Aardman! Band of Misfits

Aardman is the only major animation studio still creating feature animation with traditional hand crafted techniques using clay (Claymation), and what has kept them being successful in the hugely competitive world of feature animated films dominated by computer graphics, is their unique looking visual style and the memorable characters with their very English sense of humor.

In the same way that Japan’s Studio Ghibli has carved out a niche for itself with their traditional but highly detailed and realistic 2D animation, Aardman has brought Claymation to a whole new level. The tactile look of the hand molded clay characters is so detailed and pleasing to the eye, that it gives you the feeling you’re watching three dimensional sculpted artwork that many talented artists have put their love and passion into. Their body of work consists of such renowned classics as the Wallace & Gromit shorts, Creature Comforts TV series (1989 – 2003), Chicken Run (2000), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Flushed Away (2006), Arthur Christmas (2011) and Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012).

Aardman’s success in the field of Plasticine Claymation and storytelling has led to them being courted by the big Hollywood Studios. The lure of a partnership with the Hollywood big wigs however has been a double edged sword for the smaller independent artisans at Aardman, and the offer of bigger budgets and a wider audience has come at the price of less artistic freedom, which led to the compromising of its unique way of working. These were sacrifices that Aardman was not comfortable with and has led to some soul searching. But the lessons learned have cleverly been incorporated into the subtext of their subsequent films.

Take for example Aardman’s latest and most elaborate feature to date; The Pirates! Band of Misfits, also known as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, in which the main plot of pirates competing for a ‘Pirate of the Year’ award clearly demonstrates how people’s ambition to win accolades or wealth leads them to compromise their humanity, the very essence of what made them unique in the first place.

Aardman has firsthand knowledge of this struggle when they partnered with DreamWorks. But after the computer generated film Flushed Away did away with the handcrafted look that Aardman is known for, they could no longer continue to work under the conditions and methods imposed by DreamWorks and have since opted to terminate that relationship citing creative differences. They currently have a new partnership with Sony pictures, who are known for producing such animated favorites as Monster House (2006), Open Season (2006), Surf’s Up (2007), and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009).

For The Pirates! Band of Misfits Aardman has returned to form with their stop-motion handmade clay modeling and increased the scale of their puppets to allow for even more detail to be shown instead of the shiny computer generated look that other studios seems to favor. The results, I must say, are quite breathtaking.

The story has a very British flavor with voices by such English favorites as Hugh Grant from Bridget Jones Diaries (2001) and About a Boy (2002), Martin Freeman from TV's The Office (2001 - 2003) and will be seen later this year playing Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit (2012) and Imelda Staunton from Vera Drake (2004) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and follows the adventures of a band of motley Pirates who are all quite happy under the benevolent rule of their fun loving captain until he selfishly decides that winning the Pirate of the Year award is more important than the happiness of his crew. 

There’s enough eye candy in this fun, light hearted film to make it worth the multiple viewings it will take in order to catch all the visual gags, and the kids will love it too. Get ready to give your video player a workout when it’s released on Blu-ray & DVD.

JP

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

‘Everything will be alright in the end, and if it’s not alright, it’s not yet the end.’ This is the recurring mantra of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and I can now finally say, after seeing it, that this wonderfully heartfelt, life affirming film lives up to its optimistic view. I’m probably biased because I’m fascinated by films that have anything to do with India. I was already sold on this film when I first saw the trailer and have been eagerly anticipating its release. 

This film, like India itself, has a way of seducing you into loving it. The mostly older crowd that I saw it with laughed throughout and even clapped at the end, which rarely happens in a cinema, and it’s already a huge hit in the UK among greying audiences.

A group of disparate English retirees, due to varying circumstances, are lured into traveling to India by an enchanting vision of a luxury Jaipur retirement hotel as seen on the internet. When they arrive they find it’s not quite what they expected, to say the least, as the hotel has yet to be renovated. While overcoming major culture shock, some manage to cope better than others with their unusually dire surroundings. 

Directed by the acclaimed British filmmaker John Madden, who is behind such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001), the first rate cast is played by some of British cinemas most renowned and acclaimed thespians including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy. It’s the fabulous performances by these wonderful actors, including Dev Patel who was recently seen in Slumdog Millionaire (2008) that makes this film really stand out. 

Upon arrival we see the sheer panic of people coming from a quiet orderly English life style thrown into the chaos of India’s crowded, and completely unregulated free-for-all streets. Some have come for love, some for sex, and others just can’t wait to leave. Through the excellent cast we get a conservative look at India as they deal with some controversial issues. There is lots of humor throughout with regards to the problems of old age but the personal stories are quite poignant and the genuine performances give an emotional impact that makes the movie very relatable regardless of age.

Based on the novel These Foolish Things (2004) by Deborah Moggach, Marigold Hotel is beautifully filmed by Ben Davis, who was the cinematographer on such recent films as Kick-Ass (2010) and Wrath of the Titans (2012). Visually we get to see plenty of Jaipur India’s bustling street life, which reminded me of other films worth seeing if you’re drawn to the visceral milieu of India’s cities like The Pool (2007) in Goa, Amal in New Delhi (2008), and Slumdog Millionaire in Mumbai (2008). 

People in their twilight years are frequently undervalued by our society and this film deals with this issue head on. Some of these seniors have been marginalized, or pushed aside by an indifferent society that values youth over experience and loyalty, but as this movie shows, seniors, more than anyone, want to be useful and feel that they are valued for their experience and years of contribution. When an institution they have loyally served for most of their lives discards them, they feel lost and betrayed.  In many eastern countries, however, seniors are revered and looked up to by society as teachers and valuable contributors to the well-being of society, passing on traditional knowledge to the next generation, something that we have lost here in the west. 

Our intrepid seniors gradually adjust and discover a whole new and rewarding way of life in India while learning that they still have much to offer to the very appreciative local citizens as their romantic vision of India wins out in the end. 

JP

Men in Black 3

If you’ve never seen any of the Men in Black films, this third one may actually be the best one to start with. There is a time travel element in this movie that reveals an important back story about our main characters, Will Smith as Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, which makes it more emotionally satisfying than the previous films; Men in Black (1997) and Men in Black II (2002). 

Where the first two movies were more interested in revealing the insignificant existence of our world in the vast universe, this movie focuses more on the relationship between the main characters and how they came to be the people we know and love today. 

Before the Coen brothers began their famous partnership with cinematographer Roger Deakins, they started out with Barry Sonnenfeld as DP on their earliest films; Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987) and Miller’s Crossing (1990). Barry was also the cinematographer on such memorable films as Big (1988), When Harry Met Sally… (1989) and Misery (1990), before he began his career as a director. Being a photographer by nature his films are visually inventive and playful, poking fun at macabre and western genre films such as The Addams Family (1991), Addams Family Values (1993) and Wild Wild West (1999). So he was a natural choice to direct the Men in Black movies, which are sci-fi comedies that make fun of alien invasion films. 

The first Men in Black film had a great concept because it dealt with big ideas using lots of humor. It played with well-known conspiracy theories as if they were all true and a secret government organization called MIB that protected people from discovering those truths while propagating other urban myths. 

In the MIB world, aliens have always lived among us as refugees from distant planets, disguised in human bodies. But there are rules that the aliens must abide by while living on Earth and the MIB enforces those rules. Naturally there are occasional mishaps when aliens misbehave or run loose and try to take over the world. That’s when the MIB step in and take out their big guns, which come in all shapes and sizes. Having access to advanced alien technology, they are able to keep aliens in check and humans in the dark about the aliens living on Earth. The Neuralizer, for example, comes in handy when you want to help humans forget about that nasty two-headed super model with tentacles coming out of her fingertips that just destroyed your apartment building.

It’s all outrageous good fun and done with loads of visual flare.  There are plenty of hilarious and wonderful B movie aliens created by the multiple award-winning make-up effects artist Rick Baker, who has won 7 Oscars including one for Men in Black. His legendary work can be seen in films such as Star Wars (1977), American Werewolf in London (1981), Planet of the Apes (2001), and The Wolfman (2010) to name just a few.

I saw MIB 3 in 3D and there were some visually spectacular sequences that looked great in 3D, including the time jump sequence where Agent J jumps off the Empire State building to travel back in time. He must gain a certain amount of speed for the time jump to work and the camera follows our hero rushing past the windows of the building as he plummets into the past.

It took ten years but this movie was worth the wait, bringing the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion and the story full circle. You can enjoy this film even if you haven’t seen the previous ones because it reveals an emotional connection between our heroes, allowing us to go back and see the previous films in a whole new context, which is exactly what a good sequel should do.

JP

Prometheus

Ridley Scott's triumphant return to the Sci-fi genre that he helped redefine is probably one of the most anticipated films since The Phantom Menace (1999), and similarly the first film in a prequel/sidequel trilogy that will reboot a classic and much loved franchise from the 1970s and 80s. But thankfully Prometheus is not the disappointment that The Phantom Menace was and promises to reveal some fascinating answers to the mysterious origin of the alien creature, which is a far more complex back story than anyone ever imagined. It also reveals the answers to the mystery of the Space Jockey and the purpose of the derelict space ship we saw in the first Alien film. 

(Spoiler alert) When a pair of archeologists deciphers a message found in ancient cave paintings from what looks to be alien Gods who visited Earth far in the past, they follow the message to a planet where it is believed to have originated, hoping to find answers to our origins. They do indeed find what they are looking for but it seems that our makers, whose DNA we share, have been planning to destroy their creations using a biological weapon of mass destruction that will be deployed on every planet where our species was planted, Earth included. The reason for this has not yet been revealed but this will presumably be the subject of the next two sequels to come. 

Visually, Prometheus definitely shares its DNA with the first Alien (1979), adding some elements of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and a splash of Blade Runner (1982) thrown in. Story wise it follows the same structure as Alien; a group of space engineers come out of hibernation when they arrive at a mysterious planet. As the mission is revealed to the crew, it meets with the same indifference and disbelief as it did on board the Nostromo and soon people are freaking out when evidence of an alien is found and brought in for examination, unleashing a hostile contagion.  As in Alien, there is a synthetic person who acts on orders from an unseen corporation to bring back a living sample at the expense of the crew and the few surviving crew members, realizing the potential dangers to Earth, take matters into their own hands, stopping at nothing to eliminate the threat.

H.R. Giger’s iconic design work has been employed once again giving the film its familiar dark cavernous serpent like look. Alien fans will not be disappointed as there is enough creepy squirm-inducing sequences equivalent to the chest bursting scene in the first film to satisfy them. Traces of the original music also seep in, to create a link to the classic film that started it all. It’s a great mix of high tech, high concept science fiction with primordial horror that will make us look at the original films in a whole new context. 

Ridley Scott, who directed the original Alien movie, has assembled another first rate cast of up and coming actors who have already made a name for themselves in high profile, high quality projects starting with the incredible Noomi Rapace as the sole surviving equivalent of the Ripley character, Elizabeth Shaw. She was recently seen in the original Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), where she played a tough but sexy gypsy fortune teller. Joining Noomi is Michael Fassbender as the robot David, who recently made his mark in such films as Fish Tank (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Shame (2011). Charlize Theron who became famous for her roles in The Cider House Rules (1999), Monster (2003) and was recently seen in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), also shows up as a corporate boss.

Ridley Scott has referred to the “completely underrated film Quest for Fire” (1982) as inspiration for Prometheus and there are some interesting similarities. As humans go out into an unknown universe, we discover many hostile beings that want to enslave or destroy us but ultimately through our curiosity and supreme will to survive, we find the answers that will ensure our survival and the power to create the tools we need to become the dominant force in the universe.

JP