Tron Legacy (Greg)

Tron Legacy is an ambitious follow-up to the 80s cult classic Tron. I was initially ready to dismiss this as another recent cash-in on 80s nostalgia, and while I feel like this is at least partially the case, the movie still hold up in its own right.

The acting all-around is solid, but never any more than solid. All of the major actors do justice to their roles and earn their paychecks, but nobody's going to be remembered once the movie ends. Garret Hellund stars as Sam Flynn, son and successor to Kevin Flynn from the original Tron. He's the standard headstrong but good-hearted thrill-seeker you've seen in any family-friendly action movie. Bridges is once again likable as Kevin Flynn and passable as Clu. I'll give the movie credit for making Clu genuinely look and act like Flynn's younger self. Unfortunately he's played as a standard villain without much depth. The idea of making Clu a reflection of Flynn's own hubris is clever, or at least it would be if were explored further. Olivia Wilde plays Quorra, a standard action heroine and love interest, but she adds enough style and charisma to make her character genuinely interesting.

Michael Sheen gives one of the movie's more interesting performances as Zuse. Imagine David Bowie as impersonated by Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka and you more or less get the picture. He's likable enough when he's not completely overdoing it, and I can see potential for a good performance, but most of the time, he's completely overdoing it. I hope Sheen's recent roles have paid well, because otherwise going from Frost/Nixon to Twilight and this could mean career suicide. Another disappointment is that the character of Tron himself appears as barely more than a glorified cameo. What little character development he gets more or less comes out of nowhere. 

The plot that follows is standard good vs. evil (cartoonishly evil in this case,) but Tron was never about intricate plotlines. Like I've said before, all my gripes so far would be easy enough to dismiss as long as the movie delivers on its promise of spectacular visuals and first-rate action. Thankfully Tron Legacy has both in spades. The 3D is used to excellent effect, giving depth and dimension to an already beautifully imagined world. The grid looks and sounds lifelike and more than does justice to the original movie's idea of a sprawling computerized metropolis. Everything about the universe genuinely looks like a tech utopia gone wrong. The action scenes are exactly what you'd expect them to be: fast, flashy, and intense. The light cycle battle is the highlight of the movie and uses the excellent CG to its full potential, delivering pure visual thrill.

Another highlight is the score by Daft Punk. While I'm generally no big fan of electronic music, I couldn't imagine a more perfect soundtrack to a dystopian techno-fantasy. Fans of the band will also be happy to know they make a cameo and DJs in Zuse's club.

In closing, Tron Legacy is far from perfect, but as both a sequel and a standalone movie it doesn't disappoint.

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Black Swan (Greg)

Natalie Portman stars as ballerina Nina Sayers in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.  She's obsessed with perfection, and at twenty-eight years old, is still in many ways a child, mostly because of a pushy, domineering, yet caring mother (Barbara Hershey). On her path to perfection as the Swan Queen in her company's production of Swan Lake, Nina is at odds with her obsessively concerned mother, her lustful and manipulative director (Vincent Cassell), and newcomer ballerina Lily (Mila Kunis), all of whom may have ulterior motives. By the halfway point Nina's obsession gets the best of her and the movie shifts from character drama to warped over-the-top thriller. The viewer will be forced to question what's real and what's in Nina's mind as the movie gets progressively stranger moving to its beautifully absurd climax.

While the entire cast is solid, Portman steals the spotlight for capturing all the nuances of her complex and twisted character. Her face lights up the way a child's would when she calls her mother with good news. Yet even as a sheltered virgin she still has a natural charisma. She sells her transformation into the black swan persona with every inch of her body, from her style of dancing to her subtle mannerisms. And even as the plot takes some disturbing turns, she never loses the audience's sympathy. This is the first time since Leon: The Professional that I've been so captivated by Natalie Portman's acting. This is easily the highlight of her career so far and bound to get her some award consideration.

The cinematography is stunning and works on every level. It's beautiful at face value, communicates deeper motifs and character details efficiently without being too obvious, and allows the movie to pull off visual tricks that might make you cringe in a lesser thriller. Clint Mansell's score is once again a highlight. Borrowing heavily from Swan Lake, Mansell uses Tchaikovsky's music in imaginative and disturbingly effective ways. And what's more impressive is that only those deeply familiar with Tchaikovsky's classic will be able to tell which pieces of music were adapted and which were Mansell's own creations.

And on top of everything else. Black Swan succeeds largely because it never goes for obvious emotional cues. The movie's light on jokes or overt comedy but full of the kind of humor that flows naturally from real life. There are also moments of camp and excess, and moments of tense drama and genuine suspense and horror, and you won't always know which are which. Some will call Black Swan sincere drama and others an overblown melodrama. Some will compare it to The Red Shoes and others will compare it to Fight Club. The movie's biggest achievement is that it's both, and it succeeds at being both. Some movies perform a careful tightrope walk around different genres and styles and can be taken two different ways. Black Swan instead decides there's far more art in seeing the tightrope walker fall with grace. It goes for different emotions all at once, and often ones that aren't supposed to mix.

That being said, if you found Aronofsky's previous movies too artsy and confusing, too depressing or too unsubtle in their message, this probably won't strike you as anything radically different. Black Swan is, however, more mainstream than Pi, less bleak than Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler, and easier to digest than The Fountain, so it would be unfair to dismiss it as more of the same. For any fans of Aronofsky, Mansell, ballet, tightly-structured thrillers, or any of the actors involved, this is an absolute must-see. It's a unique and moving experience and a definite contender for movie of the year.

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Tangled (Greg)

Disney is a name that leaves me, and no doubt many other viewers, with a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I had the fortune of being a kid in the 90s, when masterpieces like Aladdin, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast came out. To this day, Disney is still synonymous with the sweetest parts of childhood. On the other hand, it's hard to bring up classic Disney without being reminded of what Disney's been turned into since then. That's not to say that the studio's incapable of making hits like The Princess and the Frog and Pirates of the Caribbean and underrated gems like The Emperor's New Groove, but for every recent success they've had an equal share of misfires, ranging from mediocre sequels to total embarrassments like Beverley Hills Chihuahua.

I went into Tangled with understandably mixed expectations, and it didn't help that the trailers did the movie no justice. The beginning was an adequate and creatively animated origin story involving a magic flower with the power of eternal life and an obvious but effective set-up of the plot to come. Then we're introduced to our heroine, an annoyingly cheerful and bright Rapunzel (appropriately voiced by Mandy Moore) and her pet chameleon. Of course a chameleon in a medieval princess movie sticks out like Christopher Walken in, well, anything, but his slapstick antics make him mildly likable later on in the movie. Rapunzel starts out disturbingly happy for someone trapped in a tower her whole life and initially runs the risk of being one-note Disney princess, like the kind parodied in Enchanted, but her ambitions are endearing and she shows some depth and personality when confronting her "mother". Donna Murphy gives the movie's highlight performance as a witch posing as Rapunzel's controlling but seemingly well-intentioned mother, and her display of smothering motherly obsession only makes her true ambitions all the more sinister.

The plot gets moving when Flynn, a goodhearted scoundrel, takes refuge in Rapunzel's tower and persuades her to disobey her mother and pursue her dreams. This of course angers Mother Gothel, who turns out to be an effective and likable villain. What follows is standard Disney fare. You get a love story, some catchy but hardly unforgettable songs (the best being the Mother Gothel's first song to Rapunzel because of its subtle creepiness,) some predictable but fun slapstick humor with the animals, and a showdown in which good nature prevails. The action sequences are fun, but nothing spectacular, but it's good to see a princess who can hold her own in a fight. If The Princess and the Frog is any indication, Disney has gotten better at writing female leads. The visuals are nice, but again, not remarkable in any way.

If I sound critical, it's only because Disney has spoiled me in the past. And while Tangled doesn't compare with Disney's best, it's still head and shoulders above their worst. So if nothing else, I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they've put together a movie that's in every respect better than average.

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Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Ian)

OK....Religious films tend to be a tricky subject for critics, since their impact and entertainment value largely depend on what faith lies behind the eyes viewing them. If you believe in the message of Easter, then Passion Of The Christ would be a revelation.  If not, it may very well come across as a glorified gorefest.

The C.S. Lewis-penned Narnia series strikes a similar Christian note, albeit one not nearly as gory. These films in themselves are an example of resurrection, being dropped by Disney only to be picked up by Fox soon afterwards (apparently, 400 million dollars and a message of moral sacrifice is not enough for the House of Mouse).  The irony is that these films tend to seem pale in comparison to the angst-ridden stories of Potter and Cullen, despite the fact that the books served as an essential influence for today's fantasy storytelling.

This time around, we see the third (and supposedly most beloved) part of the series, where Lucy and Edmund find themselves longing to return for another spin in Narnia.  This is not helped by their need to live temporaily with their obnoxious cousin Eustace, whose insecurity lies in every bit of bitterness he speaks or writes. A painting of a ship at sea grants the wishes of two and sparks the nightmare of the stowaway.  Narnia is is the sea, the Dawn Treader is the ship.

You get the basic plot elements here for a classic fantasy story.  The ship is seeking seven legendary swords that need to be placed on Aslan's table, as they sail east into what seems like eternity (and sometimes the audience feels it too).  Naturally, the evil "Stephen King-esque" green mist doesn't want that to happen, so in a clever twist, it tries warping our heroes' deepest desires to corrupt their natures.  Lucy and Edmund deal with their young-sibling insecurities, a dragon makes an appearance, the message is laid on fairly thick.

That being said, the magnificent special effects carry the plot when it feels disjointed, and the overall message helps tie the film together for a pretty effective ending - depending on whether such a message resonates with you.  For me, personally, what got me was not the Christian theme alone (though that helped), but the simple idea that messengers do not need to be perfect.  Whatever you feel you are meant to do, it can feel very overwhelming to live up to images of perfection, and Heaven forbid if we take a step out of line.

The actors in this film do their job, especially Will Poulter as the strongly-developed Eustace and Simon Pegg as the rivaling noble mouse Reepicheep.  The plot is adequate, the cinematogeaphy a good compensation. It is simply a solid family film from a critical standpoint, but in the end, it's refreshing to see a film that has a traditionally optimistic and hopeful message for those mortals in the theatre struggling to find a voice - namely, that it is not about who the messenger is, but what the message is and whether you are willing to deliver it.  These ears listened.  I give it a range of 3-4 dragon-headed ships out of 5, depending on whether the message resonates for you.

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Buried

Buried is a movie that shouldn't work, and if even one small thing went wrong, probably wouldn't. The movie features only one character onscreen for its entire 90 minute running time, and has him trapped in a coffin for the whole length of the movie. This sounds like a classic formula for avant-garde excess, but the movie succeeds because it traps the viewer with its protagonist, Paul Conroy (Reynolds) and allows the audience no more freedom than it gives him. The only contact with the outside world that Conroy and the viewer get are through a cell phone. This allows for a number of brilliantly nuanced voice performances as Conroy frantically tries to save himself and also lets the audience feel the heightening tension as the battery dwindles.

Buried features Ryan Reynolds in the performance of his life so far. As much as I've enjoyed Reynolds in comedies and action movies in the past, I never would have thought he'd have the range as an actor to pull off a role this serious. Surprisingly he not only manages the difficult role given to him but also adds his trademark charisma to performance. He feels appropriately desperate for a man in his position, but never falls into generic horror victim territory and even allows his character to laugh and enjoy a few lighthearted moments. Without Reynolds' charm, the movie could easily have been an hour and a half of suffering without reprieve.

For a movie spent on nothing more than phone calls and futile escape attempts, the pacing is unbelievably lively and tense as Conroy runs out of time and out of resources. The dialogue is great and never fails to feel absolutely real despite only getting to see Reynolds onscreen. By the end you'll feel like you've gotten to know certain characters despite never having seen them. Though I won't spoil the ending, I'll say that it's one of the best I've seen in any movie. It's unexpected but doesn't come off as a contrived twist, and looking back, seems like the most appropriate possible ending for the movie.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Greg)

The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the most ambitious movie of the Harry Potter series so far. Performances are solid all around, as they've always been for this series, and it's nice to see the cast get more comfortable with age. It's impressive to see such cohesiveness with such a large ensemble cast. If Rowling has any true skill it's writing likable characters, and that talent transfers to film perhaps better than ever. Unfortunately Alan Rickaman and Michael Gambon are largely absent from the movie, and their absence here is felt almost as strongly as their presence in previous installments. On the bright side, it'll only make their return in part 2 even more powerful.

This is easily the most faithfully adapted movie of the series, which often works to the movie's benefit, but occasionally holds it down. Part 1's biggest flaw is that it rarely feels like a standalone movie, mostly because it's not. It suffers from what bogs down a lot part 2s in trilogies: there's as much exposition and set-up for for the next installment as there is plot. And when the plot largely consists of finding one McGuffin after another, things grind to a halt whenever the plot's not moving forward. After seeing The Deathly Hallows part 1 I'm not convinced that the book needed two movies. It could have easily done with one long (think Return of the King long) installment that shaved down some of the slower scenes. With stronger pacing and a proper climax, I don't see what would stop the movie from being truly great.

Luckily, when Deathly Hallows part 1 works, it features some of the series' best moments, hitting all the right emotional notes. What the movie does best is mix the plot's heaviness and lightheartedness into a satisfyingly epic but never self-serious whole. The action scenes are genuinely spectacular and a somewhat darker sense of humor serves the movie well.

For all my complaints, The Deathly Hallows Part 1 achieved what's most likely its ultimate goal: it left me wanting more and raised my expectations for Part 2. And I have a feeling Part 1 will feel much more satisfying when I can watch both movies back to back. You can probably expect a re-examination of the movie once Part 2 is out, and perhaps a retrospective on the whole series. Until then I have to review Part 1 as is.

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The Warrior's Way (Greg)

A samurai western might seem like a crazy idea to some, but as Leone and Kurosawa have shown, the two are really the same genre in two different settings, and the stories they tell are fundamentally the same. And as much as the idea of pitting cowboys against samurai sounds like a perfect fit for a sci-fi channel original movie, the merging of styles undoubtedly has potential for great storytelling. So when I watched The Warrior's Way, it wasn't the premise but the execution that left me disappointed.

The story follows swordsman Yang, who strives to be the world's greatest at the art of killing. He runs into a problem when he shows mercy on a helpless baby from an enemy clan. His people take it as an act of betrayal, and Yang flees to the American West. Not the actual one, the one seen in only the cheesiest westerns. The visuals are lame, with 300-style exaggerated GCI settings, but without Zack Snyder's keen eye for detail. After some mostly ineffective fish-out-of-water comedy and a stale attempt at a romance subplot, Yang's people arrive seeking revenge and cowboy on samurai/ninja/stock Asian fighter role action ensues. The acting all around is Michael Bay quality: no one's particularly bad, but everyone's bland enough that talking scenes really only serve to fill space between action sequences.

Of course this is an action movie, and all my previously mentioned gripes could be dismissed easily enough if the action were first rate. After all, plenty of similar movies, most recently the Wachowskis' Ninja Assassin, overcame bland scripts and stock performances by delivering intense, creative action sequences. Unfortunately, The Warrior's Way's biggest flaw is that the action scenes are only decent. There's too much emphasis on slow-motion without much understanding of what makes slow-motion sometimes works. Fight scenes slow down and speed up randomly, not bothering to heighten tension like the Matrix or emphasize picturesque moments like a Zack Snyder movie. Everything about the action scenes feels like an only partially successful recreation of what we've seen in better movies.

All in all, The Warrior's way is passable entertainment, if only barely so. If you're a fan of samurai movies, this might be worth a rental. If, like me, you wonder what a successful samurai western might look like, keep wondering.

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