The Dark Tower

First Hit:  Story lacked punch and was not compelling. Having seen “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” and witnessing the real life demise of our planet, followed by watching a film where the falling of some tower in some unknown place will destroy the world seemed silly.

In addition, two of the three main characters were either miscast or poorly directed. The Man In Black (Matthew McConaughey) looked like he step right out of his Ford Lincoln Continental commercial and into this role. Both his attitude and look said this every time he came on the screen.

On the other hand, the guy saving all the worlds from The Man In Black, Roland Deschain aka The Gunslinger (Idris Elba) seemed to carry the energy that I would have contributed to the man trying to destroy the worlds.

The third character Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) was the only one of these three that kept true to his role, a young boy, with dreams that foresaw the pending calamity if something isn’t done.

However, gathering up and shooting bright smart children’s energy at the Dark Tower to collapse it, seemed dumb to me. Although I know this story comes from a series of well-read and popular books, how it plays out in this film attempts to make everyone’s imagination and internal interpretation the same. And this interpretation lacked soul and was not compelling.

In essence, since Jake’s father died in a fire, protecting and saving others, Jake’s has dreams of the children being harvested, The Man In Black using them to collapse the tower and world. He also dreams about The Gunslinger who is, alone, trying to save the world.

The physical world is supporting his dreams because each time a child’s energy is shot at the dark tower an earthquake happens on earth and he feels it.

In the waking hours Jake draws his dreams and although psychologists keep telling him their “only dreams”, Jake is convinced it’s all real. When The Man In Black sends his earthly New York agent Sayre (Jackie Earle Haley) to collect young Jake, he escapes and finds himself going through a portal where he meets The Gunslinger.

McConaughey is just too slick, smarmy, and straight out of a high end commercial to make this role work. Elba is good, however I’m not sure he needed to be so dark spirited in this role. It was almost like he and McConaughey could have switched roles. Taylor was very good and I thought he did a great job of being both strong and naive. Haley is always strong in his roles and here is no exception. He gives it his all. Katheryn Winnick as Jake’s mother was good but I’m not sure it is believable that she would send Jake away. Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner wrote the screenplay, which I didn’t find very compelling. Nikolaj Arcel was the director and as I’ve previously stated I didn’t think the film worked very well.

Overall: I have heard that this was supposed to be the first in a series of films based on these books, I’d recommend that they re-think this strategy.

A Birth of a Nation

First Hit:  A great story that was overproduced, excessively long, and poorly directed.

This is a great story but as often happens, when someone writes, directs, and acts in their own film; their perspective and the film's pacing results in a muddled story. The long languished scenes were meant to develop his and other characters but only left me marginally engaged in this wonderful story of how one slave helped to birth a nation.

Nate Parker plays Nat Turner a slave to Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) in the South when the freedom tide began to turn and cotton growing was waning partially due to a drought. As far as plantation and slave owners goes, Turner was relatively kind and wasn’t constantly sadistic towards his slaves as we witness in this film. His sister Elizabeth (Penelope Ann Miller) saw Nat’s native intelligence and taught him to read, but only the Bible because “…these other books are for white folk.”

By learning to read from the Bible, Nat becomes a natural preacher and begins to hold religious services for other slaves. His ability to read and evoke passion was respected by both the white and black communities.

To give the audience a sense of the injustice, there are scenes with slave hunters led by Raymond Cobb (Jackie Earle Haley) who roamed the land raping, hurting, or killing slaves caught without a written pass from their owner. As this story develops, the more injustice Nat sees. And with the rape and beating of his own wife Cherry (Aja Naomi King) by Cobb, Nat gathers a few slaves to begin a revolt.

Many of the scenes are graphic and difficult to watch. During one scene in particular when a plantation owner uses a chisel to knock out the teeth of a slave because he won’t eat, I just about walked out. I understand the reason to make scenes like this, however it could have been done with less visual and maintained the important message. Although, I’m very distressed about the racism that remains in our country today, I’m not sure the film did itself service by showing graphic scenes of torture to make a point.

The parts of the film where the audience waits for something to develop which were followed by an action, were difficult to sit through. I don’t like the feeling of waiting in a film. Some of the highlights of the film were the wonderful support and love shared by his mother Nancy (Aunjanue Ellis) and grandmother Bridget (Esther Scott). One amazing scene was the calm clear tranquility Bridget showed as she sewed stitches in Nat’s back from a recent whipping.

Parker was very strong as Nat, however his meandering direction of the screenplay he wrote didn’t do this story justice. Hammer was OK as the bachelor plantation owner. Miller was good in her minor role of Hammer’s sister and someone who seemed to care about the slaves. Haley was very good in a role that just reeked of being despicable. Ellis was very good as Nat’s mother and woman who had to hold the family together when her husband was forced to flee the plantation. Scott was sublime and in her minor role and delivered a very strong and amazing performance.

Overall:  I was disappointed in this film because the real story is excellent.

Lincoln

First Hit:  Fantastic acting in a wonderful slice of Americana.

I was overwhelmingly amused that we had just finished an election where the Republican Party devastatingly lost its credibility and mojo while this film showed Republicans at their finest.

Make no bones about it; Lincoln’s Co-Republican group were what drove the 13th Amendment into the law of the land while Democrats floundered in a generic stupidity of beliefs. Who learned from this lesson – the Democrats and it was the Democrats that brought our first black President back for a second term.

In Lincoln the focus is on a short few months from when he was elected to a second term until his assassination. Lincoln’s task was to ensure the freedom of blacks in America before the ending of the Civil War.

His premise was that if the war ended prior to passing the 13th Amendment, this law would fall by the wayside and blacks wouldn’t have their deserved freedom. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a thoughtful complex intelligent man whose single-minded focus kept the Republican dream alive.

He cared not so much for what was on the outside, but what was in a person's heart and what was right. Wife Mary (played by Sally Field) was, in this time of her life, grief stricken by the loss of one of their sons and despite her strength and intelligence was prone to fits of despair over loss. 

Day-Lewis is extraordinary and will certainly get an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Lincoln. He embodied the drive to create equality for the blacks in America. Field was strangely complex and powerful in her role as Marry Todd Lincoln. David Strathairn was pointedly strong and loyal as William Seward, Secretary of State. Tommy Lee Jones was amazing and perfect as Thaddeus Stevens the long time proponent of the 13th Amendment. Jackie Earle Haley was great as Alexander Stevens the Southern States representative during negotiations with Lincoln. Tony Kushner wrote a powerful and compelling screenplay while Steven Spielberg delivered a Oscar worthy turn as director.

Overall: If Republicans want to get their mojo back they need to watch and learn from this film – the Democrats obviously learned through history.

Dark Shadows

First Hit:  This film was a study in what Tim Burton likes to create, however it wasn’t very entertaining to the audience.

When there are very few laughs in a film that is labeled a comedy there is a problem.

This was a somewhat convoluted story where a witch (how did she become one?) is more powerful than a vampire but not more powerful than a ghost. What was this film about?

Was it a film about long lost love, trying to tie together across 200 years? Or was it was about fishing, fish canning and how one family wanted to control it in a small town in Maine? Or was it was about great sex between a witch and a mortal but it wasn't enough to create a lasting relationship?

Heck, I really don't know but it might have been about Tim Burton plying his trade of creating fun off kilter spooky characters which have little basis in reality with no plot. Barnabas Collins (played by Johnny Depp) is the soul who doesn’t want to love a witch so he is turned into a vampire and is dug up from his grave 200 years later. He returns to his family home now run by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (played by Michelle Pfeiffer).

She is the matriarch of the now crumbling fishing and canning Collins Empire. Dr. Julia Hoffman (played by Helena Bonham Carter) comes to try and heal the vampire Barnabas. But how and why they found this person is completely left off the script. Which indicated that this was a totally unneeded and unwarranted part, but a way to get Carter, Burton’s wife, some work.

Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller) was another useless part as Elizabeth’s son. Eva Green played the witch Angelique Bouchard, who was one of two major protagonists in this story.

The third wheel was Victoria Winters/Josette DePres (played by Bella Heathcote) who was loved by and was in love with Barnabas but was killed centuries ago by Witch Angelique. Again, like Barnabas, she comes back to fulfill her love/dream.

This whole film is convoluted and didn’t make a good story worth telling. There was little intrigue but it did have Burton’s trademark ghoulishness.

Depp was OK as his character but the film was so poor it felt like he was re-treading past Burton work. Pfeiffer was lost and very miscast in this film and she simply doesn’t do ghoul well. She’s better off in a dynamic part. Bonham Carter as she has done lately, try to be over the top (see her stuff in Harry Potter films) as oppose to acting. The part was unneeded for this story and therefore her value was minimal. Miller was a wasted character and I had no idea why it was part of the film. Green was the most interesting of characters in the film. Her gazes and temperament were excellent for this part. Heathcote, was beautiful but in a role which was not fully utilized. There could have been more depth to this part. Jackie Earle Haley has a small part in this film as the Collins mansion handy man and unfortunately there was little Haley could do with this part. Seth Grahame-Smith and John August wrote a wasteful script which had a very flimsy storyline and dialogue was of little use. Burton does great visuals (bright red car, lipstick and dress for Angelique), but overall this story lacked something worth watching. It is a far cry from Edward Scissorhands and, my favorite, Beetlejuice.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time. This film isn’t funny nor is it an interesting story.

The Watchmen

First Hit: Mesmerizing visuals in sometimes cohesive scenes strung together by popular songs as the vehicle for transitioning between them.

I was mesmerized by the strong visual scenes in this film but the lack of a strong story line reduced its potential power.

The film begins during the opening credits and if you don’t pay attention; the history of why the world is as dark as it is, as depicted in this film, will be lost. From what I could guess there were two plots of somewhat equal value. One plot is about finding out who is killing past super heroes and the other is about the world coming to an end if someone doesn’t do something about it.

In both plots it is the combination of Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson playing their superhero roles that make and the attempt to create bridges between the beautiful scenes while making sense of the story.

The most glaring, obtrusive and enjoyable part of moving from scene to scene was the use of popular songs (songs I liked). However, their use felt too abrupt and most of the time out of context.

Zack Snyder directed this as he did 300; stylized and other worldly. For my taste, neither one is a really great film but they are fun to watch. There are attempts to create substance in the stories he tells, but both films fall short. In this film, the illusion that there is much substance in this graphic novel is hopeful at best. There was a lot of pre-release hype about this film and a pumping up of how important this graphic novel was, but for my taste, the story less than strong and the film exemplifies this. However, the positive side of this work (and 300 as well) is that he has a great visual eye and draws from a wide range of sensory queues. The use of colors, varying angled shots, lush backgrounds, interesting sounds, and intense detailed interiors are his strong suit. The characters in Watchmen that compelled me to pay attention to were Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, and Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan.

Overall: Visually stimulating film with a weak storyline but well worth the time and money to see.