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JUN 26-JUL 2, 2013 | WWW.CONNECTSAVANNAH.COM
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Billy Crystal) and the furry and gentle giant James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) were BFFs working together at the Monsters, Inc. factory, generating scares from small children in order to generate power for Monstropolis. The primary setting is college, where Mike has enrolled to pursue his lifelong dream of graduating as a top scarer. Because of his small stature and non-threatening demeanor, Mike has to hit the books hard in order to learn all the scaring techniques; not so Sulley, whose imposing size and ground-shaking roar means that he feels he can coast through his courses. Sulley bullies Mike, which brings out Mike’s competitive streak; it all leads to a mishap that forces the pair to forget about joining top fraternities like Roar Omega Roar (ROR) and instead hook up with the worst. That would be Oozma Kappa (OK), whose members are basically the animated brethren of the leads in Revenge of the Nerds. Like the other fraternities and sororities, Oozma Kappa finds itself competing in a multi-part competition known as the Scare Games, and it’s during this second-half stretch that the movie works most feverishly to instill its underdog tale with the usual kid-geared messages such as it’s OK to be yourself and individuals accomplish more when they work together as teams. It’s the sort of headpatting that Pixar used to present so subtly that it almost qualified as a subliminal message. Here, though, it’s punched across with the sort of thumping obviousness found in other studios’ toon efforts. Luckily, Monsters University is such a clever concoction in so many other ways that it’s still a solid bet for summertime cinema-surfing. Next to the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc. remains my favorite Pixar title, so it’s thrilling to reconnect with the wonderful characters of Mike and Sulley. There’s no betrayal of character on the part of the scripters, as the adult monsters we first met in 2001 would logically have formed from the college critters we see here. There are some memorable new players as well, particularly Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), the humorless university head who takes an immediate dislike to both our heroes (the unsettling manner in which the CGI artists have designed her makes her the first genuinely creepy character in either film).
And as always, the visuals are absolutely staggering, with even the backdrops worthy of study. Even if the day arrives when the the promise of a Pixar narrative holds no more interest than the hint of a new straight-toDVD actioner starring Steven Seagal, we can probably always count on the films to at least look good. Hopefully, that won’t be anytime soon.
World War Z
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Because this new century has given birth to a startling number of grade-A zombie flicks, it’s only natural to worry that such familiarity will reduce World War Z to the level of a World War Zzzzz. That’s not the case, thanks largely to a committed performance by Brad Pitt and a handful of exciting sequences nicely staged by director Marc Forster. At the same time, it might be time to call for a moratorium on undead activities, as the tire thread on this particular genre might be growing thin. Based on the novel by Max Brooks, WWZ is set in a near-future in which a virus has been turning people into zombies. Worse, those people are turning other people into zombies, via the standard bite on the body. North Korea is reported to have taken care of the problem by removing the teeth of all its citizens, but the rest of the world’s population, perhaps not quite ready to give up those dental benefits, is having to deal with the crisis head on. Gerry Lane (Pitt), a former United Nations hotshot known for his ability to deal with tough situations, is brought back into the loop to find some way to handle the crisis. His brainstorm: If he can locate the source of the first outbreak, he might be able to discover its cause and prepare an antidote. And so it’s off on a global excursion for Gerry, as he heads to South Korea, Jerusalem and Wales (Forster previously directed the 007 entry Quantum of Solace, so he was probably happy to rack up more Frequent Flyer miles). At every stop, he has to search for clues while evading zombies who seem fit enough for the 100-mile dash. Imagine Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion recast with zombies instead of Gwyneth Paltrow, and that’s largely what you get with World War Z. Gerry’s mystery tour isn’t particularly compelling, the characters of his
wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters could have been jettisoned (I say that only because after establishing them early on, the filmmakers have no idea what to do with them), and the CGIsaturated segments in which hordes of zombies run down the streets or climb over walls are too impersonal to stir much emotion. But the upclose-and-personal sequences - particularly one set aboard an airplane and another inside a World Health Organization facility - are expertly presented, and they prove that there’s still some life left in this genre ... if just barely.
MAN OF STEEL
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Who could possibly have imagined that Man of Steel, the latest attempt to reboot the Superman franchise, would be a massive superbore, with a solemnity so crushing that it makes those earnest Biblical epics from the 1950s and ‘60s seem like a Marx Brothers romp by comparison. For what it’s worth - and it ultimately isn’t worth much - Man of Steel tackles the familiar origin story from a different angle than what might be expected. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) still anchors the first reel, futilely warning his fellow Kryptonians that their planet is doomed and they must evacuate before it’s too late. And General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his band of misfits still turn up and are eventually hurled into the Phantom Zone, although the interesting twist here is that Zod and co. aren’t merely murderous egotists but well-meaning anarchists who seek to overthrow the doddering bureaucrats. Unfortunately, Zod’s means aren’t peaceful - no sidewalk sit-ins for him - and before he’s imprisoned, he swears to track down Jor-El’s baby boy, who’s been hurled into space in advance of the planet’s demise. That son, of course, is Kal-El, who lands on Earth and is raised by farm couple Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) under the name of Clark Kent. Clark understandably feels like an outsider all the time, and he’s anxious to use the awesome powers he keeps bottled up inside. But Jonathan instructs him to resist the urge, and this advice is largely what leads the adult Clark (now played by Henry Cavill) to wander the backroads with no real purpose, a bearded laborer who takes any
job he can find. It isn’t until he meets reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and squares off against the newly arrived Zod that he begins to find direction in his life. There’s a strong possibility that Man of Steel might be the most boring superhero saga ever filmed. It’s not lacking in action, but it’s endless and uninspired, with director Zack Snyder (300, Sucker Punch) maxing out the studio’s credit cards by shooting as much CGI bombast as the hardware could handle before sparking and catching on fire. The scenes that rely on dialogue are no better, with the good guys prone to speechifying and the bad guys reduced to spouting haughty cliches. All might be forgiven had the role of Superman/Clark Kent been cast with the right actor, but Cavill is a complete dullard, bereft of any trace of wit or charisma. Much of that might be due to the efforts of the writers (unbelievably, the Dark Knight team of Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer) to repeatedly present the character as Christ incarnate (the movie’s a Where’s Waldo of Biblical proportions, with Jesus references lurking behind every act), but even in the more relaxed scenes opposite Adams, Cavill is more supermodel than Superman. Forget Christopher Reeve comparisons: Cavill doesn’t even come close to measuring up to Brandon Routh.
BEFORE MIDNIGHT
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Director Richard Linklater’s lifeaffirming Before trilogy is the Lord of the Rings of the art-house experience, the Toy Story of the American indie movement. Yet all comparisons are ultimately academic, as this is a series that beautifully stands on its own. The project began with 1995’s Before Sunrise: Written by Linklater and Kim Krizan, it tells of a chance encounter between a young American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a young Frenchwoman named Celine (Julie Delpy), who become acquainted while traveling by train in Europe and decide to spend their final hours together in Vienna before heading in different directions. Nine years later, the gang returned for 2004’s Before Sunset, with Hawke and Delpy not only reprising their roles but also writing the screenplay with Linklater