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Reviews
Man of Steel (2013)
Making sense of the absurd ... well done! But the action is over the top.
Saw this one with my wife last night ... I tricked her into thinking this was going to be a romantic sci-fi drama with Amy Adams as the female lead . Well, I was partially right. Amy Adams was the female lead ... we spent nearly $50 on movie, drink and popcorn... wife nearly fell asleep during the battle/fight scenes.
On the positive side, Zack Snyder and the writers did an excellent job of re-telling this classing comic book tale with a new twist. Overall it looks stunning. Henry Cavill and Amy Adams have a passably convincing chemistry. Russel Crow does an excellent job with what he had to work with.
Now for the negative ... The movie is a long slog ... the time spent on special effects and battle scenes could have easily been cut in half, while more time could have been spent developing the plot ... starting with the opening scenes on Krypton. Its a mixed bag - they don't make Jor-El's people "alien" enough in my opinion. The warrior class is like Necromongers from Chronicles of Riddick while the ruling class look like the Vulcans from Star Trek. There's also a somewhat Star Wars Episode I feel about the opening scenes. The language everybody uses is just way too ... "American" especially Shannon's General Zod character - I wish he brought the kind of edge Antje Traue brought to her Faora-Ul character.
Its a good reboot to the franchise ... but not worthy of some of the praise it's received. Too many recycled bits and pieces from other recent sci-fi movies, with a look that didn't necessarily match it's language.
It's like meeting a Brazilian supermodel with a mid-western American accent. Its like some je ne sais quoi was missing.
Ink (2009)
A future glimpse at movie making in Denver Colorado
Let me start by saying, being from Denver, I have a bias. This film was shot entirely in Colorado - a rarity, since Colorado State has been slow to give production studios the tax incentives they need. This is changing, and the change is welcome. Most movies taking place in Colorado, up until recently, were shot elsewhere.
At a $250K budget, this movie tries to do A LOT! So I respect the effort Jamin Winans went through to make it, and make Denver look like a little Manhattan of the West. The mountain scenes are ethereal too (shot in Crested Butte, the grove of white-barked Aspen is only known to people who've been to the high country in fall - it's a welcome site to a Colorado native.
There is enough substance here to justify 20x the budget, and this is perhaps where the movie falls short. It might have been better served to release it in three parts - each with a moderately higher budget. This would have allowed for a richer back-story and character development of the Storytellers, the Incubi and how drifters like Ink are transmuted from reality into an alternate plane of reality.
Despite its shortcomings of fast cuts, and soap-opera acting ... it's worth a watch. Especially if you're from Colorado - or if you've ever wanted to visit. This movie signifies a new beginning for Colorado-based movie productions. We have everything here - except an ocean (wait, does Chatfield lake count? :-)