Fantastic Four: Movie Review

I was never a big fan of the Fantastic Four. Of course I’ve always known whom they were growing up as a child, because they would make guest appearances in other books like Spiderman and the X-Men, but I never read their book. I knew basic things, like their origin, their powers, some storylines, but not much else. So when I found out that new FF movie was being created – I honestly was not really excited about it. It looked okay, but as far as comic books becoming movies, I hesitated with this one like I did the Hulk. To this day, I can’t spend any brain-power on that movie. So when my friend got two passes to go see an advanced screening of Fantastic Four – I jumped at it.

If you’ve never been to an advanced screening of a movie, it’s a first come first serve basis, so I ran to the Loews at 34th street to get online early since the movie was at 7:00. I got there early enough to get a decent spot in line. My friend came shortly thereafter. When it’s time to go in, not everyone would be able to get in due to the size of the theater, so we were lucky to get good seats right in the middle of the theater. There was this really annoying woman worked for 20th Century Fox thanked us for our participation and told us we were going to have fun. Someone made a comment that fun would be free giveaway merchandise that was nowhere in sight. I got a chuckle out of it and the movie started.

Needless to say we were in the movie at least 15 minutes before the action kicked up and the infamous cosmic storm hit our heroes and transformed them into the Fantastic Four. The movie itself was entertaining. Not at all self-serving, but a fun movie that knows its position. I never try to take comic book movies too seriously, because c’mon – they were once comic books. Comic books by definition are stretches of the imagination; to do the impossible and the fantastic even. So if a faithful adaptation comes along that’s deep rooted in the comic book genre, and does not try to wrap years upon years of history and character development into a 2-hour window than it’s a great film. However, Fantastic Four runs a little flat at times.

The origin story somewhat changed. Victor von Doom was never part of their fateful voyage to the stars where they encountered the cosmic storm that gave them all their powers. Victor von Doom aka Dr. Doom was a ruler of a country called Latveria and he was a maniac sorcerer. Here’s a Donald Trump type character that doesn’t fit in very well with the Fantastic Four mythology. The bit about their powers being in-synch with their personalities was garbage too. Reed stretches himself too thin. Johnny’s a hot head, Ben’s always the strong one, and Sue feels overlooked. Then boom – they get powers just like them. Laughable. If you never even read the book, it’s not a logical explanation of their power assignments. The cosmic storm was random and their powers were random. It was the powers themselves that determined who they eventually became. The powers brought their personalities out in them. But this is also a very debatable discussion in the geek world. It would have made more sense that Sue’s feeling of Reed not noticing her came after she received her powers. This would have driven it home more. The climatic battle between the FF4 and Doctor Doom was a little disappointing as well. It had a few cool moments, but nothing to go wow – well maybe except the effects of Johnny Storm.

The acting, not the greatest either, but okay. The standout performance was Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans. They looked like they had fun with their characters’ personalities and brought that out on film. Chris Evans never looked hotter. It was pretty much shirtless shots and tight close-ups of his torso in the FF4 outfits.

Finally, it was a decent attempt at it another comic book film. I hear that they are working on a sequel and with sequels you know they get bigger and better. Let’s hope they do better this time.

Rain, Sushi, and the War

So with all this rain happening all day, I was like “blah” and not in the best of moods. Luckily, it’s my off day at the gym, so it wasn’t too bad. I was hoping that since I was in the office when it was raining, that it would die down by the time I left, but it didn’t. So I really didn’t want to go out in it. Then I got a call from Baby Boy, who was in town visiting from Rhode Island. He was in the city for the day and wanted to know if I wanted to go get an early dinner and suggested Sushi Samba on 7th and Bleeker. So I changed into my “street clothes” from my bank gear and lugged myself to the city after work. I got there a little early. I spotted him, but in tow he had 3 other people with him. All people I knew, so it was a pleasant idea that we’re all going to have fun. Now, I had never been to Sushi Samba before, but I had heard about how good it was and when I’ve walked past it, it always seemed to be jumpin’. I was excited. The first thing you see is the raw bar/preparation area, since you need to walk around it when you first walk in. It was definitely a different sushi bar. From the couches, to the lounge area and food tables – the look was distinctive. What makes Sushi Samba so different is the Brazilian aspects of the food. They mix traditional Japanese sushi with Brazilian seasoned meats and greens. So I had a California Roll with seared Churassco beef and some Edamame. It was fantastic. The dishes are little pricey, but a definite occasion place, good for when friends come out of town. It’s best to split platters. It’s cheaper in the long run. I wouldn’t go there normally, because looking at the prices the first thing out of my mouth to the waiter was “Can I have a number 4 super-sized?”

Afterwards, we decided to go to catch War of the Worlds. That was probably the best movie I’ve seen all year. I definitely recommend it to anyone who’s seen the 1950’s film version, who remembers the original radio broadcast in the 30s, or anyone with a hard on for destruction, chaos and Tom Cruise. I had a blast, but we caught the 10:30 movie. The next thing I know it’s 12:50am and I had to take the R train all the way back into Brooklyn from Times Square at 1:00am in the morning, somewhat hungry (sushi’s good, but not really filling), and really tired with work the next day.

Ah the wonder of it all.

Batman Begins: Movie Review

This is the best Batman movie ever!!!

Picture it. Brookln.1989. It was during the summer and I was 12 years old when the first Batman movie adaptation was released. I was purely excited about it, because it was the first of its kind. Many comic heroes had movies made about them in the 80’s, but they were big piles of steaming garbage. The serials from 70’s television had more flair than the straight to video movies that came out a decade later. From the Punisher starring Dolph Lundren right on down to Captain America staring some blockhead who I can’t even remember. Nothing was solid, cohesive or down right logical. We’ve seen this in novels converted to movies. Comic book films have to be treated differently. No one was getting this. However, our prayers were answered with the recent emergence of comic to film adaptations of Spider-man, Blade, Sin City and X-men to name a few. Needless to say the Comic2Film genre has been dominated by Marvel in the last 5 years. In the 80s and 90s it was DC. Somewhere along the line DC fell off the radar of creating decent films. Batman and even Superman were and still are mainstays of the comic industry, so why does DC have to start over with remade films?

The Batman franchise has been in a steady decline since Batman Forever (number 3) was released. Tim Burton gave a dazzling and shadowy look at the Dark Knight’s greatest villain – the Joker. He continued that with the now classic Batman Returns with the Penguin and Catwoman in tow. Batman Forever and Batman and Robin were very, campy and a tad too bright from its predecessors. It suddenly became a children’s film. The dark, brooding and consistent crime infested city was replaced with large and odd human monuments, neon flashes, all-star casts and subsequently two different actors donning the cape and cowl in Val Kilmer and George Clooney. Needless to say – too much visual and too little in way of story and characters made these films flop. I can barely get through the last two sometimes, if it wasn’t for the fact that I thought Chris O’Donnell was a downright, sexy Robin - they all played pretty much were the same movie. Here’s the formula: two new villains are introduced, Bruce Wayne gets a new blonde hair love interest, and some where down the line, let’s everyone know his secret. Holy Horseshit Batman!

Batman Begins succeeds in every facet of what a Batman movie should be and should’ve been. It’s excellent, but at the very least flawed movie. One of the biggest successes comes through the story telling. We finally get a story worth telling and one worth caring about. Essentially this is Batman: Year One. It’s a concrete piece of creative genius and a somewhat true stay to the source material. I only say that because of the fanboy in me.

I’ll explain.

Batman 101:
This movie is a great history lesson to all of those who bought that crap that the Joker killed Bruce’s parents. This story goes back to the beginning and fixes things for the viewer. It goes back to that point in Bruce’s life where nothing made sense expect for revenge. The story moves along eventually letting us know how Bruce Wayne “discovered” Batman. As we all know the pivotal point in Batman’s creation was the murder of his parents. We learn that there’s more to Batman’s development than just the untimely demise of his parents. Batman was created mostly out of fear. He was created from the fear of bats and the idea that he somehow caused his parents murder. The story also delves into a lot of his character. We get tons of great back story, such as why he choose the symbol of a bat as his moniker, where and whom taught him his art of fighting and stealth, how he learned the criminal mind and where he received all his insane gadgets. All were handled perfectly. None of which was touched in the other films.

Character Depiction:
Christian Bale does a fantastic job with the duality issues between Bruce and Batman. In the comics, BW never had this problem. He kept his lives separate and secret with only a few knowing his true identity, whether he trusted them or not. Hollywood can never fathom such a premise. There has to be this wicked internal conflict with a main antagonist to have a character make sense. The only conflict here was whether or not Batman was such a great idea to create in the first place. We also get a really good sense of why Gotham always regarded him as a myth or an urban legend. They even went as far as showing why Gotham was so scared of him in a very, smart and logical way. The actors were top-notch and very convincing as Bruce Wayne/Batman’s early acquaints. Morgan Freeman (Lucious Fox), Michael Caine (Alfred), and Garry Oldham (Officer Gordon) were terrific. Katie Holmes will always be Joey from Dawson’s Creek, so it was a little weird seeing her in a Batman movie and of all things as a love interest. Rachel Dawes was so not a big character in the comics, which made me wonder why she was held in such high regard. The most logical love interest for him would have been Talia, Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, who is arguably the love of Bruce Wayne’s life. Why not introduce a love triangle? A woman in love with Bruce and a woman in love with Batman and how he copes with it all. No I can’t see where that would make sense at all.

As for the dual nemesis concept, Batman’s villains gallery is a dossier of whacked out humans trying to cut it as super villains. If you think about the movies, Batman never really went up against anyone more powerful than a normal human being. His villains always tried to outsmart him and fail, so the movies explored Batman’s superior intelligence. Choosing Ra’s al Ghul and the Scarecrow, who are both virtually unknown characters to the non-readers of the book, was taking a big risk, but it worked here. Both challenged Batman in different ways, physically and mentally, but it came down to the intellectual battles at the end. The twist towards the end was fast, but definitely good. Even though the fanboy in me raged and fumed at it – it was passable. The ending was terrific and as all movies with the possibility of sequel – this one ended with a big opportunity to redo the original Batman with a new Joker. If it’s done correctly, it could replace my faith in comic 2 film movies.

Batman Begins is a true testament on how comic book movies should be made and produced. It was fun, exciting and a great summer movie. I definitely recommend this to anyone who stayed away from the original films. A great popcorn movie. Let’s hope this sparks a franchise worth watching.