Fahrenheit 451 (Remake) - Script Review

The Verdict: One of the best-written scripts I read, it offers a special-effects heavy update to the timeless classic, while being less subtle than Truffaut's film version.

What’s it about?
In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task. (Source: IMDb)

Plot Summary [SPOILERS]:

The first scene introduces us to the Fire Brigade: lead by Montag and Captain Beatty they search a house and soon find books, which is a major crime in this future. Relentlessly they burn the books and the house and arrest the family. 

We follow Montag on his way back home, when he meets Clarisse, the nine-year old neighbors’ girl, they talk and befriend each other. Back at home, Montag finds his wife, Millie passed out from an overdose of levelers. Medics come and resuscitate her, although the next morning she doesn’t remember a thing and doesn’t even want to talk about her apparent suicide attempt. Millie only wants to watch her interactive soap opera.

Back at the station, Captain Beatty tells Montag that soon he will be Captain of the Fire Brigade, before they leave for another emergency. They arrive at an old Victorian house and find thousand of books stashed away in the walls. The owner of the books, an old woman, chooses to die with her books and sets them on fire herself. Montag is shocked by the death of the woman: he can’t understand why would someone choose to die for something illegal? In the aftermath of her death, Montag finds two books and takes them. On his way back home he gets paranoid and gets into trouble with the police, but Clarisse helps him out. He confides in her about the books and gives her one of the books. At home he starts reading, but the next morning his wife finds the book and gets really furious at Montag. As he can’t convince her to keep quiet about it and help him, Montag takes the book back to the Fire Brigade and burn it. But too late! Montag has entered a new world and doesn’t want to leave. He starts stealing books on every deployment and stashes them at home.

One night Montag wakes up and sees Clarisse’s house being burned down. Someone found the book he gave to her. Now, Clarisse and her parents are on the run and of course Montag feels guilty for this. He seeks out Clarisse’s uncle, Faber, who was known for being a rebel a long time ago. With Montag being a Fire Officer, he doesn’t want to talk with Montag, but he forces Faber to take the books he salvaged and stashed away. A fragile bond forms between those two men. Montag has changed, his love for books, changed his way of looking at his job. At the next deployment the crew arrives at Montag’s home: Millie turned him in and now Captain Beatty forces Montag to burn down his own home. Beatty also knows about Faber and in an act of sheer hate, Montag kills Captain Beatty with his flamethrower. 

He can warn Faber to flee before the police arrive and the two men, now most wanted criminals, meet at an old abandoned warehouse. Soon the police have them surrounded and a heavy siege starts, Montag can flee, but Faber dies in the hail of bullets. The police is so desperate to find Montag as fast as possible, because the whole world is watching them via live TV, that they stage his death and kill some random homeless man.

Montag is free! He follows the river, just as Faber told him, and finds a group of people living in the mountains, outcasts just like him. There he find Clarisse and her parents among those people, who memorize books to save them from being destroyed. 

While they travel further away from the city, the city gets nuked and totally destroyed.

Observations:

The Dilemma: What I really liked about the script was the chouice presented to Montag. His future at the Fire Brigade looks really bright, he has a nice home, but still something keeps nagging at him. The decision to take that book and read for the first time, has so much weight, it such a profound moment with consequences Montag couldn't have imagined. But it is his decision to take that book! The characters grows immensely in this moment, because he isn't thrown into the world of the second act, but decides to take that step himself.

The Project:

In 1966 Truffaut filmed a adaptation of the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name.

The plans for a remake started in 1997 with Mel Gibson wanting to produce, star and/or direct the new adaptation/remake. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were rumored to play the lead role. In 2001 Frank Darabont revived the project (this his script!) with Tom Hanks in the lead role. In 2008 Hanks left the project and since then nothing new happened. If this will ever get made depends on finding a star for the lead role of Guy Montag. (Source: Wikipedia)

So, as always I encourage you to comment on my post, just choose 'Post as Anonymous', if you don't want to register first. Looking forward to your critism...

Have a nice day,

Tristan

ZergNet

TOTEM - A Short Script by Tristan Mahlow

Finally I can post one of my own short scripts. I worked on this since February 2011, since I read Freud's TOTEM AND TABOO, which directly inspired me to write this short. I wrote several drafts, now the project is ready for the public. I am looking forward to your comments, please write your critique down below in the comments section.

I proudly present to you:

TOTEM

by TRISTAN MAHLOW

 

FADE IN:

EXT. FOREST - DAY - FOGGY

Wafting, grey fog between grey trees, like all the colours washed out of this bleak world.

A wolf's cry cuts through the errie silence.

UlARU, 16, emerges out of the grey mass. He only wears a loin cloth, revealing his scrawny body. On his back he wears a reed basket. Ularu is looking for something --

-- and suddenly his eyes grow very big: Far up in a tree: A SHINING RED APPLE! 

Ularu grabs the lowest branch and begins his climb. He pants and sweats when he reaches the apple. The boy picks the shiny apple like the most wonderful treasure and puts it in his basket.

CUT TO:

EXT. THE VILLAGE - DAY - FOGGY

Ularu runs back to his village, the few tents flocked together on a meadow, still glowing from his find. 

More tribesmen, young and old - and all of them as scrawny as Ularu - have returned with baskets and are now emptying them in front of the biggest tent. 

Their baskets are nearly empty and only a few roots and nuts come out of them. 

Ularu takes a look into his basket. It is still there: the apple glows in the dark of his basket. 

Ularu sighs and then comes to a decision: He takes out the apple and dissappears behind one of the tents, leaving behind his basket.

CUT TO:

EXT. A POND IN THE FOREST - DAY - FOGGY

The red apple pressed close to his body, Ularu runs to ALKINA, the most beautiful girl of his village. 16 and very innocent, she sits in front of a pond, washing clothes.

She jumps up, when Ularu reaches her. They both stare at each other for a moment: Alkina unsure what he wants, Ularu unsure what to do. 

Without a word and in a very sudden movement Ularu extends his arm. Alkina is startled and steps back. Then Ularu opens his hand and shows her the marvellous fruit. Her eyes open with amazment, she can not believe it! 

She reaches out to take it --

-- and a bony, wrinkled hand grabs the wrist of Ularu and the apple falls into the pond. 

KONOL, the old shaman of the village towers over Ularu. In his gaze burns anger. Without letting go of Ularu's wrist Konol fishes for the fruit. 

He catches the apple and then examines it for a little while. Konol turns, and draging Ularu along, the shaman returns to the center of the village.

CUT TO:

EXT. THE VILLAGE - DAY - FOGGY

Konol stops in the middle of the huts. He carefully places the apple down on the ground and starts rocking forth and back. The villagers gather around, wondering and staring at the old shaman.

The sage starts humming, getting louder and louder, chanting, breathing heavily, until --

-- THE GROUND RIPS OPEN, swallowing the apple. Ularu screams: his apple! Lost! 

A low rumble starts beneath the crowd of people, they look terrified. 

-- a tree grows, where the apple was: more like a full grown tree being pushed out of the ground. The tree is in full blossom and illuminates everything around it. The native people stare at the wonder happening in front of them. 

-- out of the massive trunk a figure appears: the TOTEM. A muscular men; his face has the astute traits of a wolf and his sheer strength radiates around him.

The tribesmen take a step back out of respect, some even bow down. With one movement of the Totem's hand, the fog disappears, with a wave of the other hand the dead forest, sourrounding the village, returns back to life, bearing food in abundance. 

Ularu looks at his own hands: why doesn't he have such powers?

His eyes, now mere slits, look at the Totem with envy and anger. The Totem looks at the crowd before him, then singles out Ularu. Both share an intense look.

The Totem raises his hand once again and --

-- points at Ularu!

The whole village turns and looks at the shocked boy. The Totem moves his hands: "Follow me!" and disappears into the forest.

The boy regains his composure and follows him --

-- Ularu doesn't see the worried eyes of Alkina behind his back.

CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST - DAY

The Totem wanders through the forest. Under his step, plants grow, blossom and die again. Ularu always behind him.

The Totem stops and turns around: he looks at Ularu. There is anger in his face. Before the Totem can do anything, Ularu jumps at him.

THEY FIGHT!

Ularu fights with a desperate strength, while the muscular and build Totem moves elegantly, avoiding Ularu's attacks.

Only the BLOODLUST in Ularu's eyes frighten the TOTEM and when the scrawny boy manages to put his meager hands around the throat of the Totem --

-- the demi-god resign. He just stops, looking at the rising moon above him. He could kill Ularu in an instant, but choose not to do so. The Totem's eyes are turned to sky, expecting something and Ularu presses harder and harder until the Totem falls to the ground --

CUT TO:

EXT. THE VILLAGE - SUNSET

-- The shaman, sits inbetween the villagers under their new shining tree. Suddenly: the TREE BURSTS INTO FLAMES. Ashes rain down on the people and Konol screams on the top of his lungs --

CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST - SUNSET

-- Ularu cowers over the corpse of the Totem, his mouth is covered in blood. There is a deep wound in the chest of Totem where is heart used to be. 

Then the TRANSFORMATION begins: Ularu grows bigger, muscles grow everywhere and his face adopts the traits of a wolf. He is not the scrawny kid anymore, now he has a frightening presence and his eyes radiate hate and determination. 

The new Totem runs off into the deep forest. The distant cry of a wolf can be heard under the bloodred moon.

CUT TO:

EXT. A POND IN THE FOREST - SUNRISE

Alkina goes to the pond, morning mist around her feet. She sits down (where she once sat with a boy named Ularu) and stares down into the water. She freezes: --

-- is there a face in the water? With her face closer to the surface she can see: the new Totem! 

Alkina jumps back in fear. Just below the water surface Ularus' face looks back at her, his eyes glimmer. He stretches out his hand (lacking the apple this time) and offers it to Alkina. She hesitates, then --

-- extends her arm, too. The two hands meet on the still water surface and behind Alkina the whole forest goes up in flames. Red, glimmering ash fills the air, as Ularu pulls down Alkina into his darkness.

FADE TO BLACK

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Remake) - Script Review

Post based on the remake script '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' by Craig Titley, July 2007, second draft. This is not the final film version!

The Verdict:

The script is a very entertaining, action-packed throw-back to the good ol’ adventure movies, with lacking characterization of the main protagonists and an unclear enemy force.

What's it about?

Ned Land is taken aboard the Nautilus and helps Captain Nemo retrieve the keys to an ancient civilization, which holds priceless treasures and the most dangerous weapon of the world.

Plot Summary [SPOILERS]:

India, 1857: Prince Dakkar tells his son about the wonderful mysteries of life, while his beautiful wife watches over them. Later that night the British general Anson will kill all three of them in cold blood.

10 years later: Rumors of a giant monster frightens the west. Under the lead of Commander Farragut an expedition is send out by the Royal Navy to kill the beast. The Commander forces Ned Land, the world-best harpooner, to join his forces or rot in prison for the rest of his life. Julie Fleischer, the only woman with more than one line in this script – and of course the love interest – smuggles herself aboard the ship, in the trunks of the marine life expert Professor Annorex, because her father was killed in the last attack by this monster. The ship sails to the last attack site of the beast and is promptly attacked by it. It turns out to be a huge iron submersible called Nautilus. The only survivors, Ned, Julie and the Professor, are taken aboard by Captain Nemo and stay there for weeks.

Nemo stole a map from Julie’s father, who was an archeologist, and tries to find a treasure in a Sumerian temple. While Nemo retrieves 6 ancient keys, Ned and Julie try to flee, but are attacked by Ottomans and have to return to the Nautilus.

Captain Nemo takes the ship back to it’s base, an old volcanic island in the middle of the ocean. Nemo reveals that he funded the work of Julie’s father all these years and was a good friend of him. Now he tries to finish his work of finding an ancient, highly-developed culture, but he has to find a missing 7^th key. Coincidentally, Julie has the map of this key memorized and can lead Nemo there. But not before Ned and Julie make out for a bit…

The last key is hidden in the Antarctic ice and soon after Nemo, Ned, Julie and the Professor arrive there, they are attacked by General Anson, who wants the power of this ancient civilization to himself. The wounded Professor is left behind and now helps General Anson to stop Nemo. But he already has found the last key and takes course for the Lost World. Deep in the ruins of this civilization Nemo finds the Eye of Shiva, when bringing it back to the Nautilus, they are attacked by Giant Squid.

Now Captain Nemo reveals his true plan, he wants to use the power of the Eye to kill every human being as revenge for his killed family. He abandons Ned on the open sea and returns to his base. Ned follows them, while the Nautilus is overpowered by General Anson, who discovered and conquered Captain Nemo’s hide-out. To make matters worse, a new expedition under the command of Farragut also discovered the islands and starts bombarding it. While Ned fights and frees Julie, the Professor and Nemo, General Anson activates the Eye. It’s power summons a huge, roaring storm over the small island. General Anson tries to escape on an airship, but is killed by Captain Nemo. Farragut’s attack damaged the Nautilus, so Ned has to go out in a diving suit and de-activate the Eye of Shiva. He succeeds, but the Nautilus – with Captain Nemo aboard – falls down a deep chasm. The End.

Observations:

Unclear enemy force: I feel, there a few too many antagonistic forces at play in this script. On the first page General Anson is introduced as the main evil force. But in the middle of the script, his ottoman henchman does all the work and General Anson is only in the background. After a while Farragut comes into the play, another British Navy officer, whose only job seems to be to be a disruptive factor for everyone else. I wonder why the script writer put him in? In the last part Nemo also develops evil traits, threatening to destroy the world, which makes sense, regarding his personal history. As motivation for the character it is interesting and a nice twist at the end, but the threat is never addressed after the attack by Anson and just vanishes. This feels shallow and lacking.

Lacking Characterization: Who is the main protagonist? It clearly should be Ned Land. He gets dragged aboard in his Call to Adventure, he has the love story. But he only follows Captain Nemo. Ned develops no agenda of his own and no motivation to do anything in this script. Captain Nemo on the other hand gets a tragic back-story, has a clearly defined goal to pursue, but along the way also seems to be evil. So, the script is split between two characters: Ned, the flat archetype of a movie hero and Captain Nemo, the tragic, but ultimately corrupted prince, pushing the story forward.

The Project:

The script is based on the classic science-fiction by Jules Vernes, published in 1870. There were a few movie adaptations starting in 1907 with a silent short film. The most famous adaptation, produced by Walt Disney, came out in 1954, but there are dozens of other movie and TV versions of this tale.

Titley (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) wrote this version of the script for Sam Raimi to produce, but nothing came of it. After McG had a go at it, David Fincher (Se7en, The Social Network) is now directing this Remake/Adaptation, to be released in 2013.

I am looking forward to your comments! Just choose 'Anonymous' and you don't to register just to write a comment. 


Thanks for reading,
- Tristan

ZergNet

John Carter of Mars - Script Review

Post based upon the script by Ehren Kruger, previous draft by Mark Protosevich, dated September 7th, 2005. This version will not be used for the final film!

The Verdict: A mediocre Science-Fiction Action movie, that can't deny it's pulpy origins, but it is entertaining nonetheless.

What's it about?
John Carter, a special force soldier, is magically transported to Mars and finds himself in the middle of a planetary war. Now he has to chose his side and fight his way back home.

Plot Summary (Spoilers!):

Present Time, deep in the african jungle: Captain John Carter and his Sergeant, Powell, are on a mission to free a village from rebel fighters and find strange glowing gems in one of the huts. A little boy leads them to the cave, where these gems were found and Powell falls down into the deep cavern. John Carter follows him, but only finds more of these strange gems, which suddenly begin to glow. Carter now sees the time turned back and is transported to the red deserts of Mars.
He is captured by the Tharks, 4-armed, green-skinned warriors. Soon, John Carter proves to be a viable warrior himself, largely due to the low gravity, which gives him the ability to jump very high.
When suddenly a damaged airship of the Helium arrives in the city! The vile King of the Tharks opens fire, although on board of this ship is the Princess of Helium offering an alliance against the Zodanga, who threaten to destroy them both. John Carter can save Thoris, the princess, and she tells him about the 'Atmosphere Plant', a huge complex that controls the weather and water on Mars. Sab Than, the leader of the Zordanga, wants control over this facility, but this would mean the end of the Tharks and the Helium. Together the flee from the Tharks, before Sab Than can reach the city.
On the way through the desert John Carter finds out, that Powell reached Mars hundred years before him and is dead for a long time now. But when Sab Than catches up with them in the territory of the Warhoons, a primitive species of Tharks, it is revealed that Sab Than is in fact Powell. John Carter refuses his offer to join him and conquer Helium and the Atmosphere Plant and is left behind to be killed by the savages, while the princess is abducted by Powell.
In a totally absurd set-piece John Carter has to fight Gladiator-style in a Warhoon Arena againt gigantic ape monsters. He can escape and returns to the city of the Tharks, where the King is challenged killed in a duel. Now the Tharks form an alliance with the Helium and together they can fight back the Zordanga.
But Powell already has the key to the Atmosphere Plant (which was the Princess' naval ring all along!) and Carter follows to stop his old friend from seizing control over Mars. Inside the facility they fight, Powell is killed and John Carter is send back to Earth. But not to his time! He finds himself in the middle of the Civil War. 
Being granted near immortality, Carter waits until he can return to that cave and then transports back to Mars, to be with his love, the Princess of Mars.

Observations:

Pulp Origin: Shining heroes and scantily clad women, savage warriors, mysterious gems and time travel. That's pulp for you! Like the Conan the Barbarian series John Carter of Mars doesn't want to be something else than an entertaining blockbuster flick, but still feels out-dated and cheesy sometimes.


Too similiar to Avatar? While reading the script I had to think of Avatar all the time. An innocent man learns they way of some native people, learns their language and traditions and then has to fight with them against a superior enemy lead by an old military friend. There are giant birds/dragons tamed by Carter and used to attack the enemy. I know, the Barsoom Series was published long before Avatar was written and if anything, Avatar took some things from the Edgar Rice Burrough novels. But still, it could be a though sell now, that almost everybody has seen Avatar and will inevitably see the similarities.


The Project:
John Carter of Mars has a very long histoy: Already in 1931 MGM started shooting an animation movie based on the novels. The script was written by the author himself, Edgar Rice Burrough, but the project came to a halt, because the test footage received negative reviews.
The next try took place in the 1980s, but the technology wasn't advanced enough to bring the world of Barsoon to live.
In 2005 Paramount started production with Robert Rodriguez, who soon had to be replaced by Jon Favreau, who made most of the changes to the reviewed script. When Favreau left to make 'Iron Man' instead, the project stopped once again.
The latest and successfull effort to bring the novels onto the silver screen, was started by Disney in 2007. Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon wrote the most recent draft of the script for the director Andrew Stanton (known for 'Wall-E' & 'Finding Nemo'). This will be his first non-animation project. The movie will be released on the 9th of March 2012.



Official Trailer:

As always: the comment section below works without registration, just choose "Comment as Anonymous" - I am looking forward to your comments. And if you like my blog be sure to become my follower - Thanks

References: A Princess of Mars - Novel (Wiki); IMdB; Wiki of the 2012 film;

ZergNet

Halo - Script Review

This post is based on the script by Alex Garland, February 2005

The Verdict: 

The movie can't deny it's video-game origin, especially the main protagonist never comes alive. But it is filled with endless action and suspense to make up for this.

What's it about?

After a fierce space-battle, the Master Chief crash-lands on the ring-world of Halo and while he struggles to stay alive, he slowly reveals the true nature of the mysterious object.

Plot Summary:

The 'Pillars of Autumn', jumps through space to escape the ships of the Covenants. By accident it comes out near Halo, a huge ring-world with it's own atmosphere and gravity. The lone ship stands no chance against the opponent fleet and Captain Keyes orders the Master Chief, a genetically altered super-soldier to take the ships AI down to Halo and protect it. He crashes on the surface, as does the 'Pillars of Autumn'. The Master Chief encounters a few other survivors and together they build a base camp.

The survivors find out, that Captain Keyes was taken hostage and the team decides to rescue him. They go aboard the Covenant-ship, that is docked along the ring-world. They manage to get out of the ship alive with the Captain and it is revealed, that Halo was constructed by the "Forerunner", an ancient alien race, and that it can be used as a weapon. To find out more about Halo, the Master Chief heads towards the subterranean Map Room, while Captain Keyes goes to the crashsite of the 'Pillars of Autumn'. After some heavy fighting at a beach, the Master Chief reaches the Map Room, where the ship's AI is seemingly destroyed trying to connect to the Map Room's computer. Now the Master Chief doesn't know where to go, when suddenly he is attacked by Flood Infections, which can infect all the human soldiers and turn them into infected zombies.

The Master Chief is running out of ammo and it looks really grim, when suddenly Guilty Spark appears. It is a floating robotic device shooting down the whole army and asking the Master Chief to follow him to the Command Center of Halo. More than gladly he follows.

After battling the next Flood Army, the Master Chief reaches the inner sanctum of the Command Center and is asked to start the Sterilization Sequence to stop the Flood Infection. Fittingly in this moment the ship's AI re-awakens and stops the activation, as this would have killed every human in the galaxy. The Master Chief shoots and Guilty Spark and flees.

The only way to stop the Flood Infection from spreading throughout the universe, is to destroy Halo, by over-charging the energy core of the 'Pillars of Autumn'. He fights his way through the crashed ship and encounters in best final boss style the infected Captain Keyes. After killing him, the Master Chief activates the over-charging sequence and can flee from Halo on the last ship left. From afar he watches the ring-world explode and with it the menace of the Flood Infections.

Observations:

Computer Game Structure: 

I wrote a post about the Quest Structure of 'Clash of the Titans', and most of it applies here, too. There is no overall story goal, there are small level-like mini-goals and neither the protagonist nor the viewers know where the story wants to go. It makes such a epic movie feel small. Master Chief, the leader of the Spartans, has to go from the Covenant-ship to the Map Room to the Command Center to the crashed space-ship. These are not the steps of the Hero's Journey, these are recreations of the game's different stages. As such it is never-ending action from the first page to the last. But the set-pieces are amazing and the shoot-outs thrilling...

Non-Human Players: 

The Master Chief is a genetically altered super soldier, he doesn't speak much throughout the movie, nor shows any deep feelings. We see his face only once in a dream sequence and for the rest of the film he wears his suit and helmet. His companion, the ship's AI, is even less alive. She talks in his head and gives directions. There is not a single scene describing the motivation for the Covenant wanting to kill every human; Guilty Spark is a robot and as such also very much away from being a identifiable character. The last antagonist, the Flood Infections, are just a zombifying flesh-eating alien virus, so not much persona there. As you see, the whole movie is void of human characters, of emotions, of motivations or anything resembling it. Most probably it is a faithful recreation of the game, but I doubt it would work in a movie.

The Project:

The 'Halo' Series, produced by Bungie and Microsoft, sold over 40 million copies, worth 2 billion dollar worth of revenue, since 2001. Four years later the movie adaptation started with Alex Garland writing this draft of the Halo script. 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios partnered to produce the film. Peter Jackson was set to produce with Guillermo del Toro first, then Neill Bloomkamp directing. 2006 D.B. Weiss and Josh Olson revised the script, but the project fell apart soon after that. The rights to make the reverted back to Microsoft, who promises to make the movie sometime in the future.

As always: the comment section below works without registration, just choose "Comment as Anonymous" - I am looking forward to your comments. And if you like my blog be sure to become my follower - Thanks

ZergNet

Looking Cool - Visuality in Comic Blockbusters

Film is a visual media. Granted, there is sound adding to it.

But foremost it is a sensational thrill for the eyes. Directors and Producers cater to that by delivering epic spectacles for the summer blockbuster crowd. But not every movie seems to hit that mark. What is the difference between an engaging and a boring blockbuster?

Premise: 'The visuality of a superhero decides over it's fate at the box-office'

I know, it sounds trivial, but let's take a closer look, alright?! 

1. Hulk / The Incredible Hulk

Both movies, enjoyed different critical success, but nonetheless both only earned around 130 million dollar in cinemas when they came out. But why did both movies hardly take in their production costs? 

As the two movies share the same superhero, we can guess it is a fault of the figure of Hulk. After-all he is green monster stomping through cities and grunting incomprehensible. 

It just doesn't look cool! Identification is really hard with this superhero. Let's take a look at another Marvel hero...

2. Iron Man / Iron Man 2

With the same production budget as the Hulk movies, the two Iron Man films managed to cash in slightly over 300 million dollar, although Iron Man 2 also fell through with the critics. 

So, why did they take in that much money? 

As above we have to blame - or rather thank - the main protagonist: Iron Man is a cool, sleek and elegant superhero. Possibly every child dreamt of donning a armor suit, flying and shooting rockets from it's arms. 

Summary:

After these short observations, I hope I made my point clearer. On paper Hulk and Iron Man are not that different, with their haunted past and dangerous 'super power'. The difference is that Hulk has not the same visual appeal like Iron Man. 

Preview:

I thought about writing this post, when I heard about some comic properties being developed right now. I don't want to criticize movies, that are not even released, I just want to voice my fears and doubts concerning some upcoming comic book movies:

1. Ant-Man

Ant-Man can shrink to the size of an ant and communicate with insects. The script has to find a enemy, that can be beaten by turning very small, which I find a strange Idea.

It was used to comedic effect in "Honey, I shrunk the kids', but in an effect-laden action blockbuster it might appear out of place.

2. Wasp

Wasp also shrinks in size, but additionally grows wings and can shoot energy blasts.

A little bit like Angel in X-Men: First Class, without the shrinking part and that already looked silly. I remember the whole audience snicker, when she spit her 'energy balls'.

That's it for today,

- Tristan

As always: the comment section below works without registration, just choose "Comment as Anonymous" - I am looking forward to your comments. And if you like my blog be sure to become my follower - Thanks

Voltron - Script Review

Post based on the Script by Justin Marks, May 2007, not to be used by Relativity Media.

The Verdict: 

The silly and absurd premise is tackled sternly in this action-heavy script, that suffers from a dragging start and flat characters. 

What's it about?

After the invasion of an alien robot army, a rag-tag group of survivors pilot mechanical lion robots to fend of the intruders.

Plot Summary:

The movie opens with Keith setting out to loot a helicopter that came down in the ruins of New York. He is disrupted by Dukane, a vicious gang leader, but both stop fighting when a huge RoBeasts, a colossal Robot in form of a wolf appears and attacks. Back at his base, Keith is visited by the owners of the crashed helicopter, the beautiful and mysterious Allura and her taciturn bodyguard. She demands to be brought to Mexico by Keith and his mechanic Lance. Not having something better to do, Keith agrees and the group sets off. Upon reaching the border of Mexico the group is attacked by looters, this is where we first catch a glance at the 5 Keys Allura is hiding from everybody else. Unfortunately a RoBeast picks up the signal of the Keys and follows the group into a military compound. Before the RoBeast can attack them, Allura disappears in the compound and come back, piloting a LionBot, a huge backyard-built robot looking like a lion. 

While Keith and Lance stay at the compound, the viewer gets bits and pieces of the background information. Allura is part of an ancient alien race, who hid a powerful energy source (the 5 Keys!) on earth, but the RoBeasts came looking for it. They have to repair the 5 Lionbots before the RoBeasts can destroy the camp.  When they finally attack, they totally overwhelm the five pilots, their only chance is to merge the Liobots into one huge robot, but before that can happen, Keith aborts the process, because he can not come any to close to him...

So, the RoBeasts destroy the compound and kill everybody in it. The group retreats to New York and with the help of Dukane repairs the Lionbots. They start to fight of the RoBeasts one by one and at first seem successful. But then, the RoBeasts form one gigantic Beasts, now Keith has to overcome his issues and merge with the other robots to form VOLTRON. The huge robots battle over the whole world and finally in space Voltron can kill the Beasts.

Down on Earth everybody celebrates the victory and rebuilding of our world starts.

The Project: 

On Comic-Con 2011 it was announced that Relativity Media had picked up the Voltron property to written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. Legal entanglements prevented the movie to be made sooner. It is based on the american re-edited version of two japanese television series, that turned into a huge international franchise. 

Observations:

The Silly Factor: At the core are 5 lion-shaped robots turning into a humanoid uber-mega-robot fighting evil alien robots with his blazing sword. Is it silly? Hell, it is! The script doesn't address this silliness in any way, like that's the only way you can fight back alien robots. In the finale one punch of these robots sends the other one around the world, so they stomp all over India, Egypt, France and so on.  The whole premise is a rather huge stretch for the imagination and credibility - and I don't know how to visualize this without it looking absurd.

Flat characters: It is a problem of most action blockbusters: the characterization of every protagonist is rudimental at best. Keith past is never addressed and thus his actions feel unmotivated and shallow, his sidekicks don't get much more depth.

But for the finale, when the group merges to form Voltron, the protagonists totally disappear and two silent robots fight it out. 

Voltron vs. Transfomers: Do we really need another big robot franchise? But when you take a look at the flood of superheroes in cinemas right now, it is a wonder there are not more huge robots fighting on screen. Transfomers also was heralded as silly and stupid.Being adapted from a line of toys, the story and characters were probably not the top priority for Michael Bay and his team. But those movies earned together more than a billion dollar at the box office, so I can see others want to jump aboard that train.

As always: the comment section below works without registration, just choose "Comment as Anonymous" - I am looking forward to your comments.

And if you like my blog be sure to become my follower - Thanks

ZergNet