Archive for the ‘Chris Hemsworth’ Category

Snow White And The Huntsman Movie Review

Posted: June 10, 2012 in Bob Hoskins, Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart, Movie Review, Rupert Sanders, Snow White And The Huntsman, Universal Pictures
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Release Date: June 1, 2012 
Studio: Universal Pictures 
Director: Rupert Sanders 
Screenwriter: Evan Daugherty, Evan Spiliotopoulos, Hossein Amini, John Lee Hancock, Jez Butterworth 
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Eddie Izzard, Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Stephen Graham, Ray Winstone, Lily Cole, Sam Spruell, Liberty Ross, Noah Huntley 
Genre: Action, Adventure 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sensuality) 
Official Website: SnowWhiteandtheHuntsman.com

It’s a grotesque journey from dark to light, a unique retelling of the classic tale that verges on the side of the twisted and insane.  It was an incredibly beautiful film even with it’s sick and twisted interpretation. However, the mismash of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, vampire lore – such as with the story of Elizabeth Bathory – was odd enough to make me wonder if the plot actually spun into anything significant.

And if I ever wanted to know what it feels like to get high, this film succeeds with flying colors!

The story takes place on the familiar fantasy terrain, and Snow White (Stewart) is the only woman in the land who threatens the Queen (Theron) and her unequaled beauty.  Snow White runs away and the Queen hires an aggressively reluctant huntsman (Hemsworth) to hunt her down so she can devour her heart and have ever lasting youth.  But in true pseudo-love-story form, the Huntsman sees the purity in Snow White and prepares her for the worst, while in turn, Snow White shows the Huntsman compassion and friendship.  Together they share in an adventure that’s based in good versus evil, dark vs. light, with a plethora of magical elements.

I mentioned the above phrase, “with flying colors,” which is incredibly appropriate for this film with its wonderfully clever usage of darker tones juxtaposed against the brighter colors.  In fact, the entire film is FLUSHED with blacks and whites, with the occasional red apple.  With this infusion of the two color depictions, and the different shades of each, the film does present an interesting question – Does white always have to represent good, and vice versa with black representing evil?  Sure, the queen wears a terrifyingly black outfit, but she bears a lighter color tone than the film’s protagonist does.  It’s a confusing visual depiction to say the least, but a wonder to behold.

That’s really where the greatness of this film lies, within it’s visuals.  Carrying the rest of the burden of making this film worth while lay with the cast…minus one.

Chris Hemsworth’s hit the jackpot thanks to the Avengers, and now has complete control over the reigns of his acting career thanks to his stellar performance as the Huntsman.  Along with Theron, he’s the saving grace of the movie and provides a lot of depth and emotion in a character that started out as someone who could care less about the people and the Kingdom.

Charlize Theron, the reason the bulk of movie goers saw this film, delivers a captivating and chilling performance.  This was an interesting take, on the screen writer’s part, to make the queen not only evil and twisted, but depressed and sympathetic.  As an audience, we see why the Queen is such a tyrant, giving us a reason sympathize with her.  But even Theron can’t save a script that’s overly poetic and analytical, forcing the cast to overact.

Thus comes Stewart’s “Oscar” speech, which is laughable at best.  But let’s not throw the fault completely at her.  The speech, which was meant to inspire the soldiers to brave the oncoming danger, was only successful because the director told them to make it so.  Stewart’s performance, however, was less filled with dialog and more with angsty driven moments of ecstasy.  Was this the director’s choice, or is Stewart simply unable to move past the type of performance she typically portrays thanks to Twilight; always unpleasantly writhing due to some outer force which compels her to act with such sullen malaise.  It’s almost as if she has a disease she’s fighting throughout the film, and it feels more out of place than as apart of the story.  With her contemporary edge, is it possible that she’s acting in the wrong era?  If only we had the same magical burden of Dwarf Muir due to being blind – seeing the potential in individuals which others cannot see.

At the film’s core, however, is the subliminal messaging of getting high and how it makes you happy – which is true.  Not a moment goes by where it doesn’t seem like someone just took a heaving whiff of meth or cocaine. Do the dwarves simply live off of Heroine?  It certainly seems like it.  The dwarves always seem exceptionally happy, especially Muir. (Bob Hoskins) Even the animals in the gorgeously animated forest scene seem to be the after affect of the dwarves drug addiction. But I don’t think anything will cure Snow White’s constantly depressed state of mind, which could have been caused by an overdose of Marijuana.  And I’ll just make the assumption that the queen is injected daily with LSD since she always has an altered state of mind, seeing things that aren’t there.  Is it possible that the nameless Huntsman is the only sensible one, partaking in the normal drinking of beer, getting into drunken fights, only to wake up with minor migraines the next morning?  I think so.  No wonder he dislikes people, they’re all crazy due to drug induced insanity!  Perhaps an appearance from Dopey would have been appropriate?

It’s hard to sit through a two hour long film in which we already know the plot.  I’ve known the plot since I was 5 years old!  So it was nice to see some of the story telling upgrades to make the already known plot seem fresh and new.  The apple was poisoned not because of some magical potion poured into it, but rather because of the decaying land.  The dwarves aren’t the cutesy Disney versions from the 1937 Disney film, but rather a brutish and vile lot who have the only humorous moment (singular) in the film’s 2 hour duration.  As mentioned above, the Queen is completely reinvented where we can sympathize with her and her newly discovered humanity, and despite Stewart’s lack luster, over compensating performance, turning Snow White into a stronger character rather than a damsel in distress was an intelligent move.

The problems occur in the plot’s overall purpose; the character developing moments are quite odd and the reasoning behind the character’s motivations could have made sense if only the execution and writing were better.  The story goes off the deep end with its “Snow White turned Joan of Arc” motif with no reason for being except for the strangely placed sense of patriotism she obtains that was never alluded to prior.  The transition for the Huntsman from brute to caring man was more abrupt than fluid, as was the queen’s final bow as she crawled away from Snow White in fear of…something?  It was never made clear as to what the Queen was trying to accomplish; was she simply attempting to be the fairest in all the land, or did she have some misplaced concern for the people?

“I will give this wretched world the Queen it deserves.”
“Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the Fairest of them all?” 

Which is it?  I couldn’t tell.

Transitions seem to be a problem with this film as this juxtaposition from darkness to light, while gorgeous to look at, is overly drawn out and sluggish, with nothing tangible in sight.

A single viewing was and will be enough for me.  I loved looking at the special effects of the film as well as enjoying some of the story alterations, but overall this is not a movie worth its price of admission.  If you’re into 2 hour long durations of the after effects of drugs, by all means, go see this film.  But if you can wait until it’s streamable online, then go with that option.  There is a poison apple lurking around in seeing this film, and you might just bite into it by accident.

The Avengers Movie Review

Posted: May 6, 2012 in Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Joss Whedon, Mark Ruffalo, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Movie Review, Paramount Pictures, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hiddleston, Walt Disney Pictures
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Release Date: May 4, 2012 (3D/2D theaters and IMAX 3D) 
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios, Paramount Pictures 
Director: Joss Whedon 
Screenwriter: Joss Whedon 
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Cobie Smulders, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson 
Genre: Action, Adventure 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference)

How do you make a superhero film work where 75% of the team have all the same powers, are very uninteresting, and ridiculously cliche?  The answer…hire Joss Wheadon to write and direct the film.  It was almost a no brainer, right?  This movie needed someone who was an expert in writing really great weird shit!

Avengers was potentially the “end all” for the comic book/superhero film genre – there’ve been SO many since X-Men came out in 2000, and the question swarming around virally, as of late, has been if the Superhero movie has warn out its welcome.  One thing I KNEW is that, if this movie failed, all redemption would lay with the Dark Knight Rises, and even then it would be slow climb back into the hearts of fans.  Thankfully, the Avengers did better than anyone could have hoped for.

The story is a simple, and all too familiar one – save the Earth from an intergalactic peril while reminding us, through a series of hokey dialog and colorful costuming (bearing reds and blues) that patriotism can “save” the world.  This film is all about the recruitment of the Avengers Initiative , and Nick Furry brings together Earth’s Mightiest heroes (even though Thor lives on another planet) to fight an unknown enemy who’s enlisted the services of Loki, leading the attack on Earth to make way for his coming.  It is, of course, up to the “chemical mixture” to stop this attack…they just have to get along first.

Now if you’re like me, and you don’t necessarily ”like” how Marvel’s trying to take over the cinematic world and how it used it’s earlier “pro forma” films to help viewers get excited for the Avengers, you’re still probably going to enjoy it.  I don’t think you need to be a fan of the superhero film genre, this is just a good action film and maybe one of the best.

Joss Wheadon is best known for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer – a show about an unorthodox family of friends that get along so much better than anyone would expect.  It’s filled with supernatural occurrences, wonderfully loving moments, tantalizing action sequences, and a wit that goes beyond your normal television program – and it’s the wit that Joss Wheadon is so good at writing that gives this film its edge.

At the film’s core is a focus on character, developing a story that’s more than just explosion after explosion. (Despite the fact that you can’t go five minutes without seeing something crash or blowup.)  Not only does Wheadon stay true to each character’s storyline in their solo films, he also brings each of their own individual personalities (as defined by their movies) into the heart of the Avengers.  In turn, this gave each hero a voice that not only made the film that much better, it allowed us to sit back and truly enjoy a story that took four years to develop.

Much of the script itself is corny (which stays true to form to the original comic book which started in the 60′s) delivering a collection of heroes whose superheroic personas originated due to troubling situations, making their powers more of a curse than a gift.  This is not your typical Marvel movie  where the lines from each character feels forced, oddly fitting into the script because the writers weren’t sure how to handle it. The Avengers contain lines where, quite frankly, everything said is just as important as everything done.

Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) spends time outside of the American ideal in Kalcutta doing good by nurturing diseased victims to health.  Bruce is asked to join up in the fight against the unseen enemy (I use the word ‘asked” loosely) not because of his “green” attitude, but because of his experience with gamma radiation.  And because of his more scientifically driven mind, he hits it off off almost immediately with Tony Stark, (Robert Downey Jr.) developing a bromance that will make every  macho man in the theater cuddle with his best guy friend in a moment of zen.

Cap’n Merica (Chris Evans) is just as loyal to the cause as he was before being frozen for 70 + years, following orders because that’s what a good soldier does.  He’s so loyal, in fact, that he pays Stark no mind with his sarcastic comments on his outfit.  But even loyalty won’t blind the Captain of fishy dealings hidden from the team’s sight.

As much fun as Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is in the film, he’s probably the most lifeless character.  He resembles the likeness of a stereotypical professional athlete, all brawn and no brains.  However, he’s still able to keep you laughing after talking about his “adopted” brother Loki. (Tom Hiddleston)

And the final two players, Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), play their parts as non-powered superheroes exceptionally well.  Black Window’s introductory scene where she lays the smack down…and her chair…on a Russian mob was exciting and humorous.  And Hawkeye portrays a confidence and level headedness that makes you wonder if HE could go toe to toe with the Mighty Thor himself.

But enough about the characters themselves, this film’s life is within its wit and charm.  As already stated, each hero has an important role and voice in the film, Wheadon spares no expense. Going into the theater, I wasn’t expecting to giggle or laugh as much as I did.  I knew Iron Man would have a number of good lines to tickle my funny bone, as well as Thor with his Shakespearean banter in a modern, 21st century world.  But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought deep, belly shaking laughter would come from my mouth due to things said by the Captain as he “got” the references, or things done by the Hulk, bashing the antagonist in the middle of his profound and elegant bit of public oratory.

Likewise, the special effects are top notch, and some of the best I’ve ever seen.  The climactic alien invasion coming through the teseract’s portal was so huge and massive that it has to be shot in a major city… Cleveland perhaps? And the CGI effects clustered with the real life, unanimated segemnts never look odd or out of place.  Tied in with the CGI are explosive action scenes that never slow down or get boring.  And even though I had many moments where I unenthusiastically thought, “Oh, you blew up another building…good job…” they were always a sight to see.

With all this praise I’m giving the film, let’s not forget that this IS an action film at its best…which means the depth of the story is not that significant.  Despite how well the characters are treated, this film does not expand any new horizons in substantial content, thought provoking ideas and concepts, or new and innovative script writing techniques.  This is, without a doubt, a movie that relies mostly on its action and funny banter between characters.  That is in NO WAY a negative cinematic aspect (as much as it may sound that way) but more of a comment on its overall film qualities – great  job in these areas, but what about everything else?  I will certainly enjoy this film multiple times in the future, (having already seen it twice…two times on Saturday) and definitely OWN it on DVD once it’s released, but I can’t give it a rating higher than an 8, nor put it into my top five comic book films of all time list.  With that said, however, this is still a FUN movie.

Marvel has done their cinematic name well!  If this is what we should expect to see in the future for Marvel films, then I can’t wait for the sequel!  (Oh Thanos, your chin entices me!)