DOOMSDAY July 24, 2008
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , 1 comment so farDOOMSDAY is, just simply, a blast. It is also a love letter to genre films of the 1980s, full of affectionate nods to cult faves such as ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, MAD MAX, EXCALIBUR, ALIENS… if, like me, you remember and love those films then you just can’t help falling for this great gory romp. If, on the other hand, you just don’t ‘get’ those old movies, then you are likely to take DOOMSDAY far too seriously than it deserves, or even demands, and actually find that you hate it. On its recent theatrical release, America, it seems, just didn’t know what to make of it.
Neil Marshall is fast becoming the new John Carpenter. Both his earlier films, DOG SOLDERS and THE DESCENT, are great, small horror films that hark back to the simpler days of films like HALLOWEEN, back before all this horror torture-porn that sullies the genre today. THE DESCENT, in particular, is one of the best horror films to emerge in the past twenty years. Tight, effective, with great characters and an edgy script with an uncompromising ending that reminds me of the ending of THE THING. The way Marshall’s first two films referenced the horror films he saw years ago informs how to approach DOOMSDAY.
DOOMSDAY is more of a pedal-to-the-floor action flick than an horror film, but it shares many of the sensibilities of Marshalls earlier fiilms. DOOMSDAY captures the very essence of a 1980s action film, back when stunts were done for real, without wires and CGI-doubles. It’s part disaster flick, part zombie flick, part MAD MAX, part EXCALIBUR, part GLADIATOR. It ought to be a confusing mess but it works, mostly because Marshall knows and loves so well the films he is referencing. They simply don’t make films like this anymore. Just look at INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL- no matter how much it tries to emulate the 80s-vibe of the original RAIDERS, it simply falls flat. Where Spielberg failed, Marshall actually delivers, mainly by filming in the old-school way, keeping it simple and pretty much dropping CGI completely. Ironically, its probably just how Lucas should have approached the STAR WARS prequels.
It’ll be interesting to see what Marshall does next- having completed two horror films and now an action film, with all three referencing the old films he loved, it is perhaps time for him to raise the bar and demonstrate more of his own voice without displaying his inspirations so obviously. That said, its refreshing to see a film-maker with such old-school sensilbilities making films that display his own voice rather than those of a committee of marketing people.
AVP2: REQUIEM FOR A FRANCHISE July 2, 2008
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , 1 comment so farI love ALIEN. I can live with ALIENS, think ALIEN 3 might have been a masterpiece had the studio left it alone, and… well, I kinda pretend that the fourth film never happened to be honest. But even the fourth film is a work of art compared to AVP2.
The Alien franchise oddly defines how Hollywood works- the first film is, despite it’s genre borrowings, a classic. It has some of the finest production design of any film, ever, a great cast, a typically ’70s slow pace and a sense of realism that belies the subject matter. Hollywood, of course, loves to wring any moneymaker dry. Considering what Fox did with the PLANET OF THE APES films, what happened next was inevitable. Anybody who loved ALIEN back in ‘79 and thought Hollywood would leave well alone was sadly delusional. ALIENS was typical’80s Hollywood, back when Rambo and dumb action flicks reigned supreme. Gung-ho action aside, ALIENS also demystified the Alien by creating the superfluous Alien Queen, just to labour the motherhood/Ripley subtext with the subtlety of a brick -typical Cameron. I guess the fanbase was left split into two camps- those that preferred the original and those that preferred the sequel. Neither camp would be fully happy with the next film- ALIEN 3 started with an arthouse-movie atitude, back towards the ‘feel’ of the original film, but the Studio got cold feet and the final film shows this all too plainly, with the film as dysfunctional and twisted as the inmates of the film’s prison. Just to prove that even after three films Hollywood can’t ever learn the lessons of the past though, ALIEN:RESURRECTION failed to live up to it’s title in every way. It suffered every failing of ALIEN 3, in that there were good ideas not followed through and plenty of other ideas that should never have seen the light of day.
What has always bugged me is that the franchise isn’t titled RIPLEY IN SPACE- it’s ALIEN, and yet the studio always seemed obsessed with Ripley rather than the titular creature. Now, I adore Sigourney Weaver’s acting in the films, she is wonderful, but really, the star of the films is H R Giger and his monstrous Alien designs. And I think that’s where the films went wrong. But nothing is as wrong as the conceit of the dreaded ALIEN VERSUS PREDATOR films.
I mean really, it may work for a comic but as a movie? It sums up pretty much everything wrong with Hollywood these days, so bereft of original ideas and hellbent on marketing well-known properties, the business is wallowing in the depths of nauseating movies based on tv shows and comicbooks. Even the STAR TREK franchise has devolved into what is basically a remake of the original 60s tv show. You can imagine the boffins behind these films, thinking about how to make a fifth ALIEN film… “hey, I can’t think of anything, but here, look- there’s this comic!”
But AVP2… well, words pretty much fail me. I watched the film fearing the worst and was aghast throughout. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can prepare you for the banal stupidity of this film, no matter how low your expectations. A PredAlien (great idea, NOT) runs amock on a Predator ship that, after the first film, conveniently hangs around in Earth orbit whilst the creature hatches/grows to adulthood. The ship spectacularly crashes to Earth in a huge smoking fireball that no-one on the planet sees or hears other than one bloke and his son hunting in the woods. Nasa and all the satellites in orbit just happen to be looking the other way? Oh well, a hunting pack of facehuggers soon chase down and deal with the unfortunate witnesses. Elsewhere, a Predator in his apartment back home gets a video postcard of the proceedings and jumps in his spaceship to Earth. Seemingly hellbent on hiding all the evidence of the mishap by nuking the crashed ship (again, no-one on the planet seems to notice) and melting the remains of victims, when he is eventually noticed by a cop, he oddly decides to skin him alive and hang the corpse up for everyone to see. What happened to hiding all the evidence?
The ultimate sacrilage though is the name of our ‘hero’, who arrives in town on a bus and is named, gosh, Dallas. Whose idea was that? Did they think the fans would appreciate a nod back to the original film? Why not name the GI Jane character back from Iraq Ripley and be done with it? As if anybody watching this film needs reminding of the first film and of how stupid films have become in nearly 30 years. The characters are all unlikeable dumb cannon-fodder for the Aliens and Predator, it’s like a FRIDAY THE 13th Giger-movie. Well, that’s what it is-how many times can an Alien smash someones head in with its tongue, how many ways can the Predator despatch an Alien with his funky gadgets?
The effects must have been poor considering how dark the film is, it looks horrible. The direction is, well…no single image in the film betrays any imagination. It all looks like a videogame tv-movie. The ALIEN franchise is dead; it’s buried by this turd of a movie. I wonder what Ridley Scott thought of it, had he wasted his time to watch it (which I doubt). Horrible. just horrible.