Pandorum (2009): A welcome addition to the "spaceship as haunted house" sub-genre of horror sci-fi (which also includes Alien and Event Horizon), Pandorum see flight screw member Bower (Ben Foster) awaken from suspended animation on a massive starship heading to the planet Tanis - which is supposedly future-mankind's last hope for survival after Earth's resources have been sucked dry.The suspended animation has left Bower with temporary amnesia, but he quickly discovers things aren't right on the ship and he is not the only person awake.
There's very little originality in Pandorum (and it's great for a 'spot the homage' drinking game), with the majority of the important plot twists being very predictable, but the film is well made and well acted, with some great scenery, interesting ghoulish monsters and nicely-paced excitement and thrills throughout.
It was a movie I'd wanted to see since it came out and I wasn't disappointed.
Jumper (2006): Another film I'd wanted to see for quite some time and I ended up being only slightly disappointed by, after I'd heard a lot of very bad things about it.David Rice (Hayden 'Anakin Skywalker' Christensen) discovers he has the mutant ability to teleport - like Nightcrawler of The X-Men, but without the sulphery aftertaste and smoke. He ends up living a hedonistic lifestyle of global travel, robbing all the money he wants from banks, and soulless hook-ups with women in bars.
But after eight years of this great life, he discovers there's a bigger picture - a larger mythology is suggested (but never explained) with an organisation called the Paladins tracking down and killing 'jumpers'.
Samuel 'Mace Windu' L. Jackson is the white-haired Paladin on David's trail, who cites religion as his justification for killing mutants, but we never know if that's just his personal raison d'etre or the mission statement of all Paladins.
It doesn't help that the two jumpers we get to know - David and Jamie Bell's Griffin - aren't particularly sympathetic characters, with Griffin crippled by one of those hideous Hollywood faux-European garbled accents that could be cockney, could be Irish, could be anything.
The effects win the day in Jumper, yet despite a worldwide playground and some stunning set pieces, it feels like a very small and incomplete film; almost a prequel (oh, Hayden... not again!) to a more developed movie that might actually explain what's going on... and why we should care.
Super Hero Squad Show - Hero Up! Although the theme tune of Super Hero Squad may not have the insane Shonen Knife vibe of the Teen Titans, it's still a pretty mighty ear-worm and will get stuck in your head (you have been warned).This DVD features the first six episodes of this addictive kids' cartoon serial (which in my geeky brain I see as the cartoon show that the characters in the Marvel Universe watch about themselves), where the heroes live, permanently in their costumed identities, in Super Hero City (the mayor is Stan 'The Man' Lee himself!), while the villains, who all work for Doctor Doom, live outside the city in a gorgeous lair shaped like a Dungeons & Dragons' beholder!
The overarching plot of the serial is that during a fight between Iron Man and Doctor Doom the crystalline Infinity Sword was shattered and both sides are now chasing down the powerful, magic shards of the sword (known as 'fractals') in an effort to rebuild the reality-altering sword.
The character designs are based on those small, 'deformed' figures you can find in Toys R Us, and while their personalities are toned down and slightly stereotypical (e.g. the Silver Surfer is a bit of a cosmic stoner, Thor is very vain, Hawkeye's a jerk, Falcon is a joker etc), the writing is perfect and the individual stories may be simple but that doesn't mean silly.
Kids will love the show - it's fast, colourful and funny - but adults, especially those up on their Marvel lore, will be entertained by it as well... and singing the theme tune to themselves for days afterward.
Volume two is due out in the United States in November.
Saw Jumper on TV recently and, yeah, it was also a film I had been meaning to see for some time. The end left we thinking, "Where's the rest of the movie?" It sort of just ends, without explaining about Jumpers, about his mum, about why the Paladins have to kill all Jumpers. It was a short film as it was, so an extra half an hour with a bit of explanation would've made this a decent film.
ReplyDeleteI think they were (are?) thinking of doing a couple of sequels but, I suspect, the first film didn't make enough money and wasn't well received so these sequels have been shelved. A pity because the effects - and the idea of teleporting a double-decker bus to use as a weapon - were very good.
And I loved Teen Titans so I may have to look out for the Super Hero Squad Show - although my wife already chuckles at how much kid stuff (i.e. cartoons) I already watch.
Sounds like we're on the same page when it comes to Jumper. Clearly written as the start of a series, but it failed to grasp why Star Wars spawned sequels: because it was self-contained. So many films fail at this these days, seemingly believing that a sequel (or sequels) is guaranteed.
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