2016 March » Foster on Film

Daredevil: Season 2 (Netflix-2016)

Mar 072016

Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), The Punisher, is a new vigilante in town, who has no problem killing. Daredevil decides he must take him down while Karen feels there is more to his story that needs to be revealed. Simultaneously, Matt Murdock’s old love, Elektra Notchios (Elodie Yung) has returned to town, her appearance corresponding to an increase in crime by a mysterious organization of ninjas known as The Hand.

Season 2 differed from the other 4 seasons of MCU Netflix series by theoretically having enough story to fill thirteen episodes, but only because it ran two completely disconnected, simultaneous plots. They not only didn’t fit together, they didn’t match in tone or theme. It made for a jangling viewing experience. The Punisher stuff is down to earth, violent, and supposedly emotional. The Hand subplot is pure fantasy, filled with vague mystical ramblings and superhero hijacks.

While the two stories could have filled thirteen episodes with plot, they didn’t. Neither story was fleshed out or even finished. The Punisher plot is very simple. The big bad was barely developed and his scheme seemed to be nothing more than heroine smuggling (at one point the big bad says it is more, but nothing more is given). It is a revenge story for a family we don’t know taken on bad guys who are never explained.

The second is even more undeveloped. It is vaguely about The Hand and their quest for their ultimate weapon. It’s filled with a fair amount of esoteric mumbo-jumbo: fate, immortality, ancient magic, and rising from the dead. But none of that goes anywhere. The great war, which we are told is very important, is kept ambiguous. The ultimate weapon is not explained at all. The bad guys are mostly unidentified. There are no stakes and no emotion.

So while there was enough story, they didn’t tell those stories. Instead, we again are given speeches, very slow cuts, and prolonged shots of nothing in particular. And of course, we get the same, uninteresting and done-to-death debate on superhero morality: Is killing ever allowed, and if one kills, then has he “crossed the line” from which he can never “return”? It’s tedious. A good theme could have obfuscated the glaring plot holes, but we didn’t get one.

Season 2 made it clear that Matt Murdock is not the draw. Daredevil just isn’t a great character. He is neither engaging nor likable. It isn’t a matter of him being too straight-laced or too obnoxious. Captain America is good and very likable. And Tony Stark is an ass, but also likeable. Matt Murdock sits in the uninteresting spot between them. Neither his endless moralizing, nor his slips from that morality, make him relatable, or cool. I never empathized with him. And without Fisk and Vanessa, there’s no magic.

Reviews, Superhero Tagged with: Two Reels

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Mar 062016

The evil stereotype Shredder is broken out of jail while in the care of the guy from Arrow (Stephen Amell). Naturally, he puts on a hockey mask and beats up people with his hockey stick to redeem himself. This leads him to April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (some guys…who cares). Shredder has made a deal with an extraterrestrial…for some reason…to help bring through an alien killing machine. And the Turtles, they need to argue whenever possible while the guy with the hockey mask and April disappear from the film. Also, Laura Linney is slumming it for a paycheck. And Tyler Perry shows up as an evil scientist because casting doesn’t matter in a movie like this.

Megan Fox is hot. She looks really good in that plaid miniskirt.

Ummmm…

Oh, that Elvis song, “A Little Less Conversation”—that’s a good song. And there’s a couple ‘70s songs that are nice.

OK, I’m out. That’s everything good about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, a cesspool of a sequel to the soul-sucking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). It is always too loud, too flashy, and far too empty. Who asked for this sequel? If I was looking for theme in this cacophony, I’d probably go with White Supremacy (Turtle/White power! Avoid Asians and Blacks!), but really the only meaning here is meta: Loud things make money from dim people and young children.

The plot doesn’t matter, including to the filmmakers who spent their time having the Turtles grouse while surrounded by swirling animated objects, and programming generic and surprisingly dull fight scenes. I can’t really condemn the voice actors as they had nothing to work with, certainly not clever dialog or a plot. The human actors are little better than the CGI ones. When Megan Fox is the top thespian in a film… I’ll just let that thought trail off.

The effects, and this film is 90% computer generated, are no doubt a technical achievement, but not one that’s enjoyable to watch. I’ve seen a mountain of films this year that went nuts on the CGI and were breathtaking to behold. Not here. This film is ugly, with every shot crudely overstuffed. Art direction is a foreign concept, replaced by some guy yelling, “Hey, can we sticks somethin’ purple into this shot ‘cause I sees every color but purple heres.” This Michael Bay production is as artistically bankrupt as all of his projects, but lacks his dubious skills, with the director’s seat taken by Dave Green. Haven’t heard of Dave Green? That’s OK.

Reviews, Science Fiction, Superhero Tagged with: One Reel

Ranking the James Bond Villains

Mar 042016

March 4, 2016

To go with my ranking of all of the Bond films last week, here is my ranking of the Bond villains. Everyone always says that the villain makes the Bond film. I don’t think so. But there is some relationship.

I’m going with main villains, as there are lots and lots of villains. Henches will get their own list, although having the right hench can make for a better main villain. Who counts as the main villain isn’t always clear in a SPECTRE film; I choose Blofeld only when he is the onscreen main bad guy and I also discount midlevel enforcers, like Mr. White. There are a few cases where I just have to go with multiple villains. Since the Blofelds are so different once they fully appear, I’ve counted them as different villains. I am including the three non-Eon productions just for the fun of it. So, let us begin.

blofeldspectre

#29 Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) — Spectre

Who is he: Madman leader of SPECTRE and Bond’s brother.
Evil Plot: Gain power by controlling the world’s intelligence gathering ability, revenge himself on Bond, and strip away any meaning and value from the Craig Years.
The Good: Christoph Waltz can be a good actor.
The Bad: To repeat myself from my Bond film rankings, HE’S JAMES BOND’S BROTHER! Really? That’s where they went? OK, the family metaphor can really work with Bond. See Skyfall and GoldenEye. But this isn’t a metaphor. This is just lame. Everything in the last few films has been because Blofeld thought his daddy loved James more than him. AH! He is the worst villain because not only does he drag down one film, he drags down four. He also turns out not to be scary, intense, or weird in a fun way, nor does he display any signs that he could run a criminal network. Everything we’re shown indicates that his organization should never have risen and would certainly fall immediately. But who cares if he is on the blah side because HE’S JAMES BOND’S BROTHER!

drnoah

#28 Dr. Noah/Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen) — Casino Royale ‘67

Who is he: Insecure leader of SMERSH and James Bond’s nephew.
Evil Plot: Use a virus to kill all men taller than him and make all women beautiful.
The Good: Ummm… He’s not the worst thing in the film.
The Bad: The worst sin in a comedy: Jimmy Bond isn’t funny.

dominicgreene

#27 Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) — Quantum of Solace

Who is he: A middle manager for Quantum, an organization that is SPECTRE, but the Eon lawyers hadn’t cleared that name yet.
Evil Plot: Control all the water in Bolivia, because that makes sense…
The Good: He gives off an evil vibe.
The Bad: But he gives off more of an oily vibe. He is also weak physically and in no way a real threat. He’s a henchmen, except he’s the main guy. If you remember him at all, it is just as a vague slime bag. His timid, off-screen death is the final nail.

blofeldonher

#26 Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas) — On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Who is he: A weirdo with a cat fetish, who doesn’t act all that weird nor fetishy.
Evil Plot: To use his psychedelic, chicken hypnosis on European girls at his fake mountaintop allergy clinic to get them to take crop viruses back home that he can use as part of a blackmail scheme to get everyone to acknowledge his hereditary title. Yeah, it is as dumb as it sounds.
The Good: Telly Savalas can be a good villain.
The Bad: Blofeld is a weirdo with a cat fetish. That’s what he is. You do not play that straight. He is a silly camp character. You try and play down the weird and fetish and you end up with just silly and that’s what we get. Dull and silly because the filmmakers wouldn’t go to the extreme that Blofeld requires (we’ll see it done right higher on the list). Savalas could have done it—see The Dirty Dozen where he’s really creepy—but here he’s bland while still being ridiculous. If you want a serious, scary, reasonable villain, then you do not make him a weirdo with a cat fetish, and you do not bring him anywhere close to a psychedelic, hypno chicken virus heraldry plot.

Lists, Thoughts

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