Silver Screen Selections: Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy
Studio: Marvel Studios
Director: James Gunn
Released: August 1, 2014
Genre: Superhero / Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi

Summary:

After stealing a mysterious orb, American pilot/outlaw hero Peter Quill is hunted down and thrown into an inter-galactic prison. In order to secure his freedom, Quill reluctantly joins forces with alien bandits Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot to form an alliance of misfits known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, and with the all-powerful villain Ronan hunting the orb, the fate of the universe is in their hands.

[from Google.]

Dear movie-makers,

Take a good, hard look at Guardians of the Galaxy. This movie is proof that films can still take risks and succeed beyond all expectations if their quality is up to snuff. Guardians of the Galaxy isn't a new property, but it is a relative unknown in Marvel's expansive library. It also stars a sentient tree and a talking raccoon. Not exactly mainstream material. Marvel took a huge leap of faith when it greenlit this project, banking on the goodwill it has earned with a fantastic line-up of heroes and the fun, funny, and irreverent movies they star in. It's paying off with upwards of $1 billion in ticket sales as of this post, written only a week and a half after the movie's debut.

As the second Marvel-produced superhero team-up movie (X-Men and Fantastic Four don't count, as both were produced by Fox), Guardians of the Galaxy is certain to draw comparisons to The Avengers. Of the two, it is, I think, the better movie. More focused and more thoughtful, with a cohesive and affectionate, if dysfunctional, cadre of heroes, Guardians of the Galaxy does the team-up movie justice by setting up its characters' relationships with real moments of camaraderie and friendship. The Avengers seemed merely an alliance of convenience in comparison. The only thing The Avengers has over Guardians of the Galaxy is Tom Hiddleston, who would, had the world any justice, play at least one character in every movie. Not just Marvel movies, either. Every movie.

Tom Hiddleston's face shall henceforth feature in all Lit Writ posts.

All of the characters in Guardians of the Galaxy have their moments. There isn't a weak link in the roster, and I'm certain that each will cultivate a thriving fanbase. That they managed to give a tree and a genetically modified raccoon so much pathos is astounding. Vin Diesel should be commended for finding so many ways to say "I am Groot."

There is precedent, however.

Despite the occasional bout of predictability, every joke strikes home. Guardians is practically a thesis on the value of timing in comedy. The cast delivers each line with wit and charm, and a snappy, clever script gives each the opportunity to shine.

For those seeking a space opera with the chops to take on Star Wars, look no further. Guardians is just as cheesy as Lucasfilm's sprawling epic, but it more readily embraces its cheesiness, joyously subverting even its most serious moments with reminders that this particular brand of sci-fi, with its inexplicable space magic (the infinity stones) and oddly human aliens (see Gamora, Drax, Nebula, the Nova Corp . . .), is supposed to be fun.

Pictured: Aliens.

See Guardians of the Galaxy while it's still in theatres if you can. If not, it's well worth the eventual rent.

Silver Screen Selections: How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2
Studio: DreamWorks Animation
Director: Dean DeBlois
Released: June 13th, 2014
Genre: Animation / Fantasy

Summary:

It's been five years since Hiccup and Toothless successfully united dragons and vikings on the island of Berk. While Astrid, Snoutlout and the rest of the gang are challenging each other to dragon races (the island's new favorite contact sport), the now inseparable pair journey through the skies, charting unmapped territories and exploring new worlds. When one of their adventures leads to the discovery of a secret ice cave that is home to hundreds of new wild dragons and the mysterious Dragon Rider, the two friends find themselves at the center of a battle to protect the peace. Now, Hiccup and Toothless must unite to stand up for what they believe while recognizing that only together do they have the power to change the future of both men and dragons.

[From Metacritic.]

Review:

As sequel to one of my favorite animated movies, How to Train Your Dragon 2 had some comically oversized shoes to fill. For the most part, it does so with aplomb, continuing the first movie's tradition of seamlessly melding comedy and action with more tender moments, but there are a few snags along the way.

This film is heavier on the action and lighter on the quiet, character-building moments of the first. This is to be expected with most of the important relationships (Toothless and Hiccup, Hiccup and Stoick, Hiccup and Astrid) now firmly established. That's not to say that there aren't such moments. A new character with ties to both Hiccup and Stoick is introduced in the film's second act, and with this introduction comes a number of the movie's best scenes, many joyous, some subdued, all reminiscent of the original How to Train Your Dragon.

Like its predecessor, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is mostly light-hearted and hopeful. There's a lot of comedy, much of it from a hilarious side plot starring Ruffnut, the female half of the twin duo, but the film does have a dab of tragedy. One moment in particular treads darker paths than most western animated films would dare.

Toothless and Hiccup are as adorkable as ever. Hiccup trades witty quips with friends and villains alike while Toothless gambols about, alternating between cute and ferocious as the situation demands. The duo is a little more saccharine than in the first movie, and Hiccup takes his empathy and pacifism to new levels, sometimes to the detriment of his established character. Though Hiccup's penchant for sarcasm remains intact, I sometimes miss his teenage cynicism.

Visually, How to Train Your Dragon 2 sets a high bar for computer animated films. DreamWorks employed groundbreaking new animation software in the development of this movie, and it's evident with every movement and expression. How to Train Your Dragon 2 also employs gorgeous color palettes, even in its more solemn scenes, and the lighting seems both natural and dramatically appropriate.

Even darker scenes show an impressive display of color.

How to Train Your Dragon 2's updated aesthetic does have its victims. A few of the updated character models stray a little too far from the first movie's designs. Astrid, in particular, appears to have had all of her edge sanded away. Though her personality remains mostly the same, a softer, more rounded face and an entirely different eye color separate her two models.

Before and after.

Most of the other characters have aged more naturally. Hiccup, while less gangly and awkward than in his teenage years, retains most of the notable facial features of his original model. Even his freckle placement seems to have survived the transition. The other twenty-somethings are easily recognizable despite a few changed hairstyles and a smattering of facial hair, and Stoick and Gobber remain true to their original models, albeit with more gray streaked through their beards.

Is it just me, or did Astrid and Hiccup trade chins between movies?

How to Train Your Dragon 2's biggest weakness is its slavish devotion to cramming its story within the limits of traditional kids' movie running time. A lot happens in this film, too much for an hour and forty-five minutes to really do it justice. As a result, a well-paced first half gives way to a rushed finale exactly when the movie could benefit most from slowing down. The concluding action sequence does not have quite the same impact as the first movie's battle against the Red Death despite much greater stakes, and a few scenes leading up to the final confrontation jar, with solemn moments followed almost immediately by out-of-place comedy. It's not enough to sour the beautiful first half, but it did leave me wistful for what could have been had the movie been granted an extra twenty minutes.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 may be a bit weaker than its predecessor, but it's still a brilliant, beautiful film that deserves your attention. My advice: go see it in theatres, if only to bask in the big screen glow of its animation.

Silver Screen Selections: How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon
Studio: DreamWorks Animation
Director: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
Released: March 26, 2010
Genre: Animated Fantasy

Summary:

Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell, [this] action comedy tells the story of Hiccup, a Viking teenager who doesn't exactly fit in with his tribe's longstanding tradition of heroic dragon slayers. Hiccup's world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges he and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view.

[From Metacritic.]

Review:

When I saw the first trailer for How to Train Your Dragon, I dismissed the movie almost at once. Early advertising focused on the humor without hinting at the huge beating heart underneath. Not even the cute scene of Toothless spitting up half a fish to share with Hiccup was enough to change my first impression. At best, I thought it might achieve mediocrity, and it would certainly never be able to compete with rival studio Pixar's offerings.

After a slightly disappointing opening weekend, however, word-of-mouth started pouring in, and the overall consensus surprised me. It was good. Great, even. Now, four years later, it sits at an impressive 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, only a single point below the almost universally acclaimed Toy Story 3, released the same year. How to Train Your Dragon shifted almost immediately from "definitely skip" to "gotta watch."

I'm glad I did. How to Train Your Dragon is not only the best of Dreamworks Animation's offerings, but one of the best animated films of recent years, period.

The movie centers on two primary relationships: that of a boy and his father, and that of a boy and his dog—sorry, dragon.

Defend him from all of those tasty, tasty fish.

It's these relationships that elevate the film from good to great. The budding friendship between Hiccup and Toothless is the highlight of the film. Though largely devoid of dialogue, the scenes leading up to the pair's first synchronized flight say everything they need to about both characters. Hiccup finally gets to utilize his true talents: patience, empathy, observation, and intellect. In doing so, he transforms from dejected village outcast into a self-assured and competent young man. In the meanwhile, Toothless shows off the real face of dragonhood. Far from the brutal killers Viking-kind has made them out to be, dragons are intelligent, inquisitive, and unfailingly loyal to those who show them kindness. While Toothless does bare his retractable teeth on occasion, it's only to defend himself or his newfound best friend.

This friendship's development is beautifully wrought through the aforementioned dialogue-lite scenes in combination with a masterful score courtesy of composer John Powell. I'd be hard-pressed to name a single weak track in the movie's score, though picking out the strongest ("Test Drive" and "Forbidden Friendship") is easy. The music moves easily between the booming cadence of its Viking scenes and the whimsy of our man-and-beast duo.

In the film's secondary relationship, Hiccup struggles to impress his father, Stoick the Vast. Stoick is chieftain of their Viking tribe, a mountain of a man who, within minutes of the film's opening monologue, wins a fistfight with a dragon.

Stoick is the ideal Viking, a massive, bearded warrior more than capable of protecting the village from the dragons that threaten it. Hiccup is his direct opposite: small and weedy, too weak to wield a weapon any bigger than his knife. Stoick may love his son, but he's clearly disappointed that his heir turned out to be nothing like himself. That the village itself seems to tolerate Hiccup as little more than a nuisance to be babysat lest he end up on fire or in a dragon's belly probably doesn't help matters. Hiccup is desperate to prove himself a real Viking and earn his father's—and the villagers'—respect, and many of his actions center on that goal. As for Stoick, though he is stern and sometimes harsh, it's clear that what he really wants is a way to connect with his son. The movie could have painted him as a villain. Instead, with the help of some subtle animation cues and a great performance via Gerard Butler, Stoick comes off as a concerned parent who wants to prepare his son for what he knows to be a dangerous and often deadly world.

Other characters in How to Train Your Dragon's colorful cast include Gobber the Belch, Stoick's best friend and Hiccup's secondary caretaker, Astrid, a tough, no-nonsense dragon-killing prodigy, and an assortment of Viking teens who serve mostly as comic relief. Though only Astrid achieves any significant development, the other named characters are responsible for some of the movie's funniest scenes, and their individual quirks make them extremely likeable.

From left to right: Snotlout, Astrid, Fishlegs, Hiccup, Ruffnut, Tuffnut.

How to Train Your Dragon's animation is some of the most timeless in its genre. Each character is awash with tiny details, from Toothless' barely visible stripes to the scar on Hiccup's chin. These details stand out in opposition to many other animated features, where characters' textures are often Barbie-doll smooth.

Freckle-faced and scarred.

The highlight of the animation is, of course, Toothless. His mannerisms, inspired by such varied animals as dogs, cats, lizards, birds, and insects, combine to make a creature who is totally unique. He is also extremely expressive, moreso even than most of the human characters, thanks to his axolotl-like ears and large green eyes.

I'd be remiss if I failed to mention Hiccup and Toothless' flight scenes, some of the most delicious eye-candy in animation. A lot of research went into these scenes, and it shows. Seeing these in 3-D was worth the price of a ticket (despite the ensuing 3-D headache).

No matter your age, How to Train Your Dragon deserves a watch. Click here to find it on DVD or Blu-Ray in the library catalogue.

Part 1 of a series of How to Train Your Dragon posts. Stay tuned for Part 2, our review of the book that started it all.

Silver Screen Selections: X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Bryan Singer
Released: May 23, 2014
Genre: Action / Superhero

Summary:

The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The characters from the original X-Men film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from X-Men: First Class in an epic battle that must change the past - to save our future.

[From Metacritic.]

Review:

Days of Future Past picks up from where both X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class left off. It begins in the far future, where robotic monstrosities known as Sentinels have driven mutants to near extinction, but quickly transitions to a past timeline taking place a few years after the events of First Class. Both timelines share characters but, aside from Wolverine, not actors. Though Sir Ian McKellan and Patrick Stuart are both just as wonderful as ever, it's the younger versions of their characters, played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, along with Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique, that carry the movie's emotional weight. Fassbender is perhaps a little underutilized, and the decisions he makes over the course of the movie aren't always as sensible as you'd expect for someone who will eventually age into Sir Ian McKellan, but he performs his scenes with appropriate gravitas and intensity.

The future's best offerings are a number of group fight scenes between the surviving mutants and the sentinels. These are, in my opinion, some of the best group fights put to screen. The mutants synchronize their powers beautifully, and a special shout goes out to Blink, played by Fan Bingbing, whose portal-throwing escapades are the star of the show.

The past timeline is lighter on the action, but it does have the best scene in the entire movie courtesy of Evan Peters' Quicksilver. I won't give anything away, but this particular scene is so much fun I'm tempted to rewatch the movie just to see it again.

The most disappointing thing about this movie is that it doesn't use Kitty Pryde, played by Ellen Page, as its time traveler, as was the case in the original comic book storyline. I can see why they didn't, Wolverine being one of the bigger draws to the X-Men movies, but it would've been nice to have at least one more lady, and a leading lady at that, in the male-dominated past timeline. As it is, Kitty ends up being more plot element than character. Still, even though I'm not the biggest fan of Wolverine, I can't help but like Hugh Jackman's portrayal. He brings a levity to Logan's bubs and snikts that makes him more palatable than many other interpretations of the character.

As in every time travel movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past is riddled with temporal inconsistencies that run the risk of driving more nitpicky viewers mad. Many of these didn't occur to me until after I'd left the theater, however, and none of them were bothersome enough to damage my opinion of the film.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a highly entertaining film, probably one of the best in the superhero genre. It has less laughs than The Avengers but a much more solid overall plot. Best of all, it retcons the horrid X-Men: The Last Stand out of existence and gives the series plenty of room to grow. Well worth a trip to the theater if you can make it and a future rent if you can't.