The first film I distinctly remember seeing in the theater was Clash of the Titans. The year was 1981 and 4 year old me was transfixed, instantaneously hooked on high adventure and silly monsters. The clunky Kraken dropped my jaw and ignited my imagination. Set free on Pegasus wings to soar untethered by cynicism or irony, soaking in the broadly acted spectacle. It would stand to reason that I would have been arm in arm with the throngs of movie nerds outraged at the 2010 remake. Frothing and foaming over the devil CGI replacing Harryhausen's handcrafted stop motion work. You know what though? I really enjoyed it. It was fun, fast paced, had some nice action and benefited greatly from highbrow actors camping it up and clearly having a blast with the hoky material. I had read about the atrocious 3D conversion, so avoided the murky extra dimension and upcharge, hence, no complaints with the presentation. Good, big, loud, dumb fun of the highest order.I gleefully rushed to the glorious IMAX theater we have here at the MN Zoo, hoping to be transported back to my brainless childhood and boy was I! Plot holes you could drive a Titan through, lazy performances from paycheck cashing heavyweights and a listless appropriation of the mythic source material did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for this brawny spectacle. The monsters look a million times better than they did last time out. Clearly the previous films box office success afforded this production limitless resources as far as rendering CGI beasties was concerned. I would dare say Wrath of the Titans is the best looking large scale effects film I have ever seen. Nothing looks off, not even for a second and the final monster Kronos, a 500 foot tall lava man, is easily the most impressive thing I've seen on an Imax screen (until The Dark Knight Rises this July I'm sure).
The film just looks flat out gorgeous all around really. Beautiful, high resolution photography accentuating the well lit interiors. World class CGI expertly expanding the exterior backdrops. I particularly enjoyed the presentation of Tartarus, sort of like Leviathan from Hellbound, finally realized with an adequate budget. Bitch and moan about the narrative structure all you want, but this film is outrageously well put together from a technical standpoint and I adored just staring at it.
I liked the hammy work put in by Fiennes and Neeson, two first rate actors not above having a lot of fun in a very silly film. Worthington is likable enough to my eyes. He has a solid physicality and comes across as very engaged with the material and his character. Edgar Ramirez is the wounded soul of the picture and I quite liked his performance as Ares. I truly don't understand the invective being hurled at Wrath by critics and fanboys alike. This is a matinee movie for 9 year olds and 9 year olds at heart. There is no need to apply such stringent dramatic logic to it. I suppose I'm just hard wired to enjoy the mouth breathing peplum epics Legendary Pictures produces. It's in my D.N.A.
Great horror films are also a part of my cellular make up, and I'm pleased to say the best one since Rob Zombie's H2 is poised to drop this coming Friday the 13th. I was lucky enough to be invited by a great friend of mine to an advance screening of Cabin In The Woods here in Minneapolis attended by writer/director Drew Goddard, who participated in a Q&A after the film. As a movie nerd, it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. Big burly security guards confiscated our phones before the film so we couldn't tape anything and we got some cool posters and T-shirts as swag to boot. Goddard was an exceedingly lovely man. Engaging, funny, smart and deeply passionate about the genre and his film. I was pleased with the audience (and myself!) for asking interesting questions that he obviously relished answering at length.
The film is best seen fresh and spoiler free, so I'll keep this as brief as possible. I was enjoying it quite a bit for the first half, but felt it was too inside its own head and self aware to be a truly effective and memorable horror film. Then that second half unfolded. Shit gets visceral to put it mildly. I was laughing, creeped out, shocked and intellectually stimulated simultaneously for the last 45 minutes. No small feat for a low budget horror film that almost got buried when MGM went bankrupt. Thanks to LionsGate for rescuing this film and giving it a proper release as they did with House of 1,000 Corpses nearly a decade ago. I don't know if this is a sign that horror is on the rebound, but it's a fantastic film and you owe it to yourself to see this with a big, rowdy crowd. If you've ever liked any horror film, you will LOVE Cabin in the Woods.
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