Film Review: 'Kick-Ass'

I hate spoilers, but it's really impossible to explain what I loved and hated about this movie without them. So, here's your spoiler alert.

Think of Matthew Vaughn's new adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass comic as a two-sided coin. Two Face's coin from the Batman comics, perhaps.

On one side of the coin, we have the good aspects, the ones that elevate Kick-Ass above the realm of the Ghost Riders and Catwomans of the comics-to-film subgenre. On the other side, we have the bad, the stuff that makes us cringe and simply ask, "why?"

Kick-Ass is the story of Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a nerdy high school kid who one day decides to become a superhero. As his new alter-ego "Kick-Ass" gains popularity on YouTube, he gains notoriety in the world of organized crime as the mob suspects him of trying to bring down their operation. As it turns out, two other superhero wannabes, Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) are the ones fighting the mob, and their fates inevitably become intertwined with that of Kick-Ass.

On the good side of the coin, we have Moretz and Cage. Simply put, Hit-Girl is the highlight of this movie. This foul-mouthed 11-year-old commits acts of violence that would make a serial killer blush, and it's this strange juxtaposition of youth and violence that carries the film (and, to be honest, the comic). Moretz, who shined in her small-ish role in (500) Days of Summer, is funny, vulgar, and surprisingly deep in her portrayal of Hit-Girl.

Cage also fares well in his role as Big Daddy. He plays the cheesy-but-deadly father role very well, and his Adam West impersonation is really funny.

That's all I can think of for the good side of the coin.

On the bad side, let's talk about the damn jetpack. In the final comic, Hit-Girl whips out a flamethrower and fries a bunch of mobsters. When Kick-Ass asks her where she got the weapon, she replies simply, "eBay." In the movie, Hit-Girl orders something on the Web, but we don't find out what it is until the end.

Hit-Girl gets beaten nearly to death during the final standoff with the mob, and at the last possible second, Kick-Ass enters the scene not with a flamethrower, but with a jetpack complete with dual Gatling guns. Violence ensues.

This is a classic case of trying too hard. Mr. Vaughn, we're already nerds. You don't need a jetpack to convince us that this is supposed to be one massive nerdgasm. While I do understand that creative liberties must be taken in adaptations like this, an 11-year-old with a flamethrower is far cooler than a fake-looking jetpack. Just because James Bond did it in Thunderball doesn't mean you have to do it too.

I know this is just one scene, but it's also the movie's climax, and it goes against everything Kick-Ass is supposed to be. It's supposed to be a satirical portrayal of what might actually happen if a kid decided to fight crime. The jetpack is not an in-joke or a wink-wink at fans; it's a transparent and desperate attempt to be cool, and it's not easy to overlook.

There are other offenses in Kick-Ass. The love story is worthless, and its outcome differs completely from what happens in the comic books. I don’t know why everybody loves Aaron Johnson; he isn’t horrible, but he isn’t God’s gift to the future of Hollywood, either. Hit-Girl's first person shooter scene only serves to further help the movie become exactly what it's satirizing.

Kick-Ass isn't necessarily an epic fail as a movie, but it is if you're a fan of the comics. It descends into Spider-Man 3 dance scene territory with the jetpack finale, and this only serves to set it further part from the quality and overall purpose of the comics.

The comic was fun above all else, not a masterpiece for the history books. That's what I wanted from the movie, but somehow it failed to deliver. If you want some cool action scenes, go catch a matinee of Kick-Ass. Just be happy there’s violence and profanity, because the movie would be nothing without those components. If you want something deeper, wait for July and save your ticket money for Inception. I wish I had done so.

P.S. Or, you could just go read the comic. Click here.

Announcement: 'Marvel vs. Capcom 3'

Video arcades are sadly scarce these days. If you've ever watched the masterful documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, then you know that many of the arcades that still exist are considered national landmarks simply because you can't find ones like them anywhere.

I've never experienced a true classic video arcade, but there are a few arcade games that stick out in my memory as childhood staples. One of these is Marvel vs. Capcom.

Well, an announcement was made today that shocked me completely. After a decade of waiting for a third Marvel vs. Capcom title, we got our wish. Capcom and Marvel announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3 today, treating us to an early trailer. We get to see Wolverine fighting Street Fighter's Ryu, Iron Man battling Darkstalkers' Morrigan in midair, and the Hulk destroying the scenery while facing Resident Evil's Chris Redfield.

I rarely buy fighting games unless they have "Super Smash Bros." somewhere on the box, but this just might be an exception. Check out the trailer embedded below from GameTrailers. Oh, and by the way, that's apparently all in-game footage...

Video Games | Marvel vs Capcom 3: FTW | Captivate 10: Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Film Review: 'How to Train Your Dragon'

I'll admit it, I'm a major skeptic when it comes to non-Pixar animated movies. I've sat through too many animated flicks that feel like 90-minute attempts to emulate Pixar's success. However, every once in awhile, we get a movie like Shrek, Surf's Up or Kung Fu Panda. These show us that other studios can indeed craft quality animated movies.

I'm happy to say that DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon is another resounding success in that category.

Dragon is the story of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a young Viking who lives in a village that happens to be constantly at odds with, you guessed it, dragons. The problem is, Hiccup isn't very good at being a Viking, much to the chagrin of his father, the village leader (Gerard Butler). When Hiccup manages to get lucky enough to shoot down a Night Fury, the most feared and mysterious of all dragon species, the young Viking must choose: kill the wounded dragon or befriend it (I'll give you one guess).

This is a wonderful movie. The cast is excellent, with Baruchel and Butler both providing the perfect voicework for each of their characters. Baruchel is his usual self, nerdy and insecure and Canadian-sounding. Butler sounds a lot like 300's King Leonidas, minus the dining in Hell tonight, which works perfectly. The supporting cast includes Craig Ferguson and America Ferrera, along with a bunch of Apatow regulars like Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Kristen Wiig. They all manage to provide a great deal of comedy, just like in their live action roles.

There's a surprising amount of drama present here, and it never feels cheesy or forced. There's just enough of it packed in to make the story serious enough to matter. The conflict between Hiccup's dragon-hating father and Hiccup himself is at the center of the story here, and it's well-done at every turn. The movie drags a bit in the middle, but the slow pacing there isn't a major issue. It still keeps us interested, and that's the important part.

That said, let's face it, at the end of the day, the action and comedy reign supreme, and Dragon is both hilarious and action-packed.

It wouldn't all be a complete package without the impressive animation. There's something about the hair and fur in Dragon that's massively impressive. It looks incredibly real, and that's just a superficial detail. This movie is just one more example of how studios up the technical ante each time they release a new animated film. The action is breathtaking to behold, and my stomach was turning like I was on a roller coaster.

Sadly, when discussing the technical aspects of this film, we can't escape talking about 3D. I saw Dragon in 3D, despite the fact that movie theaters across the country raised their prices by as much as 26 percent, specifically for this movie. This obviously comes in the wake of the success of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.

Put simply, reviewers who say Dragon's 3D gives Avatar's a run for its money either A.) didn't see Avatar or B.) apparently don't remember seeing Avatar. Dragon can't touch Avatar in terms of 3D, and that's a reality that shouldn't be surprising. There are some cool moments, but not cool enough for that kind of a price hike.

It's nice to know that we don't have to count on Pixar to deliver the only quality animated fare each year. Sure, movies like How to Train Your Dragon can't touch the quality of, say, Up, but they're definitely a joy to watch, and not just in the superficial department. I feel like a crotchety 23-year-old harping on the 3D, but it honestly just doesn’t appeal to me. That fact doesn’t detract from this movie at all, though. Dragon puts forth a lot of heart to go with its huge serving of action, and it all mixes together nicely to make a very impressive animated movie.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars

And I call myself a film fan...

I just re-subscribed to Netflix last night and created a Queue largely based on Yahoo's "100 Movies to See Before You Die" list. I've listed the Queue before, and I found myself asking myself, how in the world have I not seen these movies?

North by Northwest
Blazing Saddles
The African Queen
Mad Max
Unforgiven
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Graduate
The French Connection
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Citizen Kane
Dr. Strangelove
Chinatown
Casablanca
Gone with the Wind
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Crash the 'SpyParty'

Ever since I picked up my Xbox 360 controller and played Braid for the first time, I was a sucker for independent games. Like most industries, there's a lot of crap out there, but if you can find the gems, you'll be glad you did.

These gems include Twisted Pixel's Splosion Man, Cipher Prime's Auditorium, The Behemoth's Castle Crashers, the one-button masterpiece Canabalt, and the aforementioned Braid. These games have at least two common threads: they're cheap, and they're amazing.

I recently found another one to watch for. It's called SpyParty, and it's worth a look.

No, it's not a virtual version of those real-life party role-playing games. Developed by former Maxis (SimCity, The Sims, Spore) employee Chris Hecker, SpyParty allows one player to take control of a spy. The player chooses a character and proceeds to intermingle with computer-controlled characters at a party while attempting to complete a series of espionage-oriented objectives (bug an ambassador, signal a double agent, transfer a book from one shelf to another, steal a statue).

The catch is, another player gets to take control of a sniper, who watches the party through the limited view of a scope. The sniper must distinguish the spy from the computer--controlled characters and pick him off with a single bullet. The spy can see the sniper's laser as it moves across the room.

I haven't played the game yet, but many game journalists and bloggers have reported that it's an extremely innovative, suspenseful and fun experience.

Imagine wandering through the party, trying your best to act like like a robotic computer player. The sniper's laser moves across the room, stopping at your head. You continue intermingling, trying to act casually robotic. The laser moves away, you breathe a sigh of relief and continue trying to complete your objectives.

It sounds beautiful in its simplicity and its intended style, which is supposed to be reminiscent of 1960s-era spy films when the game is done. Keep in mind, the visuals depicted in the screenshots featured here are from an extremely early prototype build of the game. Hecker has said he intends to expand SpyParty to include more objectives and whatnot, too.

Most developers don't have the foresight to take their limitations and build on them, but Hecker apparently does. He takes the infamously robotic nature of game AI and tells players to imitate it to their advantage. I'd love the opportunity to imitate the guards in the N64 classic GoldenEye. It just sounds like too much fun, and I wouldn't miss it.

Now all we need is a release date.

I originally discovered this game in an article on Wired Magazine's official site. Check out the article by clicking here.
The first and second screenshots in this post are from the Wired article mentioned above. The third is from Chris Hecker's official development blog for SpyParty.

An Update on 'The Witness'

I haven't kept up with Jonathan Blow's progress on his new game The Witness much lately, but a quick look at the game's official site shows a great deal going on in the game's development.

For those of you who don't know, Blow developed one of my favorite games in recent memory, Braid, a charming side-scroller that combines ingenious time-based puzzles, a "painterly" art style, beautiful music and a very deep story.

A while back, Blow posted on the Braid blog a link to the Web site for his new game, titled The Witness. The site featured only a passage from the work of Lao Tse. A click on the passage revealed a simple white page with a bit of text telling the reader that The Witness would be "an exploration-puzzle game on an uninhabited island," "to be released on multiple platforms — whatever makes sense in late 2011, when the game will hopefully be finished."

The new site's first page is similar to the former one, featuring another passage, this time from the Buddhist work "The Dhammapada."

Cryptic stuff aside, the crux of the recent update is definitely the development blog for The Witness. In some of the recent posts, we learn some small but interesting tidbits about the game. For instance, Blow tells us that much of the game will take place outdoors. He also mentions in one of his posts that he wants to keep the graphics (specifically lighting) simple, a decision I applaud.

The most interesting part of the blog, however, is the concept art. This is really the first visual look we've seen of The Witness. From the art and captions, we can glean that we'll start the game in a house, which is located in a compound surrounded by a defensive force field. There's also a windmill by a lake somewhere in the game, as well as a sculptor's studio, a tower, a hedge maze, a planetarium and a dock.

Like my last post on The Witness, I can safely say again that we don't have much to go by yet. Still, this is a game worth following. Blow proved with Braid that cryptic is his chosen language, so I don't see why we should expect anything different when learning about his new game.

Sadly, it looks like we won't be able to play The Witness until late 2011. It's one of my most anticipated games in a long time, and I have no doubt Blow will deliver a fine product once the release date comes around.

Check out the official blog, and if you haven't played Braid yet, do so. It's available for the Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, PC and Mac.

The 'Up' Nomination

Before this year, in the 82-year history of the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had only bestowed a Best Picture nomination upon one animated feature film. That film was 1991's Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.

That all changed a few weeks ago. Pixar's Up was nominated for Best Picture, becoming the second animated film in history to hold the honor. It's not a coincidence that this was also the year the Academy chose to nominate 10 films in this particular category instead of just five.

The first big question here is, would Up have been nominated if the five-film format had remained in place this year? With films like The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Avatar, and Up in the Air nominated along with it, it wouldn't have been an easy task for Up.

The other big question is, did Up deserve the nomination?

I believe the answer is undoubtedly "yes." In fact, I'd even argue that Up deserved the nod with or without the 10-film format.

Beauty and the Beast is a modern classic, and perhaps the best Disney movie ever produced. It garnered a nomination in the five-film format, which is a feat in and of itself for any movie, let alone an animated one. There have been some great non-Pixar Disney films since 1991, most notably The Lion King and Aladdin, but none can come close to the greatness shown in Beauty and the Beast.

It was Pixar that changed everything. 1995's original Toy Story marked the dawning of a new era in animated filmmaking. I still considered Beauty and the Beast to be the best even after I watched Toy Story, but there was no denying the fact that we'd be seeing a very different animated movie genre from there on out. And we have.

A curious oddity began occurring after this. The Disney castle still appears before all of Pixar's films, but for some reason, at least in my mind, the bouncing lamp takes them and sets them apart. Disney probably loves having its name attached to these movies, but Pixar seems to be the real genius here.

It's very tough to make an argument as to which Pixar film is best. Toy Story was easily my favorite until it was dethroned by The Incredibles in 2004. However, I think it's safe to say there's a new king in town, and its name is Up.

I'm a sucker for relatable cinema, and that's what Up represents. Before this movie, only one Pixar film had focused primarily on human characters. That was my previous favorite, The Incredibles. But Carl Fredrickson and his young friend Russell are not superheroes; they're a crotchety old man and a fat boy scout. These are normal people you might see on the street any day. Can you get any more relatable than that?

Up's story also sets it apart. Pixar has a knack for being original. The studio has shifted effortlessly from toys to bugs to talking cars to Chaplinesque garbage robots and more. Towards the beginning of Up, we get a montage showing Carl and his wife wander through the ins and outs of life together. The scene is completely wordless, which is amazing considering both the happiness and sadness it evokes. Flash forward a scene or two, and Carl's house is floating away, tied to balloons. I don't know where they get their ideas, but the geniuses at Pixar know how to be blissfully random, and the effects are almost universally good.

And let's not forget one of the most important and integral parts of any Pixar movie: the comedy. I will say with confidence that Up is Pixar's funniest movie. The comedic delivery of voice actors Ed Asner and Jordan Nagai mixes perfectly with the hilarity provided by Dug the dog and Kevin, the rare (female!) bird.

All that said, I believe the best aspect of Up is the lesson it presents. Carl Fredrickson represents the fact that it's never too late to have an adventure. This is not a movie about characters who are forced into an adventure or who need to escape from a tight spot; it's one about a guy who consciously decides to go out and do something crazy. Up is pure adventure, something the film industry shuns all too often. Crystal Skulls don't count.

Many have said that Pixar was a big part of the Academy's reason for switching to 10 Best Picture nominees instead of just five. Finding Nemo, Up, The Incredibles and Ratatouille all rank in the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time. Popular nominees mean more viewers and higher ratings for the Oscar broadcast. It's a sad reason for changing it up so drastically, but I guarantee it's the main one.

That said, Up more than deserves to be considered for the accolade. The Hurt Locker will win, with Inglourious Basterds, Up in the Air and Avatar hot on its heels. That's only four frontrunners. Who's to say the Academy wouldn't have made Up the fifth, if the old format had remained? I guess we’ll never know.

All I’m saying is, don’t count out an animated movie. Up’s nomination may or may not have come simply as a result of the changed format. It’s nice to know, however, that the honor went to one of the best ever.