Miscellaneous Debris: July 2010 Edition

Our end-of-the-month wrapup of reviews, news, and observations that didn’t get a full post.

Here come the dog days of summer, but it’s not a complete loss. For as blah as the summer has been so far - and it’s been a giant yawn, by and large – the coming weeks show plenty of promise. In the meantime, last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con and the upcoming fall television season has given probably half the Internet several weeks worth of blogging and complaining fuel.

Some of our own complaints and blogging fuel are listed below. All opinions are our own, and as always they’re presented in no particular order of importance.

1. Actually, first things first: Mad Men‘s fourth season premiere was a virtuoso bit of television, as good if not better than the series’ vaunted pilot and a jump ahead in quality from the season three debut. With its characters entering the post-JFK era – some leaping, some getting pulled along by the undertow of changing times – the show seems at once re-energized and recommitted. Jon Hamm continued to bring new range and depth to Don Draper, as Matthew Weiner’s script stood the character on his handsome head, while Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) and Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) finally emerged as the confident grown-ups fans have waited for them to become.

Weiner made some comments last spring that the show would only run six seasons, and it’s not hard to see this ep as the halfway point in the story’s evolution. This coming week’s episode reveals – just in time for summer – the first-ever Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Christmas party.

2. It’s fun to get what we want. After complaining last year that we wished some former A-list leading men deserved and were due for comebacks, two of our picks have movies opening this week and next. Kevin Kline’s indie comedy The Extra Man, co-starring Paul Dano and John C. Reilly, opens in limited release this weekend. Next week’s The Other Guys, starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, co-stars Michael Keaton; we’ll mention again that The Merry Gentleman, Keaton’s directing debut, remains one of our favorite films released since this blog began a couple of years ago.

In the meantime, here’s the trailer for The Extra Man:

3. Nothing came out of the San Diego Comic-Con that really amazed us, but a few things surfaced that sort of disappointed. We’ve made the case before that Joss Whedon isn’t the best choice to write or direct the upcoming Avengers movie, but now that he’s confirmed to do both we’ll give him an even chance. Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac) is a trade-up in replacing Edward Norton as the Hulk, and it’s good to see Jeremy Renner finally confirmed as Hawkeye. All the same, it’s still a bummer to hear that Avengers founding member and mainstay Hank Pym will not appear in the film. The full cast list was revealed at the convention’s panel.

For no good reason, here’s an episode of The Avengers: United They Stand cartoon from the late 90s. Actually, it’s so painfully 90′s it might as well be sporting a pair of Doc Marten’s and a Friends haircut.

4. Better late than never: we’re happy to report that The Unusuals, the exceptional police comedy-drama that Renner headlined last year, has been available on DVD for a while now. Co-starring Terry Kinney, Amber Tamblyn, Adam Goldberg and Harold Perrineau, the show mixed black humor with sometimes surreal drama and plot twists, creating something unlike anything else on network television. Naturally, it lasted just ten episodes before ABC pulled the plug. Renner immediately went on to acclaim in The Hurt Locker, so hopefully the network regrets its cancellation. Nine episodes are available for streaming on Netflix.

5. October sees the release of The Social Network, which except for its pedigree might seem cause for suspicion; still, an Aaron Sorkin script directed by David Fincher is too good to pass up, and anyway a film that’s intelligently made about current events is seldom a bad thing, if ever.

Based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, the film chronicles the rise of Facebook. By the way, please join our Facebook group.

The film opens nationwide October 1.

6. In previous installments of Miscellaneous Debris we chastised both Rescue Me and Leverage for their egregious product placement, devoting too much time to mentioning or in some cases outright singing the praises of their commercial sponsors. Happily, both shows have toned that down quite a bit in their current runs. After a hit-or-miss second season, Leverage seems to have found its legs, with each episode by and large more entertaining than the last. Meanwhile Rescue Me, though too quick once again to fall back on the Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary)-as-human-trainwreck plotlines, has returned to ideas from earlier seasons that worked well before getting abandoned. In particular, the ace comic chemistry between firefighters Sean Garrity (Steven Pasquale) and Mike Silletti (Mike Lombardi) and the reappearance of slain firefighter Jimmy Keefe (James McCaffrey) improve every episode in which they’re used.

7. Ten years ago, Ang Lee’s martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon caused something of a quiet sensation, re-defining how audiences (particularly sci-fi and fantasy audiences) thought about the limits and potential of the action film genre. The  film’s luxurious cinematography and eye-googling special effects, combined with a simple but moving story of revenge and deferred love, made larger Western franchises including the then-popular Matrix and Star Wars prequel trilogy seem instantly cumbersome and outdated. Subsequent imitators and similar wuxia efforts trickled through Western multiplexes for years afterward.

A Blu-Ray edition was released this month (a previous edition was available in a three-film wuxia box set), and though we haven’t seen it yet we can only imagine how Lee’s incredible vision appears in high-definition. If you haven’t seen the film, you should. If you have, it might be time to revisit it.

8.  Criterion has officially announced the Blu-Ray and two-disc DVD release of Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Set to debut September 28, Criterion’s edition includes a new digital transfer supervised by Malick, thirteen minutes of outtakes, interviews with cast members, newsreels of the actual fighting on Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, and audio tracks of the Melanesian chants heard throughout the film.

To reiterate what we said a couple of months ago: Upon its 1998 release the film was unfairly ignored by a public that preferred the more simplistic jingoism of Saving Private Ryan (released earlier that year) or felt leery of its sorrowful, meditative tone. Nevertheless, Malick’s eye for arresting imagery didn’t dull one bit after an almost twenty year hiatus from filmmaking; the trailer alone is more picturesque than the entirety of most films, and also more moving. 

Our annual summer hiatus runs through next week. We’ll return Tuesday, August 10 with more of what you come here for. Thanks for reading.

- Michael Kabel

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DVD Review: Clash of the Titans

Often-entertaining remake of cult favorite 80s adventure debuts on DVD, Blu-Ray tomorrow.

A  moderate hit upon its theatrical relsease this past spring, director Louis Leterrier’s (The Incredible Hulk) remake of the semi-beloved 1981 adventure will at least never be accused of pretension. Crammed with enough machismo to power a rugby league and wearing its derivations of established franchises (especially Star Wars and Transformers) on its brawny sleeves, it fearlessly deploys both state of the art CGI and hammy acting chiefly for the purpose of one-upsmanship. It’s a summer blockbuster through and through, a faithful depiction of Greek Mythology about as much as Star Wars was about family dynamics or space exploration. And it’s sometimes, maybe just often enough, entertaining for just those very reasons.

The setup is at least more complicated, this time around. After centuries of servitude, the human race has taken up arms against the gods who both protect and bully them, toppling the gods’ images and launching sieges against their aerie on Mount Olympus. The gods can’t live without mankinds’ prayers fueling their immortality, even though their chieftain Zeus (Liam Neeson) favors a wait-and-see approach to his rebellious creation. Others, like his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) prefer a kill-’em-all retaliation; small wonder, since as ruler of the underworld he feeds on fear and terror.

Amid this, ahem, clash, an orphaned baby is found by a kindly fisherman (Pete Postlethwaite) and raised as his own child. Nineteen years and one awkward jump in time later, the adult Perseus’ (Sam Worthington) adopted family is killed as the indirect result of anti-Zeus actions committed by soldiers from the nearby city-state of Argus. He’s taken to the Argive court, where an attack by Hades reveals his true heritage – he’s actually the son of Zeus, conceived in retaliation for a rebellious king’s (Jason Flemyng) aggression. Hades threatens to destroy the city in ten days if the Argives don’t sacrifice their noble princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), as punishment for their defiance and as part of a larger scheme to weaken Zeus. Encouraged by fellow demi-god Io (Gemma Arterton), Perseus agrees to lead an expedition to the distant lair of the Stygian Witches, to consult their oracular advice. In turn, this sends them to murder the gorgon Medusa, to use her head against the Kraken beast Hades will send to raze Argos.

With so much plot to cover, it’s no wonder the script by Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi rarely slows down long enough to catch its breath – or even clearly identify some of its central characters. Of the four principal soldiers who accompany Perseus, only the bitter and intense Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) is given sufficient screen time to emerge as a character in his own right; the others fall into convenient war movie types: the rookie, the older veteran smartass, the carefree guy. Two additional adventurers, hunters who volunteer only until the party reaches the underworld, receive plenty of screen time but almost no characterization at all. The special effects sequences, naturally, get all the time they want under Leterrier’s  direction, including a belabored and 3-D pandering coin skipping over the river Styx.

To the extent that they’re allowed, the supporting players inhabit their parts with gusto. Mikkelsen is effective as the embittered warrior who will smile “only once I’ve spit in the gods’ eyes.” Arterton, so fetching in her brief screen time in Quantum of Solace, is an alluring figure, while Davalos uses every second to build Andromeda up as both strong and compassionate. Neeson and Fiennes thump and bellow according to their parts; Fiennes seems to enjoy himself more, wallowing in the heavy metal album cover art of costuming. As for the film’s star, lately Worthington has drawn comparisons to Russell Crowe: they’re both Australian, and well-built, with plenty of cocky swagger. But Worthington lacks both Crowe’s intensity and his sense of reserved confidence. He’s a placeholder, but to his advantage the script requires him to do nothing much besides react to the circumstances around him with little need for dramatic initiative.

Perhaps the film’s greatest strength lies in its production design. The monsters are terrifying, the costumes layered and textured in such a way as to seem glamorous while lived-in at the same time. The city-state of Argos, ringing a mountainous cove, is a terrific bit of CGI imagery, while the gorgon and its lair are chillingly atmospheric. A glaring exception is the underworld ferryman Charon, whose flat and uninspired designs recall any number of comic book monsters and again, heavy metal album art (specifically, Iron Maiden.) It’s also sort of hard to take Zeus’ glittering silver armor with complete seriousness; at times its luster ebbs a bit, and the designs inlaid in the plating – an eagle-shaped shoulder guard – seem overwrought. Leterrier keeps the action moving, sometimes faster than necessary, other times slowing down at odd moments that stall the forward momentum that the characters need.

Online columnist Matthew Belinkie recently wondered in an excellent analysis if, thanks to the proliferation of online video and ecommerce, the time of the cult movie has ended. The original Clash of the Titans has become something of a cult perennial if not exactly a classic, well-liked but perhaps not widely adored. This remake shares with its predecessor the hammy acting and endearing special effects, yet its shortcomings of script and story keep it from developing as a complete work in its own right. Still, IMDB shows a sequel already announced, so it’s exceeded its inspiration in one respect.

- Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review originally appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

Review: Green Lantern: First Flight

DC Comics’ popular interstellar hero stars in a violent, absorbing debut animated feature.

Green Lantern is one of those comics properties that critics and writers outside the comics community often label “second-tier.” These heroes, such as the Flash and Iron Man, are never as universally recognized as Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man, and they don’t benefit from the media saturation of the X-Men or its centerpiece Wolverine. They most often just appear in comics – tons of comics – and make money for their publishers. They’re the ones standing behind the big guns in the Justice League and Avengers cartoons, the characters who get their own action figures mostly to beef up a toy line.

Hal Jordan, the current and most famous iteration of the Green Lantern franchise, has had his adventures published more or less continuously since 1959 but has only recently come into his own as a tentpole property for DC. He’s also the subject of Green Lantern: First Flight, an original animated  feature that streamlines all the retoolings and expansions of his origin story into a fast-moving, intriguing adventure. It’s not the best such effort in DC’s series of straight-to-DVD offerings, but it’s probably the with the most to offer grown-up audiences. It’s also the darkest, and the most violent.

The script by Alan Burnett begins by sticking to the basics: Jordan (Christopher Meloni) is a test pilot summoned to the crash site of a UFO. A dying alien, Abin Sur (Richard McGonagle), offers him the power ring that’s both symbol and weapon of the Green Lantern Corps, a galaxy-wide league of interstellar lawmen. The ring has chosen Jordan, Sur explains, for his inability to feel fear. Jordan accepts, but before long finds himself the target of scrutiny from Sur’s former colleagues, including the viciously efficient Sinestro (Victor Garber) and the monstrous Kilowog (Michael Madsen). They take Jordan back to Oa, the corps’ fortress world, where he’s interrogated by the cerebral and ascetic Guardians, who formed and to a large extent micromanage the thousands of Green Lanterns. Jordan’s blase attitude, and the human race’s general reputation for savagery, gets him a cold reception until Sinestro enlists him in the search for Sur’s killer.

What follows is a smooth though often gruesome segue into more contemporary reworkings and story developments of both Jordan’s and Sinestro’s characters, including a betrayal even newcomers will see coming a mile off and a third-act allegiance shift that will, in terms of costumes anyway, delight the comics’ fan base. Most notable however, is the violence. Green Lantern comics have always been rife with death and casualties – Corpsmen are selected upon the deaths of their predecessors, and as lawmen those deaths are seldom peaceful – but the torture and mayhem also onscreen is still nonetheless shocking, and ultimately unnecessary. The PG-13 rating warns as much, at least. Hopefully parents will pay attention.

The voice talent by and large nail their characters. Meloni is one of those versatile actors who’s made  millions scowling into a TV camera at the expense of his range, but as Jordan he’s able to convey bravado, a little hubris, and even innocence. Garber (Alias) is similarly ideal as Sinestro, giving that villain’s authoritarian arrogance depth and conviction. Just as perfectly cast, though unfortunately less used, are Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), John Larroquette (Boston Legal) and Madsen (Kill Bill) as Lanterns caught in the emerging conspiracy that Sinestro may be himself orchestrating. Only Kurtwood Smith (RoboCop) is miscast as the smuggler Kanjar Ro. Smith is a fine character actor, but his sharp, twanging voice seems out of place coming from an alien’s mouth.

Possibly most impressive is the production design, including the Guardians’ flying cities and some truly inspired character designs, including the insectile Weaponers and a host of other particularly inhuman aliens. The 75-minute run time doesn’t leave a lot of room for exposition or clarification, meaning viewers need to pay close attention. The beginning, especially, is rushed and vaguely bare-bones. DC’s animated features seem to have this problem a lot: a previous effort, the marginally better Justice League: The New Frontier, had the same issues but with greater backstory to get in place felt even more disjointed.

First Flight’s ending is wide-open, of course, since the point of the film is setup, anyway – the title even says as much – laying the foundation for a sequel. With a live action film currently on fast-track development, starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), this animated effort may likely only amount to a primer for the larger spectacle to come. Still, Jordan’s fans will thrill to seeing their hero take center stage.

-Michael Kabel

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Preview: District 9

Gritty sci-fi thriller explores an Earth in which aliens suffer apartheid.

Would we welcome alien visitors if they weren’t attractive? What if they needed our help? What if they couldn’t offer us anything? Those are the questions posed by the setup for this month’s District 9, a South Africa-set thriller about oppressed aliens and the human corporation exploiting them for money. It’s the first feature-length effort from commercial and short film director Neill Blomkamp, based on the 2005 short Alive In Joburg that he co-directed. 

Youv’e probably seen the murky, cryptic ads online and on television already. The story takes up 28 years after an alien vessel appeared without warning above Johannesburg, carrying refugees fleeing the destruction of their world. The aliens have precious little in technology or resources to offer humanity, and in time find themselves restricted to the titular outlying area of the city. Most of the world views them as a frustrating letdown, unwelcome tenants better left forgotten. The world governments have left their welfare to the Multi-National United, or MNU, a conglomerate about as interested in the aliens’ welfare as most HMO’s care about their patients.

MNU stands to reap huge profits if they can adapt the aliens’ technology for human use. Without alien DNA such access remains impossible, unti employee Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) contracts a virus while participating in a forced relocation of the aliens’ ghetto. The virus changes his DNA to more closely resemble that of the aliens, instantly making him the target of his former employers. Seeking shelter, he hides among the aliens inside District 9′s network of shacks and warrens. 

We’re intrigued enough by the Alien Nation meets Catch A Fire setup to forgive the kinda stale running-man premise, which for a while now has seemed too much like the default story structure for great settings that need a plot. The alien DNA plot device feels pretty familiar, too, though no real examples of its overuse come immediately to mind outside of the Species franchise and we imagine tons of straight-to-DVD stuff. But there’s an additional potential story potential, presented by some promotional materials, that show some humans working to extend equal rights to the aliens. That would be so much more interesting than the stormtroopers-chase-man footage of the trailer, adding as it would another layer of allegory to the premise.

Still, the film looks great, with tons of gritty veracity and sun-soaked menace, sort of like Terminator: Salvation but without the patina of big money that left so much of that misfire feeling disingenuous. The aliens are oddly pitiable, lonely and disadvantaged even before the plot’s revelations come to light. As such, we hope the cruel streak that has snaked through much of producer Peter Jackson’s work doesn’t extend to Blomkamp’s direction, too, or the film could prove tedious pretty quick. Leaden, heavy-handed science fiction is still leaden and heavy-handed.

Jackson hired Blomkamp after plans for the long-hyped Halo movie fell through, and it’s possible fans will see District 9 as thin soup compared to the big-screen translation of the staggeringly popular video game. It’s been a while since the Lord of the Rings auteur really surprised us, and Blomkamp is largely an unproven talent.  But its mid-August debut puts it as the first real science fiction to come out since July’s Moon, and if it’s half as good as that debut effort by Duncan Jones it’ll make a fine end-of-summer surprise.

District 9 opens nationwide August 14.

- Michael Kabel

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DVD Review: Watchmen

Zack Snyder’s flawed adaptation of the milestone graphic novel arrives on DVD, Blu-Ray, and in Director’s Cut format this week.

Watchmen is a film that wants to be more than it is – at least most of the time. Based on the highly-praised (perhaps overpraised) 1980s-era DC Comics mini-series and at least twenty years in its journey from page to screen, Zack Snyder’s epic vision of a parallel America where super-heroes have worked, thrived and perished for years arrives on home video this week – just in time for the San Diego Comic-Con – with loads of extra features and even an expanded director’s cut promising additional footage. But does the original film succeed? Well, like the ink blot tests at the center of one character’s obsessions, that largely depends on how you see the film as a work of adaptation and as a film in its own right.

On the one hand, Watchmen is slavishly devoted to the comic’s atmosphere, characters, and even dialogue. On the other, Snyder’s insistence on highly stylized violence – the same gimmick that made his previous 300 such a blood-soaked thrill – works against the intelligent-approach-to-superheroes leitmotif that has always served as the comic’s claim to fame and redeeming virtue. Snyder, unwisely, attempts to have his cake and eat it too, presenting haunted characters doomed by their humanity who  nevertheless relish beating the shit out of other people. These two impulses work at cross-purposes to one another, and while the film never lags or suffers for pace, there’s often a sense of it getting winded, too. Superheroes don’t get tired – at least these don’t – but the emotional pitch often warbles and peters out.

The plot is faithfully byzantine, and fans of the comic series (who are going to enjoy the film the most anyway) will recognize dozens of visual and aural references to the world minutely created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. For the layman viewer such density of information will probably prove disorienting, but in broad strokes the world works as a nightmarish amplification of the worst excesses of the Reagan/Thatcher Era, including all the paranoia and shame that accompanied them. A noticeable problem sometimes emerges when the talented cast attempts to bring Moore’s pulp-inspired dialogue to life. Jackie Earle Haley, playing the haunted vigilante Rorschach, has the biggest task in this regard but nevertheless succeeds the most, bringing palpable feeling to his minimalist voice-overs. The rest of the performers don’t fare as well, often bringing to mind Harrison Ford’s famous admonition to George Lucas on the set of Star Wars: “You can type this shit, but you sure can’t say it.”

Amid the dogged loyalty shown by Snyder and screenwriters David Hayter (X-Men) and Alex Tse, the changing of the book’s ending comes both as a surprise and a relief, yet it still doesn’t entirely make sense. Watchmen the comic’s ending has long been a subject of debate and even derision (the book’s own editor, Wolverine creator Len Wein, fought with Moore but relented). To be fair, the original ending is both derivative (though openly so) and quite a bit dated by now. Hayter and Tse’s script turns the central mystery inward but fails to really examine the ramifications of its execution, and Snyder tries to ram the idea past the audience with bluster and speed. Neither tactic really works.

The film would work much less than it does if not for the performances that manage, often against overwhelming odds, to emerge from the special effects and tediously gruesome fight sequences. Billy Crudup (Public Enemies) finds the character of godlike Dr. Manhattan in the estranged superbeing’s lonesome voice, while Patrick Wilson (Lakeview Terrace) disappears inside the flabby self-loathing of the myopic Nite Owl.

Less commendable are the turns by Malin Ackerman (The Heartbreak Kid) as Laurie Jupiter, the second Silk Spectre, and Matthew Goode (Match Point) as Adrian Veidt, the hero turned media mogul. Moore wroter Veidt as a dispassionate, virtually asexual intellectual; while Goode’s glacial good looks fit the part he never brings any nuance to the character’s dark intellect. Ackerman struggles with a role that’s underwritten to the point of insignificance. Perhaps the delicate balance of family versus self and the struggle for a father figure at the heart of Jupiter’s character was beyond the screenwriters’ capability or outside their interest. Whatever the reason, her character was neglected most in adaptation, and the big reveal regarding her paternity doesn’t quite come off as a result.

The action sequences aside, there are finally other problems with Snyder’s sense of staging and scene construction, and even the most casual viewing reveals missed chances. One particular wasted opportunity involves a third-act reconciliation between Nite Owl and Rorschach, as the latter begs his former partner’s forgiveness for being obstinate. Though the scene screams for close-ups, to show the emotions bursting forth from beneath the masks, Snyder frames the moment as a static medium two-shot. Other visual counterpoints to character growth used so masterfully in the comics – a crystal castle splinters and falls as memories come to light, dirigibles hover over death, a perfume advertisement heralds a new future - are all curiously missing.

The cynical response, obviously, is that Snyder or the screenwriters just missed them when reading the comics. And it’s possible a repeated viewing might show that their understanding of the comics’ themes and still-timely message is in fact only skin deep. I hope not. After 23 years, the Watchmen movie shouldn’t feel like a waste of time.

- Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review originally appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

The Flash: Lightning Strikes

A plot and cast to help DC Comics get the long-awaited comic adaptation moving again.

Now that The Dark Knight has raked in more money than Jesus, Warner Brothers is reportedly looking to bring as many of DC Comics’ stable of heroes as possible to the big screen in a big hurry. Eli Stone showrunner Marc Guggenheim has turned in a script for a Green Lantern movie, and there was plenty of speculation on the Interweb last week that Dark Knight scribe David Goyer’s Green Arrow-led Super Max may get the fast track treatment.

But DC’s had another project stalled in development for several years now: the super-speed hero The Flash, who while eluding the widespread popularity of Batman and Superman has remained one of the company’s most durable franchises for close to seventy years. IMDB currently has a film slated for a 2010 release date, but we remember when the date was 2005. With that in mind, here are our suggestions for making the movie right. Hopefully, they’ll speed things up on DC’s end (so to speak.)

The Plot: College student Wally West grew up as the speed-powered sidekick to Barry Allen, the Flash of the previous generation. When Allen vanished on a mission with the Justice League, West gave up his Kid Flash identity and settled into a normal teenage existence. Five years later, several of their old enemies have resurfaced, igniting a crime wave through Central City. Better organized and less impulsive than Batman’s villains or Superman’s adversaries, this “Rogues Gallery” carries out crimes with exact speed and precision, as if guided by a central intelligence.

West is recruited to help by Jay Garrick, the original Flash from before Allen’s time. To do so, West must learn to use his own speed all over again, tapping into the Speed Force energy dimension that grants all speedsters their powers like never before and becoming faster than the intelligence guiding the villains – effectively running faster than the bad guys can think.

The Director: Any number of directors has been attached to the project so far, ranging from David Goyer (The Dark Knight) to David Dobkin (The Wedding Crashers). For our money, either Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces) or Len Wiseman (Underworld) could convincingly bring the high-velocity effects to life.

The Cast:

Jamie Bell as Wally West: A role connected for years with Ryan Reynolds, West has to be both youthful and mature at the same time. Bell tried his best not to steal every scene in 2008′s Jumper from Hayden Christensen – and it happened anyway. So he’s used to working with special effects believably, and he even looks the part.

Terry O’Quinn as Jay Garrick: Playing the Obi-Wan Kenobi to West’s Luke Skywalker, Garrick was the original Flash during World War II and until passing the torch to Barry Allen. Kept comparatively youthful by the Speed Force, he’s come out of retirement to help West get back on track. Nobody plays serene, almost cocky calm like O’Quinn (Lost), and he’d be great in a Jedi Master role such as this.

Anthony Edwards as Barry Allen: Hero, scientist, and legend even among other heroes, Allen is the kind of father figure that’s almost impossible to measure up to. Edwards honed his steady-handed mentor skills during all those years on ER, and he has Allen’s reserved Midwestern gravitas to boot.

Joan Allen as Iris Allen: Allen’s widow and West’s loving aunt, Iris is a crusading journalist and the conscience of all three Flashes. Allen, who can agree to this role if she can stoop to appear in Death Race, has played similarly strong women in The Bourne Ultimatum and The Contender.

Grace Park as Linda Park: Continuing the nifty coincidence that the Flashs’ love interests be played by actresses with the same last name, Linda Park is a young med student and West’s true romance. Born in Korea but educated in Central City, Missouri, she’s both exotic beauty and the girl next door. Grace Park hasn’t really got a chance to relax and play sweet on either Hawaii Five-O or Battlestar Galactica yet, and she’s got the poise and charm for the role.

Paul Guilfoyle as Captain Cold. The leader of the Rogues, Leonard Snart is a blue-collar crook who rules the villain fraternity with an iron fist. He’s smart, obstinate, and yet carries a weird sense of honor that prohibits killing and admits a grudging but deep respect for the fallen Allen. Guilfoyle has played pugnacious cops and crooks for two decades, but never one with a gun that freezes all the moisture in any given room.

Sam Rockwell as The Weather Wizard: Vain and obnoxious, the Weather Wizard has a wand that controls… guess what. Disliked even by his fellow Rogues, his selfish jackass persona is a part Rockwell (Confessions of A Dangerous Mind, Matchstick Men) routinely plays with snakelike perfection.

Robert Carlyle as The Mirror Master: Possessing one of the creepier gimmicks in comics, Scottish thug Evan McCulloch uses mirrors to move between dimensions, hypnotize victims, and appear anywhere instantly. He’s also got a cocaine habit that keeps him hiding secrets from his fellow Rogues and carrying out crime-for-hire work on the side. So  he’s basically Francis Begbie as a supervillain.

John C. Reilly as Heat Wave: Anguished and self-loathing, as a boy Mick Rory’s pyromania led him to burn down his family’s house – while they were still inside. Now equipped with a flame-throwing pistol and gallons of propellant strapped to his back, he’s the least malicious of the Rogues but, thanks to his obsession, also the most dangerous. Reilly (The Perfect Storm, Magnolia) specializes in portraying slow-boiling anguish, and seeing him play off the other Rogues, especially natural antagonist Captain Cold, could drive the group’s dramatic tension.

Michael Wincott as Gorilla Grodd (voice): Grodd is literally the 800-lb gorilla in the room, a super-evolved ape with telepathy and mind-control powers that wants to kill the entire human race so that his own gorilla nation can replace us. Seriously, what better Big Bad than an evil, mind-controlling ape? Though sorely missing from movie screens in recent years, Wincott (Strange Days, The Count of Monte Crisco) has the gravelly growl to make what could be an otherwise silly character become deadly serious.

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- Michael Kabel

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