Iron Fist: Lacking focus, needing passion

Netflix's last Marvel show before it's Defenders series kicked off, Iron Fist, was met with what can be called a less the warm reception. It is now, infamously, one of the harshest reviewed Marvel projects since the Disney buyout. Criticisms focused on bad writing, an unlikable and uninteresting main character, and from my perspective, a lack of focus. The show has its faults, but much like Batman V. Superman, if you look deeper in it, there are some interesting thing bubbling below this smelly swamp of a series.

Before we get into the series, we need to look back on what happened before cameras were rolling and before any real plans were put into place. Back in the year 2000, Marvel was planning on making an Iron Fist film that would star Ray Park (who had played Darth Maul in the Phantom Menace and was a very skilled martial artist). But this was way back in the day when they thought Ben Affleck as Daredevil was a good choice (it wasn't). The project went through multiple directors until it was put indefinitely in development hell. Marvel started hiring writers to work on their less known properties like Iron Fist and in 2010 Rick Wilkes, writer of the xXx Vin Disel films, was hired to write a new draft for the film. Three years later, Marvel said an Iron Fist project would be happening in the near future.

That project however, was not a full length feature film, but a live action series for Netflix. Near the end of 2013 Marvel announced that it would be preparing series for the characters of Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil and yes, Iron Fist. These four series would lead into a Defenders miniseries that would happen after each show had finished. It would be two years until the public heard anything about the Iron Fist series as rumors were circling that Marvel was planning on canceling the series in favor for a Punisher series. Those rumors were debunked as a Marvel executive said that they were holding off on Iron Fist news until Jessica Jones finished, probably to see if the format was the success they thought it would be.

Iron Fist was supposed to come out after Jessica Jones but instead was replaced by Luke Cage after the charcters' breakout performance in Jessica Jones. Scott Buck, a writer and showrunner for the show Dexter, was brought on as the showrunner. This choice, in my opinion, is a large reason why Iron Fist failed as a show but I'll get back to Scott later. It was announced in 2015 that Finn Jones of Game of Thrones fame would be playing Danny Rand/Iron Fist. Immediately cries of white washing ran afowl as Danny Rand in the comics was Asian and was going to be portrayed by a white male as what was seen as a role for an asian actor being turned into another white male savior role.

To be fair, Finn Jones is decent as Danny Rand. I think the writing is to blame for Danny's unlikable at times whinny character. This is where I believe the one of the big problems lie in not only Iron Fist but also in the upcoming Inhumans series and that problem is Scott Buck. Buck, for all your Dexter fans out there, was the showrunner in the three final and worst seasons of Dexter, season 6 being the lowest reviewed out of 8 seasons Dexter had. He had worked previously on the show as a writer, even getting nominated for some awards, but once he was promoted to showrunner the wheels started falling off. Bad storytelling and writing plagued Buck's first run as showrunner and those issues are present in Iron Fist. But Scott Buck is not the only one to blame, some of the blame lies on Marvel themselves.

The truth is, Marvel had no solid plans for the show or the character. What started out as big budget movie was turned into a small budget web series. Also, keep in mind the MCU had not delved into the mystic arts before they announced Iron Fist and the plans for Doctor Strange, Marvel's first attempt at exploring mysticism in their world, were not solid yet. Basically, Marvel had put themselves in a corner. If Doctor Strange bombed financially and critically, mysticism and Iron Fist would be swept by the wayside for other characters and stories. However, Doctor Strange proved to be a success so Iron Fist moved forward. The problem was that now they had to rush everything and rushing never leads to a good product being put out. Add to that the poor choices for writers, both for the movie and the show, as well as a bad choice in showrunner and you have a disaster on your hand.

Can Iron Fist be saved? Yes it can. I believe Finn Jones can do this character right if he has good writing behind him. Marvel has already made the smart choice of removing Scott Buck from the show and replacing him with Raven Metzner, who  most recently worked on the show Sleepy Hollow. Hopefully Metzner will breath new life into the show and the character of Iron Fist. Sadly, Scott Buck is still a part of the Marvel family and his poison is once again striking with the victim this time being the Inhumans show. Criticism over the pilot have been scathing and looks like once again Marvel is paying poorly for their decision to put Buck with another set of characters they had no idea what to do with. Clearly the Buck needs to stop here and Marvel needs to bring on people who are passionate about the characters in order to put out a good product. Scott Buck may be a talented writer but he lacks the passion and skills to do the characters justice as well as put out a good show. While the show Iron Fist lacks focus, what it needs is passion behind it.

How effective was The Blair Witch Project?

It may be hard to imagine but there was a time when making a horror movie with only hand held or low resolution cameras was an unheard of idea. Today, we see a lot of these "found footage" horror movies that have the story told through the video lenses of one of the movies characters. Movies like the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Gallows and As Above So Below have used this method. And I know that now every time a trailer for one of these movies pops up, there are bound to be groans and comments like "really, another one of these?" a bound. So why o why does Hollywood studios greenlight these kind of movies. Well for one, they are incredibly easy to make and require a small budget so even if the movie fails the company doesn't loose money. Another reason is that Hollywood someday hopes to recapture the magic that was The Blair Witch Project.

The 1999 horror movie about three teens getting lost in the woods while researching the legend of a witch whose spirt haunts the woods blew audiences away with its found footage style. Keep in mind, around this time this was ground breaking cinema. Audiences had never seen something like this before. Now they could see what the characters were going through and even feel like they were part of the movie. But look at today with all the found footage horror movies we have today and you might find nothing special about this technique.

For something being billed as "ahead of its time" it seems very dated today. But I will argue that The Blair Witch Project is one of the better found footage horror movies. For stars, it had a damn good marketing project, so good it got people debating on whether the "footage" was real or not. Keep in mind this was when the web was in its early stages and people actually trusted most information. Crew members would go to film festivals to add fuel to the realism side by handing out fliers and asking viewers to come forward if they had any information about the "missing" kids. Staged interviews and fake police reports were even made about the disappearance of these made up characters and the public ate it up. Because the movie had no major stars it had to put its hardest effort in to get the word out about this movie. It had a bold marketing campaign and it was a bold movie, even by today's standards.

It never relies on the typical jump scares found in the Paranormal Activity series but more on the mood and environment. The legend of the witch early on is built up as this legend everyone in the town takes seriously as many people have gone missing or worse, found dead, from going into the supposed cursed woods. Already the viewer knows the outcome but its that little nudge given by the townsfolk treatment of the legend that gets the viewer.

And these woods are pretty damn creepy. This movie capitalizes on those who fear getting lost in the woods. In fact, its kind of like a messed up version of Hansel and Grettle. Think about it: kids go in woods even though they are warned of the danger in the woods, kids encounter danger and nearly die. The nearly part is not in the movie as (SPOILER ALERT) the fate of the three teens is not revealed though its a good chance they are dead. And the funniest thing about the movie is that even with how much they build up this witch, we NEVER see it. That, in my opinion at least, works for the film as it keeps the audience guessing if the witch is real or if something else is going on. It gives that extra fear of the unknown audiences want.

By the end of 1999, this was one of the biggest hits of that year. For a movie made with a $60,000 budget it made nearly $250 million dollars. The equivalent of a home movie was raking in millions by the day. Naturally, the big suits at Hollywood had an idea that would create a major trend in horror movie and movie making in general. They could make a movie for dirt cheap, release it and watch the cash flow in. But if recent found footage movie profits show, that idea failed due to movies in that genre following a formula: People go to weird/haunted place, someone in the group is filming the whole thing for reasons, weird stuff goes down, people die and the movie ends with something jumping at the camera. After a while audiences got fed up with this trend and moved on to something new.

Which brings us to 2016 where a sequel to the popular movie is set to be released in September. It follows the same story from the first movie as a group of teens go into the woods of the Blair Witch, but this time the group is in search of answers to what happened to one of their friends sister. Glimpsing the synopsis you feel the trends coming back and the dread or meh feeling about the movie. But then you see this movie is directed by Adam Wingard. Go ask any fan of horror movies who Adam Wingard is and best guess is they'll say he's one of the best horror movie directors of the modern era with hit movies like The Guest and You're Next under his belt. The guy knows how to make a good horror movie no doubt, but whether he can have the success of The Blair Witch Project has yet to been seen.

Fame was not kind to those involved with the project as most of the cast has gone on to lack luster film success at best. One would think being in one of the highest grossing movies of the year would get you on the map. But no, the movies' stars and directors (yes this movie had TWO directors) all fell off the map with one failed project after another. Seemed like there was a real curse on anyone involved with the project but hopefully the follow up will give its cast some good fortune going forward.

Doctor Strange Review

                                             

The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange is a visually stunning journey into a different side of the M.C.U. we've never seen before.

First, I need to say that I had very little knowledge of the character Doctor Strange or his adventures so I was going into this was a fresh perspective. I should also note that I saw this movie in IMAX 3D and I have to say you are cheating yourself if you see this movie in any other format. The visuals in this movie are mind-binding and stunning, I dare even say that the effects in this movie are better than Inception. I know the trailers made this movie feel like Inception but it's anything but.

In Doctor Strange,  famous doctor Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) goes through a life changing experience after a car crash leaves him without the use of his hands and his search for his cure leads him to a mysterious enclave. He soon learns that this place is on the front line of a battle against dark forces bent on destroying our reality. Strange must now choose between his previous life or a new life as a powerful sorcerer that protects the world.

The story is a resemblance of the first Iron Man in that someone who believes the universe revolves around them learn that they are only a small part in a large universe. Where the two stories differ is that Strange's journey is more spiritual and Stark's is more moral. The tagline to the movie is "Open your mind. Change your reality." a kind of spiritual message that represents what Strange goes through. He's been taught to accept the limitations of our reality but in order to become a powerful sorcerer he must forget everything he knows and open his mind to a world beyond his knowledge.

I like how the movie blended deep spiritual themes with mind bending action. The movie took advantage of the fact that these sorcerers could bend time and reality and created some interesting and unique action scenes. One of my favorite scenes was where Doctor Strange and his friend Mordo (played by Chiwetel Edjiofor) are being chased by the villain (played by Mads Mikkelsen) and his henchmen and the villains use their powers to basically turn New York into an M. C. Escher painting. Powers like that are impressive to look at and make you wonder how they will affect the larger M.C.U. in the future.

I highly recommend seeing this movie, especially in IMAX. It's an entertaining adventure that satisfies both long time fans of the character and anyone new to Doctor Strange.

Finding Dory Review

     Finding Dory, though an unnecessary sequel, is still a solid emotional family film that is up to the high standards audiences set for Pixar films.

I was never of the belief that Finding Nemo needed a sequel, none the less having it to do with the character of Dory, a fish with short term memory. Don't take it the wrong way, I like the character of Dory. She brought humor when it needed to be present and was not as annoying as she could have been. I just did not see the potential of basing a movie around this character, especially given that she had a great story arc in the first movie. Also, Disney has not done well with animated sequels (Toy Story aside). Most end up going straight to video and are basically babysitters for young children as they add no value to the story and botch, or worse destroy, traits of beloved characters. With a character like Dory, there was the risk of making her memory loss trait very annoying and maybe even uncomfortable given that memory loss is a very serious mental disorder. But thankfully, the good people at Pixar put their best into this and what we got was a surprisingly good film.

The story takes place one year after Finding Nemo, and focuses on Dory trying to find her parents after remembering them. And its not just, "oh she left home and her parents were just inside the house the whole time", she, much like Nemo, was taken away from her parents by forces out of her control. It's the basic formula for Pixar movies, character gets taken out of home/comfort zone and must find a way back home or get somewhere safe. But it is the characters and the emotions they go through that get us invested in these stories. We want to see Woody and Buzz get back to Andy, we want to see Marlin find his son, and we want Dory to find her parents. It's the characters and their journey that make the story work.

And probably for the best, this movie has a lot of good characters in it. A good Dory movie would have her interacting with characters and have the characters work off of each other. You have a squid voiced by Ed O'Neil who wants nothing more than to be in Cleveland, a pair of whales voiced by Ty Burrell and Kaitlin Olson, and a pair of seals voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West. The movie does have scenes with Dory on her on and it is very dramatic (I say this in the best way possible). It goes with her character and gives us the emotional moments we look for in Disney movies.

Finding Dory is just as good as its predicessor and is a great film for all members of the family.

Rating: 4 stars

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Review

Popstar makes use of its star filled cast and musically talented stars to give us an entertaining movie experience. The movie stars the comedy music group The Lonely Island (led by SNL alumnus Andy Sandberg) and focuses on an over the top flamboyant artist after his break up with his former band (which consists of fellow Lonely Island members, and directors of the movie, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) forces him to go solo. The movie is a mockumentary of movies like Never Say Never (the Justin Bieber documentary) or This is Us (the One Direction documentary) as it focuses on a musician and the ups and downs of his career.

Fans of The Lonely Island will be more than satisfied with all the new songs the team has created for this movie. After listening to the album I can say that this is my favorite Lonely Island album out of all of them. There are so many catchy and funny songs on the album that will make any fan of the group laugh out loud.

Popstar is not one of those movies you need to think about to much. If you take it at face value you will have an enjoyable time. It can get a little low-brow at times but for every joke that falls flat there's two good ones waiting in the distance. If you are looking to sit down and have a couple a laughs for a while than this is the movie for you.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Warcraft Review

     Warcraft's excellent dedication to the source material its based on should satisfy fans of the game, but for those who are not familiar with it will find that the movie looks beautiful and has stunning action scenes but it lacks an easy to follow story and has some confusing character motivation and choices.

I should start off by noting that I have not played World of Warcraft (or WoW as some call it), the game the movie is based on. I am familiar with some of the terms as the game had a massive presence in pop culture. It's clear that this movie is looking to fill the void left by Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia and many other fantasy franchises that just never got off the ground. The movie also has to fight the uphill battle of adapting a video game with a dedicated fandom into a movie,  a feat never done successfully in Hollywood as seen by critical and box office bombs like Pixels, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and anything Uwe Bowl has directed. 

It's a tough job adapting something like WoW into one movie with its deep lore. Warcraft focuses on the battle between the humans and orcs , a race of creatures who must leave their homeland as it is being destroyed by a dark power and must now conquer the world of the humans in order to survive. This simple premise is buried under many different plots scattered in the movie. You have the conflict, as well as the drama involving the character of "The Guardian" and his magical powers corrupting him, plus the drama in both the orc and human camps, and the idea of an orc/human half breed and a spell caster society and thousands of other non important elements that bog the movie down. It's becoming more common that a movie based on something like a TV show or a video game must cram everything it can into one movie. Imagine having two seasons of Game of Thrones shoved into one movie. There is too much story to follow and very little time for the audience to take a break and get to know the characters.

But it is the deep lore that got people interested in the game in the first place so in a way, it is one of the better video game movies to come out. You can tell that the people involved in the project are fans of the source material and want to make sure it gets adapted in the best way possible. Its a movie for the fans and in that sense is where the movie was destined to fail. Audiences aren't flocking to the fantasy movie like they've done before. This can be chalked up to a lot of things: the rise of comic book movies, the backlash the genre gets due to its very bizarre fandom, how liking anything to do with fantasy (except for Game of Thrones) is viewed as childish and border line bizarre, franchises like The Hobbit wearing people down with its complicated story and many characters, the list goes on. Stories about knights fighting creatures do not have the draw like the stories of caped crusaders fighting men of steel do. But through the change of pop culture, the fandom to WoW has stayed steady and the loyalty to the game's company, Blizzard, has only grown as the years have gone on.

Warcraft represents the good and bad of video game and fantasy adaptations. Convoluted stories that have too many characters and are not easy to follow but it still has that feeling of epic that can only be found in fantasy movies and video games. If you are a fan of the source material and even if you're a little curious to see something like this I recommend you see the movie but those not aware of the source material can skip it.

Grade: C-

X-Men: Apocalypse Review

     Bryan Singer's latest entry to the X-Men franchise may feel by the numbers but delivers the fun and entertainment expected from the franchise with a few nostalgic nods thrown in.

It's the 1980's and after the events of Days of Future Past, mutants have been exposed to the general public and many go about it in different ways.  There are those like Professor Charles Xavier, a mutant pacifist with telepathic powers played by James McAvoy, and Raven a.k.a. Mystique, a shaped shifting mutant played by Jennifer Lawrence, that seek to help and protect mutants and even teach them how to use their powers. On the other end of the spectrum lies those like Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. "Magneto", a mutant that can control magnetic fields played by Michael Fassbender. He goes into hiding only to be drawn out by the ancient mutant known as Apocalypse. Apocalypse is considered the world's first mutant and has superhuman abilities stronger than any mutant that is played by Oscar Isaac. Apocalypse has awaken after a long slumber and now looks to destroy the Earth so that he can rebuild it in his image with the help of his Four Mutant Horsemen: Magneto, Storm, Psylocke, and Angel, and its up to the X-Men to stop him.

It's a very stuffed plot for sure but its easy to follow. What may confuse some viewers is the re-introducing of characters like Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, and Nightcrawler, all characters we've seen in X-Men movies before. The timeline of the X-Men franchise is confusing given what happened in Days of Future Past. Certain movies like Origins: Wolverine and The Last Stand were removed from continuity given the events of the last movie and now with Deadpool who where the story goes. It's that kind of continuity that holds back the X-Men movies from being a continuous story line. It's not something that can be avoided, as actors age the studio needs to look for younger talent to fill the roles of the old cast. It's easy for a reboot to do that if the previous movies failed but with the X-Men movies hold up pretty well so its hard for some people to adjust to these new characters after we've seen them already.

The characters we do know like Xavier, Mystique, and Magneto are given their time here but most of the movie revolves around Apocalypse and the young students. Apocalypse is a great villain, he is menacing, powerful and threatening. A lot of people criticized his look when they first saw it but he looks fine in the movie. The costuming in this movie is bold and stands out as it gets most of the characters in their iconic look and costumes. But back to the story and characters, where First Class and Days of Future Past focused on the Xavier, Mystique, Magneto relationship, this movie puts that on the side in favor of the young X-Men, which is fine even they can be a bit on the bland side save for Nightcrawler and Quicksilver, who again has another gorgeous scene displaying his speed.

X-Men: Apocalypse is entertaining enough to keep you invested in the story but lacks that special something that was in its previous entries. I hear rumor that this is the last X-Men movie Bryan Singer will direct so it will be interesting to see who he wants to take the helm of director for the franchise and where Fox decides to go from here. Do they continue on in their own universe or be like Sony and lend the characters to Disney to be a part of the M.C.U.? Time(and probably reviews and box office numbers) will tell.

Grade: B