Friday, August 4, 2017
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.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
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.
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.
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