Marvel Magic
April 13, 2016
Benedict Cumberbatch joins the Marvel universe as Doctor Strange and the first trailer has hit the internet today. Joined by Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofer, and Rachel McAdams the good doctor’s movie looks a bit Inception-esq. The film will hit theatres in November.
Doctor Strange
The End to a Long Gesticulating Journey
January 9, 2015
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (2014).
D: Peter Jackson. W: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro. DP: Andrew Lesnie. Starring: Martin Freeman/Ian McKellan/Richard Armitage/Orlando Bloom/Evangeline Lilly/Lee Pace/Luke Evans/John Bell/Billy Connolly and the voice talent of Benedict Cumberbatch. (Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book of the same name)
When I sat down in 2012 for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey having just finished the book, I knew I was in for a long slog. Stretching final YA novels into two films is a challenge (see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1), but turning one book into three films? Ambitious. And a little bit foolish.
The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies literally picks up where its predecessor, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ends. There is not any re-setting of tone or sense of place. Unfortunately, it means the first half an hour or so lacks much dramatic punch and sadly very little of Benedict Cumberbatch’s dragon Smaug. The pace does quicken, with armies a coming! But, there is so much set up to any action the film can feel long with far to many scenes explaining dragon sickness. Specifically, this film also used the slowed down or build up of an action moment far too much. Too many blades or other dangers got a lengthy dramatic delivery.
The trilogy has resoundingly relied on Martin Freeman as Bilbo and the majestic presence of Ian McKellan as Gandalf. Freeman’s earnestness, humor and subtle naivete make for an excellent Bilbo in a three films. McKellan’s memorable turn is equally as fun here. Jackson clearly recognizes his fans by adding in story lines for Legolas (Orlando Bloom), although his romantic thread never really holds true with Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). Also, just to nit pick, but not nearly enough Elvish was spoken in this film. This also goes for a mini battle scene with Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, and Christopher Lee. All for the fans.
The best bit of casting is clearly Lee Pace as Legolas’ father, Thranduil. Menacing and spiteful, Pace towers and steals all his scenes, which he did in the last film. I could ask for more of him as an excellent contrast to the peace speaking elves of the other films. A lot can be said of the muteness of the dwarf company, massive presences in the book, but I am hardly able to put names to faces in the book. However, Richard Armitage as Thorin is a testament to good acting in a sea of people and place.
Ultimately, all Hobbit films have lacked a sense of grace. Where The Lord of the Rings trilogy embraced you with its mood and sense of fantasy (in truest form of feeding your imagination), these films feel like one giant brag. Far too long and indulgent, it will be interesting to see if anyone bothers to give them another go in the coming decades. Surely we are all wondering what Guillermo del Toro’s film would have been like.
If you are interested, more on that can be found in Daniel Zalewski’s 2011 piece in The New Yorker: Show the Monster.
Persecuted Brilliance gets a Biopic
November 23, 2014
The Imitation Game (2014).
D: Morten Tyldum. DP: Oscar Faura. W: Graham Moore. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch/Keira Knightley/Matthew Goode/Charles Dance/Mark Strong/Allen Leech/Rory Kinnear/James Northcote/Matthew Beard. (Based on the 1992 book “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges).
As the Oscar predictions begin to roll in, there is nothing like a decent star-turning biopic to get people really talking. Among the Weinstein Company’s gets during it’s festival runs (Studio Canal is distributing here in the UK), The Imitation Game pulled a screenplay off the Blacklist and a twenty year old book off the shelf. Couple this with BBC’s Sherlock star, Benedict Cumberbatch, and yo
Based on the life of Cambridge mathematician, Alan Turing, The Imitation Game is structured like a typical biopic and uses three different timelines. The film follows Turing (Cumberbatch) as a young teen at boarding school, his hiring and involvement with the British war effort in cracking the Nazi enigma code, and his final time where he is persecuted for being homosexual. The structure is non-linear, moving through these three periods, which is one of its weakness. Cumberbatch’s Turing is so subtly complex and quietly devastating that this Hollywood glossy structure doesn’t ring true. That being said a linear narrative would have been equally as boring and lacked any suspense, but thankfully the film is not ruined.
The driving force of The Imitation Game is certainly Cumberbatch. Lithe like his Sherlock, he creates a Turing built on language and genius that has licked his bullied wounds and moved on. He has moments where he teeters on the brink of Sheldon Cooper land, but his instincts seem to bring him back. Cumberbatch is supported well by Keira Knightley’s Joan whose connection with Turing has lovely tenderness to it. Although surrounded by other deft English actors the camera hardly strays from Cumberbatch. There are consistent shots of the back of head throughout the film, giving Turing a faceless quality that reminded me of the secrecy of not only the breaking of the code, but of his life in general.
Similar to 2009’s The Blind Side, 2010’s The Fighter, 2011’s The Iron Lady, and even Cumberbatch’s in last year’s The Fifth Estate, the crux of this film is the performance. Much has already been written about how much any biopic can be accurate, and specifically if The Imitation Game address Turing’s personal life enough. I do not think the film marginalizes his persecution as a homosexual, but it certainly isn’t the focus of the narrative. His brilliance at cracking the code and his development of the computer have been overshadowed, even made invisible by his personal life. This is the tragedy and I believe the film’s goal is to reveal that. The sadness is compounded when his pardon was only given in 2013, nearly fifty years after his death. I do not think the film needed to give us more for us to feel that weight, that loss, that disgust at our own history.