Had the opportunity to go to Germany last week with my 9-5 job. All that time flying over the Atlantic and free movies is pretty much as good as my life can get. So I watched the following:
Jumper - (2008) If you take away all plot logic, character development and don't worry about actually explaining what's going on you end up with Jumpers. There is a really cool concept here (that some people have an ability to "jump" instantaneously from one place to the next. If they can visualize it they can jump there) that gets utterly squandered by the script. An attractive cast that obviously had some fun doing this movie also gets let down by just a really weak story. Where does this ability come from? Don't know, never explored. Is it only the lead character (played by Hayden Christiansen) or are there more? Well we know there's at least one other (we meet him) and he seems to imply there are more out there. But otherwise unexplored. There is a group of folk (led by Samuel L. Jackson) called the Paladins who are hunting down the jumpers and killing them. Why? Small spoiler here because I'm about to tell you EVERYTHING the movie supplies as an answer. They're religious zealots who have been doing it for years. Basically a ten word explanation. That's it. The movie was clearly aimed at being the first of a "Jumpers" franchise. They chose to set up the franchise rather than actually make a complete movie. Tag on a stupid and undeveloped ending and you end up with a silly pointless movie. The only surprising thing is that the cast has enough fun with the pitiful dregs of a story they're given to make the movie at least fun to watch.
Rating - *** Worth a Look (but only just barely)
Prometheus - (2012) Let me get this out of the way right off the top. The movie is visually stunning. Really impressive. That's pretty much it. This movie is derivative (you can play a game during it. See how many ideas and images have been lifted from other movies for this one. That will give you something to amuse yourself during this drivel), tedious, badly acted, unimaginative, pretentious, and utterly unworthy of the amount of movie spent to make it. I kept thinking that director Ridley Scott had decided to out do the visual impact of "Blade Runner" and gotten lost in the attempt. The story certainly did. A train wreck.
Rating - ** Don't Bother
The Bourne Legacy - (2012) I loved the original Bourne trilogy with Matt Damon. So I didn't know how this extension of the franchise with Jeremy Renner taking over the lead (not as Jason Bourne but as another product of the secret government program that created him) was going to do. In the end I liked it, maybe even liked it a lot. It's a Bourne movie so it's action over in depth thoughtfulness but they all are. The script gives enough depth to the characters to make them interesting. If there's a complaint it's that the basic story line is familiar. An agent of a rogue covert U.S. operation designed to create super soldiers decides he's had enough. He wants out. The program can't have that so they decide to eliminate him (and all the other agents in the program as well). He escapes with the help of a beautiful woman who is drawn into the action against her will. They survive a series of attempts on their lives, win in the end and fall in love. If you've seen any of the Bourne films you know this by heart. It's too bad they didn't decide to mix it up somehow. The fact that this movie is barely making the break even mark should probably tell the producers to try something different if they ever make another. The cast is great, the story is predictable, the action is fast and furious. Two out of three isn't bad for an action picture.
Rating - *** Worth a Look
The Descendants - (2011) This one made the others worth wading through. To be honest I probably had the lowest expectations of this George Clooney flick of any I saw on my travels. Yet it out performed the others by miles.
It's the story of a nice if rather ineffectual guy (Clooney) who is suddenly shoved into a series of high stress situations that only he can handle. He lives in Hawaii and is part of a family descended from the last king of the islands. They have a large tract of undeveloped land that they have to decide how to handle. Sell it and become individually wealthy or try to hang on to some of the last undeveloped land in the islands? Add to that an accident that results in a massive head injury to his wife forcing him to face decisions about pulling the plug. He has two daughters in crises of their own, a variety of other family issues and a final complication that I won't give away. All of them are problems that he has to solve. No one else. The movie is filled with heavy, serious issues that could have turned this is a ponderous and dour film. Instead Clooney, the writers and the director manage to give it a warmly funny grace that is charming. It never cheats and makes fun of any of the situations but it never lets them overwhelm the humanity of the story either.
I loved this movie even as tears poured down my cheeks as the father, daughters and other family members face the horrible waiting for mom to die after being taken off of life support (I've been in that very situation following my mom's stroke). The cast is wonderful, the script is deft, the direction is exceptional. It all works. This is the one I'll recommend to everyone I meet.
Rating - **** Recommended
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