Jurassic Park Trilogy

Who is Steven Spielberg? And why is he such a great filmmaker? Those are the two questions I always ask myself every time I watch one of his movies because each one of his films is entertaining through and through. Whether it’s his first feature, Duel, or latest collaboration with George Lucas, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, or even the critically scrutinized Hook, there’s not really one of his movies you didn’t walk away from saying that it sucked ass.

Likewise, it was a tough decision going into my DVD collection to pick out one of his movies to watch, but I finally settled on his dinosaur classic, Jurassic Park, as well as the two sequels that followed.

Jurassic Park

I remember venturing out to the movie theater back in 1993 to see this flick, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. See, my knowledge of dinosaur movies before Jurassic Park consisted of crappy stop motion effects or bad puppetry to make the dinosaurs come to life. Not only that, but usually the dinosaurs would get very little screen time which basically ripped off the moviegoer even further.

Needless to say, that was my frame of mind all those years ago when I paid my money to go see this flick.

Well, the movie starts in the jungle where some big crate or cage is being loaded to an adjacent and bigger cage. Now it’s not the type of cage that we can see inside of, but we hear these screeches or loud shrieks that sound reptilian in nature.

Well, of course, something goes wrong while the men all around are trying to cart something in from the small cage to the bigger one and one poor sap falls near the opening when the two pens come apart. Something grabs the unfortunate guy and it’s obviously something big and strong because it lifts this guy like he’s some rag doll.

We don’t see what the thing is and that’s what pulls us into the movie and hooks us for more. Cleverly, Spielberg goes by the unspoken rule that less is definitely more, leaving us to imagine, rather than see, what the creature was. I mean, it’s understandable that the thing was some sort of carnivorous dinosaur—obvious due to word-of-mouth that this film was about dinosaurs—but we don’t exactly see it. And that’s filmmaking at its greatest.

Next, we get character development, introducing us to the players of this film. We’ve got Dr. Alan Grant played by Sam Neill and Dr. Ellie Sattler played by Laura Dern introduced as archeologists digging at a site and shown as experts in the species of dinosaurs. Some rich man, John Hammond played by Richard Attenborough asks them to help out at an amusement park island and pays off their grant to help convince them to do so.

Along for the ride to the island is Dr. Ian Malcolm played by Jeff Goldblum. He provides a lot of funny moments throughout the movie and he was a delight to watch.

It seems that the investors of the Jurassic Park attraction—who are represented by their lawyer—want it checked out and endorsed before they can put more money into it; that’s why Hammond wants these experts to see it and give their opinion on it, obviously confident that they’ll love the place.

Just as everyone is getting ready for the park tour, Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards are introduced as John Hammond’s grandchildren, Tim and Lexi, and they go along for the tour.

As can be expected, all the security measures go haywire thanks to some greedy hi-jinks that Dennis Nedry (played by Wayne Knight from “Seinfeld” fame) pulls in order to try and get some cryogenic dinosaur embryos off the island. To get off the island with the embryos, he disengages all the security measures like the locks and cameras, as well as the electrified fences that are keeping the deadly dinosaurs in their sections, so of course the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex gets loose as well and wreaks havoc on the people left vulnerable in the shut down vehicles.

It was, and still is, a very exciting movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat during all the dino-attacks. Hard to believe, but the movie is over 15 years old and the CGI is top-notch. A lot of films you see during this time have CGI that has aged terribly, but Steven Spielberg knew what he was doing when he made this film.


The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The 1997 sequel to Jurassic Park was a no-brainer. Why, when the first film made so much money, wouldn’t you make a sequel? Only problem that remains is what kind of story do you tell? What’s the plot?

Well, the answer to both questions: a very thin one.

The film begins with a yacht parked out in front of an island that is around 80 miles away from the island of the first film. We see a very rich couple with servants running around at their beck and call. They’re just enjoying the peacefulness of the island and allowing their little girl the freedom to roam around.

The girl does, as anybody would, and discovers the teeny tiny little dinosaurs that are the size of chickens and don’t seem very menacing, until we hear the off camera scream that sends her parents running.

We don’t see what actually happened to the little girl as the scene cuts very humorously to Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) who’s back as the star of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Malcolm is visiting John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) at his home as he notices creditors and other people obviously taking assets and whatever else, giving the impression that Hammond’s gone broke after the events of the first film. But it seems he has one last trick up his sleeve as he tells Malcolm that there was a second island where they raised the dinosaurs before bringing them to Jurassic Park and he needs a group to visit the island and bring proof that the animals are able to survive on their own.

Of course Malcolm, after undergoing the near-death experience and knowing how dangerous it is, he firmly says that there’s no way that he’d ever go through that again. Until he finds out that his girlfriend, Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is already there and he then finds himself going to get her out of there.

We see much of the same things as we did in the first film, so we know what to expect. But some of the plot was interesting, albeit kind of a rip-off of the King Kong story. And speaking of that part of the story, I felt that if that’s where they were going with this, they might’ve maybe spent a little less time on the island and a little more time in San Diego with the T-Rex running amuck.

But aside from any criticisms I may have, the film as a whole is very entertaining and had a stellar cast.

However, I DO have one criticism.

The introduction of Ian Malcolm’s daughter, Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), was a little off-putting. Now, it’s not to say she’s a bad actress or that there shouldn’t be any African-American characters in the film, it’s just that it was such a big contrast between Malcolm and her. I believe it was explained that she’s not supposed to be his biological daughter, but it was a little disconcerting nonetheless.

It’s no surprise, and I don’t think it really gives anything away, but the pterodactyl that is shown flying and landing on the tree right before the credits rolled, why weren’t they flying around during the movie? How come they only appear at the very end? Were they on another island? Were they hiding out somewhere? Maybe sticking to the other side of the island and away from the other dinosaurs?

All kidding aside, this film is very entertaining and shouldn’t be missed if you’re a fan of the first film.


Jurassic Park III

Pretty interesting how Sam Neill didn’t return for part 2, but here he is for the third installment of Steven Spielberg’s classic, Jurassic Park.

This time around we have Joe Johnston taking the director’s reigns left behind by Spielberg and joining the cast with Sam Neill is William H. Macy and Tea Leoni.

At the beginning of the film, much like the beginning of the second film, something bad happens to civilians getting close to the dinosaur island. A man and a boy are parasailing near a tropical island and it looks like a lot of fun as they said high above the ocean and near the lush tropical island, video camera in hand and filming everything they see from up in the clouds. It’s pretty evident that the island they’re near is one of the dinosaur islands we’ve seen in the previous films. The man is uncle to the boy and is telling him he paid the guys on the boat to get as close as they can to the island so they can get some good shots with their video camera.

Well, things go bad as they usually do in these flicks and something happens as the uncle and his nephew feel the boat is going too fast. They’re being whipped up and down a little but can’t see what’s going on with the boat as they went through a fog bank. When the fog clears, to their horror, they see the boat is thrashed and no one on board. Adding to that, they also see up ahead that the boat is about to crash into a huge rock. Well, they undo the rope that’s attached to them from the boat and they parachute down towards the island below.

Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) is giving lectures at colleges and trying to stick to the archeology aspects of dinosaurs, but of course everybody wants to ask him about the live dinosaurs he ran into at Jurassic Park. Also, for some reason, he never hooked up with Ellie because she’s now married to someone else with a two or three year old son, but he’s still good friends with her.

Anyway, Dr. Grant and his assistant, Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), are approached by a couple, Paul and Amanda Kirby, that want him to act as a tour guide for them as they fly over the island where the Jurassic Park site is abandoned. Dr. Grant, at first, declines as he remembers the disaster back when he first visited that island. But the couple promises that all they need him to do is to point out certain areas and dinosaurs as they fly from up above. Mr. Kirby brings out his checkbook and begins filling out a check, telling Dr. Grant that he’ll pay whatever the cost.

Of course, Dr. Grant agrees and they all set out to fly over the island.

But the Kirbys aren’t what they seem and it turns out that they land on the island much to Dr. Grant’s dismay. The Kirbys are actually the parents of the boy, Erik, who was parasailing with his uncle when he went missing and they want Dr. Grant to help them locate him.

Of course, things go wrong—if it didn’t, this wouldn’t be a very good Jurassic Park movie—and they need to find a way to get off the island.

The film brings forth a new dinosaur, one even deadlier than the Tyrannusaurus Rex—the Spinosaurus. One cool scene from this film is the first battle we see between the two and the Spinosaurus wins dramatically by snapping the neck of the T-Rex.

Also in the mix is the addition of the Pteranodons, or Pterodactyls as I’ve learned from the Flintstones. It was pretty cool to have these guys in the movie after we saw one of them landing at the end of the first sequel.

Pretty much, this film is a rehash from the first two films, just the same plot of people being stuck on an island with man-eating dinosaurs on the loose and they need to find a way to save themselves. But don’t get me wrong, the film is very entertaining and keeps you on the edge of your seat and the cast is very likable as was in the two films previous. I actually wish they’d keep making sequels, maybe taking the dinosaurs to America once again, but this time on a much grander scale.

Anyway, the Jurassic Park trilogy makes for a great six hours of a movie watching experience. It’s magical, entertaining, fun for the whole family and I recommend it to anybody who likes to watch an action film with a little bit of science fiction to boot. It’s definitely the best group of dinosaur movies ever made…no doubt about that.

À L'intérieur

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about my favorite genre and I think it’s high time that I did. Horror, for me, is the best thing in my life and it’s not because it’s something that I want happening to other people or myself for that matter. I just enjoy the creativity of it and how the special effects work to make the scenes look authentic and genuine.

Now, a while back I wrote out a list of twenty horror movies that I feel are the best I’ve seen. But, of course, there’s a lot more horror movies out there that I enjoy just as much as the list I made. If I really put my mind to it, I probably could’ve made a top 100 list, but that would’ve been a long read.

Anyway, one of the podcasts I listen to and enjoy is Horror Etc. and not too long ago they discussed at length how much they enjoyed the movie, À L'intérieur, which translated in French means, Inside.

À L'intérieur is a foreign film directed by Alexandre Bustillo, complete with subtitles, but please do not let that scare you off if you’re the type who doesn’t like to read while watching a film. I, myself, usually don’t like subtitled movies, but this one really held my attention throughout.

The film opens with the aftermath of a car accident and we see two people inside, a man and a woman. The woman, played by Alysson Paradis, is coming out of the haze and we gather that she’s going to be all right. But the man doesn’t move—apparently dead.

We then see the young woman at a hospital some time after the accident as she’s pregnant and probably just having a routine appointment. She appears to be at full term and very sad, visibly upset about the loss of her husband. But before you can really feel completely compassionate for her, the young lady basically tells a nurse to buzz off in a very offending way when all the nurse was trying to do was to have a conversation with her.

The main story starts when the young lady stays the night in her house by herself and what starts as some simple stalking turns into something very bad until it concludes with the most horrible scene I’ve ever witnessed in a horror movie.

Yes, this film has a lot of gore and guts and mutilation and blood and stabbing and shooting and everything you can think of to kill someone disgustingly and horribly. At times, I was very uncomfortable with the way people were getting killed and I haven’t felt that way in a long time when watching a horror movie. It just goes to show you that while these foreign horror movies have been going to the next level with their shock value, American movies have just been running in place, making remakes and clichéd stories with clean and tired visuals.

Even though the main character sort of acted like a spoiled brat at the beginning and seemed like she didn’t care whether she had this baby or not, by the time the movie gets moving you really feel bad for her and pull for her against her terrorizer.

About this villain…when we first see the antagonist’s shadowed form at the windows or doors, it makes us want to get up and make sure all the doors and windows are locked and fastened (at least that’s what it made me want to do). When this character is finally revealed, it’s someone who looks mysterious and foreboding…someone you really want to steer clear of if you saw them walking at night towards you.

Anyway, after viewing this work, I immediately thought of people who shouldn’t see this movie.

In two words: pregnant women.

For someone who’s pregnant, you do NOT want to see this film. Actually, anybody who’s pregnant, has a pregnant wife, or has a new born baby should stay away from this.

Most of the film has practical effects, meaning the effects were mainly done without computer graphic imagery. All the effects were done with make-up or prosthetics and it worked excellently in this flick. The only CGI used in À L'intérieur was when they showed what the baby was doing inside the woman as she was becoming stressed or frightened, and in some instances as she was being attacked. It was clever and added a lot to the film.

I recommend À L'intérieur to anybody who wants to watch a suspenseful and violent story unfold. As I’ve said, this film is not for the faint of heart or someone with kids or expecting.

And, of course, I wouldn’t watch this while eating a meal.

My final “bit” on À L'intérieur? A flowing story that hooks you in for a very terrifying ride that’ll leave you shocked and alarmed. Being the biggest opposer of subtitled movies, I found myself not minding the words at the bottom. At certain lengths of the film, there’s no dialogue so it really isn’t an issue. The French really know what they’re doing with the horror genre and it makes me want to go out and buy a French to English dictionary.


Yeah, I know…bad joke.

Spider-Man Trilogy

Spider-Man

It took over a decade to get this character onto the big screen back in 2002. But probably the only people that were privy to the knowledge that the Marvel Comics company was trying to get their most beloved character up on the silver screen were the fan boy comic book geeks like myself who read the ongoing news not on the Internet (for it was the early 90s and the Internet was barely into fruition) but on the back of each Spidey comic book.

The news on the bulletin portion of each comic book went as far as to inform us that James Cameron was going to be the director of the film. It was true…Cameron was interested in helming the director’s chair and making a pretty interesting movie. I say that because it was reported that Cameron wrote a 60 page treatment for the film and it became available on the Internet for all to read a couple of years before the movie was released.

I’ll comment on that script later.

See, Stan Lee kept his Spider-Man fans apprised of the upcoming film because he really thought that it would be on its feet in no time. But the fact was the movie at that time didn’t have a leg to stand on. Marvel signed away rights to the character many years before and I believe Viacom maintained those rights from the 70s to the 90s where it went into court to see what major movie studio would win them.

It was a lengthy squabble to see what studio would get the rights and a long one it was. Everyone knew the character of Spider-Man would be a huge cash cow if it were made into a movie, so it was no wonder that the litigation continued up until the end of the millennium.

I kept up with the story as much as I could back then, but it all just seemed to fade away. It just seemed that Spider-Man wasn’t meant to be on the big screen.

But in the late 90s, articles started popping up about the film and how Sony Pictures won the rights. Everything started falling into place after that, like the job of director going to Sam Raimi (of The Evil Dead trilogy fame) up to the lead actor, Tobey Maguire, being cast to portray Peter Parker…I thought all the choices were great. Danny Elfman, however, as the composer troubled me a little, but I figured with Batman’s memorable theme under his belt, he seemed like a fine choice.

It was just a waiting game after that. But all of us Spidey fans were treated now and then to images from the film like the first promotional pictures of Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man costume or set photos in New York and Los Angeles.

Finally, a teaser trailer was released and I was fit to be tied! My first glimpse of Spider-Man in action! I couldn’t believe it! I forget where I saw it or what movie it preceded, but it was a pretty interesting and elaborate bank robbery with the crooks getting away in a helicopter. Suddenly, the chopper stops in midair and the criminals don’t understand what’s going on. The shot widens out showing the helicopter stuck in a huge spider web. Widening out even more, we see that the web is formed between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Brilliant! The trailer went on to show Spider-Man shooting his web and swinging through the air.

It’s been said that the bank robbery scene was supposed to be in the movie, but because of the tragic circumstances on September 11th of 2001, the studio decided to take it out.

I counted down the days until the event and it finally came in May of 2002. I took the day off of work, put on my best Spider-Man tee-shirt and headed to the movie theater a couple of hours before show time. My friend and I mingled with the other fans in line, taking note of their Spidey ensembles here and there, and just waited in anticipation for the event of my lifetime (at the time anyway).

At the time I was living in San Jose in California and I made sure to pick my favorite movie theater in the area which was the Century Theatres on Winchester Boulevard. In all my movie going days, I’d found that those theaters had the best sound hands down and I wanted to make sure my first glimpse at my favorite superhero had to be the best.

With all that said, let me get into the movie.

Spider-Man starts with the beginning of how Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is a nerdy high schooler that’s picked on by bullies and is ignored by the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).

Instead of the original tale of how Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider, the film goes a tad more modern and the spider is actually a genetically mutated spider that bites Peter, changing his DNA overnight.

The movie sticks with the comic book throughout, making sure to go through the arc of Peter wanting to make money from his new power to the death of his Uncle Ben (played by Cliff Robertson) due, in part, to his failure to act on thwarting a crime. With that burden weighing heavy in Peter’s heart, he feels the need to fight crime because as his uncle told him, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

A great pick for Aunt May is Rosemary Harris as she’s very caring and nurturing toward Peter, just like the ongoing comic book series.

Also, hilariously accurate in his depiction of J. Jonah Jameson is J.K. Simmons of HBO’s “Oz” series. He embodies Jameson’s temperament and personality to a tee, causing me to laugh hysterically during many of his scenes.

Now, the villain in this film, the Green Goblin (played by Willem Dafoe), was pretty cool, although a lot of fan boys were very disappointed in the costume design, saying that it should’ve been more like the comic book. But I think the costume designers, writers and producers did the right thing by designing it the way they did and not making Dafoe look like some dork in a Halloween mask.

James Franco did all right as the disregarded son of Norman Osborn (AKA, the Green Goblin) since he really didn’t have much to do in this part (he becomes more important in parts 2 and 3), but he was a good choice as to play Peter’s best friend.

To some it up, yes, I had my doubts that Sam Raimi would be able to pull this film off, seeing that he was known for his horror movie history and never really had a blockbuster in his résumé. So he really surprised me with 2002’s Spider-Man, proving he’s a big action movie director up with the best of them. In my lifetime, I’ve watched every incarnation of the character from the famous cartoon of the 60s to the live action camp of the 70s. Seeing Spider-Man finally come to life in the glory he deserved for years was a great treat and I was glad it happened during my existence.

About James Cameron’s 60 page treatment? Well, it turns out that a few of his ideas were taken from it, one being the idea of having Spider-Man shoot his webs organically from his wrists than having him invent web shooters like he has in the comic books. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, why would Peter Parker obtain all the traits of a spider except for shooting webs physically from his body? But a few things from the draft I didn’t care for, like the villain, which was some forgettable person. Also, he had Flash’s last name wrong; it’s Thompson, not McCreery. Of course, it was only a treatment and not a full fledged screenplay, so I’ll forgive Cameron for his attempt.

My final “bit” on Spider-Man? A great all-around comic book film that’s faithful to its source and the whole film’s worth the watch just to see Spidey swinging through New York at the end.


Spider-Man 2

Pretty much greenlighted during the first film’s run, Spider-Man 2 is (so far) the best of the series. Thanks probably goes in part of the advance in CGI and the amount of money part one made worldwide. I’m partial to this outing because the villain was the one I wanted first: Doctor Octopus.

I was so excited when, again, production was generous in giving out the information on who the next villain would be. It was a no-brainer in my opinion because I think a lot of fans shared my thought that Doc Ock should’ve been the baddie in the first flick. A lot of speculation went down as to who would be wearing the arms, but they hadn’t cast the character yet at that time. One rumor went around that Robin Williams would be Otto Octavius, which I thought would be interesting. However, it wasn’t long before the announcement finally came out that it would be Alfred Molina.

Back again were Maguire, Dunst and Franco as Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn respectively. The love story arc between Peter and Mary Jane continues, as does the hatred of Spider-Man by Harry Osborn. But the love story turns into a love triangle because Mary Jane is dating a new man, J. Jonah Jameson’s son, the astronaut, John Jameson (who we Spidey fans know turns into the Man-Wolf in the Spider-Man comics).

In this outing, Peter’s struggling in college while juggling his photography career as well as a pizza deliveryman and of course, his job as Spider-Man. We’re treated right away to Spidey saving a couple of kids about to get run over by a truck as he’s trying to deliver a pizza. It follows the ongoing theme in the comics that Spidey’s just a regular Joe with everyday problems with school, work and women.

Harry follows in his father’s footsteps in funding the advancement of scientific research and it turns out that he’s funding a scientist, Dr. Otto Octavius, famous for his work in fusion. Peter’s writing a paper on him and gets to know the man, meeting his wife and talking to him about the upcoming demonstration. On the day of the presentation, things start out smoothly but soon go horribly wrong. We’re introduced to the artificial intelligent arms that Octavius uses for the experiment and it’s explained that because of a computer inhibitor chip that’s implanted on the mechanism, the doctor controls the arm and not the other way around. After the presentation goes wrong, resulting in the arms being melded to Otto’s body permanently and the inhibitor chip being destroyed, Spider-Man saves the day before the fusion experiment killed everybody in the room. Of course this enrages Harry Osborn even more and we later see that he’s hell-bent in killing Spider-Man; so much so that he’s obsessed with the task.

As expected, Otto Octavius becomes the dreaded Doctor Octopus and he wants to create a bigger and better fusion reaction, thinking that the experiment was working before Spider-Man ruined everything. All this is a disillusion by the arms now that there’s no inhibitor chip to stop them from swaying Octavius to do what they want him to.

One thing to note is the inclusion of Dr. Curt Connors in this film as well as pert three. In the Spider-Man universe, Dr. Connors becomes The Lizard. You may be able to catch how the actor is portrayed missing an arm, seeing that the sleeve of his right arm is empty and folded up. In the comics, his work is dedicated to the study of reptiles and how they’re able to regenerate limbs. He concocts a serum that he thinks may help him grow his arm back, and it does. However, the side effect is that he transforms into a human lizard and goes on killing sprees. I wished they continued this character’s storyline of the third film instead of what they did. But I’ll dive into that next.

I can go on and on about Spider-Man 2, mainly about the battles between Doc Ock and Spidey (especially the subway battle), and I’m sure that almost everybody has seen Sam Raimi’s masterpiece, but this by far is the quintessential superhero film.

To some it up, and to give my final “bit” on it, Spider-Man 2 is a multi-leveled film that goes from the love story arc, to Peter’s relationship with his aunt, to Harry’s vendetta against Spidey, to the matchup between the hero and villain, and so much more. All in all, the story was well written and I don’t think they can ever top this comic book hero movie. 2008’s The Dark Knight is close, but in my opinion, Spider-Man 2 is a notch above. Just the matchups between Spidey and Doc Ock (which we get three battles between them!) makes this comic book superhero movie much better than The Dark Knight.

Spider-Man 3

Well, we waited two years before we had gotten to see Spider-Man 2 and it was well worth the time it spent in production for we were delivered a top notch superhero versus villain movie we hadn’t seen since Superman went up against General Zod and his minion in Superman II back in 1981. So it came to reason that since we waited three years for Spider-Man 3, it should’ve been a way better movie than part 2, right?

Well, yes and no.

I’ll go into it as I did when I walked into the theater back a few years ago.

I sat down and watched the previews, waiting for the movie to start. As it did, I took note that the music was a tad different and had a bit more than usual, which I liked. A new theme was mixed into the one we all know and at the time I guessed it had something to do with the black goo we saw during the opening credits and which us comic book geeks knew belonged to the alien symbiote that came from outer space.

But enough of that until later.

I watched the movie and I had some reservations about certain parts, but loved a lot of the others.

Back again are the key players of the first two films. We’ve got Tobey Maguire sporting the red and blues again as Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, James Franco as Harry Osborn, Rosemary Harris as Aunt May, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Dylan Baker as Dr. Connors, and flashback scenes with Cliff Robertson as Uncle Ben.

We have some new characters and villains here in this one, including Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, James Cromwell as Captain Stacy, and Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman.

Out of the three films, and all of them I like by the way, this one didn’t have the flow as the others did. It seemed to drag in some parts and flowed in others, making it a tough film to watch.

One of a few examples of parts that just slowed down the film was Mary Jane in the beginning as she sung on stage. When the film opened with this I viewed it like an omen of bad things to come. It was terrible, like Kirsten Dunst’s singing, and grinded the film to a halt. And seeing that this was the first few minutes of the film—not good. I know that it set up Harry in the balcony sneering at Peter and showing his contempt for him, but they could’ve conveyed that without the singing. They could’ve had Peter sitting there while he waited for the show to start and have the same scene play out without the performance.

And about the black goo? A meteorite hits the ground (alá The Blob) ad that’s it? Waaaaay different than how Spidey had gotten the black suit in the comics, but I guess there’s just no way they could do that storyline in one movie or with only one Marvel character within one movie.

Another illustration of having a movie lag is whenever Peter visited with his Aunt May. These scenes seemed tacked on just to give screen time to Rosemary Harris. She’s a wonderful actress and I love her as Aunt May in these films, but unfortunately the writers didn’t give her much to work with in this Spider-Man outing.

Yet another scene, when Mary Jane visits Harry to be with a friend, seemed okay but the dancing part of it could’ve been trimmed out. Although the whole part of it was needed to give that love triangle story some credence as a whole, as well as giving Harry the anger he needed in order to have total recall from his amnesia. But come on! Doing “The Twist” in the kitchen? Corny.

Then the mother of all stupid parts is what I like to call the “Spider-Day Night Fever” scene where Peter is walking down the sidewalk dancing and acting like a fool. My God, I loathe this scene! As funny as it is, it just doesn’t belong in this film! It’s stupid and terrible and just adds a lot of campiness to a film that should’ve been straight all the way. There are so many other ways to illustrate Peter’s aggressiveness because of the black costume—I don’t know why they decided to add this ridiculousness to the story. To top it off, they add more to his sudden rhythmic ability in the jazz club scene. Embarrassing.

But tied for the worst idea of the movie was the alteration of Spider-Man’s history by making Flint Marko become Uncle Ben’s murderer instead of the character in the first film that was always understood as the killer throughout the chronicling in the Spider-Man comics.

Now for what I actually liked about Spider-Man 3.

The whole arc that continues with Peter and Harry is great. At least they continued with Harry taking over as the new Goblin with an innovative look as well as updated weapons and a new cool-looking glider. The first fight scene between the two (although Peter’s Spider-Sense should’ve warned him, but I’m willing to overlook this) is great and so cool, it kept me on the edge of my seat the first time I watched the film. The second battle in the Osborn mansion was amazing and actually made you feel sorry for Harry as Peter was swayed by the suit as he kicked Harry’s ass. These scenes were probably the coolest parts of the film.

Of course, the whole introduction to Flint Marko and how he become the Sandman is amazing. When he retrieves his trademark green and black striped shirt, I got goose bumps. And the chase into the particle accelerator bunker (whatever that test was all about) was so cool and gave a new modern twist to the comic book origin. Sam Raimi obviously gave special care to the scenes involving the Sandman because the special effects were so mind-blowing and miraculous, it really added so much to the film.

Although Sam Raimi didn’t want the black suit to be in the movie, he sure made it fit, albeit a bad way to introduce it. But the way it changed Peter and made him close to the brink of immorality, it displayed how powerful it was and how stronger it made Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the introduction of this storyline just made it seem like there were two movies going on at the same time, but it definitely was a cool idea.

I think the acrimony between Eddie Brock and Peter Parker was done well, going to a higher level when Peter’s influenced by the black costume and really emphasizing the hatred Eddie has when he finally gets the black suit bonded to him.

A lot of scenes were cool and held this movie together enough in order to make a lot of money worldwide. But there was quite a few parts that made me think that it could’ve been a lot better. Obviously Sony Pictures were okay with it and what it drew in the box office because they gave the go ahead for Spider-Man 4 to be released in May of 2011.

Anyway, hopefully Sam Raimi can have better control of the next film because I heard he was trumped by the producers to put Venom in Spider-Man 3 when he was totally against it. I agree with Raimi on how he wants to put the bronze age of comic book villains and not the newer ones of the 90s. If you think about it, it makes sense because we all grew up watching the famous cartoon of the 60s and we’re familiar with the villains of that era.

My final “bit” on Spider-Man 3? It’s definitely the weaker of the three films, but good enough for a stand alone film. It has adequate parts of exciting action and story, but does have parts where it slows down. As a completist, I watch all three movies one right after the other; but the best out of the three is Spider-Man 2. As a whole, this is probably the best superhero trilogy ever; the X-Men series is a close second.

Hopefully Spider-Man 4 will make up for this red-headed stepchild of the trilogy. If I had my way, I’d finally make Dylan Baker’s Dr. Connors be a focus in the movie as The Lizard because I think that would bring a Hulk aspect to the movie and maybe bring out some of Peter’s geniusness into the mix. And for a second villain, I’d go to the old days of Spider-Man’s rogue gallery and maybe choose Hydroman or Chameleon…one of his first foes from the comic book series.

But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Blade Trilogy

Blade

It’s pretty refreshing when two genres meld together to give you a very entertaining film. Sometimes it works, as the case with Blade, a comic book film blended with the rank of horror…vampire horror in particular. Blade is the name of the Marvel Comics character and he’s brought to life visually and masterfully in this film adaptation released by New Line back in 1998. He’s a vampire hunter, but the twist here is that he’s a vampire himself. Born from a pregnant woman who was bit by a vampire moments before giving birth, Blade has all the powers of a vampire but doesn’t have the weaknesses.

I’d never followed any Blade comic book (and I don’t know if there ever was a run…I’m sure there was), but I did hear of the character at the time. Nevertheless, the character I watched on the screen highly surpassed any representation highlighted in any Marvel comic book that I’ve looked at containing the character.

Although I never really cared for Wesley Snipes in any movie he’s done, as I’d always seen him as the enemy (New Jack City, Demolition Man) and never liked him as the hero, I found myself having to make a decision back then: Should I or should I not watch Blade? I went with the former and decided to put my eight bucks or so on the movie.

I was a little taken aback by the beginning, already thinking that it was a bad start when they have a cameo by a former porn star, Traci Lords. And as it went to that meat house rave with the house music continually pulsating and pounding as the backing track, I started to think I’d made a bad choice seeing this flick. But from the first reveal of Wesley Snipes in his black outfit, complete with chrome buckled vest and black leather trench coat, I was hooked. As it went into the battle there with the ravers being mostly vampires all coming at Blade from all sides, I became awestricken. The fighting technique, the guns blowing away the vampires, his sword work, and that silver razor-sharp boomerang as he threw it within that round washroom space…wow! At that moment, it was safe to say that this was going to be a vampiristic extravaganza beyond my wildest expectations.

Wesley Snipes as Blade is paired with the rough and gruff actor, Kris Kristofferson, as Whistler. He explains in the film that he found Blade as a child and took him in, later hunting together and killing as many vampires as they can, which is their quest.

Blade, the film, took the vampire lore and kept the mythos in tact, only changing a few things as far as I can remember. Whistler says in the movie that crosses and wooden stakes can’t kill them but garlic and silver can (i.e., silver impalement by silver stakes or silver bullets). Everything else from the vampire legends holds true in this flick.

The bad guy in this film is Stephen Dorff as the demented Deacon Frost. He’s not a true blood, meaning he wasn’t born a vampire, merely turned into one. Frost’s goal is typical, as he wants power beyond reasoning, chiefly becoming a vampire god. He finds a way through the vampire archives that will need to include the vampire council and Blade to become this god.

The story of this first film is very interesting and fundamentally has a good guy and a bad guy. A lot of films have a fine line between the protagonist and antagonist, but this one has a clearly defined line between the two.

Blade II

After the success of the first film, it was pretty evident that a sequel would have to be constructed to get a good Marvel Comics franchise up and running. So it was essential that they had a good script and storyline for the second film as well as having it directed by someone who could pull it off. I don’t know how part two would’ve turned out if they kept Steve Norrington as the director because he did a great job with the first one and I don’t know why he didn’t do it (maybe scheduling conflicts), but the choice to have Guillermo Del Toro direct Blade II was a perfect choice.

Let’s face it, the obvious way to go into a Blade sequel would probably just have him pair off with another vampire baddie while interweaving a cool plot within that. But Blade II actually surprises us by having Blade work with the vampire community in order to kill off something worse: a more advanced (or diseased—depends on how you look at it) vampire that’s killing vampires. What a concept, huh?

The film opens up with a twist, so to speak, as we see a blood donation bank that is obvious to the audience as a front for vampires to get their much needed food, and we see some poor sap that we think is facing his demise as they lock him in the room. But this guy starts laughing, causing confused looks on his subjugators’ faces. Turns out, this guy is some kind of vampire to the nth degree, with some sort of multi-jawed mouth that looks kind of creepy.

Meanwhile, Blade is on the trail of the vampires with, again, some fabulous kills using some cool weaponry. Whistler turns up again, which is sort of confusing knowing of his demise in the first film, but there’s some sort of explanation as to why he lived. Also, there’s a new sidekick of sorts that works for Blade, named Scud, taking the place of Whistler during his absence.

Soon, the vampires come to Blade for his help in killing these new creatures, called "Reapers," and they offer a truce while they’re on the hunt. He agrees and both sides set themselves up with a team, called "The Blood Pack," to go after the enemies. During this time, the animosity that Blade has for the motley crew of vampires chosen for the pursuit is evident as well as the hostility he gets from them because they’re basically hating the fact that they need him to catch these advanced vampires.

In Blade II, there are quite a few new ideas in the weaponry and armaments, as well as the title character’s moral development throughout. The group of vampires that travel with Blade is a colorful assembly, with the performance of Ron Perlman standing out. In addition, the effects are a lot better (especially in the CGI department) and the fight scenes very well coordinated and executed.

Blade II definitely surpasses the first film in entertainment and story.

Blade Trinity

I had such high hopes for Blade Trinity, I can’t even begin to tell you.

But I’ll try.

First, when they announced that this film was on its way to theaters, I didn’t even know it was planned. I was happy, but just a little perplexed about the news. So I stayed on it, listening and watching the internet for any other info, which was decent.

So…

The movie is released and I went, paid for a ticket and sat down to watch.

I was a little taken aback when I heard Ryan Reynolds’s voice as the narrator before the movie started, but I learned to put that aside. I think it might’ve been a little more appropriate to have Kris Kristofferson do the narrative, but oh well.

The opening was decent and looked like it was set up for a great story with the vampires going to the Middle East, into some temple, to find something underneath. Turns out to be some creature, like a vampire, but the audience doesn’t know what it is at this time.

Back at home, Blade is still fighting the good fight, going after and killing vampires. He’s hunting down some and stakes a bunch from a group he’s after until there’s one left. As he get’s to this last one and gets a clear shot, he shoots his silver staking gun and impales this last guy, but he doesn’t burn up and ash away like all the other vampires. The guy is laughing and tells Blade that he’s been set up (but isn’t the last laugh on him since he’s dying?), as we see the lead vampire, played by Parker Posey, on some building video taping the whole thing.

O-kaaaay…

We see that the FBI has been on the trail of Blade for a long time and they get this recording as they try to get a lead on him. They finally get their chance as Whistler is followed to the hideout. This is where the movie starts going downhill for me because you’d think that Whistler would be a little more careful and be able to tell when he’s being followed or duped. But here he is just leading the FBI right to Blade.

Anyway, the feds raid Blade’s lair and all hell breaks loose as Whistler gets shot and has to blow all the computers. And even though he seemed to make all the terminals, he decides to blow the whole place while yelling out to Blade to get the hell out of the building. He makes it, but Whistler doesn’t.

Blade is taken in and held with some heavy duty arm cuffs while seeming out of it and done for.

The police tell the feds that it’s their jurisdiction now and force them out (although I always thought the FBI trumped the cops…oh well), and we see that the chief and psychiatrist are Familiars, to make Blade vulnerable. The vampires, thinking that they have Blade where they want him, come in and fuck with him. But before they can do anything, here come Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel to save him.

From here on, we hear Ryan Reynolds constant jabbering of one-liners and funny looks, ruining the movie for me. I’m a fan of Reynolds, but I don’t think action flicks are his forte. He should stick to comedies and THAT’S IT.

Also, the music soundtrack is constantly playing gangsta hip-hop songs, making this outing far different then the first two films. And another thing, it was getting very tiring watching the same shot of Blade, Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler walking in slow motion, trying to look bad-ass but it just came off looking goofy.

Overall, this movie didn’t take itself seriously. It seemed like a big joke and that Kristofferson and Snipes didn’t really put their heart and soul into this one like they did with the first two. Adding the younger and more popular cast was a mistake because it had just got in the way.

Blade Trinity missed the mark big time, which is too bad because this was such a good idea. I mean, what was the logical next step but to have Blade pitted against Dracula himself? I think if they had everything the way it was except for the young cast and without the hip-hop music, this would’ve been an excellent outing and a fitting close to a great comic book hero trilogy.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good movie and some of Hannibal King’s dialogue is funny. Even Whistler’s daughter was a good concept.

My final “bit” is that Blade & Blade II are must-see flicks, whether you’re a Wesley Snipes fan or not. Blade Trinity is a good movie to watch and you’ll enjoy it. But it definitely is the oddball of the trilogy.

Terminator: Salvation

Of the movies so far that have been released this year in 2009, Terminator: Salvation was the one I’d been looking forward to the most. In fact, as I write this first paragraph, I haven’t seen it yet. The only thing I’ve experienced thus far is reading the prequel novelization of the film as well as seeing the trailers and clips that have been released on the Internet. So before I go venture to my city’s local movie complex, I wanted to start this review with how I felt since they’ve announced the plans to make a fourth movie.

I remember soon after Terminator 3 was released and received pretty good reviews, it was announced that the rights were acquired by Halcyon to make three more films. I was stoked! At the time, I thought Jonathan Mostow did a fair job at bringing the franchise back to continue the story of The Terminator.

Some time went by before I heard anything else on the Internet or elsewhere. But soon there were rumors of it going on the fast track to get something on screen quickly, followed by talks of who would be in it. By this time, Arnold Schwarzeneggar took the office of Governor of California, making it impossible for him to reprise his role. Which was just as well since I felt he was already too old for part 3 anyway, might as well put another body builder/actor in the role. Besides, Arnold was a Model 101 T-800…surely there were other models. 100? 102?

I digress.

Finally I started hearing rumblings of it really happening, that we were going to get a part 4 that takes it into the future war. We were going to see early Terminators like the T-600 series and the Hunter-Killers and others of the ilk. Articles on the Internet began informing us that Nick Stahl and Claire Daines were out, as was Jonathan Mostow. So, the search for the stars of the film began and the more important search for the director was what I was watching.

I believe James Cameron was approached and I think he may have even considered at first, but he went back to his original statement that he felt the story ended after T2 in 1991.

A few directors’ names were put in the hat and after some time, one came out that I really didn’t care for: Joe McGinty, otherwise known as McG. McG is best known for his campy outings of both Charlie’s Angels films and that really concerned me. The Terminator films are serious and should not have any camp whatsoever (although there were quite a few one-liners thanks to Arnie in the third film). But McG did have We Are Marshall under his belt and I thought that was a redeeming value for him as a director. With that in mind, it was a toss up for me…either it was going to be good or it was going to be bad.

At or near the same time, it was announced that Christian Bale was in talks to play John Connor. I couldn’t believe it. Bale was already sailing high with his debut as the new Caped Crusader in Batman Begins, as well as The Dark Knight which was yet to be released at the time. It was a plus, I thought, because Christian Bale is such an extreme actor and always puts everything into a role; he even lost 65 pounds to play the insomniac in The Machinist.

As time went on, more and more notable actors and actresses began to appear on the bill for the new Terminator movie. Bryce Dallas Howard takes Claire Daines’ place as Kate Brewster, John Connor’s wife. I was always curious as to who would play Kyle Reese and I found out shortly that it was Anton Yelchin, who played the Chekov role adequately in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. Common plays Connor’s right hand man, Barnes, and Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams. And although it’s been said that this film will take place before the T-800 series of Terminators exist, I noticed a surprising character in the IMDb web site that showed otherwise; an actor by the name of Roland Kickinger was cast as the T-800. Of course rumors began to flow through the web about this, which I found was a good fit. If anyone has seen the TV movie, Run Arnold Run, they’d know Kickinger from that film where he played the young Arnold Schwarzeneggar. He looks quite remarkably like Arnold and has a background familiar to his as well. They’re both Austrian and professional body builders at one time or another. But I guess that wasn’t good enough for the studios because they really wanted Schwarzeneggar in this film so bad, they decided to try a relatively new special effect to get this done. So, in a sense, Arnold was to return again as the T-800.

With all this going on in my mind, I walked right up to the ticket booth of Hanford’s Movies 8, paid for one ticket and went into the theater to find the best seat to plant myself for the next two hours or so, enjoying the return of the Terminator franchise.

What did I think?

In one word with all caps…AWESOME!

I’ve seen three blockbusters so far for this summer and by all means, this is the best I’ve seen. However, I am partial to the Terminator franchise, so it may not be fair for me to say that. But it is my opinion.

The film opens with Sam Worthington’s character, Marcus Wright, sitting on death row in 2003 as he awaits his sentence for the murder of his brother and a cop. Helena Bonham Carter’s character, Serena, comes in and asks him to sign away his body to science. After he signs the paperwork, we see a clear shot of the paperwork’s header which has the Cyberdyne insignia on top.

The film then cuts to the future, 2018, and we see the resistance fighting and bombing satellite dishes, obviously used by Skynet. We’re introduced to the first glimpse of John Connor as his helicopter lands on a wrecked T-600. He jumps out and puts a few bullets into its skull.

The resistance goes down into some underground bunkers where they want to rig up bombs to detonate, but we see a glimpse of some bodies (including Marcus Wright’s) and they’re wondering what the hell is Skynet doing there.

Later, Marcus wakes up, joins up with Kyle Reese and Star (if you’d read the book prequel, you’d understand why they’re on their own). They hear John Connor’s nightly message over a CB radio, letting everyone who can hear him know that they’re part of the Resistance and how to beat or outmaneuver the machines. Kyle says that they need to find this guy, so that’s their quest.

Meanwhile, John Connor is not quite the leader he’s always meant to be just yet. The Resistance has a command center that’s located in a submarine in the middle of the ocean and Connor has to abide by them like everybody else. However, it’s shown that he has a following already, not just by his squad but by people who listen to him over the airwaves.

Connor’s aware of Kyle Reese being out there somewhere and it’s apparent he’s leaving it up to fate that he’ll find Reese or Reese will find him.

I felt the plot was rather decent, not like all the grumbling I’ve heard from other reviewers saying that there was none. I feel that the story here is mainly a part one of many and we’ll have to look at all of them as a whole before we cast any judgement. But here, we have Marcus and Kyle’s need to find Connor. Later, Connor works with Marcus to rescue Kyle. All the while, there is a big Resistance strike that is about to take place that really jeopardizes Connor’s rescue of Kyle. As convoluted as that sounds, I think it’s a very contrived, yet interestingly fascinating, story.

The look of the film was great, the cast was excellent, the dialogue was good…overall, the film was very well executed and didn’t drag at all. Sure, there’s minor parts where I could nitpick, but in almost any film I could do that.

The machines featured in this outing are magnificent and spectacular. They pay respect to the original designs from the first films, yet there is more to see that we haven’t seen before, thanks in good part and memory of the late and great Stan Winston.

The Harvester is a Transformer-esque machine with the size and firepower to envy, yet doesn’t have the ridiculous moving lips and eyebrows. It seems to be a part of the HKs that patrol the airs.

The Moto-Terminators are these Ducati-type cycles that are equipped with maneuvering abilities that the humanistic machines don’t have. Like the Harvesters being a part of the HKs, the Moto-Terminators are a part of the Harvesters.

The Hydrobots patrol the waters with its serpentine capabilities and its similarity to Doctor Octopus’s tentacles, yet they swim and whisk through the water with the ease of an eel.

Of course, throughout the film we see many T-600 series of machines and they’re these behemoth monstrosities that thump around and use mini-guns to kill at will. Kyle Reese was correct in the 1984 film when he said they were easy to spot with their rubber skin.

The climax of the film was the best part of all and it included the cameo of the original Terminator himself, Mr. Arnold Schwarzeneggar…well, sort of. When I saw this part, a smile grew on my face that probably made me look like a little school boy…I think I may have giggled a little as well. I didn’t giggle because the cameo wasn’t well accomplished, I giggled because I loved it!

I plan to see this film again before it leaves the screens because I really think this film delivers. Unfortunately, James Cameron’s T1 and T2 are a little better, but not by much. I really believe the reason he says he thinks the story finished with T2 is either because he couldn’t come up with anything or maybe he wants somebody to try and fail, perking up his ego when critics write or say that this film is no James Cameron film.

No, it’s no James Cameron film; it’s a McG film. Gosh, I’d never thought I’d say that.

My final “bit” on Terminator: Salvation? McG spares no expense on the action. It definitely doesn’t lack the excitement and fanfare we, as the audience, want to see. I highly recommend this film, especially if you’re a Terminator fan. If you aren’t, you may even love this movie even more than a die hard like myself.