The Wrap is reporting that, with no director attached, Ryan Reynolds has dropped out of the Highlander reboot.  Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later, The Intruders) was the most recent director attached, but he dropped out in November 2012.  Here is what The Wrap had to say:

Summit vowed to move quickly in finding Fresnadillo’s replacement but still hasn’t brought another filmmaker onboard, leaving Reynolds in limbo. An individual familiar with “Highlander” tells TheWrap that Reynolds’ exit may actually prove beneficial for the project, as a new director will be able to cast a new leading man rather than inherit a previous filmmaker’s decision.

When the news initially broke that Fesnadillo and Reynolds were on board, I got on board with this project.  I love the first Highlander film.  Yes, it is very dated now, but it is still a damned entertaining flick.  I can actually see this being remade and getting a good movie out of it.

I was really loving the idea of Reynolds playing MacLeod.  Maybe whichever new director they bring on can coax him back.  I like Reynolds and think this role could actually be the one to really put him on the map, and not as a second stringer action star, which, sadly, is what he is.

More information about replacement actor and director as I learn more.

Part 2: What I Didn’t Like About Man of Steel

Let me start by saying that I really wanted to love this movie.  Despite the initial misgivings I had, I really thought this was going to be the best film of the summer.   After that third trailer was released, I was hooked.  This trailer here:

Honestly, I still watch that trailer and it makes me want to go see the movie again.  It is an amazing trailer.  You know what’s missing from that trailer, though?  A memorable musical score.  The Hans Zimmer score is not epic.  I know a lot of people out there like it, but it is not the soaring anthem that John Williams wrote.  Listen to this:

And now, listen to this:

While the second piece is still very well done, it is not sweeping; it is not epic.  It is not what a theme for Superman should be.  It does not raise your pulse and inspire you to do great things like the Williams score does.  I understand that the filmmakers were rebooting the Superman franchise, but you wouldn’t dare remake Indiana Jones or Star Wars without their iconic John Williams score.  No matter how you feel about Superman Returns, at least Bryan Singer acknowledged the fact in his film that the theme does most of the character work.  Brandon Routh didn’t have to try very hard when he had a soaring theme behind him.

That being said, the John Willams score would not fit in this film.  Which brings me to the tone.  This film was simply too dark for a Superman film.  While the darkness fits with a character like Batman, a character who lives and operates in the darkness, Superman lives and operates in the sun.  The dark, muted colors are not appealing for a Superman film.  The suit needs to be brighter.  It needs to be a symbol of hope, and bright colors are that symbol.  The dark, muted colors of the suit did not sit well with me, whether they were Kryptonian body armor or not.  This does not create a character that I feel cares about us; instead it creates a character that cannot be trusted.  Never once in the film did I feel like Superman could be trusted as a symbol of peace and safety.  As a protector.  As a savior.  And I feel this all had to do with the muted suit colors.

Now, these couple of nitpicks I could have dealt with if the film didn’t go places that made me shake my head in wonder.  These particular scenes begin when Superman begins battling Faora in Smallville.  Faora and some gigantic, nameless hulk of a Kyrptonian attack Superman in the streets of Smallville.  Superman tells the inhabitants that it’s not safe and to get inside and lock the doors.  He is then promptly punched through that building.  What happened to the people inside as the building collapsed around them?  They were probably killed in the falling debris.  Does Superman stop to wonder and help them?  Nope.  He punches one of the villains through another building, which presumably, had more people hiding inside.  You see where I’m going with this?  He never once stops to try to help the citizenry.  He never once tries to get out of this small town to an unpopulated area, like say, the cornfield that is a block away . . .Nope, they duke it out in the middle of the street, civilians be damned.

Of course, the fight then shifts to Metropolis where instead of punching Kryptonians through feed stores and five and dimes, they are punched through skyscrapers.  In a terrible lack of compassion, Snyder and crew have Superman fight in the middle of downtown.  Needless to say, a big chunk of the city is leveled in spectacular style.  This begs the obvious question.  How many people were feeling for their lives when the Kryptonians toppled the buildings?  How many people were killed?

In Superman II, when Superman was facing Zod and crew in the heart of Metropolis, when Superman saw what was happening and that lives were at stake, he fled.  He took the fight to his Fortress of Solitude, away from humanity.  He actually cared for the people he was trying to save.  In Man of Steel, Superman is a protector of sorts, but doesn’t seem to care about the people.  If he did, he would have taken the fight elsewhere; to the desert, to the moon.  Anywhere there would be no people to hurt.  This was one of the biggest problems for me, but no the biggest.

Oh no, the biggest problem was that Superman broke the golden rule of the character.  He does not kill.  EVER.  And yes, that golden rule is broken in this film when he snaps Zod’s neck.  Yes, the film makers tried to put him into a no win situation where he was forced to make the ultimate sacrifice and kill Zod to save innocent lives.  I understand that.  It felt lazy, though.  Where was the snappy, clever way to end the battle without that neck crackin’?  The film really needed it.  Despite his initial scream of grief after being put in that position and doing what needed to be done, the film moved on and finally introduced Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet.  So, there was no lasting impact on him, huh?

The film completely lost me when Superman snapped Zod’s neck.  While I would have had trouble accepting the destruction of Metropolis and the loss of thousands of lives, I could have dealt with it if there had been a clever way of stopping Zod.  Instead, they turned the boyscout in blue into a killer brute.  Hell, even with as dark as Nolan’s Batman films were, they never broke Batman’s cardinal rule, which is the same as Superman’s . . .they DO NOT KILL!

After talking to friends who have seen the film, I have felt like I was in the minority for not loving this film.  Then I came across this piece, written by Mark Waid.  Waid is the author of Superman: Birthright, a highly regarded Superman comic.  Click the link below to go to his review:

 http://thrillbent.com/blog/man-of-steel-since-you-asked/

After reading his review, I feel that I am not alone.  The same problems I had with the film, he did as well.  It is a pretty good read, so click over and check it out.

Related articles

• Man of Steel (2013) review (bizzammovienews.com)
• Why I think Man of Steel (2013) didn’t work part 1: What I liked. (SPOILERS) (bizzammovienews.com)

Well, today brings an international trailer.  It is not drastically different than the American version, except for the end.  Have a look.

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Part 1: What I Liked about Man of Steel

I saw Man of Steel on opening day and walked out of the theater having had a unique experience.  I loved half of the film and hated the other half.  For me, this was a completely new experience; this was something that has never happened to me before.  I usually either love the whole film, hate the whole thing, or are just kind of middle ground on it.  Never have I had this experience where a absolutely adored some, but venomously abhorred the rest.  After a couple of days of dwelling on it, after writing the spoiler-free review, I return with what I think didn’t work and why I hated some of the choices they made for the character.

Let me say first things first that I wasn’t completely against the idea of rebooting Superman.  The time has passed for Christopher Reeve (Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns).  It has passed for Tom Welling (Smallville) and Dean Cain (Lois and Clark).  After the successful rebooting of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, and seeing that Nolan was a producer, I was completely onboard with this film.

What I wasn’t onboard with initially was hiring Zack Snyder to direct.  While I have liked/loved all of his films previous to this (Dawn of the Dead, 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Legend of the Guardians), I personally didn’t feel that his flashy style of film making is what a Superman reboot needed.   Luckily, I was wrong on that count.  He did a very good job and kept the flashy, but did away with the slow down/speed up method his is known for.

Once Henry Cavill was cast as Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, my enthusiasm was negligible to say the least.  I had seen a few films starring Cavill and all were terrible (Blood Creek, Immortals).  I didn’t feel he had the right look to him to play Superman.  When they released the first photo of him in costume, I just hung my head.  Once again, I was wrong.  He did a very serviceable job and hope that in the inevitable sequel he will be given some of that Clark Kent mojo to work.

When it came to the rest of the casting, though, I was completely onboard.  Michael Shannon as Zod was a masterstroke.  If you have ever seen the disturbing William Friedkin film Bug, you will know how good this man really is.  Kevin Costner as Pa Kent and Diane Lane as Ma Kent were also brilliant choices that I personally would have never thought of.  In fact, Kevin Costner gives the best performance in the film, even while his screen time is very minor.  Russell Crowe as Jor-El?  Sign me up!  He does a great job as Clark’s natural Kryptonian father.  When all is said and done, the casting was amazing.

I know I mentioned Michael Shannon in the previous paragraph, but I must talk a little bit about his portrayal of General Zod.  In the film, Zod is not a bad guy.  Sure, he does bad things, but he has been genetically engineered to do everything to save Krypton.  It is in his genetic structure that he do what he deems necessary for the good of his people.  Once he gets to Earth, he decides that Earth must become the new Krypton.  Kal-El has all of the genetic codes for Krypton in his cells.  Kal-El is the key to recreating Krypton.  Zod sees this as his chance to recreate the world he was bred to save.  The humans are inconsequential.  Their death’s mean nothing to him.  And Shannon pulls this character trait off wonderfully.  In a summer where we have fantastic villain performances by Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3), Shannon pulls his own weight and easily stands with those two as the breakout performances of the summer.

Kevin Costner is also amazing as Johnathon Kent, Kal-El’s adoptive father.  While I have always been a huge fan of Kevin Costner, here he makes one wonder why he is not in more movies of late.  As the farmer father, he instills the values that will make Clark Superman.  While he knows that his son is an alien, he is more concerned with keeping him safe.  He fears that the world is not ready to know that there is extraterrestrial life, and Clark is the proof that there is.  He fears less for the world than for his son.  He just wants to keep him safe, as all fathers do.  He is a kind, loving man, and Costner was the perfect choice to play the role.  I cannot praise him more highly.  The man made me tear up a little bit in the film.

The first half of the movie is phenomenal.  The Krypton opening scenes are more science fiction film than super hero.  I would gladly pay to see a whole movie set on Krypton.  Gone are the cold crystals of Richard Donner’s film, replaced by a thriving world of nature and technology.  After Zod attempts to take stage a coup, Jor-El sends his newborn son to Earth, the codex of all Kryptonian DNA absorbed in little Kal-El’s cells.  Zod and his merry band of miscreants are sent to the Phantom Zone for their treason.  Then Krypton blows up, in spectacular fashion, which, as described later in the film, frees Zod.

One of the interesting things about this 15 minute opening is that they let you know the planet is dying but also let you know that Kal-El is the first natural birth in centuries, which makes him special on Krypton, too.  The rest of the babies are genetically modified and grown in bubbles to serve a particular purpose in Kryptonian society.  Warrior, statesman, tradesman, etc.  I thought this was a really cool concept.

We see Kal’s ship enter Earth’s atmosphere then pass over the barn of Ma and Pa Kent.  The film then fast forwards to Clark working on a fishing vessel and saving a bunch of dudes on a burning oil rig.  He then flashes back to elementary school.  The structure of his childhood is told like this in the film.  In flashbacks.  And I feel that is worked wonderfully.

So, if I’m saying all of these good things about the movie, why did I only rate it 2 stars out of 4?  Why is this article titled ‘Why I think Man of Steel (2013) didn’t work.’?  I wanted you all to know that I was a big fan of a lot of the movie.  My venom is not coming from hating the whole thing.  I really, truly did love a lot of it.  I feel that this clarification is necessary to expound on what I am about to talk about.  Why  it didn’t work.

Before I delve into that, I was having a conversation with a friend who has also seen it yesterday.  He loved it.  He told me that if I read one of the comics, I would probably like the film more.  Now, this was just a silly statement, to me.  I am talking about a film, albeit a comic book film, but I shouldn’t have to read a comic book to understand what is going on in the movie.  Reading a comic should not make me appreciate the film more.  They are separate mediums that do not cross over.  Sure, a film can be inspired by a comic and take points from them, but the comic shouldn’t be required reading for enjoying the movie.  (See the entire Nolan Batman trilogy.)

Stay tuned for Part 2, What I didn’t like about Man of Steel.

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• Man of Steel (2013) review (bizzammovienews.com)

In case you haven’t managed to see the trailer, here it is again:

To say that I am hyped for this film doesn’t even come close to how bad I want to see this . . .

Riddick opens this September.

Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen), Man of Steel is the strangest movie I have ever seen.  While it is a fairly straightforward super hero/comic book film, what was strange about it is that I absolutely adored and loved about half of it and hated the other half.  I have never seen a film that I have loved and hated at the same time.  Typically, I either love or hate or am in the blah category from the beginnings of the film.  I have never had an experience like this one before.  This has left me extremely confused on how I should write this review, let alone rate it.

My personal history with Superman began with the 1978 Richard Donner film starring Christopher Reeve.  Of course I didn’t see it in the theater, I was all of 2 when it came out.  With the advent of the VCR, I discovered Superman: The Movie and Superman II.  I adore those two films to this day.  To me they are the perfect example of how a Superman film should be done.  A little lighthearted and fun.  Sure, they are a bit silly nowadays but Christopher Reeve WAS Superman.  The boy scout in the blue tights.  The epitome of how the character should be portrayed on the big screen.  A nice Kansas boy who just happens to have amazing super powers.  A hero and a savior.

I was a comic book kid growing up.  But I was more Marvel over DC.  I never read Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman or any of the other DC books.  So when I go into the meat of this review, keep in mind that I loved the original Superman films, but am not a complete stickler when it comes to the comic book source material.  I went into this film knowing that it was going to be different than what had come before.  I knew that it would be a bit darker for a more cynical world and modern movie goers.  I knew that the fantastic score by John Williams was not going to be there.  I knew this was not the Superman I knew and loved growing up.   And I accepted that, just as I accepted the way that J.J. Abrams dealt with Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t accept everything that Znyder and screenwriter David Goyer changed about  the character in this film.  While they didn’t change anything drastically, there were just some things that I couldn’t get on board with.  While I am not going to give away any major plot points, just be warned that there may be slight spoilers for the film from this point on.

The film opens on Krypton, Superman’s homeworld, while his mother is giving birth to him.  Literally, that is where the film starts.  It wasn’t enough to have the baby having been born already, we have to see it.  Within the first 45 seconds of the movie I actually said aloud to myself “uh oh.”  Luckily, it gets better from there.  We see Jor-El (Russell Crowe) arguing with the council about the planet being doomed and then General Zod (Michael Shannon) bursts in staging a coup.  Jor-El and Zod fight, Jor-El escapes and eventually sends young Kal-El to Earth to get him away from not only Zod but the destruction of the planet.

These first fifteen minutes or so are  intense and certainly feels more like a science fiction film than what we would expect from a Superman film.  Krypton isn’t all cold crystals but a thriving planet on the cusp of disaster.  I could have actually watched a full film of just the Krypton envisioned by Snyder.

What I did like about the film is that Superman’s origin wasn’t changed.  Some of the details, perhaps, but he was still sent to Earth to avoid the destruction of Krypton.  He was raised by Johnathon (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane).  Instead of getting the straight up, linear origin story, though, we flash between different time periods in Clark’s life.  We go from his ship arching over a Kansas barn to him as an adult working on a fishing boat.  The film then goes back to his time as a young boy in Kansas with his adoptive parents.  These scene I absolutely loved.  Honestly, at this point in the film I was leaning towards unabashed praise.  I was all in on Snyder’s vision of the character.  The changes were minor and I loved it.

Once Zod shows up, though, things start to go downhill fast.  Eventually we end up at a point near the end that completely destroyed all the goodwill I had for the film.

When I say things go downhill fast, I mean that once Clark puts on the suit and Zod shows up, the film becomes nothing but an action spectacle film full of explosions and fighting.  While I am sure this is what some people want to see, I didn’t need forty five minutes to an hour of it, which is what we get.  It becomes too much which peaks at an ending that is so out of character for Superman that it adversely affected the rest of the movie for me.  It forced me to shake my head and get up and leave the theater as soon as the credits started.  I did not stay to see if there was a scene after the credits.

I saw the film yesterday and am still struggling with it.  There was so much I liked about it, not the least of which were some of the performances.  When you have actors the caliber of Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Russell Crowe, you know that the performances aren’t going to be phoned in.  And all four of them were fantastic in their respective roles.  Especially Kevin Costner.  I have always liked him, but here, with little screen time, he is just as fantastic as his starring roles.  The dialogue in a particular scene and the way he delivered it actually made me tear up a little bit.  (The scene in question is the scene in the trailer where Clark asks if they can keep pretending he’s John’s son.  Truly heartrending.)

While there were a lot of things I loved about the film, there was just as much I didn’t.  Sadly, to go into what I didn’t like as much would require excessive amounts of spoilers, which I will spare you in this review.  Just know that there is a lot to love here, but just as much to hate.  And I mean hate.  There were choices made which made me question where Goyer and Snyder actually had any concept of the character other than he’s strong and can fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes.

Just be prepared when you go see this film.  While I can tell it is a sure-fire crowd pleaser, it didn’t completely please me.  Perhaps on a second viewing I will have a different opinion.  I doubt it though.

** out of **** (This rating actually breaks my heart a little.)

I wasn’t sure what to expect when it was announced that another 300 film was coming.  I mean, really, after the end of the first one, where is there left to go?  It seemed a pretty open and shut case.  Well, I guess this time we are using an entire army and headin’ out on the high seas.  Ok, I have no more fishing/water references in me tonight.  Just have a look at the trailer.  I was impressed.

As you watch this trailer, you will notice that this looks nothing like Final Fantasy.  At all.

This game actually started out as Final Fantasy versus XIII but was changed to Final Fantasy XV and pushed to next-gen systems.  That is a bad sign.  Final Fantasy XIII was not good.  In fact, it was worse that Final Fantasy VIII, my least favorite in the series until XIII.  While Final Fantasy XIII-2 was pretty good, it was an offshoot of the main series, not an actual numbered entry.

Well, have a look at the trailer here.  Just be warned.  It is not a terrible trailer, but is not Final Fantasy, despite what the title card at the end says.

Shame on you, Square Enix.  quit this f%$kin’ around and give the fans what they want.  A real Final Fantasy game.  This is not it.

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