Pacific Rim - First Images

Here are the first few images of Pacific Rim, which I gave a so-so review.

 

Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi in their Battle Suits

Idris Elba in his Battle Armor

Pacific Rim - Script Review

Short Review: Paying homage to the Japanese 'Giant Monster vs. Giant Robots' Genre (Wiki: Kaiju) Guillermo del Toro not only takes over the insane fights, but also the flat characterization and linear plots. Unfortunately, the script uses every known cliche available and thus fails to connect with the audience.

Plot: When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes - a washed up former pilot (IMDb: Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (IMDb: Rinko Kikuchi) - who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse. (Official Plot Synopsis by Warner Bros.)

How does it end?
(BEWARE: SPOILERS!)  The B-Story delivers - without making any effort to feel organically to the story - the solution to the problem, when a young scientist discovers that a nuclear bomb will close the rift between the universes. But someone has to bring the bomb to the other side and set it off. This isn't exactly a new idea (especially now that everybody and their mother has seen 'The Avengers', which used the exact same idea recently). Of course, our unlikely heroes have to go into the 'Pacific Rim' and set off the bomb, fighting of giant monsters on their way. But in the end they succed, close the rift and return home.

Guillermo del Toro

Project: Originally, del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy 1 + 2) was set to direct an adaptation of 'At the Mountains of Madness', however, after Universal closed down the project, he switched his attention to 'Pacific Rim'. Originally, Tom Cruise, who was going the play the lead role in 'At the Mountains of Madness', was going to star in the film, but he was replaced by Idris Elba. Ron Perlman, who has worked with del Toro on several occasions, was confirmed to have joined the cast on November 17, 2011. Industrial Light and Magic was chosen to do the visual effects for 'Pacific Rim'. Guillermo del Toro hired Oscar winners John Knoll and Hal T. Hickel, both known for their work on the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films. Legacy Effects was hired to do the special and practical effects on the film. Shane Mahan, known for creating the armoured suits for 'Iron Man' was hired on as effects supervisor. John Rosengrant was also brought in for his work on 'Real Steel'. Oscar winner Clay Pinney, known for his work on 'Independence Day' and 'Star Trek', was also brought on board. (Source: Wikipedia)

Screenplay Structure: Travis Beacham's 'Killing on Carnival Row' (Read my review) was a fantastical ride into a bizarre and dangerous world. His words made this unique world come alive. Sadly, not much of this brilliance comes to play in this by-the-numbers script.
But the screenplay follows a clear-cut structure, which I will demonstrate for the first half of the screenplay.
In quick succesion we meet: 1. Raleigh, our male protagonist; 2. Mako, the female protagonist; and 3. Flick, the B-Story. After that, on page 9, comes 'The Catalyst' (Snyder) or 'Call to Adventure' (Vogler): Raleigh has to go to Tokyo and pair up with Mako to defend the city.
In the 'Debate' Section, a question is posed. Not 'Will he do it?', but rather 'Can they do it?' - for  few pages the odd couple goes through a training montage, showing how they come closer and closer and finally can work together. The act break comes with the first Kaiju fight showing the audience the massive scale of the monsters coming out of the Pacific Rim. Exactly following Blake Snyders Beat Sheet the B-Story plays a prominent part now, before going into the 'Fun and Games' part: Raleigh and Mako have to complete a few simulated training missions, before - right in the middle of the script - the stakes are raised and the unlikely heroes have to go on their first real mission.
This quick outline shows how the script follows every step in the screenplay book, although this doesn't guarantee a good movie.

Will 'Pacific Rim' bomb like 'Battleship'?

Outlook: In an age of Mega-Spectacle-Movies like 'Battleship', which bombed at the box-office (with $44 mill domestically in its second week for a €209mill budget) - movies need to offer something more. 'The Avengers' had wits and humour in addition to an stellar cast. Big explosions and splashy effects alone are not enough anymore. So, Guillermo del Toro will have to find a way to set his new effort apart from all the other disaster movies.

A Must Watch: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

A must watch for every writer or lover of books:

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

A very moving, fantastical short, that deserverdly won the Oscar 2012.

Sources: IMDb, Official Site

Hugo - Movie Review: A Different Kind of Beast

George  Méliès: The Biopic

Today, I return with a movie review. I did not intend to ever review movies - without having read it's script. But this movie is so different from what I expected, so different from what everybody expected. I found it to be a magical and enchanting movie for die-hard movie buffs.

The movie was sold as a fantasy flick, targeted at kids, but this movie is not about Hugo! The movie doesn't care about the goals of Hugo and resolves them only partially. It ignores the golden rule of character growth and additionally presents totally irrelevant minor characters with irrelevant sub plots. All the people, who expected an adventure movie, had to be disappointed. 

Hugo is a fictional biopic about the beginnings of the movie industry and one of it's greatest pioneers, Georges Méliès. 

It's about the ability to dream, when you make and watch movies, even - and especially! - as an adult.

It's about regrets over the past and how to overcome them.

I personally loved it and was very moved, especially by the performance of Ben Kingsley, but I would never recommend this movie to anyone, who hasn't a huge love and knowledge of cinema history.

Here the Trailer:

Sources: IMDb

Robopocalypse Book Review

Robopocalypse Book Cover

From Wiki: Robopocalypse is a New York Times best selling science fiction book by Daniel H. Wilson published on June 8, 2011 (New York Times). The author has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, and many of the robots in the novel were inspired by real-world robotics research (io9). The epic novel about the human race’s attempt to survive an apocalyptic robot uprising is the next directing vehicle for Steven Spielberg (Deadline, see below).

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?

At the end of the war, one of the heroes finds an archive containing the whole story of the start and course of the war against sentient robots. From this point the fight is told from many perspectives, each overlapping slightly, culminating in the fight against Archos, the master A.I.

WAS IT ANY GOOD?

Well, I liked the visual appeal in Robopocalypse and think this is what attracted Spielberg. The language is clear and precise, while the science fiction elements are believeable and frightening at the same time. Unfortunately, the characters are not as well balanced and thought-through.

But I have a little criticsm with how the story unfolds. Right at the beginning of Robopocalypse it is revealed that the war ended already and the complete story of the war is told in flashbacks. At the beginning the author/narrator pretends to only use the files found in this archive, but slowly drifts into the standard omniscient point of view. That's not that bad, but I find it hard to justifiy most of the perspectives from which the story is told. Their importance is told to us by the retrospective narrator and can't develop organically from the story. Some other perspectives feel very forced and unnecessary, especially the ones not in America, fighting against the Big Bad Robot. The retrospective view forced the reader to cencentrate on the how the story is told, not on the what is told, as we already know the result, which

WILL IT BE A GOOD MOVIE?

Goddard and Spielberg should tell the story more straightforward, without the retrospective view and trim away the unnecessary story arcs. In concentrating on the thrilling story of the Resistance and War against the uprising robots the movie will become a visually-stunning, albeit emotionally-flat science fiction action movie. Perhaps Spielberg will find an emotional angle he can bring into the movie, which would be really good.

FILM ADAPTATION

On October 22nd, 2011, Deadline reported that Spielberg (The Adventures of Tintin, Warhorse) plans to direct an adaptation of this book. Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, LOST) has been hired to adapt Robopocalypse into screenplay. The prolific director has also hired designer Guy Hendrix Dyas (Inception) to work with him and his writers on creating the visual tone for the film and conceptualize its robotic elements. No actors have been cast yet.

The film, jointly financed by 20th Century Fox and Spielberg's DreamWorks, will be released in North America by DreamWorks through Touchstone Pictures on July 3, 2013. Fox will handle the international distribution. Filming will start in January 2012 and take place entirely in Montreal, Canada (Deadline).

Google's 'Verification' Process

Hello everybody!

Two month ago Google asked me to use my mobile number to verify my sign-in. To be honest, I did not want to give Google my mobile number, they have everything, don't they?! 

So I waited, checked back everyday, hoping one day I could sign-in into my account. Silent protest, if you will. But now, I want to write again and I am not able to use my YouTube-Account - so I gave Google my mobile number... They won at last...

I don't see how it would protect me, because if someone really had stolen my password, don't you think s/he wouldn't hesitate to use her/his mobile? What a great security measure!

So, I am back -

- but do any of you know any good blogging sites?

Now You See Me - Script Review

The Verdict:
The arrogant Robin-Hood-esque super illusionists playing cat and mouse with the FBI is as thrilling as it is entertaining, unfortunatly the ending can't live up to the expectations and  leaves a bad aftertaste.

What's it about?
FBI agents track a team of illusionists who pull of bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money. (Source: IMDb)

Plot Summary (HEAVY SPOILERS!):
In Las Vegas: Michael Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Santayana, London Osborne (Woody Harrelson) and Alex Hero, forming The Four Horsemen, magically 'rob' a bank in france and give out the money to the audience. Also in attendance, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a notorius exposer of magicians and their tricks. As it turns out, the bank was really robbed and so FBI agent Dylan Hobbes (Mark Ruffalo) - who is divorced, as we quickly learn - teams up with Alma Vargas (Melanie Laurent), a Las Vegas Police Officer. The Four Horsemen plan to do two more shows in ten days (Ticking Time Bomb!), so the officers bring in the four illusionists for interrogation, but of course can't prove anything. Bradley comes into the offices and offers his services, as Atlas was his student (Emotional Angle), but the FBI agents send him off. But as the time runs out and The Four Horseman are about to perform their second show, the agents ask Bradley back (Bringing Together the Storylines). He explains, that the robbery of the french bank was planned weeks in advanced and only through tricks it seemed like it was robbed as they were on the stage.
Cut to New York: a disguised man breaks into the offices of Mr. Tressler, the manager of The Four Horseman. Soon after that, the disguised man enters the backstage area of the second show and is revealed to be Atlas. At the second show, they expose Mr. Tressler (Michael Caine), who is in the audience, as a fraud and then transfer money from his bank account to the account of every person in the hall. The Four Horseman promptly leave for Los Angeles, as the police can't pin anything on them again. It is then, that Bradley suggests, that there must be a Fifth Horseman, secretly working in the background. But as we see, only Atlas knows the identity of this mystery person. Finally doing a little bit of work, Hobbes and Vargas discover that Mr. Kessler had a safety deposit box in the french bank, that was robbed at the first show. They assume that this was the real target and find out that in that box was a blue print of the Federal Reserve Printing House right outside of LA. Shortly before the third, and final show starts, a masked Alex Hero is chased by the police chase after he tried to slip away from the hotel and dies in a horrible crash. But the tree remaining Horseman still want to continue..
The show starts! Hobbes and Vargas stake out the Printing House and soon an unscheduled truck arrives and three man try to get into the building, as it turns out, the three were hypnotised and can't remember anything. Hobbes, Vargas and Bradley rush back to the show, just in time to see Atlas bringing Alex Hero 'back fom the dead'. Then they magically rob the Printing House and again distribute the money amongst the audience, Hobbes and Varga failed!
BEWARE, SPOILERS: When Bradley returns home, he finds all of the money in his basement. Seconds later, the police storm his house and arrest him. He is quickly convicted as the Fifth Horseman, responsible for every crime, although he claim's he's innocent. Then Hobbes visits him in prison and reveals, that he, Hobbes, was in fact the Fifth Horseman and wanted to bring Bradley into prison for revealing the secrets of magicians.

Observations:

The Robin Hood Effect: With their first act, the script establishes The Four Horsemen as modern Robin Hoods, in the time of economic collapse and depression, they rob a 'evil' bank and give the money out to the audience. Instantly, we like this. It shows the universal and time-less appeal of the Robin Hood legend. Adding to the fun is the special relationship between The Four Horsemen and the FBI: Yes, the magicians and illusionists are arrogant and full of themselves, but we want them to win (at the beginng, that is) and the interrogation scene played with this aspect masterfully.

Bumpy Start: The script throws a lot of characters in our direction on the first few pages and most of them only get a cookie cutter backstory. In fact, the whole 'briefing scene' oozes cliche! I know, the script cares more about action and thrill, so three-dimensional characters are not that important, but why then write so utterly over-used scenes (like Hobbes trying to re-connect to his ex-wife and his daughter)?

SPOILERS: Puppet Master: Approximatly in the middle of the script, the idea of the 'Fifth Horseman' is brough up, for one it raises the stakes (because it could be anyone of the team), but when Atlas explains, that the whole planning and project was his idea, it takes away from the team. Their integrity and position is endangered, when they are just following orders.
SPOILERS: About that End: So, Hobbes planned three shows, performed an impossible break-in, just to bring Hobbes into prison. That seems kind of like over-doing it. To be honest, it robs all the shows, the whole Robin-Hood-thingy of it's meaning and turns it into a petty, kindergarden-fight. Oh yeah, did I mention, that Hobbes is a member of a secret society, sworn to protect the secrets of magicians? I am not kidding!

The Project:
This version of the script was written by Boaz Yakin (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) and Edward Ricourt. For the final film Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and Ed Solomon revised the script. (Source: /Film)

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