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

All You Need Is Kill - Script Review

The Verdict:

The Non-Stop-Action of this Sci-Fi time-loop-movie leaves no room for character development or relationships in favor of huge action scenes, which are entertaining nonetheless.

What's it about?

An unskilled, new recruit dies in his first battle, but awakens one day prior to the battle, myteriously stuck in a temporal loop. He uses these repeats to master the art of killing and tries to win the battle and escape the loop.

Plot Summary [SPOILERS]:

The script starts with Cage jumping out of a burning Dropship into the 'Battle of Ruby Tuesday': Thousands of human soldiers fighting the insectoid Mimic. In this bloody and messy battle we meet Yonaburu, Cage's best friends, Rita, the best fighter in the world (and the female love interest). Cage's first instinct is to desert, which gets Yonaburu and him killed already on page 13. 

Loop 2: Cage re-awakens in the barracks, a day before the fight and can remember all of that happening before. Again, he drops into the Battle of Ruby Tuesday, this time dying, while trying to save Yonaburu.

Loop 3: Cage awakens again. This time he tries to flee, escaping to a near-by beach, where he is found by some scout Mimics and gets killed

Loop 4: Cage is desperate. Trying to break out of this never-ending nightmare, he kills himself.

Loop 5: Cage realises, that there is no way out of this loop. Now he starts questioning the senior offices, gathers information, in order to save some of his friends, but still - he dies.

In a quick training montage, cutting between Cage and his superior office sparring and one Battle of Ruby Tuesday after the other.

Loop 93: The training shows it's impact, Cage survives longer and longer with each try.

Loop 187 & 203: Cage uses his knowledge of all his repeats to get an Battle Axe and with it he can kill the Mimic mother insect, but still dies exactly at 4:19.Cage loses all hope of ever winning the battle or escaping the loop, until Rita asks him: "How many loops is this for you?", shortly before he dies again.

Loop 329: Now the focus of the script shifts shortly, showing us Rita awaking in her bed. Cage finds her and answers her question from the last loop. She explains, that she was stuck in a loop, too. The Mimic have Antenna & Receiver Mimics, which can send signals back in time to warn their fellow mimics, Rita was and Cage is caught up in this signal, so he has to kill it, to be free and win the battle. Cage & Rita kill the Antenna Mimic and all Receivers, but, still, he loops back to the beginning.

Loop 393: Cage & Rita fall in love anew every day, and on the last pages of the script they have something like a relationship in fast-forward. But in this loop the Mimic attack the base, again Cage and Rita kill the Antenna and Receiver Mimic. Then Rita reveals, that she must be another receiver, and kills herself: Cage is finally free and wins the battle.

Script Observations:

Two formal things that bugged me: The script uses many noises, like Shup! Twamp! do describe the action going on. I am not sure, if I like this, but it reads very weird. Aside from that half of the words are CAPITAL, it feels like they are screaming at me. Not pleasant.

Back to the artistic choices, the script presents: The writing is dense and spot-on, as it is always focused on the action.

Something strange happens on page 39: Suddenly we have a Voice Over by the main protagonist, explaining all the background information in a huge dump for 5 pages. After that the Voice Over is used quite regularly, but it seem to appear out of no-where.

Shallow Relationships: Cage is stuck in a battle zone, always fighting and dying. This leaves not much room for a romance, so it feels kinda forced, when he suddenly has a full-on relationship with Rita (10 pages before the end, of all places, just to make us feel sad when she dies 2 pages later.

Generic Alien of the Week: The idea of aliens sending messages back in time to win battles is really neat, but other than that the Mimic are as bland and uninspiring as they come. Their aggressive behaviour, for example, isn't explained or discussed.

The Solution: I really hoped, that the solution to winning the battle and escaping the loop is surprising and refreshing, but, alas, it is fighting harder and killing more Mimic than before. It feels like a wasted chance. Afterall the script is trapped in the same militaristic view as the Ender's Game script I reviewed. The bland enemy reduces the action to routine killings, as we have in ego-shooters, as the reader has no emotional investment in the fights. As such, it feels a lot like the Halo Script, which also had non-stop action without an emotional core.

The Project:

Warner Brothers bought the spec script for a low-seven figure  from Dante Harper (Deadline: Hollywood), shortly after that, Doug Liman was slated to direct the movie for a 2012 release ( Variety). The spec is based on the 2004 novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Wikipedia). 

As the hunt for the lead actor has started, two names have been popping up: First Warner Brothers offered the project to Brad Pitt (Vulture). To be honest I can't see him doing such a mindless popcorn flick, on the other hand is was revealed, that Tom Cruise is in talks to take over the lead (THR). Cage is described as being 20, so both actors would be too old to take over that role, most probably there were changes made to the script to accomodate this.

Warner Brothers wants to get a huge star, as the movie will cost them about 150$ and to get the money back WB wants a big name attached to the posters.

As always, I look forward to hear from you. Post your comments without registrations below!

Have a great day,

- 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

'Oldboy' Remake - Script Review

Based on the 'Oldboy' - Remake script by Ernesto M. Foronda & Fabian Marquez from April 21, 2005.

Summary: The script has nothing new to say and doesn't add anything to the original movie. Apparently there is no cultural gap to close in bringing this story into the american theaters, so why bother in writing and making a new film? It is justified that this project is dead!

What's it about?

Gus, a father and husband never home, gets kidnapped and caged for twenty years without anyone telling him why. When he is released Gus is out for revenge and finding out, why he was imprisoned.

The Original:
Released in 2003, the revenge thriller OldBoy is directed by Chan-wook Park and quickly hailed as one of the best movies of the year. The film goes on to win the Grand Prize of the Jury in Cannes

Only cosmetic changes:

- We see Gus by the angel wings;

- He wakes up on a church; other locations altered;

- The suicidal man at the beginning, doesn't kill himself;

- Fried dumplings are changed to Taquitos;

- The female lead is not a kitchen chef, but a delivery girl...

The list goes on like this, but there are no major differences. The script follows the original movie beat for beat. Don''t get me wrong: This is a good script, but nobody needs it. It adopts all motifs throughtout the movie like the heavy use of Voice Over or the ants as a symbol for Gus' Isolation, which leads to:

The twist and resolution at the end are the same:

I thought they would tone down the ending, as it is rather shocking and explicit, but the script follows the original movie even there. Also the fights leading up to the finale weren't toned down at all. The ending was also the big chance for the scriptwriters to come up with something new, but they decided to adapt one to one.

Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! - Movie Category: Whydunit
This category is defined by an investigation into the dark side of humanity and a shocking revelation. 
(I started reading "the last book on screenwriting that you'll ever need" and in future posts I want to find out, if the categories Blake Synder proposes in his book Save the Cat! are a useful method for analysing scripts or not. Perhaps they are helpful for you, my readers, too.)

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

- Tristan

References: IMDb Oldboy (2003); IMDb Oldboy (2012); Article about the death of the project; Wiki;

'Untitled Chef Project' - Script Review

Post based on 'Untitled Chef Project' by Steven Knight; draft dated July 25, 2007.

This script has neither stars nor a director attached to it. I do not even know if its in production with any movie company right now. Adam, is the manic and obsessive chef of a two-star  restaurant in paris He is also a drug-addict with a big debt to some shady drug dealers. So, four pages into the script Adam has a breakdown and just vanishes. A few month later he appears in New York and sets out to open up a new restaurant and win his third Michelin Star. He assembles a crew, renovates a restaurant, but it doesn't take long until his past catches up with him. To win his third-star Adam not only has to fight cocky restaurant critics, rival chefs, but also overcome his inner demons.

The script was a good read. The ambition and motivation of the main protagonist really drove the story. Although I found most characters to be rather bland, they all had to fullfill one very specific plot role (the love interest, the foe, etc.) and did so rather nicely.

Note to myself: After reading the script and traveling with these characters for a while, I noticed a  definite change in the main character. In these last scenes the protagonist gained a new side and was better for it. So, it was a journey that was worthwile, not only for Adam but also for me, the reader. My hero should transform to a better version of himself - that makes the time spent with him satsifying.

Do you think a movie can work without ambition driving it? Or without the characters changing? What is your opinion on this script? I am looking forward to reading your comments.

Have a nice day,
- Tristan

References: none

'The F-Word' - Script Review

Post based upon: The F-Word written by Elan Mastai; based on the play “Toothpaste and Cigars” by T.J. Dawe and Michael Rinaldi; draft dated November 28, 2007.

Welcome back for the second entry in my script review series. Today I present to you the romantic comedy 'The F-Word' by Elan Mastai. Like almost every rom-com this is about a boy falling for a girl and all the consequences that arise from that. Casey Affleck ('Gone, Baby, Gone', ' The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford') will play the hopeless romantic, while his female counterpart is not casted yet. It will be directed by Alex Holdridge ('In Search of a Midnight Kiss'). 

What can I say? I am in love with this script! Madly, deeply in love. It is the kind of script everybody hopes to write - and then to read these lines lets me lose all my hope, as I fear I will never write anything this good.

As you might have deduced from my opening paragraph this not your typical Heigl-Aniston-rom-com-fare. This is a story about real love and about the inability to speak about this love. This script is genuinely funny and witty. Not one line is akward or misplaced. 

I really can not tell you more about the plot, as the story of 'The F-Word' does not differ too much from the >boy meets girl, boy can not have girl, boy gets girl< pattern. 

So why is this script so damn good? The characters come alive on the page. I don't know when I was that emotionally invested into a screenplay. While I was reading the script, something miraculous happend: Elan Mastai let me feel their love, their longing to be with the other one. It only took a few pages and I knew Chantry and Wallace had to be together forever!

Note to myself: I do not have to invent a new, crazy plot. The oldest story will work if my characters a vivid and real. The key to interesting characters is the dialogue. It has to be characteristic and specific in order to work.

So, have you read the script and fell in love too? Or did you hate it? I want to hear your discussions in the comments...

Have a nice day,

- Tristan

References: JoBlo.com;

'R.I.P.D' - Script Review

This post is based upon the script: R.I.P.D by Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi; Revisions by Brian Koppelman & David Levien; Current Revisions by Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi; Based on the graphic novel by Peter Lenkov; dated September 2009.


Hi, all you out there!
Here the first entry in a new series. To get a better insight into movie screenwriting I started reading movie scripts a long time age. But I can not write extensive multi-part features about every script I read. In this series called 'Script'ed', I want to publish short reviews of some of the scripts I read. As in my movie discussion I will highlight what worked for me and what did not, as well as point out what I took out of the reading experience for me as an aspiring script writer. Of course I can not compete with sites, like ScriptShadow, but perhaps you will appreciate the short format and my own point of view.

I will start things off with R.I.P.D. The script will be produced by Universal Pictures, with Robert Schwentke (Flight Plan) directing the story about a murded cop who gets the chance to work for the Rest In Peace Department in his afterlife. Together with his crazy partner, he attempts to stop the man who killed him, from killing his wife (widow?). The do-gooder police officer will be played by Ryan Reynolds (Buried, upcoming The Green Latern), while his crazy partner is played by Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover, Due Date). The film is scheduled for a 2012 release.

What worked (for me):

- The hook ist just genius! Outside of the normal perception of everybody dead people live among us. It makes for great jokes and stunning visuals, although the script has it's problems explaining everything and still is kind of shaky sometimes.

- The side-kick played by Zach Galifianakis could easily be the craziest and funniest person in a summer blockbuster 2012. 

What did not work (for me): 

The end was kind of a dissapointment. I don't want to spoil it for you, but i was kind of dissapointed.

The main protagonist was so bland! Really, like boring, you know.  Additionally, his marriage, which is his major motivation throughout the movie, feels forced and unnatural. There are only a few lines of script shared between husband and wife before he is killed, so I wan't really invested in their relationship.

Note to myself: I get the feeling, a really good end is the hardest thing to write. Readers (and viewers alike) build up a lot of expectations and will be dissapointed, if the end is not what they hoped for. Especially when an end seems so open, that it was probably written with the next installment in mind. I should write an end without the fear of the consequences! To what end is the story leading up? How can I satisfy the expectations of the viewers, but still surprise them?

I had a lot of fun reading R.I.P.D. and writing this post. Do you have any questions regarding the script? What is your opinion of this script?

Have a nice day,

- Tristan

References: IMDb;