Oblivion: Sci Fi Déjà Vu All Over Again!

Writer/director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) has delivered the cinematic equivalent of déjà vu with his latest film, Oblivion.  While it scores some entertainment value and ponders some interesting concepts, it is impossible to avoid the distracting feeling that all of this has been done before.

Premise: Jack and Victoria near the end of a mission on a ruined Earth but find that their orders are not what they thought they were. Result: A hodge-podge Sci Film that frankensteins together the plots of many other films forcing a result that is largely uneven and uninspired.

Kosinski’s Sci Fi tale instantly launches audiences into the far future, some 7 decades in fact, years after an alien invasion has left Earth in ruins.  Despite winning the war, Humanity has been forced to evacuate to a distant moon, while a handful of humans remain to support a mission to bring them Earth’s remaining water; this mission is led largely from a space station orbiting the planet called the Tet and voiced by the watchful station liaison, Sally (Melissa Leo).

Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are the sole human residents of Earth, managers of the hydro-extraction process and maintenance for menacing drones – robotic spheres – that guard the extractors.  They guard them from the remaining Scav element, those creatures that invaded Earth decades earlier, who pose a constant, looming threat.

Of course, there are other threats, some obvious – radioactive regions of the Earth still off limits- and some not so obvious, such as Jack’s memory, supposedly wiped clean to protect him, that now draws him back to a confusing past.  And it is this festering, insidious longing that does the most to destabilize him, forcing him to take risks and abandon protocol, an issue Victoria clearly does not have.

Nevertheless, the two live as companions and Kosinski gives us a few forced scenes that border on sex between robots (the chemistry between the two is intentionally non-existent, but still creepy to watch.)  That is until one day, as the Scavs grow bolder and take down a hydro plant, they also manage to signal an outlying spacecraft that soon lands on Earth.  Why the giant space station has not discovered this ship before is not discussed, but as soon as it lands, the drones begin destroying its contents – its human contents.

Jack is plunged into a confused world, managing to save one passenger, the woman from his “dreams”.  And this development forces the Scavs out of hiding who then capture Jack and the woman, Julia (Olga Kurylenko).  But in yet another twist, it seems the Scavs are not really Scavs at all, but humans, led by Beech (Morgan Freeman) and Sykes (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).

And so goes the film, twist after twist that are fun on some level, but like the Jack-Victoria love scenes, have very little effect.  The direction itself is somewhat splotchy, as the film takes many twists and turns that feel clunky rather than seamless, much like a poorly conceived rollercoaster ride that leaves its riders bruised and battered as much as thrilled.

Worse still, the thrills are based on a premise that simply has been done before.  Each twist seems to be lifted from another Sci Fi film, some that Cruise has even starred in.  Mild Spoiler Alert: There are elements of Minority Report, Independence Day, Moon, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Sixth Day, and on and on and on. By the end of the film, Oblivion feels more like a walk down memory lane than a unique thriller.

The acting in the film is expected.  Cruise, Riseborough and Kurylenko all contribute notably to the film and whatever it is that it is trying to do.  Leo stands out as just plain creepy in a way that only she can (and once again, she manages to inhabit a completely new character). Freeman and Coster-Waldau are just there, however; there is nothing about their characters or their respective performances that stands out, leaving one to wonder why they are in the film in the first place.

In the end, Oblivion is far from dull but literally light years from unique.  It feels forced and despite endless twists and turns, never has the gravitas of one big jaw-dropper.  Instead, we are left with a fairly good time with a film that could have settled for short story.

Rating: 6 – A mediocre Prosecco that a cute bartender served you

Olympus Has Fallen: Questionable Plot Saved by a Genuine Bad@$$!

Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn’s Finest) has taken a flimsy script based on a frightening premise and transformed it into an action powerhouse.  While there is much that could be improved in this film, it is extremely entertaining action event complete with its own memorable Bad@$$!

Premise: White House is taken over by terrorists. Result: Two parts awesome action, two parts flimsy plot, and three parts total Bad@$$ protagonist and you got yourself a delicious film with only a slightly bitter aftertaste.

The film begins by establishing relationships, most importantly that of Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) to President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his son Connor (Finley Jacobsen).  And it is during this sequence that a tragedy strikes crushing that relationship and sending Banning into obscurity: to watch the White House from afar as he sits in the Treasury Department. Even his pleas to Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs (Angela Bassett) go nowhere.

The Fighter: It’s What Feel-Good Stories Would Look Like If Told From the Inside of a Garbage Can

Shot from what looks like the inside of a dumpster, The Fighter brilliantly retells the story of Micky Ward, masterfully casting each character in both shadow and light. David O. Russell, known for his eclectic directing resume (I Heart Huckabees and Three Kings), manages to create an atmosphere that perfectly mimics the coarse, dingy world in which Ward and Eklund lived, allowing the audience to better understand just how triumphant Ward’s story was, not for the heights he reached, but more the tremendous depths he overcame.

Premise: A gritty drama about the early years of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward and his family prior to going pro in the mid 1980s. Result: A powerful film that is much more about the characters and far less about the story infects the audience with the reality that surrounded a failing boxer and his rise to the top. 

The Fighter is a story that doesn’t make us care much about the story.  Ward’s story, for its part, is the typical American Dream template – man overcomes great odds to reach the top of his profession.  We have seen this before in other boxing films like Rocky and Cinderella Man; both these films were not only about adversity but also about the boxing.  Ward’s story has the advantage of being true which makes an otherwise cliché  tale more tolerable, but unlike Cinderella Man, for instance, which also happened to be based on  a true story, the actual boxing is anything but interesting.  Ward is not really a remarkable boxer in the ring; his fights are 98% him getting pummeled and 2% last second comeback to win.  The scenes are painful to watch and had they not been true, would have been disastrously formulaic; but they are true so we accept them, even if they serve more as filler than fight. 

Fortunately, Russell successfully makes this film about Ward and his struggle out of the ring. Like a fantastic celebration the audience attends by chance, it is the characters, painted with such vibrant colors and nuance, that remain etched in our memories.  The first half of the film vilifies Ward’s brother Dicky Eklund (played brilliantly by Christian Bale) and the matriarch Alice Ward (played equally brilliantly by Melissa Leo.)  Both performers won Oscars in their respective supporting categories even though it is impossible to conceive of them as anything other than leading.  Eklund is a train-wreck crack addict that lives in the glory of his past 15-minutes of fame when he supposedly “knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard.” Bale captures every movement, every tick, every unflattering flaw and melds with it so successfully that it is next to impossible to recognize Bale as anything but Eklund.

Alice, for her part, is the sinister ring-leader who runs a creepy mildly disfigured clan straight out of The Hills Have Eyes. A frightening scene, in which Alice confronts Micky (Mark Wahlberg) and girlfriend Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams) in her living room while surrounded by her vile litter cackling and hissing at the pair, is one of the most horrifying moments in the film.  Here, Leo commands such presence that the tension is palpable causing a sense of anxious nausea from the helplessly disquieted audience.

Wahlberg and Adams for their parts are magnificent; in particular Adams, known more for roles where she plays innocence so well, is magnetic as a self-assured Charlene who manages to give even the Ward Queen pause. Ultimately, these two are in far less interesting roles thereby ensuring their near invisibility not only on screen, but sadly during award season as well.

The true triumph of this film is the nuance that Leo and Bale so successfully cultivate in their characters.  While the first half of the film vilifies them to almost frightening heights, we find that after Eklund is released from prison, the dynamic changes.  Armed with a team that supports him truly, Ward is able to stand up to his family, but in doing so also brings them closer.  Ward finally speaks to his Brother’s ego and Mother’s favoritism.  While the audience can’t help but groan at the crocodile tears, we soon find sincerity.  Eklund has charisma and inside loves his brother deeply, even as his own star fades and he tearfully but proudly passes the torch to Ward.  His mother, for her part, appears content to shift attention to Ward, either out of cunning or caring, it is not always clear, but the end result is the same.

In the end, this is a story about truth in people, about real characters that can exist as deeply loving but also deeply flawed beings.  This is a story about real people who do real things, both helpful and harmful, because they are real people and not because just because someone wrote them that way.

Rating: 8 – An expensive red wine and juicy steak

The 83rd Academy Awards Recap!

Overview

The 83rd Academy Awards,  held Sunday, February 27, 2011 were remarkable if for no other reason than how completely unsurprising they were.  No film dominated in terms of number of Oscar wins (The King’s Speech and Inception tied with 4) but with the quality and prestige of those wins, The King’s Speech was the night’s big winner garnering its wins in the coveted categories of Best Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and of course, the crown jewel (no pun intended) Best Picture.  For its part, The Social Network, poised as the biggest threat to the now realized dominance of The King’s  Speech, did well picking up wins for Best Score and Adapted Screenplay, but completely missed expectations.

But the night’s biggest losers may have been the event’s hosts.  While Anne Hathaway, herself, was charming, funny, and in one moment displayed some astounding singing ability, there was never an unhaunted moment by the specter or Baldwin and Martin’s performance last year.  In fact, some of the only truly funny scenes directly involved Baldwin.  Hathaway’s greatest trick, other than the unexpectedly pleasant sound of her voice, was her Houdini-like ability to execute what felt like a thousand different wardrobe changes in the blink of an eye.

This happened people!!

For his part, Franco was unable to attend, having been abducted by a lifeless version of his character, Saul Silver, from the Pineapple Express.   As a walking infomercial of what happens when you overdose on Pot Brownies, Franco’s squinting, bleary-eyed demeanor was thoroughly unengaging, and fortunately for Hathaway, made her warm, but dimly glowing performance, shine by comparison.  Franco’s only two jokes of any merit involved him either wearing a dress or taking a shot at Charlie Sheen – neither original at all.

The winners were delivered in the following 24 categories:

• Best Picture: The King’s Speech
• Foreign Language Film: In a Better World (Denmark) 
• Documentary (Feature): Inside Job
• Documentary (Short Subject): Strangers No More
• Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3
• Short Film (Animated): The Lost Thing
• Short Film (Live Action): God of Love
• Actor in a leading Role: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale, The Fighter
• Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
• Director:  Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
• Writing (Original Screenplay): David Seidler, The King’s Speech
• Music (Original Score): The Social Network
• Music (Original Song): “We Belong Together”, Toy Story 3
• Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland
• Cinematography: Inception
• Film Editing: The Social Network
• Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland
• Makeup: The Wolfman
• Sound Editing: Inception
• Sound Mixing: Inception
• Visual Effects: Inception

Notable highlights:

In the category of Best Picture, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone were nominated.  Here, with the announcement made by Stephen Spielberg, The King’s Speech won the night’s coveted prize in what by night’s end felt like more of a formality than anything else.  Having defeated its rival The Social Network in most of the major categories in which they competed, the win went off more with a whimper than a bang.

In the Foreign Language Film category, Biutiful, Dogtooth, Incendies, Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi),and In a Better World were nominated. The Golden Globe went to Denmark’s In a Better World, and in a repeat of that performance, took home the Oscar as well.  The only baffling part of this win, was why Susanne Bier’s acceptance speech appeared so unrehearsed and unprepared (and frankly unintelligible) despite her front-runner status.  Apparently, sometimes assuming you are going to win has its charm.

In the Documentary (Feature) category, Exit through the Gift Shop, Gasland, Inside Job, Restrepo, and Waste Land were nominated. Inside Job ended up winning the award although with almost zero fanfare.  Possibly more indicting than anything Michael Moore has ever delivered, this documentary on the US’s economic meltdown appears to have won the Academy’s hearts, even if audiences haven’t yet caught on.

In the Animated Feature Film category, How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, and Toy Story 3 received nominations.  Toy Story 3 took home this prize as well as in the “Was there ever any Doubt” category. 

In the category of Actor in a Leading Role, nominees included Javier Bardem (Biutiful), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), and James Franco (127 Hours). Colin Firth, having taken home both the Golden Globe and the SAG award, repeated in this category at the Oscars

In the category of Actor in a Supporting Role, the nominees were Christian Bale (The Fighter), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), and Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech). Like Firth, Christian Bale took home both the Golden Globe and the SAG award, and last night added an Oscar to his golden season. Also, like Firth, the outcome was all but certain, forcing us instead to take an over-under on how long it would take a band of Wookies to come running out of Bale’s beard.

In the category of Actress in a Leading Role, nominees included Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), and Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine). For approximately five minutes prior to the award, there was some last minute Bening-buzz.  But, apparently with the Golden Globe and SAG awards under Natalie Portman’s belt, Bening never stood much of a chance.

In the category of Actress in a Supporting Role, the nominees were Amy Adams (The Fighter), Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). Melissa Leo won the Oscar, but what was far more captivating was the delivery of Kirk Douglas who was presenting the award.  It was an uncomfortable moment as the crowd listened to an obviously challenged Douglas as he delayed reading the award multiple times.  Eventually, Leo came on stage and delivered her acceptance speech, and all the while the audience stared, bored, longing for the discomfort Douglas elicited instead (it’s tough when you are the only person to drop the f-bomb in such a high-profile acceptance speech and still no one rustles from their slumber.)

In the Director category, Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David Fincher (The Social Network), Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit), and David O. Russell (The Fighter) were among the nominees.  While there had been talk of a three-way race between Fincher, Hooper and Aronofsky, the night was for the King’s Speech, and Tom Hooper, hot off his win at the DGA -Directors Guild of America, took home the prize.  It should be noted that his acceptance speech, where he gave credit to his mother for finding the film, was one of the few, coherent, and interesting acceptance speeches at the Oscars.  Obviously, Hooper didn’t get the memo to blubber on endlessly with no sense of reason until music ushered him off stage.  Go figure.

In the category of Writing (Adapted Screenplay) nominations included Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours), Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit), and Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini (Winter’s Bone.)  This was a clear win for Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network, and the only real moment for that film last night.

In the category of Writing (Original Screenplay), nominees included David Seidler (The King’s Speech), Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are All Right), Mike Leigh (Another Year), Christopher Nolan (Inception), and Scott Silve, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson and Keith Dorrington (The Fighter.)  Here, with Nolan’s film unable to muster wins in any categories people actually understood, David Seidler accepted the win and gave an eloquent and heart-felt speech.

In the category of Music (Original Song), the nominees were Coming Home (Country Strong), I See the Light (Tangled), If I Rise (127 Hours), We Belong Together (Toy Story 3. Toy Story 3 won this award with “We Belong Together” although all the perforamces themselves were most note-worthy for once again boring the audience into submission.  Paltrow, for her performance of “Coming Home” had zero stage presence and her tone was barely controlled, sending shivers down Nashville’s collective spines at the thought that this might be Country’s next big star.

In the category of Music (Original Score), Alexandre Desplot (The King’s Speech), John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon), A.R. Rahmin (127 Hours), Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (The Social Network), Hans Zimmer (Inception). After winning at the Golden Globes, the team of Reznor/Ross for The Social Network, took home the Oscar.

Sources: Oscars.com, IMDB.com, Goldenglobes.org, moviefone.com, and wikipedi.org.