Maleficent Spoiler Review

MALEFICENT: a spin on Disney’s version of Sleeping Beauty.  Instead of Maleficent being a relentless, twisted and evil witch, she's a fairy godmother!  I never knew fairies were so hideous.

I honestly went into this with the lowest of expectations.  But as the movie started, I decided, "You know what?  I want to give this a shot at entertaining me."  And immediately my ears were met with British accents.  For some god-awful reason, everything epic is British. 

The story starts with Maleficent as a girl fairy in a magical land. She's not evil, you see, she just has wicked horns and demonic wings.  A peasant boy Stephen, sneaks into the magical land to steal a shiny pebble.  The native creatures don’t take kindly to this, but Maleficent protects Stephen and returns the pebble to its pond.  Stephen sees this as throwing it away, but Maleficent sees it as returning it where it belongs.  

You’d think Maleficent could “Pocahontas” Stephen and show him all the colors of the wind.  But it’s obvious.  These two are gonna fall in love and Stephen’s gonna mess some shit up down the line.  Turns out, Stephen has his heart set on living in the castle.  By the way, their initial exchange isn’t used in any poetic nature.  It’s never brought back or mentioned.  No symbolism.  It’s just an exchange – that’s fine.  Potential wasted, but no biggie.

Maleficent and Stephen grow up, drift apart and Stephen works for the King, eyes still set on riches.  Never mind the fact Maleficent lives in a beautiful magical land, way more interesting than the cold brick and mortar.  Never mind Maleficent has wings and can take him flying through the sky.  He wants the throne.  FINE.

The current King, for whatever reason, hates the magical land north of his kingdom – I think its north…  Anyway, after a failed attack on Maleficent and her LOTR tree army, the King is dying and offers his throne to whoever can kill her.

Stephen jumps at this chance.  He visits Maleficent, but can’t bring himself to off her.  So he clips her wings while she sleeps, and takes them as proof.  You know, like Snow White and the pig’s heart.  Except this is kind of life rape, because the result is Maleficent being twisted for nearly 20 years.

After this incident, the movie seems to forget the whole point of killing Maleficent was obtaining her land.  But who cares – the King dies – Stephen becomes King.  And he has a baby – Aurora – that Maleficent spitefully curses.  You know the deal, before her 16^th birthday, she’ll touch a needle and sleep. 

OH GOD NO.  NOT THAT.

So finally, the movie gets to the story.  You see, this isn’t really about Maleficent’s ruined relationship with Stephen – even though we spent all that time on it.  And everything up to this point in the movie felt like cliff notes, montaging by.  But that makes sense because it was just A SET UP.  Except no.  Because that’s what the rest of the movie does. 

But I digress.  King Stephen entrusts three good fairies to raise Aurora in a cottage that Maleficent has easy access to.  Very wise and kingly decision. 

It turns out the fairies are incompetent and so Maleficent is forced to step in and protect Aurora from the stupidity of her guardians.  See where this is going, yet?

Meanwhile, the king gathers every sewing needle machine in the land and burns it in the dungeon.  Except not really.  He just charred them up a bit.

After it’s established Aurora and Malifecent are bestees, Prince Pretty Boy, by chance, passes Aurora’s cottage on his way to meet King Stephen – for reasons we never get to. 

It’s clear they like each other and Prince gets on his way to meander the land until the movie needs him again. 

Eventually, Aurora learns where she came from and without much hesitation turns her back on Maleficent and runs to the castle. 

This is where the curse calls her to the dungeon and a spindle pokes her.  And she sleeps.  

OH GOD NO. THAT.

Maleficent brings the boy Prince to initiate true love’s first kiss.  Only it doesn’t work.  True love's kiss is instead from someone she grew to love, not some boy she just met.  

HUH. This IS different from the typical nature of Disney... But I feeeeeel like its kind of been... You know. DONE.

By the way, this movie is racist.  The one, THE ONE black person in the movie is slapped by the King for his incompetence.  Way to go, Disney.  Progress.  At least he lives… I think he lives.

Okay, so there’s a lot of problems.  But it doesn’t stop there.  While the visual effects were standard and passable, the directing was as procedural, basic and uncreative as possible. 

The combination of lazy direction and the cliff notes script is very frustrating.   They missed an opportunity here to make a metaphor for our current political landscape.

That moment when Maleficent returns the pebble to the pond is a message of nature.  The Kings lust for power should have made clearer that nature is better left untouched. 

And so what do we walk away with?  Instead of promoting love at first sight, Disney is teaching girls to fear boys because boys will clip their wings just to get the keys to the castle.

The Raid 2 Review

In order to best explain my take on The Raid 2, allow me to backtrack a little and briefly discuss The Raid: Redemption, as The Raid 2 makes reference to it.

The Raid: Redemption.  A rookie cop Officer Rama is part of a 20-man elite police squad tasked with sneaking into an apartment in the Jakarta City slums controlled by a crime lord they have to kill.  When the enemy occupying this building is alerted to the police presence, all hell breaks loose.  Rama the rookie has a trick up his sleeve: he knows some kind of Indonesian kung fu.  Very interesting premise and set up.  The film grabs you by the throat and makes clear it isn't letting go.  The main character had objectives, motivation and there was a clear, albeit relatively simple, story.   I was all in.  

Then about a third of the way through was the first 1 on 1 fight scene and things took a turn down Befuddled Lane.  This battle lasted a good ten minutes, then it ended.  The point was to define the main martial arts villain, Mad Dog.  Hey dummy, the point of movies like The Raid ARE the fight scenes.  Yes, Raid is obviously a martial arts film, however the fight scenes should be story-telling tools in themselves.  The length of this initial fight undermined Mad Dog being threatening.  

Following this for the film's remainder was a series of other fight scenes that each lasted ten minutes eventually ending without any sense of progression to that end.  While there were some undeniably well executed moments, most of the punches, kicks and kills were monotonous.  Anthony, I thought you loved fight scenes, what's wrong with you?!  Fight scenes lasting ten minutes is not what I love.  Fight scenes that build, tell a story in themselves, maintain an internal understanding of the characters emotional state and keep me concerned for their peril.  THAT'S what I love. And that is irrespective of length.  It could be fifteen minutes, it could be 30 seconds.

Allow me to express this through a mildly gratuitous analogy.  Imagine you're watching porn.  It goes straight into missionary.  No kissing, no clothes being removed, no foreplay, just straight missionary.  This goes on about ten minutes.  Then it's over.  Fade out.  That's every encounter in The Raid.

Fight scenes, especially of the considerable length they aimed for were in dire need of a sense of progression and dynamic rhythm, neither of which were remotely present.  Every fight scene was about the same level of peril, intricacy and tension (or lack thereof).  In any case, after a series of brutal, vicious and violent battles, Rama is one of three officers that survives (the other two thanks to Rama), including Judas, a traitor to the department whom Rama kept alive with intention of seeing him behind bars. 

(going forward I use substitute names for other characters, because too many fucking names)

In the opening of The Raid 2, a higher up officer, Bob, immediately has Judas shot dead.  Then Bob explains to Rama that everything Rama accomplished in The Raid: Redemption will not be of any help with taking down the Jakarta crime syndicate.  Essentially, The Raid 2's first dialogue scene undermines the entire existence of The Raid: Redemption and makes clear there was no need to reference it.  This is a great analogy for the fight scenes.  MOST (not all) of the fights have no consequence or bearing on the next.

In any case, Commander Bob tells Rama he wants to go after the cops being paid off by the Jakarta crime syndicate.  This required immediately going undercover.

Subsequently, Rama tells his wife he's gonna be gone, this time for a couple of months and he can't tell her anything.  A real woman would have left his ass at this point, but she's not a real woman.  She's just a very unnecessary plot device to bridge two scenes together.  Anything that involves the wife doesn't effect the overall story.  It's just a waste of my precious time.

So Rama goes to jail.  Off-screen Rama did a petty jail-worthy crime.  The story actually starts with Rama beating up a bunch of guys while in jail to get the attention of Handsome Jack, Vito Corleone's son, who is also in jail.  Handsome Jack does take notice and wants Rama part of his prison crew.  Later, while on a yard break, an opposing crew attacks Handsome Jack's crew.  Rama jumps in and kicks the fuck out of all the guys trying to kill Handsome Jack.  Eventually, Guards jump in and end up going down hard because only one Guard has a gun which he only uses to shoot prisoners trying to escape.  Despite all odds, Rama protects Handsome Jack.  But this ordeal increases Rama's prison sentence to two years, because you know, Commander Bob can't do nuthin' to fix that, just sneak in and attach a wire tap to the clothes Rama leaves with.

Rama gets out and has an in with Vito Corleone because he protected his son Handsome Jack during that prison riot.  Vito employs Rama after a very lengthy scene of making Rama strip naked to make sure he doesn't have a wire.  Then what follows is a lot of action-free story beats because film director Gareth Evans wanted to make an Indonesian martial arts version of The Departed.  The middle third can be summed in this: Handsome Jack wants more power and is tired of his Dad being nice to all the former enemies occupying Jakarta.

The guy who played Mad Dog, the main martial arts villain in the first film, is brought back as a new character in The Raid 2 to introduce the main martial arts villain in this film.  Where Mad Dog was very prominent in The Raid: Redemption, this new nameless martial arts villain who we'll call Blades, is barely in this movie.  In fact, Mad Dog Makeover is in the Raid 2 more than Blade.  And the set up for Blade was poorly executed.  He fights Mad Dog Makeover after Mad Dog Makeover already battled a bajillion guys.  At that point, my Little Girl could have beaten Mad Dog Makeover.

During large chunks of this middle third of the film, Rama is often MIA, both from his undercover mission and from the movie.  Rama is asked twice in the movie, "Where have you been?"  I wondered the same thing.

What finally ignites the last third of the movie is Rama going out of his way to defend one of Vito Corleone's closest men against Handsome Jack for no clear reason, despite knowing EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING the other characters do not.

The last third of the film is comprised of endless action sequences, including the introduction of two new bad guys so Rama has more people to fight before his big face off with Blades: Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Boy.

Rama's face off with the last two mentioned villains is actually the best fight in the two films.  The movie thinks the final fight with Blades it the best fight because it's the longest fight, but this really just made it exhausting to watch.    Exhausting as in, going to your Little Cousin's graduation because it's obligatory and you can't wait for it to end, that kind of exhausting.  And up until this last fight, not too much of the choreography was overly redundant as most of the fights were in The Raid: Redemption.  But this last one took the cake on most boring fight.  It was the same endless rhythm for ten minutes before the film decides the fight scene is done.

And the movie's not over yet.  Because the real bad guys who don't do any fighting are still alive and Rama has to deal with them.  But that part's a bit harder because they are the only bad guys in the whole movie who carry guns for some reason.

I made the effort to go through all the story beats to kill any arguments that The Raid 2 is not about story.  It's very much about it's own story.  But it's either a bad story or a poorly told story.  And along the way, The Raid 2 goes out of it's way to make every single kill feel real and make you go, "DAMN! THAT LOOKED SO REAL!"  The problem I have is when every few moves leads to a shot that is designed to invoke that feeling in me, it's tiresome and no longer something I can appreciate it because it's just normal.  There's nothing special about it because it's how everybody goes down in the movie.  Whereas if they chose a few select characters who really deserved it to be ended that way, it would have been far more satisfying.

I'm not the biggest fan of Drive, but imagine if every scene in Drive ended like the hotel bathroom scene or the elevator scene.  That would be boring after a very short while.  But if you reserve those moments as "Oh shit" moments telling a compelling story in between, those "DAMN! THAT LOOKED SO REAL!" moments will have far more impact.

The Raid 2 had the potential to be a great action film, but director Gareth Evans lacks the ability to really tell a complex story, both in terms of an overall film and on the more micro level with individual fight scenes.  He knows how to put a movie together and give you a superfluous amount of shock value, but so far, that's it.  Die Hard may not have any fight scenes with intricate choreography, but it's still a far better action movie.

God's Blade

God's Blade

August 5, 2013 to August 7, 2013

When they're gone

Realizations only then

Most of what was going on

Was unimportant

Most of what was going on

Will be forgotten

And what will retain in the brain

Is that thought that makes one insane

The thought of could have

But didn't

Too busy

Busy with something that will be forgotten

But I remember he is dead

And instead

Of taking 5 minutes more

To visit that door

5 minutes more

Because it was such a chore

I get to live with this pain

In the brain

The shame that came

The moment it was learned

I've earned

The ultimate ache

A stake

Through the heart

But there's no blood

A knife in the gut

Emotions sink into mud

But I still breathe

Question, so many questions

But zero answers

For the dancers

Who never danced

My father is dead

And instead

Of taking five minutes to talk

Decided to let him walk

Into God's home

Without saying a proper goodbye

Cry and cry

My tears arrest me

Why did I lie

And tell myself this and that was priority

When he meant so much more to me

The hollowness inside

I keep seeing his last expression

When he died

Can't let go

But must

Can't let go

He turns to dust

When they're gone

Realizations only then

Everything that occupied my lens

Quickly ends

And looses all meaning

When my Father died

All the self-taught lies

Lose opacity

How I despise

    Myself so much

The little boy inside cries

  Because of such

Relentless jabs by God's blade

The lies fade

And I see the man

From whom I was made

That man is my Dad

And I had

The chance to dance

Learn him more

But his final day came

Dad left life's shore

For God's home

The forever unknown

I want to hug him

Hear his voice

Laugh together

This will never get better

Just get used to the cold weather

Because he is gone

My house is crowded

And I feel so alone

Come back to me

Don't leave me like this Dad

I wasn't upset

Just a little busy

I feel so dizzy

Come back to me

Don't let it be too late

But it is too late

I burn the date

Into my mind

I try to appreciate God's design

But all that I find

Is the pitch black dark

No Jesus, no Moses, no Noah with an Arc

God please show some light

Because this nasty fight

And this deep pain

Is not one for which I was trained

Poems To My Father

Daddy
July 20, 2013 to July 26, 2013

As a boy
Daddy was my biggest hero
Had no idea
He thought himself a zero
Daddy was Protector in my dreams
Fighting monsters that haunted my sleep
And the whole time, it seems
Monsters tortured him in Devils Keep

Daddy encouraged me
Every passion I pursued, he said yes
But I couldn't see this
Blinded by his collective mess
Every day, he added more
Even when it was all you saw
Through the house front door
By twelve I thought
My Dad was a nut
Later he revealed
He was filling a bottomless rut
A rut left by his deceased youngest brother
Whose creativity Daddy cherished
Creativity on paper
All which perished
During a family house cleaning

Before his brother Gregory died
So despite our home having piles to the ceiling
Daddy kept everything
Just in case…. just in case...

Daddy gave me the tools
So I could write
His passion I followed
Even when God and Daddy would fight
Daddy tried to stop
Daddy tried so hard to be a cop
To his inner madness
To imprison the sadness
Bestowed by receiving
His father's ritualistic beating
Bestowed by God's will
When his brother Gregory was killed
Bestowed by Jesus and Satan's collaboration
Through Daddy's health and failed vocation
Daddy wanted Jesus on his side
He did everything right
But results convinced Daddy Jesus lied
Lost in a void
Daddy found no way out
Staunch in resentment, detriment and doubt
Daddy had plans
To be a man far more grand
Never happened in his eyes
Even into his demise
I wished so hard he could see
The man I already saw
That man he wanted to be

Truly, the darkest soul I knew
But a beauty and magic
Held by so few
Most people are a book
Daddy was a saga
He definitely took
Some roads less traveled
Daddy left home at the prime of 18
A 5 in his pocket
Pulling life's slot machine
Stumbled into the Air Force
Honorable discharge early
Onto a new course
To sate his burly
Appetite to know it all
Stacked his plate tall
Daddy appreciated many arts
Movies, music, drawing to start
A linguistic, car-savvy student
Of gymnastics and martial arts
He rode a motorcycle
Sought no profession or title
Just studied and wandered far
Traveling the country by car
Daddy didn't know
He was already a star
Daddy didn't know
He was no zero
He was my super hero
With powers of charm and conversation
Pick a stranger in any situation
Any time, any place
Regardless their status, age or race
Daddy could converse hours with any face
Like a dancer moving with incredible grace
People compliment my ability to charm and talk
I would tell them you've never met my Dad
He's a runner, I can only walk

Two of Daddy's deepest passions
Were movies and people
Even when he was incredibly feeble
If the camera was on
He got into character
If the day was long
Creeping into the next dawn
He would stand strong
Until needed no more

As if it were his duty
Daddy jumped at every opportunity
For dinner with family
Or meeting with a friend
Despite hurting badly
Always and towards the end

People console me now
Your father suffers no more
But that is so far from how
Daddy wanted to find God's front door
His deepest love
Was for life itself
Despite all pain he saw sent from above
He far preferred that to being an urn on a shelf
Daddy wanted his life of hurt
More than being buried under dirt
Even with most of his time
Spent in physical pain
He never stopped trying to find
A new prolonging to life's train
Daddy loved life
He did not want to leave his friends
His children or his wife
But alas, he had to go
And we must take this now and grow

Daddy's passions and bad jokes
Daddy's love for friends and his folks
Daddy's great stories and infectious laughter
That's what I keep forever in mind
As Daddy journeys the life after


None Left Like Daddy

On August 16, 1977, just hours after the passing of Elvis Presley, my father wrote a poem called, "None Left Like Elvis."  This is a modified version of that poem I call, "None Left Like Dad."

you're leaving for good

I wish I could keep you giant

and watch you live a life good

one man giant-team

went through a wild dream

you were good

you were bad

there were times

when you were on top

and back on the bottom

but that's only part of life

though Daddy

so close, yet so far

we knew very little of your world

and when you died

part of us died

never figured your life leave for good

never thought a young giant would 

leave his unclaimed title

of the acting king

your name I will cry and sing

a million times plus wishing for another story

about days walked among monsters and stars

Some are loners

some carry crowds

some are loud

some come and go

but none left like Daddy

none left like Daddy

Your family was your church

until time told your age one day

"you are not a god, but a man"

but a good man; a funny man

who did a lot and spoke hope in monumental dreams

holding a ten ton title

among other men who have come and go

but none left like Daddy

None left like Daddy

who had been crying so long

the pain was so strong

waiting so long

yet so young

too young to leave

but leaving you did

but none never left like Daddy

Always Playful

July 27, 2013

Such a grand heart is rare

Abundant love and life to share

A laugh that would provoke yours

A playful child at his core

A child of real pain and hopes

Discovering life in downward slopes

And yet met all with a big smile

Masking his sorrow all the while

Helping a friend

And refusing to bend

To conformities of the norm

Never to conform

Always aiming high

Even if he never learned to fly

"Most Attentive Father"

An award he may not have won

But his love was unquestionable

To his daughter and sons

Adoration at a height 

That cannot be surpassed

A social butterfly and delight

Who couldn't escape his past

Stephen Alba lived quite a ride

Never willing to hide

Except maybe from his own success

And his internal mess

Despite all he bottled up

And all he knew

Stephen always emptied his cup

To learn something new

Living thirsting for life and knowing

Now there is a new place he is going

His love was so strong

It will truly live forever long

In those he touched

For he was such

An uncommon soul

Pray for him

For he will be grateful

Honor him

By being always playful

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)

When I first heard the book title, my initial impression was that it was about a girl that witnessed something horrible and the distinctive feature was that she had a dragon tattoo.  This girl would be sought after or needed to be protected or something.

Well, having watched the film, beyond the fact that it's pretty hard to forget, I don't know the point of the title. The fact that Lisbeth Salander has a tattoo of a dragon never enters into the story. But when I bring up the fact that Tony Montana is never referred to as Scarface and that his scar doesn't effect the story directly in any way, no one else seems to mind. In any case, I have not read the book, but if it says anything about the movie, I am interested in doing so now.

The story follows a journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig). After losing a court battle with a corrupt businessman, Mikael is potentially faced with the end of his magazine. Mikael is then contacted by Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to solve the 40 year old murder mystery of his great-niece. In exchange, Henrik offers evidence that would supposedly destroy the corrupt businessman who beat Mikael in court. Mikael begins investigating details of the great-niece's murder. We simultaneously follow the second story line of expert hacker Lisbeth Salander who has had a very troubled past and is under state legal guardianship due to the fact that she is insane. After her guardian has a stroke, she is assigned a new guardian, lawyer Nils Bjurman, who decides to take advantage of her, requiring sexual favors in order to get her money.

The two aforementioned plots take up the first hour of the film before we see our two main characters unite to try and solve the murder mystery of Henrik Vanger's great-niece.  During that first hour, I wondered what one plot had to do with the other because they were entirely unrelated, except for maybe Lisbeth's first scene.

We are actually introduced to Lisbeth as an investigator.  She meets with Henrik Vanger's lawyer to discuss the details of her report on Mikael Blomkvist, which is used to help make an informed decision about hiring Mikael for the investigation of Vanger's great-niece. Only we don't know it's Henrik Vanger's lawyer. We don't exactly know who Lisbeth is.  Had Henrik Vanger been present, that would have helped me to perhaps see better the direction the story was headed, rather than spend time confused about the relationship between the two plots.

Because I haven't had the privilege reading the source material yet, I am uncertain how much of David Fincher's version follows faithfully to the book. If I had to guess, it follows closely or as closely as one could. I say this because of the sheer amount of stuff crammed into this 158 minute film. At most of the way to a three hour running time, the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo doesn't really stop to breathe, edited at such a fast pace, it was distracting at times. Not all the time, but I couldn't help but notice it. It would seem to me that instead of selecting the best of the book and crafting the best possible film, Fincher just put the whole book in.

Judging the film as a film on it's own merits, separate from the book or it's subsequent books for that matter, the movie is ultimately about the 40 year old case Mikael and Lisbeth team up to solve. For me, a lot of the details regarding Lisbeth in that first hour would have been better served in short bursts revealing information in reverse to create mystery and intrigue and force us to ask questions to be later answered over the course of the film. This would get us to the point of the movie sooner (the investigation) and during the course of Mikael's and Lisbeth's collaboration, we would find out more about Lisbeth's past. As it is, the events that happen in that first hour with Lisbeth feel more like a backstory we didn't need as much of for this movie. They are interesting details, but would have better served as character revelations as the story progressed as a means of shedding light on the dark and mysterious Lisbeth rather than starting her at full disclosure.

When the film finally gets to the adventure that Mikael and Lisbeth share together, it became exponentially more interesting. I really enjoyed the dynamic that Mikael and Lisbeth shared and would watch their scenes together a second time or more. Daniel Craig's role as the vulnerable journalist was by far his best performance yet, in my opinion. The editing at times took away from it, but his acting still shined through. I have no idea who Rooney Mara is or what other films she has done, but she was convincing as an insane person.

However, the results of the story leave the characters in a place I didn't buy. Lisbeth helps resolve Mikael's issues that took place prior to his entering the investigation. But given what she is able to do (Mission Impossible type shit), it seemed less plausible Lisbeth would subject herself to sexual abuse for some money for a lap top. Sure, it can be argued she is insane so really ANYTHING at that point is plausible, but she is not THAT crazy. Lisbeth is intelligent and her acts of insanity are more directed at bad guys or people who cause her harm. I was informed that the film lacked some details from the book that would have helped make better sense of the ending, but even then, given that Lisbeth knows everything about Mikael's past, the close of the third act doesn't feel right.

All that said, I still think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is interesting enough that it deserves a viewing, with just enough entertainment value in it to make it worthwhile. Really would have been nice to see the ACTUAL movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as opposed to a straight book adaptation, but still worth while.

Lincoln

My expectations for Lincoln were not high at all.  AT ALL.  I didn't get a chance to see Tin Tin or War Horse, but heard terrible words regarding both.  I did however see War of the Worlds, Munich and Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, none of which I was particularly fond of.  So I had to convince myself to give up on Spielberg.  I had to accept that this wasn't the same guy who made Jaws, Jurassic Park and Schindlers List.  No, now this was the Spielberg who put his name on the Transformers films directed by Michael Bay.  I am an avid visitor of Rotten Tomatoes and was completely thrown by the positive response Lincoln was getting.  I was sure from the trailer that it was going to be an obnoxiously slow snooze-fest.  Well, as it stands, Lincoln marks the second trailer in 2012 (since Dredd) that misled me to believe it was to be a terrible God-forsaken experience, but was actually quite the opposite.  I am still a bit shocked at how much I enjoyed this film.  I'm still not entirely sure if Lincoln was the result of great direction or very wise producing.  Perhaps it was a little of both.  In either case, this is the most interesting portrayal of Abraham Lincoln since Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in 1989.


Every snippet of a performance included in the trailer looked downright awful. But when placed in the context of the film those performances actually worked very well.  What I thought was going to be contrived was part of something great.  For instance, the bit in the commercial where Tommy Lee Jones specifically talks about what Lincoln is asking for looked like a convulsion-inducing tooth-cracker waiting to happen.  Turns out that bit with the rest of the scene made for a great and entertaining moment.  And on that, I was really expecting to hate Tommy Lee Jones.  I'm not his biggest fan to begin with (save for the Fugitive and Small Soldiers), but what little they showed of him in any commercials made me like him less.  Ironically, he turned out to be my favorite character aside from Honest Abe.


I think I would go so far as to say that Lincoln is an important film.  In the same respect that Passion really took the time to explore the end of Jesus's life following his prayer at Gethsemane (not preaching, just liked that movie too), Lincoln takes it's time and explores areas that to the best of my knowledge most Civil War movies neglect.  Learning the inner workings of Lincoln's plan, discovering the secrecy, betrayals and tactics involved was so interesting.  But the most delightful part of watching this film for me was learning what the real Abraham Lincoln was like.  Watching some of the marital drama and family issues of this president was something I never really thought I would get to see.


The film's title is very simple and could easily be misleading itself.  The movie isn't about Lincoln and his life, though it touches on this.  It's primarily about something huge Abe spear-headed that has become his legacy.  There were so many other important people involved in his mission (which the film teaches us) that if not for them, the mission would have surely failed.  We don't explore Lincoln's youth, his days as a Lawyer (except anecdotally), or the trials, errors and successes throughout the civil war.  We explore the drama and politics surrounding the creation of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, the civil war being much more background.  This is not a bad thing at all, in fact it's very refreshing and unexpected, but the film is more deserving of a title like, "The 13th Amendment," "The Amendment" or something along those lines.


With the excpetion of the last five or so minutes, which felt all too rushed for me, the film was appropriately paced and I didn't ever get the sense of wanting to move past something quicker.  If anything, I would have liked to of seen a little more, particularly with the relationship/conflict Lincoln had with one of his sons which is never quite resolved.  I'm not sure if this was intentional because Lincoln never resolved it or if it was simply left on the editing room floor.
Almost every actor was perfectly chosen.  It's worth mentioning a second time that Tommy Lee Jones was great.  He was a joy to watch as well as David Strathairn.  Like Tommy Lee Jones, I'm not a huge fan of Sally Field, but during the course of the movie, she grew on me as well.  Initially, during the trailers, I was taken by surprise when I found out Daniel Day-Lewis was playing a softer spoken Abe Lincoln.  I imagined his voice the opposite.  But given how much research Day-Lewis does, I can only assume this is as close to the real Abraham Lincoln as we're going to get.  And with that another Oscar is surely on the way.

  
Jumping over to the more techincal, the camera never really drew attention to itself and the framing almost always felt appropriate, however I was just a little distracted by how specific Spielberg was whenever the camera was aimed at Daniel Day-Lewis.  Everyone else had normal close-ups while it seemed like something slightly different, perhaps more thought through, was consistently chosen for Day-Lewis.  I'm not sure if Spielberg was trying to say something with those angles or if he just wanted to make sure Day-Lewis looked like Lincoln does on the penny in every shot he was featured in.  Aside from that, I really liked what Spielberg was doing with the camera.  The color grading on the other hand I'm not a fan of, but it didn't bother me too much.  The only major gripe I think I really had (and this totally a me-thing) was the music used during the trailer (which I loathed immensely) and any hint of that specific theme used in the film.  I wish it would go away because it's terrible and evil.  It's like chunky expired milk but for your ears.


It surprises me that Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis hadn't worked together sooner.  And I'm glad that their first venture together was a great one.  Next, it would be great to see a movie about a shoe-maker and a pimp starring Day-Lewis and Gary Oldman.

  

On a side note... I have a lot of respect for his wife.  As awesome as Daniel Day-Lewis is, knowing just how method he is, his wife must have a lot of patience.

Skyfall

There was this moment in the trailer when Bond jumped down into a busted train cart, as another train cart behind fell away. As soon as he landed, he adjusted his cuff before proceeding forward, totally in the recognizable nature of James Bond and I got really excited.

As the film opened up, I was looking forward to seeing the spyglass following Bond and his classic smooth execution move. This was nowhere to be found, at least no where near the opening. This would be the first of several enjoyable Bond tropes I had to be reminded are no longer a part of the franchise, at least for the Daniel Craig series. It seems that James Bond has been Christopher Nolan'd.

For many years, the Bond series was produced with careless attention to story. As long as the classic tropes were in there, as well a few trailer-worthy action scenes and some poster-worthy chicks, the film was green lit. With Casino Royale and the introduction of Daniel Craig, it seemed that the producers decided to change things up. A lot more thought was put into the story and dialogue, no more fancy gadgets, no more fancy vehicles and Bond was no longer a womanizer - favoring a more compassionate disposition for women or rather, a single woman. With the less than bearable sequel, Quantum of Solace, plagued with schizophrenic-editing, Bond got even darker, seeking reparations over the death of his would-have-been wife killed in Casino Royale. I believe he only seduced one woman in the sequel and he does NOT sleep with the other "Bond Girl" in the film. I can't recall any memorable one-liners from Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace. So beyond the colorful opening credit sequence and the theme music, it would seem that most of the elements that make a Bond film recognizable had been revoked, reducing the Bond films into darker real-world action films with sexy epic locations. A lot of people really liked Casino Royale. I can say that I definitely appreciated it, but I didn't love it. It's a good movie. I just wasn't sure if it was a good Bond movie. Quantum of Solace was just awful. If you cross paths with any person owning an opinion of the contrary, you should be back away from very slowly and cautiously.

Skyfall opened up with a very epic and entertaining Bond-standard action sequence. And after the beautiful opening credits, with the exception of the theme music, nothing else resembling James Bond exists. But wait, that's not true. They brought back Q. Except Q in this film doesn't believe in gadgets which completely goes against the very existence of Q. They also brought back Bond's untamable sexual libido that no woman can resist. Even a former sex slave doesn't mind being met by a naked Bond in the shower before being properly greeted. Why is that? Why did they abandon the Bond set up in the previous chapters? Was the compassionate Bond from Casino Royale spit on in the focus groups? Who knows.

The direction by Sam Mendes was certainly appreciated when compared against the unfortunate Pierce Brosnan series. I say unfortunate because I think Pierce Brosnan was the best Bond. And overall, the acting in Skyfall was pretty good. However, one thing people come to expect, with or without the classic tropes of the former films are great action sequences. At a running time of nearly two and a half hours, for there to be so few action sequences and for those action sequences to be so brief, especially with how we are set up with the opening, it's incredibly frustrating. This wasn't a fun film. This was a character drama. The light hearted casual response Bond used to have in situations that would make any normal man poop himself is completely absent. This Bond is damaged, traumatized, forced to question his abilities. We are no longer on an action adventure with Bond. Instead, we follow him as he tries to find himself, his place in the world and his exploration of the dark recesses of his past. There was one sequence with a Komodo dragon that definitely felt like something you would only find 007 in, but it came and went so fast, I had forgotten about it until just now. Good opportunity wasted.

The one other 007 trope was also sadly wasted. Javier Bardem appears to be simply a very intelligent villain, but he reveals something at one point that totally makes him super-villain worthy. But that thing he does NEVER COMES BACK. It's set-up without a payoff. The payoff would have been, Javier Bardem becomes the indestructible super villain in the third act. Instead Skyfall's final sequence is a simple shoot out. Even though I hated Quantum of Solace, they at least had the sense to have an epic third act. This was a bit anti-climactic.

Like Casino Royale, accepting Skyfall as simply a movie, it's good. But there is still one issue to contend with despite this. Since the Dark Knight, it seems that the antagonist getting captured is always part of his grand plan. If I can see this coming, a long-surviving international spy, on his game or not, should see this coming. There is no defending this so do not try.

All those issues aside, I would still recommend at least one viewing of Skyfall because it definitely has some interesting character moments. 007 has definitely never faced a Javier Bardem and his words before, but I would have probably preferred the No Country For Old Men Javier Bardem. THAT would have at least been a super villain truly worthy of Bond.