. Am I just too jaded? Too desensitized by all the preponderance of shoot-em-ups? The actors seemed bored, especially Morgan Freeman. I am not writing off any of these actors, or directors, least of all young Scot James McAvoy, whose acting skills are just beginning to be tapped for film. Why did they not let him use his incredible Scottish accent? Would it have killed them to adjust the story to allow it? It probably would have been a redeeming factor for me (I’m a sucker for great accents, and Scottish and Kiwi are my favorites).
Maybe Hancock had too much money to work with. They should have paid for a few more re-writes of a badly wandering and predictable script. I recently saw Primer, Shane Carruth’s 2004 breakout indie sci-fi film, and for $7000.00 that little mind-bender gave me a block-buster’s worth of entertainment and intellectual challenge.
Sequels always fail to capture the original’s flair, right? With few exceptions. Hellboy II is not an exception. The campy humor felt obligitory instead of pleasantly surprising, Hellboy’s attitude seemed tame and drugged compared to his appropriate mix of sneer and puppy love in the first entry. The interaction between the team felt forced– we have to do a fight scene, and the boss has to be pissed off, and gee, I wonder if that agent-guy is gonna get eaten by those teeth-craving spider crawlies? Sigh. The bright spot was the tree-demon’s death effect, producing incredibly flourishing forestation in the middle of the city. Cool art direction there. But in an underground “Cantina” scene, crammed with creatures from the fantasy world, you would think it would put the original Lucas Tatooine bar to shame. Maybe we’re all too sophisticated now, but all that foam and drool and polystyrene just looked lame. Not that I would have preferred CGI, because that just annoys me anymore.
Oddly enough, I enjoyed Journey to the Center of the Earth, probably because I was expecting the worst. It couldn’t have been more predictable, and terribly written and blandly acted, but — don’t hate me — I kinda liked it. I feel guilty for saying that, but honesty demands that I admit it. Of course, I loved Wall-E, for all the same reasons that everyone else does.
The Incredible Hulk was also predictable, but worth it due to Edward Norton and Liv Tyler taking their roles very seriously, and the perfect mix of humor, tenderness, action, and semi-believable science. Setting the first act in Brazil was a great idea. The director Louis Leterrier did the two Transporter Jason Statham flicks, and I am a devoted fan of both Statham and the Transporter franchise. Leterrier took great care with the Hulk, and it shows.
Iron Man was a great, fun thrill ride, again due to the casting, mostly. Robert Downey, jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, like Norton and Tyler in the Hulk, refuse to just phone in these profitable performances. They took the roles seriously, acted them carefully, and brought their own uniqueness into the characters. I am not a reader of any of the comic series, but I have many friends and family who are devotees, and so I have a more than passing interest. Particularly since Marvel has come into its own as a movie production powerhouse. Those comics serve a director well, as lovingly crafted storyboards, often suggesting better color, lighting and angles than many directors manage to pull off.
Iron Man was executed with the appropriate blend of comic ingenuity with a freedom given to the actors to do what they do best. Robert Downey, Jr. is funny, in any medium; Kudos to director Jon Favreau (another good actor-turned-director) for letting him add his own already-interesting personality to the Stark character. Kudos also to Paltrow, who could bring significance to a breakfast-cereal commercial, for not taking herself too seriously to miss out on (and make us miss her) playing in a just-for-fun flick while bringing that usually-lacking element of credibility to her supporting character.
Pay attention, you Hollywood A-listers!