2012 in Review: Part II

Today I am going to review the worst of the science-fiction/fantasy movies of 2012. I always say that I am a pretty easy to please movie viewer. I think that is true. My empirical evidence for that is the three movies that made my top 10 list of my favorite of the year. Battleship,  John Carter and Wrath of the Titans, made many reviewer’s list of some of the worst movies of 2012. Battleship and John Carter did not do well at the box office. Wrath of the Titans earned $83 million domestically and $218 million internationally for a worldwide total of $301 million. This was a pretty good return on a $150 million budget. However, Wrath of the Titans took in about 100 million less than its predecessor, 2010’s, Clash of the Titans, another movie the critics ripped to shreds. But I liked them both. I enjoyed Battleship and John Carter (both starring Taylor Kitsch) for what they were; fun action adventure movies. Sure, they were not perfect but I think they told good stories, had characters that were interesting, great eye candy in wonderfully produced special effects, and most of all, I found them entertaining. I find myself as I have gotten older that I am gravitating toward movies that are fun and do not take themselves all that seriously and these three fit that bill.  Sure, I still like some serious “makes you think” type of science-fiction and fantasy films but they have become the exception rather than the rule.

Now, on to the worst movies of 2012…of those that I have seen.

Snow White and the Huntsman. I really wanted to like this movie. It had Chris Hemsworth (Thor and George Kirk) and also Kristen Stewart (Twilight) and Academy Award winner, Charlize Theron. The movie also had great special effects and was telling a time-honored German tale that had become famous through the pens of the Brothers Grimm. So why didn’t I like it? First of all it was too dark and gritty for my taste and it tried very hard to be like The Lord of the Rings with epic battle scenes. While I enjoyed the performances of Hemsworth and Theron (who was deliciously evil as Queen Revenna) it was the performance of Stewart that put me off of the film. Her one note wooden portrayal of Snow White literally put me to sleep. I did lightly doze off for a few moments. So it is difficult to root for a heroine who seems like she is sleep walking through the movie. Maybe this should have been called Sleeping Beauty and the Huntsman!?

Another film I saw and didn’t care for was The Watch. This movie starred Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn &  Jonah Hill. It was a science-fiction comedy about a neighborhood watch that discovers an alien invasion. I generally like these comedians and have seen them in movies I have enjoyed. I also liked the premise because alien invasion movies are among my favorites in the genre. But this one left me flat. Sure, it had some laughs, good special effects and a great alien creature design, but the majority of the jokes fell flat and seemed forced. I ended up not caring too much about the characters and the plot itself proved uninteresting.

The other bad movie I saw was Dark Shadows. I enjoyed the Gothic/Horror soap opera of the 60s and 70s so I wanted to give this a chance despite not being the biggest Johnny Depp or Tim Burton fan. I was disappointed. It started out well but the tone was so uneven. It couldn’t decide if it was a serious gothic horror tale or a dark comedy. As the third act of the movie devolved into wacky chaos, as third acts often do, I decided I didn’t like it.

The last two movies I want to discuss are two that I have not seen and have ended up on many reviewers “worst of” list for the year. They are both remakes of 1990s films. They are Total Recall and Dredd respectively. They both performed very poorly at the box office and are considered to have bombed. Dredd, starring Karl Urban (Star Trek), was a remake of the 1995 film, Judge Dredd, starring Sylvester Stallone playing the iconic comic book character. The 1995 film received a paltry 18% negative rating on Rotten tomatoes but did better at the box office with a domestic total of $34 million and a world-wide total of $113 million. The 2012 offering, simply called Dredd, did much better with the critics and received a 78% positive rating on Rotten tomatoes but did miserably at the box office, bringing in only $13 million domestically and world-wide total of 30 million. Quite the bomb! Dredd is rated R and is very gritty, dark and violent. The 1995 version was also rated R and although it is violent, the violence is not as graphic as the remake. The 1995 original also had some humor and is enjoyable. Due to its graphic violence and gritty tone I will watch this movie to see if it is one I would like to own.

The other remake was Total Recall starring Colin Farrell. The 1990 original starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The original has an 84% positive rating on Rotten tomatoes and did $119 million domestically and a world-wide total of $261 million making the original a certified hit and classic film! The remake didn’t do as well. It received a 31% negative rating on Rotten tomatoes and its box office totals were $58 million domestically but a better over seas performance brought the world-wide total up to a respectable $198 million. The studio still considers this a bit of an underperformer. I am actually going to purchase this movie before seeing it. It does look good and some friends who have seen it tell me that I would like it. I am a bit disappointed that the movie doesn’t depict the journey to Mars like the 1990 original did, but I am told that is plays a lot like the movie Minority Report which is another movie I liked (and own). Both Total Recall and Minority Report were based on short stories written by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick.  

All in all it wasn’t a bad movie watching experience and I didn’t see too many duds.

Prometheus Review

I am not a real big fan of the Alien franchise. I own the first three on DVD and the second movie, Aliens, directed by James Cameron, is by far my favorite. I purchased Prometheus the latest sequel, or shall I say marginal prequel, to the franchise. These movies have always been a mixture of horror and science fiction and seeing that it is Halloween I thought it would be fitting to review this movie today. I think this movie really captured the spirit of the original and was a good mixture of both science fiction and horror. The second movie in the franchise, Aliens, leans more toward science fiction than the horror genre which is why I like it the best. However, and this may be blasphemy to some, I actually enjoyed Prometheus a little better than the original.

Here is a basic plot synopsis.

In the movie Prometheus is the ship that is traveling to a distant moon LV-223 that is orbiting a Saturn like gas-giant planet. The ship is aptly named because it is searching for the origins of human life. In Greek mythology Prometheus was a Titan that supposedly created mankind out of clay stole fire and gave it to mankind. On earth in the year 2089 archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in a cave in Scotland that matches others similar stone maps from several unconnected ancient cultures. The Wayland Corporation funds the expedition with Meredith Vickers on board as the companies representatives. Their aim is to follow the star map from the cave and find the “engineers” of humanity. The crew is in stasis as the ship flies to this distant moon arriving in the year 2093.

Once they arrive upon the moon Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway come across other malevolent life forms found inside a cave. Also on board is David and android built by the Wayland Corporation. David finds a secret control room with containers filled with a mysterious dark liquid. The crew comes across dead alien bodies thought to be the engineers they are looking for. They also find a decapitated head of one of the engineers. When a sudden storm pops up the crew is forced to return to the ship, however two crew members were unsuccessful in making it back to the ship. These two are eventually killed by snake like creatures found in the cave.

Back on board the ship Elizabeth Shaw discovers that the DNA of engineers is identical to humans. Shaw also finds herself pregnant with an alien offspring. Using a surgical table she is able to perform her own C-setion to kill the alien. Peter Waylands, the elderly CEO of the Wayland Co. is found in stasis on board. He was thought to have died on earth while Prometheus was traveling to moon LV-223. David leads Wayland and Shaw to a chamber he found that contains the Engineers in stasis. One is revived and becomes violent ripping David’s android head from his body and killing Wayland. Shaw tries to return to the Prometheus as the woken Engineer climbs into his space ship. Shaw radios the Prometheus that the Engineer is heading to earth and must be stopped. With no weapons working Prometheus sacrifices itself and crashes into the Engineer’s space craft. After the two crafts have crashed upon the moons surface Shaw explores the Prometheus to find the Engineer still alive. During a brief fight with Shaw the Engineer is attacked by Shaw’s now fully grown alien offspring that was not killed during the C-Section. This enables Shaw to get away using the Engineers space ship. As Shaw gets away and tells David, whose head is till working, that she is not returning to Earth but is heading out to find the home planet of the Engineer, an alien bursts forth from the chest of the dead Engineer.

Those were the essentials of the plot. The special effects are top notch with some of the effects reminiscent of what we saw in Avatar. The acting is very good also. Although I didn’t mention the character of Meredith Vickers too much in my review, she is played by the beautiful Charlize Theron, and she is a real bitch!! Very good acting. Noomi Rapace plays Elizabeth Shaw and she is the heroine of the movie. She is not portrayed as a tough hard nosed gal but as an average person who has to rise up to the challenge and to survive. Michael Fassbender plays David and his portrayal is very good and you really don’t know if he is a good guy or a bad guy.

I really enjoyed the story and the characters. The story was suspenseful without being too horrific. I think Ridley Scott, who directed the first Alien movie, stuck a good balance between horror and science fiction. I highly recommend this addition to the franchise.

Box office results for June 11, 2012.

The two big movies that were released on Friday and going head to head this weekend were Prometheus and Madagascar 3. Prometheus, a prequel to the 1979 Alien movie, and Madagascar 3, a crazy comedy about three zoo animals on the run, are both aimed at different audiences and it really isn’t a surprise that Madagascar 3 won this battle due to it being a child and family friendly movie which will tap into a wider demographic.

Madagascar 3 took in $60,350,000 domestically and $75,500,000 overseas for a grand total of $135,850,000. This third movie in the franchise does not show any indication that it has gone to the well too many times for the reviews are good and it has a 76% positive rating at rotten tomatoes.com. Prometheus, the long awaited return of Ridley Scott to the Alien franchise (he directed the first movie) brought in $50,000,000 at the domestic box office and $91,500,000 in the overseas market where the movie was released on June 1st. Despite a 74% positive rating at rotten tomatoes.com, Prometheus is not performing as well as expected. It will be interesting to watch and see how well Prometheus does in the weeks to come. I have no such concerns for Madagascar 3.

I wanted to update a couple other movies I have been following. The Avengers is still doing well and took in $10,809,000 over the weekend and has a domestic total of $571,860,000 and a foreign total of $824,400,000 for a grand total of $1,396,260,000. It is safe to say that The Avengers will not over take the number 1 & 2 movies, Avatar and Titanic, but it has had an excellent run and is performing much better than expected.

Sadly the movie Battleship is taking on water and is sinking fast. The domestic totals are abysmal. It has taken in $59, 830,000 since its release on May 18th. As you can see that some movies have an opening weekend larger than what Battleship has done in its run so far. It is doing better in the foreign market, $235,600,000, and with a production budget of $209 million it remains to be seen if the movie will make a profit.

 

Snow White and the Huntsman tops the box office.

Last Friday Snow White and the Huntsman opened in theaters nation wide and topped the box office for the weekend unseating last weeks winner, Men in Black III. Snow White took in an estimated $56,255,000  domestically. In its release over seas Snow White has taken in $39,300,000 for a grand total of $95,555,000. With a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com the reviews are not all that great. I don’t let the reviews bother me I have liked movies before that had had worse ratings and reviews. 

Lat week’s winner, Men in Black III, took in  $29,300,000 over the weekend bringing the domestic total to $112,300,000 and  $274,600,000 for a very respectable  $386,900,000 world wide total. MIB3 is getting pretty good reviews overall and has a 68% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com.

Probably the bigger news is the third place finisher, The Avengers, which took in  $20,273,000.00 over the weekend, hit  $552,737,000 and became the 3rd highest grossing movie domestically of all time. The Avengers is also the number 1 superhero movie of all time and has unseated the Dark Knight Rises for the number 3 spot in the all time domestic category. The Avengers has taken in $802,500,000 over seas for a whopping total of $1,355,237,000! This also places The Avengers as the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time behind James Cameron’s movies “Avatar” and “Titanic.”

Snow White And The Huntsman

Snow White And The Huntsman

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Ian McShane

Director: Rupert Sanders

Release Date: 1 June 2012

With the success of the Lord of the Rings franchise a decade ago Hollywood has been incorporating a sense of realism in their fantasy films. Snow White and the Huntsman is a gritty retelling of the Snow White story. This stars Chris Hemsworth, who played George Kirk in the most recent Star Trek movie and also played Thor in the movie of the same name as well as in the new Avengers movie. Hemsworth is the Huntsman who is sent by the tyrannical Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) who is out to kill her step-daughter Snow White, played by Twilight’s Kristen Stewart. The Huntsman spares her life as Snow White hides in an enchanted forest with magical creatures where she is aided by dwarfs (at least 8 or 9 of them and not 7) and a prince who assist her in bringing Queen Ravenna to her destruction.

 I am a special effects junkie and do not apologize for that. I really enjoy the magic of Hollywood and how they can create an entire world or universe that pulls the viewer into that experience. Now that CGI has become so realistic the experience of these fantasy worlds have become more captivating for me. Snow White And The Huntsman looks like a movie that can transport you and pull you into a world that is both magical and dark.