Splice

OPENING: 06/04/2010

STUDIO: Warner Bros.

RUN TIME: 104 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
The future is born

Opening Statement
The first time I saw a trailer for Splice, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes a little. It looked like the sort of disposable creature feature that we’ve seen all too many times. Thankfully, the actual film is a surprisingly thoughtful and intelligent effort that stands out nicely in a crowd of underwhelming summer movies.

Facts of the Case
Clive (Adrien Brody, The Darjeeling Limited) and Elsa (Sarah Polley, Dawn of the Dead) are genetic scientists who are involved with each other both professionally and romantically. They’ve been doing groundbreaking work in the world of genetics, splicing together various sorts of animal DNA in the hopes of creating hybrids that will lead to cures for various diseases. Unfortunately, once they make a breakthrough the company forbids them from doing further research and orders them to do whatever is necessary to milk whatever money there is to be made out of the work they’ve already done. Clive and Elsa begrudgingly comply with the latter part of this request, but ignore the former in favor of continuing to do their own experiments on the side.

Dismissing questions of ethics and morality, Clive and Elsa attempt to splice animal and human DNA. Their efforts are a success. The initial plan is simply to observe their creation for a while and terminate before it even comes to full term, but the plans are disrupted when the fully-developed creature emerges far sooner than anticipated. Clive and Elsa can’t help but form an emotional attachment to the curious beast, naming her “Dren” and determining to care for her. Alas, Dren is aging at a remarkably rapid rate, meaning that she moves from infancy to adolescence in a matter of days. As Dren develops new tendencies and physical features, Clive and Elsa are torn between their feelings of compassion for their creation and their concerns about what she is capable of.

The Evidence
Though the film loosely takes on the structure of a horror film (and it’s certainly being marketed to that audience), Splice is essentially a science-fiction-driven drama with elements of horror sprinkled on top for flavor. The film takes place in a world that isn’t too far removed from our own; it isn’t very difficult to imagine a scientific breakthrough along the lines of what is seen. Granted, the specific elements would probably be quite different, but Splice is a reasonably realistic “what if?” tale that’s up to far more than merely making the wheezy old statement that man ought not attempt to play God. Sure, the old “how far is too far?” debate is part of the proceedings, but the film digs deeper than that.

Splice explores the family dynamic in ways that are alternately emotionally affecting, subversive and flat-out sinister; offering a look at two people who are essentially having to adjust very quickly to a creature moving through every stage of childhood at a rapid rate. Raising a child is something that can be both a joyous experience and a very frustrating one, and in this instance the joys and sorrows are elevated immensely given the specifics of Dren’s existence. Imagine the delight in Elsa’s discovery that Dren is able to make sophisticated neural connections, and the terror in the discovery that Dren may have deadly carnivorous tendencies. The stakes are higher than usual, but there are very familiar echoes in the relationship between Dren and her “parents.” However, being forced to adjust so quickly to Dren’s changes eventually leads the scientists to make decisions based less on carefully-considered thought and more on emotional impulses, which naturally leads to further complications.

The trailers suggest that Dren is a savage monster that has been unleashed by irresponsible scientists, and some may actually come away from the film feeling that’s the case… but I don’t think so. I couldn’t help but feel a great deal of pity for her; she isn’t an instinctively evil creature. The film quietly suggests that if splicing together animals and humans is immoral, it isn’t because we would be creating some horrible thing but because we are currently incapable of giving that creation an appropriate environment to grow in. Dren is a unique being with unique needs; it’s incredibly difficult for humans to respond to her correctly without doing something to cause damage. I think a case can be made for the idea that almost everything negative Dren does over the course of the film is a result of specific decisions that were made by the humans responsible for her (and I’m not talking about the decision to create her in the first place).

The film tackles a lot of weighty material; the topics range from abortion to child abuse. However, the movie succeeds because it manages to work on both a metaphoric level and on a basic surface level. I will confess some disappointment at how conventional the final 15 minutes or so feels, as it seems like a requisite sacrifice made to those who came for the standard-issue shocks and jolts. Despite this, even the moments of convention do make sense in context and continue to work well in that dual-layered manner. The performances by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are both quite good, as each is asked to run the emotional gamut and tackle some rather complicated scenes. Good as they are, the show is stolen by French actress Delphine Chaneac; so intensely expressive as Dren under all the heavy makeup and CGI effects. Using only a collection of purrs and screeches, she tells us everything we need to know about her.

Closing Statement
Though it stops short of achieving greatness, Splice is an uncommonly good genre film that kept me involved and intrigued from beginning to end. Recommended.

The Verdict
8/10

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

OPENING: 05/28/2010

STUDIO: Disney

RUN TIME: 116 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Defy the Future

Opening Statement
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a film that attempts two ambitious things. First, it seeks to provide viewers with a genuinely good film based on a video game. Second, it attempts to deliver a successor to Disney’s ultra-popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. While it doesn’t quite deliver on either count, the film is nonetheless a diverting adventure that proves a pleasant experience if not an entirely satisfying one.

Facts of the Case
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Prince Dastan, who began life as an orphan on the streets of Ancient Persia before being adopted by the king. Now he’s an adult, fighting alongside his two brothers in a battle to conquer a city that has supposedly been selling weapons to Persia’s enemies. The battle is won, but the beautiful Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton, Quantum of Solace) insists that her city has been attacked unjustly. Dastan returns home and presents his father with a gift in celebration of their army’s victory: a prayer robe from the conquered city. Alas, Dastan failed to realize that the robe was laced with some sort of deadly toxin, and his father is killed as a result.

Now, Dastan finds himself in the unlikely position of being a fugitive on the run, with the even more unlikely luck/misfortune of having the fiery Tamina as his companion. As he attempts to escape the clutches of those who would capture or kill him, he tries to solve the mystery of who is really responsible for his father’s death. The odds are against Dastan, but he does have one powerful tool at his disposal: a dagger with magical powers that has the ability to turn back time.

The Evidence
The dagger is both a blessing and a curse to the film, providing the movie with a nifty twist that generates some interest and an obnoxious plot device that just about kills any sense of dramatic weight. It has the ability to allow its user to go back a few seconds in time to undo any bad things that might have just happened. I won’t spoil the movie for you, but suffice it to say that a considerable number of the negative things that occur in the movie are quickly undone by the device (rendering normally-important developments like the death of a character rather bland). In many ways, the film reminded me of Tony Scott’s Déjà vu, which employed time travel gimmicks in a much more compelling and dramatically resonant manner (interestingly, both movies were produced by Jerry Bruckheimer).

That stuff aside, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a pretty straightforward action-adventure movie that gets the job done without really offering any surprises. Gyllenhaal’s Dastan is sheepishly charming and witty, while Arterton’s Tamina is tough, smart and bold. Both know their way around an action scene. We’ve seen these two characters time and time again in modern action films, but Gyllenhaal and Arterton handle their roles well enough. They generate a little bit of chemistry in their scenes together… nothing earth-shattering, but enough to make us care about the two of them making it to the end credits alive.

If Gyllenhaal and Arterton are this film’s Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley, then Alfred Molina is its Johnny Depp. His supporting turn goes a long way towards preventing tedium from setting in, bringing a comic spark and charming originality to the proceedings that is more than welcome. Essaying a seedy, government-hating fixer of ostrich races, Molina cheerfully steals the show from his considerably more dour co-stars (even Ben Kingsley, whose enigmatic presence is less compelling than it was earlier this year in Shutter Island). Interestingly, the film uses the Molina character as a sly satire of the modern-day tea party movement, giving him some amusing speeches about the evils of taxes and his suspicions of big government conspiracies. It’s not too subtle a reference, but it’s an entertaining one (many in the audience at my screening chuckled knowingly; though some heartily endorsed the character’s statements).

Mike Newell (a skillful director mostly defined by his lack of definability) does what he can by delivering a film that is coherent both in terms of action and narrative, steadily paced and technically polished. Still, it very much feels like he’s a hired gun in this instance, as there isn’t much that feels distinct or unique about the direction of the film. It compares well to the overcooked, random chaos of a popcorn movie director like Michael Bay, which is the nicest compliment I can pay the movie. It should also be noted that while the film is rated PG-13, it’s a rather innocent affair geared at a younger audience than such recent PG-13 action flicks as Robin Hood and The Losers.

Closing Statement
I can’t really say I had a bad time watching Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It’s an acceptable dose of summer fun, but it doesn’t leave a lasting impression and it certainly doesn’t seem poised to be a tent pole movie franchise. If all you demand is two hours of lightweight entertainment and nothing more, then it should do the trick.

The Verdict
6/10

WonderCon kicked off this Friday in San Francisco, and film fans and press members just got a first look at the trailer for Paul W.S. Anderson’s upcoming Resident Evil: Afterlife. This preview was created specifically for WonderCon, and to tell you the truth, it totally delivers the goods. No seriously, it really looks awesome.

I won’t specifically describe what happens in the trailer because I certainly don’t want to spoil it for those who have not seen it yet, but what I can say is that it all looks glorious in RealD 3D. The film was shot using the same technology James Cameron used for Avatar, and the trailer makes sure audiences know this by the time the credits roll.

I enjoyed this preview because it doesn’t really give away the entire storyline even though it shows a lot more than just a traditional teaser trailer. The only thing I can tell you is that we’ll all be in for some serious action sequences packed with some wicked stunts and gun battles. One thing is for sure: Paul W.S. Anderson and his crew made sure to fully utilize the fantastic 3D technology and exploit many of its endless possibilities.

Anderson, Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter all stopped by tonight to introduce the trailer and answer some questions, and I will have the full Q&A session online shortly, so stay tuned. The house was packed with fans of the franchise and first audience reactions have been quite positive. Resident Evil: Afterlife opens nationwide Sept. 10, 2010.

Click here for Q&A about the film

Check out the trailer at EW.com

I’m fascinated by the art of the trailer myself–it’s a powerful tool for piquing interest in films, manipulating and shaping public perception before audiences even get to see a film. A well-cut trailer can be honest and forthcoming, but it can also lie through its teeth and completely misrepresent its subject. You may not agree with the list as a whole, but it’s a brave offering.

Special points go for their choice for their #5, which I still contend is the most perfect example of a brilliant trailer for a lousy film.

(via IFC)

The film is untiled, and the teaser shows no actual scenes. However, the focus is clearly on government bailouts in the past eight months. This trailer was played in N.Y. and L.A. with actual ushers doing what Moore is saying. It’s both hilarious and hideous. Just remember: it may make you feel…GOOD!

I’d write a big clever lambasting of it here, but frankly, the two sentence post on Kotaku does the job perfectly. Embedded video after the jump.

From Kotaku:

Look, I don’t even like Dragonball. But still, I know enough about it to know this trailer will make people upset.

Yep, and yep.

(via Kotaku)

A lot of films get posted up onto YouTube, but most get yanked off after a few days because of the whole “illegal file sharing” and “intellectual property” thing. Not so for No End In Sight, a 2007 Academy Award Nominee (Best Documentary Feature) whose creators have taken the unusual (but clever) step of posting their entire film up on the popular video sharing site.

As of today, September 1st, until the end of the 2008 US Presidential Election in November, the curious can watch the entire documentary online for free. From the film’s website:

The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts. NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy – the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military – largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. How did a group of men with little or no military experience, knowledge of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such flagrantly debilitating decisions? NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and facts behind the Bush Administration’s decisions and their consequences on the ground to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war.  

Check after the jump below for the film’s trailer.

I haven’t watched the film yet, but it is worth noting if only for the film’s unique delivery system. After all, you don’t often get to watch Oscar-caliber films at YouTube–at least not legally. For the more technologically inept of us, the film is also now available on DVD via Magnolia Pictures.

Video games make great video games. Video games, historically speaking, make lousy cinematic adaptations, except for Super Mario Bros. You’d think that people would start to realize this and give up the whole idea of trying to adapt one media into another. And yet Hollywood keeps on trying. You gotta give them points for dedication.

The latest video game adaptation to make it to the silver screen is Max Payne, a visceral shoot-em-up in the film noir style that screamed for adaptation from day one. The game itself was practically a screenplay waiting to happen.

Irritatingly, this newly released trailer looks… good. It’s like somebody mashed up The Crow and the lobby sequence of the first Matrix movie and stuck Marky Mark in the mix. The cynical voice in my head knows with certainty that the film (like all video game adaptions) will inherently suck, but the nerdy part of me can’t help but be just the tiniest bit impressed.

Embedded video below after the jump.

(via AICN)

First impression: not too shabby. It fits the tone of the book well, and gives just the right amount of teasing and foreshadowing. Considering how well the general public knows the subject matter of these films, it is an impressive bit of editing to put together a teaser that actually excites.

Check out the video embedded below the jump. Be sure and sound off in the comments below, and let us know what you think!

Not too bad, if you ask me. I like me some gravitas!

(via Trailer Addict)

Approximately nine months ago, my wife brought up an interesting proposal: “Why Don’t We Go to San Diego for Comic Con?” This was without virtually any prompting on my part; I had no horse in the race, so to speak. I’m not that big of a comic book fan, but we were looking for something to do. So why not go, right? And if you’re going to go, go in style; I booked a room at the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, which seemed like a pretty cool status symbol. Aside from an experience at the franchise’s New York restaurant years ago, I did forget that the Hard Rock plays music. All the time. But, compared to other places, it was rock music. The merchandise shop played Black Flag in there, so booyah bitches!

Anyway, the film lineup was pretty good, and I’ll be sharing those here after the jump of the films I managed to sit in on. I’m sure the webs have the footage somewhere, so feel free to search on your own time. On with the opinions!

The Day The Earth Stood Still: Fox was the first to the show, and Keanu Reeves (The Matrix), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) and Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) came out to pimp the remake of the 1951 classic to be released in December. It was discussed, sometimes at great length, with a couple of shots from the film, and an extended trailer. No, we didn’t get to see Gort, but WETA is doing the work on him now, and things are still very close to the vest. Aside from Connelly being VERY much out of place, barely talking, I’d come in fresh to this, and personally am still wondering why it’s being remade to begin with.

Max Payne: Mark Wahlberg (The Departed), Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Chris Bridges (a.k.a., the artist formerly known as Ludacris) and John Moore (The Omen) discuss the film which is coming out in October. Wahlberg clearly had fun and played up to the crowd, and everyone talked about how fun it was to do it, meaning how cool it was to fire weapons all day. Moore talked about their own little version of “bullet time” that was employed for the film. Aside from an extended trailer cut to a live version of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” this was a bit of a yawner.

Wolverine: Ole Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman came onstage as an unannounced surprise to throngs of delirious hysterics. After shaking the hand of Len Wein, the creator of the comic book icon, Jackman was happy to finally actually be onstage, as he’d apparently missed the X-Men presentations that occurred in previous Cons.  I’m going to rattle off the cast here; Ryan Reynolds (The Nines) as Deadpool, Liev Schreiber (The Sum of All Fears) as Sabretooth, Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights as Gambit, to name a few who appear in the trailer. And it’s loaded with action too, which doesn’t hurt. Definitely the one people will be looking forward to in ‘09, unless the GI Joe teaser comes strong.

As a side note; what was particularly interesting about the Fox presentation was that a lot, and I mean A LOT of people got in early so they could be ready for Summit Pictures’ presentation of Twilight. Everyone around my wife and I was there in their “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” shirts, whatever that means, but unfortunately I was called away for other events. I’m told though that the Twilight footage was essentially an extended version of the second trailer with the climatic ballet room sequence, and everyone ate it up. As they should I suppose. But I thought it was a little funny that the Fox gang seemed to trot out their products to hordes of Twilight fans, without knowing what they were getting into. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Watchmen: Try as I might to stay away from the masses, I snuck in for a second, where Zack Snyder (300) and the cast were discussing the film. Aside from an extended trailer, more shots of the heroes were shown which really illustrated Snyder’s vision and faithfulness to the source material, and since this is being released in March, expect some more mad money on a Snyder production.

The Spirit: Frank Miller (Sin City) might be an influential comic book figure, but he needs to lay off the liquor or something. At times he seemed to ramble, and cast members Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Jaime King (Blow) seemed to notice. Still though, the footage that was shown of the film looks good, done visually much in the same way that Sin City was. While there’s humor, there are also a couple of required action sequences that look impressive as well. A concern I have a little with this film is that it might not seem to possess the spark of similar comic book films that possess a similar visual style, but I hope I’m proved wrong in this because at least from what I saw, The Spirit could potentially be a good film.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: Showed up a little late to the game on this one, as I was drinking with some of the cast of ABC Family’s Samurai Girl, which appears to be a Buffy-ish show, except without some of the wit and wisdom. But I will say this about Kevin Smith, he’s got some fans in the biz, for sure, and now in this film, he’s got a couple members of the Judd Apatow stock company in Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) and Justin Long (Accepted) together in this film that looks pretty funny. Bonus points for Long’s, er, “moment” with Brandon Routh. Yes, that Brandon Routh, from Superman Returns. Aside from listening to Rogen’s kind of funny Ian McKellen joke and Jason Mewes looking very impressive all cleaned up from addiction, Zack and Miri comes out in October hopefully, and should be worth the hubbub, even if they might have to change the title.

Terminator Salvation: You know, Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard(?) aside, McG seems to carry himself as a bit of a pompous arse. Why exactly would we want to see a film about a battle with first-generation terminator robots? Why would Arnold Schwarzenegger even consider appearing in this? Ugh. To be fair, McG (Charlie’s Angels) likes paying homage to the previous three films, even including attendees who dressed like Robert Patrick and Linda Hamilton from T2 on stage with him, along with an Asian kid whose Arnold accent seemed to venture into Walken-esque territory. He showed an extended teaser of sorts, without any CG shots in it, and the results? Meh. I counted nods to The Road Warrior and The Great Escape in there, along with something that looked visually a little like Charlie’s Angels, right now to the hot chick almost taking her top off. I’ve got to say I liked the teaser in front of Dark Knight more than I did this stuff, and unlike some of the buzz so far, am concerned that this “reboot” might nuke the franchise from orbit.

Pineapple Express: Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sneak into the preview screenings that apparently were going on in town, and the footage that Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin), Rogen and gang brought seemed a little to be desired. It seemed like they basically brought stuff from the website or something. One of the scenes came from the Superbad DVD. But come on, you know what this film is going to be about, you’re either going to go see it or you’re not. Oh, and Green Hornet is still on the track of getting made, so yay to that.

Well, that’s the short story on the film side. A quick note on things to come, expect a review of Tropic Thunder in the very near future, along with TV Verdict thoughts from the Heroes and Lost panels, including some teasing of Heroes 3^rd season, as the opener was aired in its entirely exclusively for the Comic Con folks. Until next time, get the funk out your minds and into your hearts people!