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Battle: Los Angeles Review

Curt — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:45:18 +0000

Battle: Los Angeles Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman Written by: Chris Bertolini Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Michael Pena, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo Battle: Los Angeles is really two movies. One is a disappointing SF film about an alien invasion. The other is an earnest, reasonably authentic war movie, which in its best moments recreates what it must be like to be embedded with real troops. Unfortunately it has some worst moments too. If you enjoy video games, Battle: Los Angeles is ready for you to boot up. You’ll feel right at home except for not having your M16 of course. For SF admirers, aside from the alien hardware and a fresh reason to be invaded, there’s not much here for you. Leading the platoon (and giving the movie a fighting chance) is Aaron Eckhart. As Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz, the invasion puts his resignation on hold and gives him a new 2nd Lt. – William Martinez – to report to. It’s made clear up front that, in spite of a haunted past, the Staff Sgt will quickly become Martinez’s mentor as the 2nd Lt. grows into a leader. (If this is starting to sound familiar, yes it is). The film quickly introduces the men in the group but spends no time going past stereotypes. As the alien beachhead storms ashore in Santa Monica, the surfers are easily overrun and our platoon is thrown into the deep end. Where the movie succeeds is in capturing the desperate fighting – street-to-street and house-to-house – as they battle towards an overrun police station to rescue some civilians. Every shadow is a threat (we haven’t really seen the aliens yet) and the grit and gunfire combined with the flying debris is an excellent combat simulator. Eventually alien combat units are confronted and taken out but not without deploying serious human firepower. Trapped in a building, our platoon is able to take many aliens as they storm in. One is dragged into a side room and here the director reprises alien autopsy. It makes sense because one of the rescued victims announces she can help. "I’m a veterinarian." Huh? After much hands-on surgery, Staff Sgt. Nantz discovers the alien heart just to the right of where ours is. I guess it was important but somehow a kill spot didn’t seem a priority when you use an RPG. A wild freeway bus ride to a confrontation on an off ramp that doesn’t do offs anymore is the movie's homage to state-of-the-art combat filming. It's really quite good but the fact that we are fighting "aliens" dilutes the visceral effect that should be kicking in. The long shots of burning Los Angeles and panoramas of the beachheads have lost their impact. We've seen them many times in everything from Independence Day to 2012. Ratcheting up the emotional level for Battle: Los Angeles is just not happening. The play for your sympathy reaches its nadir when Nantz has to explain to a young boy why he needs to go on in spite of just losing his father. The Warriors Way (aka the Marine Code of Honor) works in a narrow range of situations and this is embarrassingly not one of them. There are just enough light creative touches in Battle: Los Angeles to make you wish they hadn’t been sidetracked by all this booyah stuff (using the technical support of Camp Pendleton advisors cuts both ways I guess). The alien's hardware is authentically otherworldly. The sound effects for their drones, ships, and the battle scenes in general are quite well done. I must also commend them for not using the standard "Go go go!" in spite of many, many opportunities. I did hear "Now now now" once. A heartfelt thank you for that fresh interpretation. As for alien incentive, we learn they are after our water – that being a rare commodity in the universe we are told. Sea levels have dropped a couple of feet already. If they spent time thinking about an alien rationale, why didn’t our moviemakers engage us with even more thought provoking material? Sixty years after the seminal War of the Worlds, doing a compelling alien invasion is tough. No question. There are only a few elements to play with: the aliens, the humans, the reason for the get-together, and how the encounter evolved. Independence Day did it with a nice pop flavor. District 9 finessed the invasion concept with characters and story. Close Encounters played against tradition as did The Day the Earth Stood Still. And despite the garish title, Invasion of the Body Snatchers – perhaps the greatest of them all – needed only a pod on a pool table to generate real angst about who was sitting next to you. For some reason, Battle: Los Angeles never gets out of the trenches. For video gamers, that’s probably a good night out. For SF fans, your time will come. Just not now. -- Curt

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The Ultimate Body Piercing: A 10MP Camera Bolt-on for the Back of Your Head

Curt — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:41:11 +0000

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, an NYU assistant arts professor has implanted a camera lens in the back of his head. With no record of his early nomadic years in the Middle East, his motivation is to document his next year, apparently in arrears. However, the camera will not be live 24/7 as might be expected from such a committed individual. Aside from his evenings (sleeping is apparently quite uncomfortable), during the day, he wears a lens cap to protect NYU students’ privacy. (Using a flap of skin or comb over was not considered reliable). Equipment specifications begin with a “transdermal implant” that inserts a 10 MP camera beneath a large flap of skin on the back of his skull. Three titanium plate and post fixtures hold the camera in place. The skin is refitted leaving only the posts exposed and, of course, the auto-focus lens. The camera snaps images at one-minute intervals and then streams them on line. The URL has not been made public. Although the professor has received pushback from friends about the potential intrusion (dinner invitations have dramatically declined), this would only seem to be a problem if you lose his attention and he turns his back on you. Keep the repartee lively and your privacy will remain intact. The “extras” behind him are the ones that need to watch themselves. Which brings us to a serious question: what is the artistic viability of a rear perspective? It would seem intuitive that as humans, we always face the action. So does our director frame that moment by turning away from it? Or does his vision include a to-be-revealed choreography of forward and backward that will advance the cinematic art? I don’t think so. In his overreach to push boundaries, the professor has simply discovered a different way to miss the good bits of his life. Again. One thing we know for sure. When you go to the cineplex, he’s not the guy you want in line ahead of you. Or for that matter, sitting in the next row down. Does 10 MP work in low light?

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Skyline Review

Curt — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:04:50 +0000

Skyline Directed by: Colin and Greg Strause Written by: Joshua Cordes, Liam O'Donnell Starring: Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, Brittany Daniel, Scottie Thompson, David Zayas Skyline isn’t quite the penthouse – it’s more like a second floor walk-up. Its lumpy story arc, profusion of vanishing plot elements, and inadvertent humor (second hand smoke) are easy targets for reviewers who only live to snark. So, spoiler alert - no snark in this review (well, maybe just a little). But in spite of these haute cinematique defects, in Skyline, The Brothers Strause (as they would like to be known) earnestly strive to give you an authentic alien invasion experience. Unfortunately, they need human characters to propel the story and engage our emotion. That’s where they come up a little short but, I suspect, not short enough to ruin a nicely detailed alien onslaught for SF fans. With an excellent SFX resume (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2012, Fast and Furious) it’s no wonder The Brothers Strause introduce the movie’s lead – Eric Balfour as Jarrod - as a special FX genius called to L.A. to sign on with a well-known rapper. Jarrod's "got the eye" and knows that "computers are just tools" so it’s a good fit for everyone except the writer of that line. Unfortunately, before Jarrod can bring his eye to bear on creative issues, the invaders fill his optics with more compelling sensations and his demise in the first reel is barely averted. Enter the aliens, who are, after all, what we're here to see. Wispy blue lights that stream down into L.A. signal their arrival. Their purpose is ominous but not entirely clear. Soon large ships break the clouds and hover over the city while the beams begin their "harvesting". Throughout the movie, new alien models – small squid-like sniffers, tumbleweed ATVs with lobotomy capabilities, and mutant dinosaur rovers - each artfully detailed and fed into the action like you raise bets when you’re on a hot streak. As these new devices show off their unique talents, we get a couple out-of-your-seat moments, one of them concluding with a Michael Bay-esque helicopter smack down. The only inexplicable moment is when the Air Force actually brings down one of the big harvesters. What? No protective force fields? Perhaps they are advocates of the recent U.S. defense secretary’s doctrine (and I paraphrase), "You go to war with the army you have." There are some standard plot catalysts trotted out (e.g. mutation, surgical mining, pregnancy) but the filmmakers are so enamored with visualizing the invaders that little time is spent developing them. Mind you, this visual focus pays off with impressive panoramas and alien technology (the recycling pit on the alien ship is appropriately gruesome) but in the end we are always at a distance. With little connection to the human’s desperate fight for their survival, we are spectators not participants. As good as The Brothers' visual imagination is, you need to connect with the human even in an alien invasion movie. While we are at the lows, it must be said there are a few truly nonsensical moments. After escaping death by crushing, stomping, and sucking, Elaine asks Candice not to smoke because she’s pregnant. Out of their apartment window, L.A. is slowly being obliterated and she’s seriously concerned about second-hand smoke. And the previously mentioned double-pump ending I’m still scratching my head about – the music swells, our last two heroes are fading into the light and then… well, go see it. It’s a classic "huh?" moment. Bottom line. If you’re making your first feature SF film, doing alien invasion is a challenge. Lots have been made and quite a few are very good – the original War of the Worlds and the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, for example. Other successful invasion films have arrived with a fresh slant, such as District 9 and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Skyline lacks real brilliance and basically relies on better execution. It leaves you with the impression that once The Brothers Strause get a handle on the basics (script, story, acting etc) they will be quite good. So if you're okay with a movie that offers excitement, a couple Spielbergian jumps out of your seat, and some takes on alien behavior in an erratic sort of way, spend the bucks and have some fun. Leave your cinema brain at home. Keeps it safe from the aliens too. -- Curt

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Between Dimensions: Babylon A.D. (2008)

Curt — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:11:24 +0000

Between Dimensions is a continuing feature that examines science-fiction on the screen in all of its forms: big or small, good or bad. Babylon A.D. should have been called Babylon A.D.D. for Attention Deficit Disorder. This overstuffed film from Vin Diesel and Director Mathieu Kassovitz defines helter skelter for the new millennium. The story tries to focus on an unusually gifted child (she spoke 19 languages at the age of 2) who is competitively coveted by a religious group and a brilliant scientist. That’ s Theme One. Vin plays Toorop, a man-about-dystopia, who is hired to get the child (Aurora) from A to B – in this case from a Chechnya-like Russia to a glossy upgrade of the USA. (A similar story was presented infinitely better in Children of Men. Focus Vin. Focus.) Along the journey, the filmmakers share their views on where the world is headed. Themes Two to Five include omnipresent hi-tech surveillance; bio-tech births and resurrections; nuclear missile proliferation; man’ s inhumanity to man; mercenaries for religion. There are more. And Vin Diesel is asked to keep it all afloat. You just know this ship is going to spring a leak somewhere. The first leak is the plot. It collects so many barnacles from all these competing social observations that the SF-inspired plot is almost impossible to follow. (To be fair, IMDB quotes Kassovitz as disowning responsibility for the theatrical release version. It does seem like many hands were employed to produce the final cut. Most egregious was the hand that edited a jump cut to snowmobiles into the middle of a sea voyage. Hunh?). Ultimately Babylon A.D. coagulates into a very snappy but mostly familiar action movie with only a few moments of cinematic enjoyment. The second leak is Vin. It’ s unfortunate because the guy seems pretty decent and he tries. Unfortunately the most he can crank up ( for happy, sad, mean, thoughtful, etc) is Emotion-lite. With so many other set pieces and plot elements competing for your attention, this is not good. His first effort as Riddick in Pitch Black offered promise. But in the end he’ s a one-hit wonder. Like Arnold, menacing monosyllabism is as charismatic as Vin gets and ultimately the Terminator does it better. In Vin’ s favor, he does know how important diction is to an actor. I guess that’ s why he persuaded the fine English actress Charlotte Rampling to participate in this film as he did Judy Dench in The Chronicles of Riddick. The film’ s view of the future shines on occasion. We learn of injectable passports and see digital dynamic maps on plastic sheets. (Although a sense of humor does occasionally show up – Toorop’ s get-away car is a novel use of an iconic Russian Hind helicopter, an old Lincoln Town Car, and an industrial strength magnet.) Medical progress is evoked with credible diagnostic tools and sets. And what energizes Aurora’ s specialness is a familiar but highly exploitable hard SF idea. The film even salutes Blade Runner and The Terminator with a New York riff on skyscraper ads and a quoted closing line respectively. But these visual and verbal nods to great SF are always tucked between myriad fights, chases, and street battles. Ideas are not what this movie is about. Babylon A.D. might have been shot as a thoughtful SF film but it was edited as an action movie. Ultimately it all collapses into a mishmash of obvious futures and stock visuals of black Range Rovers chasing camo Humvees. It proves that editing at cross-purposes to the director is fatal. Vin. Next movie: mandatory Ritalin doses for the studio suits. If they don’ t sign on, don’ t re-up for the sequel.

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Between Dimensions: The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Curt — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:46:15 +0000

Between Dimensions is a continuing feature that examines science-fiction on the screen in all of its forms: big or small, good or bad. Man fumbles the planet... The first in a continuing series If you want to sample the golden age of science fiction, The Day the Earth Caught Fire is a good place to start. Since British director Val Guest made the film in 1961, this apocalypse is a little more cerebral than what we're used to (e.g. the recent new gold standard of 2012). With limited effects, Guest relies on good actors, disaster news reels, and clever staging to make his story real. Set in London, DECF sharply conveys the nervousness of a world discovering nuclear fission for better or worse. In this case, much worse. The premise is simple â€“ two simultaneous nuclear explosions (thank you USA and Russia) knock the earth off its axis. England's weather patterns deteriorate way past their usual abysmal standards â€“ industrial strength fog, windstorms, and blizzards become part of the daily routine. Similar calamities pop up around the globe. The tipping point (so to speak) is a rise in global temperature, which turns Earth's water from its most plentiful commodity into its most rare. Apparently the two bombs also moved the planet closer to the sun, promising a dehydrated future for all of earth's inhabitants. This key plot element is revealed about halfway through the movie. We should be thankful because this potential planet-toasting event injects some much-needed adrenaline into the film's pacing. To this point, DECF has been mostly about the bad weather and a bad-tempered, cynical newsman â€“ Peter Stenning played by Edward Judd â€“ who has lost his mojo (surprise). Judd portrays the angst-ridden Peter as a cheerleader for cynics. Leo McKern shines in his role of science editor â€“ irascible, wise, quick with a retort, he shows up in his standard persona, believable and engaging. Janet Munro brings a light but personable touch to her part as John's girl friend and informant. DECF is also a newspaper movie hiding inside an apocalypse story. From the opening scene when ominous weather clues abound, we follow the newsmen as they try to get a fix on the big picture. With no CGI for the weather spectaculars, the story's sole dramatic engine is how big city newspaper people connect the dots by extracting information from a devious government. The movie will succeed or fail based on how real it can make this impending sayonara moment. Fortunately, in the early 60s, nuclear paranoia was in plentiful supply. The Day the Earth Caught Fire is not totally without visual charm. There are some captivating shots â€“ in particular, a helicopter lifting out of the London fog to float above the buildings. A stylistic motif of lights â€“ landing lights, torches, emergency lights, and headlamps â€“ introduce the menacing weather scenes and add to the impending doom feeling. And what kind of Armageddon would this be without a few dust-ups between authorities and the average Londoner â€“ particularly in Hyde Park at the newly introduced communal showers. Knowing the English and their genetic aversion to showers, this scene is not surprising. Although the world may be approaching its final days, the pursuit of the story has been effective therapy for our reporter and moderately appealing to the moviegoer. As the world slowly disintegrates, Peter finds reasons for optimism regardless of whether â€œthe fixâ€ the scientists come up with works or not. Curiously, as there's been no hint of spirituality at all, ringing church bells and a fade to a cross on a dome reflect this upbeat note. The movie ends with the printing presses ready to roll, perhaps inspiration for the same ending in Superman Returns. So burn some personal time and rent The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Although the apocalypse has been done better in every decade since, there is still a sort of cool History Channel re-creation to this film that is enjoyable. Although time has made the story elements pretty conventional, the director and his actors bring a commitment to making a serious statement about how things can get screwed up if we don't watch ourselves. That point-of-view never gets old.

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Between Dimensions: Solaris (1972)

Curt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:09:43 +0000

Between Dimensions is a continuing feature that examines science-fiction on the screen in all of its forms: big or small, good or bad. Bring an overnight bag to your couch. This star trip takes awhile. Solaris is about first contact and tells its story most authentically. It is sprinkled with tantalizing hints of an incomprehensible alien presence and deftly threaded with some of humanity's long-standing existential issues. These factors combine to create the conditions that in turn perplex, humble, and threaten the movie's cast of characters. Be warned however. Solaris is also the ultimate litmus test of a viewer's attention span. Transformers this is not. For better or worse, Solaris tells its story (from a novel by the great Russian sci-fi writer, Stanislaw Lem) in almost real time. For better because you are cocooned in layer after layer of allegory and allusion. This style ensures that you are impacted the same way the Solaris' crew is â€“ frightened by the alien presence, deeply concerned for humanity, and afraid for your own sanity. For worse, because this meticulous layering takes 90 real time minutes. It proceeds with a somnolent rhythm delivered by a stolid Russian cast that will severely test your enthusiasm for wanting to be present at first contact. Solaris begins at the country home of the cosmonaut, Kris Kelvin. Nothing has been heard from the mission station on Solaris for years. The last cosmonaut returned with a story of a strange alien sea and hallucinations that might have been real. To resolve the mystery of Solaris' crew, Kelvin â€“ a psychologist â€“ is dispatched to the planet. On his arrival, he finds only 2 surviving crewmembers â€“ a third has just committed suicide. Kelvin finds the two survivors in deep contemplation about their experiences and pretty much indifferent to his arrival. Get some sleep, we'll talk in the morning, he's told. At this point, the pace picks up. Alien constructs appear â€“ seemingly human â€“ as our survivors investigate the sea and its influence on them. Intriguing questions of alien intelligence, human identity, and intimate personal bonds carry the movie to a simple but satisfying conclusion. The final visual has some of the same shiver that ends Planet of the Apes. The last hour of Solaris makes up for the slow build of the opening ninety minutes. Tarkovsky tantalizes the audience with glimpses of people who shouldn't be on the station. Furthermore the two remaining scientists never mention them. His actors are at their best when Hari (the dead wife of Kelvin) appears and soon begins to suspect her own unreality but in very agonizing terms. At one point, Kelvin leaves her in his room alone and she panics. Using only her fists and arms, she breaks though a strong metal door. It startles Kelvin because a human couldn't do that. It startles us because it's the first loud noise and violent action (well sort of) in the film. The cinematography is marvelous. The movie opens with the camera caressing sea grasses gently waving in the clear waters swell. It then tracks through the rich, damp countryside. You can almost smell the earth. Tarkovsky is equally adept in creating the space station. Techy, organized, but fraying around the edges, it's the perfect metaphor for these humans confronting the unknown. Sequences occasionally toggle between B&W and color. This helpful style keeps the visual energy up when the story pace slows. Another brilliant sequence hints at our fate. As the exhausted Kelvin stretches out to sleep, the camera starts at mattress level on his shoes, slowly slides up his torso until lightly coming to rest by his chin. It foreshadows the impact of Solaris' heaving sea as its presence inundates the human visitors. The film is not without oddities. Kelvin arrives at the space station dragging a very cool carry-on bag. You can imagine the light speed premium Aeroflot charged for that. His monogrammed pajamas also seemed curious in this mostly emotionally flat movie. Even more so, an extended camera shot wandering through Bruegel's Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap barely hints at its purpose â€“ Kelvin's love for his native Earth or his humanity being absorbed by Solaris' sea? Solaris is definitely a mind trip, not a visual extravaganza. For its time (very pre-CGI) the space station set is compelling and believable in the same way the station in 2001: A Space Odyssey was. The visuals of the Solaris sea suggest unfathomable power with a sinister overtone. Or perhaps that's just what we project into it. Tarkovsky uses his actors mostly monotonally to realistically portray the unsettling unknown of first contact while challenging our definition of humanity. It's all very believable. So if you really, really like SF â€“ e.g. if you don't need to see starships transiting wormholes - and if you are intrigued about alien contact, you will enjoy this movie. Perhaps Solaris' best achievement is its ability to suggest an alien without reverting to a rubber suit or overdone effects. Only one other movie has been as successful with this approach â€“ 2001: A Space Odyssey. What's out there was invoked with nuances and visual suggestions that left experiencing first contact up to your personal brain chemistry (straight or enhanced) at the time. Until there actually is a first contact, that's the best a science fiction movie can do for you. And Solaris does it.

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