The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Posted on April 30, 2014 at 1:00 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence
Profanity: Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: extended comic book/superhero violence with characters in peril, injured and killed, chases, explosions, bombs, very sad deaths
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: May 2, 2014
Date Released to DVD: August 18, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN: B00JPS7HOA
TM and copyright Marvel 2014
TM and copyright Marvel 2014

This is not the angsty Spidey we know.  Just like the old television series theme song said, Peter Parker is “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”  We first see him exuberantly swinging through the skyscrapers, deliciously vertiginous in 3D.  His disposition is so sunny that he cheerfully greets a crook driving a truck filled with highly volatile stolen cargo with a happy, “Hi, Criminal!” and, when his offer of a handshake gets no response, offers a hug.

But then it’s down to business, with a gloriously witty and dexterous action scene as Spidey (Andrew Garfield) has to use his web to scoop up every one of the explosive vials rattling out of the truck before they hit the ground.  No more of the dreary re-cap of the origin story that weighed down chapter one.  We’re in it right from the beginning.

All seems to be going well for Peter, though this little fracas is making him late for graduation (not important) and the valedictory speech delivered by his true love, Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone).  The special effects and action scenes are just fine in this film, but what makes it qualify as “amazing” is the chemistry between real-life couple Garfield and Stone, so electrifying that even super-villain Electro (Jamie Foxx), master of all power sources, seems to fizzle by comparison.  The warmth (and downright heat) between the two leads make this far and away the most romantic superhero movie ever.  As performers, they understand and respond to each other so completely in synch that we are immediately engaged in whatever is going on between them.  They never waste time with the usual movie couple worries about how they feel about one another or whether they can trust each other or whether she knows and understands who he really is.  “You’re Spider-Man and I love that.  But I love Peter Parker more,” she tells him.

They have a bigger problem.

Peter is literally haunted by visions of Gwen’s late father (Denis Leary), who made Peter promise he would not put Gwen at risk by letting her become involved with him.  Gwen is understandably frustrated with his struggle, and especially with his insistence that the decision is up to him.  And, while she completely supports all of his crime-fighting activities (another refreshing departure from the usual storyline — no “I’m worried about you” or “Be careful”), she is committed to her own dreams, which may take her to England to study at Oxford.

Oh, and there are a couple of super-villains coming after Spidey, too.

If that seems like an afterthought, the movie makes it feel that way, too.  It raises our expectations by starting right in the middle of the action and getting the obligatory Stan Lee appearance out of the way early (though not foregoing a corny line of dialog).  But then it turns out to be a bit over-long at two and a half hours, and the big confrontation scenes are oddly truncated at the end.  Normally, the most important character in a superhero movie is the villain (hello, Tom Hiddleston as Loki).  For mostly better but sometimes worse, the main character in “Amazing Spider-Man 2” is the Peter-Gwen romance.  It is more than fine; it is great.  But it is so powerful that it throws off the rest of the film.

As we often see in movies with young male heroes, there are plenty of daddy issues for everyone.  Gwen and Peter have both lost their fathers (Peter has also lost his surrogate father, Uncle Ben), and Peter’s old friend Harry Osborne (Dane DeHaan) loses his (Chris Cooper) early in the film.  Peter finds out more about his late father (Campbell Scott), uncovering a cool secret hideaway, though it takes too long for him to figure it all out.  Peter and Harry have a great moment of awkward reconnection before falling into a familiar pattern of bro-talk.  But Harry is sick, and he is convinced that the only thing that can keep him alive is a transfusion of Spider-Man’s blood.  Spider-Man visits him to explain why that can’t happen, but is unable to persuade the desperate Harry.  “Your blood can’t make me die more.”

Meanwhile, the shy, nebbishy Max Dillon (Foxx), overlooked and mistreated, has (of course, this is Marvel) a lab accident that turns him into a blue glowy guy (reminiscent of “Watchman’s” Dr. Manhattan) who can channel and harness all power sources.  The problem with this character is that both his powers and his motivations are underwritten and he just does not have enough to do until too late in the film.  Dane DeHaan is well cast as the spoiled rich kid who is bitter and wounded by his father’s neglect, and thank goodness his supervillain make-up and super-space-skateboard-y thing is much better than Willem-Dafoe’s.  But again, we wait a long time for him.  Paul Giamatti is wasted in a small part, much of which takes place inside a big robot that could have come from the final confrontation in “The Incredibles.”

But those big, swoopy swings through the skyscrapers and terrific performances by Garfield and Stone make this a great way to start the summer movie season. (And you don’t have to sit through all the credits — no stinger scene at the end.)

Parents should know that this film has extended comic book/superhero violence with characters in peril, injured and killed, chases, explosions, bombs, and sad deaths of a parent and a major character.

Family discussion: Should Peter have kept his promise to Gwen’s father? How did learning the truth about his own father make a difference to Peter? Could Peter have changed Harry’s mind?

If you like this, try: “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Avengers”

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3D Action/Adventure Comic book/Comic Strip/Graphic Novel DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Fantasy Series/Sequel Superhero

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Posted on April 3, 2014 at 6:00 pm

Chris Evans, left, as Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson (Falcon) in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." (Zade Rosenthal / Marvel)
Chris Evans, left, as Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson (Falcon) in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” (Zade Rosenthal / Marvel)

This is how you make a superhero movie. Director brothers Joe and Anthony Russo are best known for sitcoms with few but passionate fans (“Community,” “Happy Endings,” “Arrested Development”) and the underrated crime comedy “Welcome to Collinwood.” That is not the kind of credential that usually leads to a big budget comic book movie. But they prove to be just what the doctor ordered, funny where it should be, exciting where it should be, smarter than it needs to be, and just plain fun.  Plus, I may be late to the party, but now I totally get the shield thing now as offensive and defensive weapons and it is very cool.

This is the sequel to the WWII-era origin story, where Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) a 98-pound weakling, volunteered for a government experiment that turned him into a super-strong super-soldier.  But he got frozen in a block of ice and was thawed out more than sixty years later in time to join “The Avengers.” the storyline continues Captain America’s adjustment to the 21st century.  We first see him running around Washington D.C.’s monuments neighborhood, repeatedly lapping vet Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).  Pretty soon, they’re talking some mild smack and Wilson is telling Rogers what he has to add to his catch-up list of cultural touchstones: Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man. Also on the list “Star Trek/Wars” and Steve Jobs. Evans and Mackie have a natural chemistry that makes that scene very funny but also shows us how much both of them need a friend who understands what it’s like to be a soldier home from the war.

But then Captain is called into action again.  Alongside the Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, tough, smart, funny, and just a touch flirtatious, as she chats with Rogers about girls he might want to ask out while they trade blows with the bad guys.  There’s a mission, a hijacked cargo ship (I kept looking for a captain-esque crossover from Captain Phillips).  Straight-ahead Captain America, used to fighting Nazis and other incontrovertibly bad guys who dress the part, expects that the people on his side will treat him with the same trust and respect and integrity he gives them in return.  But this is the 21st century, and it’s complicated.

Rogers knows how to follow orders and he knows how to fight.  Now he must learn to understand who he is fighting and what he is fighting for.  It’s one thing when the bad guy has a Red Skull and wants total world domination because he is a fascist.  It is another when both the good guys and the bad guys wear suits and speak in tempered, diplomatic tones, and want total world domination because it is best for everyone.  “Don’t trust anyone,” Nick Fury tells Rogers.  And Rogers, used to trusting everyone (how many people today would allow the government to inject them with an experimental serum?), has to learn what that means.

And it is one thing to take on a dozen bad guys at a time, knowing none of them have superpowers.  But here Rogers must face an assassin called The Winter Soldier, someone as strong as he is, someone without any of the second-guessing that comes from understanding the complexities of the situation, someone who cannot be reasoned with or argued with or appealed to.  And someone Rogers knew and trusted in the past.

The easy chemistry between Cap, Sam, and Natasha/Black Widow adds depth and heart to the story. Natasha needs to learn to trust as Cap needs to learn when not to trust. “How do we know who the bad guys are?” Sam asks as they race into battle. “The ones who are shooting at us,” Cap tells him.

There is just enough depth and gloss and humor and heart to set off the action, gorgeously staged in and around Washington, D.C.  The elevated Whitehurst Freeway along the Potomac River gets the super-fight it was built for and it is a beaut.  Wait until you see what’s been going on under the Potomac.  It was a whole other level of pleasure to see a movie that gets Washington’s geography right. Most important, this is a film that respects the genre and the audience. Captain America and his fans get the movie they deserve.

Parents should know that this film includes constant comic book, action-style, superhero violence with many characters injured and killed, guns, bombs, chases, crashes, explosions, weapons of mass destruction, discussion of genocide, torture, fights, and brief strong language.

Family discussion: If you were advising Captain America on cultural developments while he was gone, what would you suggest? What is the biggest problem he faces in trying to adjust to modern times? How do the plans under consideration here relate to current discussions on world affairs?

If you like this, try: “The Avengers” and the other Marvel superhero movies

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Action/Adventure Comic book/Comic Strip/Graphic Novel Fantasy Science-Fiction Series/Sequel Superhero

Noah

Posted on March 27, 2014 at 8:00 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief suggestive content
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking and drunkenness
Violence/ Scariness: Disturbing images, peril, chaos, characters injured and killed, dead bodies, violence, attacks, sexual assaults, girls sold into slavery
Diversity Issues: None
Date Released to Theaters: March 28, 2014
Date Released to DVD: July 28, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN: B00JBGWP3Y

Noah_poster“Noah” is a serious, thoughtful, reverent movie that, like its title character, wrestles with the big issues of morality, survivor guilt, and strengthening a connection to the divine.  It is also a big, grand adventure with drama and special effects.  It should satisfy believers, seekers, and those who just want an exciting story, well told.

Writer/director Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”) shows us a Noah (Russell Crowe) who struggles to be a good man and do as God wants. Only ten generations from Adam and Eve, he is haunted by the stories of the Fall and Cain’s murder of his brother. When he was a boy, he witnessed the murder of his own father at the hand of the brutal leader of the descendants of Cain (Ray Winstone as Tubal-Cain). Now, he tries to protect his wife, Naameh (Jennifer Connelly), and three sons from the marauders.

Noah lives lightly on the earth, gently chiding his son for picking a flower because that interfere with its work of spreading seeds. He and his family do not eat animals; they respect the innocence of all creatures, unlike Tubal-Cain who defines himself as someone who takes without regard for anything but his own urges and lust for power.

Noah is filled with an ominous sense that he is receiving omens and seeks the advice of his mystic of a grandfather, Methuselah (Sir Anthony Hopkins).   He begins to understand that he is commanded by The Creator to build an ark and collect the animals of the earth and to preserve them in the coming storm that will wipe out all of life on Earth.  He will be helped in this by The Watchers, fallen angels who were once pure light but are now punished for their mistakes by being imprisoned in enormous bodies of mud and rock.

As Auden reminds us, the grand, sweeping events of the world do not happen purely.  They occur in the midst of human lives that are messy and imperfect.  While Noah struggles to follow the will of The Creator, he has to deal with problems at home.  Ila (Emma Watson), a girl Noah and his family rescued after her entire community was slaughtered by Tubal-Cain, is loved by Noah’s son, Shem (“Romeo & Juliet’s” Douglas Booth), who loves her, too.  But due to her injuries, she cannot have children, and she does not want to keep him from being a father and creating a new generation.  Ham (Logan Lerman of “Percy Jackson”) is furious that there is no prospect of a wife and family for him.

And then there is Tubal-Cain, used to taking whatever he wants.  He will do anything to stay alive through the flood and become king of whatever the world will be afterward.   And he senses that Ham may be susceptible to joining him.

We rarely see Bible stories told with such artistry and power.  The acting is superb and the special effects are well done.  The big moments, the flood, the omens, the Watchers, the thousands of animals moving inexorably toward the ark, are all handled with meaning and import.  When Noah tells his family one of the few stories that they have in this still-new human world, the story of creation, we feel the nothingness that was before.  Story-telling itself becomes a way to shape the world and form an understanding of patterns, purpose, and meaning.

Men wind a snakeskin around their arms in the earliest of rituals and prayers and we see the flicker of what would become a daily observance for Orthodox Jews over the millennia through the present, the phylactery leather strips that men use in their morning prayers.  We are reminded that this is a time before Jesus and before Abraham, when there was no organized religion and no established set of beliefs and practices.  There is not even the word “God.”  It is just “Creator.”

The innocence and the impulse to reach out toward the heavens are very moving.  So is the way that Noah grapples with what today we might call survivor guilt or PTSD.  And he struggles to find his better angels.  Tubal-Cain is not just a man who wants to fight him; he is that part of Noah himself that is all lower urges toward flesh and power, the impulse to trap and smash and to break laws even in a world where laws have not been established.

While some viewers and some who have not even seen the film have objected to this portrayal (or, in the case of strictly Muslim groups, any portrayal of a religious figure), most should see this film as an eternal story well told in a manner that is itself a form of worship in prompting us to think more profoundly about our own choices and connections.

Parents should know that this film includes epic/Biblical violence including murder, battles, flood, some disturbing images, parent killed in front of child, character trampled to death, discussion of infanticide, some disturbing images, non-explicit sexual situation, and childbirth.

Family discussion: Why did the two groups of humans develop so differently? What should Noah have done about Na’el? Why did he separate from the family after the flood?

If you like this, try: “The Fountain” and “Pi” by the same director and Biblical-era classics like “Ben-Hur” and “The Ten Commandments”

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Action/Adventure Based on a book DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Epic/Historical

Sabotage

Posted on March 27, 2014 at 6:00 pm

sabotage-movie_poster-261x400“Sabotage” begins with two painful images.  A woman is being horribly tortured.  And Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the man watching it happen on video, is trying to act.

As generic as its title, “Sabotage” wastes no time or effort on such, um, expendables as character, plot, dialog, or making sense.  This is all about gut-wrenching (literally) violence, as in entrails-out corpses and sliding around in pools of blood.  It is often said of middle-grade movies that if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the film.  Not in this case.  If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen a better film than the one playing in theaters.  The trailer makes it look like a story of DEA agents vs. drug cartels.  And it makes it look like a story with a plot.  Ticket buyers might want to contact the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising on both counts.

In Training Day, screenwriter David Ayer had two advantages missing here: galvanizing performance by Oscar-winner Denzel Washington and some emotional heft to the storyline, with Ethan Hawke as the audience’s entry point to the soul-destroying world of combatants in the drug wars.  Since then, the soul-destruction has come more from watching his subsequent films than from the degrading violence-for-the-sake-of-violence stories on screen.

Schwarzenegger is no Denzel Washington.  And this story has no deeper resonance.  Schwarzenegger plays Breacher, the leader of a group of badass DEA agents.  They all have tattoos and tough handles like “Pyro” and “Grinder and mad SEAL-level combat skilz.  And after they mow down a houseful of presumed bad guys (sparing the children), they say quippy things like “Cleanup on aisle 3.” (This is one of perhaps a dozen sentences in the film without the f-word.)  And of course they have the kinds of tight bonds you only get from risking death and killing bad guys together, exemplified and reinforced with visits to strip clubs and lots of high-testosteronic insults about people’s mothers and what everyone’s private parts have been doing.  Plus intrusive product placement (apparently) of PBR.  Fun for everyone!

Our merry team of marauders lifts a cool ten million from some bad guys, but then it gets lifted from them.  So now everyone suspects everyone.  As a Justice Department official warns in a typically heavy-handed exchange, trust is like virginity — once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.  Breacher’s bosses don’t trust him.  The drug dealers they stole from and the other drug dealers they’ve busted over the years want them dead.  And, because the gang never got the money, they begin to lose trust in each other.

This gets more volatile and intense as, Ten Little Indians-style, the group starts getting picked off, first the “that guy” actors whose faces look vaguely familiar, and then working up to the bigger stars, one of whom may be behind all of this.  The cop investigating the murders is Caroline (Brit Olivia Williams attempting a Georgia drawl), and her sidekick Jackson (Harold Perrineau, apparently visiting from some other, better movie and a welcome bright spot in this one).  Oh, they’re all quippy, too, but more adept.

There’s a lot of uninspired, mind-numbing, standard-issue bang bang with ludicrous turns — a corpse nailed to a ceiling, a car chase and shootout in a public place with apparently no interest whatsoever by the local police, an experienced law enforcement officer who neglects to bring back-up to a meeting sure to turn lethal, a woman who finds Schwarzenegger enthralling.  He isn’t, and neither is this movie.

Parents should know that this film includes extended and extremely explicit and graphic violence, including rape and torture, with many disturbing images, characters injured and killed, crude and explicit sexual references, nudity, strippers, constant strong and vulgar language, drinking, smoking, drug dealing and drug use, corruption and murder for hire.

Family discussion: How do the experiences of Breacher’s team make them work more effectively together? How do the same experiences divide them?

If you like this, try: “Training Day” and “Internal Affairs”

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Action/Adventure Crime

Divergent

Posted on March 20, 2014 at 6:00 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality
Profanity: Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Mind-altering drugs
Violence/ Scariness: Intense and graphic peril and violence with many characters injured and killed, some disturbing images, guns, fighting, suicide, deaths of parents, sexual assault
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: March 21, 2014
Date Released to DVD: August 4, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN: B00GQQ75QO

divergent posterAnother day, another movie based on darkly dystopic book trilogy with a brave and beautiful teenaged girl who is the only one who can save the world. This time it is Tris (Shailene Woodley), who lives in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the ravages of a barely-remembered but devastating war have resulted in a totalitarian society that appears benign but is brutal and corrupt.

What is left of civilization has evolved or devolved into a rigidly divided society. There are five factions each named for its sole defining characteristic. Annoyingly, some of those names are nouns and some adjectives, because none of the factions have grammar as a specialty, but they are descriptive. There is Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). The tasks of the society are assigned appropriately. Amity are the farmers. Dauntless are a combination of law enforcement and military. Abnegation care for everyone, even the factionless, and due to their tradition, culture, and ethos of putting the good of others before themselves, they are the governing body.

Each year, all the 16-year-olds are tested to determine whether they will stay in their faction of origin or are better suited for another. If they leave, they never go home again. The slogan is “Faction over blood.”

Beatrice Prior’s test shows that she is a rare “divergent,” combining the qualities of three of the factions: Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless.  This means that she has a unique ability to solve problems and understand issues more deeply in a way that threatens the ruling and would-be ruling powers.  She does not tell anyone and chooses Dauntless while her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort, who will be Woodley’s romantic interest in the highly anticipated upcoming “Fault in Our Stars”), chooses Erudite.

Beatrice choses a new name for herself: Tris.  She and the other inductees are subjected to an intensive boot camp to learn to fight and prove their courage.  The top performers will stay with Dauntless.  The ones who do not make it will be factionless, which means homeless and shunned.  Part of the training includes sessions in a fear room, where the subject’s worst and most disturbing fears are revealed to themselves and to the people conducting the tests.  Tris’s test is overseen by Dauntless leader Four (hunky-but-sensitive-for-a-Dauntless Theo James).  There is a strong connection between them for reasons they do not yet understand.

Kate Winslet plays Jeanine, the calm but steely Erudite who acts as a sort of Chief Operating Officer of the entire community.  She is convinced that human nature is something to triumph over, even eliminate entirely, in order to preserve the peace, and if preserving the peace means chaos and murder, she will not hesitate because she believes it is for the greater good.  Not being Candors, the Erudites have been spreading rumors about the Abnegations to try to take over as rulers.  They cannot do it without the support of the faction with physical courage.  What is the best way to get that support?

Much of the storyline involves the series of physical and psychological tests that Tris and her fellow inductees must take, knowing that anyone who does not excel in every category will be kicked out and shunned.  It is fun to see Tris come into her own, making the most of all she has to draw from and to give to others.  She knows you do not have to be harsh to be strong, or weak to be kind.  And her divergent thinking ability enables her to evaluate options, assess probabilities, and plan strategically.  Woodley carries the most improbable of the story’s twists with sincerity and sweetness that keeps us on her side.  And it is a relief, for once, to have a YA female-led trilogy that does not depend on a love triangle to hold our interest.

Parents should know that this film includes intense and graphic peril and violence with many characters injured and killed, some disturbing images, guns, fighting, suicide, loss of parents, mind-altering drugs, some strong language, sexual assault, romantic kissing and brief discussion of waiting to have sex.

Family discussion: Which group would you pick and why? What is the significance of Four’s name? What compromises of freedom are necessary for peace?

If you like this, try: the books by Veronica Roth

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Action/Adventure Based on a book DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Fantasy Science-Fiction Series/Sequel Stories about Teens
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