The Watcher - Guardians of the Galaxy

by Stefan Harkins

A lot of people were concerned about Marvel’s next venture, a talking racoon and a tree... in space? Well not me! Ever since the first trailer blasted Blue Swede’s Hooked on a Feeling, I’ve been psyched!

The movie starts in 1988 with a young Peter Quill helplessly watching as his dying mother passes away. Doing what any child would do at this point he runs away, and in the midst of his grief he’s abducted by a massive spaceship!

We then jump forward 26 years and the now adult Quill (Chris Pratt) has settled into his space life, calling himself Star-Lord. He explores the galaxy, stealing and selling anything he can get his hands on. On a desolate planet while exploring a forgotten tomb, he pulls out an Eighties Walkman including foam headphones and pops in his ‘Awesome Mix Vol.1’ cassette tape. All of a sudden we’re filled with nostalgia as pop power ballads fill the air (it makes an awesome soundtrack!) and Quill dances his way around in order to find a shiny orb to steal. I feel this scene sets the tone of the movie, have fun while you're here and enjoy the ride!

Everyone seems to be after Quill, the orb or both and thats how the rest of our protagonists meet and end up in jail. This isn’t the type of movie which spends half its time explaining itself, and thats a good thing. There’s no unnecessary backstory, but each character gets a moment to define themselves. It's in prison that the group really get to know each other and so do we. 

Chris Pratt is perfect as Star-Lord; arrogant, cocky and libido driven but at the same time the heart of the story. Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the adopted daughter of arch-villain Thanos (Josh Brolin), kicks ass beautifully and balances wonderfully against the buffoonery of Quill. Now Drax the Destroyer (wrestler Dave Bautista) was a bit of a surprise - vengeful and determined, but with dry wit and a deadpan delivery that gave a lot of his lines some huge laughs. 

Fans are going to fall in love with the two CGI characters, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). One's a wisecracking, massive gun-toting, cybernetically-enhanced raccoon and the other a sentient tree-being who's vocabulary is limited to ‘I am Groot’. They share a unique bond, in part because Rocket seems to be the only one who can understand Groot. The detail in the CGI expression is impressive and really sells their emotions. Some may think the casting of these two is a stunt to help sell the movie, but I found that you never hear the ‘celebrity’ voices instead just the characters. A lot of laughs, with Groot particularly providing the warm and sweet ‘Hulk’ of this movie with some great moments.

It turns out there is more to the orb of course, it’s the McGuffin of the film - even Quill refers to it as having a “Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon kind of vibe.” Of course inside it is another Infinity Gem, which means darker forces have their evil eyes on it. Thanos to be precise, who sends Lee Pace’s menacing Ronan the Accuser to get it along with Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and his other daughter Nebula (Karen Gillan), who has a ruthless rivalry and jealous relationship with Gamora to say the least. 

What with his cameo in Thor The Dark World stinger, I was a little concerned with Benicio Del Toro as The Collector being overly camp and out of place, but thats not the case here. He has some good exposition about the Infinity Gems and their beginnings which we’ve not had up until now.

If I had to say something negative about Guardians of the Galaxy and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole it would be the relatively bland villains - they do have a hard time finding ones that can contend with the Marvel heroes (aside from Loki)! For me however, it’s all about the unlikely group of heroes who are more compelling and the real focus of the movie. There are however some standout supporting roles which are greatly written; Michael Rooker’s Yondu whose space pirate who took a shine to Quill; John C. Reilly and Peter Serafinowicz as Nova Corps officers; and Glenn Close as Nova Prime (what a hairdo!).

Written and directed by James Gunn along with co-writer Nicole Perlman, they keep things upbeat and fun. Mimicking the witty banter of The Avengers in a sci-fi setting, which almost makes it reminiscent of Firefly. The visuals are staggering and the jokes all hit their marks perfectly. Gunn obviously had a lot of fun creating the soundtrack, which is pretty much Quill’s Awesome Mix Vol.1 brought to life - an Eighties DJ's ‘best of’ dream!

Dismiss any doubts you had this is definitely one of the best Marvel films so far..

Stefan Harkins is doing a Kevin Bacon and indeed hooked on that Marvel feeling!

The Watcher - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

by Jack Meldrum

Oh.

Wow.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is fantastic. Not merely 'good for the genre' or 'good but-flawed', but out and out tremendous. It's the best MARVEL movie ever made, by any studio. It's so good I genuinely believe it deserves Oscar nods for screenplay and director. It's a turning point for superhero movies and modern blockbusters, a rousing, earth-shattering film without a single bad scene or awkward moment. At all.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has totally redefined what a superhero movie is. When we look back in a decade, we'll mark at as the point where 'superhero' stopped being a genre and started being a form – a method and style of making any kind of movie, where character and action are irrevocably intertwined and everything exists in this kind of hyper-real, impossible state that you believe in wholeheartedly. It's a sublime political thriller in the vein of The Manchurian Candidate, and it has the best action I've seen in a Hollywood film in my short life – easily the best in a decade at least. It's a tense, chilling film about trust and conspiracies where a man flies around on a jetpack wing suit.

Everything works. From a wonderful opening scene that introduces us (and Captain America, still played note-perfect by Chris Evans) to Anthony Mackie's scene-stealing Falcon to the gut-busting mid-film twist to the fantastic final action sequence, The Winter Soldier is a testament to how the most important part of a movie is the screenplay. There's not a wasted line or a superfluous scene. Action happens because it should, not because someone worried we might be bored. Characters behave like real, complex human beings who just happen to have superpowers and deep moral codes.

And – SPOILER ALERT – there's one of the most shocking, nauseating twists you can imagine in any movie, revealed during a terse conversation with a man who lives inside a gigantic tape-reel IBM computer. For real. It's one of the best scenes in the movie and you don't question it for a second.

The eponymous Winter Soldier is also one of the best things in a very, very good movie. Sebastian Stan has perhaps thirty words in the whole thing but he acts the pants off it. He's chilling and menacing and goddamn relentless and there's never a doubt that he really would kill you, right now, if he was asked to. Despite the soaring unreality of the film, it's totally compelling, to an extent where several times I questioned how this movie even existed. It's that potent.

I can't even tell you about my favourite scene – one totally overflowing with cleverness and unbelievable use of multiple story threads – because it's pure spoiler and you deserve to see it untainted. But you do absolutely deserve to see it. The Winter Soldier is one of the best movies of the year so far, quite possibly the best superhero movie ever made. Unlike The Dark Knight, it's dark without being morose, and it's smart without being smug. It's a fantastically watchable, shockingly well-handled film that mines the source material for every bit of good stuff it can and then creates a transcendent movie experience.

This one's gonna go far.

Jack Meldrum tried to upload himself to his pocket calculator. It's still trying to compute his ego.

The Watcher Retrospective - Captain America: The First Avenger

by Jack Meldrum

As of writing it's been just over 24 hours since I saw Captain America – The First Avenger in cinemas for the first time. Not that it was the first time I saw it, as I've had the movie on DVD since roughly six months after it first came out.

But seeing it on-screen reminded me just how good this film is. 

The ultimate strength of Captain America is that it fully embraces the message delivered by Doctor Abraham Erskine – that a 'weak man knows the value of strength' and that, to steal a quote from Disney's Hercules, 'the strength of a hero is the strength of his heart'. It's an absolutely unironic celebration of goodness, of honesty, of courage and idealism. There's no jingoistic nonsense because Steve Rogers (played to perfection by Chris Evans) is not a jingoistic man. He's not even a patriot, if one considers how patriotism so often plays out. He's a man who believes wholeheartedly in the values his country is supposed to be about. And the movie believes in him in the same way.

Joe Johnston (who also did the sublime Rocketeer and the really underrated Jurassic Park 3) opens the film with the present-day discovery of the frozen Cap and then uses the prolonged flashback that is the rest of the picture as justification for montage after montage – an approach that delivers surprisingly effective results. It's the Second World War as we know it in movies, not necessarily as it was, and because the Captain is such an impossibly fictional character, it works. Johnston's clichéd beats aren't clichés, because he's using them to absolute best effect – embracing the impossible nature of the material and selling it to us as he knows we'll understand.

Hugo Weaving is the standout, though. His Red Skull - a man so evil the Nazis said 'maybe he's a bit much, ja?' - is a glowering menace and somehow totally believable, even when he's fondling the Cosmic Cube and shooting laser beams at Hitler's cronies. Toby Jones' Armin Zola is equally terrific, with a curious amoral/moral bent that suggests he's not totally comfortable with the Asgardian-derived superweapons he's asked to churn out. Skull and Zola form the backbone of the film's narrative and structure, driving the plot forward with their sinister 'kill everyone, remake the world' super-scheme. Their sublime construction and performance means that any time the film's jovial WWII stuff feels a little flabby, we cut right back to these tight, taut interactions between man and monster and it all feels fine.

The movie is, frankly, an impossibility – made less so now by the presence of the totally incredible sequel, but still something so honest and heartfelt it's unbelievable it dropped in the cynical year of 2011. It's a film I never expected to work, and yet it does, and it does it by kneecapping cynicism from the word go and going out of its way to treat what it does as what it is. It's silly, stupendous stuff.

So when I say the sequel is a total masterpiece, you know where I'm coming from.

Jack Meldrum volunteered for the super-soldier programme, but they said he was too super already. 

The Watcher - BFI IMAX London: The Dark Knight trilogy all nighter!

I was recently lucky enough to take the fmaily to the BFI IMAX at Waterloo to (finally) see Star Trek Into Darkness. Don't worry though, this is not a belated review of JJ Abram's second foray into the final frontier.

Instead, this is simply a short notice to tell you all about an awesome upcoming event the BFI IMAX is hosting that some of you may want to travel to the capital for!

At a minute to midnight on Saturday 8th June, you can watch all three of Chris Nolan's Batman films back-to-back through the night and into Sunday morning.

The event's approximate running order is as follows:

The Dark Knight Trilogy 

23:59 - Batman Begins: IMAX 15/70mm

02:19- Intermission

02:50- The Dark Knight: IMAX 15/70mm

05:22- Intermission

05:50- The Dark Knight Rises: IMAX 15/70mm

08:30- Finish

The BFI IMAX is now administered by Odeon. You can order tickets online here.

Ben Fardon enjoyed his trip to London, but was glad to get home to the cat.

New Beginnings - Django Unchained #1

This Christmas the cinemas will see the release of the new Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained. We also have the timely release of a comic adaptation courtesy of Vertigo, which I assumed would merely be the illustrated depiction of the same story. However, there is a key difference as pointed out by Tarantino himself in the introduction. The story on the silver screen will have ultimately changed as the script is rewritten and the film is shot creation, but this comic has been made true to the original script.

To this extent it means that the comic is written by Quentin Tarantino from his first draft. Exciting times.

The story is set before the American Civil War, when the West was wild and slavery ran rife. Trading in 'workers' was the norm and more often than not a gun settled all disputes. From the very start this is all brought into play as the story unfolds with a chain gang being moved across the wilds from an auction.

Through this sequence we are given our two main characters - an unlikely pair. Django, a now former slave and Dr King Schultz, a now former dentist. Once free of the Speck brothers, they embark on a journey in search of their first targets. Although at first this isn’t clear why, it unfolds to reveal that Schultz is a bounty hunter - one with a very eloquent and educated manner about him. He’s also a man who sees past things and is in no way bothered by the colour of Django’s skin or the inherent racism that surrounds him too. For Dr Schultz is a man with focus and more importantly a plan. Something which is very well portrayed in the writing.

Unfortunately I sometimes found which a little over vocal, which was the point, but instead of feeling the frustration the other characters had with him I often found my mind wandering to Kevin Kline in Wild Wild West. Django on the other hand pulls no punches speaking his mind freely.

Although there is a clear plot to the story of one of our characters, which I believe will be rapidly fulfilled and become a plot vehicle, the main idea behind the story. Put simply, Django is to be trained and introduced to the world of bounty hunting, which will inevitably enable him to find his wife who was also sold to slavery.

The artwork has been provided by R.M. Guera, a Serbian artist who has done a lot of work throughout Europe but most importantly is on the longstanding title Scalped working with Jason Aaron. Whereas the artwork isn’t as detailed and clean as I prefer the one thing I can say is that it is completely full of emotion and every face tells a part of the story, most importantly the eyes.

It is also a great piece of work considering that his brief would have most likely been to make identifiable characters without making them obvious or similar to the actors portraying them on the big screen too. As a bonus to support this there are a couple of pages at the end of the comic dedicated to sketchbook work which I felt was a nice touch as well.

However, and I know that this is an odd observation, it seems he doesn’t like clouds as I don’t think I saw a frame with one in the sky. With a lot of the pages being fantastic to see I’m not really sure why I was drawn to this but I was.

As yet another easter egg the centre pages are a double page poster spread given to us by veteran artist Jim Lee.

The story as it has unfolded in this first issue is a good one that I liked; I found myself reading along with various voices in my head giving the lines, something I don’t always find when I read. I am very wary that the impending film release could overshadow this comic but I would encourage anyone who likes the film to read the comic and gain extras they wouldn’t see - there is a whole lot of promise in these pages. If I had room on my pull list then I think this one would be added to it.

Matt Puddy is almost ready for Christmas!

The Watcher - Dredd 3D

Judge Dredd is back and this time he’s harder, darker and grittier than a gravel driveway. Filling the boots of 2000AD’s longest running character is Karl Urban - full of grimace and ready to wash the bad taste of Stallone’s version out of your mouth like that first swig of mouthwash the morning after the night before.

Reminds me of the Daredevil movie poster with Ben Affleck...

Now I know I will most likely offend some of my comic reading cohorts by saying this, but I haven't really ever read any of the Dredd books. Obviously I have known about the character for a long time as 2000AD began in 1977 well before I was born, but the newspaper style artwork had always put me off.

Some may feel a second offense of mine is that I actually quite enjoyed the Stallone version of Judge Dredd which was released in 1995. Growing up as a massive fan of Demolition Man (I still am) I loved the action and cheese that ol’ Sly brought to it.

It's actually quite a good poster, considering Dredd's defining characteristic is arguably his face.

Dredd 3D is a different beast altogether. Gone are the shiny shoulder pads and the flashy future, instead replaced with something a little more believable, something which could be indeed our world-to-come. Endless rioting, wall to wall slums and towering mega blocks - the council estates of the post-apocalypse! Along with the more urban city, Dredd’s suit is more functional. Now he can enter a gunfight without the worry of knocking his colleagues over with a massive golden eagle every time he turns around! One thing I did dislike design-wise were the new bikes. I felt they looked out of place and rather oddly shaped, they should have been heftier! That said, they do force the actors playing the Judges to sit with perfect posture, oddly imposing in the chaos of the MegaCity.

The basic story is that Dredd is assigned to look after a rookie judge called Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) and make sure she is up to the cut. Unfortunately their first assignment leads them to become imprisoned within a mega block which is under the control of gang leader Ma-Ma (Lena Headley). The icing on the cake? She’s manufacturing and distributing a new drug called Slo-Mo (it slows the user's perception of time to 1% of its normal speed apparently) right there in that tower and really doesn’t want to lose her control of it.

Karl Urban plays Dredd how I believe he should be, a man of few words and plenty of action. You never see his face and he never smiles. Yet while all these points which make him a good Dredd, when it comes to creating a relatable character these can also be negatives. This is why we are given Judge Anderson, she becomes your emotional entry point into the world and Olivia Thirlby is wonderful. You watch her grow as the movie progresses to the point where I think even Dredd has respect for her.

Lena Headley plays a brilliantly ruthless villain in Ma-Ma - she is completely convincing and fully committed to the performance. I feel it's a shame that there were not more scenes with her as she was just that good. Of course, if you have not already I highly recommend checking her performance in Game of Thrones.

Or for a different side to Lena Heady, check out her portrayal of Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The considerable pace and comfortable 95 minute length of the movie were perfect; there was not a point where I was bored. Yes some of the slo-mo shots could have been cut a little shorter but they all looked stunning and were the only points in the movie where the 3D looked good. Using the same cameras as those used for slow motion natural history documentaries was an excellent touch. Action films will forever be indebted to hummingbirds! 

Overall Dredd is a pretty basic movie, what really makes it an enjoyable one is the fact its makers did not shy away from making it an 18 rating. This is how Dredd should be - ultra-violent, brutal, bloody and kick-ass!

Stefan Harkins is aware of the comparisons to The Raid: Redemption, but that film began filming in March 2011, four or five months AFTER Dredd. So just let it go!

The Watcher - The Dark Knight Rises

Hope. The underlying message I got from The Dak Knight Rises was a reminder of the importance of hope.

At the end of the last film, Harvey Dent's crimes were covered up by two men to give Gotham City hope. In some ways it worked, cleaning up the streets with the resulting Dent Act (which in turn feels like a nod to Watchmen), but it robbed those same two men of their own hope and dignity.

I'm not going to recap the whole film. I'm here to comment and review, not summarise. Let's be honest, the chances are you won't read this piece until you've seen it for fear of spoilers. Because I am going to talk about the film in some detail, but as I say, I see no need to recap the story. I suspect you've seen it already! Let's be perfectly clear though, SPOILERS AHEAD!

Gotham is a brighter, cleaner beast this time around. A clear reflection of the eight years that have passed, in which the GCPD have dismantled organised crime with the aforementioned Dent Act. Where the two previous films used Chicago for the principal filming of Gotham, this concluding chapter has relocated to a mixture of Pittsburgh, Newark, Detroit and New York City to portray Bruce Wayne's metropolis. It was a slightly jarring change for me, with only Wayne Manor seeming to be a familiar sight. Ironically, even this filming location has changed - moving from Mentmore Towers during Batman Begins to Wollaton Hall for The Dark Knight Rises. Since the latter was the inspiration for the former, I'd say it was a close enough match to keep a sense of continuity, and of course Wayne Manor had to be rebuilt after the events of that first film.

Thankfully, the returning cast remain as one remembers - a truly excellent ensemble cast, with every member threatening to overshadow Bale as the leading man. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman are once again superb, immediately slipping back into the roles with seeming ease. Michael Caine brings a solid lump to the throat more than once with his heartfelt performance, especially near the end. It's Oldman though who really carries a significant portion of the plotline, as one of the two men who made a bargain that saved their city at the cost of their own hope. This is a father who has lost his family; a dedicated policeman who dearly wishes to absolve his guilt and acknowledge the true hero.

Of course it would be remiss of me not to speak of the other obvious returning actor, Christian Bale, who clearly relishes a chance to reclaim the limelight after being overshadowed both on and off screen by the late Heath Ledger. In The Dark Knight Rises, Wayne has also bargained away his hope and without it he has lost his purpose. A reclusive shut-in, Bruce almost haunts Wayne Manor like the Phantom of the Opera, albeit with a limp and a cane rather than scars and a mask - the toll on his body after time spent abusing it in his vigilante crusade. It's a wonderful reminder that Christopher Nolan's trilogy has been grounded in a sense of realism missing from other superhero films, and a lovely nod to The Dark Knight Returns as part of the pantheon of comic book and graphic novel source material these films have drawn from.

Alongside Frank Miller's most famous - and arguably his greatest - Batman story, the Nolan brothers and David S Goyer have clearly drawn from Knightfall and (surprisingly!) No Man's Land to create this compelling final chapter. There is also a large debt owed by the film to it's progenitor, Batman Begins. The Dark Knight Rises is filled with snappy flashes of the previous films, artfully used to underline emotional memories. Liam Neeson makes a welcome return as the League Of Shadows re-emerge - Ra's al Ghul reminding us that there is more than one way to be immortal. Rather than the fantastical Lazarus Pits of the comics, Ra's looms over proceedings as a symbol, much as he mentored Bruce to become more than a man; a legend devoted to an ideal.

Of the film's three prominent incoming characters, two have a connection to the man we first knew as a Ducard. Expanding from a line in the first film, Wayne's memory of Ra's Al Ghul remind us that he once "...had a wife, my great love. She was taken from me. Like you, I was forced to learn that there are those without decency that must be fought without hesitation, without pity. Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you, as it almost did me." Beaten, broken and abandoned, Bruce languishes in a prison designed to instill hope in it's prisoners. The man responsible, Bane, identifies that the man behind the Bat no longer cares or fears death. To truly avenge the League, Bane must give him hope once more, then crush it out of him. It's a chillingly driven motivation and Bruce comes to believe Bane was once the young boy of prison legend - Ra's al Ghul's child, the only person to ever escape that hell. In a forgivably predictable twist though, Batman discovers that Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate is actually Talia al Ghul, as she turns on him in the final act.

Of these two characters and their respective actors, Tom Hardy is a tour de force, resonating undeniable power and presence through his posture, gestures and his eyes - robbed of full facial expressions by the mask. While just coming up short of the Joker, Bane has just enough theatrics to be engaging without coming close to parody. It's a triumph of a performance, laying the abomination that was Robert Swenson's portrayal to rest. My only quibble is that the sound mix on his voice is still wrong. Now it's too loud, as if there are speakers in the mask. It's a shame the dialogue wasn't remastered line by line, because it really doesn't sound like it was. Unlike Hardy, Marion Cotillard is simply bland and lacking in any significant presence. Spending most of the film masquerading as a Gotham socialite and business woman, the twist in her character is almost the closest in unfortunate pantomime the trilogy has ever come, particularly the delivery of her final lines.

Thankfully, Anne Hathaway is a revelation. A truly compelling character, every bit the match for Bruce Wayne both in and out of the mask. Fiercely intelligent, a gifted performer and a graceful acrobat/fighter, Selina Kyle is never labelled as Catwoman. Instead this is a believable character with understandable motivations and even friends outside of male paramours. Well, a friend. But still, another triumph. This is the de facto Selina Kyle for me now, rivalling Ledger's Joker in terms of defining - rather than reinventing - the character.

Saving the best for last though, it's Joseph Gordon Levitt who makes the film for me. The one man in the cast who holds on to hope, he galvanises both Gordon and Wayne back into action. A new character, John Blake is clearly influenced by a hybrid of Dick Grayson - an orphan whose life was helped by both Bruce Wayne and Batman - and Tim Drake - as the one young man in Gotham smart enough to work out that those two benefactors are one and the same.

The revelation that his true first name is Robin - a name he never cared for - and that Bruce has bequeathed him the Batcave in that name just feels right. He's a street level cop that impresses Gordon enough to make detective during the crisis - a nod to Dick Grayson's career in Blüdhaven I felt. Driven by his own parents deaths, Blake gives us a street level view of the police as Bane tears any sense of order from Gotham - a journey that takes him from an everyman rookie cop to the successor of the Bat cowl. I'm glad Nolan is closing the story as a trilogy, but it's nice to feel that the legend lives on.

The Dark Knight Rises is a great film, though I have to say that The Dark Knight edges it out for me. ...Rises has a few niggling issues, such as the issues with the sound mix and the change of locations for Gotham, plus Bruce Wayne's recovery does seem rather quick all in all. I feel that Nolan would have done better to show us the length of time that Gotham endures Bane's reign, so we might better understand quite how long it takes the Batman to rise again.

There are also numerous Chekov's Guns in the film, all deftly set up and fired, but quantity does not mitigate the plot device quality of the resolution of each. While this is mostly preferable to a sudden deus ex machina, it was still slightly jarring to realise I was suddenly checking off different elements from the film's exposition as they individually came to a head. Still, it held my attention for almost three hours and that's no mean feat when I'm shattered!


I have to say I do still wonder if this is the film we would have gotten if not for Heath Ledger's tragic demise. As I have said, The Dark Knight Rises it definitely a return to the themes and indeed some of the characters of Batman Begins, whereas perhaps we would have seen continued the escalation that The Dark Knight embodied were the Joker still available to the storytellers. I guess we'll never know.

The Dark Knight trilogy of Nolan Batman movies is over and each film is a towering achievement over the DC films that went before. After the brief teaser, I'm looking forward to seeing if Nolan can now guide Zack Snyder to similar lofty heights with Man Of Steel.

You could say I have high hopes.

Ben Fardon is very tired from the late night screening and moving house, but it's all been worth it!

The Watcher - Amazing Spider-Man

Just over ten years ago now, I went to see a big new superhero film with a group of friends. Everyone was excited thanks to the trailers, the cult director involved and the merchandising hype that was kicking in. After two hours in a darkened room we emerged into a warm early summer's evening and promptly headed to the pub.

My friends were all impressed and I remember animated conversation as we sat around our favourite table with our drinks of choice. But I was sat in the corner feeling glum. I was disappointed. The movie had felt wrong to me. The casting was wrong, the CGI was terrible and the villain looked like a bloody Power Ranger!

As a young teenager, I'd been a big fan of Batman: The Animated Series and the X-Men cartoon. The Spider-Man cartoon that followed was the Spider-Man I grew up with, and perhaps it's fair to say Sam Raimi created a movie that harkened back to the Spidey he grew with some decades previously. So maybe I wasn't his target market. 

But since I discovered proper American comics in the late Nineties, I've watched Marvel make numerous adjustments to the Spider-Man franchise, and yet the central character's baseline personality remains the same. Frankly, Tobey Maguire did not embody those qualities.

Whine, whine, whine. *headdesk*

The biggest problem for me was he whined, rather than quipped. This is where Andrew Garfield shines in this fresh new adaptation of the wallcrawler. He brings an emotional range to the role that was missing from the previous franchise. Rounding out the cast are the lovely Emma Stone, the excellent Martin Sheen and the perfectly measured Rhys Ifans. Marc Webb's film focuses on the human drama of Spider-Man, adeptly retelling the origin without labouring it. And gone are the maddeningly dull conversations through a chain link fence that seemed to make up an uncomfortable chunk of the first Spider-Man film.

With leaps in filmmaking technology, it feels like any good director can make a half-decent action film, but bad action movie directors simply don't make good character drama. I'm looking at you, Michael Bay. At points Amazing Spider-Man looks like a Steve Ditko or Todd McFarlane drawing come to life, and whilst that made this fanboy gasp, it was the emotional narrative that kept this filmlover engaged throughout. From flashbacks to Peter's early years, through to the fateful encounter with a spider and onto the discovery and exploration of his new powers, I found myself swept along and pleased with the results. It felt right. This felt like the Peter Parker from the Nineties animated show, or comics such as JMS' run or Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. Gwen Stacey and her father have great scenes with one another and the eponymous hero, both in and out of the costume. And the fateful scene where Peter's inaction leads to Uncle Ben's demise is a believable and tragic chain of events rather than a clumsy shock.

It's also an adaptation that's confident enough to hold things back for later outings. There's no sign of Mary Jane here, fitting since the character didn't properly show up until issue #42 of the original comic. A copy of the Daily Bugle is seen, but there's no sign of J Jonah Jameson yet (though Peter is a school photographer so this avenue of making money seems destined to come a-calling in the sequels). Finally, while Oscorp is a big part of this movie, Norman Osborn himself is mentioned but kept off-camera. Clever choices throughout.

It's not a perfect movie however, despite my happiness with most of it. It seems that the negative feedback from many decrying this new reboot as "too soon" after Spider-Man 3 has left the scriptwriters desperate to not repeat anything we have seen before, despite wanting to still follow the iconic beats of Spider-Man's origin. In some places that works, and the ridiculous wrestling scene is thankfully omitted this time around, save for a cute little wink and a nod. Sadly there is much more desperation in their attempts to rework the way Uncle Ben tries to impart his renowned ideology to Peter. Numerous synonyms and alternative allusions are offered up in place of the simple, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

Hopefully Peter will have distilled his Uncle's (or indeed, Voltaire's) wisdom into that soundbite by the time Amazing Spider-Man 2 rolls around. Admittedly, in the original comics, this line was part of the summary narration rather than something Uncle Ben actually said, though it was later attributed to him through the joys of retroactive continuity.

See, no snout!

Similarly the design of the Lizard had seemed misjudged to me too, until a customer pointed out that his first appearance in the comics didn't feature the iconic snout. So despite evoking more of a sense of the Nineties Spidey for me than the Raimi films, if anything Webb's offering is even more faithful to the originals!

Plus, you know, real webshooters rather than ridiculous wrist nipples.

'Nuff said.

Amazing Spider-Man shows that Sony - like Fox with X-Men First Class - are taking note of the trail blazed by Marvel Studios with the Avengers movies and are pulling their socks up accordingly. It's a great time to be a fan of superhero movies!

Ben Fardon will admit to being misogynistic enough to miss the upside down kiss and rainsoaked wet t-shirt from the first Spider-Man movie. But the alternative first kiss in Amazing Spider-Man is classy, to the point of theatrical magic. Love it!

The Watcher - Storage 24

A plane crash over central London causes mayhem, a small group of people are stuck within a storage facility warehouse called Storage 24 and something else is stuck in there with them...

Storage 24 is directed by Johannes Roberts and written/produced by its lead star, Mr Noel Clarke. Clarke plays Charlie, a man who has recently been dumped by his girlfriend and isn’t particularly dealing with it well. Along with his best friend Mark, Charlie heads to Storage 24 in order to collect some of his belongings after his recent breakup. But of course it turns out his ex Shelley and her friends Nikki and Chris are there also doing the same.

After the plane crashes things within the storage warehouse begin to go a bit haywire. Phone signals are dead and the power keeps cutting out, which then of course causes the lights and security systems to fail. Locking everyone in, A perfect situation for a creature attack. And attack it does!

The plane seemed to be holding a very secret cargo, one which doesn’t like people very much (or being dropped from a plane!). A strange biped insect-like creature which leaves a trail of gooey white substance and mutilated bodies where it goes while it stalks the inhabitants of the warehouse.

Johannes Roberts manages to keep the pace tense by not showing the creature off right away, but when it is seen in full I found the visual effects very well created. The creature itself seems to be mostly made up of prosthetics with very little use of CGI (that I noticed anyway!), but still manages to look realistic and not naff. The sound also plays a big part in the intensity of movie - as it does with most movies of this nature - but admittedly I found things a little loud. Now I am not sure wether this was supposed to be the effect (for shock value) or whether it was just a decision by the cinema I saw it in.

A lot of the characters aren’t particularly likable, apart from Charlie of course but then I think this may be the point. I found myself rooting for the  creature at several points. Some small but very entertaining supporting roles filled by Alex Price as the desk attendant who is bored with his job and feels he shouldn’t be there and Ned Dennehy as a crazy man who is hiding away from his ex-wife by living in the storage warehouse. Both of these had me laughing out loud several times.

A very British movie mostly set in an identikit corridor storage warehouse which succeeds in entertaining on a small budget and includes elements of horror, action and comedy. Not a lot of films can boast this. Also look out for a humorous use of a small yappy dog toy and an ending which teases the future lives of our survivors.

I really did enjoy the film and would recommend others to see it but I honestly wouldn’t rush to see it again, definitely a rental for a fun evening at home with a group of friends.

Stefan Harkins is almost house trained.

The Watcher: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

History is never quite the way we remember it, as the saying goes “history is written by the victors”. This is the root idea for the film based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name. Adapted into a screenplay by Grahame-Smith himself, but directed and co-produced by Timur Bekmambetov with the assistance of Tim Burton. 

Everything else you need to know about this movie is within its title - the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is a vampire hunter. But he doesn’t start out that way...

As a boy he witnesses the death of his mother at the hands of his father’s employer, whom they owe money to. Unbeknownst to him this man is actually a vampire. Abraham vows that one day he will avenge his mothers death. Years later - after his father's passing - that day finally arrives. Nervous and armed with a pistol, Abraham (Benjamin Walker) confronts his mothers killer, who then reveals his secret. This is a battle Abraham is not prepared for. Losing and about to die he is rescued by a man called Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper).

Sturgess takes Abraham back to his mansion to recover from his wounds. He then reveals that there are vampires in the world and that he is in the business of hunting them down. Abraham requests that he be trained so that he may succeed in his mission for revenge. Sturgess agrees on the proviso that Lincoln does exactly as he says and only kill when ordered to.

After an apparent 10 years of training with Sturgess he travels to Springfield, Illnois to begin his hunt. Abraham soon finds himself drawn to a young woman by the name of Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who at the time is being courted by Stephen A. Douglas (the brilliant Alan Tudyk). Even though he was warned by Sturgess to not form any sort of close relationships, Abraham falls head over heels for her (and strangely Douglas doesn’t ever seem to put up a fight for the love of his fiancée?!).

After some time of leading the double life of courting Mary and killing local vampires, he gains the attention of Adam (Rufus Sewell) the originator for all vampires in the US who decides that he needs to meet the infamous Mr Lincoln.

Abraham decides that there might be more than one way to skin a cat (or vamp!) and takes an interest in the world of politics to search for a more permanent solution to the slave trade issues as well as the vampires heavily involved in feeding upon them! He hangs up his axe and decides to leave hunting in order to focus on politics and eventually becomes President. As per history, his beliefs on slavery cause a divide in the states, the vampires side with the Confederacy which means Abraham has to come up with a plan to eliminate them as well as win the overall war.

Benjamin Walker looks a lot like a young Liam Neeson and pulls off the action with ease also. Dominic Cooper is massively charming and seems to be mostly channelling Robert Downey Jr which is perfect as he portrayed Tony Stark’s father in Captain America: The First Avenger.

The movie’s stylised colour palettes and specific 3D effects - like the vampire’s eyes and their vanishing powers - were enjoyable and added to the whole feel of the film. Unfortunately real life history tends to get in the way of all the vamp-slaying fun, luckily the film is very loosely based on the novel and doesn’t actually delve to much into the history of good ol' honest Abe.

I have never understood the recent fascination with culture mash-ups like this but I did find myself pleasantly surprised, it has some fun axe-tion sequences which do get a bit crazy later on but its a perfect popcorn movie for a Sunday afternoon with a hangover.

Stefan Harkins was very, very hungover. Apparently.

The Watcher - Prometheus

I was so excited for Prometheus. Late April, on my Twitter page, I proclaimed that I was besotted with it in fact - a dirty little secret I felt I'd been keeping from the Avengers movie.

So perhaps it's my fault. Maybe I overhyped the return of Ridley Scott to the Weyland-Yutani universe and the sci-fi horror genre. I've done it before - I was stupidly excited about Avatar, then I saw it and hated it. I've still not forgiven James Cameron if I'm honest. stupid blue Smurfs in space, clumsily reinterpreting The Last Of The Mohicans. And don't get me started on the clumsy foreshadowing dialogue and the bestiality. That's right, if Avatar is your favourite movie - take another look. They have sex with animals. Kinda.

Now, I'm not quite so furious about Prometheus. I'm just disappointed.

The film opens with beautiful shots of stunning vistas, and it continues to look incredible throughout. The 3D is the best I've ever seen - better even than Avatar (it does, I can begrudgingly admit, have that one redeeming feature). The holographic recordings of the Engineers - as the humanoids like the Space Jockey from Alien are revealed to be called - really stand out on the frame, in a way that truly enhances these effects. The set design is superb too - with a great contrast between the interior of the Prometheus and the alien structure on the planet they reach. And the music is great - riffing off science fiction exploration scores similar to Star Trek before transforming into something altogether more intense and evocative in the third act.

Sadly these aesthetics cannot hide the film's massive flaw. Unlike the story of Alien - and it's successor Aliens - which seamlessly integrates the set pieces into a constantly advancing narrative with unfolding revelations, Prometheus feels like a patchwork quilt with set pieces surviving from previous drafts, despite the fact that the surrounding exposition has been lost.

The plot holes are bigger than the chestburster hole in that original Space Jockey back in 1979. The story in a nutshell is that the Engineers created life on Earth (and I felt the implication was other worlds as well) and were then looking for the perfect way to destroy these original experiments with new biological warfare. Unfortunately they lost control of these new weapons - which essentially boil down to a mutagenic black goo - and almost all of the Engineers at this research facility were killed. Fine in theory and almost intriguing. Their motivations are never clearly explained in this film - lazily setting up a sequel, which I wouldn't have a huge problem with if this had been billed as two films from the start like the upcoming Hobbit films.

The parallels between the Engineers creating life on Earth and the humans creating synthetics is briefly explored and is the one real triumph of Prometheus. Michael Fassbender shines as David, delivering a wonderful performance. "Why do you think your people made me?" he asks. "We made you because we could," he is told. Looking away, David offers this simple observation - "Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you, to hear the same thing from your creator?" For me, it's this fascinating heart of the film that kept it from being a rage-inducing disaster like Avatar.

Unfortunately, there's so much nonsense surrounding it. Aside from David, almost every other character spends the first act speaking utter bollocks. They all sound like they are characters in a cheesy movie - a far cry from the effortlessly believable dialogue in Alien that established a credible class system on the Nostromo. I admit in Alien that crew had been together for sometime - mining in deep space - and that the crew of the Prometheus were essentially just meeting each other for the first time, straight out of stasis. And it is a nice touch that this earlier version of stasis can cause vomiting and muscle wastage.

There's also a very clumsy seduction scene that - whilst it does serve to underline how vehemently one character hates being compared to another, which is of some importance later - is really just there to take two characters off the bridge before a critical moment of horror afflicts the two most annoying members of the crew.

This brings me to the monsters. There are at least five different deadly alien mutations in the film and none of them have the same iconic impact of Giger's original xenomorph creatures. The creature that Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw cuts out of herself (in a ridiculously contrived torture porn sequence that felt like an older director trying to prove he could keep up with the nonsense peddled by modern horror filmmakers) is essentially a cephalopod that grows to an enormous size. If the original facehugger creature was an attempt to elicit a fear of mouth rape with a phallus, I can only conclude that when the giant cephalopod is later unleashed on another antagonist, this was an attempt to invoke images of a human vulva. Very strange and extremely clumsy when once again compared to Giger's uniquely disturbing sexual imagery.

Guy Pearce's role is ruined by the most unconvincing old man special effects makeup I've seen in a long time - it's saying something when the BBC can do better on a TV budget in Doctor Who. The resulting appearance popped me out of the reality of any scene he was in, destroying my suspension of disbelief almost entirely.

The finale is a welcome crescendo of set pieces that feels like the most tightly scripted act of the whole film. The remaining crew of the Prometheus sacrifice themselves and their ship to stop the one surviving Engineer from flying to Earth (in one of the horseshoe shaped ships previously glimpsed as a derelict in Alien) to wipe out humanity. Two and a half crew members survive (it was inevitable that would David would be reduced to just a head, but it is lovely that the resulting cranium is so reminiscent of Ash) long enough to see the alien spaceship crash back to the planet in a stunning sequence.

As much as I'm clearly judging Prometheus against it's forebear, I could have done without the somewhat out of place callbacks to Alien, as Shaw becomes the lone female survivor stalked around an escape pod before recording an audio message as the "last survivor". It does little to mask the fact that the audience aren't getting any further explanations until Ridley Scott deigns to shoot a sequel - and with him currently touting a new Blade Runner project it could be a long wait before we get to see more of the Engineers and learn more about their real motivations.

Which is why Prometheus is so disappointing. The idea of pulling the Space Jockey into the spotlight and exploring just exactly what its role was in Alien was tantalisingly appealing. Taking it further and transcending the events of Alien and Aliens - elevating these giant humanoids to the role of Creators - was the promise of true science fiction that gave me chills and had me so damn excited. Exploring the contrast between ethical science for the pursuit of knowledge versus the ethos of "because we can, therefore we must, no matter the cost" was a fascinating basis for a thought provoking film.

Instead sadly, Prometheus is a beautiful mess. An unfinished symphony that can possibly be redeemed or further damned by the potential sequel. I guess time will tell.

Ben Fardon hopes Damon Lindelof is not involved in any follow up... 

The Watcher - Men In Black 3

Agents J and K are back! It’s been ten years since we last saw the agents in black who secretly protect the Earth from a constant alien threat. Once again directed by Barry Sonnenfeld the third movie in the MiB series starts with the introduction of Boris the Animal ("It's just Boris!") played by Jermaine Clement from Flight of the Concords fame. It’s nice to see him in such a contrasting role compared to his normal comedic self. When we first meet Boris the Animal he is being kept prisoner in Lunamax which is a penal facility on the moon designed specifically for him. Of course he escapes and plans to get revenge on the man who put him there - K (Tommy Lee Jones).

Back in MiB headquarters, J and K and its other members are mourning the loss of Agent Z (excellently portrayed by somewhat disgraced Rip Torn in the previous two installments), now running things is Agent O (Emma Thompson). I personally think it's a shame that Z couldn’t return as I always felt like he was an integral part of MiB universe.

Boris the Animal plans to return to the year 1969, stop his arrest and kill Agent K in the process. So it's up to Agent J (Will Smith) to go back to '69 before Boris arrives and stop his nefarious plans. In order to do this J has to ‘time jump’ which literally involves jumping off something really high (and no I don’t mean while stoned!). The visual effects involved in this really lend to the 3D depth effect as when J is falling he actually falls through different time periods, I enjoyed this more than most other recent 3D additions to movies.

 

Once successfully back in the Sixties, J manages to find Boris but is actually apprehended before he can succeed in killing him. By whom? The young Agent K! Josh Brolin portrays the young K wonderfully, he manages to capture Tommy Lee Jones’ performance, mannerisms and voice so much so I couldn’t believe it wasn’t actually him at first! Because of J’s alien tech he is taken back to MiB headquarters and interrogated by K, he seems friendlier but doesn’t trust J. It eventually takes the truth, that J is in fact from the future for K to believe him. While on the hunt for clues they go to ‘The Factory’ and meet Andy Warhol who is secretly the great Bill Hader in disguise and an alien called Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg).

Griffin has a unique skill - he can see alternate dimensions simultaneously and thus predict the future, which helps! He informs the agents that in order to deploy the ArcNet (a shield to protect earth from the Bogladites - Boris’ species) they would have to attach it to the top of Apollo 11 before it is launched the very next day.

J, K and Griffin make their way to Cape Canaveral on massive rockets of their own! Security make things difficult once they arrive but with the help of Griffin and his talents they get escorted to the launch gantry to reach the rocket's top. Not only is Boris the Animal there ready to stop them but so is his other self - double trouble! Both agents battle their own Boris and finally succeed in deploying the ArcNet.

Certain things in this film do not quite feel right, the lack of Z in both the present and the past, K’s relationship with O (why isn’t this mentioned in the future?) and both Smith and Jones feel like they are just going through the motions. That said I did enjoy it! About the same level as the previous outings, the third movie is worth watching for the gross effects and fun 3D as well as some brilliant performances by the supporting cast - Michael Stuhlbarg, Bill Hader and of course the star player Josh Brolin.

Defend the galaxy, learn its secrets and remember just look into the light... *FLASH!*

Stefan Harkins is still sniggering at the use of the word 'penal'!

The Watcher Retrospective - Batman Begins and The Dark Knight

July 20th is the release date for The Dark Knight Rises and damn it can’t come quick enough! Having already watched every trailer and the preview footage (at the huge BFI IMAX!) I’m really starting to salivate at the thought of another Christopher Nolan Batman film.

In the meantime join me in taking a look back on the previous two installments in this epic trilogy, starting with Batman Begins.

When released in 2005 most people still had a sour taste left in their mouths by the extremely over-the-top Schumacher Batman films. Eight years later and I still couldn’t shake the image of bat-nipples, lucky for me none to be found here! It's a fresh start, cleansing the world's palette ready for a new Batman. The idea? Re-introduce us to the character, go back to his origins - where did he actually get those wonderful toys from and why the affiliation with flying rodents? We get to see this and much more.

After the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is raised by his childhood butler Alfred (Michael Caine). Now an adult he seeks revenge and the means to fight injustice, but his childhood friend and love interest Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) disagrees with his plans. Bruce leaves to travel around the world trying to gain a better understanding of the criminal mind. While locked in a prison within Asia he is approached by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and offered the chance to join the League of Shadows, where he can gain the training and knowledge he seeks as long as he can prove himself to their leader Ra’s Al-Ghul (Ken Watanabe). Bruce learns to be more than just a man; to become an idea which can never be forgotten.

Returning home Bruce discovers that Gotham is now decaying and overrun by organised crime. Using fear to his advantage to bring down the mob and its boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), he begins his transformation into The Batman. All the while, Wayne Enterprises CEO William Earle (Rutger Hauer) is planning to force Bruce out of his inheritance by bringing the company public. He meets Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who helps supply his tech and detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), one of the few good cops not on the mob's payroll.

Things seem to be going to plan but then a spanner is thrown in the works in the form of the crazy doctor Jonathan ‘The Scarecrow’ Crane (Cillian Murphy) who works in Arkham Asylam and has some very unorthodox work ethics. A mysterious force reappears in Gotham who seem to be very familiar with Bruce’s new skills.

A movie jam packed full of big names, all of which were perfect for the characters they portrayed - I even didn’t mind Katie Holmes though she was ultimately replaceable (and was!). A script which paid attention to its roots and was highly inspired by Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and Jeph Loeb’s The Long Halloween graphic novels. I personally loved how the world Nolan created was rooted in reality much more than its predecessors - for instance, all of Batman’s gadgets are based on realistic technology which the military were then working on.

At the end of Batman Begins we see a single playing card in a evidence bag - a joker and from that point onwards the impossible thought of bringing Batman’s most loved enemy back to the big screen filled my mind. Three years later, the impossible thought became possible with The Dark Knight!

Set a year after the first movie, The Dark Knight shows Batman’s continuing efforts to clean up Gotham. Still assisted by Jim Gordon and Lucius Fox, Bruce is also joined by Gotham’s newly appointed district attorney, ‘White Knight’ Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). This partnership proves successful as they continue to put more of Gotham’s underworld behind bars. Rachel Dawes (now played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) is still on the scene but is dating Harvey, causing strain on her and Bruce’s relationship.

The rise of a new psychopathic criminal called the Joker (Heath Ledger), whose scarred grin, manic laughter, and lack of morality make him more dangerous than anything Batman has come across yet. Batman realises he must stop this madman at all costs, both of them being different sides of the same coin. One seeks order while the other just wants chaos. As the Joker introduces more and more chaos into Gotham, Batman struggles to deal with the madness.

Harvey Dent and Rachel unfortunately become collateral damage in the Joker's games, Dent being transformed into the character known as Two-Face. Burnt down one half of his body and being swayed by the Joker's madness, Dent blames Rachel’s death and his disfigurement on Jim Gordon and the Batman.

The best performances in this movie are by the late Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart, the latter being my personal favourite as I felt his performance was rather overshadowed by the hype around Ledger's unfortunate death. It has to be said though, Heath did bring his all to the role and make it his own, so much so that he managed to make people forget Jack Nicholson’s brilliant version of the character in the 1989 Batman movie.

This movie felt very different to its predecessor, almost not like a Batman movie. What with the lack of a Batcave (destroyed by the League Of Shadows in the first film), the amazing antagonists and a lighter tone to much of its cinematography. Some of the shots were shot with IMAX cameras and even at home on the TV they look stunning. I will say that I feel the movie is rather too long, no matter how much I love it and the performances therein. I do feel that the The Joker and Two-Face stories could have been separated into two separate movies.

Overall these movies are quite different, but both brilliant in their own way. This also gives me high hopes for the possibilities of what there is to come.

Stefan Harkins is gearing up for Prometheus and trying to find time to watch The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy