KUNG FU, PANDAS AND MICHAEL BAY’S EGO
Aug. 23rd, 2011 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogCatching up on the movie reviews. Because God knows there’s not enough of them on the Internet.
Wu Xia (a.k.a. Dragon)
A film from local director Peter Chan about Liu Jingxi, a paper mill worker in a small village in 1917 China who stops a robbery and kills the two bandits – one of whom turns out to be Yan Dongsheng, one of the most wanted criminals in China. That raises the suspicions of constable Xu Baijiu, who starts investigating Liu’s past because Yan was also a skilled martial artist who couldn’t possibly be defeated by a lucky paper-mill worker.
The set-up will sound familiar to anyone who has read or seen A History Of Violence, and the rest of Wu Xia will seem familiar to anyone who has seen The One Armed Swordsman. In which case the storyline won’t tell you anything you haven’t already heard.
Wu Xia looks great and has lots of whiz-bang kung fu, as well as quite a bit of OTT forensic imagery lifted from CSI. But the most interesting angle of the film – Xu trying to work out just who Liu really is whilst being forced to question his own sense of justice – only takes up the first half of the story. Once Liu’s identity is revealed, the second half devolves into fairly standard (if impeccably choreographed and photographed) kung fu territory. A little disappointing, but it’s a fairly good film overall.
Kung Fu Panda 2
It's a sequel, yes, in which Po (the Kung Fu Panda in question) is living it up as the Dragon Warrior, but finds himself suddenly confronted with the question of his origins, which was a running gag in the first film (Po’s father being a goose). The answer lies with the main villain, Lord Shen, a peacock who has developed a cannon that will help him to destroy kung fu and conquer China.
Like the first film, there’s lots of Chinese imagery, fat jokes and kung fu action scenes so fast that you can barely follow the action. And, like the first film, a lot of it’s pretty funny. But it’s also pretty predictable and ultimately disposable. Fun while it lasts, but not something I’d watch again (at least not until it’s on TV).
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Why? Because I was bored and in town with a few hours to kill, all the coffee shops were full and it was either this or The Smurfs. Also, I heard Chicago gets destroyed in it, and who wouldn’t want to see that? And I’ll confess, when I saw the trailer for it – where it implies the real mission of Apollo 11 was to investigate a crashed alien ship – I didn’t know what movie it was, and I thought, “This looks like it could be good.” Then it started showing Transformer robots and I thought, “Oh, f***socks.”
Anyway, you may hate Michael Bay (I know I do), but you can’t say he doesn’t deliver what yr promised: namely, giant robots kicking the shit out of each other for 2.5 hours. Who cares if most of what happens makes no sense whatsoever, to include pretty much everything the main character does? (I don’t have a problem with Shia LaBeouf as an actor, but Sam Witwicky has to be the single most annoying character in recent movie history.)
So, yes, it’s horseshit – but it’s well-assembled professional horseshit. Besides, the Transformers cartoon was always just a gimmick to sell Hasbro toys. Who better than Bay to represent that artistic integrity?
You get what you pay for,
This is dF
Wu Xia (a.k.a. Dragon)
A film from local director Peter Chan about Liu Jingxi, a paper mill worker in a small village in 1917 China who stops a robbery and kills the two bandits – one of whom turns out to be Yan Dongsheng, one of the most wanted criminals in China. That raises the suspicions of constable Xu Baijiu, who starts investigating Liu’s past because Yan was also a skilled martial artist who couldn’t possibly be defeated by a lucky paper-mill worker.
The set-up will sound familiar to anyone who has read or seen A History Of Violence, and the rest of Wu Xia will seem familiar to anyone who has seen The One Armed Swordsman. In which case the storyline won’t tell you anything you haven’t already heard.
Wu Xia looks great and has lots of whiz-bang kung fu, as well as quite a bit of OTT forensic imagery lifted from CSI. But the most interesting angle of the film – Xu trying to work out just who Liu really is whilst being forced to question his own sense of justice – only takes up the first half of the story. Once Liu’s identity is revealed, the second half devolves into fairly standard (if impeccably choreographed and photographed) kung fu territory. A little disappointing, but it’s a fairly good film overall.
Kung Fu Panda 2
It's a sequel, yes, in which Po (the Kung Fu Panda in question) is living it up as the Dragon Warrior, but finds himself suddenly confronted with the question of his origins, which was a running gag in the first film (Po’s father being a goose). The answer lies with the main villain, Lord Shen, a peacock who has developed a cannon that will help him to destroy kung fu and conquer China.
Like the first film, there’s lots of Chinese imagery, fat jokes and kung fu action scenes so fast that you can barely follow the action. And, like the first film, a lot of it’s pretty funny. But it’s also pretty predictable and ultimately disposable. Fun while it lasts, but not something I’d watch again (at least not until it’s on TV).
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Why? Because I was bored and in town with a few hours to kill, all the coffee shops were full and it was either this or The Smurfs. Also, I heard Chicago gets destroyed in it, and who wouldn’t want to see that? And I’ll confess, when I saw the trailer for it – where it implies the real mission of Apollo 11 was to investigate a crashed alien ship – I didn’t know what movie it was, and I thought, “This looks like it could be good.” Then it started showing Transformer robots and I thought, “Oh, f***socks.”
Anyway, you may hate Michael Bay (I know I do), but you can’t say he doesn’t deliver what yr promised: namely, giant robots kicking the shit out of each other for 2.5 hours. Who cares if most of what happens makes no sense whatsoever, to include pretty much everything the main character does? (I don’t have a problem with Shia LaBeouf as an actor, but Sam Witwicky has to be the single most annoying character in recent movie history.)
So, yes, it’s horseshit – but it’s well-assembled professional horseshit. Besides, the Transformers cartoon was always just a gimmick to sell Hasbro toys. Who better than Bay to represent that artistic integrity?
You get what you pay for,
This is dF
