Gods of Egypt (2016)

Gods of Egypt (2016)

Director: Alex Proyas

Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Courtney Eaton, Brenton Thwaites, Elodie Young, Gerard Butler, Rufus Sewell, Geoffrey Rush

Every once in a while a movie tanks at the box office, when it shouldn’t have. I mean surely, most of the films that get the shaft by audiences usually deserve it, but in the case of Alex Proyas big budget fantasy extravaganza Gods of Egypt, it didn’t. I kick myself in the ass for listening to that first batch of negative reviews that accused the film among many things of “white washing” the cast, which means that a group of people got angry because characters that were Egyptian (and therefore should look Egyptian) where being played by white actors. I don’t really care about that sort of thing; I’m just enjoying a movie here. Weren’t we past the whole skin color thing? Guess not. Anyways, reviewers decided to spew their hatred at this one and well, no one went to see it. This is the kind of film that was badmouthed even before it was released. And so, it only made back 31 million dollars on a 140 million dollar budget, which means it was a gargantuan flop. It’s sad because a box office flop of this magnitude cold  spell the end of Alex Proyas career, which means no more big budget films for him. The worst part is that this movie, in my opinion, is an excellent action adventure fantasy extravaganza that deserved to be embraced by audiences.

The story is multi faceted, on the one hand it’s about Horus, the God of Wind, trying to recover his god hood and his kingdom. On the other hand, it’s a story about a young man named Bek, trying to recover the love of his life from the icy grips of death. You see Set, the God of Chaos has taken over the land and rules it with an iron fist. Since this is a full on fantasy film, Set can do things like changing the rules of what happens after you die. Where in the past all you had to do was be a good citizen and work to go to heaven, now in order to earn your way into the afterlife you have to pay! If you don’t have something of value you are sent to hell, but if you got the goods you go to heaven with the Gods. This of course spells certain doom for poor people who have nothing to give to the Gods. Will order be set again? Can Horus learn to fight for the rights of the people? Will the Gods learn to care about humans? Or will they remain self centered and egotistical?

This film was awesome for many reasons, number one, it has a good story. It grabs you from the get go because it pits the despotic ruler vs. the unpredictable rebel trying to fight for his rightful place in the world. Unfortunately, Set the despotic ruler cares nothing for “the little people”; he only cares about power and riches. So it’s that classic class struggle story, the powerful vs. the working class. They had this awesome visual idea for this movie where ‘The Gods’ look slightly bigger than the humans, so it’s like they aren’t gigantic, but they are a few inches bigger than the regular humans, which made for a cool visual. I’m sure it must’ve been hell to film though, this visual effect makes practically every scene in the movie a special effect! And speaking of effects, they are top notch on this show! It's a visual feast, more so for lovers of fantasy and escapism.

Gods of Egypt is one of those movies in which most of the surroundings are computer generated. In this sense Gods of Egypt is like the Star Wars movies, which is normally something that I frown upon. I’ve always resisted “all CGI” movies, where only the actors are real. Sadly, this is the face of the new Fantasy/Science Fiction film. They’ve evolved into this; we might as well accept it. Stop motion, matte paintings and the use of miniatures have all been replaced by computer generated images, which is fine. It’s just another form of art, thought if I had to choose, I’d choose practical old school effects. Call me old fashion but they had more artistry to them if you ask me. I have to admit that this “all CGI” element of this film was the main reason why I didn’t go see it in theaters. Yet I have to admit that like all types of special effects, when done right, they can (and should) blow you away.  I have to say that on Gods of Egypt the effects worked extremely well. There’s this show stopping scene with these two giant monster Cobra snakes attacking Horus that was just awesome.  Actually, what Gods of Egypt feels the most like is those old Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movies, with all the monsters and creatures.

Alex Proyas brought Egypt to life in grand fashion. Gods of Egypt feels like one of those big budget bible movies like Ben Hur (1925) or The Ten Commandments (1956), you know, films with thousands of extras and huge sets, only this time the sets and the extras are mostly digital. Alex Proyas is famous for directing dark moody films like The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998), so Gods of Egypt is a change of pace for Proyas. This is a huge fantasy, action adventure, which in my opinon Proyas directed with gusto, with an affection for this type of film. If only it hadn’t tanked so spectacularly at the box office…it’s one of those films that didn’t deserve to fail at all, I’m sure it will connect with audiences down the road. I place it among the cream of the crop of new fantasy films like Immortals (2011), 300 (2006), 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) or Brett Ratner’s extremely underrated Hercules (2014).  One of the things that Gods of Egypt is being accused of is of being “dumb”, and while I won’t be the first to admit it’s not Shakespeare, I have to say that it does play with its fair share of important themes. I mean, here’s a movie in which the Gods learn to care for the people, they learn the value of humans, of the ones they consider less than them. Here’s a movie where Gods die and tyranny rules the land as the people suffer. Here’s a film where true love conquers even the cold arms of death itself. All these themes, embellished by awesome effects, a quick pace and likable characters, I ask: what’s not like? I say give this one a chance, you probably overlooked it, same as I did.

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

Director: Rob Marshall

Cast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane

Review:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is yet another Big Budget Summer Blockbuster that has been unleashed upon us in this, one of the busiest Summer Blockbuster Seasons in a while, Summer 2011! A lot is riding on this Pirates of the Caribbean film, namely, the future of the entire franchise. If this one tanks, it means we wont see anymore Pirates of the Caribbean films for a while (or ever), but if it makes kajillions (like I’m predicting it will) then we will most likely see two more films in the franchise, which is fine by me because if the next two are as fun as this one was, then I’m all for them. Bring them on!

On this the fourth chapter of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, everyone is after the legendary “Fountain of Youth”. That’s right, the very same Fountain of Youth that Juan Ponce de Leon was after back in his day. You drink from its waters and the fountains magic powers elongate your life, or possibly even makes you eternal! So of course everyone is after it! On this flick we have three parties after the famed fountain, The Spaniards, The British and The Pirates! Everyone has their own personal reasons for getting to it, and everyone wants to get there first then the other guy. So once the journey begins, it’s a race to the finish to see who gets to The Fountain of Youth first.

I have to be honest; I had my doubts about this movie for various reasons. The first question to pop into my mind was this: would I be able stand Johnny Depp as Captain Sparrow for a fourth time? Or had the character outlived its charisma? As it turns out Jack Sparrow is still a very entertaining fellow; maybe even more so then on previous films. Jack Sparrow has always been a funny type of character, but this time around they emphasized the comedy factor a whole lot more, as a result, you can’t help but giggle and laugh through out the whole movie, I know I had a big old fat smile upon my face through out this whole movie and Depp’s Sparrow had a lot to do with that. Jack Sparrow’s funnier than ever! Johnny Depp’s still got it in my book; he hasn’t lost that magical charisma he brought to these films. Best part of all is that as opposed to the previous films, Sparrow is the main character, so we see him a whole lot more through out the film, not just sporadically. I guess the studio decided to give audiences more of what they loved most from these films.

The supporting cast is amazing; we have a couple of new additions to the Pirates of the Caribbean family, as well as some old friends and foes. First up, my favorite performance in the film after Depp’s was Ian Mc Shane as the evil Captain Black Beard, the villain of the piece. He looks really evil; he is a strong villain and gives a good performance in my book. They really made an effort to make Black Beard a strong villain, not a weakling as has been happening lately in films. Many filmmakers today are forgetting how to craft a good villain. Filmmakers pay lots of attention to the action and fx and the journey of how we get to point a to point b, but the villain isn’t given much importance and gets ignored in terms of development. Thor and Fast Five are good examples of this, both films had weak villains in my book. I mean, there was a day and time in film history when villains use to steal the show! Kudos to Ian Mc Shane for pulling that off, Blackbeard isn’t the most memorable villain ever, but at least he isn’t forgettable either, he had some gravitas to him, I liked that! Penelope Cruz looked gorgeous, and she has chemistry with Johnny Depp, thanks to the romance that develops between the two we see a side of Jack Sparrow we had not seen before. Geoffrey Rush was another great character on this one. I mean, I just loved how the film is populated by all these great actors, no slip ups in terms of performances on this film, and Kudo’s to the writers for giving them funny lines to work with. When Barbossa and Sparrow end up tied up together, the back and forth banter is hilarious!

The only other thing that worried me about the film was director Rob Marshall who is not all that known for making big budget effects heavy films. He’s the director behind Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Chicago (2002) and NINE (2009), not the most adventurous bunch of films. So I was on the fence on whether he was a good choice or not as a director of this film. Turns out he did just fine; the film has an air of adventure to it that I loved! On Stranger Tides is just a good pirate movie as far as pirate films go. Huge ships, skeletons, hidden treasures, high adventure, deadly sea creatures, this one had all the right elements for a good pirate flick. Speaking of feel, I think the music has a lot to do with what we feel in a movie and this film has a very adventurous old school type of score to it, so beautiful, it soars, it excites, it brings that air of adventure to the film, so kudos to Hans Zimmer for that one.

Also, the films got a dark supernatural element to it which I loved. The supernatural was always a part of these films, what with skeletons and zombies and witches, but on this one they turned it up a little more. For example, Black Beard’s boat is a haunted ship which he controls with a magic sword and the crew is partially made up of zombie soldiers. Which reminds me about the films spooky vibe. It’s the kind of film that will have its characters huddle together to tell a spooky story by candle light. Same goes for the scenes just before they encounter the mermaids. The pirates start talking about how evil the mermaids are, and start spooking each other out by telling these stories. I just loved how the film built up the spookiness of the moment. I never thought Mermaids could be so spooky! The scenes where they have to capture a mermaid were my favorite in the whole film. In terms of pacing, the film goes at just the right pace. I love that this film is not in such a hurry to go from plot point to plot point, like a film with Attention Deficit Disorder. Nope, this one takes its time to tell its story and I loved that. And yet another positive point for the film is that it doesn’t rely so heavily on computer effects, it only uses them when necessary, or to augment a scene. The computer effects are never overdone, I loved that about it as well. So director Rob Marshall gets good grades from this reviewer.

The film comments briskly on faith and religion with a character who is a clergyman. I didn’t exactly get why this character was in the film save for maybe the filmmakers wanting to say their two cents on faith. One scene has Black Beard asking the clergyman to pray to god so that he will save a man who is about to be burned alive, nobody ends up protecting the man who gets skinned alive. What’s the film saying? That there is no God? That God doesn’t care? On other scenes Black Beard comments on religion saying that it’s good for nothing more then blinding people! It was interesting to see Disney (who most of the time try to be so politically correct) choosing to comment on a theme that is avoided like the plague by Hollywood. I wouldn’t necessarily say that they were bashing on religion, but they do comment on it. The clergyman is portrayed as someone who believes in something that’s not really there to help or protect him though he believes something does. The clergy man is also depictedas someone with good moral values. He is always seen as the do gooder, the guy with the big heart who saves the day and does the right thing on more then one occasion.

Bottom line with On Stranger Tides is you don’t need to know anything from the previous films to enjoy this one since this is an entirely new adventure. Yeah there are little references here and there to the previous films, but nothing to make you scratch your head. A word on the 3-D: it’s actually there! It works! Trust me, you wont feel cheated. Keep in mind that this review comes from a person who never really went ga-ga for the first three films, but this fourth one? To me it was pure unadulterated fun! A great cast, a strong adventurous spirit and a pace that never gets ahead of itself made this one a better film than its predecessors. It’s also not overtly complicated like the previous films. Was it just me or did the previous three films get completely incomprehensible by the time they reached the third one? Not so with On Stranger Tides, this fourth one was easy to follow yet not too simplistic either, it was complex enough so that it didn’t confuse with its storyline. A fun movie every step of the way, it aint a masterpice but it sure entertains!.

Rating: 4 out of 5

This is yet another summer blockbuster (the other being Fast Five) that was partially filmed in Puerto Rico!

The King's Speech (2010)

Title: The King’s Speech (2010)

Director: Tom Hooper

Cast: Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce

Review:

The King’s Speech was the big winner on Oscar night 2011. It won four Academy Awards: Best Actor (Colin Firth) Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler), Best Director (Tom Hooper) and Best Film of the Year. I thought it deserved the awards that it got, because it is a good film, with excellent performances and a well written screenplay. Personally, I was rooting for Darren Aronofsky to win the Oscar for Best Director for Black Swan, but whatever, as it turns out The King’s Speech was the big winner of the night. You know how The Academy loves an inspirational film with characters conquering their fears and achieving their goals. Black Swan was probably too dark a movie for The Academy, who we all know likes their winning films to be happy, shinny and up lifting. The King’s Speech certainly fits those prerequisites.

The King’s Speech is a film that focuses on the pressures and stress that fall upon a political figure. You and I (read: the common man) can’t really grasp what it means to suddenly become such an important political figure for a whole nation, so the movie does a wonderful job of doing it for us. It’s interesting to note that King George VI (played by Colin Firth) became king only when his brother, King Edward VIII (played by Guy Pearce) renounced the thrown. When King Edward VIII inherits the throne, moments after his fathers death, the first thing he does is burst into uncontrollable crying. At first we think he is crying over his fathers death, but it soon becomes clear that he is crying because he doesn’t want all the responsibility that comes with the title. Apparently, all King Edward VIII wanted to do was have a good time through life, partying, falling in love, he didn’t care about being a King, which is why after a short tenor as the King of England, King Edward VIII renounces the thrown and hands it over to his brother King George VI. Problem is, King George VI has a speech impediment, he stammers and the stammering gets worse when he has to addresses the nation. Enter Geoffrey Rush, speech therapist, to help him with his problem.

The most interesting aspect for me about this film was how The King of England has to come down from his royal palace to meet with a common man to help him out of his dilemma. Geoffrey Rush’s character Lionel Logue isn’t a high class aristocrat, nope; he is just a common man who is good at what he does. He doesn’t even have a degree! Yet here he is; the kings’ last hope. The film constantly questions the seat of power; it literally tries to bring the high and mighty King, the ultimate representation of political power, down to a more human level. Lionel Logue constantly tries to humanize The King, begging for him to come off his high horse. I think the movie quite cleverly squeezes these themes in the film, sort of reminding governments, hey, you know, you wouldn’t be up there if it wasn’t for the help of the common man, the poor guy who has a family to feed and does an honest days work. And I really liked that about the film. It’s the king actually listening, spending time, and thanking the commoner for his services. I liked that idea, because it’s something that those in power sometimes forget: that the governed are real people, with real situations, they aren’t just statistics. So kudos to the movie for that.

It also questions the power that a political figure actually has. I mean, just how powerful is a King or a President of a nation? In certain cases, and this holds true for the United States as well, the King or the President is just a symbolic figure, the big honchos making the decisions are really back stage, while the king or president is just there to talk to the people. One scene has the King saying: “If I am King, then where is my power? Can I declare war? Form a government? Levy a tax? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority because the people think that when I speak, I speak for them” There is another scene where Lionel sits in this royal chair where only kings and queens have sat in. The king gets his panties all up in a bunch over this telling Lionel to get off the chair, that he is trivializing everything. Lionel tells the king: “I don’t care how many Royal assholes have sat on this chair, its just a chair.” I liked this aspect of the film because sometimes people tend to deify political figures and forget that they are just humans, with fears and limitations, same as you or I.

I enjoyed the film mainly because it’s a film that begs governments to show a thread of humanity with its ‘loyal subjects’. It bets for governments to treat their subjects, however common they maybe, with the dignity and respect they deserve. Because who knows, maybe one day they might need us for something. It’s a movie that gives value to the common man as an important part of society. I loved the performances; Geoffrey Rush plays such an adorable, goofy and candid character. I love it how he confronts the king, brings him down to a more human level. Colin Firth starts out as a stubborn guy who hates himself and his stammering, a guy who is filled with anger. He slowly, with the help of Lionel, learns to deal with his anger, conquer his speech impediment and finally addresses the nation in the proper way. It’s the reason why the film won four Oscars, it’s an uplifting tale, where a man goes through this whole evolution, and conquers his fears. In the process, he learns a thing or two about humility, sympathy for others and true friendship.

Speaking of conquering ones fears and all that, the screenwriter for The King’s Speech, David Seidler also stammered when he was a child, and King George’s story motivated him to over come it, so the film has a bit of authenticity to it when it comes to the whole psychological process of overcoming a speech impediment. Another Interesting thing about David Seidler is that up to this point he had been working mostly on writing straight to dvd and television films like the David Carradine vehicles Kung Fu Killer (2008) and Son of the Dragon (2006). His only brushes with theatrical releases were his scripts for Tucker a Man and His Dream (1988) and an animated feature film called Quest for Camelot (1998). He’d always wanted to write a film about King George VIII, so he started working on the screenplay which he’d always had in the back of his head. Low and behold, years down the line he ends up winning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself is the big winner of the night! Seidler isn’t exactly a young pup (he’s well into his seventies) yet here he is in his Golden Years, winning an Academy Award. When he received the award he said “My father always told me I’d be a late bloomer!” He gave a great acceptance speech at the Oscars, without a bit of stammering to be heard! Hooray for late bloomers!

Rate: 5 out of 5