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Everybody knows the trouble Mel Gibson has seen. Through it all, the 54-year-old persevered, then bounced back.
Edge of Darkness is his latest thriller, which opens on Jan. 29. An adaptation of Martin Campbell’s 1985 BBC series, the Campbell-directed film marks Gibson’s return as a movie star, his first major role since 2002’s Signs.
Certainly, the Hollywood industry will be watching to see how fans react to him in front of the camera post-controversies. They include allegations of racism associated with his 2004 worldwide independent hit film, The Passion Of The Christ, and his Malibu drinking-while-driving incident in 2006.
In Edge Of Darkness, Gibson portrays a Boston police detective who investigates the murder of his activist daughter. He ends up confronting an operative (Ray Winstone), and U.S. government agents, when he uncovers a string of conspiracies, all pointing towards the illegal production of nuclear weapons.
The revenge part is vintage Gibson, who comes across like a mature version of his classic roles defining the unpredictable action hero – from Mad Max to the Lethal Weapon films. And there’s more to come.
Besides, Edge of Darkness, Gibson headlines the upcoming comedy-drama called The Beaver with Jodie Foster directing and co-starring. “She’s a ballsy girl,” he says of his friend from their Maverick days.
By March, he’s set to start shooting How I Spent My Summer Vacation
. He’ll star in the picture and direct it, as he did with his Oscar-winning Braveheart.
“It (How I Spent My Summer Vacation) is something that I wrote with the first and the second AD (assistant director) on Apocalypto,” confirms Gibson, referring to his 2006 directorial effort. “We wrote this story about a gringo in a Mexican prison.”
He has lots more on his to-do list, which the affable and always hyper Gibson was enthusiastic to discuss during a recent sit down at a Santa Monica beachside hotel.
Q: Why did you take a break from acting?
A: I was a bit stale and I thought that it wasn’t ringing my bells. So I focused on directing and writing and producing and all that kind of stuff, and then it was time to come back. I got the acting bug back.
Q: Did you feel rusty on Edge of Darkness?
A: A little bit. Martin (Campbell) had to tell me to tone it down a couple of times because you forget levels. But I mean you don’t do something for thirty years, and just forget it.
Q: So do you feel the time away from acting was worth it?
A: Yeah, pretty much. Somebody told me once, ‘Go away, dig a hole, do something else.” I cannot qualify how exactly but I know that something happened. There’s nothing better than a vacation sometimes.
Q: There were some tough fight scenes in Edge Of Darkness. Did you have to prepare?
A: I ordered a chiropractor for the day after because I knew how I was going to feel. I knew that I was going to wake up (feeling) like roadkill, and I did. You don’t pop back the way you used to, but that’s OK so long as it looks good.
Q: Do you work out on a regular basis?
A: I don’t. I quit smoking so that’s something in the right direction. There are no more fun things left. I just don’t do anything fun anymore.
Q: Were you a big smoker?
A: My mother smoked, I think, when I was in her womb. When I first had one, when I was nine, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, yes. I missed this.’ Then 45 years later, after every single artistic decision, or any decision, I’ve done them with a cigarette.
Q: Back to Edge of Darkness. Were there other challenges besides the action sequences?
A: Look, every time you do something you wonder if you can do it. There’s no secret recipe for success. You’re either going to be excoriated or praised or somewhere in between – or both sometimes. It’s all a challenge, the whole gig is a challenge.
Q: Especially your Viking film. Is that still in the development phase?
A: Yeah. My first thought ever about being a filmmaker was when I was 16, and I wanted to make a Viking movie. I wanted to make it in Old Norse which I was studying at that time.
Q: Are going to do it in Old Norse?
A: I think it’s going to be in English that would’ve been spoken back then and Old Norse. I’m going to give it to you real, man.
Q: And the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio?
A: Oh, he’ll be great. He’s an amazing actor, this kid.
Q: And what about another Mad Max with director George Miller. Have you ruled out a cameo?
A: I’ve talked to George, yeah. We had a good chin wag. I kind of dropped out a bit, but I can’t wait to see it.
Release date: Friday April 16, 2010 Genre: Comedy Director: Neil LaBute Studio: Columbia Pictures, Screengems (Sony) Screenplay: Dean Craig Producer(s): William Horberg, Laurence Malkin, Chris Rock, Sidney Kimmel, Share Stallings Cast: Loretta Devine, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldana, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson Official Site:sonypictures.com Rating:Not yet rated Available film art:Death at A Funeral movie posters
Synopsis A re-imagining of “Death at a Funeral,” the 2007 MGM comedy directed by Frank Oz. The plan is to make an ensemble comedy about a funeral ceremony that leads to the digging up of shocking family secrets, as well as misplaced cadavers and indecent exposure. While the original was set in Britain, the new film will take place in an urban American setting.
Read what Jim Vejvoda of ign.com has to say about James Cameron’s, “Avatar“. I saw it and I plan on seeing it again. It’s that good. Give yourself a Christmas present and see this one before it leaves the theaters; but see it 3D if at all possible.
The highly anticipated sci-fi epic Avatar centers on Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paralyzed former Marine who is offered an amazing opportunity after his twin brother dies. Recruited by a big faceless corporation (is there ever any other kind in a movie?), Jake travels to the distant world of Pandora, inhabited by the simple, indigenous Na’vi, blue-skinned humanoids who stand 9′ tall and have tails. Pandora is also home to a valuable mineral that could solve all of Earth’s energy problems … if only those pesky natives didn’t live on top of the richest deposits of it.
Since humans can’t breathe Pandora’s atmosphere, the company has created Avatars, in which human pilots use their consciousness to remotely-control a genetically engineered body that is a hybrid of Na’vi and human DNA. Jake’s deceased brother represented a big investment on the part of the Company, but since he shares the same genome as his twin Jake is offered to take his place as an Avatar driver. Gung-ho for action, Jake agrees and then has the pot further sweetened for him by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the scar-faced leader of the Company’s private military wing. Quaritch offers Jake a deal: he wants Jake, via his Avatar, to spy on the Na’vi, learn their ways and gain their trust so that he can convince them to “relocate” off their mineral-rich land. In return, Quaritch guarantees the Company will pay for the costly operation to cure Jake’s paralysis. Jake eagerly agrees, but a few months into the job finds himself “going native” after falling for Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a beautiful and fierce Na’vi who takes Jake into her tribe. Love and a guilty conscience, along with the realization that he has found a place to belong and call home, propels Jake, in his Avatar form, to switch sides and help the Na’vi make a stand against the increasingly violent encroachment of “the sky people.”
Wow. James Cameron pulled it off. I was a big skeptic about Avatar ever since I saw the promotional footage Cameron showed at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con; the effects, the characters, the hype — none of them were affecting me even though I really wanted them to. I suffered through every Delgo or FernGully or Dances With Wolves joke — and even made a few myself, I’ll admit — and remain shocked that we’re a week away from the movie’s release and no one in the general population seems to be buzzing about the movie let alone fully understands what the hell it’s about. But neither the film’s marketing nor the sizzle reel roadshow that 20th Century Fox and Cameron went on have done Avatar justice. You just have to see it to believe it.
On a technical level, Avatar is a landmark in motion picture history, a film that will be remembered 70 years from now as redefining the boundaries and possibilities of cinema much the way that D.W. Griffith’s films did. It helps audiences take a giant step forward in their suspension of disbelief in what is “real” onscreen, while raising the bar for what mass appeal genre movies can be and achieve. It also validates all the hype and investment in 3-D and motion-capture animation. And if all that sounds too good to be true, then just know that Avatar is a grand, glorious and kick-ass piece of entertainment, an old-fashioned movie gussied up by state of the art filmmaking. Does Cameron cannibalize from his own films here? Sure, you can’t help but think of Aliens (the presence of mech suits and Sigourney Weaver being the most obvious), but to dismiss the film out of hand on that basis would be narrow-minded. After all, every filmmaker poaches from their own work (Scorsese and Tim Burton spring to mind). Cameron simply knows what he does best, and he does all that and more in Avatar.
My apprehension about Avatar dissipated after the first 10 minutes, by which point I knew that I was in great hands. Cameron displays such confidence here that you’d never know it’s been almost 13 years since he’s released a feature film. He has done a Toklien-esque job of creating the world of Pandora, exploring its ecology and zoology and offering an almost anthropological study of the Na’vi. (I know that all sounds very pretentious and maybe even a bit boring to some, but Cameron manages to make it all an organic part of the story as everything on Pandora is connected; the balance of nature there is such that when one part of the environment is damaged or destroyed, everything else is affected by it.) Perhaps even more so than Dances With Wolves, Avatar reminded me of what Malick was attempting to do with The New World — an exploration of nature and a native culture couched in a culture clash/love story where the white hero falls for the chief’s daughter — but done far more effectively and excitingly. (Yes, Avatar is essentially a sci-fi version of the Pocahontas story.)
Still, don’t think that Avatar is some haughty, New Age-y message movie about environmentalism and the horrors and guilt of colonialism. It certainly is about all those things and much more, but it’s ostensibly a Western set in space crossed with an undercover/behind enemy lines story. Indeed, Avatar shows how tough it is to get a Western made in Hollywood these days: you’ve got to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, set it on another planet and shoot it in motion-capture in order to tell the story of the displacement and destruction of Native Americans. (Na’vi, native, get it?) The Na’vi are sort of a cross between the Sioux and the Cherokee. Their war whoops sound like those of Indians in old Westerns (perhaps too much so; even their “horses” sound, well, too much like horses). Quaritch is essentially Andrew Jackson, a tough old soldier driven to “relocate” the natives by any means necessary. “The Company” is the railroad, while “Unobtainium” (a real term) is akin to gold in the Black Hills or oil in Oklahoma.
For a Westerns fan, U.S. history buff, and sci-fi fanboy such as myself, Avatar offered an embarrassment of riches to geek out over. However, Avatar is also just as much a commentary on the state of the world (and imperialism) today as it is the past. Metaphorical nods to America’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are loud and clear and undeniable. The film’s private military company is essentially Blackwater in space. There’s a scene of cataclysmic destruction that overtly suggests 9/11 and the World Trade Center. The terms “terrorists” and “shock and awe” are used. Yet Cameron never gets too lost in a political argument; he is, after all, a filmaker keenly aware of the need to keep domestic audiences happy if he’s to make commercially successful movies. So by making his tale an escapist fantasy, Cameron has swiped a page from the Red Scare playbook and used genre to cloak the tougher and more critical aspects of his message.
Of course, the film’s themes and subtext wouldn’t matter if we didn’t like the characters. Like District 9’s Wikus van de Merwe, Jake Sully is capable of both kindness and treachery and is out to save himself as much as he is the aliens. Avatar is the make or break Hollywood movie for Aussie actor Sam Worthington, especially after Terminator Salvation flopped, and he acquits himself well, striking a nice balance between callowness, ambition and guilt. As for the rest of the cast, Lang is a revelation as Quaritch; it’s tough to believe that this muscle-bound old soldier is the same actor who played cowardly Ike Clanton in Tombstone and the doughy, sleazy tabloid reporter in Manhunter. Sigourney Weaver brings grace (no pun intended) and wit to her role as cranky but goodhearted scientist Grace Augustine, and the darkly comic Giovanni Ribisi shines as the d-bag suit who represents The Company’s interests on Pandora. Worse than Paul Reiser’s corporate stooge in Aliens, Selfridge is a soulless, bigoted careerist who epitomizes the expression “the banality of evil.”
Saldana, hot off of Star Trek, is solid as Neytiri, but the Na’vi themselves are rather one-dimensional characters. Cameron recycles the stereotypical screen depiction of Native Americans, but sidesteps the thornier aspects of it somewhat by making them aliens. Still, the Na’vi are all types we’ve seen before in Westerns: the noble chief, the warrior princess, the earth mother, the tough brave who is the hero’s rival but ultimately comes to respect him. These archetypes (or stereotypes, if you want) coupled with such a familiar story is the film’s biggest drawback. It could be argued that given the fantastical premise of the film and its strange alien characters, it was probably necessary to employ a more traditional storyline, something relatable for an audience since there were enough other elements that could have possibly lost them. Still, if Avatar sequels happen then it would be nice to see the Na’vi given more depth and dimension as characters.
See proof that you’re not in Kansas anymore.
Books can (and will) be written on Avatar’s visual effects. Cameron and his team have achieved a stunning level of photo-realism in the environment and inhabitants of Pandora and of the mech suits and vessels of the humans. (One thought kept going through my mind during the climactic battle: James Cameron should direct the Halo movie.) He gradually introduces us to the various fantastical elements, allowing us time to let these things become real in our minds. For the most part, the yellow eyes of the Na’vi seem alive and expressive (a first for motion-capture characters, in my opinion), although there are a few times when Jake’s looked “dead” to me. The level of detail in the Na’vis’ skin, and in the vegetation and beasts of Pandora, is astounding. Not since seeing Star Wars as a little kid have I felt so completely and magically transported to such a strange, new world.
This gradual approach has its drawbacks, though, in that it contributes to the film’s bloated running time. This is a real bladder buster of a movie, and I’d be amazed if there were any deleted scenes of importance on the eventual DVD release. For example, the “learning to fly your dragon” sequence goes on far too long, with Cameron using it as a travelogue to show off Pandora — and all the nifty and costly CGI landscapes his team created — rather than to advance the story. That’s just one example, but the film definitely could have been tightened up. The running time and the overall formulaic nature of the story is what keeps me from giving Avatar a higher score.
To say that I was pleasantly surprised by Avatar is an understatement. My advice to you is to forget all that you think you know or believe about Avatar. Just go and experience the world of Pandora and revel in the fact that one of the most entertaining filmmakers of our time is back in action.
These are some of the movies arriving on DVD this Tuesday
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Synopsis: A feisty septuagenarian teams with a fearless wilderness ranger to do battle with a vicious band of beasts and villains in this computer-animated adventure scripted by Pixar veteran Bob Peterson and co-directed by Peterson and Monsters, Inc. director Peter Docter. Carl Fredricksen is a 78-year-old balloon salesman. His entire life, Carl has longed to wander the wilds of South America. Then, one day, the irascible senior citizen shocks his neighbors by tying thousands of balloons to his home and finally taking flight. But Carl isn’t alone on his once-in-a-lifetime journey, because stowed away on his front porch is an excitable eight-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell. Later, as the house touches down on the world’s second largest continent, Carl and his unlikely traveling companion step outside to discover that not only is their new front lawn considerably larger, but that the predators therein are much more ferocious than anything they ever faced back home.
Cast: Christopher Plummer, John Ratzenberger, Edward Asner, Paul Eiding, Jordan Nagai; Directed by: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
The Ugly Truth
Synopsis: Katherine Heigl stars as a lovelorn television producer who’s made to run a gauntlet of romantic exploits by a pig-headed morning-show host (played by Gerard Butler) as a way to prove whose romantic methods are more accurate. Legally Blonde’s Robert Luketic directs from a script by Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith, and Nicole Eastman.
Cast: Gerard Butler, Katherine Heigl, Cheryl Hines, Eric Winter; Directed by: Robert Luketic
The Accidental Husband
Synopsis: A radio talk-show host who specializes in repairing damaged relationships finds her life suddenly turned upside down when a listener who took her advice and later regretted doing so resolves to take revenge on the misguided love doctor. Uma Thurman, Colin Firth, Sam Shepard, and Isabella Rossellini star in a romantic comedy directed by Griffin Dunne.
Cast: Uma Thurman, Colin Firth, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Sam Shepard; Directed by: Griffin Dunne
The production company that owns the screen rights for the Terminator franchise will be holding an auction this month. Any takers!
Terminator Salvation production company Halcyon will auction off their screen rights to the Terminator film franchise this month.
The Financial Times claims that any such deal “will test Hollywood intellectual property valuations at a time when film industry profits are under pressure from falling DVD sales.”
The parties interested in purchasing the franchise rights reportedly include Sony Pictures (said to be the leading candidate), Summit Entertainment (the studio behind the Twilight franchise), and Delphi auto parts parent company Platinum Equity.
The deal would include the rights to Terminator Salvation and a potential Terminator 5, but not to the three Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring films.
In so many ways, Max is a modern child. His father is gone. His older sister has outgrown him. His mother, who works late to support the household, is dating a stranger. His teachers are slowly introducing him to the realities of an adult life, offering lessons on tsunamis and supernovas. He has no friends with whom to share his frustrations or figure out his feelings, some combination of betrayal or anger or loneliness. Yet his imagination is strong and provides him with a shelter from the storms of his everyday existence. But when, one evening, his emotions boil over and he runs from his home in a rage, he crosses some imaginary boarder into the realm of the Wild Things.
With that in mind, Where the Wild Things Are isn’t so much a movie for children as it is a movie about children, awash in a complicated sea of emotions that one can only associate with childhood long after becoming an adult. Director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers have crafted an incredibly sophisticated, multi-layered and strangely subversive adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s novel by replicating all the wonder and imagination, all the volatile sadness and emotional uncertainty, of being an innocent kid in a grown-up’s world. The pair seems to grasp that in lacking the vocabulary to fully explain or understand their most complex feelings, children turn inward, drifting into imaginary worlds to make sense of the inexplicable. But all too often, their imaginings are subject to the limits of their own experience, and all the painted vistas and pretended friendships are just as broken and unknowable as the lives they were trying to escape.
When Max crosses an ocean and ends up in the midst of the Wild Things, he quickly proclaims himself the king of this odd assortment of gentle-hearted behemoths. Immediately, Max forms a bond with Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini with both a quiet tenderness and boiling anger). He’s trying to figure out his feelings for K.W. (voiced by Lauren Ambrose), an approximation of Max’s sister in her desire to break away from the pack, away from the people who love and need her the most. Carol’s emotions are unsteady to say the least, prone to abrupt, violent outbursts, but much like Max himself, there’s a great melancholy about the character – the very same melancholy that hangs above almost every sequence of the film. They are characters confused, wanting to love and be loved, but incapable of adapting to life’s inevitable changes.
The other Wild Things are all individually representative of Max’s feelings or emotions. Judith (Catherine O’Hara), the moodiest of the Wild Things, holds a mirror up to Max’s own indignation, saying in one pivotal sequence, “You don’t get to yell at me when I get mad! It’s your job to understand, to make us feel better,” a universal frustration that we’ve all shared as children. Douglas (Chris Cooper) represents Max’s limited sense of reason while Alexander (Paul Dano) echoes his sense of invisibility. Ira (Forest Whitaker) highlights Max’s desire to make peace, to buffer the conflicts between others and within himself.
But what makes the film work – either because or in spite of its artful, indie spirit – is that each of the creatures feel like actual characters and not simply some collection of walking, talking metaphors. They have their own personalities and arcs, and while the group’s conflicts revolve around the construction of a massive, imaginary fort – as opposed to some epic, Disney-esque adventure – they each get their moment to shine. This is in no small part due to the jaw-dropping effects work required to bring them to life, from the full-scale, beautifully-designed suits to the CG used to animate their facial expressions. WTWTA may mark the most aesthetically dynamic integration of practical and digital effects we’ve seen in quite some time, and if you feel yourself wanting to reach out and give Carol a hug, you’d hardly be alone.
Jonze’s direction is appropriately matter-of-fact, never romanticizing the world of the Wild Things. In fact, by virtue of setting most of the film in a dense forest, the monsters are generally the only visual element of the film that feels particularly fantastic. Yes, there’s a desert landscape and the fort itself is impressively grand in its design, but everything here feels like an extension of the natural world. No CG kingdoms anywhere in sight. And Jonze’s decision to film the world with a minimized sense of wonder, focusing instead on the size of things relative to Max – the monsters pose a constant threat of accidental harm – ultimately keeps the focus on Max and his relationships.
Overall, Where the Wild Things Are is a tremendously moving and intelligent film, so much so that it risks alienating audiences who are expecting a more typical adventure. There is humor here, and joy, and amazement, but for every beat of whimsy, there’s one of sadness or confusion. So it’ll be up to the age and maturity of the kids in the audience whether they’ll ultimately “get” all of what the film is aiming at. That said, if you take the film for what it is, you’ll discover a complex and extraordinary accomplishment, as moving as it is odd. A true Wild Thing in itself.
AFI FEST 2009 is making an unprecedented gift to moviegoers: FREE tickets to all festival movies, including red carpet galas. Get your tickets starting October 16 at AFI.com or 866-AFI-FEST. You can also obtain tickets by going to the Festival Box Office/Will Call desk located at the Mann Chinese 6 main lobby starting on October 26. Seats to same-day screenings will also be available via Rush Lines one hour before the screening.
Become a patron of the festival and purchase an AFI FEST Patron Pass, available now. The AFI FEST Patron Pass provides early entry to screenings, lounge access and other benefits. By becoming a festival patron, you help make this free festival possible and support the art of film.
AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi takes place October 30 – November 5 in the heart of historic downtown Hollywood at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the neighboring Mann 6 Theater (in the Hollywood & Highland Center) and the Roosevelt Hotel, then moves to Santa Monica for two days of screenings at AFM, the American Film Market (the largest film market in the North America, where independent movies are bought and sold).
Register here to receive the latest news on AFI FEST e-news.
Release date: Friday September 18, 2009 Genre: Drama Running time: 119 min. Director: Jane Campion Studio: TVA Films/Apparition Producer(s): Jane Campion, Jan Chapman, Caroline Hewitt Screenplay: Jane Campion Cast: Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, Thomas Sangster, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox, Samuel Roukin, Samuel Barnett Official Site:brightstar-movie.com Rating:PG for thematic elements, some sensuality, brief language and incidental smoking Available film art: Bright Star movie posters
Synopsis The tragic but intensely passionate love affair between Romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and the radiant Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is detailed in this romantic period drama from critically acclaimed writer/director Jane Campion.
If any film this year has suffered the one-two punch of bad buzz and worse marketing, it’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Those who’ve spent even a small amount of time reading online sites and movie mags have likely caught wind of problems in the editing room, problems with the script, problems with the director, Stephen Sommers, and, most importantly, problems with the movie itself – rumors which were hardly dispelled by the film’s downright unimpressive trailers. That, coupled with the hesitancy of the die-hard Joe fans to support any adaptation – as well as the fact that today’s kids simply weren’t raised on the classic toys and cartoons – virtually paved the way for a film that appeared as if it’d make Transformers 2 look like Twelfth Night in comparison.
Count us surprised then that G.I. Joe doesn’t disappoint. In fact, taken in the proper spirit, it delivers a relatively action-packed and – dare we say – fun bit of mindless entertainment in a fashion that’s been missing from movie screens this summer. In these days of more serious-minded (and wildly successful) adaptations, it is unexpectedly refreshing for a film to be so wildly “popcorn” without falling into the realm of the unengaging and inane. Let’s make no mistake here, however. This is a B-level action movie with relatively well-drawn characters, a few minor subplots and smartly staged, near-constant action. Shakespeare, it ain’t. For better or worse, it feels very much like Sommers’ The Mummy, chock-a-block with massive set pieces and broad, dramatic beats without ever taking itself too seriously.
When weapons manufacturer McCullen – soon to be known as Destro – tries to frame NATO forces for the theft of his own metal-eating nano-bot rockets, an even more elite Special Forces group enters the picture: G.I. Joe. Soon, a military caravan led by officers Duke and Ripcord is hijacked by the Baroness and her men, thwarted only by the sudden appearance of Scarlett, Snake-Eyes and Heavy Duty, blasting away in true Joe fashion. Eventually, the pair is allowed to tag along with the group on a mission to retrieve the missles before Destro, Baroness, Storm Shadow and the soon-to-be Cobras can use them against strategic, well-populated targets in an effort to… what else?… take over the world!
As Duke and Ripcord prove themselves to be true Joe material, past events for many of the character (particularly Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Duke and the Baroness) play a major factor in the emergence of a figure who may very well become the Cobra Commander of legend. And it is in these minor flashbacks and subtle relationships that actual characters being to take shape – with motivations and emotions that, while not constituting great drama, go far to invest the audience enough to follow along.
The action shifts from dense forests, to subterranean facilities, to the streets of France, to underwater bases, to high-altitude jet fights and a number of places in-between. The major sequences are both intense and sufficiently humorous, laden with eye-rolling, though faintly charming, one-liners and a speaker-shattering, non-stop barrage of explosions, chases, shoot-outs and sword fights. The action is well paced and the effects – much like the cinematography itself – blend the tangibly real and the colorfully cartoonish in a way that captures the spirit of G.I. Joe. There’s no attempt to explain why or how these massive bases might feasibly have been constructed; no effort made to convince the audience that jamming electrodes into a dead person’s skull shouldn’t allow you to replay their last memories; and no real explanation as to why taking over the world is all that appealing to begin with.
It all just is…
You may have heard it stated that this is the perfect movie for eight year olds… or, at the very least, the eight year old that you once were. And while the former is true, the latter is somewhat misleading. G.I. Joe doesn’t require that you awaken your inner-child and dismiss any sense of your adulthood to enjoy it. You just have to take it in the spirit in which it is intended. In fact, there is something rather admirable in Sommers’ attempt to neither pander to his audience nor unnecessarily class-up the source material. The good guys are good guys; the bad guys are bad. The schemes are ridiculous and the characters are broad. But nothing here is ever too much of anything. This is an adult’s interpretation of a childhood phenomenon, and if you’re willing to give it a shot and not expect a work of cinematic art, one suspects that you’ll find yourself entertained enough to give your best, “Yo, Joe!”
IGN Movie paid a visit to Iron Man 2 in Los Angeles where spoke at length with Robert Downey Jr., director Jon Favreau and and Marvel Studios Kevin Feige about the sequel, which just wrapped this month. (Beware spoiler alert)
[Please be advised that this article is potentially spoiler-ish for some.] IGN Movies visited the set of Iron Man 2 on an uncharacteristically rainy day in Los Angeles this past June. While on-set at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, we spoke at length with star Robert Downey Jr., director Jon Favreau, and Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige about the sequel, which just wrapped this month.
The majority of our set visit was spent in Tony Stark’s new and improved workshop/lab. The entire floor is made of shiny, dark glass — which required visitors to wear booties over their shoes so as to not scuff it up — that, in the film, will project holographic images and schematics throughout the lab for Stark to interact with. In the far side of the workshop is the armory where Tony’s Iron Man suits are stored. Curiously, one of them was missing, a mystery that wasn’t solved until it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that Don Cheadle will be wearing a modified version of it as War Machine.
The first scene we observed being shot that had Tony examining a miniature model of the 1974 Stark Expo, a cross between Macworld and the 1964 World’s Fair if it had been staged by the late Howard Stark (played by Mad Men’s John Slattery). Howard hid something of great value on the grounds way back when and now Tony desperately needs to find it. “The key to the future is … where?,” Downey asked in character take after take as the camera swooped over the miniature and settled on his scrutinizing face.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) looks over a model of the 1974 Stark Expo
The biggest surprise we had on set wasn’t even on the schedule for us to see, but Marvel and Favreau were kind enough to arrange for us to meet Scarlett Johansson in costume as the sexy spy Black Widow. She had been filming second unit stuntwork on a nearby soundstage when she graciously took a few moments out to chitchat with us. As you can now tell from the newly released photos, Scarlett is ridiculously hot as Black Widow. She was even more jaw-dropping in person.
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.
Without giving too much away, there are two interconnected personal crises that Tony is dealing with in Iron Man 2 (and alcoholism isn’t one of them): Tony’s lingering father issues and an energy crisis of some sort. The shadow of Tony’s celebrated, brilliant father — a man who helped America win World War II and stay armed during the Cold War — looms over the entire film. Howard’s past somehow holds the key to Tony’s future. (Tony isn’t the only character with daddy issues; Mickey Rourke’s Ivan “Whiplash” Vanko also has them. Vanko and Stark are two sides of the same coin; Vanko even has a famous scientist father, Anton.)
“It’s one of the major themes of the movie, which is that no man is an island. Here’s a guy who’s said, ‘I’m going to run the company myself. I’m going to take control of all of my own technology, use it only for benefit. I’m going to introduce this giant, new Stark Expo to advocate all sorts of new energy sources and all sorts of new technological wonders to the world, the world of tomorrow,’” Feige said. “But he’s a Marvel superhero and so it takes about six months for everything to go to hell once he’s done that.”
Although the sequel won’t be using the famous “Demon in a Bottle” storyline, Iron Man 2 will have echoes of it as it shows Tony succumbing to the pressure he’s under. “About midway through the film he hits rock bottom. Rock bottom is not in alleyway with alcohol alongside of a dumpster. That’s not what it is in this movie,” Feige explained. “But it is all of these things that he’s trying to do and pressuring himself to do. He sort of loses control of that.”
This collapse will affect Tony’s relationships with both Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). “He’s just one of those guys though that thinks he can do everything by themselves and that he can do it best and people start to kind of get turned off by that and turned away by that. Then he does something in a very charming, funny [manner],” Feige revealed. “I think the audience is going to cheer and laugh and it’ll be a high point of the movie, but the other characters aren’t going to be quite as amused.”
In a corner of the workshop there was a relaxation area with Tony’s personal effects and paperwork strewn about. Among the items spotted were a German passport, newspaper articles, a map of Antarctica … and a diagram of Captain America’s shield! Antarctica, Cap … Marvel really is laying the seeds for an Avengers movie in Iron Man 2. Outside the soundstage, several of us in the group of visiting journalists also noticed boxes marked “Project Pegasus.”
In the original Marvel comics, Project Pegasus was a government program that researched unusual forms of energy and also served as a prison for super-villains; in the Ultimates universe, S.H.I.E.L.D. operates the Project Pegasus facility where bizarre and powerful objects are stored. I’m not sure exactly how Project Pegasus is used in Iron Man 2, but it could be related to Howard Stark’s past, an energy crisis, Captain America, or all of the above.
How all of these plot threads play out — and how they may lay the groundwork for future Marvel movies — will become clear when Iron Man 2 finally opens May 7, 2010. Look for our on-set interviews with Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. down the line!
A Good Year 43" x 62" Poster Print - Bus Shelter Style A. New condition. This is a reprint and not an original movie poster. Reproduction, printed on satin finish paper.
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