Sometimes, four heads are better than one. For the screening of Pete’s Dragon, I borrowed three visiting friends (ages 10-12), took out a bank loan for popcorn and candy, and settled in for some preshow conversation. Among the topics: what size wedgie you would get if you jumped off a cliff onto a flying dragon (the consensus: big); whether dragons have fur or scales (we thought scales, but agreed that fur would be easier to hold on to in flight); and how we all felt about Marvel Comics movies (we like them, particularly the 10-year-old-boy contingent among us).
Was this conversation more interesting than Pete’s Dragon, once it began? I thought so. But the movie, a live-action remake of the 1977 animated film about an orphan boy and his dragon, isn’t aimed at the likes of me, and my mini-focus group – Fiona, Joe and Iris – was rapt. After a sad little prologue involving a fatal car accident that leaves a little boy orphaned, the movie fast-forwards six years to find that boy, Pete (Oakes Fegley), now feral and living in a fictional Oregon forest with his devoted dragon friend Elliott. Their idyll is interrupted by a kind forest ranger (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose father (a folksy Robert Redford) has long told tales of a magic dragon in the forest. Pete, reluctantly, returns to civilisation – but will Elliott be able to follow him?
For me, a grown-up spoiled by Pixar, Pete’s Dragon seemed sweet but slow and a little bland. My guests, entranced by the friendly dragon and the film’s 3-D depictions of flight, thought otherwise. Fiona thought Elliott fit beautifully into the Disney tradition of creating endearing animals that young audiences fall in love with, like Simba in The Lion King. Iris uttered an emphatic “I LOVED IT,” and Joe, a man of few words, said only, “I’m glad I didn’t cry.” (Yes, there are plenty of sad bits.) Nobody agreed with me that Elliott looks sort of like a dragon-flavored Shrek, and all of us wondered why Pete didn’t get a haircut immediately upon leaving the forest. That’s three thumbs up and one so-so, so I’m going with three stars. I know when I’m outnumbered. — The Seattle Times
More sound than
substance
By Cary Darling
If awards were handed out for the loudest movie of the year, Suicide Squad would be Schindler’s List.
The DC comic-book series come to cinematic life, in which a group of imprisoned bad guys in the Batman universe are forced to band together to take on an extinction-level event, is a cacophony of explosions, crashes and seemingly every popular song – from Black Sabbath to White Stripes – ever recorded.
But volume is not vision, and Suicide Squad, while containing some intriguing touches and entertaining performances, turns out to be just another generic superhero action movie with a dull villain and a numbing, anticlimactic climax.
The premise is actually fun. In this world, the government – symbolised by no-nonsense agency head Amanda Waller (a terrific Viola Davis) – is worried that superheroes, or metahumans as they’re called, may not always have the best interests of humans at heart.
Several are already locked up in a secret black-ops facility in Louisiana, including: Deadshot (Will Smith), a killer for hire who can shoot any target with 100 percent accuracy; psycho Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who also happens to be the girlfriend of the un-imprisoned Joker (Jared Leto); Boomerang (Jai Courtney), an Aussie who’s deadly with a boomerang; El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), who has the ability to start fires with just his mind; and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a reptilian man-creature with super strength.
On the outside is Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), an ancient witch who has taken over the body of a mild-mannered anthropologist named June Moone. However, Enchantress is under the control of Waller, and this sense of control is what allows Waller to think that she can use these supervillains as a force for good.
Little does she know that Enchantress is tired of taking orders and has hatched a nefarious and convoluted plan to, as in the old Pinky and the Brain cartoons, take over the world. Enter the Suicide Squad to take her down.
The cast is the best thing about Suicide Squad. Leto brings a slinky menace to his incarnation of the Joker, Robbie seems to be having a lot of fun, Smith is solid as a hit man with a heart, and Davis proves her mettle as a hard-edged woman in control who can kill without mercy if the situation requires it. And, yes, Ben Affleck makes a brief appearance as Batman.
Yet it’s all in the service of a tired, predictable story in which nothing is really at stake. How many times must the world be threatened by uninspired villains and their armies of disposable, easily vanquished foot soldiers?
Usually reliable director/writer David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch, Sabotage) paints a colorful vision and he tries to inject a sense of humour, but many of the lines fall flat. And, yes, stay through at least the first part of the credits if you’re interested in seeing a teaser to what’s coming.
Suicide Squad has been the subject of much Internet debate, as it seems to be yet another case of a missed opportunity for a DC property. It follows in the wake of the mixed to poor receptions for DC’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from earlier this year and Man of Steel in 2013.
Some DC partisans have suggested that there’s a pro-Marvel media bias/conspiracy afoot designed to keep DC movies down.
There’s even a change.org petition to shut down the Rotten Tomatoes site, which aggregates movie reviews, because of the number of negative notices for Suicide Squad. (Of course, this overlooks the fact that The Dark Knight Rises from 2012 was generally well-received.)
But if future DC-based movies – like the heavily anticipated Wonder Woman and Justice League coming next year – are as uninteresting as Suicide Squad, even the diehards might decide to stick with the comic books instead.
At least they’re not as noisy. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Decent fare despite faults
For all its faults, The Swan Princess: Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today! is still worth watching. An entertaining story can make up for lots of shortcomings, and that’s the case here. The fast-paced storytelling makes it easy to overlook the technical faults!
With her parents away for the summer, fun-loving, young Princess Alise must spend her time with Queen Uberta, training to be the perfect, proper royal...But what she really wants is to become a swashbuckling pirate! Princess Alise sets sail with Lord Rogers, Jean-Bob the frog and Speed the turtle on a bold, high seas journey filled with amazing adventure, danger and discovery. After a shipwreck leaves the brave crew stranded on a wild, mysterious island, they meet Lucas, a young boy who has been living in seclusion. Now the faithful friends must work together to escape the island and the ferociously hungry creatures that dwell there.
DVDs courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha
ent
