Outlander(2008) Review
Outlander includes a lot of ingredients that we’ve seen before in other, better known films, infact its narrative is well worn as a genre staple. However, it’s done with such enthusiasm and good spirit that it draws you in, and leaves you glad that you made the effort. Described as primarily a mash-up of Beowolf(2007) and Predator(1987), the plot also has liberal sprinklings of plot devices and stylistic echoes from Alien 3(1992), Pitch Black(2000) and The 13th Warrior(1999) to name the most obvious.
It starts with almost a direct lift of the opening sequences from The Thing(1982), and the aforementioned Predator, as an out of control spacecraft enters the Earth’s atmosphere and crash lands( in this case, Norway in 900 AD, near a Viking encampment). The hero, Kainan, manages to get out and gets to shore while the ship goes down in a lake(Planet of the Apes(1969) anyone?). From then on the film slots pretty smoothly in to the well worn narrative you expect.
Kainan comes across a massacred village, gets caught by some Vikings and is initially suspected of the crime, even though it’s pretty obvious a huge and vicious creature did this- there are even huge claw marks all over the place. He also loses his futuristic weapon setting him up for having to adapt the weapons of the time to later kill the beast.
The film works because the characters are given a chance to develop and even prove the audiences’ assumptions wrong, Kainan is responsible for what happened in the past, and arguably now, and is more than aware of it. Wulfric(played with spirit by Jack Huston, but still coming across like a GAP model trying to butch up), the King’s son, initially comes across as a war hungry egotist who we think is going to be as much of a threat as the creature, but ultimately forms a strong bond with Kainan. In the same vein, Ron Perlman and John Hurt(both having fun, the later especially, in a more action orientated role than usual) start off as misguided tyrants to an extent, but both heroically show how they value the lives of their respective tribes.
It’s actually refreshing to have a resolutely B movie, give its audience a little credit intellectually by not spelling out everyones’ motivations in the first five minutes, or have a character with exposition to make sure no one is lost. In a way, we almost learn about the creature at the same speed as the Vikings and are drip fed information about its motivations, past and capabilities. It is also a relief not to have any twists or false endings for a change. Outlander is very classical in this sense. It gives us the red herrings of a bear taking the blame for the deaths, although we and Kainan know it wasn’t responsible( like the dockyard Tiger shark caught in Jaws(1975)), the elaborate trap that nearly captures the beast, and the mild reveal that anyone whose read or seen Beowolf( or Jaws 3(1983) for that matter) should have seen coming.
If anything, there are too many dark scenes, probably to make the most out of the effects, it can be cheesy at times(the small child who adores Kainan), the prepacked family unit at the film’s end, and does seem to lose momentum a little in the middle. Accents range from all over Europe to Sophia Myles classically trained Rada student, while someone apparently forgot to tell Perlman he had to bring one. However against this it has decent acting, although Perlman’s character should have stayed around longer, a great rousing score, nice creature design(looking like a cousin of The Relic(1997),all of the Viking checkboxes get nicely ticked off, and most intriguingly is the environmental message lurking at its heart. And just when you begin to feel overly comfortable with it, it throws up one of the nastiest, ‘being eaten alive’ scenes I’ve seen in a while, then cuts away, and then carries on with it. For this alone it has to be applauded, and while you can’t help thinking that Kirk Douglas would have killed the creature on his first attempt, this is a great Friday night flick deserving of wider appreciation. 8/10( with at least one point for the ‘eaten alive’ scene).
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Fly 2 Review
The Fly 2 (1989)
I bought the Fly 2 on video when it was released. This wasn’t so much a comment on the film itself as on Cronenberg’s fantastic and justifiably lauded remake. I am still a huge fan of The Fly(1986), and think it’s one of the best remakes of a classic 50s sci-fi movie, one of the best remakes in general, and one of the best horror films of the 1980s. Because let’s not be misunderstood here. The Fly is a horror movie with sci-fi trappings, as opposed to a sci-fi film with horrific elements. In the genre it fits in snuggly with Carpenter’s The Thing(1982) and Alien(1979), and also carries on Cronenberg’s oft noted obsession with body horror at the time.
The Fly 2 by comparison can best be described as a solid sequel. At the time, this came across as a detriment, a reference to its uninspiring retread of the first story with a larger scope, more gore, and younger leads. I myself was disappointed on first viewing and remained frustratingly unsatisfied on following ones. Ironically it reminded me of Jaws 2, an expansion of situations and cast, with a younger demographic, which tried to rack up the body count at the expense of true horror and dread.
The original after all, was basically a play, a three hander mainly set in Brundle’s lab/home, no one died(although a couple of people were nastily mutilated), and it ended as a horrifyingly romantic tragedy, with Davis weeping after killing Goldblum’s character. It was Beauty and the Beast, where the beast turns on her in the end, forcing a loved one to dispatch them, shades of The Wolfman(1941). In contrast, The Fly 2 has several gory deaths, a large cast and several locations. Yet ironically, at no point was I worried about what was going to happen next. Partly because I didn’t have the emotional investment with Martin and Beth that I’d had with Seth and Ronnie, partly because this was a more audience friendly Fly- it kills people, but only those who deserve it. It pats dogs and even looks cuter, and more human( more like a giant Gremlin than the evilly twitching, and totally alien, original Brundlefly). This is unsurprising, as Chris Walas, who deservedly won an Oscar for his effects in the first film is hemmed in by his happy ending, and by keeping Martin’s character heroic. When Martin changes into the Fly(going into a very Gremlin like cocoon- unsurprising as Walas did the effects for that film too), he keeps his human intellect, unlike his father who gradually lost his. This is a fly with a purpose though, but like the shark in Jaws:The Revenge, this takes away from its threat and makes it very hard to suspend disbelief. We can just about buy a man turning into a monster, but a man turning into a monster who still thinks, and occasionally acts like a man. That’s a harder sell, and much less fun. We want our protagonists tortured and out of control like David Naughton’s character in An American Werewolf in London. The Fly 2 can be seen as less horror movie, and more superhero film.It’s ‘Flyman,’ out to right wrongs, free damsals in distress, and bring the villains to justice, or a sticky end.
Don’t get me wrong though, the film has its moments, Eric Stolz and Daphne Zuniga, make the most of underwritten roles, and are sympathetic. Lee Richardson has great fun as the corporate villain, while John Gertz in a cameo, steals all the best lines in just 5 minutes. Walas directs as suspensefully as the script allows him and pulls off a couple of good scares. I loved the doctor’s corpse thrown at the security guard who opens the door- possibly a reference to the original Thing From Another World(1955), and the crowd- pleasing, crushed head by the lift. Sadly Scorby’s death seems lifted from a Friday 13th movie, and isn’t nearly as gruesome as he deserves, but the fate of Bartok is a well deserved twist in a serviceable script written by Frank Darabont(who’d just come off the excellent Blob remake, and was the John Sayles of scripting pithy horror remakes at the time).
In the end, The Fly 2 takes too long to get going, has too many(ie, more than zero) cute moments, and doesn’t take enough risks. However, it does do it’s job and wraps up the franchise’s loose ends. It’s a solid sequel, in the best meaning of the phrase. And sometimes that’s enough. 7/10
I bought the Fly 2 on video when it was released. This wasn’t so much a comment on the film itself as on Cronenberg’s fantastic and justifiably lauded remake. I am still a huge fan of The Fly(1986), and think it’s one of the best remakes of a classic 50s sci-fi movie, one of the best remakes in general, and one of the best horror films of the 1980s. Because let’s not be misunderstood here. The Fly is a horror movie with sci-fi trappings, as opposed to a sci-fi film with horrific elements. In the genre it fits in snuggly with Carpenter’s The Thing(1982) and Alien(1979), and also carries on Cronenberg’s oft noted obsession with body horror at the time.
The Fly 2 by comparison can best be described as a solid sequel. At the time, this came across as a detriment, a reference to its uninspiring retread of the first story with a larger scope, more gore, and younger leads. I myself was disappointed on first viewing and remained frustratingly unsatisfied on following ones. Ironically it reminded me of Jaws 2, an expansion of situations and cast, with a younger demographic, which tried to rack up the body count at the expense of true horror and dread.
The original after all, was basically a play, a three hander mainly set in Brundle’s lab/home, no one died(although a couple of people were nastily mutilated), and it ended as a horrifyingly romantic tragedy, with Davis weeping after killing Goldblum’s character. It was Beauty and the Beast, where the beast turns on her in the end, forcing a loved one to dispatch them, shades of The Wolfman(1941). In contrast, The Fly 2 has several gory deaths, a large cast and several locations. Yet ironically, at no point was I worried about what was going to happen next. Partly because I didn’t have the emotional investment with Martin and Beth that I’d had with Seth and Ronnie, partly because this was a more audience friendly Fly- it kills people, but only those who deserve it. It pats dogs and even looks cuter, and more human( more like a giant Gremlin than the evilly twitching, and totally alien, original Brundlefly). This is unsurprising, as Chris Walas, who deservedly won an Oscar for his effects in the first film is hemmed in by his happy ending, and by keeping Martin’s character heroic. When Martin changes into the Fly(going into a very Gremlin like cocoon- unsurprising as Walas did the effects for that film too), he keeps his human intellect, unlike his father who gradually lost his. This is a fly with a purpose though, but like the shark in Jaws:The Revenge, this takes away from its threat and makes it very hard to suspend disbelief. We can just about buy a man turning into a monster, but a man turning into a monster who still thinks, and occasionally acts like a man. That’s a harder sell, and much less fun. We want our protagonists tortured and out of control like David Naughton’s character in An American Werewolf in London. The Fly 2 can be seen as less horror movie, and more superhero film.It’s ‘Flyman,’ out to right wrongs, free damsals in distress, and bring the villains to justice, or a sticky end.
Don’t get me wrong though, the film has its moments, Eric Stolz and Daphne Zuniga, make the most of underwritten roles, and are sympathetic. Lee Richardson has great fun as the corporate villain, while John Gertz in a cameo, steals all the best lines in just 5 minutes. Walas directs as suspensefully as the script allows him and pulls off a couple of good scares. I loved the doctor’s corpse thrown at the security guard who opens the door- possibly a reference to the original Thing From Another World(1955), and the crowd- pleasing, crushed head by the lift. Sadly Scorby’s death seems lifted from a Friday 13th movie, and isn’t nearly as gruesome as he deserves, but the fate of Bartok is a well deserved twist in a serviceable script written by Frank Darabont(who’d just come off the excellent Blob remake, and was the John Sayles of scripting pithy horror remakes at the time).
In the end, The Fly 2 takes too long to get going, has too many(ie, more than zero) cute moments, and doesn’t take enough risks. However, it does do it’s job and wraps up the franchise’s loose ends. It’s a solid sequel, in the best meaning of the phrase. And sometimes that’s enough. 7/10
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