Action!

I just watched "Bolt" and now I feel compelled to talk about it. It's been sort of on my list since the Batman trailers. I now understand WHY it was in that group of trailers (you know, mixed in with Watchmen, Terminator Salvation, and Quantum of Solace).

Bolt, for those of you not in the know, is the story of an ordinary dog raised in a TV studio to believe it's the real world, that he really has super powers, and that he and his human are really fighting for their lives against the evil Green Eyed Man and his henchmen. The hilarious hijinks ensue when he escapes the set and tries to use his powers in the real world.

I don't actually have much to say about Bolt. It's a cute movie. A digitally animated cross between Inspector Gadget, The Incredible Journey, and every Jerry Bruckheimer movie ever made. It has its hilarious moments, and it has its predictable Disney moments (both the good kind and the bad kind). The hilarious moments generally outweigh the sap, though, and I think Sarah and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I don't know what you'd give it, but when I tell you it's a Disney movie about talking animals you probably already know everything you need to know about whether you'll want to watch it or not.

Today, though, I just had to mention the opening action sequence. That has to be the funniest parody of over-the-top action movies I have ever seen. (Spoiler Alert, I plan to at least partially describe it.) I was amused and entertained through Bolt's acquisition of superpowers, the introduction of the Green-eyed Man, and the attempted kidnapping of Bolt and his owner Penny. I started laughing out loud when the kidnappers immediately escalated to attack helicopters (naturally) but I didn't really lose it until the attack helicopters dropped their secret weapon ... motorcycles ridden by bug-helmeted black-clad bad guys .... with electric claws. After that it's so far over the top they can't go back, so they keep going further. It's what might happen if an action show producer looked at a clip and said "That's great, but can you awesomize it by another 30%." I'm pretty sure that's just what they were going for there and they completely nailed it. Well done.

Ultimately, Sarah and I enjoyed it. Also, I want a dog (it doesn't have to have super powers, though that would be nice).

Familiar Terrirtory

A curious thing happened to me yesterday (and no, I am not here referring to the oddity of my decision to write a new blog entry at the school year’s beginning considering my failure to write anything at all during the freedom of summer. I won’t be mentioning that particular irony again). This curiosity concerns the movies previewed before The Dark Knight and it is this: I want to see all of them. Okay, so I won’t be waiting in line opening day for Bolt the animated tale of a dog TV star who believes his own press releases and the wacky cast of animals who help him rescue his owner, but it’s definitely going on my Netflix list. The others, I want to see in the theater.

There is, I suspect, a twofold reason for this. One reason occurred to me last night, the other is only just occurring now as I contemplate the actual list. First of all, these previews are showing before The Dark Knight, which could pretty much be counted a success before anyone actually saw it. I don’t know how previews are chosen, but it’s possible that the studios doing the preview used the venue of such an assumed blockbuster to show off their best stuff (also their most expensive/most in need of big ticket sales to make a profit).

The other reason I may find all these movies so appealing is that, in some ways, they are all familiar to me. With the exception of Bolt none of the movies previewed are original intellectual property. Two are continuations of longstanding franchises and the third is a movie adaptation of a comic book. Not that surprising, I guess, considering The Dark Knight is a sequel to a comic book adaptation.

Let’s list them off, shall we? We’ll go in order of certainty. The least risky of the three is the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. I thought the last one was excellent and this appears to follow in the same vein: same general tone, same actor (several of my lady friends will be pleased to have a new shirtless scene). I don’t know how the diehard Connery-forever Bond fans feel (Amanda?), but I imagine anyone who liked the last one will probably like this one and vice-versa. So it’s a sure bet either way.

Next comes something a little less certain, given its history, but they’ve got an ace up their sleeve so I’m going to trust them. I’m talking about the next Terminator movie: Terminator Salvation (insert obvious joke about saving the franchise from the last offering). The first two were awesome. The third one less so (and I’ve never seen The Sarah Connor Chronicles, although I feel like I owe it to River Tam, I mean Summer Glau, to at least check it out) but this newest incarnation has something else going for it, specifically Christian Bale as John Connor. He’s excellent in everything I’ve seen him do. I didn’t enjoy American Psycho, and I really want to get back the three hours/million years of my life stolen by New World, but his part in each was certainly well done. Then there’s the Batman series. Bale has pretty much proven he can do dark action and we’ve even seen him do post-apocalyptic grit in Reign of Fire (but I’ve got a thing for dragons so I might be biased).

Finally, the riskiest of the three movies, the one you’ve probably never heard of (unless you’re Brantley who first pushed this comic book on me, for which I thank him), the movie adaptation of Alan Moore’s Watchmen. The comic book (Moore hates the self-importance of the term graphic novel) is excellent. It pulls apart the superhero mythos and uses it as a lens for a deep and exciting and often surprising look at humanity and violence and civilization and other Important Things. It changed the way people thought about or looked at or wrote comic books (it was already a done thing by the time I discovered comic books, so I’m taking someone else’s word on this one). It is also home to one of my all time favorite storytelling moments in any medium (novel, movie, or comic book) ever. I would try to describe it for you, but I can’t do it justice. My only concern is that the movie makers won’t be able to either. A lot of people won’t like it even if they do. It’s not an easy story. I will. Brantley will. My brother will. People who like Batman Begins, and the darker The Dark Knight, and the newest Bond movies probably will. People who like Terminator might, too.

What the heck was Bolt doing hanging out with this crowd?