Month: July 2013

The Wolverine

The Wolverine

Posted July 27, 2013

I have to admit that I heard a couple of Collider interviews that pointed out that this isn’t really a comic book movie until the third act and I totally have to agree. It’s thoughtful and interesting and sort of everything I expected the first Wolverine movie to be. But for all the character work in the beginning, I never engaged with this movie emotionally. Not in a Nolan way, because the movie lacked substantive emotion, but in a very personal way. Nothing in this movie resonated in me. But it was well made so, I would imagine it could […]

Event Horizon| Comic Con 2013

Event Horizon| Comic Con 2013

Posted July 24, 2013

Tragically, I wasn’t at Comic Con this year. …It’s entirely possible I need to remind myself of the actual definition of tragic but I digress. In lieu of having actually been there I’ve collected all sorts of news and videos and photos from the panels so we can all pretend we were there together. Marvel Marvel definitely knows how to do Comic Con. Though I found their panels a bit lackluster this year, mostly because I’m not that interested in the properties they had panels for. There was a Captain America panel, which was the most interesting. But no good […]

Hugh Jackman on Wolverine

Hugh Jackman on Wolverine

Posted July 15, 2013

Things could have been very different. It’s October 2007 and Hugh Jackman’s hair rides high above amber aviators and a grey, mercerised suit. There’s a helicopter, sequined showgirls and an unnecessary number of high fives. The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” is slowly being strangled. The eventual credits to Viva Laughlin – an American reworking of acclaimed British series Blackpool – present Jackman as both protagonist and producer. CBS backed the song-and-dance drama, opting to introduce it with CSI (read: millions of viewers) as a lead-in. It premiered on October 18 and was buried – presumably deep in a […]

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

Posted July 13, 2013

Pacific Rim is soooo cool! That was my initial impression when they showed footage at Comic Con last year, and also the strongest reaction I had leaving the theater today. (I’m glad I saw it opening weekend. Because unique ideas are becoming so rare in summer blockbusters and this is a good one. a little scary every now and then because those kaiju aren’t joking around.) But I was also impressed that in the midst of a giant monsters vs. giant robots movie there’s a human element to it. The concept is giant monsters (kaiju) vs. giant robots (jaeger) but […]

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger

Posted July 4, 2013

I almost don’t even want to review The Lone Ranger, I just want to talk about when marketing lies. And I have to admit it’s not often that I’ll watch a trailer and get the tone of a movie so wrong. Even when they hedge around the edges of a story, usually I can spot it. But this was a master job of misdirection. The trailers suggested a family movie with outlandish action, a little danger, and a story full of farce and horses and trains. But this was certainly NOT a fun family movie. Really, The Lone Ranger is […]