Thursday, 12 January 2012

2220 Six family films in 3D

I have recently watched several animated, fantasy and family orientated film because they were shown in 3D. As I have recent stated in relation to sport and cultural events 3D brings added to value to an event but only if the event itself proves entertaining, of interest, possible exciting, possible wondrous or unique and at a minimum is enjoyable.

I have attempted to list the films in some kind of order although in truth there was only one which had merit; in fact the film had merit recognised at the time before it was reissued in 3D form.

The least enjoyable was Almighty Thor very loosely based on Norse mythology. It is difficult to believe that even children will find this story of interest and more likely to be outraged with disappointment if they had seen the earlier enterprise based on the Marvel Comic hero Thor. The story is of an evil underworld God who seeks to conquer everyone and everything by taking control of the Hammer of Invincibility. When Thor’s father and brother are killed in an attempt to stop the baddie from his designs, the younger brother sets on a quest to seek revenge. He is brave but lacks skill and an appreciation of the task as well as knowledge to overcome the enemy. Fortunately he encounters a Valkyrie who has the ability and patience to prevent the young warrior from not one but a succession stupid and disastrous attempts to engage the villain.

Combined they elude the clutches of the villain by use of movement portals one of which take them from the Nordic past into present day America. The most ludicrous aspect of this device, presumably on grounds that the use of derelict industrial sites was less expensive than creating mythological scenes, is that the three characters do not bat an eyelid about the nature of contemporary reality compared to their previously normal experience. The villain tests Thor at one point by offering him the prospect of bringing his father and brother back to life.

There are several repetitive aspects mainly of combat between Thor and the villain. There is one creative sequence where Thor approaches the mystical Tree of Life and a second when he finds himself in a molten lava flowing concept of Hell. He succeeds in obtaining the hammer which defeats the Underworld God who is forced to return to his natural Kingdom thus saving the rest of humanity and all creatures great and small from their worst nightmares.

The Green Hornet is based on a 1930’s radio character which was developed to comic books, TV series and games which is puzzling because the character is one of the more unlikeable if not the most unlikeable of all such characters. There are no redeeming aspects. He is a typical spoilt overindulged young man of a wealthy father who runs an important newspaper in the City. The father is found dead allegedly from an allergic reaction to a Bee sting and the young man finds himself in charge of father’s wealth which includes a vast collection of expensive cars as well as the Newspaper. One of the first things he does is to fire his entire father’s domestic staff.

This results in his morning cup of coffee not being delivered to his bedside in the annex which he has made his home. This in turn leads him discover that the coffee was provided from a special machine designed by his father’s handyman and that this individual is not only brilliant investor but an extraordinary skilled martial arts practitioner. He is the hero of the film and the force behind the Green Hornet. Because both men hated the father/employer after getting drunk one evening they visit the grave of the father and decapitate his bronze statue. Coincidentally a young couple are being robbed and assaulted by a gang at the same time and the handyman Cato rescues the couple and the two men who quickly leave the double crime scene are assumed to be criminals and are chased by the police who they evade in a criminal fashion driving exceptionally dangerously.

Crime in the city is controlled by a Russian who ruthlessly kills or has killed anyone who gets in his way or fails to expand his wealth and power. As is usual in the USA the mobsters have corrupted any official who poses a threat and this includes the District Attorney who is concerned about the public perception of his position. Because Cato is a one man army and has the ability to create wonder cars and multiple weapons the former waster decides to clean up the city but unlike Superman or Batman he adopts the unique role as posing as the new top villain on the block seeking a take over by attacking and where appropriate eliminating the existing criminals, That with Cato he uses criminal methods rather than exposing the criminals bringing them to justice is not something considered. He adopts the signature of the Green Hornet relating to the death of his father and the mask and outfit the two come to wear.

There are two developments which upset what some may believe is a worthwhile cause. Cameron Diaz arrives as a temp but because the waster immediately wants to get into her pants she is hired permanently and proves her worth because criminology was a part of the Journalist degree and she is therefore useful in conducting research into the city underworld. She quickly makes the point that she has no interest him as a potential bed partner and he becomes incensed when she dates Cato. Worse is to come because the waster decides to take the credit for all the interventions when any success is only due to Cato, his martial art skills and his inventions.

Fortunately when his arrogance outweighs common sense and they fall into a trap set by the Russians and are buried in a pit the vehicles is equipped to get them out of what is an otherwise impossible situation. This is the last straw and Cato leaves the duo and is quickly hired by the Russian to kill the waster. The District Attorney is also on the case attempting to persuade the young newspaper owner to stop his attacks on the crime boss and the failure of the city to deal with the level of crime. He admits that he murdered the father when he refused to cooperate.

Fortunately for the young waster, Cato changes his mind and comes to the rescue and the two engineer what appears to be a successful incriminating tape condemning the DA and the crime boss. There the usual intended exciting climax in which the two villains are killed and the trio determine to continue to protect the law by breaking it. As atonement for misjudging the father they return the head to the rest of the statue. On the whole an awful film about an awful person. However I would not surprised if there is a follow up.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third in the Chronicles of Narnia which commenced with the most famous book of all The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. There have been few works of fiction which managed to sustain interest during individual works while part of some grand design. Harry Potter is the best example. Some authors have successfully created characters who can undertake a series of individual adventures at the same as the original. Enid Blyton achieved this with her Famous Five and Seven Stories in times past.

I marked the Voyage of the Dawn Treader as OK and as film which would satisfy those who enjoyed the seven series of books by C S Lewis. Lucy and Edmund Pevensie, the two youngsters of the original children who enter Narnia via the back of a wardrobe are staying with their sceptical rationalist cousin Eustace and are drawn to an oil painting of a traditional sailing ship on high seas. Then the sea flows from the picture filling their room so that the trio find themselves in the high seas and picked up by the sailing ship.

This is commanded by Caspian now the King of Narnia who is on an expedition to find out what has happened to the seven Lords of Narnia which his uncle had banished. It was Lucy who first discovered the world within the world and as she grows up she wishes she was as beautiful and successful as her older sister. She represents the challenges faced by preteens in the contemporary society of the 1950’s. Her brother is responsible and protective for his age but saw the Prince, now King as a rival; taking account that Lucy is regarded as a Queen of Narnia for her previous efforts.

In the early part of the voyage Eustace spends all his time in disbelief especially over the talking and swashbuckling mouse, Reepicheep, who attempts to help him adjust to the fantasy world.

On the first island visited Caspian and Edmund are captured and imprisoned while Lucy and Eustace are to be sold as slaves to traders who control the island. Those who are not sold, mainly the indigenous island people, are periodically taken out in boats and disappear to a mysterious Green Mist; they learn this from one of the missing Lords who provides one of a number of swords given by Aslan the Lion in the Golden Age. The rest of the crew free those captured and chase off the slavers freeing the remaining inhabitants not already in the hands of the Mist. A young girl who has seen her parents taken by the Mist becomes a stowaway pleading with Caspian to find out what has happened to her parents.

On the next Island it is Lucy who is abducted by invisibles who leave giant footprints. They turn out to be small creatures standing on top of each other. Lucy discovers a book of spells and which she uses at one point to become her elder sister only find she is living a life where Narnia or her true self do not exist. Aslan interjects to explain that Narnia only exists in the knowledge of the family through her as she really is. They also learn that that it is only by laying together all seven swords of Aslan can the Green Mist be defeated.

They recover another sword on the next island where everything that enters a pool turns to gold. Edmund see this as creating great power as well as wealth for him. This is also where Eustace is turned into a fire breathing dragon by an enchanted treasure. This has positive as well as negative consequences and with the help of the Mouse enables Eustace to prove his worth which in turn coverts him to active participation in the adventure and a crucial member of the expedition. It is the dragon that is able to create the wind to break the ship out from the doldrums where they are being held during which time the crew have grown restless.

They come to Aslan’s Table and three more of the lost Lords and their swords are there frozen in time and reach the point when only one sword is missing believed to be on the Dark Island. A beautiful creature arrives and says she can guide them to the Island which is the lair of the Mist. They find the last missing Lord on the Island who warns of its power to make reality their fears. Edmund’s fear of a sea serpent nearly costs everyone their lives but it is Eustace as the dragon who saves the day after being wounded by the last sword and flying away. He is rescued by the White Witch who changes him back to the boy with the last sword which he takes to the others. It is Eustace with the sword that defeats the Mist and places the sword on the table enabling Edmund to defeat the Sea Serpent of his fears and this in turn releases all the people who have been held by the Mist.

The ship then encounters a sea of lilies which takes them to a shore and Aslan. There is a giant wave out to sea which if they traverse will take them to Aslan’s world but if they travel they can never return. Caspian declines saying his duties are with the people of Narnia. Aslan opens a portal to send the three children home while it is the Mouse Reepicheep who elects to make the one way journey. The trio return bonded through their now secret adventure. In terms of objects and characters moving out of the screen I thought the film was limited but one does get the sense of three dimensional effects within the space of the TV. In this respect I thought the make had got the balance right not allowing the effects to dominate the established and well known story.

I enjoyed the Legend of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga’Hoole which I thought had dark and challenging moments for the very young and which is a 2010 Australian computer animated film with a strong cast of voices including Helen Mirren, Mirian Margoyles, Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush and Hugh Weaving.

Two young barn owls live with their parents in the forest and as with all young people want to do more quicker than they are able to, and one night despite having been told not to do so they go off for an exploratory flight only to fall to the ground and open to enemies unable to immediately return to safety. There is already considerable rivalry between the brothers as one likes to hear tales of a mythical group of owl warriors The Guardians of Ga’Hoole who once saved all owl kind for the evil Pure Ones. The other ridicules his brother only to now find themselves captured with other owls by agents of the Pure Ones.
The majority of those captured undergo a process of submission and become workers, although selected to become a worker, one brother is able to feign the process so remains alert while the other brother volunteers and becomes a soldier. The workers examine owl pellets for small metal flecks which cause pain for owls when ingested and where a great store of the material is being prepared.

One of the Soldier Owls discloses to the young owl and a friend that he was of the Guardians and the Pure Ones are plotting to trap and destroy the Guardians and thus gain control of all the Owls once again. Before the duo can escape they must learn to fly for a long period and at speed and this takes time. Even when they are ready they just out run their pursuers and then face a number of challenges including a great mist and freezing typhoon. Eventually they successfully make it to the home of the Guardians and the Great Tree. When the owls recover and tell their tale one the Guardians expresses disbelief about the threat with the consequence that only a scouting party is sent to find out what is going on led by him.

The two owls begin their training as Guardians by an old owl who they discover was an important figure in the battle which the young‘ns father would tell his son. The young owl is disillusioned because he imagined someone very different. The leader of the scouting party returns saying the others were ambushed and killed and they he had escaped with two processed worker owls one of these is younger sister of the young owl. The entire force of the Guardians set off to engage the Pure Ones. Fortunately the sister recovers from the process and reveals that she was taken prisoner by their brother and given to the leader of the scouting party who is a traitor.

The Guardians are going into a trap where they will be confronted by the accumulated metal flecks leaving them helpless on the ground.

The young owl leads the small band of trainee guardians and others left in the Great Tree to try and help the others and almost too late. The young owl sees a way to change the situation and this is sufficiently effective for the Pure Ones to believe that their spy has changed sides and they send soldiers to kill him.

Since their capture his brother has not just become a soldier but made himself into a senior lieutenant in the new order. When the soldier brother gets into difficulties in the final combat he pleads with his brother to save him only to then attempt to force his saviour into the inferno below them. Fortunately his plan fails and he appears to fall into the flames and to his death. The Guardians are saved and the Pure One killed or driven out. The young owl is made a Guardian to the pride of his parents, sister and other family members. There is a new generation of legend. This is however only the first part of a three book series.

In the epilogue the body of the other brother was not found and we see him with the glowing red eyes of the other Pure Ones who have survived flying out to sea. I was impressed by some of the animations and use of 3D effects but continued wonder about extent to which this is a family film, given the Cain and Able main story.

In terms of visual treats The Battle for Terra is the best of the bunch experienced to date. From my experience so far the out of screen at you or over you effects are spaced whereas in this film there is a regular bombardment in a film which attempts to cover some of the great issues of our time and the next 100 years or so. Terra is computer animated film first released in 2007 and where the voices include those of Brian Cox and Dennis Quaid. Because the film is computer animated it was possible to reshoot in its entirety using the second camera necessary to create the full 3D effects and therefore having gone to this expense the makers ensured that their effort were worthwhile.

The film has merit as a 2D feature because of its themes. Terra has become a planet at peace and in harmony with nature. The Terrian heroine is Marla, a young headstrong and creative young woman constantly challenging the authority and restrictions imposed by the elders. She is unaware why the controls and limitations are there assuming as all young do that life revolves around their generation. Everything changes when the planet is approached by a giant ark ship which sends craft down to the surface of the planet to capture a selection of the indigenous creatures. Marla who in defiance of her father and the elders has made a telescope to observe what is happening in the sky returns to her community to see her father seized.

Fired up she fights of a pursuing craft forcing it to crash and reveal that the pilot is an oxygen breathing human accompanied by an intelligent robot. The robot is able to communicate and also able to inject the human language into her brain so she can communicate with the pilot when he recovers. To achieve this and prevent him dying the robot advises the young Terrian how to create an oxygen environment.

A young and conventional friend discovers the situation and reports to his superiors who come in force and armed to recover the human but the trio of- human, Terrian and Robot- manage to escape and discover a secret place which reveals that conflict and war had once been part of the Terrian history. Having saved him the human carries out an undertaking to return to ark ship to find and release her father.
We learn that because the population of earth expanded beyond its natural resources it had expanded to the two closest planets that in time had demanded and then fought for independence with all three worlds being destroyed. Only the great Ark ship had survived and BattleStar Gallactica style then travelled the universe in search of a planet where they could breathe, build and prosper. Several generations had passed and the ship was beginning to break up and the oxygen creating machines break down. The situation was becoming desperate. The senior military commander had devised a plan to make Terra their home creating oxygen which will in turn destroy the indigenous people. The Military commander seizes power from the civilian government when they refuse to adopt genocide to achieve their own survival.

The human enables Mala to escape back to her planet after she is captured having witnessed her father die. The General has designed a planet transformer which will create an oxygen chain reaction process which buries into the planet core and which he and others control from a centre part of the huge device. He insists that the human and his brother are part of the space fighters who will protect the device until it becomes fully operational and effective.

The Terrians are able to mobilize all the glider type fighter craft they have kept hidden for centuries in an effort to attack and prevent the Human device from working. Mala is a leading member of this force with the sky and therefore screen filled with laser cannon fire and explosions. Despite this they are ineffective against the device machine which is reading the point of chain reaction. Fortunately the human realises that what is happening is morally wrong sacrifices his life by taking the machine into the device and destroying it.

There is also an epilogue in which the atmosphere of the plant has returned to normal and the Terrains are helping the humans to create a vast doomed city in which they can breathe and live in harmony with their neighbours. In the middle of the city a giant statue is being created to the human who sacrifices himself. The interesting aspect is that the film can be watched without glasses as 2D although there is some doubling effect. It was also released with the minimum of advertising and although now released for home DVD as well as Channel release and 3 D systems it has to date yielded only the lower end of the box office records scale. Yet I rate this film second only to my final and top film of those covered.

The film is the Lion King first released in 1994 with a budget of $45 million and box office gross of just under $1 billion. The success of the Lion King was achieved from the combination of a story which emotionally affected the audience of all ages and its music which included The Circle of Life and Can you feel my Love Tonight and the humorous and catchy Hakcuna Matata -compositions by Elton John and Tim Rice. The sound track achieved fourth position and the highest ever sales for an animated film. The film was nominated for several awards, some it won again unusual for an animation project and has entered several best film lists.

The story of the film is reputed to have echoes of Moses and his son and Hamlet although in my view it stands alone on its merit and again features a rites of passage experience this time between the heir to the throne who is anxious to prove himself to be as brave and adventurous as his father who commands great respect from all the animals in their valley having established a natural order which keeps the savaging hyenas to their own territory. The film skates over what the natural order is with the implication that the animals do not fight, kill and eat each other, apart from the hyenas.
The film opens with the presentation of Simba as the heir to everyone which is to the horror of the King’s younger brother Scar who realises that the opportunity for him to come to power has been reduced and sets his sights on removing the young threat at the earliest opportunity.

The young lion is gradually prepared for his role one day by his father assisted by Rafiki a wise old Mandril who acts as a Regent adviser protector and on behalf of the King present the Lion Cub to his future people. While touring the lands controlled by the Pride of Lions Simba is warned by his father not to enter one area which understandably arouses his curiosity and learning of the interest Scar, voice of Jeremy Irons, fuels the situation by saying it is the burial ground of the Elephants and implying that the boy’s father is being unreasonable. Simba has a young female friend Nala who he persuades to go adventuring while eluding the watchful eye of Rafiki. At the Elephant grounds they encounter a trio of hyenas one of whom is the voice of Whoopi Goldberg who contemplate and unexpected banquet by the duo are rescued by the King and sent home in disgrace. The King then attempts to explain to his son that his special position brings with it responsibilities.

Thwarted Scar creates a new plan which involves creating a stampede of large animas being chased by hyenas having encouraged Simba to again break restrictions on his movements. Appreciating that his son is at great risk his father once more goes to the rescue and is about to escape the stampede himself by climbing rocks to safety when instead of answering his appeal for help his brother attacks causing the King to fall to his death. He then lets Simba believe that his behaviour caused the death of his father and that he will have no one’s respect. The young lion goes off alone, ashamed, into self imposed banishment from his family and position.

This means that Scar becomes the lawful monarch who then uses the hyenas to reinforce his power thus bringing fear and desolation to the Pride Lands enslaving everyone else.

When Simba becomes ill he is cared for by a Merekat, since made popular by an Insurance company and a warthog and teach him their philosophy of life which is no worries, with the implication of no responsibilities and have as much fun as is possible.

Years pass and Simba has to rescue his two friends from a lioness who turns out to be Nala who unaware who he is at first tells of what has happened and the nightmarish regime created by Scar. Unable to explain his sense of guilt at causing the death of his father, Simba disappoints Nala by refusing to return home and take his rightful place and rescue his people. She leaves heartbroken and discloses the news of his survival to Rafiki who goes in search of the legitimate King. Rafiki summons the ghost of the father who reminds of his destiny which has the effect of persuading Simba to return with his friends to take back the lands and the free the people (animals).

In the climax to the film Scar reveals his treachery after failing to defeat Simba who now has the appearance and strength of his father and is forced to admit the truth to the other lions. Scar pleads in mitigation that it was the hyenas that were behind what happened and Simba decides to banish the murderer. Scar refuses and attacks Simba who successfully fends off the attack with the consequence that it is Scar who falls off the rock where he is attacked and killed by the hyenas who he has just betrayed. They are driven out and over time the land is restored to is former state with Simba the established King and his son by Nala presented by Rafiki as the new heir. The circle of life continues.

Apart from the improved perspective the out of screen incidents to reinforce the 3D medium are limited not to distract from the main work which at one level is a successful reissuing of a very successful film to a new generation. There is however one moment to be mentioned when early on a bird flies over ones shoulder into the screen. This is magical.

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