Today's Double News: Hercules into the wild

How's about sum' news, yo?:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/156010/nieuwe_trailer_hercules_online

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155999/opvolger_nieuwe_wildernis_in_de_maak

The rule that success at the box office guarantees a sequel is not limited to fiction films. When enough money is made, even documentaries require a follow-up of sorts by an insatiable studio. Of course, the 'of sorts' bit is what is most poignant here, as it's open to interpretation just how such a sequel should built on what came before. After all, a documentary dealing with a specific subject can basically cover everything there is to say about that and not leave room for more of the same about the subject, thus rendering a sequel a blatant redundancy. So it is with De Nieuwe Wildernis in my mind. The point has been made well enough: the Oostvaardersplassen are a beautiful nature preserve that doesn't actually preserve nature as it used to be, but nature as it can be, aided by humanity's graces. You can shoot more breathtakingly splendid shots of horses prancing about, foxes hunting or all manner of birds generally being pretty, but it would add little of consequence. A new angle is what makes it stand out, and it seems distributor Dutch Filmworks has found one. And so this sequel isn't really a sequel, just equipped with a title - the Dutch version at least - that creates all the right expectations from an audience that fondly remembers its "predecessor" and hopes to be dazzled by nature's beauty once more. And yes, it does show the Oostvaardersplassen again. But not solely that area, as it is incorporated into a mosaic of European nature in general. And since the movie is made by Frenchmen who conceived of their angle independently from De Nieuwe Wildernis, expect a different kind of documentary. It's good to know Dutch audiences will soon get the chance to be familiarized by the splendour of forests and wildlife outside of Holland too, so they'll know where to plan their next vacation. As for the possibility of a direct follow-up, I think it surely exists. There's other nature preserves in the Netherlands worthy of being immortalized on film, you know. How about National Park the Meinweg in Limburg? Or the Hoge Veluwe? Why not focus on the wacky antics of beavers in the Biesbosch, that ought to attract a crowd. An actual sequel to De Nieuwe Wildernis really isn't outside the realm of possibility. Just as long as people stay away from the depicted area after having been delighted by the film instead of going around trampling nature's beauty en masse, I'm all for it.

This second Hercules trailer makes me a bit more hesitant about the project that the first. Those fabulous Twelve Labours of his only form part of the background story apparently, so most, if not all, of the neat monster action seen in this trailer will not be featured as extensively as I had hoped in the movie proper. Instead, the plot will focus on Herc's latter days as a mercenary, saving a kingdom and a beautiful princess from tyrannical oppression. Sounds a bit too familiar a plot for my taste. Not much different from what The Legend of Hercules was all about earlier this year, except with a bigger cast and budget (good thing too, makes it look less than a crappy video game). Also fairly reminiscent of Dwayne Johnson's own The Scorpion King. Still good for a laugh no doubt, but not as spectacular as recanting all Twelve Labours in full would have been. And there's still no movie that does justice to that complete Hercules epic, it's always served in bits and pieces instead. This story would really be better suited for a TV series, also considering its rather episodic nature. I wouldn't be surprised if that were to happen eventually (preferably on HBO with lots of nudity and gore and all the other niceties of life). But for now, we have to make the best we can with partial retellings of the myth, some good (hopefully), most not so much (like the last one). I remain skeptic as to what category this particular rendition will end up belonging to, though I can guess.

Today's Double News: Hercules ain't part of the Avengers yet here

Must post more news, must post more news!:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154668/eerste_trailer_dwayne_johnsons_hercules

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154639/nieuwe_setbeelden_avengers_age_of_ultron

This Hercules is more like it. All kinds of monsters and supernatural elements present, just as the original Greek myth offered aplenty. It's amazing there hasn't yet been a Hercules/Herakles movie to do those elements of the story justice. You wish Ray Harryhausen had made a movie about the demi-god in his time. It seems this is the closest we will ever get, even though the central part of the story isn't about the Twelve Labours (so I wouldn't hope for too much solid monster action just yet). Instead, it's about Herc playing a merc and fighting a tyrant to save a kingdom. That sounds a little bit too much like The Scorpion King (The Rock's breakthrough in the film business), which in itself was doing a derivative job of the Eighties' Conan the Barbarian franchise. In fact, apart from the monsters and the instantly recognizable "brand name" Hercules, there's very little here that seems to set this story apart from Scorp. Oh well, at least it looks to be a fun action flick, with a good cast. And sorry Dwayne, I'm not referring to you. I'm talking about established GBAs (Grand British Actors) like John Hurt and Ian McShane. Plus less grand but still very British actors like Peter Mullan, Joseph Fiennes and Rufus Sewell. Why is it that action flicks like these always have to rely on Britain's top talent to carry the acting, while the Americans only show off their muscles? Acting your way out of a CGI heavy film like this, now that's a real Labour!

And we got our first glimpses of several new highly anticipated Marvel characters as photos from the Italian set of Avengers: Age of Ultron leaked. First off, there's Magneto's kids siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. It seems this Quickie retained his familiar thunder bolt patterned costume while the one from X-Men: Days of Future Past keeps his ties to the Mutant Master of Magnetism. Scarlet however looks little like her top model outfit sporting equivalent from the comics (too bad really!), or even her Ultimate Universe counterpart (unlike Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, also present on these pics). It seems they made up a girlie costume appropriate for her intended age for this movie. However, her hexing moves are straight out of the comics, so there's at least some tribute to those at least. I wonder how they're gonna explain these kids' powers if they're not allowed to call them mutants. Was Quicksilver bitten by a radioactive/genetically engineered roadrunner perhaps? As for Scarlet Witch, how do you probably explain altering the laws of probability by using spells in a scientifically sound manner? Last but not least, we may have our first glimpse of the titular nemesis, the maniacal robot Ultron. Or at least, we see a guy wearing some sort of armour which kinda resembles Ultron. Otherwise, there's little robot-ey to the suit. I reckon this is a stand-in giving the kids something to work with on set. Or some Italian fan who ran onto set after avoiding the heavy set security. This has yet to be confirmed by Marvel.

Today's Mini-Review: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters: **/*****, or 5/10

Second Percy Jackson film, following the demi-decent, excessively long named Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, but being even more forgetful. This time Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman again) and his fellow friends from Camp Halfblood, where all the offspring of the gods sired on mortals are gathered for their safety, set out on a quest to find the Golden Fleece in the so-called 'Sea of Monsters', better known as the Bermuda Triangle. They do so to heal a magical tree that protects their home with a forcefield that keeps non halfbloods out, but which has been compromised since the tree is dying. The Fleece contains healing properties that might save it, and therefore, save themselves. Unfortunately a band of rogue halfbloods with sinister plans led by the same dull villain from the first film, the whiny demi-god Luke, are also seeking this magical MacGuffin so they can use it to deliver the evil god Kronos, a fiery humanoid terror, from bondage. The brave Percy and his companions, Ron and Hermione Grover the – supposedly funny – Satyr and the “wise” Annabeth (with racist attitudes towards Cyclopses), must beat them in a race against time across the most dangerous sea of all to defeat Kronos for once and for all. And they get no help from their divine parents, which is a shame since they were played by terrific actors you just can't get enough of (the likes of Sean Bean and Kevin McKidd) in the first film. At least we are a little compensated by the appearance of Nathan Fillion as the dashing entrepeneur Hermes, with a nod to Firefly thrown in (which totally blows over the heads of the target audience, but might make some older viewers chuckle). Like its predecessor, Sea of Monsters feels very much like the 'Greek myth' version of the first few Harry Potter films, complete with prophecies and chosen ones, magic and monsters, and a triumvirate – though of two boys and a girl, sadly lacking the necessary chemistry – of young lead characters getting entangled in one action driven situation after another. Unfortunately the movie lacks the heart and soul that increasingly drove Potter and Co., while the plot tries to keep its head above water in an ocean of gaping plot holes and overly digital FX sequences. Some of these are at least exciting to a minor extent, like the fight against a metal robot bull and the scene where the protagonists are swallowed by Charybdis (basically the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi, except embedded in water instead of sand), but the rest of them is nothing if not boring. There's an irony in the fact that old fantasy films fondly remembered mostly for containing elaborate monster fights done in stop motion, like those of Ray Harryhausen, have stood the test of time, while their present day counterparts that try the same with CGI prove oh so forgetful and will undoubtedly end up not so universally revered in future years. If you look at the set-up of this film, a plot dealing with the resurrection of the ancient Kronos whose rise will cover the world in chaos coupled with one scene after another of the main characters fighting digital creatures, Sea of Monsters bears more than a striking resemblance to the abysmal Wrath of the Titans, which was also a lousy sequel to an already disappointing film that unsuccessfully tried to cash in on the ever ongoing public interest in Greek mythology by getting itself lost in people battling digital creatures. A shame really, since the notion of the ancient Greek world of gods and monsters continuing to simmer just under the surface of modern times but unseen by Muggles everyday humans is worthy of a better execution. Oh well, if we want to see old gods get mixed up with our contemporary world, there's still Thor: The Dark World to look forward to.

Today's News: shooting Hercules (on film) begins

If you're already tired reading about plastic dinosaur toys, this bit of news from MovieScene might be of interest to you:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/147811/opnamen_dwayne_johnsons_hercules_begonnen

I hadn't heard of both this project and the graphic novel it's based on before. It sounds reasonably intriguing, but there's a lot of apparent similarities with Johnson's own The Scorpion King (2002). That's not necessarily a bad thing: TSC might not have been a good film, but it was a fairly fun action flick. I have a gut feeling this movie will turn out likewise. Though a different approach to the mythological Hercules sounds fascinating, I'm not overly fond of ignoring the more fantastic elements like monsters and sorcery, which always proved my favorite bits of any mythology. And what about gods? They're surely the realm of fantasy (for an atheist like me at least), but they're mentioned in the synopsis I've read, plus they're an integral part of the Hercules persona that should not be ixnayed in my mind. He's a demigod and he knows it, after all. The rest of the plot sounds fairly standard really: conflicted mercenary and his gang get involved with the wrong crowd, i.e. a ruthless monarch, and slowly see the truth about themselves, realizing they're good guys after all so they turn the tables and start fighting for the oppressed masses. And then they win and their leader becomes the new king or stuff. That's probably the gist of it. Can't imagine Hercules ever being a real bad guy. Now that would be an original take on the character for sure!

I will not deny there's a lot of solid names attached to this project. Least of which is Brett Ratner, who is truthfully a capable action director - is this a good moment to openly state I liked X-Men: The Last Stand? - but usually feels lacking in most other departments. Still, he's a fairly decent player in Hollywood. Certainly not the lowest of the low as far as directors are concerned, but also not exactly top Hollywood brass. John Hurt, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell and Joseph Fiennes all sound like music to my ears. Solid British actors each, every one of them always a joy to behold despite the occasional feeling they should have picked a better project than waste their talent on the current one. This Hercules flick might very well turn out to fall in the latter category. After all, it kinda sounds like a typical B- action movie, Sword & Sandals style. However, if it were, I doubt Johnson himself would bother to star in it, considering how far he's come - or he thinks he's come - over the last decade. Perhaps he felt nostalgic and wanted to do something reminding him of the old days? Fat chance! Maybe he wanted to cash in on the comic book craze and star in a graphic novel adaptation of his own? Or maybe, jusy maybe, there's more to Hercules: The Thracian Wars than we might be inclined to think at first... Whatever that may be, it's definitely not in that silly title.

Clash of the Titans (2010)

Rating: ***/*****, or 6/10

Unnecessary and unwanted remake of the 1981 Ray Harryhausen classic. At least it acknowledges the charm of the original was based around the wonderful stop motion animation, which it predictably replaces with an abundance of digital effects, including several CGI monsters copied directly from its predecessor (though not necessarily present in the original Greek myth), including giant scorpions and a very snake like Medusa. The plot remains largely the same, though in this more modern look on mythology the gods are treated with much less respect, portrayed as interfering omnipotent beings leeching off of humanity's worship over them, which is rapidly diminishing, making Zeus (who else but Liam Neeson) angry enough to release the monstrous Kraken on mankind, though he still deems humanity worthy enough to allow his son Perseus (Sam Worthington displaying his usual poor acting skills) to successfully fight the terror. Meanwhile, Zeus himself is betrayed by his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes playing yet another effectively scary bad guy), God of Death – who by now is undoubtedly used to play the villain in Hollywood's contemporary view on mythology – so Perseus also needs to save his daddy despite not carrying much love for him. Though fairly entertaining, this movie simply features too much digital creature fights to make any of them memorable, except maybe for the final Kraken battle. The film is infamous for its horribly poor post-conversion 3-D effects, adding little depth at all but instead messing up many a shot. Though the movie covers most of the original film and actual myth, the amount of money it made warranted a sequel, Wrath of the Titans (2012), which ixnayed the story altogether and focused almost exclusively on people fighting digital monsters, to predictably disappointing results. Despite the failure, a third Clash is in the works. It remains unknown what Ray Harryhausen thinks of all this, but obviously Hollywood can't care less about the opinions of former masters of movie making magic.

Starring: Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson

Directed by Louis Leterrier

USA: Warner Bros, 2010

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Rating: ****/*****, or 8/10

Final picture for which legendary stop motion master Ray Harryhausen would do the special effects work, though it still features some of his most memorable and highest quality animated scenes, including extraordinary characters like Medusa and the Kraken. Based on the Perseus myth of Greek mythology, Clash of the Titans tells of a conflict between gods fought via men and monsters, which pits the young hero Perseus (Harry Hamlin) against the demonic Calibos (performed by an actor in close-ups, but animated in long shots), both of them attempting to conquer the heart of the fair princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker, indeed quite a beauty). When the maiden is threatened to be offered to the monstrous Kraken in sacrifice to save her city, Perseus sets out on a quest to kill the serpentine Medusa and bring back her head since her gaze turns all living creatures to stone and might be the only weapon against the otherwise indestructible monster of the depths. Fortunately Perseus is aided by man and god alike, as well as the winged stallion Pegasus: good thing too, considering the host of gruesome monsters Calibos turns loose upon him. Undoubtedly the most star studded cast ever assembled for a Harryhausen picture – including Laurence Olivier, Ursula Andress, Maggie Smith and Burgess Meredith – it's still the fabulous stop motion puppets that fire the imagination the most in this excellent fantasy film. Ranks right up there with Harryhausen's other fantastic masterpieces The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

Starring: Harry Hamlin, Laurence Olivier, Judi Bowker

Directed by Desmond Davis

USA: MGM, 1981

Titans versus Gods: round two

Wrath of the Titans: **/*****, or 5/10

A classical education can be a real pain in the ass at times. Sure, it helps you get a basic understanding of most major European languages and supplies you with an ample fondness for the riches of Greek and Roman mythology, but it makes mindless action movies based on said myths that much harder to swallow. Case in point: Wrath of the Titans.

Two years ago, the remake of Ray Harryhausen's final masterpiece of stop motion photography Clash of the Titans unfortunately made some money. The reason for this is still unclear, since it wasn't a very good movie and remains one of the most textbook examples as to why 3-D post-conversion is a bad thing, considering the piss poor 3-D effects that made the hair of the protagonists seem to float around and the digital FX that much more obviously pixelized. At least it delivered a decent amount of man versus monster battle action, but that's where the enjoyment ended. At the end of the movie, the demi-god Perseus (Sam Worthington) finally defeated the terrifying Kraken and settled with his new lover Io (Gemma Arterton) for a peaceful life, declining an offer from his father Zeus (Liam Neeson) to join the gods at Mount Olympus. Seems like a fairly conclusive ending, but when there's a potential for more money to be made Hollywood usually overrules common sense and demands a sequel, regardless of whether people asked for one, or whether there's more stories to be told with the characters. Wrath of the Titans oh so cleverly avoids the latter obstacle by reducing the need for a plot to a minimum and focusing first and foremost on the creature action. Ignoring the orginal realm of Greek mythology completely, Hollywood now makes up a few more adventures for Perseus, taking elements from various other beloved classical myths and mixing them together in an awkward pastiche of largely action driven setpieces.

A decade has passed since the previous movie, and Perseus (still the overly butch Sam Worthington with his outrageously ill placed Aussie accent) now lives the simple life of a fisherman together with his son Helius (John Bell) after the death of his wife Io (Gemma Arterton undoubtedly did the right thing by not returning, though it makes the obnoxiously obligatory romance with Andromeda in this movie ever so convoluted). Of course this will not do for an action flick, so Zeus (Liam Neeson, still fairly regal, but definitely on auto-pilot), his estranged father, warns him trouble is stirring in Tartarus, the monster dungeon of the underworld: the Titans are breaking loose, and he would like his son to join him in vanquishing this evil (sounds familiar? It should, since both the recent Immortals and Disney's Hercules were centered around a suspiciously similar plot). Perseus once again tells him to sod off, having little interest in the affairs of the immortals with which he has little affinity despite his blood ties to them, so Zeus departs without him, accompanied only by his other son Ares (Edgar Ramirez), and his brothers Poseidon (Danny Huston) and Hades (the ever reliable choice of villainy Ralph Fiennes, whose heart, like Neeson's, doesn't really seem to be in all this), trying to keep their imprisoned father Kronos in check. The latter turns out to be a towering behemoth of molten rock and lava: apparently, this is the sort of thing to happen to gods locked away in hell for too long.

As is fully predictable, Hades again double-crosses Zeus, this time in league with Ares. For some reason, the god of war is utterly jealous of Zeus' relation with Perseus, even though it's blatantly obvious in this film and the last that Perseus has little love for his father and ignores his divine descent as much as possible: even in this film father and son have all too brief exchanges of dialogue, revealing that whatever relationship they have, it doesn't warrant jealousy at all. This makes Ares' motivations feel out of touch with reality and generally poorly conceived, but if there's a story need to make a bad guy out of an Olympian god, in the general contemporary mindset of oversimplified 'good versus evil' the god of war is the 'go-to guy' nevermind the reasons, as is Hades as the god of the afterlife. And so these two rogue gods capture the ruler of heaven and chain him in the depths of Tartarus, in such a way that his life essence flows to his enraged father Kronos with whom they have made a pact to regain their immortality after his plans to destroy the gods have been carried out. As if...

Now it's up to poor Perseus to rescue both his father and mankind from Kronos' imminent rampage that will wreak total havoc upon the world, and he is sent upon yet another quest to obtain items that will stop the big bad guy, along the way encountering various characters and computer generated creatures as he moves from setpiece to setpiece, with little a break inbetween since this movie runs for only 99 minutes and there's gotta be as much action as possible to detract attention from the fact the (supposed) writers simply regurgitated the previous' film overall plot to save money on cramping in as much pixels as possible. So we see Perseus and his ragtag band of warriors – including compulsory female empowerment in the presence of Queen Andromeda (this time around played by Rosamund Pike, since former queen Alexa Davalos, like Arterton, also felt she could spent her time in more useful ways) and unsuccessful comic relief supplied by Poseidon's lowlife son Agenor (Toby Kebbell) – face Chimaeras, a family of Cyclops, a Minotaur and Siamese twin Machai warriors in the build-up to the ultimate epic battle with the film's gargantuan antagonist Kronos (in essence, Perseus' grandfather; not that he seems to care for this fact).

The creatures are the film's most redeeming feature and provide for the film's only memorable scenes: in fact, it comes as no surprise the whole film feels constructed around a string of interchangeable fights with monsters randomly taken from every corner of Greek mythology. At least some effort was put into making sure the beasts look good on the big screen. They do, with the exception of the Minotaur, who's just a guy in a suit making ample use of shadowy lighting to hide the fact he looks like a guy in a suit. It's nice to see a break from CGI here, but this particular creature feels totally out of touch with the others and delivers a rather ridiculous performance in a fortunately short fight scene. Apparently a labyrinth, even an ingeniously designed specimen with moving corridors and an ever changing layout, always needs a man/bull hybrid to feel more authentic, even if the budget can't afford for him to look convincing or menacing. The other monsters fortunately fare better action wise, and make for some respectable eye candy to make up for the Minotaur fiasco. And after all of them have been subdued, it's time for Kronos to get his comeuppance in another grandiose climactic end battle, one that however fails to amaze as much as the Kraken fight that concluded Clash, considering Wrath simply exchanges a huge water monster for a huge lava monster. More could have been done with an ex-god, especially one related to the king of gods, who also happens to be the protagonist's grandfather, than make a big beastie out of him and having the hero simply kill him off.

And speaking of gods, what happend to the rest of them? Only five Olympian gods (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Ares and Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) made it into this film, despite the presence of more of them in Clash of the Titans. One could say the story didn't allow for all of them to be incorporated in the final film, but it makes the movie feel incomplete. Zeus desperately asks Perseus for help against Kronos, but not the likes of Apollo or Athena? Surely a goddess of wisdom and battle tactics would have come in handy, plus it would have provided for more compelling female presence than armour clad Andromeda joining Perseus in his valiant quest but not adding worthwhile to it overall, except getting his tongue in her mouth for little apparent reason when the dust of battle has settled (zero chemistry here between Worthington and Pike). Adding other gods to the mix would have made sense, but they probably would have needed to much screen time, taking away from the monster acton Hollywood feels this movie is all about. Probably all for the better, considering the messed up relations of the gods we got are petty enough.

When you turn a blind eye to the monsters, Wrath of the Titans is basically nothing but a terribly soapy family squabble. Kronos was rejected by his sons Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, who afterward started arguing amongst themselves; Ares feels rejected by his father Zeus who himself is largely rejected by his own son Perseus; Ares and Hades team up with Kronos against their family but succumb to in-fighting too; with Ares eventually using Perseus' son Helius against his half brother. Oh, and Agenor rejects his father Poseidon too. Io did the right thing by dying before this movie started so as not to get involved in all this petty bickering. It's really tiresome to hear 'my father', 'my son' or 'my brother' after every line of dialogue, especially amidst battle scenes, just to make sure audiences will remember who's related to who.

And that's the main problem of this movie: it fails to anticipate audience intelligence and therefore relies solely on delivering fight scenes instead of fleshing the family arguments out into something less convoluted, as if Greek mythology was all about heroes dispatching monsters. That might be what people remember most about such myths, but it wasn't simply the single element driving them. Last year's Immortals made this perfectly clear by refraining from the use of creatures completely, instead centering the action around the differences between gods and humans directly, which still resulted in ample action and digital effects. Wrath of the Titans however doesn't feel the need to enrich itself by adding anything worthwhile to its simple action oriented take on classical mythology. If you've grown up with Greek myths like I have, you will undoubtedly leave the theatre with a profound sense of lacking: if you care only about seeing cool creatures running around killing people and being killed, this movie is made for you, since that's all it offers. And apparently this simpleminded approach sells like crazy, considering a third Clash is already in the works... are there any monsters from Greek mythology yet left for senseless slaughter?

And watch the trailer here:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/wrathofthetitans/