“Interstellar” review

Director Christopher Nolan is back with his first film since “The Dark Knight Rises”. Does “Interstellar” live up to the hype? Or is this 2014’s version of “Prometheus”?

The Good: This film is not for everyone. But when this movie clicks, it absolutely soars. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon, and everyone in between is absolutely superb with their performances.

Of course, the special effects are truly spectacular. But the real moments are those moments when the film hits a home run with some emotional moments. You can feel what the characters are going through right along side them. And the film takes a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.

The film’s scope is epic and ambitious. And there are ideas at play that are at once recognizable and yet new and thrilling at the same time.

The Bad: I wanted badly to say this was a masterpiece. Alas, it was not. The film gets a little … unique near the end. And more than a few people groaned as this film seems to suffer from “Return of the King” syndrome where there’s about three or four spots where the film could have ended.

I’m also not sure the film’s primary driving human relationship is hitting home with audiences. I’d say more than half of the crowd I saw it with were yawning and growing restless midway through the film.

The film reaches high, but it definitely doesn’t reach those heights all the time. And when it doesn’t, the film can feel overly long and tedious.

The Final Word: This is not the next “2001: A Space Odyssey”. What it is, however, is a beautiful, good film. At times, you catch glimpses of an instant classic. At others, a film that slows to a crawl. Yet, I’d say this is a film worth checking out. Because you if you like it, I think you’ll love it.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

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Ultimate “Dark Knight” trilogy collector’s set

We already saw WB do this for the “Harry Potter” series. Now get ready for the ultimate collector’s edition of the “Dark Knight” trilogy. It’s six discs with the three movies and its existing content plus:

• The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of The Dark Knight Trilogy: The inside perspective on the fascinating story behind the creation of one of the most celebrated franchises and how it changed the scope of movie making… forever. Full of never-before-seen footage, rare moments, and exclusive interviews with Guillermo Del Toro, Damon Lindelof, Michael Mann, Richard Roeper, Zack Snyder and others.
• Christopher Nolan & Richard Donner: A Conversation: For the first time, Directors Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy) and Richard Donner (Superman) sit down to discuss the trials and triumphs involved in bringing the two most iconic superheroes of all time to the big screen, and how Superman influenced Nolan when developing Batman Begins.
• IMAX Sequences: The Dark Knight; The Dark Knight Rises: See your favorite scenes as they were intended in the original IMAX aspect ratio.

• Premium Mattel Hot Wheels Vehicles: Batmobile, Batpod and Tumbler
• Newly commissioned collectible art cards by Mondo featuring Scarecrow, Joker, Bane, Harvey Dent, and Ra’s al Ghul
• 48-page hardcover book featuring production stills and behind the scenes images from all three movies.

  The series stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Heath Ledger and many more.

 

Bale shoots down rumors

Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” started up talk about a “Justice League” film. If it does happen, Christian Bale, who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy said he won’t be back.

”I have no information, no knowledge about anything,” he told EW.  “I’ve literally not had a conversation with a living soul. I understand that they may be making a Justice League movie, that’s it. It’s a torch that should be handed from one actor to another. So I enjoy looking forward to what somebody else will come up with.”

They could go with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, however.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“Interstellar” adds strong actor

Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight Rises”, “Inception”) is returning to science fiction with “Interstellar”. Now reports are that Casey Affleck (“Gone Baby Gone”) has joined the cast. Great news. Affleck is a great actor. He joins Matthew McConaughey (“Magic Mike”), Anne Hathaway (“Les Miserables”), Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Michael Caine (“Now You See Me”) and Bill Irwin (“Rachel Getting Married”).

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“Prometheus 2” gets new writer

To say that Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” was polarizing might be an understatement. People loved it or hated it. Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof wrote the script, but now Fox is apparently courting a new writer for “Prometheus 2”. Jack Paglen is apparently the top choice to write the sequel. The bad news is he has only one screenplay to his credit. The good news is that screenplay is “Transcendence”, the debut from longtime Christopher Nolan collaborator Wally Pfister starring Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman, but he’s still unproven. Do you want to see what happens to Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and David (Michael Fassbender)?

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“Man of Steel” soars to new June record

Warner Brothers is probably celebrating today. Director Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan teamed up for a new Superman film “Man of Steel”. And audiences turned out in droves, earning $113.1 million and $125.1 million if you include the Thursday night shows. Both numbers top the previous June record of $110 million set by “Toy Story 3”. The film now has earned more than double of “Superman Returns” total domestic take of $200.1 million already.

“This is the End”, the comedy starring Seth Rogen, James Franco and a host of others earned $32.8 million since opening on Wednesday.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

“Man of Steel” review

Superman’s back and better than ever. Or is he? Zack Snyder’s latest is now in theaters. Is this the Superman film we’ve been waiting for?

The Good

When “Man of Steel” is at its best, it’s absolutely fantastic. The opening sequence is intense, emotional and visually beautiful to watch.

The real stars here are the supporting characters. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Clark Kent’s adoptive parents and Russell Crowe as Superman’s birth father really shine here. They all give powerful, emotional performances. Costner’s performance was my favorite of the entire film. I also like what Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan tried to do with the story. The most interesting parts in the film are the flashbacks to Kent’s childhood when he deals with abilities that no other child has and is struggling with finding his identity and having to hide who he truly is all the time.

In fact, the time spent on Krypton and in Kent’s childhood I feel like would have made compelling stand alone films as it is. Still, though short in span, these sequences are spectacular in their own ways.

The final battle between Superman and General Zod was very fun to watch. There’s a surprising amount of lens flare here (Snyder must have taken notes from J.J. Abrams) and the action can be a little hard to follow. But seeing two superhuman beings go at it is the type of action that Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns” sorely lacked. Laurence Fishburne was very solid as well, though his screen time was way too limited.

The Bad 

There are glimpses of a truly great film here. Unfortunately, the film also has its fair share of missteps. Most noticeably is Henry Cavill. Like Brandon Routh before him, he looks the part. But, and this isn’t all his fault since he has surprisingly limited dialogue, but he comes off as a little wooden. Also, the plot gets a little convoluted. The codex is never really fully explained and as the movie goes on, it seems as though elements are just added as they go.

Also, while the sequences on Krypton and in Kent’s childhood are the highlights of the film, they feel rushed, as do a lot of things in this film. It’s a longer movie, for a summer blockbuster, but there’s just too much stuff, so we get the cliff notes version and only scratching the surface of what could be deep, rich tales. I also didn’t care for Amy Adams’ performance. She wasn’t terrible, but hers, and pretty much everyone else besides Kent’s, character development were pretty much non-existent and some of the best actors in the film get short changed on time because they have to fit so much in this movie. And, I realize the movie is going for a darker tone, but there’s very little humor in this movie, which I think works against it.

The final fight is good. Initially I was impressed with the action. But the more I thought about it, the rest of the film lacked any real awe-inspiring set pieces.

The Final Word

No, this isn’t a perfect Superman movie. But when “Man of Steel” works, it soars. It’s just too bad there’s a few elements that bring it back down to earth.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Bane is “The Outsider”

Tom Hardy, best known for his roles in Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” and “The Dark Knight Rises”, is taking a lead role. Now Bane will play the lead in”The Outsider”, about an American G.I. who becomes a member of the notorious Japanese Yakuza. Joel Silver (“The Matrix”) is producing and the film will be directed by Takashi Miike. Miike will be directing his first English language film after directing films like “Audition” and “13 Assassins”.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Final trailer for “Man of Steel”

Here’s the final trailer for “Man of Steel”.

I was skeptical of this film, but it looks like Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan have a hit on their hands. The anticipated film stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, Russell Crowe, Michael Kelly, Harry Lennix and Richard Schiff.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.

Mendes now returning for TWO more Bond films?

This is getting a lot like sorting through the “Star Wars Episode VII” saga, which eventually went to J.J. Abrams. First came news that Nicolas Winding Refn, Christopher Nolan, Ang Lee, Shane Black and Tom Hooper were all in the running for Bond 24, the follow up to “Skyfall” with Daniel Craig. Then came news that Sam Mendes was in talks to return. Now new reports say that Mendes is directing Bond 24 AND Bond 25. That’s the length of Craig’s contract for the record, so maybe this will be Craig’s big finale.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.