The Watch

The Watch at times very much reminded me of the ‘burbs you know. Although Ben Stiller’s character’s high standards and attention to detail was no match for Tom Hanks’s bug eyed, high octane, over the top performance. The ‘burbs also had Corey Feldman in the background, shooting out asides; it was wittier and funnier than this.

Okay, let’s look at this, the Watch is a film that either should have a lot more money spent on it or a lot less. There was money spent of special effects, aliens and alien technology. More attention, and therefore more time and money should have devoted to the script and the direction. Then though that doesn’t answer the question as to why I never seem to be able to believe Vince Vaughan at all.

Ben Stiller did well in being really annoying and really get under your skin. He plays a guy that really wants to be loved, but he really tries to hard, make of that as you will. Jonah Hill plays a psychopath with very tidy hair; I didn’t really get his character either, although I could believe that he lived with his mother. Richard Ayoade played an Englishman who you wanted to hear speak more because he’s got such a marvellous voice. Vince Vaughan played an overprotective father who was almost as annoying as Ben Stiller.

Now the four of them form a neighbourhood watch after a security guard in the store Stiller manages is gruesomely killed. They decide that they can patrol the town and catch his murderer. Guess what, when they do this the Police turn out hating them. They soon discover that there are aliens in their sleepy town.

The film doesn’t achieve anything that it sets out to do and neither does it satisfy fans of certain genres. It’s not that funny, it’s not that gruesome, it has minimal amounts of Sci-Fi and Ben Stiller’s not that great in it. Still it made me forget the trailers for the Sweeney.

Moonrise Kingdom

It is said that one of the indicators of a great director is that when you see a section of a film they’ve made, in isolation, you can tell who has made it. That their style is a fingerprint that easily identifies them. One director who fits into this category is Wes Anderson. His incredible attention to detail is apparent in all of his films. He explains purpose and relationship and beautifully gives you the context of the story he’s telling. Rather like a novelist setting the scene before the protagonists begin.

This is the case with Moonrise Kingdom, to an extent. We are shown an island off the east coast of America; we are also shown a house and it’s habitants of two parents and their sons and daughters. In the house they play Benjamin Britten’s Young Persons’ Guide to the Orchestra. This shows us how important different elements are in making up a whole, and that those instruments, however seemingly insignificant so of them may seem have their part to play in the prosecution and the outcome of the piece.

Suzy is the girl living with her parents and brothers. She’s thirteen and spends her time reading novels and observing life through binoculars. She meets up with Sam in a field and they go off together to elope, and therefore go missing. He is a Khaki Scout who has resigned his place and no longer wishes to return home, as he is living in a foster home and doesn’t get on so well there. Unconventional family units are another of Anderson’s motifs. Whether there is a portrayal of adopted children or there are families that just don’t get along at all, to the point where they falling apart.

Anderson’s characters are often square pegs in round holes. In this film all the characters seem to be individuals in group settings. For instance most of the Khaki Scouts seem to get along in the pack, but Sam is apart from the rest, he learns their skills but does not feel himself to be an integral member of the group. All of the scouts as well have differing uniforms; they’re like a scouting version of Kelly’s Heroes. The members of Suzy’s family all seem to exist as individuals as well. Her parents do not necessary always act in concert.

Another characteristic of Anderson is the apparent overcomplication in descriptions and depictions. It’s rather joyous to see Sam walk through all of the rooms seeing all of the cast members of Noye’s Fludde, all those people dressed up in their costumes, before he met Suzy for the first time. The cast certainly outnumbered the audience. There are often outrageous overreactions to events and behaviour that verges on being unsafe and unwise. The Police officer requisitions a number of well armed Khaki Scouts into his search party to find the eloped couple, for instance.

Also as along with his other films children are again depicted as being far more complicated and worldly wise than the bickering and petty adults. Sam and Suzy act in a very urbane manner as they discuss life in general, books and art. Suzy’s parents seem to take part in a succession of one-upmanship exercises, the Scout leaders seem far more interested in their own situation and position than anything else and Sam’s foster parents only have their own interests at heart.

This is a lovingly made, intricate film by a filmmaker who has built a reputation for ideosyncracy which is well deserved, and he continues to build on that. What I like about this film is that he has created ridiculous, almost surreal situations, but they are executed in such a way that the audience is always engaged. That's drama I suppose.

Nostalgia For The Light

A documentary that on the face of it seems to be about the Atacama Desert in Chile and the astronomy that takes place there and that has gone on there for a number of years. The point though is made at the beginning about how peaceful Chile is and how nothing goes on there, except when it seemed like it was the centre of the earth. The same could be said of the desert.

Nothing has happened really in Chile except for General Pinochet and his followers generally eliminating the opposition. They all disappeared a number it seems to the Atacama Desert. There are women who dig in the desert looking for their loved ones, some are found, and sometimes it’s the scantest of remains that are discovered. These include skull fragments and foot bones in a shoe.

One of the most arresting sequences of the film is when we are shown a wall of photos of the disappeared. Their pictures are fading and degrading with time as those who them personally and miss them are also fading away and dying. The hope though is that new generations will be told stories of the missing so that in a way they will live on.

This documentary often floors you with its honesty and bravery. The indomitable spirit of those who want to find and honour their loved ones puts so much of modern western life into perspective and makes you think about what’s valuable and what’s important.

The Dark Knight Rises

As with every other Batman film, and most other costume hero stories, identity plays a major part in this film. But then identity and the concealment of identity has been a theme ever since people started telling stories. Bruce Wayne is for ever trying to conceal his identity, whilst trying to expose the villain he’s fighting against. I often get the impression that Batman is as well fighting his alter-ego. Perhaps Batman is really Tyler Durden. In this film the villain is a man in a black mask by the name of Bane. I did think at one point that Bruce Wayne can be shortened to Bane.

This is not really uncharted territory for Christopher Nolan either. This film is of course being the third of his Batman trilogy and the latest in a long line of psychological dramas; a list that stretches back to films such as Following and Memento. He’s discussed identity before in films such as the Prestige. He’s a man that is clearly fascinated by the human psyche and the effect that it can have on individuals and those around it.

Anyway, the aforementioned Bane wishes to destroy Gotham City as well as Batman and Bruce Wayne. He wants to do this though psychologically as well as physically. I wonder if Bane had seen Clockwise, because he talks of using hope as a weapon against the people of Gotham. It was at times like these that I was reminded of the Doctor Who stories The Sound of Drums and the Last of the Time Lords.

I was very pleased to see that Gary Oldman’s role is meatier and is so integral to the story. It’s curious, though, to see him as another character wearing large glasses. Another highlight was Cillian Murphy’s role in the film. With his appearance I can see that his involvement in the trilogy will engender at least one pub quiz question.

So we have another era coming to an end. Christopher Nolan will not return to characters, apparently. Although there could be a sequel of some form in the future featuring a male or a female character from this or the other films. I was left feeling though that I was glad that the series had finished. The series reached its peak with the second film and to me the first and third seemed very similar. I think it’s a bit of a shame that the same characters are rehashed again and again. That we develop new technology and the first thing we do is go back and reinvent the past. I for one won’t be looking forward to Batman beginning again in 2022.

Prometheus

Yes, this is a remarkable film. Is it a prequel, of sorts yes it is, and it may well be followed by another film before long as well. So archaeologists find star maps across the earth and decide that this is an invitation to travel across the galaxy. The ship Prometheus is then sent to these coordinates, and android, David, spends his time learning languages while the crew sleeps until they reach a moon where lots of questions are maybe answered, and posed.


That’s the nub really, questions, the scientists discover the architects of humanity and also discover that these architects may have had other plans for humanity. There are a number of agendas at play here as well. The scientists are attempting to make their discoveries, but someone has paid for all of this and they may well have their own ideas as to what should happen and what the worth of all of the resources in the mission might be. This theme has been developed in the first four Alien films and really coloured Ripley’s judgement on a number of occasions.

This film not only refutes all human religion, but also has a go at Darwinism as well. All theories of humanity are turned on their head. We’re not made in the image of the creator, human life didn’t evolve in the way we thought on earth, we’re not unique and we’re really bottom of the heap in the galaxy.

In comparison to some prequels I’ve seen the pieces fall into place in quite a subtle manner. The film is made by director whose director’s cut of Blade Runner was actually shorter than the original film, he’s therefore not afraid to do things for solely creative reasons. He’s apparently also known for moving furniture round in his house in the middle of the night, just to try out how things look. He obviously knows his film history as well, judging by all the references to 2001 for instance. I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I might have been. Although there are times when you may find that you say to yourself, ‘don’t look in there’, ‘it’s not a good to stay the night in there’, as I did.

The Avengers Assemble

There’s been a long history of depicting super and comic book heroes in the cinema and TV. This goes back to Batman, Superman, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Marvel Comics characters were not really given great adaptations in the 70s and 80s, the animated Spiderman series was probably the highpoint as that compared favourably with the live action Incredible Hulk series and films of the day such as the woeful Captain America.

In more recent years there has been a marked improvement in the quality of films featuring Marvel characters. The catalyst for this may have been Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989; this may have challenged Marvel to do better. We’ve seen a number of decent Spiderman and X-Men films, these were followed by Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, The First Avenger, they can tell stories, but they can’t necessarily give them good titles. These films laid the way for this one with its snappy title and its ensemble cast.

I was reminded of Watchmen and how that presented itself at the outset as being set in an alternate universe. This led me to wonder, what is being depicted here? Would this be in an alternate universe, as far as I know there are not superheroes on our earth? Is this a symbolic film, are they talking about different aspects of the human condition? Are there gods depicted that we forgot to worship that are in the background waiting to be worshipped again?

Maybe this film is fulfilling one of the roles of fiction in extrapolating and theorising what would happen in given situations. Albeit saying if Thor’s adopted brother, Loki, decided that he wanted dominion over today’s Earth, and that to achieve this he had stolen a source of unlimited power from the US Government, that had originally come from Asgard. Would the only way to stop him be to assemble a group of people with extraordinary abilities and resources, who would then fight him and the forces he summons?

If this all just fiction then it maybe all we need is to suspend our belief in reality, but then that depends on the credibility of what we’re shown, and how it’s explained. How can we evaluate the possibilities we see here without knowing the properties of the Tessaract, and really how Odin works really, without going into what are the properties of gamma radiation on the emotionally challenged man. I still can’t believe that Tony Stark’s girlfriend is called Pepper Potts.

Despite all of this the reason why this film works is because of the characterisation and the script. Joss Whedon has developed well rounded characters. In which he has honestly portrayed conflict and argument, between characters that on the surface should get along. There were however a few moments that grated, most of what Scarlett Johansson did and I began to tire of Robert Downey Jr, somewhat, by the end of the film.

For me the highlight of the film though is not absolutely necessary to the plot at all, there’s a beautiful scene with Mark Ruffalo and Harry Dean Stanton, it is beautiful and understated, not like the rest of the film. Although it discusses one of the major subplots, how damaging it can be to be a super hero and how it’s necessary to try and retain some reality, sanity and have someone you can trust. There is a lesson for us all, super hero or not.

The Descendants

On the face of it Matt King, George Clooney, has an enviable life. A beautiful wife with two beautiful daughters and they all live on the paradise island of Hawaii. At the beginning of the film we are disabused of all of the reasons to envy King. He soon tells us that Hawaii is not the paradise we think it is. Further to this his wife has a speed boat accident and goes into a coma and he then finds out from one of his daughters that she’s been having an affair. He discovers as well that his daughters have rather large behaviour issues, possibly caused by him being in his own mind ‘the back-up parent’. One of the themes of the film then is how the family, King’s descendants, deal with this situation.


We also see how King has to deal with his cousins; some of them broke, in formulating a potential billion dollar land development that would enrich all of them. They are descendants of their pioneering ancestors, who somehow gained a large part of one of the Hawaiian Islands.

The title is explored again when we look at how far his family has descended from a noble and honourable past. His children are dysfunctional without proper parental supervision and his cousins value their own financial wealth over the wishes of the rest of the islanders. At times we see King realise this and also how far he’s descended in a way without realising it.

This is a common theme for Alexander Payne. In Election, Sideways and About Schmidt we are given many examples of male selfishness, hubris, the decline (or descent) and what men can do to redeem themselves. Usually the films are immaculately crafted and plotted. To my mind this film is not immaculate. The performances though are excellent George Clooney is marvellous and Shailene Woodley excels as his eldest daughter. Disappointingly this film shows a slight decline in Payne’s career in comparison to his previous highs, maybe he’s the ultimate descendant.