For some reason I was very reluctant to see this film. I'm not a gamer so the franchise doesn't mean much to me. The two versions starring Angelina Jolie are distant menories after one viewing when the came out, and the trailer made the movie look like a single long chase through the jungle and I saw that last Christmas with "Jumanji". So imagine my surprise that this turned out to be pretty good.
Alicia Vikander has been on my radar since I first saw her in a ridiculous film "Seventh Son", from three years ago. Since then she starred in my favorite movie of that year and won an Academy Award. None of that really suggests that she could be an action star, but this film manages to make her pretty believable in that role. One of the things the script manages to do is show that she is frequently lucky rather than invincible. The opening two scenes show her being defeated in a battle in the ring and getting creamed in a bicycle chase. She has her moments but she is also clearly not always going to come out on top. She is also an amateur in this film version. As a nascent treasurer hunter, she is really in pursuit of her father not the contents of a tomb.
I don't mean to suggest that the story is complex or that there are not a lot of chase scenes. In fact, the plot does seem like a series of action sequences strung together. The most noticeable of which are three chase sequences that take up the first half of the film. The bicycle chase at the beginning is very clever and nicely shot and completely superfluous to the plot. A pursuit across a series of boats in the harbor of Hong Kong, does little to advance the story either. The big chase is the action scene that is so prominently featured in the trailers, and it is that jungle chase that I mentioned earlier. It has some of those Spielberg touches, that add just one more complication as you think the end is within reach. Those play out like a bit of a cliche but they still manage to work.
My main reason for wanting to see this is that it features Walton Goggins as the bad guy. We are fans of his work ever since we first came across him in "Justified". I know that he had some success before that but we know him as Boyd Crowder. Here he is Maithias Vogel, the minion of some vast conspiracy that is attempting to control the world. I'm sure that "Trinity" will feature prominently in any successive films but her it is barely a shadow. Vogel is the villain and as a man trapped on an island, searching for what he thinks is a treasure, surrounded by slaves that he dispatches like swatting a fly, he is appropriately mad-eyed. Goggins has a good voice and speaks in an interesting rhythm when given a chance. Unfortunately here, there is rarely an opportunity. The screenwriters just stick a gun in his hand and move on to another sequence.
The National Treasure/Raiders of the Lost Ark/Mummy vibe is pretty strong. When they finally do enter the Tomb, it was sufficiently booby trapped to make the last section pretty effective. We don't really get any sense of how Lara Croft figures out the puzzles that she solves. This was especially true of the combination that unlocked the chamber in the first place. I would think that gamers, used to having to solve these sorts of elements to make their games work, would want to have that as part of the process, but the film makers are in a hurry to get to the next piece of exposition or action.
"Tomb Raider" is a brisk two hours with enough story to make the action work, but only barely. Whether or not we get further adventures that the story clearly is setting up is a mystery that could only be discovered by Lara herself. Stay Tuned.
You can listen to the episode here. Tomorrow I will post my draft choices and share a link to where you can vote for them. We had a very fun time talking all things Spielberg so you should take advantage and spend a couple of hours debating our positions.
In
the world of Science Fiction, most readers of novels, viewers of
television and movies will always remember a strong ending to a story.
The "Twilight Zone" was famous for the twist sucker punch finale of most
of the episodes. In the popular culture, when an image or a quote
becomes a meme understood by all, it is clear that the work has tapped
into something important to the times, politics or people. Charlton
Heston is the star of many a movie meme. Moses standing at the Red Sea
parting the waves, Ben Hur, either chained to the oars of the Roman
Battle cruiser or with rein in hand on a Chariot. His most famous image
however is as a dismayed misanthrope pounding sand on a beach in front
of the ruins of one of the most recognizable symbols in the world at the
end of "Planet of the Apes". Heston has at least one other great
moment of Science Fiction history in his vita, the denouncement at the
end of the movie "Soylent Green". It is another moment parodied and
understood by masses of people, most of whom have never seen the movie. I
don't want his refrain to be the only thing people know about the film
so this week "Soylent Green" is the movie I want everyone to see.
"Soylent
Green" is one of those great 1970s Science Fiction movies that is more
about ideas than about special effects. Before the juggernaut that is
"Star Wars" came along, most Science Fiction lived in the imagination
more than the vision of a story. There were occasional exceptions like
"Forbidden Planet" and "2001", but for each of those visually rich
movies, there were a dozen other films that made do with small budgets,
limited effects and big ideas. Films like "Seconds", "A Boy and His
Dog", "Damnation Alley" or "The Omega Man" drew in audience mostly with
interesting concepts. Sometimes like with "Planet of the Apes" there was
spectacular art direction and set design, but even in that film the
visual factor relies on our willingness to accept the story in order to
then accept the vision. Most of these films are cautionary tales that
try to speak to the worries of the times in which they were made, and
"Soylent Green" was one of the finest examples of playing on those
contemporary fears.
Stanford
Biologist Paul Ehrlich published a book called "The Population Bomb"
that predicted a coming world of Malthusian Nightmares. It spawned a
whole industry of doomsayers and environmental prophets who suggested
that the Earth was over populated and over polluted. The theme of
"Soylent Green" is derived from this stream of fearful environmentalism
of the early 1970s. This dystopian world is not threatened by nuclear
annihilation but starvation and overcrowding. Of course there has also
been a substantial amount of global warming to screw up the planet's
food supplies as well. Most of this is brilliantly summarized by the
title sequence which uses a combination of photos, pacing and music to
show us what has happened and is coming.
It
was simple and to the point. It was also forty years ago, so perhaps it
is a little premature to send us all to a living hell but once the
premise is set up the story follows it quite well. William Simonson, a
director of the Soylent Corporation is murdered and although there are
hundreds of murders a day in the overcrowded world, one detective is
unwilling to accept that it is a random burglary. Simonson lives in a
luxurious apartment that comes equipped with special security, a
bodyguard and living furniture that he can enjoy to his hearts content.
It just seems too convenient that the bodyguard was out shopping for
groceries with the furniture at the moment this important man was killed
in his building. A building where the security system is on the fritz
when the apartment is broken into.
Heston plays the determined cop
who engages in the kind of casual corruption that seems to be as
prevalent in the future as it was in the 1970s with Al Pacino's
"Serpico". Detective Thorn is not a bad guy, but he appears to be a
vulture at the scene of the crime, scooping up whatever luxury item is
likely to go unmissed. Everybody gets a little taste, from his boss to
the grunts that remove the body. Thorn takes some vegetables and meat
which are incredibly rare commodities in the future. Most people have to
survive on manufactured nutrition wafers of different composition,
including the recently introduced "Soylent Green". He also acquires a
couple of rare technical books that he will not be able to make sense
out of but which ought to please his partner Sol Roth, an elderly man
who serves as the equivalent of Wikipedia for the future police force.
Most
of you know an old timer or two who provides a link to the past. They
share stories of the good old days and relate how the world was a better
place in their youth (much like your current narrator). For the most
part we can dismiss those stories as the nostalgia of an older
generation (you know, they walked five miles up hill to school in the
snow and then five miles uphill home at the end of the day). This movie
posits that the memories of the older generation are not rambling
condemnations of change but accurate histories of things that have in
fact been lost. The collective of older "books" is known as the Exchange
and Sol takes the information from the two Oceanographic Reports that
Thorn brought him to the Exchange for evaluation.
The film is a
police procedural about a conspiratorial secret which the powers that be
are determined to keep a secret. Most of this was pretty standard
stuff, but several aspects of the setting make the story so much more
compelling. The way in which the citizens have to live, on rationed
water, limited food supplies, sleeping on staircases shows how the
environment has decayed. The world of the dead man stands in stark
contrast to the rest of the population. A rich man with a sex partner
who comes with the apartment and access to items that are incredibly out
of reach to the rest of the population may seem an unsympathetic
victim. We have seen however that there was a sense of guilt in his
death, we are aware that there is a conspiracy and we watch Thorn as he
picks at each link and follows his instincts to arrive at the truth. In
the process the future world is revealed to us bit by bit. The
term "bromance" has cropped up in the last few years to describe stories
that are about the friendship between two men. Buddy pictures have been
around since the days of silent film, and up through the point this was
released so was Edward G. Robinson. The partnership between Sol and
Thorn is the real relationship in the movie. Heston's character does get
involved with the "furniture" of the dead man, but all of the really
emotional moments of the film involve him and the old man. From some of
the earliest of sound films, Robinson played gangsters, doctors and
bureaucrats.
He was the definitive gangster for the first decade of sound movies as
"Little Cesar". "Soylent Green" gave him the opportunity to go out on a
high note. This was his last film and he played it for all that was on
the page. The scene where Sol prepares the purloined food for a meal for
Heston is a good example. Sol, enjoys it with relish and equally enjoys
watching Thorn, who has never had anything like this enjoy as well.
Robinson waves his plastic utensils as if they were a baton and he was
conducting an orchestra. The crescendo of the piece is the belch Heston
gives at the end of the most satisfying meal of his life. Apparently
this scene was not in the script and was improvised by the two actors
with the prompting of the director. It was a special touch to show their
relationship and the world of the time. At one point Heston's boss
suggests he might need a new "book" but the detective demurs and
continues to have faith in his room mate/partner/father figure.
The
other great sequence featuring Robinson, and one that is sadly ironic,
is Sol's decision to end his own story. When advocates of euthanasia
speak of giving patients back their dignity
and providing comfort at the end, they must surely envision a scene
like the one that takes place at the end of the second act. Older people
desiring to die, troop into a modernistic building, fill out a form and
then have some final comforts attended to. Robinson was dying of cancer
when the movie was made and he was almost completely deaf. We would all
hope that his passing would be as beautiful as was depicted here in the
processing center referred to as "home" by those seeking an end to
their time on Earth. Thorn gets the final proof for the motive of the
executive's murder by following his friend through his passage home. As
you watch what is really a simple sequence
of wonderful pastoral scenes and listen to the comforting and thrilling
classical score, you realize how devastating the loss of the world as
it was would be to those able to remember it.
The themes and
characters have been shared with you a bit, now let's talk about the
production. In today's world, this would be a movie crammed with
futuristic CGI vistas and sets that were created in a computer. The
costumes and equipment would be imagined in fantastic ways to make us
feel as if we were in the future. The science fiction films of the
seventies were often done on modest budgets and almost always had to
make due with creative use of location and existing props. A luxury
apartment of the future comes equipped with the latest video game (here
it is an early version of Pong). Food riots need to be staged on a New
York City back lot, but to make it more futuristic, garbage trucks are
modified to remove people rather than trash. The euthanasia center is
the googie architectural structure of the L.A. Sports arena and it's
futuristic clean style lobby. The focus stays on the ideas rather than
the "wow" factor of the look. Even the two books that Thorn confiscates,
they are not digital readouts on an i-pad style device, they are simply
over-sized volumes given slick covers to convey an advanced type of
publishing, nothing fancy but slightly noticeable.
The
horrible secret of "Soylent Green" has probably been used as a
punchline by thousands of people who never even saw the movie. The fact
that the last line has reached into and grabbed the public consciousness
is evidence of the effectiveness of the idea behind the film. We are on
an environmental brink that may change the relationship of human beings
to one another in catastrophic ways. The immorality of a choice might
be mitigated by the exigencies of the moment. The movie is an action
based detective conspiracy story, but the thought it contains is
provocative and the story highlights that issue rather than pushing it
aside for action. Just five years after he stands in for the sucker
punched audience in front of the Statue of Liberty, Heston finishes
another iconic Science fiction thought with his dire warning and
outstretched hand. Another entertaining science fiction movie is capped
off with a thought that is frightening and thought provoking.
Special Note:
This
is the first of my series on Fogs Movie Reviews [Now, Movies I Want Everyone to See] to cover a film I wrote
about on my original Movie A Day Project from 2010. If you are
interested in a comparison of the posts click here,
I did not refer to this earlier post when writing this so you will see
some differences in voice and view but probably not too many in attitude
or style. Enjoy.
Richard Kirkham is a lifelong movie enthusiast
from Southern California. While embracing all genres of film making, he
is especially moved to write about and share his memories of movies from
his formative years, the glorious 1970s. His personal blog, featuring
current film reviews as well as his Summers of the 1970s movie project,
can be found at Kirkham A Movie A Day.
I love a revenge film. The catharsis and emotional satisfaction that comes from seeing justice being played out against reprehensible people is pleasing at the most base level. I think most people recognize that films like these are fantasies and not guidebooks on how to act. I can't say on an intellectual level that vigilante action is something we should approve of, but for two hours in a movie theater it can be very therapeutic.
The original version of "Death Wish" from 1974 was one of the most controversial films of it's time. It was also commercially successful. So much so that the character returned in a series of decreasingly relevant and quality sequels. It was a film of the moment, when urban crime was overwhelming cities and turning them into dystopian outposts in the real world, not some fictional future. The script for this remake is written in a manner to play off of that paranoia, but do so in a modern context. Screenwriter Joe Carnahan has mixed the urban danger zone that Chicago has become with the suburban setting occupied by the protagonist and his family. This changes the way the character might be perceived and it allows the fear of random violence to be part of a more contemporary story.
Another important change in the plot involves the lead now being a trauma surgeon rather than an architect. The avenging grim reaper now has a pipeline of bad guys coming through the emergency room, they provide him with a link to specific criminals. Charles Bronson's character was not seeking the specific criminals that destroyed his family, he had become a moral cudgel to thrash the unrepentant criminal element in a somewhat random manner. He actually begins to bait criminals into their actions to be able to take them out. Bruce Willis does engage in a couple of random acts of vigilantism, but he mostly is pursuing leads that will bring him in contact with the particular gang that robbed and murdered at his house. The criminals in this film are an organized crew with a plan and an M.O.
Bruce Willis has been making straight to streaming movies for the last five years and his enthusiasm as an actor is not very apparent in most of this movie. He still has enough charisma to make us watch in some sequences but he seems to be disengaged in some of the others. It is only when he starts killing people that he seems to come to life in the film. His sequences with the family or interacting with the police lack the edginess and sarcastic humor that mark his other roles. Vincent D'Onofrio is his brother, and it is not clear in any way how he is essential to the plot. There are a couple of scenes near the end where the brothers confront some emotional issues between them, and D'Onofrio seems like he is effortlessly creating a character while Willis is just standing there.
However, director Eli Roth, has managed to inject some life into this film by making Dr. Paul Kersey, a relentless inquisitor and fledgling killer. In the original film, Bronson gets inspired by a visit to Arizona where a business contact encourages him to take up shooting. Dr. Kersey goes to Texas to bury his wife, and it is his father-in-law who inspires him indirectly by pulling to the side of the dirt road they are coming back from the graveside on, and unloading his rifle at a couple of poachers on his ranch. Coincidences become the staring point for his human hunting expedition when he recognizes a trauma patient as the kid who worked as a parking valet at his families favorite restaurant. Add a cell phone and a dropped firearm and he becomes a hooded FBI unto himself.
Roth is known for the horror films that he has made and his touch with gore is clearly visible in many spots in this film. Kersey as a doctor, knows exactly how to torture someone to get information that he needs and Roth is happy to show us the process. There are brains splattered in a couple of scenes so the violence quotient is pretty high. Early in the film, there is a set up of a device that becomes pivotal in the climax of the story. Progressives are going to hate this film but the NRA might want to use it as a commercial for membership. The unfortunate real world events that have brought gun issues to the center of national attention recently, may find that the narrative they are creating about semi-automatic weapons, will be problematic to those who have an interest in owning them for a variety of reasons other than creating mayhem.
The film lacks the grit and social relevance of the 70s original but tries to compensate with plot twists and higher levels of violence. The cop character in this movie is not as interesting as the Vincent Guardina cop in the original, but the perspective is effectively conveyed in a much more casual and subtle manner. If Bruce could manage to put just a little more effort into the non-action scenes, this could potentially be another franchise for a few years. Whether or not that happens, the revenge story is basic, brutal and as politically incorrect as you can imagine. All reasons for me to like the film at least.
My main reason for wanting to see this is that it features Walton Goggins as the bad guy. We are fans of his work ever since we first came across him in "Justified". I know that he had some success before that but we know him as Boyd Crowder. Here he is Maithias Vogel, the minion of some vast conspiracy that is attempting to control the world. I'm sure that "Trinity" will feature prominently in any successive films but her it is barely a shadow. Vogel is the villain and as a man trapped on an island, searching for what he thinks is a treasure, surrounded by slaves that he dispatches like swatting a fly, he is appropriately mad-eyed. Goggins has a good voice and speaks in an interesting rhythm when given a chance. Unfortunately here, there is rarely an opportunity. The screenwriters just stick a gun in his hand and move on to another sequence.
