the girl's with the dragon tattoos!! and...THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!

some of you may know that i have recently seen both versions of "the girl with the dragon tattoo".  well, i decided to write a little...write-up about what i thought about both of them.

i already wrote a facebook note about what i thought of the fincher version and you can go read that now if you want...but, you don't have to.

i'll begin with a kinda comparison of the two films.

firstly...i really liked david fincher's version more than the original.   2011 dragon is a more streamlined and satisfying story.  gone are any and all visual references to lisbeth's parents.  in the original you see lisbeth set her father on fire and later visit her mother in an institution.  that has been jettisoned.

2011 lisbeth is a complete mystery.  in the original mikal tells her that she knows everything about him but he knows nothing about her.  but we do.  we see bits and pieces of her past.  in 2011, next to nothing.  we see nothing of her backstory.  there's a mention that she tried to kill her father.  but we don't see it.

we do see her interact with her former guardian who had a stroke.  there is a softness there you see nowhere else.
 
i also found 2011 more satisfying because of two scenes that are totally different than the original.  first, there is a scene where lisbeth revisits her rapist guardian in an elevator.  he is visibly upset and she is so threatening even though she probably weighs all of 80lbs.   anyway, she tells him to stop visiting tattoo removal sites of she'll come back and tattoo his forehead.  apparently that didn't even happen in the book and that's such a great scene!!


the next thing is the death of martin vanger.  in 2011 lisbeth asks mikal if she can kill him and he says yes, but she doesn't get the chance as the car explodes after the accident.  but you could see that she wanted to.  the original works, too...but i just  found the fincher version more powerful.


finally, i will talk about the differences between the  two lisbeths.


rooney's lisbeth is almost not human.  her eyebrows are lightened so you can't really see them and it makes her look...off.  she's also cold and emotionless.  it seems as though she already knows everything that is going to happen and is just waiting for everyone else to catch up and that that fact annoys her.  she's curt and sometimes rude.  because of the lack of the scene with her mother we don't really see a softer side until the end when she "happy" because she has let mikal in just a little and thinks of him as a friend.

noomi plays lisbeth as kind of a gothic punk.  she is also curt and rude but more in a "leave me alone i've had a rough life" sort of way.  there's so much more humanity in noomi's lisbeth and in many ways that makes you relate to her character a little more.

both lisbeths are incredible specimens of womanhood.  both are tough and independent, resourceful and smart.


so...hopefully this will open a discussion about the two films. i want to know what you think and what you think about what i think.

"the town"

ben affleck's second directorial effort is based on the novel "prince of thieves" by chuck hogan.  it was originally set to be directed by adrian lyne ("fatal attraction") but there was a falling out with the studio.  affleck was asked to step in due to the success of his first crime flick, "gone, baby gone".

the first cut of the film was 4 hours long but the studio made affleck cut it to no longer than 2hrs 10min.  he settled at 2hrs 8min although the film does not feel as though it loses anything in the cuts.  sometimes a film ends up feeling "choppy" but this has a fluid flow throughout the film.  the directors cut is said to much more close to the actual novel, however.  not having read the novel...i couldn't tell you.

the basic story goes affleck, renner and the rest of his gang are professional bank robbers.  during their last robbery renner kills the assistant bank manager and kidnaps the bank manager (rebecca hall).  renner let's her go, however , the team discovers that she can identify renner by his tattoo on the back of his neck.  renner wants to kill her, but affleck decides that he will watch her to make sure they are ok.  during this he falls for her and instigates a relationship.  affleck's character wants out of the bank robbery business but renner and the others want him to stay.

affleck's direction here is solid as is his acting but the acting kudos go to jeremy renner (nominated for an oscar).
  

jeremy renner

renner not only is completely convincing as this character he nails the working class boston accent which is hard to do without just sounding like your saying cah instead of car.  rounding out the cast is jon hamm ("mad men") doing his best tough-guy FBI agent, rebecca hall (probably best known as christian bale's wife in "the prestige"), blake lively ("gossip girl", "green lantern" and even though i detest her i have to say she did a pretty decent job in this movie) and one of the last performances by pete postlethwaite.  affleck seems to be pretty good at getting the performance that he wants from his cast.  he told lively to hang out with local charlestown residents to get her character down and renner buddied up with convicted bank robbers for his and it worked.  

john hamm

rebecca hall

blake lively

pete postlethwaite

in my opinion, this is a very well-crafted heist flick.  there were moments of real suspense for me as i watched renner's character almost get recognized by the only witness.  i actually had to pause it for a moment to postpone the inevitable...which didn't come until later...


affleck has been tapped to adapt stephen king's "the stand".  from this film it seems that he is very good at adapting from novels and i am very much interested to see what he does with one of my favourite novels.


overall, "the town" is a classic heist/love story with an open ending that could go either way...good or bad...happy or sad...


bottomline:
3.5 outta 5

"the stranger"

it's sad for me to say that orson welles peaked at his third film, "citizen kane", released in 1941.  that film is a work of genius and truly is one of the greatest films ever made.   that's what we think now, at least.   in 1941 it was a flop and actually booed at the academy awards whenever it's nominations were announced.  this resulted in welles never really being able to flourish in hollywood.  he had to take what work he could and try to raise money for his own projects which was much more difficult to do in the 40's and 50's.  but this isn't about "citizen kane", this is about a film that he made in 1946 called:

"the stranger" is a simple little tale of a wanted nazi war criminal posing as a professor in a small connecticut  town.  welles' nazi assumes the identity of prof. charles rankin and he's gonna marry a supreme court justices daughter, mary (played by loretta young).  

welles with loretta young (mary)

on the day of his wedding rankin gets a surprise visit from one of his old nazi buddies, meinike (not the muffler guy...the nazi guy).  rankin, at first, seems happy to see him but then realizes that this man is the only one that knows who he is and has to kill him.  rankin's world slowly begins to unravel as he tries to hold on to his new identity by any means necessary.

rankin doodles some nazi propaganda.

little does rankin know that meinike was followed by mr. wilson (edward g. robinson, see?) who is renowned nazi hunter for the government.

robinson as mr. wilson

thus begins a cat and mouse between mr. wilson and rankin as wilson reveals the truth to rankin's friends and family.  rankin grows steadily more desperate to escape that truth and even plans to murder the only other person that knows that meinike was ever in town, mary.


in lessor hands this would have been a throw-away thriller but welles' genius with film saves it.  you see many camera shots and performance nuances that you wouldn't see from the normal "cookie-cutter" hollywood machine.  welles even goes so far as to show actual concentration camp film footage to hammer home the atrocities that rankin is responsible for making this the first post-war film to use such footage.

i thought this film was really well done and even though there were some over-the-top melodramatic moments, mostly from loretta young, i found it compelling.  


this is only the second welles movie i've seen, so far.  i can't really compare it to anything other than "citizen kane" and that would be unfair to this film 'cos kane would crush it to little nazi pieces.


bottomline:
3 outta 5


 
 

"cowboys & aliens"

i don't think i have to explain to any of you out there that know me that i am a huge fan of harrison ford.  he has been my personal hero since i saw "star wars" back in 1977.  not that i could really remember seeing it in '77...but you get the picture.  he is an iconic figure who has brought to the screen two of the most beloved characters in moviedom.  interesting thing is:  out of all the movies he's made only two were westerns.

he's a natural for this genre and has so much more presence here than in many of his recent contemporary films.  i probably would have enjoyed this movie more if it was a straight-up western...but it IS called "cowboys & aliens"


so the movie breaks down like this:  you got a run down  town that's basically being kept from turning into a ghost town by the business supplied by wealthy cattleman, dolarhyde (ford).  because he keeps the town running he feels as though he owns it and every one or thing in it.  his son, percy (paul dano) is a drunk who terrorizes the town but the townsfolk are powerless to stop him.  even the sheriff (keith carradine) really has no power.


enter the lonesome stranger, jake lonergan (daniel craig) who sees the trouble percy is causing and subdues him.  lonergan, however, has no memory (and a nifty gadget on his wrist that makes weird noises now and again) and has no idea that he's a wanted man and the sheriff arrests both him and percy.

dolarhyde learns of this and gets his men together to go get his son and take lonergan to deal with him on his own.  the raid on the town is disrupted, however, by strange lights in the sky:  the aliens have come to take the townsfolk off to their lair.


dolarhyde, lonergan and many of the town form a posse to go off after the aliens to get their people back.

they find the lair and begin their attack and are inexplicably joined by some indians (the only reason i could tell was because the filmmakers needed more victims for the aliens).  the fight is brutal and after many set-backs the humans win and the town is kinda back to normal and even the mean-spirited dolarhyde has changed for the better.  and daniel craig rides off into the sunset.

all in all, the movie doesn't totally suck.  the western part is good, the sets are well done, the landscape is cool, the acting is better than most and the dialogue doesn't feel forced or too cheesy (except for the parts where they refer to the aliens as demons).

you've got some good actors here: ford, craig and dano (mentioned earlier) are joined by sam rockwell, clancy brown, adam beach, walton goggins ("justified"), noah ringer ("the last airbender"..the movie sucked but he's pretty good here), and mega-hottie olivia wilde.  you've got some good FX...the aliens look pretty cool.  but for me it's just not enough to make this movie really shine.  this is a movie that i should love because it meshes two genres that i love: westerns and sci-fi...but it just doesn't work in the end.

bottomline:
2.5 outta 5

"batman: year one"

this DC animated original was based on the graphic novels by frank miller and david mazzucchelli.  the comics take place in the first year that bruce wayne began stalking the streets of gotham.  it also happens to be the same year that a down-trodden police lieutenant named james gordon transferred to gotham city.

batman is seeking revenge against the criminal element that took his mother and father 18 years ago.  gordon is just trying to survive in one of the most corrupt police departments in the world.  much like the graphic novel the movie tends to focus more on gordon's story.  we see the batman through his eyes and how batman's emergence effects the city and the GCPD.

we all know batman's story from countless retellings of his origin story over the years.  both tim burton's "batman" and chris nolan's "batman begins" deal heavily with this topic but (even though there is much more of gordon in nolan's batman films) we've never really seen gordon's back story.

in "batman: year one" we learn that gordon ratted out a fellow officer and either moved on his own or was transferred to gotham against his will.  gordon learns almost immediately that the GCPD is a corrupt organization from the top to the bottom.  everyone is either in the pocket of the mob or working hand in hand with drug dealers.  gordon is a good cop that detests the corruption and wants nothing to do with it.  this gets him into a lot of trouble with his fellow officers but he is a hit with the media and labeled as a "hero cop".  this protects him for a bit but not for long.  his fellow cops turn on him and gordon takes matters into his own hands to protect himself and his growing family.  it doesn't help that there's a developing love interest with a detective sarah essen that could threaten his marriage as well.

bryan cranston ("malcolm in the middle", "breaking bad") voices james gordon

ben mckenzie ("the OC", "southLAnd") portrays batman/bruce wayne

as far as the movie itself goes:  the cast is good with cranston and mckenzie doing very good jobs.  eliza dushku ("dollhouse", "buffy the vampire slayer") voices selina kyle/catwoman and katee sackhoff ("battlestar: galactica") is sarah essen.  they all do a pretty good job here.  


the animation is fluid and looks great.  they try to follow mazzucchelli's lead and they do it well.  


overall, it's a pretty good flick.  the story is good and i would love to see a follow-up version of "the man who laughs" that brings us the joker which is hinted at at the end of "year one".


bottomline:
3.5 outta 5

"justice league: the new frontier"

"justice league: the new frontier" is based on a mini-series created by darwyn cooke.  the story takes place during the cold war and super heroes are being hunted by the government and are either on the run or retired.   there are a few that remain and try and work with the government but, they are sometimes exploited.

the movie focuses mainly on hal jordan, a former fighter pilot during the korean war who was shot down just as the war ended by korean soldiers who did not heed or did not know that the war was over. 

david boreanaz is green lantern!!

  
jordan lands only to be confronted by a hostile enemy that he has to kill to survive.  after serving and spending some time in a hospital he needs a job.  he gets work at ferris aircraft and eventually learns that he's training for a secret mission to mars.  the reason: a martian has transported to earth and is living amonst us as we speak.  the government can't locate him and want to go to the planet to find out if the martians are hostile or friendly.

the martian in question is j'onn j'onzz, also known as the martian manhunter.  MM is accidently teleported to earth by a scientist hoping only to communicate with mars.  stranded here, MM tries to fit in.  he can alter his appearance and begins work as a police detective.  MM finds out about the mars mission and hopes that that is his way home.  but as he tries to sneak onto the ship he is discovered and captured.

miguel ferrer voices the martian mahunter

the mission is a failure and hal jordan is once again grounded and lost.  space was his redemption.  but just as he despairs he is transported unwillingly to the location of a fallen member of a galactic police force known as the green lantern corps.  he is given a ring with unlimited power and a second chance.


the heroes of earth have to come together to defeat a being known as the centre.  the centre is a massive island-like being that spews dinosaur-like creatures and is determined to destroy mankind.  with the help of the new heroes in green lantern, the flash, and martian manhunter the existing heroes of batman, superman and wonder woman work to save the world.

this animated movie is one of my favourites in the DC animated original movies.  it may not follow the comic (also, a fave) exactly but it's a perfect adaptation.  the art style is very much like that of creator, darwyn cooke.  the script is smart and concise and the voice talent is very well chosen and directed.


david boreanaz ("angel", "bones") is hal jordan, NPH is the flash, lucy lawless is wonder woman, kyle maclachlan is superman and jeremy sisto is batman.


overall, the movie is just incredibly done.  the timeline of the 50's and 60's of JFK's "new frontier" it takes place in really fits with the emergence of a new frontier of heroes.
the animation is kind of a throwback to the kirby era and works perfect with the time frame.


bottomline:
4 outta 5.

"green lantern"

my first introduction to green lantern was in my childhood.  there was a little show called "super friends".  i already knew superman, batman, wonder woman and i even knew who aquaman was.  but, i had no idea who this green guy was.  he had a ring that could do stuff...that's kinda cool!

 over the years i heard things about green lantern, i even had a comic book of the green lantern corps at one time but i just couldn't get into him.  he was kinda neat, but he just wasn't the flash, ya know?  then, i heard that he turned evil and then died.  that was crazy!  really?  ok.  

i didn't really appreciate green lantern (or especially hal jordan because there have been many green lanterns: john stewart, kyle raynor, guy gardner and the original alan scott) until i began playing heroclix.  i got my hands on hal jordan and fell in love with the green basterd.  after that i started reading up on him and then DC decided to bring him back from the dead.  i bought the comics and read them up!!

now, that brings us to the movie.  the comic book movie boom was taking off, especially for DC after "batman begins".  DC and warner bros. announced they were gonna make a GL flick and i got a little excited.  but not too excited 'cos they hadn't even cast it yet.

i have to say i had mixed feelings about ryan reynolds being cast.  i personally really wanted the part to go to nathan fillion.  but i understand that he was busy with his hit TV show "castle"!!

nathan fillion as capt malcolm reynolds in "firefly"

fillion and stana katic on ABC's "castle"

the redeeming factor for DC/WB is that they cast nathan as GL in the animated flicks!!  way to go!!

ok...moving on...  

so, ryan reynolds is hal jordan and the movie gets made and the first thing that everybody's up in arms about is that the costume he wears is going to be CGI.  why is that a problem??  have you seen the spandex crap he wore in the crappy TV show??

see??  crap!!

anyway, reynolds gets cast and i'm OK with it.  yes, he has a tendency to "ryan-reynolds" it up a bit, but that's why you hire him, right?  and he's a solid actor, he can pull off a part if he wants.  besides, hal jordan was kind of a sarcastic, sly guy in the beginning before he got the ring.  he was a test pilot for christ's sake.  he has to have an attitude!!

i keep getting sidetracked here.  let's talk about the movie.  the CGI suit works for me.  the ring powers the suit so the suit is pure energy.  it makes perfect sense that they suit would be energy and not some kinda...suit.  and i think it looks pretty good.  also, the CGI backgrounds and the planet OA and the effects are pretty incredible.  they put a lot of time and effort and money into those.  the planet is awesome and i wish i would have seen it on the big screen.

that being said, i wish they would have put more money into the leading lady.  blake lively is a waste.  she can't stand toe to toe with reynolds and it seems reynolds is acting down to her.  they needed someone with a little more spirit.  i totally would have cast jen garner, but i love her...so...

the basic plot of the movie is this:  there a galactic police force patrolling the universe.  the universe is broken up into sectors and there is one member of each alien race chosen to police that sector.  the lanterns use a power ring that channels the power of will into constructs of pure energy limited only by what the ring-bearer can imagine.  the beings that started all this are a race known only as the guardians.  the are older than dirt and figured out how to channel the energy of emotions a long time ago. one of the emotions they tried to control was fear and that went all wonky.  fear overtook one of the guardians and he became parallax becoming so powerful the lanterns couldn't stop him save one: abin sur (played by temuera morrison). 

temuera morrison as abin sur and jango fett

he imprisoned parallax in a distant galaxy.  parallax, of course, escaped and began seeking revenge upon the lanterns.  abin sur was killed in the fight but before he died his ring chose his replacement, hal jordan.  the ring chooses those of the strongest will power and hal jordan is the first human to ever be chosen for the race is far too young according to the other aliens.  

the rest of the cast is actually pretty impressive: tim robbins, peter sarsgaard, mark strong and the voices of mike clark duncan and geoffrey rush.  let's start with peter sargaard shall we.  he plays hector hammond, one of GL's big baddies.  i don't remember why, but in the comics his head gets really big.  like literally. 

his character here is another one of those "my dad never really paid any attention to me so i'm going to stumble upon some major power and become an asshole villain...o, and i totally have a crush on the leading lady and if i can't have her no one can!!" guys.  it's been done so many times that it's hard to even blink an eye at the "evil" choices he makes.  and everything he does is just your typical bad guy stuff.  the character and the actor bring nothing new to this movie.  the one thing that i did kinda like was there was a direct parallel between what was happening to him and what was happening to jordan.  hector's father is played by tim robbins and he's basically just your average senator.  nothing special there.

mark strong takes another turn at a villain.  he plays sinestro, GL's really big bad.  in this story he hasn't turned to the other side, yet.  here he's one of the greatest lanterns around and kind of a leader taking orders from the guardians (the oldest being in the universe that created the GL corp).  strong does a good job here and the make-up does make him look a lot like sinestro.

of course, we don't get to see strong really chew up the scenery yet 'cos he's still a good guy in this movie.  we'll have to wait for the much anticipated sequel.

rounding out the cast is gefforey rush voicing tomar-re and MC duncan voicing kilowog.  these are two alien GL's that help train hal in using the ring.  their parts are really way too small in this film.  

kilowog and tomar-re

the movie tried to cram too much stuff into the first movie.  i think if they went with a basic origin theme, had a training montage when he first gets the ring, have hammond be THE main and only villain with just a hint at the bigger bad in parallax (and eventually, sinestro), stick with the fact that hal jordan is struggling with fear and courage and evetually overcomes it to become the greatest GL ever...then, this would have been a great movie.  but, instead it just felt crammed full of stuff, a little jumpy from scene to scene and the love story was weak.

the director, martin campbell, is a good director and has done some pretty damn good flicks, mostly bond films ("goldeneye", casino royale", "edge of darkness" [both the mini-series and the mel gibson versions]).  as good as he is he doesn't seem to really have a singular vision.  he works to serve the film, which is great, but for a sci-fi/action/comic flick you need a visually stunning director.  it also has the distinction of having four screenwriters.  for me that's usually not a good sign.  it's better to have a singular voice in my opinion.  that is unless it's a writing team, otherwise it's "too many cooks in the kitchen".

finally...overall, i think the flick had a few things that worked for me.  the CGI was brilliant, reynolds and strong do a good job and it could only be improved upon with a sequel that works.

bottomline:

2.5 outta 5.