Preview: Red Cliff

John Woo’s massive historical epic comes to America – in condensed form – this November.

The most expensive film in Asian production history but also the highest-grossing among Chinese cinema to date, director John Woo’s Red Cliff relates the momentous Battle of Red Cliffs that marked the end of China’s Han Dynasty and the beginning of its Three Kingdoms period in the Third Century CE. The film also presents something of a comeback for Woo himself, marking his first Chinese film since 1992 and his first full-length feature since the 2003 flop Paycheck.

Though the Asian release saw the four hour-plus epic cut into two parts, American audiences will see an abbrieviated 148-minute version that condenses the complicated and far-reaching story into a single narrative while introducing new footage that helps explain and clarify the depicted events. The film follows Han Chancellor Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) as he leads the Imperial Army on an expedition to crush Southern warlords Sun Quan (Chang Chen) and Liu Bei (You Yung). Desperate for new territory with which to bolster their crumbling empire, the Han army is swift and merciless, overrunning provinces and killing civilians as well as combatants.

Liu Bei and his compatriots lead the defense of the civilians and their own lands, eventually allying with Sun Quan in a last-ditch effort at defense even while Cao Cao’s forces approach the city of Red Cliff, situated along the strategically crucial south bank of the Yangtze River. Quan’s sister, Sun Shangxiang (Zhao Wei), infiltrates Cao Cao’s camp to gather intelligence while leaders on both sides beg, borrow, and steal the supplies and intelligence needed to gain an upper hand. Much of the film’s Asian release detailed the intrigue and human drama leading up to the cataclysmic main engagement, with subterfuge and deceit blooming all around. By the end of the battle the victorious Sun and Liu retain their holdings south of the Yangtze, in time establishing the kingdoms that would come to be known as Shu Han and Eastern Wu.

Woo also co-wrote the screenplay, basing the story not on the landmark historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (celebrated as one of the finest novels in all of Chinese literature) but on the more neutrally-toned historical record Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, which reportedly presents a more even-handed treatment of characters on both sides of the fighting. As perhaps a sign of the film’s importance as a Chinese cultural event, the nation’s government lent the production more than 100,000 soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army to serve as extras for the combined naval and land battle.

For all that scale the story is also one of characters, many of whom are legends in their own right and revered throughout 17 centuries of Chinese history. Though the cast is stocked to overflowing with Chinese actors both veteran and up-and-coming, the film’s earlier announced cast would have offered a meeting of stars seldom seen: screen legend Chow Yun-Fat (The Killer) was slated to star as Zhou Yu, Quan’s military commander, but withdrew over script and contract disputes. Japanese actor Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins) was cast as Cao Cao but was released after the production drew complaints for casting a non-Chinese actor in such an important role. Finally, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Internal Affairs) was originally cast as strategist Zhuge Liang (played now by Takeshi Kaneshiro) but replaced Chow instead.

Woo himself became a legend in the early 90s, thanks to staggeringly innovative and artistic work on action films such as Hard Boiled (1992) and especially 1989′s The Killer. His American career was less impressive, starting slowly with the Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle Hard Target (1993) and reaching through the John Travolta-led films Broken Arrow (1996) and Face-Off (1997), both somewhat formulaic efforts that often cribbed plot devices or imagery from Woo’s earlier, Asian-produced work. His films in the current decade have been even less noteworthy, including the Nicolas Cage-starring Windtalkers (2001) and the aforementioned Paycheck.

Still, there’s something about such a sweeping and important work that feels a natural fit for Woo, and if the reduced version does well in theatres hopefully a restored DVD edition will find its way to American shelves.

 

Red Cliff opens in limited release November 20.

- Michael Kabel

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Preview: Terminator Salvation

Christian Bale heads the sort of fourth, sort of first installment in the Terminator franchise -  and the first without Arnold.

It’s not that farfetched to think that the original Terminator film did more in the long run for HBO than The Sopranos, Entourage, and Deadwood put together. Way back in the 1980s, at the dawn of cable television’s real arrival in suburban America, the low-budget sci-fi thriller was a mainstay of the fledgling network’s programming. HBO was still struggling to distinguish itself from other channels – this before its original series had really come into its own - and The Terminator, along with other low-budget sci-fi/fantasy fare like Beastmaster ( HBO: “Hey, Beastmaster‘s On”) and The Road Warrior, got kids forever used to the cable channel as their movie destination. Trust me when I say that in the summer of 1985 HBO ran the living shit out of Terminator. I know because I watched it most of the times it came on.

Naturally, there were sequels, though only after years of speculation and abandoned story ideas. 1991′s T2: Judgment Day, with its groundbreaking digital effects and hip Guns N Roses theme song, was the box office smash of the year, and its basic structure of escalating special effects and stunt sequences, lightning quick editing, and relentless chase structure largely defined the “summer blockbuster” model through the decade. Endless derivations followed as well.

His love is real. But he is not.

The franchise languished for more than a decade, and then in 2003 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines arrived in Post-9/111 America, looking a bit aimless and more than a little dated. The female terminator (Kristanna Loken) came off a lot more contrived than the film’s creators probably anticipated, as well. As a final ignominy, now Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles series has yet to really connect with mainstream audiences, despite its talented cast.

Now a new group of creators, including director McG (Charlie’s Angels) and co-screenwriter Paul Haggis (Quantum of Solace) are taking a stab at the franchise again, with the first of a planned new trilogy that’s both sequel and prequel to the original three films. The new series reveals John Connor’s rise to leadership of the human resistance against the tyrannical computer SkyNet and its army of cybernetic Terminators. In this first/fourth installment, set in 2018, Connor meets a mysterious loner named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) who may himself have travelled either from the future or the past. Wright is actually a decommissioned Terminator himself, but the two nonetheless journey into SkyNet’s headquarters in a desperate attempt to end the war that’s already annihilated most of the human race.

Face the future: Bale, Worthington

The film wisely co-opts the Batman Begins tactic of casting a bevy of good actors: Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) plays a young Kyle Reese (the time-travelling soldier played by Michael Biehn in the first film) while Bryce Dallas Howard (Lady In The Water) plays Connor’s wife.  Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club), Common (American Gangster), and Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman) also appear in various roles, while Arnold Scharzenegger lookalike Roland Kickinger (See Arnold Run) will play a T-800 model Terminator (the same as Arnie in the original. Scharzenegger has given his blessing to the new trilogy.) Finally, in what might be meant as simultaneous tribute to half the B-science fiction films of the 1980s, Michael Ironside (Total Recall) will appear as a human general. I’m sort of hoping, for old time’s sake, that his character loses an arm.  

Terminator Salvation, accompanied by the kind of merchandising deluge you’d expect from any self-respecting blockbuster, arrives in theatres May 22.

We’ll have several actual movie reviews, including our take on The Day The Earth Stood Still, starting Monday. Have a good weekend.

-Michael Kabel

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Seven Lesser Known Comic Book Adaptations

Not every comic-to-screen leap was a blockbuster success. 

Following the colossal successes of The Dark Knight Returns and Iron Man this past summer, there’s a bit of a gold rush to get comic book adaptations finished and into theatres. This week a lot of the buzz was about casting: Don Cheadle will replace Terrence Howard in the Iron Man sequel, while rumors circulated that Warner Brothers wants Ryan Gosling (Lars and The Real Girl) to lead the upcoming Green Lantern movie and Brandon Routh to play Superman again when and if that film takes flight. Beyond casting announcements, the venerable Internet Movie Database shows film adaptations of Thor, The Flash, The Metal Men, Captain America and others in various stages of development. The Hugh Jackman-led X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens next May, and the Punisher: War Zone sequel arrives this December.

This image has nothing to do with the article. Its just too strange not to share.

Yet, for every attempt that hit its box office or audience reception target, there are probably three adaptations that tanked, fell victim to small budgets, or just couldn’t garner public interest. The following list is only a sampling of the projects that took their place in the “also ran” category. We’re sure a few are sentimental favorites to forigiving fans of their respective inspirations. (We like The Flash TV series.) Some aren’t bad, considering their limited resources, and some had unrealized potential. And one or two are terrible. But they’re all from comic books, for better or worse.

Sable (TV series) Premiered November 1987; lasted seven episodes. Based on the First Comics series by longtime Green Arrow writer-artist Mike Grell, Sable followed the exploits of freelance mercenary Jon Sable (Lewis Van Bergen) who worked days as an author of children’s books. Rene Russo, very early in her career, played his girlfriend Eden Kendall. The clip below shows its noirish promise, even if the show’s “alpha dog adventurer helps client of the week” conceit seems kinda passe now.

Steel (Movie) Released August 15, 1997; total U.S. box office: $1.7 million. In his own DC Comics series and in the Justice League comics and cartoon, Steel is a brilliant engineer and inventor who dedicates himself to defending good after Superman saves his life. So what better “actor” to convey such intellectual and moral strength than human marketing technique Shaquille O’Neal? Judd Nelson played the bad guy, while Richard Roundtree (Shaft) appeared as Uncle Joe. Though admittedly the film carried a modest $16 million budget, “Shaq Steel” still looks as if he swallowed an electromagnet and walked through a junkyard.

Dr. Strange (TV movie) Premiered September 6, 1978. Clad in a snaredrum-tight Disco perm and piles of gold jewelry, New York psychiatrist Stephen Strange (Peter Hooten) trains to be Earth’s new “Sorcerer Supreme” and rescue a young woman from the evil sorceress Morgan LeFay (Arrested Development’s Jessica Walter). Intended as the pilot to a television series that never happened, it featured Marvel Comics’ honcho Stan Lee as a consultant.

Supergirl (Movie) Released November 21, 1984; total U.S. Box Office: $15 million. For years the poster child for misbegotten comic adaptations, Supergirl was rushed into production after the success of the first two Superman films but struggled for distribution after Superman III flopped. Nevertheless, expanded versions released on DVD have clarified its choppily-edited story and somewhat repaired its reputation. Peter O’Toole, Mia Farrow, and Faye Dunaway overweigh the supporting cast, while underused 80s actress Helen Slater (Ruthless People) makes her debut as super-cousin Kara Zor-El.

Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV Movie) Premiered May 26, 1998. A decade before Samuel L. Jackson’s cameo in Iron Man, David Hasellhoff starred in this low budget TV movie about Marvel Comics’ Man from U.N.C.L.E. riff Nick Fury. The superspy and his former love Valentine Fontaine (Lisa Rinna) take on rival organization HYDRA for possession of a deadly virus. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight scribe David Goyer wrote the scrpt. The Hoff plays the hyper-macho Fury as… The Hoff with an eyepatch. Watch how S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying headquarters looks like a basement steam room somewhere. (actual video begins about 23 seconds into clip.)

The Flash (TV Series) Premiered September 20, 1990; lasted 21 episodes. CBS brought the Scarlet Speedster to the small screen apparently motivated by the runaway success of Batman the year before. A TV movie pilot got the family-friendly series off and running, but constant schedule shifts and pre-emptions for Gulf War news coverage kept it from building an audience. Still, The Flash’s (John Wesley Shipp) costume has aged well, as have the special effects. The script quality suffered as the season wore on, however, though fan favorite guests stars like Mark Hamill, Tim Thomerson and Jeffrey Combs frequently livened things up. The series is even collected in a no-frills DVD package.

Captain America (TV movie) Premiered January 19, 1979. An attempt to update the character for the Evil Kenievel/motorcycle years of the 70s, this adaptation featured the original Captain America’s son trying to stop terrorists from detonating a hydrogen bomb on Phoenix, Arizona. There’s almost nothing about the clip below that doesn’t feel dated, especially the ersatz Cap’s costume and the long, loving takes of motorcycle stunts. A sequel TV movie, released just eleven months later, offered a comparatively more comics-accurate uniform and included Christopher Lee as its villain.

Monday we’ll have our review of Oliver Stone’s W. Have a super weekend.

- Michael Kabel

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Four More Days Until The Dark Knight!

So here’re ten other Batman villains we might – and hope to – see in the third film.

Just about now the anticipation surrounding The Dark Knight ought to hit its fever pitch, which means barring a Matrix Reloaded-level disappointment the film should foster a third installment (which was probably the game plan all along, but it’s still always nice to see these things verified.)

One of the treats of Batman Begins was seeing the clever use of mid- and lower-tier villains like the Scarecrow and Mr. Zsaz in roles that surrounded the Big Bad of Ra’s Al Ghul. Though IMDB’s cast list would indicate that the focus this time is all on The Joker, a third Batman film offers lots of potential to pack the streets of Gotham with a gauntlet of also-ran villains. Not that any one asked us, but we recommend in no particular order:

1. Firefly: Every superhero needs a villain that sets stuff on fire, and pyromaniac arsonist-for-hire Garfield Lynns has the low-tech suit and requisite crazy factor to neatly blaze onto the big screen. The wings could make for interesting visuals, as would seeing Batman tear through a burning building a la The Towering Inferno.

2. The KGBeast: Anatoli Knyazev was a cybernitcally-enhanced Soviet assassin sent to America to kill high ranking defense personnel, thereby prolonging the Cold War. He’s believed to have killed over 200 people in his career, including real-life Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat. While the Cold War is over and done, it’s still easy to imagine the Beast coming to Gotham as a hitman-for-hire.

3. The Mad Hatter: Another of Batman’s gimmick-themed adversaries, Jervis Tetch was so obsessed with Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland that he based elaborate and vicious crimes around its elements. As a foe, he’s basically the Joker but smaller and smarter – and with mind control devices.

4. Electrocutioner: Lester Buchinsky first used his electricity-generating harness to execute dangerous criminals; later, he became a crook himself. The epitome of second-tier muscle, he’d be a great stalking horse for a bigger, badder nemesis.

5. Black Mask: Actually rumored at one point to apear in The Dark Knight, cosmetics heir Roman Sionis wore a coal-black mask as the head of Gotham’s underworld. Interestingly, Sionis’ hatred centers not on Batman but instead on his childhood friend – Bruce Wayne. If Batman and Harvey Dent break up Gotham’s current underworld, led in the new movie by boss Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts), Black Mask could step into the power vacuum.

6. Clayface: Though there’s been several vilains with this name and powers over the years, probably the classic first version works best on screen: faded movie star Basil Karlo used his powers of theatrical disguise to stalk and murder the cast and crew remaking his classic horror picture The Terror. Basically, Karlo is Lon Chaney meets the Phantom of the Opera – come to Gotham City.

7. Deadshot: Another enforcer type, Floyd Lawton was a society scion who became the world’s greatest marksman – harboring a profound death wish all the while. Later, he sort-of reformed after helping clean up the urban neighborhood where his daughter and her mother lived. An anti-hero closer to Batman’s own psyche than perhaps Batman would like to admit, he’s also got a classic costume, complete with nifty full-automatic wrist guns.

8. Talia Head: Ra’s Al-Ghul’s daughter and Batman’s sometime love interest in the books, Talia succeeded her old man as head of The League of Assassins (or League of Shadows in Batman Begins.) Dark and mysterious, if well-cast she’d make a great third side to a romantic triangle alongside Batman and Rachel Dawes.  

9. Deathstroke: Whether or not he appears in The Dark Knight (as some speculators believe he might), mercenary and hero-killer Slade Wilson has enough smarts and brawn to equal Batman’s own considerable prowess. A rooftop confrontation over Gotham could make for an urban Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, only with Batman’s and Deathstroke’s endless array of weapons and gadgets.

10. The Wrath: Intended as the Professor Moriarty to Batman’s Sherlock Holmes, the Wrath made just one memorable appearance in the comics before meeting a violent death. A ruthless hitman who hijacked Batman’s own mystique and tactics, he’s the perfect dark mirror image of what Batman works towards – and represents.

- Michael Kabel

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Ten Facts About Two-Face

The facts and lore about Aaron Eckhart’s tragic role in The Dark Knight – and possibly the third Batman movie to come.

When The Dark Knight opens July 18, audiences finally get the opportunity to see an important figure in the Batman mythos that’s until now been long overdue but largely unseen. Two-Face, the hideously scarred criminal mastermind with more dramatic potential than almost any three other Batman villains combined, appears in his youthful idealism as Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent. Played by Aaron Eckhart – whose face is almost a caricature of handsome - the firebrand legal crusader even poses a rival for the affections of Bruce Wayne’s once-and-again sweetheart Rachel Dawes.

10. (Possible spoilers start here.) In the comics’ continuity, Dent becomes hidesously disfigured with toxic acid while questioning crime boss Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts in the new movie) in court. Half his face and hand are ruined by the burns, and the ensuing psychic pain leave him obsessed with the duality of good and evil. In time, he uses a silver coin – one side perfect, the other scarred – to determine his actions.

9. In Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, several authorities wonder whether Dent himself – muscular, passionate, undisciplined – might be the mysterious Batman. In truth, Dent collaborates and shares intelligence with the actual crimefighter.

8. Since his introduction in 1942, Two-Face has returned time and again, often redeemed of his evil impulses and with his face repaired. Inevitably (and owing to the cyclical nature of comics), he turns bad – and scarred – again. In 2006′s Face The Face storyline, a cured and repaired Dent is even trained by Batman to defend Gotham City when he, Robin, and Nightwing take an extended leave of absence.

7. An early encounter between Two-Face and Dick Grayson (the first Robin, later Nightwing) would leave Grayson emotionally traumatized and put the Batman-Robin partnership in jeopardy. Having kidnapped Batman and a Gotham judge, Two-Face executed the judge while Grayson watched, then savagely beat the young hero. Batman subsequently insisted Grayson take some time off to recuperate and regroup.

6. Though considered too “dark” for the campy 1960s television series, Two-Face was a frequent adversary on the Batman animated cartoons of the 1990s. He also appears in 1995′s Batman Forever, though Tommy Lee Jones portrays him simply as an ersatz Joker.

5. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween series, which heavily influenced Batman Begins, suggests either Dent or his wife Gilda may also be the serial killer Holiday. The phrase “I Believe in Harvey Dent,” prominently used in The Dark Knight, originated in the storyline.

4. The 1989 graphic novel Arkham Asylum shows psychiatrists attempting to cure Dent’s obsession with the coin by replacing it, first with dice and then a tarot deck. Their efforts leave him unable to make even the simplest decisions.

3. That same year Dent appears in Tim Burton’s blockbuster Batman, portrayed by Billy Dee Williams for some reason.

2. Dent once nursed an unrequited love for Gotham PD detective Renee Montoya, who would later become the crimefighter known as The Question. When the lesbian Montoya spurned his advances, Dent attempted to frame her for murder and outed her sexual identity.

1. Dent’s personality has become more complex as comics have grown more sophisticated. Originally simply a gimmick character reminiscent of Dick Tracy’s bizzare rogue’s gallery, in time various writers have deepened his pathos with, among other elements: multiple personality disorder, bipolar disorder, a history of childhood abuse, and obsessive compulsive disorder. The flipping of the coin to determine actions is also sometimes said to be the two sides of Dent’s personality sruggling with each other.

- Michael Kabel

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