Disney’s latest animated effort continues their strong trend since Pixar’s John Lasseter too over their animation studio. The studio salvaged what it could out of the messes of Meet the Robinsons and Bolt before starting a string of hits. The last three before Big Hero 6 especially have been really excellent. Big Hero 6 brings continues this strong trend. I don’t know that I liked it quite as much as Wreck it Ralph, but it is still an excellent addition to Disney’s canon.

Big Hero 6 is also the first time Disney has leveraged their purchase of purchase of Marvel as something more than access to the biggest of superheroes. The Big Hero 6 did start as a Marvel comic, though not a particularly successful or memorable one. It was just one more on the pile of, no matter their merit, short lived and largely forgotten superhero teams. It was honestly the perfect thing for Disney to unearth out of their new treasure trove of characters and make their own. It would likely get the attention of Marvel fans that might not be interested in Disney movies without alienating them for changes. It is also a superhero story without being too much of a superhero story. It kind of lets them have the best of both worlds.

That wouldn’t matter if the movie wasn’t good, and it is. Disney’s 3D animation has come a long way from the days of Chicken Little; they are now at least on par with Pixar and Dreamworks. There is a ton of really great animation in this movie, whether it is Hiro and Baymax flying around the stupidly named city of San Fransokyo or the various uses the villains microbots are put to. This movie looks really good.

Big Hero 6 is about Hiro, a young boy struggling with the loss of some family members. He is helped out by a puffy nursing robot invented by his brother, Baymax. Hiro is a genius, and was accepted at a young age into the same robotics program as his older brother. Unfortunately, his brother is killed in a fire at the University; a fire that Hiro learns is not an accident. So he and his brother’s classmates use their research to find out what exactly happened.

While the movie is called Big Hero 6, it is really only about two characters. Hiro and Baymax are very well explored; the rest of the cast is barely fleshed out beyond one or two traits. That is not really a problem. The emotional journey that Hiro and Baymax take is definitely worth the price of admission. However, I can’t help but feel that the other four of the six are underutilized. It is more understandable with the villain, since a big part of the movie is the mystery of exactly who that villain is. I can’t fault the film to much when the central plotline is very well done, but somehow it left me wanting more in a bad way. It felt a little too slight.

In all, Big Hero 6 is an excellent movie. It uses the currently very popular superhero genre to tell a very human story. A story for children that is not necessarily childish. It is just the sort of movie that Pixar made its reputation making, good children movies that are entertaining for everybody.

Christopher Nolan excels at making movies that seem to require deeper thought to truly get. Of course, when one take the time to think deeply about the themes in his films, it soon becomes apparent that their depth is mostly illusion. Nolan makes the thinking man’s blockbusters because most blockbusters actively discourage thought. His movies are intricate puzzles boxes that require some work to figure out, but once you figure out the trick they are simple. I don’t mean to sound like I don’t like Nolan’s films, I really like them. His trilogy of Batman movies are the top of the line among the incredibly popular superhero movies. And while it has been a long time since I’ve seen Insomnia or Memento, The Prestige –for my money the best Nolan film – and Inception are both truly excellent. Interstellar is right in line with all of those films. While not without its flaws, it is a truly excellent movie.

Interstellar stars Coop (Matthew McConaghey), a pilot and engineer turned farmer after war and drought kills the majority of the people living on earth, who must decide whether to pilot a NASA mission through a wormhole to another galaxy to find a new planet for humanity to colonize even though that means leaving his two young children on alone for what will assuredly be years. It paints humanity is desperate, barely surviving. Coop has to go on the mission to save his family, and all of humanity, but doing so means abandoning them. It is a compelling motivation.

Interstellar feels like a throwback science fiction movie. Most sci-fi movies since Star Wars have been influenced by that pop culture giant. Look at this summer big hit Guardians of the Galaxy; that movie is Star Wars through a Marvel superhero lens. They may take place in space, but science tends to be pretty far down the list of their concerns. Interstellar, whatever flaws it may have, is about the science of space travel. The wonder on display in its visuals is unforgettable, whether it is skimming the rings of Saturn or exploring the frozen clouds of a faraway planet. The film also spends plenty of time showing explaining the nature of wormholes and black holes, as well as things like relativity and time travel.

The biggest problem with Interstellar is that it just feels overstuffed. The film is long, nearly three hours, and it still manages to feel rushed at times. It jumps from luxuriously slow, beautiful shots of space and alien planets to speeding through the coda like it is caught in a whirlwind. This rushed feeling mostly comes from the scenes back on earth once Coop leaves. It shows enough to be tantalizing while not spending enough time to develop any of the characters, besides Murph, beyond a single note. She has an acquaintance, maybe a boyfriend, maybe just a coworker, that helps her out, but we learn nothing about him. Her brother and his family get only slightly more time. The team in space is much better developed; their motivations are all much clearer. It is easier to understand their stances and the pressures on each of them.

This movie leaves the viewer with a lot to process. It is a big movie. But I honestly can’t think of a better use of three hours than to see Interstellar if you haven’t. It goes a lot of places, and wraps around itself like a Gordian Knot, making for a movie that deserves to be thought about. Interstellar is probably the best movie I’ve seen this year, and even though I think it is more empty than it seems once everything is untangled it is still worth untangling.

And Fall/Winter Preview

I wrote about 20 movies in my summer movie preview. Of those 20, I went and saw only 8; though to be fair two of them were pushed back to next year. Those I didn’t see either looked much less interesting when they finally came out or maybe weren’t playing near me (I live in the backwoods of nowhere) or maybe I just missed them. Whatever the case, I did see 8 movies this summer. Though the highs were pretty high, I would call this a definite down year for summer movies. There was nothing this year as good as The World’s End last year and nothing approaching the trifecta of The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers and John Carter (Don’t question John Carter inclusion, I’ll fight for that movie. I really love it) from the year before. Still, there were a handful of movies that were really good.

8: Amazing Spider-Man 2. There was almost nothing to like in this movie. Just a blah experience.

7: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There were glimpses of competence here, but it is mostly just kind of gross.

6: The Expendables 3. This was mostly enjoyable, but it feels like a case of diminishing returns. This series feels a little tired.

5: Hercules. Flawed, yes, but so darn enjoyable. Dwayne Johnson really sells the physicality of the role even when the plot goes to some stupid places.

4: X-Men Days of Future Past. What an amazing recovery for a faltering series. First Class was good, but I doubted their ability to make it gel with the first three. Singer managed it, while not excising just enough of the cancerous X3 to keep things palatable. I want to see where this goes next.

3: Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Between this and GotG, this was Marvel Studios best summer yet. As far as

2: Godzilla. This movie really rocked. My expectations were guarded, I’ve seen what Americans do with Godzilla before, but this turned out to be awesome. They may have spent a little too much time with characters that weren’t Godzilla, but they let him be a good guy for the first time in forever. It was just great.

1: Guardians of the Galaxy. Really, this was just the best thing to hit theaters this summer. A perfectly fun film.

It is a top heavy list; lots of bad at the bottom and lots of good at the top. I am usually pretty good at determining what movies to go see, but this year I missed a few that looked like they were good, like Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Edge of Tomorrow. Not having seen either of them, I still feel confident saying that both of them would have been better than Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Next summer might be better, it will Avengers 2, but I just hope that I do better at weeding through the crap.

How about this fall? There is a good handful of movies coming out before the end of the year. I am sure there are a lot of great movies coming out that I’ve missed. Please, inform me of them, I want to know. However, these are the ones I am aware of.

Book of Life: This is a really neat looking animated film. The preview I saw in front of TMNT looked nice.

Interstellar: I’ll stop watching Christopher Nolan movies when they stop being good. He hasn’t disappointed me yet.

Big Hero 6: Disney has been hitting it out of the park in the last few years, and this one is based on an obscure Marvel property. It looks distinctly Pixar-ish, which is a big compliment.

The Imitation Game: All I know about this is that it stars Benedict Cumberbatch, which is enough for me.

Exodus: Gods and Kings: I like everything I’ve seen about this movie so far. Ridley Scott has gotten it all right too many times for me to not be excited for something he’s done.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies: This is going to be bittersweet. I have greatly enjoyed the first two Hobbit movies and I fully expect to enjoy this one. But it is also likely to be the last trip we get to take to Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth. I am going to miss it.

American Sniper: I added this to the list based solely on the fact that it is directed by Clint Eastwood. Angry old man or not, that man can direct a movie.

Anything I didn’t mention look good? Tell me about it in the comments.

I almost didn’t go see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for several reasons. Reasons such as my familiarity of the past work of the director and producer, the nasty looking redesigns for the Turtles, and bad reviews it got from just about everywhere. However, thanks to my little brother, I ended up seeing this on a slow Wednesday afternoon. My initial instincts were correct, I should have skipped it. There are a few bright spots, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an ugly, stupid mess of a movie that is embarrassed by its own existence.

There are some bright spots. The biggest of which is the characterization of the turtles themselves. Leo, Donny, Mike and Raph’s personalities are all perfectly presented on the screen. Of course, even this bright spot isn’t perfect. It isn’t that their characterization is as deep as the line from the old cartoon. You know, “Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, Raphael is cool but rude, Michaelangelo is a party dude.” It is that while the turtles are all just like they should be, but the story isn’t about them. In no way do any of them change, they are what they are. Raphael is mad because Leonardo was made the leader, until he is not. He simply stops being mad. That is closest any of the turtles gets to a character arc. Also, the avalanche chase scene is really good, despite not making any sense.

The rest is not so good. The film hinges on April O’Neil, played by Megan Fox. She is a stifled reporter, wanting to make her name but stuck doing fluff pieces. Of course, that is probably what she deserves, since when she has proof of her ridiculous claims about hulking vigilante turtles she crafts a conspiracy theory wall focusing on her old pet turtles and neglects to show her boss the picture she took of them. The picture that she shows the bad guys two scenes later to get him to believe her. Oh and yes, pet turtles because the Turtles are her former pets. The villain’s plan makes so little sense that I am going not even going to try to discuss it. It is just overly elaborate and dumb.

When I first saw these Ninja Turtles, I thought they looked awful. They are hideous, hulking monstrosities, more nightmare fuel than ninjas. I did like the little accents each turtle added to their costume, it really helped them stand out as individuals. And as bad as the Turtles looked, they were amazing compared to Splinter. I don’t know what happened there. Did somebody think that awful CG rat looked good? It is significantly less real looking than Splinter from the original Ninja Turtles movie. He looks unbelievably bad. Then there is Shredder, who appears more like a rejected Transformer than an evil ninja master.

None of this should be surprising to anyone who knows what else the people behind this movie. Director Jonathon Liebesman was previously responsible for turds like Battle: Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans. Both of them were confusingly shot and poorly constructed. Then there is Producer Michael Bay, the name attached to this movie to sell it. Bay makes shit movies, The Rock somewhat excepted. The Transformers series is a series that always makes tons of money yet hasn’t provided a worthwhile second of entertainment.

The worst part of the movie, though, is how embarrassed it is by its very concept. It goes to great lengths to mock the very premise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It waffles between wanting to be a children’s movie, which it should be, and doing its best to earn that PG-13 rating. It is as if it tried to be a gritty reboot, only for everyone to realize how dumb that idea is, so it tries to get back to that cartoony romp. Unfortunately, it leaves a lot of the stupid gritty stuff in there. This is a movie with no confidence, no creative vision. This is not a movie made to tell a story, it is a movie made to make money.

I love the Ninja Turtles. Each incarnation of the cartoon has something to recommend about it, even the cheap, childish version that I grew up with. This is a movie made simply to cash in on the nostalgia and good will this franchise has. The charm of the Turtles manages to shine through at times, even in a mess like this, but it doesn’t stop this from being a bad movie.

*

As I was writing a Summer Movie Roundup post, I realized that I never actually posted my review of Captain America 2.  After debating with myself for at least 45 seconds, I decided to go ahead and post it.  

The great Marvel movie machine just keeps pumping them out. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, much like the seven or so films the precede it, is a well-constructed, slick action movie. Despite Marvel Studios pumping this out right on schedule, they do manage to make each character’s movie have their own feel. The Iron Man series relies heavily on Downey Jr’s charm and feels the most like a straight superhero movie. Thor has the whole space fantasy thing going for it. Cap’s movies seem to be the most about this Marvel universe. When Iron Man 2 heavily featured Nick Fury and Black Widow, it felt out of place, like the whole movie was preempted to set up the Avengers. When the first Captain America introduced what appeared to be an early incarnation of SHIELD, it worked. The Winter Soldier is the Marvel movie most reliant on the existence of the rest of this loose series, but it is also one of the only ones to really successfully tie things together. The heavy reliance on SHIELD, Fury and Widow makes more sense for Captain America than for the others.

The Winter Soldier starts with Captain America leading Black Widow and a small team of SHIELD Agents to save a SHIELD ship that had gone astray and been highjacked by some mercenaries. While the mission is successful, Cap discovers that Black Widow had another mission that Fury didn’t tell him about. This, and revelations about SHIELD’s future plans that Fury shows Cap after he confronts him, makes him very uncomfortable with his role in working with SHIELD. While Cap contemplates his present and future, the forces working behind the scenes make their move and take out Nick Fury. Before he is eliminated from the action, Fury goes to Cap and tells him not to trust SHIELD. From then on, it is Captain America versus SHIELD, with Cap unsure of whom he can trust. At times it seems like a comic book James Bond movie, others just a straight up action film, but it is always entertaining.

While it does run a little long, The Winter Soldier is a lot of fun. The special effects are as good as always and the acting is better than most of the studios output. Chris Evans does both a good job with the action as Captain America as well as selling his difficulties with modern life. There is also an immediate chemistry with Anthony Mackie’s Sam/Falcon. Sam Jackson is badass as always. I really think Scarlett Johansson really nailed Black Widow this time. In previous movies, she has played her as deliberately emotionless. However, there is a thin line between affecting no emotions and being a wooden actor. Here, because she is allowed to show more emotion, it is easier to see when she is deliberately showing none.

It is a film unafraid of comic book stuff. Characters that were set up in the first film that most people didn’t expect to appear again, especially in anything close to their comic book forms show up. There is little explanation for Falcon’s wings. They are treated as something that just exists. It is also unafraid to radically shake up the status of the Marvel Movie Universe. That is an odd thing. While I think it can assumed that most of the people that watched Avengers will likely watch The Winter Soldier, the fact is that when people show up to the theater next year to watch Avengers 2, the world of that film will not be the same as they left it after the first movie. That was not necessarily true after Iron Man 3 or Thor 2. Of course, Captain America is the character most tied to the Avengers. His first movie even has the subtitle The First Avenger. While the Thor and Iron Man movies can stand on their own, the Captain America movies have so far been Avengers .5 and 1.5.

Still, despite my love of Thor, The Winter Soldier is Marvel’s best movie. It has some of the best action scenes and plot that keeps moving and keeps the viewer guessing without being stupid. It doesn’t quite have the high stakes punch as the Avengers, but it has so much more heart. The characters don’t change in The Avengers, the merely react. In The Winter Soldier, Captain America and his relationship with the world change. But so do Fury, and Widow, and Falcon and SHIELD itself all change. Except for Loki and Thor, the threat of the Avengers was largely impersonal. Here, the threat is a direct result of the actions of the characters, starting with Captain America in the 1940s. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is simply very, very good.

These Marvel reviews are starting to get old. Guardians of the Galaxy is another home run for the Marvel movie team. In fact, it may be their best film yet. While GotG is based on a comic book, it is based on one with much less history and with fewer (some might say no) classic stories than the likes of Captain America or Iron Man. That gives the team a little more freedom than with previous movies. This is not at all just another superhero movie; this is Star Wars through the Marvel movie lens. It is amazing, just a blast from start to finish.

One thing Guardians of the Galaxy takes from Star Wars that many of its imitators miss is the comedy. Star Wars had plenty of humor, mostly thanks to the Droids and Han Solo. Even the prequel movies lost that for the most part. I would go so far as to say that this is Marvel’s first comedy. While it has the requisite action and adventure, as well as one of the most fun sci-fi universes I’ve seen in a while, the humor is the part that stick out the most. Luckily, it is very funny.

Chris Pratt takes a star turn as Peter “Star-Lord” Quill, a man who was abducted from Earth as a child and makes his way in the Galaxy a kind of space-Indiana Jones, the fortune and glory version from Temple of Doom. He is eventually joined by the very Solo/Chewbacca team of Rocket Racoon (he’s a raccoon) and Groot (a sentient tree-man), the green skinned assassin Gamora and the hugely muscled and overly literal Drax the Destroyer. They band together first to sell a very valuable artifact Quill has found before eventually deciding to save the Galaxy from the power mad Ronan the Accuser.

The humor works to ease the viewer in to the plethora of sci-fi concepts the movie throws at them. There is Thanos in the craggy purple flesh, the Kree Empire, Nova Corps and planet that is a giant head. The whole thing would not fly if they tried to make it as dour and joyless as say, Man of Steel. But as a comedy it works. It is just pure fun from start to finish. What is amazing is how much it gets you to care about this group of wackadoos. Before they can come together as a team, they are completely broken down. Star-Lord is stuck in a state of retarded adolescence, having not really matured from when he was taken as a child. He has to face that. Drax has to finally accept the loss of his family and let go of his anger. Yes, it is the same kind of small growth that is endemic to superhero origin stories, since this one is already set in space it starts out with action.

There are just so many excellent set pieces. There is breakout from space jail, the three-way fight in the crowded street over the macguffin that drives the plot and the aforementioned giant head planet. Each of these scenes is excellent. Guardians of the Galaxy captures the imagination and joy that Star Wars did, that The Avenger did. It also is the least dependent on the greater Marvel Universe. They may have gone out of their way to lead into this movie with nods to what was coming in The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy stands alone. It stands alone the best film produced by Marvel Studios yet. More like this, please.

I can’t in good conscience call Hercules a good movie. It is not. It has many glaring faults. However, I can’t say that I did not greatly enjoy watching it. This film is much like its star. Dwayne Johnson is almost always entertaining; affable and watchable even when the material he is working with isn’t worth your time. Hercules is generally charming and enjoyable, but large parts of it are simply poorly made.

While the film tries to portray the overtly mythological elements of Hercules and his origins as too ridiculous to believe, merely legends created by his nephew Iolaus to scare his enemies, the feats it does show him complete are just as ridiculous. Plus, there is the fact that there is nothing that seems unbelievable with Dwayne Johnson in the title role. If the movie tells me he can wrestle a lion the size of an elephant, then I believe The Rock can do it. Johnson’s Hercules is great. He is larger than life; that perfect combination of heart and menace. The supporting cast is largely good as well. Hercules’s gang is given just enough characterization that they feel like a group of old friends.

It also features some very well constructed action scenes. They are patently ridiculous, but enjoyable. Sure, Herc spends a lot of time training some farmers to form a phalanx, but when battle comes, he and his friends stand outside and fight on their own. Still, the action is reasonably stylish and perfectly comprehensible. It is fun to watch. To go with the ridiculous nature of the fights, there is also a heaping dose of humor. Aside from Hercules himself, the rest of the characters seem to recognize the ridiculousness of the scenarios in which they find themselves. The humor mostly lands.

The big problems are numerous and obvious. There are instances of lack of continuity from shot to shot. In one scene Hercules enters without his weapon, a fearsome looking club, but a few shots later it is there. It makes no sense for it to be there unless Hercules brought it and the viewer clearly saw it didn’t. The premise of a late heel turn simply doesn’t work with what came before it. It isn’t surprising, you almost have to see it coming, and it is just nonsensical. There are plenty of twists like that heel turn, twists that are both obvious and unearned. Then there is the supposed mystery about whether or not Hercules killed his family, as in the actual myths. There is no way that anyone could believe the Hercules portrayed in this movie is at all capable of such a thing.

Hercules is fun to watch, easy to enjoy and severely flawed. You have to fight the urge to mock the more obvious and blatant head scratching moments. Still, despite staring right into these flaws, I found myself having a lot of fun. Anyone going to see this movie wants to see Dwayne Johnson perform legendary feats as Hercules, and that the film delivers. You see him kill a half-dozen men with one blow, Use one giant wolf to batter another giant wolf to death and throw a charging horse. It is amazing. I can’t say Hercules is good, I can’t even recommend anyone watch it at all, but I definitely enjoyed it.

I recently watched The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). I love that movie. I can easily understand someone disagreeing with this. Though it shares the name of a famous novel, it is only loosely based on it. It is not just an abridged version; it has been drastically altered. That being said, judged simply as a movie about revenge rather than an adaptation of a classic, it is really good. It isn’t the best swashbuckler around, but those come around infrequently enough that even a merely pretty good one is reason to celebrate. And I love swashbucklers. Give me a movie with adventure and fencing and fun banter and I’ll watch it all day.

This is a genre that I have always loved. Growing up my brother’s and I had The Princess Bride constantly being played in the VCR. It is still among my all-time favorite movies. We also watched a lot of The Three Musketeers (1993), but I don’t recall that one actually being very good. The late 90’s brought a few more, like The Mask of Zorro and The Man in the Iron Mask. (I realize how many of the films I’ve mentioned are based on Dumas books.) That was about the same time that I went back and watched some of the classics of the genre. Stuff like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood, both starring Errol Flynn.

But the Count of Monte Cristo, it is pretty good. It’s got a really good cast: Jim Caveziel, Guy Pearce and Richard Harris are the big three. Plus, it features Man of Steel’s Henry Cavill in an early role. While it has nothing of the complexity of the novel, it is an excellent portrayal of some universal themes: jealousy, love, despair, betrayal and most of all revenge. It does this with enough humor to keep everything enjoyable. Terrible things happen to good people, but they never seem to lose their sense of humor about it.

The standout scene is easily the final showdown in at an old, crumbling building and the field outside of it. After a brief swordfight in the building, everything comes out, all the betrayals and plots are laid bare. Count Mondego, the villain, is completely defeated, but he manages to escape. Finally letting go of his desire for revenge, Dantes lets him go. However, Mondego stops not far into his escape. He looks down the deserted road and countryside and realizes that there is nowhere and no one for him to run. So he returns to force that final confrontation. It is his character throughout the film that he is jealous of Dantes no matter what Dantes has. Even when he takes it, it doesn’t make him happy. He could work to rebuild his life. He still has his title to protect him. But, in his words, he “can’t live in a world where [Dantes] has everything and [he] has nothing.” Even though he knows fighting him won’t solve any of his problems, that is still what he chooses to do.

It is just a really enjoyable movie. Flawed, to be sure, but eminently watchable. It came to mind for me this week because I have a thing for stories with this one’s set up of two friends, two brothers, that either turn on each other or are forced to opposite sides of a conflict. This dynamic is something that has greatly affected my writing over the years. Maybe it’s because I have a ton of brothers, maybe it is the wealth of stories that focus on brothers that I encountered when I was growing up. While I could name a handful of books and video games that deal with this, and in fact I have written something about a couple of video games that do so to go up tomorrow, I was having trouble thinking up many film examples. This is the only one that came immediately to mind, and the only one that was a formative part of my tastes.