Batman: The Animated Series- Mudslide

 "It seems that Clayface is losing his integrity."

"I wasn't aware that he had any to begin with."

So that's the end of Clayface? I may be wrong, but it's surprising. The character doesn't seem to have appeared much.

I have to say this episode, while structurally seeming to be well constructed (unlike Clayface himself!), doesn't quite work for me. Stella is quite sympathetic, yes, but she's just the trope of the girl who falls in love with a bad boy. And Hagen... well, he isn't sympathetic at all. Indeed, the moment where he smashes the telly even gives domestic violence vibes. So a tragic ending for him isn't going to work.

Still, the concept of his having to steal in order to fund the expensive business of staying alive sort of works, there are some good set pieces, and there's a sort of nice mini-mystery about Stella's identity. But the whole thing doesn't quite work, basically because it just doesn't really generate any pathos. 

And Batman sabotaging Clayface's cure... why? The stolen stuff is a sunk cost by then, anyway, and it's just plain immoral. Not only do we not have much sympathy for Clayface, but Batman himself is certainly no hero here.

A rare misfire.

Batman: The Animated Series- Feat of Clay, Part II

 "There is no Hagen. It's only me now... Clayface!"

A strong conclusion, this, ramping up the tragedy for Hagen, who is now stuck as Clayface, a total shapechanger with scarily extensive powers... but the trade off is the sheer effort it takes. Clayface as a villain is one of those who forgoes the usual Batman realism (although there are others in the rogues gallery that do the same...), but this is counterbalanced by hisbackstory as someone mafdeaddicted to a harmful substance against his will, ruining his life.

His story goes as expected, with a particularly creative take on the "he's dead... or is he?" ending trope. I suppose, unlike last episode which fizzed with ideas and events (is Marv Wolfman less involved this time?), there wasa lot more focus on Batman v. Clayface here. Bruce Wayne gets cleared and released conveniently quickly, perhaps undermining the cliffhanger a little. 

This seems to be a running theme of the animated series so far... bringing out the pathos in the villains. First Two-Face, then Mr Freeze, now Clayface. I'm impressed.

Batman: The Animated Series- Feat of Clay, Part I

 "Once they're hookred, they stay hooked..."

We get another first appearance here from another traditional member of Batman's rogues gallery, and on the strength of this two parter it certainly promises to be another good one. Matt Hagen is a sympathetic figure and the script (by Marv Wolfman, no less!) is clever, effective and surprisingly complex for a twenty-minute piece of television, but it works.

Particularly effective is the opening set piece, with "Bruce Wayne" apparently betraying Bruce Wayne, but the appearance of Batman showing us that all must not be as it seems. There are a number of different characters here, and the unfortunate Matt Hagen has become dependent on a substance which can remove his disfigurement for awhile.There's a clear subtext here, of substance abuse and addiction arising from tragic experiences.

The episode is interesting in otherways, though. Batman's use of the Batwing to interrogate Bell is...edgy, to say the least, and clearly earns the disapproval of Gotham's police. It all feels very dark, very noir.

So far I'm very impressed.

Cronos (1993)

 "You're going to Heaven covered in make-up. Your wife will think you've been with a whore."

'Tis the weekend before Halloween, so a horror film seems appropriate. And it's been a while since I've blogged a film by the great Guillermo del Toro, so here's an early film of his, indeed his first. And... yes, it's bloody good.

This is, at heart, a vampire movie. Yet it takes the simple idea, puts it among real people with real emotions and relationships in a very real Mexico City, and explores it from a new angle, as a type of immortality invented by a late Renaissance alchemist who fled to Mexico in 1536.

Unusually, the protahonist, Jesus Gill, is an elderly grandfather who sells antiques and dotes on his little grandaughter who, as the film progresses, becomes increasingly creepy through no fault of her own. His path to vampirism is both real and moving, because of both his love of family and his religiosity.

The baddies are believable too- a desperate old man seeking rejuvenation before his cancer kills him, and his put-upon thug of a nephew played superbly- if not really in Spanish- by Ron Perlman. Yet this is, at heart, despite the effective horror set pieces and ideas- I love the use of insects- this is a film with a lot of heart, above all about the bond between a grandad and his orphaned grandaughter.A unique, excellently shot and inspired debut from a director who will go on to do other great things.

Blade II (2002)

 "Lock up your daughters, boys and girls. The dark knight returns."

This film is bloody good, possibly better than the first. Partly it's the direction- Guillermo del Toro in Hollywood superhero blockbuster mode, as in Hellboy as well as here, is almost a sub-genre within his own oevre, given the very strong sense of visual and narraive style between the Blade and Hellboy films.Partly it's the strong cast. And partly it's the strong script by David S. Goyer.

What's odd here, perhaps, is that the large gang of rather cool characters as compared to the previous film may make one assume the film takes a lot from the comics- yet the only Marvel character here is Blade himself, although I understand the original plan was to use Morbius, who would have to wait a decade or two. Everyone else is a new character, and even the vampire mythology (a virus rather than mystical) seems to owe very little to my possibly dated understanding of Marvel lore.

What can't be doubted is that Wesley Snipes is again charismatic and effective, if not necessarily subtle, while Kris Kristofferson is extraordinary and Norman Reedus is fun. It's particularly good, though, as a Red Dwarf fan, for me to see Danny John Jules in a fairly meaty serious role.

The film is shot superbly, as you'd expect, and is essentially a series of extremely well-done set pieces in the "house" style. Yet the plot, with its series of double crosses and opaque agendas, is also strong. A quietly impressive Marvel blockbuster.

Tangled (2010)

“

This is another one of Little Miss Llamastrangler's favourites. And yes, another modern bloody Disney Princess film where they’ve turned the title into a past participle form of a verb. They like doing that, and obviously they couldn’t just call it Rapunzel...

Anyway, this is an entertaining and fun retelling of the fairytale, and I can confirm that it is quite astoundingly addictive to little girls. The central character is well crafted- young, naive but resourceful- and its a nicely picaresque riff on the fairy tale as Rapunzel gets to explore the wild and wonderful outside world.

One nice touch is that Rapunzel end up not with a boring old prince but with Flynn Ryder, who is both a bit of a rogue and a bit common, and their relationship is rather fun instead of just being lovey-dovey. There are also a couple of rather good songs, and some rather interesting cameos. The whole thing is quite impressive.

Plus, I haven’t seen this quite so often as I’ve seen Frozen. I suppose I should be grateful. But I’m not expecting that Little Miss Llamastrangler will grow tired of this film any time soon...

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

"Dr. Manning, suck my ectoplasmic schwanztucker!"

It’s unusual to see the combination of auteur director and a Hollywood comic book blockbuster, but the first Hellboy film gave us that with Guillermo Del Toro. Now, though, we have a sequel, without anything like the need for exposition, and it feels as though Del Toro has been released by the success of the previous film from the studio’s constraints and can truly put his stamp on the film.

This is clear from the start, with a John Hurt-narrated flashback from what looks rather like Middle Earth is done in the style of a Tool video, and is the first of the film’s countless visual triumphs, ranging from “tooth fairies” to a psychopathic beanstalk. All this is sufficiently done with sufficient awesomeness that you barely notice the main baddie is played by... Luke Goss from Bros. Yes indeed.

It’s not all visual awesomeness, though; solid plotting, superb characterisation and splendid central performances from Ron Perlman and Selma Blair are also essential ingredients as, bizarrely, is the comedy German accent provided by none other than Seth MacFarlane. Similarly awesome is the psychogeography in which, beneath the surface of New York's boroughs, there lurk troll markets and other such things. This evokes Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, China Mieville and, indeed, points towards Doctor Who's Face the Raven but, more to the point, is awesome to see being handled by Del Toro.

There's a moral here; be brave, get a good director and let them do whatever the hell they want.

Hellboy (2004)

"Plus, you're nine. You're not old enough to be giving me advice!"

I cannot applaud highly enough the excellent decision to give a big Hollywood comic book blockbuster like Hellboy to art film maestro Guillermo Del Toro to direct; in his hands the film looks gorgeous, atmospheric, stylised, perfect. So much so, in fact, that it threatens to elevate a somewhat so-so script into excellence.

The basic concept isn't very original beyond the character of Hellboy himself: occult Nazis are all very Indiana Jones while the monsters look suspiciously Lovecraftian. Nor is the concept of a secret government agency gratifyingly original and, indeed, Professor Broom and his super powered team of mutants look awfully like the X-Men. But the story, and characters, are nevertheless worth following.

You don't need you to tell me how magnificent John Hurt is, but Ron Peelman is also magnificent, and the cast as a whole has nary a weak link. And the ending is particularly effective, as Myers fulfils his destiny as the virtuous Gakahad-type hero while Hellboy proves that not only can he use his free will to be a hero in spite of being a demon, but also gets the girl.

This film hasn't got an original bone in its body. But dammit, it's fun.

Alien Resurrection (1997)

“She’ll breed. You’ll die.”

I was worried about this film after the disappointment that was its predecessor, but I shouldn’t have been. This isn’t quite as good as the first two, but a film scripted by Joss Whedon can never fall below a certain standard.

For a start, it makes you jump. A lot. It seems to me that’s the one thing an Alien film should definitely do, and something which the last film conspicuously failed at. The scene with the alien suddenly striking out at Wren only to hit glass which we only now realise is there is probably the bit that made me jump the highest, but there’s a lot of this sort of thing, a lot of suspense, and a real sense of threat, which again Alien³ conspicuously lacked.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet isn’t a Ridley Scott or a David Cameron- the film is very well shot, with some creative use of the camera, but there’s none of that indefinable sense of style that separates a great director from a very good one. Still, the film looks very good and ticks all the boxes, although this time with CGI.

This is also a very witty script, with every character feeling well-rounded and individual. It’s unmistakeably a Joss Whedon script, and there’s a definite proto-Firefly feel to the crew of the Betty. Whedon also takes the opportunity to do something which the previous film again failed to do- have some fun with the tropes. The body horror element is made much more horrific by the simple expedient of making everyone aware that Purvis is “pregnant” and an alien is bound to burst out of his ribcage at an inconvenient moment. The hybrid creatures in jars are horrible. And it’s a nice twist that this film’s token android (or “Auton”, a word to raise the eyebrows of any Doctor Who fan) should be Winona Ryder’s uber-emotional Call. There are little things, too: the whole clichéd situation of the powers that be foolishly believing that they can use the aliens for their own purposes, and not all die horribly, as Ripley attempts to persuade them otherwise, is just quickly glossed over near the start of the film. After all, we know the drill by now.

These aliens are cleverer, and more dangerous. There’s a nice scene with Vriess (nice to see a disabled character who doesn’t die!) which really emphasises how nasty the acidic blood is, too. And the whole underwater scene, with its shark-like swimming aliens and the horrible, horrible trap is just amazing. This film is very, very strong on set-pieces. The death of Ripley’s “child” is just….eurgh!

Interestingly, the two characters with, more or less, superpowers are both women: Ripley and call. Indeed, our cloned, part-Alien Ripley is looking a little similar to the eponymous star of Whedon’s own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I shall be returning to after I finish Borgen), which commenced in the same year. And the only characters to be successfully “impregnated” are all men. This is a return to the sexual-political subtext of the first film.

The ending is a little abrupt, perhaps, and while the whole thing looks good it lacks the touch of genius it would have needed to compete with the first two films, but this is a much better effort.