Returning After Long Absence

To deal with unfinished business. I can't believe I never even finished my summer movie reviews. It's February! But I'll do that here and vow to do better.

Ok.



Predators

I love the Predator mythos. The Predators are so cool. They’re bigger than Terminators. They’ve got better toys than Batman. They don’t seem to be susceptible to any of the usual movie foe weaknesses. They don’t run home to protect their own eggs, they don’t shrivel in daylight, or hesitate over blondes in filmy nightgowns. They don’t have Mommy issues. They are high-tech and crafty, and while you may be able to elude a few of their vision settings, eventually, they’ll adjust to one that will find you. The only thing you can really use against them is their honor code, and since that’s backed up with high tech weaponry and about 8 feet of mean, you’re really better off just cowering and hoping they decide you’re not a worthy kill.

One thing I really enjoyed about Predators was the parallel between the alien monsters and the human ones. Faced with each other and pitted against their own inhumane tricks, the humans have to admit the horrible things they’ve done and that they deserve what’s happening. One character early in offers the theory that they are in hell, and when we learn about them, it does seem they deserve to be.

There’s a chance for some of them to atone though. My favorite scene is where the Yakuza character does the honorable thing (also read:crazy) by taking up the samurai sword and fighting a Predator in a field with winds and tall grass swirling around them. It’s a surprisingly beautiful scene for a popcorn alien vs human movie, but Predators has a few of those scattered around in all the action. Little pockets of awesome in what was already a pretty cool movie.


Despicable Me

There was a problem with the speakers at the drive-in, so every now and then we’d have no audio, but the strength of the story and the animation was that we could tell what was happening pretty well even without it.

The idea of a villain who’s not that good at villainy isn’t new. What made Gru unique was that even if he himself was bad, not all his ideas were. He wasn’t incompetent and even if his minions were more cute and adoring than efficient, he didn’t mistreat them. So, I guess even if Gru was the bad guy, he really wasn’t that bad. His mother was much meaner than he was. And his mentor had a cold streak that Gru did not.

Even though a lot of his schemes started out for nefarious purposes, they didn’t end that way. He has all these minions to carry out his complex plans, but he doesn’t mistreat them. He adopts the girls for no other reason but to use them and then ditch them at an amusement park, but they look to him for protection and with admiration and that seems to be both a new and pleasant experience for him.

We knew going in that living with three orphan girls would change him. If repeated viewings of Annie in childhood taught us nothing else, it is that exposure to plucky orphans can melt the hardest heart. If Gru’s heart is hard, it’s because it’s been kicked around so badly. Even if his first impulse leans toward villainy, it isn’t long before he is coming to the rescue. Having a criminal mastermind for a Dad might not be so bad. I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see it in 3D.

The Last Airbender

I loved the cartoon series, but I was kinda relieved that the movie fast-forwarded through the plot parts I already knew. The obvious: The acting wasn’t that great, either too wooden or too over the top, but since it was the first time out for some of the cast, that’s not too surprising. I had trouble seeing the guy from Daily Show as a deadly Fire Lord. He also reminded me of an old boyfriend. It was just hard to take him seriously. The special effects were good though. Especially the water-bending, I thought.


I also saw Sin City. I got it on Netflix and it took awhile for me to watch it but when I did, I was hooked. Awesome, awesome. The Hard Goodbye was my favorite part. Holy crap, but Mickey Rourke looked just like Marv. Awesome! And I liked the black and white with a little color effect. I saw The Spirit in theaters a year or two before I saw Sin City and yeesh, the black white and lil bit o’ color was about the only thing I liked about that goofy movie. Sin City was tons better. Even when it was ridiculous how badass every single person was, it was the cool brand of ridiculous.

Sigh. Now I have to wait until May for my next movie extravaganza...