Bryan Caron's Blog, page 29

COVER REVEAL – Memoirs of Keladrayia

I’m very excited to reveal the official cover for my new novel, Memoirs of Keladrayia: Jaxxa Rakala!

Official Book Cover for Memoirs of Keladrayia: Jaxxa Rakala (Release Date: June 23, 2015)

When I originally started thinking about the design for this cover, I knew I wanted to keep the same aesthetic as I had on book one of the Jaxxa Rakala series, but at the same time, I needed to add something more powerful to let the reader know I’ve upped the ante. My first idea was to do something with the gem again (because I wanted to stay with the image of something round), but play with the memoirs somehow as well, which never really excited me. Having the connection to the title was definitely important, but using some type of book or journal never felt right. That’s when I came up with the idea to use the image of Keladrayia’s (that’s Kell-uh-dry-yuh) home planet, which would allow me to create the powerful image I was striving for. It wasn’t enough all by itself, though; I needed one more element to really tie it in to everything and tell a story. Adding Tracey did just that, and I have to give a shout out to my cover model, who has performed in several of my films. She encapsulates Tracey in many ways — and not just physically — and I knew right away that she would be perfect to give everyone something more real to latch onto. The final image says so much (I’ll let you discover exactly what on your own) and I hope it fuels everyone’s excitement for the book’s release on June 23.

Finally, as an extra bonus for my followers, here is the back of the book text, which gives you a bit of a hint as to what the novel is about. Thanks so much for your support and whatever you do, keep reading!

Back of the Book Text for Memoirs of Keladrayia:

The search for Ken Brody’s wife continues in this gripping second chapter in the Jaxxa Rakala saga, where perceptions are challenged and new alliances are born.

In an effort to learn more about her past, Ken and his team of pirate rogues head to Stacey’s home planet of Trynoruus, only to find an uninhabitable wasteland of raging electrical storms. That doesn’t stop Ken and his daughters from exploring the ruins of her home and finding several journals detailing Stacey’s past — tales of a life Ken isn’t quite sure he’s ready to hear.

But after an attack abruptly ends the expedition, separating Jacquline from her family and shutting Kahil’s systems down, the team retreats to Kahli’s home planet of Rega-One for help. Once there, secrets are stripped away to reveal the truth behind the legends and lies of the past, forcing everyone to look deep within their own hearts for who they are and who they want to become.

Movie Mayhem – Poltergeist (2015)

I can’t stand it when critics spend their entire review on a film comparing it to its predecessor. After all, a film should be measured on its own merits, not why it is or isn’t better than a film made thirty-five years before. However, that’s exactly what I’m going to do with the unnecessary remake of Poltergeist, a classic horror film that, like the majority of films from the eighties, should have just been left alone. And the reason I’m going to do so is because with all of the advancements in special and visual effects over the last thirty years, what should have been a major improvement fails to live up to the archaic, but gritty, practical effects utilized back in 1982.

The 2015 version of the film follows the same basic premise as the original: a young girl gets sucked into her closet by a poltergeist and can only communicate with her family through a television set while being urged to help the vengeful spirits cross-over into the light. One of the most aggravating changes made to the film is the swifter pace, which highlights a major issue in most contemporary horror films. Tobe Hooper used a very slow-burn method of film making to allow us to become engrossed in the normalcy of the world that is about to get flipped on its head, allowing the scares to slowly grow throughout the movie and give the viewer the opportunity to experience everything at the exact same time as the family experiences it. Cut to 2015, where horror is more jump-scare than psychological, and director Gil Kenan doesn’t waste time making it clear that every part of this house is supposed to be scary, and is far from clean (in that spiritually-possessed way).

The majority of the film is centered on Griffin Bowen (Kyle Catlett), the middle child who senses danger around every corner of the family’s new house. With a flurry of typical music cues that end up leading to nothing and weird noises in a scary attic (is there any other kind?), subtlety is thrown out with the rabbit ears, right down to the door handle that makes the hair on the kids’s heads rise and the stick that youngest daughter Madison (Kennedi Clements) continually pushes into the ground only to joyously laugh as it rises back up each time. Kenan seems to believe that the spirits have to be responsible for everything in the house, whereas Hooper grounded the film far better by showing that sometimes an unnatural event is something simple and mundane, having nothing to do with evil spirits. Back in 1982, the channels changing on a television was explained away, hinting that everything we see may not necessarily be supernatural and that this could very well happen to your family. But that connection is severed because now everything is so heightened, it’s obvious we’re just watching another scary movie.

The issue I had with this change in pace is only amplified by the weakness in the visual effects. Which isn’t to say they are poorly done; the effects themselves are on par with most films made today. However, how they are used tends to mitigate what made the original film so frightening. Adding hand prints to the television as Caroline… er, Madison spouts a variation on the character’s famous line, is a perfect addition; giving the tree that swipes Griffin from his bedroom a computer-generated hand (and stretching the limbs out to navigate the house), not so much. Using that type of CGI only distances you from the believability of the event, which on its face is far from believable. But in the original, because of the way it was filmed, it makes you wonder if that scary tree outside your own bedroom window may just one day do the same thing. Here, it’s simply a diversion — I wasn’t fooled into seeing anything but a computerized image. This phenomenon happens a lot in this film, including a quick (and ultimately unnecessary) homage to the scene in the original when the mother is “attacked” in her unfinished pool by skeletons. Kenan does something similar toward the end of the the updated version, but with the skeleton merely a CGI monster in a moment of less than a few seconds, it’s just not scary.

And I’m all for paying homage to the parent film, especially when it’s done well. In one scene, Eric and Amy Bowen (Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt, respectively) are at a dinner party with friends, who mention that the housing development the Bowen’s just moved into was built on an old cemetery plot. It’s not only a fun nod to the original, but it puts the idea out there that the original could very well fit into the timeline of this movie. But then we’re subjected to the reiteration of the scene in which Griffin is attacked by a toy clown. When I first saw the trailer for the film, my first thought was if the filmmakers got the clown right, then the film might be good; if they didn’t, the movie wasn’t going to be good. Lo and behold, I was not impressed with the clown in the trailer and that reaction totally bled through for the entirety of that scene, which happens much earlier in the new version, depriving us of the build-up that made the original attack so creepy (and once again, having the actual toy attacking the kid is far scarier than a CGI image doing the same thing).

But I would be remiss if I didn’t take a step back and view the film on its own two feet. If there’s one aspect that raises the grade of this film, it’s the decision to cast Sam Rockwell as the father. Rockwell does everything he can to help the script and his character step out of Craig T. Nelson’s shadow and deliver a performance that kills. Rockwell’s depth of emotion is so well done, as is his very unique and natural fatherly attributes, not once did I believe he wasn’t the father of the three kids that basically rule this movie.  Without him, the movie more than likely would have faltered even further than it does. The scene in which the poltergeist locks the eldest daughter, Kendra (Saxon Sharbino), in the basement to keep her from protecting Madison is one of the better updates, as is her infinity for Carrigan Burke (Jared Harris, who has seemingly locked in the spiritual guru role in horror movies), the man who does his best to upstage the much creepier Zelda Rubinstein. It was also really interesting to actually get to go into the other side and see what Madison was dealing with. This sequence is probably one of the scarier moments, however, still a bit subdued compared to the majority of things that happen in the original, slow-burn version.

Which begs the question why this film was even rated PG-13. From what I saw, the film is far more muted than the original, which was rated PG — of course, that was back when the PG-13 rating didn’t exist. But that’s my point, really. The entire experience was so watered down by “updated” visual effects and a faster pace, it stripped the film of any true rawness and kept the characters from ever fully connecting with what was going on around them or finding a place among the haunted house of yore.

My Grade: B-

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Next week, new movies include San Andreas and Aloha. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Point Break and the Xerox Era of Hollywood

I just viewed the trailer for the so-called remake of the 1991 classic, Point Break, and from what I saw — there are all kinds of wrong here that need to be addressed. Before I do, here’s the trailer:

This is a remake as much as the Teletubbies are role models. Other than using the names Bodhi and Utah, there is almost no resemblance to the original film. Now I understand that when remaking a film, especially a well-known favorite like this, producers need to not only pay tribute to the original, they need to update the film with something new. But when you alter the premise of the film so much that it becomes completely indistinguishable from the original, there is no doubt this is simply a cash grab. The studios are simply using the title to try and lure moviegoers. There is no heart behind the project, which is a major problem with not only all of the remakes and “re-imaginings” of late, but with most films that have been produced in the last decade or so. Filmmakers (with a few exceptions, of course) no longer seem to care for their product anymore… not like they did in the eighties (and when I say eighties, the era I’m describing is between 1977 and 1994), when you saw the love and the passion in every frame. This is why those films became the classics they are today — the filmmakers, the studios and everyone involved cared about the project they were working on and cherished innovation; they didn’t simply throw it out there to because they thought it might make money because people would be nostalgic. If the producers and the studios had any confidence in their product, and in the movie going public, they would have changed the names of the characters as well as the title and packaged it as something new. It’s clear this is already a different movie than what we remember, so why not allow it to flourish on its own merits? No, the studios are only thinking about the money, not the product, and so name recognition becomes far more important than producing a quality film that they care about and nourish like a young newborn baby.

Speaking of which, the title itself helps proves the point. A point break is a surfing term, so using that to name the film was a clever way to add depth to a movie about surfing bank robbers. So to make the team extreme sports nuts instead, it causes the effect of the title to become completely moot. Yes, Bodhi and and his crew also did skydiving in their spare time, but really, when it came down to it, for them, it was all about the surfing. Here, we only see a couple of clips of actual surfing, so there really is no point in calling the film Point Break if the focus is going to be more about mountain climbing and other extreme sports. They could have very well called it Extreme Gravity and gotten a much better response.

Not only that, but they make it clear that Bodhi and his crew don’t care how many people they kill to get what they want, which goes against everything Bohdi was in the original. Bohdi was not a killer; he simply wanted to live, and to do that, he needed to find financing for the summer. He never wanted to hurt anyone, so by turning Bohdi into a killer, the filmmakers are tarnishing Bohdi’s integrity and his overall character. We’re supposed to connect with Bohdi so that we can relate to the way Utah is drawn into his world, and I’m afraid if he’s a stone-cold killer, that connection and friendship will be lost in translation.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a hard-core hypocrite when it comes to complaining about the slew of remakes in the pipeline in Hollywood, only to continue to support them by dishing out my cash to see them in the theater. What can I saw, I’m a movie buff and I’m always looking for the diamond in the rough. Suffice it to say, I will be seeing this film like any other. The biggest issue I already know I’m going to have when I do is having the original sitting idly in the back of my mind the whole time, as I did when I saw the Poltergeist remake (which I’ll go into detail in my full review, which will be published in the next couple of days). Instead of enjoying this film on its own merits, I’m going to hear the names Bodhi and Utah and constantly think of the brilliance of Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves (that’s right, I used brilliance in the same sentence as Keanu Reeves), leaving me no other option than to be reminded of what is no doubt going to remain to be a better film.

What I’m trying to say is if the filmmakers packaged this project as a completely different film with no connection to Point Break (which would have been easy to do), it’s entirely possible that I might enjoy it because I wouldn’t be going in with the expectation to hate on it. Unfortunately, big studios have no confidence in releasing new product anymore, and that is the real shame, because if the studios spent as much time developing fresh, new, exciting ideas as they do failing at emulating the eighties (which was full of fresh, new, exciting ideas), perhaps then today’s films would become the next golden age of cinema rather than simply being a mediocre copy of a far superior era.

Memoirs of Keladrayia Release Postponed

A couple of months ago, I announced a tentative release date for my new novel, Memoirs of Keladrayia: Jaxxa Rakala. Well, that release date has come, and due to a looming deadline on a recent project (and the addition of some unexpected projects that needed to be turned around rather quickly), “tentative” has become the most useful word I’ve used in the last few months!

But for all of my fans out there anxiously waiting for this book to be released, I can say with almost certain certainty (like how I did that… still gives me a little wiggle room on this, though I don’t believe I’ll need it) that Memoirs of Keladrayia will be released on June 23, 2015. And just to whet your whistle, here are some other dates to keep note of:

June 4 (Cover Reveal): I had a terrific photo shoot with my cover model a couple of weeks ago (which also included a small film shoot for a possible trailer that I’m hoping to put together for the book — a release date of which is still undetermined), and If everything goes according to plan with my other projects, I will have more time to concentrate on wrapping up the cover over the next few days, so you can expect the cover reveal next week.

June 12 (1st Chapter): On the heels of the the screening for my film, Secrets of the Desert Nymph, I will help get everyone in the mood for my novel by releasing the first chapter for everyone’s enjoyment (hopefully with its very own website)! This date may bounce a few days if some things go awry, but let’s hope they don’t!

June 15 to 22 (Snippets): For those who follow my Twitter, you’re in for a treat, as I will be tweeting at least one snippet from the novel per day. These will be anything from major hints at what’s to come to two word sentences that make no sense out of context. These will be exclusive sneak peeks for my Twitter followers.

June 23 (Release): As with all of my previous novels, Memoirs of Keladrayia will be released in both paperback and Kindle. I am also going to be looking into formatting options for release on other platforms, such as iTunes and Nook, so I will keep everyone informed about the progress of that as it comes along. This will also be the first book published under my new banner, Phoenix Moirai Publishing.

Thanks to all of my fans for their patience in the release of this next chapter in the Jaxxa Rakala Saga. Hopefully the next one won’t take as long.

Movie Mayhem – Mad Max: Fury Road

In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Amy Farrah Fowler destroys our geeky friends’s lives when she notes that the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark would have happened regardless of Indiana Jones. It’s one of those moments that forces you to see the film in a new light, but isn’t able to diffuse your enjoyment of the film in any way. In a similar vein, by the end of the first act of Mad Max: Fury Road, I finally understood why Max (Tom Hardy) was so mad — not only does his ostensive counterpart, Furiosa (Charlize Theron), go rogue to protect a very precious cargo from this world’s faux-Hitler (Hugh Keays-Byrne), she also decides to hijack the film right out from under him. In a certain way, the movie is more like Red Sonja, in which Conan simply makes an appearance in someone else’s film. Is Max an essential character within the framework of the film? That’s debatable, as he does make one key decision for the group that opens the door to the final conflict — but it’s a decision that could very well have been made by another character. The real question is, does it make Mad Max: Fury Road any less worthwhile?

Now I’ll be honest right up front — when it comes to the Mad Max franchise, I’ve only seen bits and pieces here and there from the original trilogy, so I have nothing to compare this review to. Basically, I’m going in with fresh eyes, having not been tainted by Mel Gibson’s personification of Max and the ravaged world he had to endure. With that said, there is nary a moment in Fury Road where we are able to get to know Hardy’s Max Rockatansky, at least in the expositional way. Instead, we learn everything we need to know about Max subliminally through very subtle, cinematic and artsy ways. The first five minutes of the film tells us almost everything we need to know about him — he’s a hardened scavenger close to a psychotic break due to the loss of his family and the ravages of the world he must now face. It’s never quite clear what happened to his daughter, who continually pops up in eerie glimpses of insanity, and because of that, it’s harder to connect with Max and how he ultimately changes over the course of the film.

The same goes with Nicholas Hoult, who brings a fun, manic persona to the character of Nux, quickly stealing every scene he’s in. Hoult brings a subtle depth to Nux throughout his story arc that allows him to be extremely relatable, whether he’s laughing at the joy of murder and chaos or falling in love with an auburn beauty. But much like Max, most of his thunder is stolen by Furiosa, taking time away from his story that would have helped us better understand his place in this world. There is a very well-done scene when Nux reflects upon his life and what it truly means to live under the thumb of a ruler that may not be everything he once perceived him to be. It’s a very personal moment that also jump starts a love story that isn’t given enough time to flourish into something on the grand scale that the rest of the movie illustrates.

There are no rules when it comes to depicting the apocalyptic world that has basically run out of water (and I guess fuel as well). The leader of the ruling tribal class has been hoarding the Earth’s natural resources, including water, which he dispenses to his subjects via a massive waterfall that he turns on and off like a faucet, wasting more water than the decrepit peasants are able to collect with their small wooden buckets. But more to the point of the film, he’s also been imprisoning a bevy of beautiful women to be used as incubators for his children. Furiosa is more upset by this than anything else due to her own experiences of having been kidnapped as a child (along with her mother — another story thread that doesn’t really flesh out into anything truly substantial). Unable to watch this pig of a man destroy these women’s lives any longer, Furiosa stows them away on a transport rig in order to take them to “the green place” — a lavish land she remembers from her childhood.

Where does Max fit into all of this? That’s really the point I was trying to make. After being kidnapped by this tribe of sickly cultists, Max is turned into a human blood bag for Nux, who upon hearing of Furiosa’s divergence, worms his way into the chase to kill her and reacquire the incubators, bringing his necessary blood bag with him. If it wasn’t for that, Max would have no part of the story whatsoever, and even as part of the story, he really has no control over Furiosa’s actions or rebellious spirit. He’s simply along for the ride — which is, let’s be honest, one massive, insane spectacle, one that uses everything at its disposal to great effect.

From the set pieces to the costumes and the heart-racing action sequences, the film rides a major high, mostly due to its glorious cinematography, which paints every scene with majestic wonder. Whether it’s one of the raucous chase sequences that somehow find a way to keep from getting too repetitive, cast in bright red and yellow hues with the burning sun, or quiet moments under the blues of the bright moon, the cascade of eye candy forces you to take in the beauty of this barren world. Not to be outdone, the production design never ceases to disappoint. No matter how big (a giant vehicle that’s basically a moving orchestra, complete with a drum line and electric guitarist… you know, to really get the full effect of your very own chase sequence) or small (spray painting your mouth with silver before committing suicide), the detail put into the work never deviates from a palette of weird, humorous and exciting visuals. Max may be outraged for being upstaged by Furiosa (and on a smaller scale, Nux), but it’s their stories that make the film complete, and give us reason to sit back and escape for two hours into a world we would never want to visit in real life.

My Grade: A-

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Next week, new movies include Tomorrowland, and Poltergeist. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Film Festival To Screen “Secrets of the Desert Nymph”

It is my sincere pleasure to announce that my feature film, Secrets of the Desert Nymph, has been accepted as an official selection in the 1st annual Temecula Independent Film Festival of the Hollywood and Los Angeles California Wine Country, which takes place June 10-14, 2015 in the heart of the Temecula wine country.

Secrets of the Desert Nymph is a coming of age drama of love, loss, love and desire centered around several teenagers as they mature into young adults. I wrote, directed and produced the film in and around Minden, Nevada in late 2011, and then spent nearly the next year editing the film for its premiere in September of 2012. And now, nearly three years later, Secrets of the Desert Nymph finally makes its festival premiere.

The film was co-produced by Donna Walden (Northern Nevada Film Factory) and Brett Caron (DaVinci Designs) as an advanced youth filmmaking workshop, wherein the majority of cast and crew were teens between the ages of 13 and 20. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone involved, including the Carson Valley Arts Council; without you, this production would not have been possible.

Secrets of the Desert Nymph will screen at Noon on June 14th to help close out the festival, which takes place at the Glenoak Hills Community Center, 40601 De Portola Road, Temecula, CA 92592. Tickets are available now for $5 per film block (or $5 for all of Sunday’s events), and you must pre-order them online at http://www.tifilmfest.org/. But that’s not all: because the Temecula Independent Film Festival is a non-profit 501(c)(3) entity, all purchases are tax-deductible.

I am very proud and honored to have this inspiring, thoughtful, heartbreaking film screened for the wonderful Temecula Valley audience at the Temecula Independent Film Festival’s inaugural run. And fear not: if you want to see the film, but for whatever reason are unable to come to the festival on June 14, you may purchase the film at any time on Amazon to watch at your leisure.

To learn more about Secrets of the Desert Nymph: http://www.divinetrinityfilms.com/Secrets_Desert_Nymph/

To learn more about the Temecula Independent Film Festival: http://www.tifilmfest.org/

Official Poster for “Secrets of the Desert Nymph”

Movie Mayhem – Hot Pursuit

Comedy is hard. It’s not just about cracking a consistent number of one-liners or enduring a countless number of pratfalls (or grossing everyone out, as many comedians and filmmakers today believe is the only definition of comedy); to be truly funny, you have to understand the art of comic timing. Without it, any type of joke can become really awkward or utterly confusing. For the most part, this weight generally falls on the shoulders of the actors, simply because they are the face on the screen — if they fail at drawing laughs, there really isn’t anything anyone can do to fix that. But they aren’t the only person that holds the blame when something fails to strike a chord in the funny-bone of the viewer. The director molds the final product and if they can’t find the right rhythm within the flow and editing of a piece, the timing the actors may have had on set can become jilted. And it’s clear early on in Hot Pursuit that director Anne Fletcher can be blamed for the inconsistency of laughs in a film ripe for utter hilarity.

Had the direction been more concise with a more natural flow, Reese Witherspoon and Sofía Vergara might have found a solid foundation to connect on a much stronger level. From their previous work, it’s obvious both of these women have a knack for comedy, though in very different ways. Witherspoon has a natural southern charm that translates well into naive fish-out-of-water characters, mining laughs from her very spirited, downhome-hick attitude. Vergara on the other hand, is comfortable in an ensemble, as her comedy style is very reactive, able to play off of other actors very well — when paired with the right people, as evidenced by her role on Modern Family, she is an unstoppable firecracker. Pairing these two together begs for fireworks and the kinetic energy fires on all cylinders as their specific talents are utilized well against one another. But Fletcher tears away at this chemistry by failing to match the timing and the rhythm of their style, ultimately keeping them from being able to gel the way it most likely felt when on set.

Not like the actresses had all that much to sink their teeth into. Witherspoon plays Cooper, a young, eager cop assigned to protect Daniella Riva (Vergara) from drug lords who want to kill her and her husband (Vincent Laresca) before they can testify against them. When the Riva estate comes under attack (not only by the drug lords, but by two masked men as well), Cooper and Daniella must take to the road in a Midnight Run-style road trip. As I pointed out, there is absolutely nothing wrong with these two actresses falling back on their comfort zones to deliver fun, likable performances, but when the writers fail to elevate these caricature archetypes beyond recycling the kitchen sink from better movies, laughs are more often replaced with yawns. Vergara isn’t given anything to help deviate her from a wealthier (and more conniving) Gloria Pritchett, while Witherspoon is buried under an amalgamation of the lowest common denominator from several previous roles.

From the first frame of the film, Cooper is set-up to become a stellar police officer. Spending nearly all of her childhood in the back of a squad car (because her father is a police officer), it’s only inevitable that Cooper end up a cop. However, when we first see her in uniform, we’re told she’s been demoted to evidence clerk after accidentally lighting a politician’s shirt on fire with a stun gun after overhearing him call out, “I’ve got shotgun.” I have a hard time believing that anyone her age, unless they were incredibly sheltered, would never have heard that phrase used in that context (as in claiming the front seat in someone’s car). Then to believe she would be anything but an upstanding officer with a flurry of awards to show off her excellence, kept me from relating to her, thus distancing me from the overall premise of the film right from the jump. Yeah, the running joke of her knowledge and insistence for police procedure is amusing, but it might have worked even better had she been one of the most respected officers in the precinct.

It also doesn’t help that the script, written by David Feeney and John Quaintance, plays like a kid in a sandbox continually running away with the best toys when he gets bored with them. There are a number of scenes that just start to hit their stride when they abruptly end simply because the writers don’t seem to know what else to do with it. After Daniella’s car is smashed by a truck and kilos of cocaine explode all over, Cooper inadvertently gets high. It’s a very memorable scene and showcases Witherspoon at the top of her game, but within a couple of minutes, it’s as if the whole thing had never happened. The same goes for a scene late in the film when Witherspoon dresses up as a man (or boy, depending on your perspective) to infiltrate a party. There could have been so much more possibilities from this scenario, but Feeney and Quaintance never capitalize on Witherspoon’s ability to sustain a joke. Both the unoriginal (yet still strong) twist and a love story are also left to dangle in the wind without much reward, which, come to think of it, is how the entire film feels — there are plenty of morsels of richness, but they remain tied to a tree branch that no one can ever reach.

My Grade: B-

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Next week, new movies include Mad Max: Fury Road, and Pitch Perfect 2. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Movie Mayhem – Avengers: Age of Ultron

When Marvel first decided to start their own production company so they could produce the movies they felt were in the best interest of the company as a whole, not a lot of people knew what they were getting into. Not until the end credit scene in the original Iron Man, when Samuel L. Jackson stepped out of the shadows as Nick Fury to entice not only Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to join the Avengers Initiative, but the viewer as well, did we know that Marvel had just ignited an unprecedented cinematic experience. Since that time, Marvel has introduced us to a myriad of characters through very well-designed “phases” in order to build a universe that expands, well, the universe. And though Marvel has had one or two missteps and had to recast a couple of characters, for the most part, Marvel has delivered a brand as solid as what Pixar built in the late nineties and early 2000s. And with phase two coming to a close with the high energy Avengers: Age of Ultron, it doesn’t look like they will be slowing down anytime soon.

Writer and director Joss Whedon steps on the gas from the very first frame and keeps things moving at a very steady pace for the entirety of the film. (In a way, he has to, since there is so much to cover within a short amount of time.) Opening the film with a battle sequence that other movies would love to include as their climactic third-act battle, Whedon doesn’t waste any time giving fans what they want — the core team of Avengers working together to ensure the success of the mission. The Avengers was, at its core, an origin story; the team fought with each other more than they worked together. Here, we finally get to see them use their skills for a greater purpose and (mostly) set their egos aside to take down the villain. For now, that adversary is Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), a Hydra operative last seen at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier using Loki’s scepter to experiment on humans. Turns out, he’s also been testing the scepter on robotics, which makes Tony believe it may also be the key to his own failed artificial intelligence experiments.

Whedon doesn’t waste any time introducing us to two new players, either. As the Avengers run amok of Strucker’s hideout, quipping wise and showcasing an interesting patchwork of team building, two of Strucker’s experimental humans race to assist Strucker’s men in protecting the scepter. Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), also known as Quicksilver, and his sister, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olson), a.k.a. Scarlet Witch, do what they can to irritate the Avengers, but come up far short of defeating them. But defeat isn’t what’s important. What is important is witnessing the extent of their powers, which we all know will come in quite handy down the road, both for and against our heroes.

But wait — that’s just the first fifteen minutes of the film. After Tony talks Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) into helping him try to emulate the scepter’s power so as to complete his Ultron project (so that he can protect the world with drones rather than humans), things go a bit wrong (as they always do with mad scientist story lines — isn’t that right, Bruce?). Ultron (James Spader) unexpectedly wakes up, and without any initial guidance from Tony or Bruce, comes to his own conclusions about what his purpose for life is. This is where the pace gets in the way of developing the story. This sequence — the testing and ultimate birth of Ultron, his discovery of his identity, and taking his first victim in J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany) — is breezed through so quickly, it’s hard to get connected to Ultron in any meaningful way. His idea is to purify and protect the world by wiping out the human race, but because he comes to that conclusion without hardly any explanation, Ultron becomes just another stock villain who wants to take over the world rather than what I believe Whedon was going for, which is as the child who doesn’t know any better.

As the team tries and fails several times to keep Ultron from acquiring the material he needs to build an army of linked robots, we’re given a chance to explore the back stories of those characters introduced as part of other character’s films. This includes Natasha Romonoff (Scarlett Johansson), who tries to convince Bruce that she’s not much different than him with the story of how she was trained to be a stone-cold assassin, how she must fight that urge every day and how she diverts it into protecting those she cares about. It builds on the affection that’s developed between her and Bruce over the course of both Avengers films. Because neither of them believe they deserve love due to their histories (and the possibility of one day losing control and killing innocent people), it connects them on a much deeper level, one that gives Natasha the ability to calm Bruce down after he’s become the Hulk. More importantly, we get an extended view of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) when he is not slinging arrows as Hawkeye. Since is initial blink-and-you-miss-it introduction in Thor, Hawkeye has gotten the short-end of the stick when it comes to why he is even part of the team. Not only do we get to learn more about his past, but his role is effectively beefed up in order to add some additional emotional depth to this past, allowing us to see Clint’s full range of abilities. He is an asset to the team, but his participation comes at a much higher cost.

The problem is, by shifting the spotlight onto these lesser-known heroes, some of the bigger names must take a back seat, and no more is this apparent than with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), whose entire subplot feels like nothing more than a way to set-up the plot of a future movie (as opposed to setting up a future film while still being relevant and important to this one as well). It seems so odd and out of place, Whedon could have taken the entire thing out and it wouldn’t necessarily have affected the film’s outcome in any way. And seeing as how it only took about five minutes of screen time, perhaps then, we could have enhanced other aspects of the film.

Despite the flaws, the movie is a spectacle of glorious cinematic magic, a lot of which has to do with the cast. Forget the Avengers of old — the new characters all bring something new to the party and fit in with universe perfectly, especially Spader and Olson, who breathe life into their respective roles in ways that end up perfectly suited for those specific characters. With his deep, gravelly voice, Spader gives Ultron a menacing vibe that doesn’t need any special effects to sound both human and metallic. Add in his unique sense of humor and gravitas, and Spader turns Ultron into a killing machine that has a blast while doing what he truly believes is the right thing. Olson, on the other hand, is very quiet and reserved, but has a need for vengeance that resonates deep within her eyes. Even though we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time with her, Olson captures you in every scene so that when she erupts in anger, you truly feel her sorrow. And I would be doing a disservice if I left out Bettany, who electrifies the third act with his stellar portrayal of Vision.

Say what you will about the Marvel cinematic universe, or Avengers: Age of Ultron itself, but these movies are meant to be an integrated universe that will eventually all come together in one massive cinematic experience, and Joss Whedon has pulled off an incredible feat, one that may not be perfect, but still delivers what movies in general are supposed to deliver. When you can pull off having Tony and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) discussing the rules of Thor’s hammer like a couple of nerds on The Big Bang Theory and then follow that up with an incredible payoff to the scene when everyone tries (and fails) to lift Thor’s hammer, you know Marvel has delivered on their promise for something extraordinary.

My Grade: A

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Next week, new movies include Hot Pursuit, Before I Wake, and The D Train. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Movie Mayhem – Little Boy

This weekend brought us a trifecta of spiritual-based (or at least spiritually-minded) films. The Age of Adeline used a unique twist on timeless love, and though I didn’t get a chance to see Russell Crowe’s directorial debut,  The Water Diviner, based on the trailer, the movie digs deep to explore the connection a father has with his son and the faith needed to rise above the facts to find the truth. The most spiritual of them all, the thought-provoking, yet heavily amateurish Little Boy, explores much the same territory, but instead of a father searching for his son in the middle of a war, the son reaches out to bring his father home from the war with nothing but faith the size of a mustard seed.

The title character of Little Boy, Pepper Busbee (Jakob Salvati), is given the moniker by a group of bullies who feel his size (based on an undiagnosed disease that may be dwarfism) hinders him in some way. It’s just one of many ways the film addresses the challenges of being different at the end of World War II. Receiving the same type of treatment by the adults in the small community is Hashimoto (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), a Japanese American who has been released from a nearby interment camp and is simply trying to regain the life that was taken from him because of the war. When Pepper is advised to befriend Hashimoto to help in his quest to build enough faith to bring his missing father (Michael Rapaport) home, the two of them form a bond that goes beyond simple friendship.

But it doesn’t start out that way. As most people did during the war, Pepper hates the Japanese and can’t see past his race to find the human being underneath. In a way, Pepper starts out the film as a bully toward that which he doesn’t understand, just as he is being bullied for being different. It’s a nice dichotomy that would have been much more powerful if the entire subplot didn’t feel like a mere distraction. Seeing as how this topic is very relevant today as we continue to fight extremist Muslims across the globe, there is a kernel of some incredibly powerful ideas waiting to nourished. But writer/director Alejandro Monteverde doesn’t utilize the power of the pen to explore this beyond superficial topics. There is a scene in which Pepper invites Hashimoto over for lunch that is quite compelling with its quiet sensibility and regretful horror, but when Pepper’s brother, London (David Henrie), nearly shoots Hashimoto for even stepping foot in his home, it feels as if there could have been so much more weight added to give it a pinch more honesty.

The reason for this is due to the inconsistent storytelling style, which leans more toward innocent and childish than real and sincere. Which makes complete sense, seeing as how we’re trying to connect with a young boy who is going through his own existential transformation. The problem is, when you catch glimpses of a more adult, mature voice, you want to latch on to that sensibility and it makes the immaturity of the rest of the film become that much more glaring. In one terrific moment, Pepper is antagonized into proving he has enough faith to move a mountain. As he’s performing the routine he learned when he was asked to assist his idol (Ben Chaplin) move a bottle, an earthquake occurs, making it seem as if he actually moved the mountain. The sequence opens up a lot of existential questions regarding science versus faith, in that he may not have moved the mountain, but is it simply a coincidence that the earthquake happened at that exact moment? Or is there something much bigger in play to help give Pepper — and the community — the faith they need to make anything possible? This scene is juxtaposed with any of the scenes involving the bullies, which feel so generically cheap and sterotypical, as if they are pulled from any Disney or Nickelodeon television show rather than pulled from actual experiences.

There’s also a glaring inconsistency in the story arcs that deliver most of the drama. Either they are resolved far too quickly or have a climax but no clear resolution (or at the very least, an unsatisfying one). The bully subplot is given a rousing climax, only to see the story completely dropped afterward without any sense that anything really changed for Pepper (or that he changed in some way because of it). At the same time, it seems as if there are a scene or two missing as we watch London change his view with the snap of a finger without ever exploring why this change happens (even though the circumstances give us at least a modicum of groundwork). And then there’s the odd cameo by Kevin James as the local doctor who has a unhealthy crush on Pepper’s mother (Emily Watson). The whole thing feels extremely creepy, and it’s given a decent resolution, but still has a way of feeling incomplete (though James, as I mentioned in my review of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, is still as watchable, funny and likeable as ever).

The main theme of the film is in order for miracles to happen, and for God to answer your prayers, you must not have any anger inside of you, and you must believe that anything is possible so long as you believe in yourself. And though Salvati does a pretty good job displaying the emotional gamut he’s asked to portray, there’s still a sense that he’s still very green and because of that, the most humanistic qualities of the film are lost among the unbalanced way the story is told, leading to a profound film that settles for kid-friendly lightheartedness over true, unique thoughtfulness.

My Grade: B-

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Next week, new movies include Avengers: Age of Ultron. If you would like to see a review of this, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Movie Mayhem – Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

From my understanding, Paul Blart: Mall Cop didn’t set the cinema world on fire back in 2009. It did make a ton of money (and did leaps and bounds over its counterpart, Observe and Report), but from the reaction to the film from both critics and the public, there didn’t seem to be much demand for a sequel. But money speaks louder than words in Hollywood, and since Adam Sandler (through his production company, Happy Madison) likes to keep his good friends employed, I guess Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 was inevitable. And though the premise for the follow-up is sound (having the main character leave the confines of his world to explore new territory is a staple for sequels to movies like this), adding a new chapter to a film that ran mostly flat doesn’t make for a better movie.

Kevin James, along with co-writer Nick Bakey (the duo who also wrote the original) must have thought they had a great idea in sending the adorkable mall cop, Paul Blart, to Las Vegas for a security guard convention that just coincidentally happens to fall on the same weekend criminal mastermind, Vincent (Neal McDonough), plans to steal several pieces of art from the hotel. But James sticks to the exact format he developed in the first film, and that’s where my main issue with the movie lies. As advertised, the original was marketed as a sort of goof on Die Hard — Die Hard in a mall, so to speak. However, there was so much fluff prior to the actual infiltration of the mall (and subsequent hostage taking), it’s hard to care about the results of Paul Blart’s heroics when it finally gets to that point. The same happens here — James spends so much time filling us up on appetizers, by the time the main course arrives, we can’t enjoy it the way we should. In both instances, Paul Blart’s character growth (which is essentially being forced out of his comfort zone to do what’s necessary despite his weight and insecurities) doesn’t depend on the outcome of his heroics, as most things have already been resolved before he’s forced into action. It essentially turns the “villains” and their heists moot and rather useless — much like the sequel, since Paul’s issues were resolved quite nicely at the end of the original film.

To counteract this happy ending, James resets Paul’s world by dissolving his marriage to Amy (a missing Jayma Mays) and killing off his mother (Shirley Knight) with a milk truck (HA! Get it? Because milk trucks don’t exist anymore) in the first five minutes of the movie. Paul is once again a lonely, insecure security guard, which leads to a subplot involving his daughter, Maya (Raini Rodriguez), and her acceptance into UCLA that feels somewhat manufactured. Not only does Rodriguez barely look over thirteen, but her refusal to tell him about it right away out of fear of her leaving might cause him to reach his tipping point is thrown in there to try and drum up more conflict. However, much like almost all of the conflicts in the film, this one is resolved before he discovers she’s been kidnapped by Vincent and his goons. And that’s just one example of how James mistreats his antagonists. To have McDonough wasting away in the background as Paul overcomes all of his issues without him is a real disservice to the actor and his prowess as a compelling foil. Not only that, but James misses a major opportunity to really explore how Vincent and his team go about stealing all of the artwork because he spends so much time on Paul’s weaknesses and failed attempts to be liked.

Which is odd, since it’s extremely hard not to like Kevin James. Even as the jokes miss far more than they hit (mostly because he regurgitates a lot of the jokes from the original, or they simply feel far too lazy), James emits this aura that makes it hard not to care about him or his circumstances. There is no denying that he’s a really nice person, someone you want to be friends with — the kid you want to hang out with because no matter how many mistakes they make, he’ll always come through for you in the end. He may be a doofus, but he’s our doofus, so to speak. James knows this, and he doesn’t shy away from letting us know that, utilizing every aspect of his personality in one of the better subplots of the movie.

As evidenced by dozens of films and television shows (including James’s own King of Queens), there seems to be a penchant in Hollywood for chubby guys to somehow win over (and in most cases marry) the hot chick who’s way out of their league. Paul wins the girl in the original film by being his own, likeable, teddy-bear self. Here, the girl in question, hotel manager Divina (Daniella Alonso), slowly falls in love with him, even as Paul completely brushes her off by telling her he’s not ready for a relationship. At first she thinks it’s rude of him to think she would even have the slightest interest in him, but as the movie progresses, every time she talks to him, her affection for him grows steadily deeper. This is how I would describe our relationship with Kevin James as an audience member — the more we see of him, the more we like him, which helps us rise above a lot of the flaws in his movies and keep coming back for more.

It also explains why Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 stays afloat as watchable. There are some very enticing kernels of a much better movie screaming to get out, and had James followed the structure of the film he’s emulating a little closer, there would have been more possibilities to inject all of the stories with more depth, helping to make the plot more cohesive and keep from having to rely so heavily of the oafishness of the talented, but lost, star.

My Grade: B-

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Next week, new movies include The Age of Adeline, Little Boy, and The Water Diviner. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.