Sunday, October 23, 2005
Movies and trailers.
I haven't blogged about films in a while, other than belatedly reviewing them, because there haven't been any movies I've cared about. That still hasn't changed, but since I spent the last half hour checking out some new trailers, I might as well mention them.
First of all, the one new major film this weekend didn't interest us. It's Doom, and the reviews are about what you'd expect for a mindless action shoot-em-up that aspires to be a rip off of Aliens. 21% on RT, but at least it's not horrible; most of the reviews are bad, but they're not horrible. It's at 32% on Metacritic, which isn't good, but at least it's not getting zero star scores. Which, for a video game movie, is something of an achievement.
As for the trailers, there are a ton. Apple's Quicktime Trailer Page has undergone some renovations, and they've added a lot of high definiton trailers. These are pretty much broadband only, checking in at at least 70meg, and rising all the way up to 160meg and more for the best ones. They are glorious to behold too, with near-DVD image quality. Unfortunately for me, my nearly three year old computer can't handle them. Not even the small ones; I get the sound, but it's like watching a slide show with a new image about every three seconds. Malaya's somewhat newer iMac does a better job, but she still can't watch the large ones. Did you ever think you'd see the day when your computer needed an upgrade to watch a movie trailer? If your machine can handle the load, check them out though; quite a few are worth watching just for the imagery and such, even if you don't much care about the movie.
The biggest one I've yet tried to view is V for Vendetta, the larger version of which is 136meg and displays in a gigantic 1920x1080. So yeah, you need a new, powerful computer, and a monitor with enormous resolution, or best yet, one of those glorious Apple Cinema Displays that are so gorgeous they're worth venturing into the hacky sack-scented environs of an Apple store just to drool over.
As for V for Vendetta... eh. Check out the normal trailer, if you can't swing the big ones. The movie is an adaptation of a comic book no one has ever heard of, produced by the unspellable-Wachzowski Brothers (of Matrix fame/infamy) and directed by the 1st A.D. on Matrix 2 and 3. Whether or not that's a good resume is open to debate. I've still never brought myself to watch Matrix 3 on DVD; the initial theater viewing was so depressing. Vendetta might be pretty cool, and I like that they didn't bow to pressure to change plot elements around (it's set in a futuristic fascistic England and features bombings) after recent real life terrorist events in London. The trailer has grown on me over time, but it's initially very hard to get past the silly Mardi Gras mask the good guy terrorist/freedom fighter wears. Plus he spends the entire trailer hurling ornate daggers (which are not properly balanced to be thrown) at people armed with machine guns. Hasn't he heard what happens to people who bring a knives to gun fights?
Elsewhere, the full trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia is online. (Only on AOL Moviefone, but for once they don't make it too hard to find the link to the big Quicktime version. It's not yet available in HD.) I have never read the books, so I know nothing about the story, but the film looks interesting if only for the sheer amount of completely CG characters. There are talking lions, hawks, moles, and all sorts of goblins, trolls, and other monsters, so it will be interesting to see if people can suspend their disbelief and get into the film. Some people balked at Gollum, never getting over the fact that he was just a bunch of pixels. How are they going to handle lip synching CGI lions and moles and such?
I doubt kids will have any trouble with it, but the all-too-perfect lip synching can get sorta close to uncanny valley issues, for adults. Especially if you think about how completely unsuited to producing human speech the mouths and tongues and fangs and vocal cords are of the animals in question. As always when attending a Hollywood movie, it's best that you don't think.
There's a second Underworld movie coming out (no, really) and it's now got a trailer online. Judging from the not-too-spoilery trailer, the plot of Underworld: Evolution seems to pick up shortly after the first film ended, with Selene, the female vampire lead from the first film, on the run from both Vampires and Werewolves. She's trying to find and un-imprison the first werewolf ever, or something like that, for some reason that will likely make zero sense. As such the film seems to be set largely outdoors, though always outdoors at night, conveniently enough. (As I noted in my absurdly long review of the first mediocre Underworld film, there was never any mention of sunlight whatsoever, and all of the vampires lives in buildings with floor to ceiling windows.)
One of the vampires (who appear to be the bad guys in this one) has somehow grown huge bat wings, and much of the trailer shows him swooping around the night sky and attacking people. I predict an ending fight between him and the super werewolf in which they kill each other, or one survives and has to be killed by Selene, in order to save the world. Why a vampire wants to save the world (I.E. common people) will not be explained. (And yes, Underworld: Evolution seems to be a combination of the worst parts of the plot of Blade Trinity and Van Helsing. That is not a good sign.)
The odd part is that I never saw Scott Speedman in the trailer. He played the male lead in Underworld, a half vampire/half werewolf (don't ask) who Selene falls in love with. I figured they'd written him out of this one, and then when the trailer ends and the credits roll... he's listed second, after Kate Beckinsale. There are a lot of shots of a white werewolf in the trailer. Is that him? Wasn't he black in the first film? Is he never in human form anymore? Or is the trailer just oddly-edited so that we never see the male co-star?
Tom Yum Goong is the next Tony Jaa film, and after Malaya and I loved Ong Bak (strictly for the amazing martial arts), we were immediately interested in this one. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case with all imported films that involve subtitles or dubbing, Tom Yum Goong opened in August in most of Asia, opens in Europe early in 2006, and isn't set for release in the US until December 31, 2006. Which is, I assume, the date they stick on films that will actually open here sometime between next year and never. We'll have to try and track this one down sooner, ordering a copy on VCD from the Philippines or picking one up in one of the little shops in Chinatown or something. Hell, we've never even seen Ong Bak on DVD yet anywhere, and might just have to buy it from Amazon.
I would have liked to watch the new flim clips from Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic, but they're on iFilm, and I can't watch anything there. I don't know which of my security features stops it, but their pop up viewing windows simply do not function. I click; nothing happens. And yes, I've turned off my browser and anti virus pop up blocker, to no avail. So I went and watched the trailer again. And laughed all through it, again. It's recommended, obviously.
It feels like I've been blogging about and wanting to see Night Watch for like two years, until I check the date and realize... I have! Christ it takes forever for any decent foreign films to show up in the US. Anyway, a cool for trailer forDay Watch,the second film in the Night Watch trilogy, is now online. It's in Russian, with no subtitles, and there are far fewer Matrix-esque, reality-bending special effects shots in this one than in the Night Watch trailer. But I still want to see it. And at the rate they're going I might be able to get the whole trilogy, with subtitles, in the US, by 2011 or so.
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