Susan Hated Literature

As in The Bourne Identity
Dir: Doug Liman
Writ: William Blake Herron & Tony Gilroy
Starring

• Matt Damon … Jason Bourne
• Franka Potente … Marie Helena Kreutz
• Chris Cooper … Alexander Conklin
• Clive Owen … The Professor
• Brian Cox … Ward Abbott
• Gabriel Mann … Danny Zorn
• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje … Nykwana Wombosi

And The Bourne Supremacy
Dir: Paul Greengrass
Writ: Tony Gilroy
Staring:

• Matt Damon … Jason Bourne
• Franka Potente … Marie
• Brian Cox … Ward Abbott
• Julia Stiles … Nicky
• Karl Urban … Kirill
• Gabriel Mann … Danny Zorn
• Joan Allen … Pamela Landy

Both based on the novels by Robert Ludlum. No spoilers.

I remember really enjoying The Bourne Identity when I watched it first. But for some reason I never saw the sequel, but with the third out now in the cinemas I thought this is an ideal opportunity to catch up. And when I spotted the dvd set of the pair was only 18 euro I nabbed it.

I haven’t watched any of the extras yet, so can’t comment on those, but I really enjoyed the films. The are the perfect blend of reality and fantasy violence.

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Tags: 8 Stars, action, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Brian Cox, car chase, Chris Cooper, CIA, Clive Owen, Doug Liman, fantasy violence, fights, Franka Potente, Gabriel Mann, Jason Bourne, Joan Allen, Karl Urban, Matt Damon, memory, Paul Greengrass, spy, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremecy, Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron

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Dir: Marcus Nispel
Writ: Laeta Kalogridis based on Veiviseren by Nils Gaup

• Karl Urban … Ghost
• Russell Means … Pathfinder
• Moon Bloodgood … Starfire
• Jay Tavare … Blackwing
• Clancy Brown … Gunnar

Five hundred years before Columbus another European people journeyed to the Americas. These raiders left behind a young boy, who was taken in by The People of the Dawn, and when, many years later, the Vikings return, he is the one to fight back and save his adopted people.

Okay, so you know the way you see a really really bad trailer and think to yourself, well it might be fun in a no brain, mindless entertainment way. Well this didn’t even live up to my low expectations. There is nothing to redeem it. Nothing at all. Well unless you want to spend 99 minutes watching Karl Urban fight. Which may have some attraction I’ll admit. But a bit of sense would be nice. This child was left behind and yet despite how ever many years passed he is still a great fighter. This maybe they can get away with because he kept his sword and we see him practising it. But the horse-riding ability? Yeah, okay! I know, I know, I really shouldn’t be looking for any sort of sense, but come on writer, you need some sort of thread that’ll tie things together. And since I’m being all negative, can I also complain that the fighting scenes were actually crap. I mean they looked cool and atmospheric, but I couldn’t tell what was going on in them at all.

And I really don’t want to get into the historical bit of it, but why on earth were the Native Americans portrayed as totally peaceful? I don’t know a lot about pre-european invasion America, but I’m pretty sure they would’ve raided each other’s tribes. I really did think that this sort of “noble savage” shite had died out. Guess I was wrong. And while I’m well aware that films need good guys and bad guys, and in the case of this sort of action film, very simple definitions of good and bad, can I just say wtf was up with that version of the Vikings? Did someone really want to make an “orcs v the Indians” film but couldn’t sell it?

In conclusion, urgh

IMDb | Official Site | Fasthack | FlickFilosopher | MetaCritic | Slice of SciFi

Tags: action, Clancy Brown, fights, historical fiction, Jay Tavare, Karl Urban, Laeta Kalogridis, Marcus Nispel, Moon Bloodgood, Nils Gaup, Pathfinder, plotless, Russell Means, silly, USA - pre-colonial, Veiviseren, Vikings

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Dir & Writ: David Twohy
Writ: Jim Wheat & Ken Wheat

• Vin Diesel - Riddick
• Colm Feore - Lord Marshal
• Thandie Newton - Dame Vaako
• Judi Dench - Aereon
• Karl Urban - Vaako
• Alexa Davalos - Kyra

I’m a big fan of Pitch Black, that low budget horror in space. And I used to be a big fan of Vin Diesel’s but recent film-roles have made me all a bit meh. Still, I’m surprised it took me this long to get around to watching this film, but I finally caved and got the dvd last week. And I’m not too disapointed that I waited so long, because to be honest this film is trying so hard to be something that it isn’t.

I’m not sure why they bothered to keep the name of Riddick, marketing I suppose. Because this film is totally unrelated to the original. The universe we are shown in Chronicles is totally unlike that of Pitch Black, and the characters are also pretty unrecognisable, those few who actually survived the first film.

But lets ignore all that and try to treat Chronicles as though it were a standalone film, with no history.

It is a sci-fi film, one of those with the clichéd army of evil. Here in the form of Necromongers, an army who are trying to convert or kill all the planets of the universe in order to reach their promised land, the Under-verse. It tries to get out of the stereotype by having this evil army do battle, not with good, but with a “different sort of evil”. Trouble is it doesn’t really work, because in this film Riddick isn’t really all that evil. Sure he kills people but what action hero doesn’t? And everyone he kills here was actually trying to kill him first. Fair enough I suppose, maybe the ending of PB really did change him.

Overall this is a question of style over substance. Style over story. And style over characters.

And yes, it all looks great. In a “look at all our cool spaceships”. And they try and make this intricate back story about the Necromongers and the Furyans (I don’t really care how it should be spelled), and invents this reason why Riddick is so great at killing. But it just doesn’t work for me. None of the characters have even half the presence of those in PB. I did quite enjoy Karl Urban’s Vaako, but not enough to make up for the rest of the film’s shortcomings.

It is an average enough film. Nothing spectacularly bad about it, but nothing great either. Though I’ve heard that the director’s cut makes it a better film overall. I can’t say, I watched the theatrical cut.

Tags: 6 Stars, Alexa Davalos, average, Chronicles of Riddick, clichéd, Colm Feore, David Twohy, Jim Wheat, Judi Dench, Karl Urban, Ken Wheat, Riddick, sequel, sff, style over substance, stylish, Thandie Newton, Vin Diesel

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Karl Urban - Reaper/John

Rosamund Pike - Samantha Grimm

Deobia Oparei - Destroyer

Ben Daniels - Goat

Razaaq Adoti - Duke

Richard Brake - Portman

Al Weaver - The Kid

Dwight Johnson - Sarge

I wasn’t hoping for great things, and all my hopes were met. Not good at all. The basic plot is that some sort of problem sends a group of marines up to Mars to enforce a quarantine and find out what is going on up there.

Turns out there are monster running around.

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Tags: 3 Stars, Al Weaver, aliens, Ben Daniels, Deobia Oparei, Doom, Dwight Johnson, Karl Urban, monster, plotless, Razaaq Adoti, Richard Brake, Rosamund Pike, sff, silly

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