The Movie Diary Marches on! Get it? March? Anyway, here’s what I saw during the first couple weeks of March . . .
(r) = repeat viewing
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) – The first fifteen minutes of Valerian provide a perfect encapsulation of why director Luc Besson can be so infuriating. The flick starts with a dazzling, almost wordless prologue in which we see the International Space Station grow from its modest beginnings into Alpha, a futuristic hub for space travelers from throughout the galaxy. We’re then introduced to an exotic alien race with some kind of pearl-based economy and watch as it gets destroyed by foreign invaders. All of these dialogue-free segments tell their stories with subtlety and gracefully gorgeous images, instantly enveloping you in Besson’s future world. We’re then introduced to our two heroes, space peacekeepers Valerian and his partner Laureline, via some of the most clumsily-written exposition dumping you’re ever likely to encounter. “You love me because I’m a bad boy.” “Well, maybe, but let’s go over our mission one more time.” “Will you marry me?” Ugh.
Besson’s abilities as a storyteller and writer have never been able to keep pace with his dynamic visual sense (see The Fifth Element). Valerian is another eye-popping example of Besson at his best and worst. The convoluted story revolves around the agents’ attempts to combat some mysterious malevolent force growing inside Alpha. Those pearl-loving aliens from the beginning are all wrapped up in a wild conspiracy that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The world that Besson has created here is uniquely fantastic, though, especially an early sequence in which Valerian is trying to steal from a virtual bazaar called Big Market. I guess the flick is based on a series of European graphic novels, and Besson gives his film that comic-booky feel, filling every corner of the screen with visual flourishes and pushing the action forward at a fast, fun pace. Dane DeHaan channels a lot of early Keanu Reeves into his flat performance as Valerian, while Cara Delevingne acquits herself a bit better as Laureline. She does her best with a sadly underwritten character. Frankly, Laureline should be getting co-top-billing with Valerian, since she is at least as responsible as he is for the ultimate success of their mission. That said, it’s a goofy good time. If you’re a fan of daft space operas set in truly stunning locales, you could do a lot worse than Valerian.
Rock Star (2001) (r) – Inspired by its recent appearance on one of my favorite podcasts, How Did This Get Made?, and by its simultaneous reappearance on HBOGO, I figured it was time to revisit this tasty gem. Rock Star is easily one of my favorite “bad” movies ever, a dizzyingly dumb look at the life of an 80s heavy metal icon. Mark Wahlberg stars as Chris Cole, the lead singer for a Pittsburgh tribute band. He and his bandmates slavishly copy the look and music of mythical metal band Steel Dragon – until the day when the real band calls him up and invites him to be their new singer. The story is based on the real-life tale of Judas Priest, but any similarity to reality flies out the window from just about the opening shot. Just about every aspect of Rock Star is ridiculous, but it’s never clear if the movie is trying to be a spoof or a drama. I mean, who could take seriously a scene in which two tribute bands engage in a post-concert parking lot brawl to see who’s the best in Pittsburgh? (Fave line from this scene: “Don’t grab my cape!”) Or the scenes in which Wahlberg passionately argues against trying to be original? Yet Wahlberg’s relationship with manager/girlfriend Jennifer Aniston (among other scenes) is played totally seriously, with several heartfelt conversations that seem to be from another flick. It feels like the filmmakers started out to make a serious flick about rock n’ roll excess and about halfway through decided the whole thing was too silly for words. So they just had Wahlberg race around in the Batmobile. 
Anyway, if you’re a fan of bad movies, you shouldn’t miss this one. Wahlberg’s blank performance suits the material perfectly, and the wigs alone make this one a must-see – check out the hairpieces perched atop future HBO stars Timothy Olyphant and Dominic West (see at right). Will you have Steel Dragon’s inane hit “Stand Up and Shout!” rattling around in your head for days afterward? Probably, but that’s a small price to pay for the deliriously dumb pleasures to be found in Rock Star.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Once Marvel loosened the reins and Joss Whedon’s injection of Buffy-style banter into the Avengers flicks proved financially and critically successful, they’ve been letting directors bring more and more of their personal style and agenda into the Marvel Universe. The results have been the best MU flicks yet, including Tim Miller’s R-rated take on Deadpool, the world-weary ennui of James Mangold’s Logan, and this year’s monster hit, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. Thor: Ragnarok is another solid entry on this list, with New Zealand director Taika Waititi taking the reins and bringing his tongue-in-cheek humor to the proceedings. Waititi is best known for the hilarious vampire “documentary” What We Do In The Shadows, and his wry sense of humor is on display throughout Ragnarok. The flick plays more like a Thor/Hulk buddy comedy than a straight Marvel adventure. Chris Hemsworth has been bringing more humor to the role of Thor with each new outing, and he delivers his best performance yet. Hemsworth and the rest of the cast realize that they’re not making Gandhi here and revel in the freedom that Waititi gives them. The story follows Thor as he tries to fight his way off an interdimensional trash planet ruled by The Grandmaster, a goofy villain played to the scenery-chewing hilt by Jeff Goldblum. Along the way, he teams up with the Hulk, a drunken Valkyrie warrior (Tessa Thompson), and his misguided brother Loki. They fight and banter their way through the goofy story, trading one-liners and quips that land more often than not. As always with these Thor flicks, the CGI landscapes look uniquely great. There’s more than a hint of the color-drenched aesthetic of 1980’s Flash Gordon here, and I’m guessing that’s intentional. You keep expecting some Queen to come blasting out of the synth-forward soundtrack. All in all, this is another in Marvel’s recent string of successful auteur-ish visions, and it’s easily one of the funniest superhero movies you’re going to see.
100 Rifles (1969) – This pseudo-spaghetti western from the late 60s stars Jim Brown as a bounty hunter who stumbles into the Mexican Revolution while trying to track down a “halfbreed” bank robber named Yaqui Joe. The fact that this half-Native American is played by Burt Reynolds exemplifies some of this flick’s problems. It’s a perfect example of old-school Hollywood’s relentless whitening of every ethnic role, and 100 Rifles is full of such poor casting choices. This is the whitest bunch of Mexican revolutionaries you’re likely to see. Dumb casting aside, 100 Rifles is a serviceable western that tells a familiar story and hits all the requisite beats. Lawman and fugitive bond over injustice? Check. Last-second rescue from a firing squad? Check. Posse chase? Check. There’s nothing particularly original or special here, but the action moves along at a brisk enough pace to keep fans of westerns watching. It does feature the always-gorgeous Raquel Welch as a peasant revolutionary with a ridiculous Mexican accent and a penchant for unbuttoning her top, so that’s something. The flick was shot in Spain, on many of the same sets used in various spaghetti westerns, so it looks of a piece with classic Italian westerns of the time. This is definitely Hollywood-style hokum through and through, though.
Black Panther (2018) – Caught this one on the big screen, which its dazzling production design certainly deserved. Everyone knows about Black Panther by now, since it’s rapidly become one of the highest-grossing flicks ever made. And while it is a darn good superhero flick, I think its wild success speaks more to the hunger people have for alternatives to Hollywood’s default “white guy” point of view. Hopefully Black Panther has forever killed the notion that you need some white protagonist to pull in a nice profit. The movie focuses on telling the back story of T’Challa, the Black Panther, and his homeland of Wakanda, a mythical African kingdom that has been hiding a super-advanced society from the rest of the world for centuries. Conflict occurs when a long-lost Wakandan native named Erik Killmonger decides that he’s going to take over the country and use the nation’s powers to help people of color overthrow their oppressors. It’s a nuanced dispute in which there are no clear-cut “right” and “wrong” sides, with ramifications far beyond the confines of a simple superhero movie.
Black Panther definitely ranks among the best Marvel flicks, although I do have a few quibbles. The pacing could be tightened up a bit – I don’t think superhero movies necessarily need to run past the two hour mark. And I really take issue with director Ryan Coogler’s action scenes. If you’re going to show martial arts-style fights full of kicking and spears, you need to pull the camera back and let audiences see the performers’ entire bodies. I wish Coogler had watched more John Wick and less Bourne Supremacy in preparing for the flick. Still, this is really a pretty good movie by most standards. I especially loved the CGI spectacle of Wakanda, which is rendered as a futuristic African metropolis whose architecture is half-Blade Runner, half-Zimbabwe. It’s a totally unique vision of what an advanced civilization might look like and really works to help ground Wakanda as a real place. Chadwick Boseman is solid as T’Challa, turning in an appropriately regal and restrained performance. Michael B. Jordan steals the flick, though, as Killmonger, the would-be villain of the piece. He’s the rare Marvel villain whose ambitions and motivations are understandable and clearly presented. In fact, Killmonger’s dream of using Wakanda’s advanced technology to help oppressed minority communities seems like a pretty good one. Maybe his methods stink, but Killmonger’s got a real heart and there’s true pathos behind his tragic backstory. You really feel the sadness behind the confrontation between T’Challa and Killmonger, and the ultimate denouement leaves you wondering what might have been had these characters met in different circumstances.
Popwell’s Movie Reviews: The Complete List
Leave a Reply