Lara Croft

Growing up, there weren't too many female superheroes that us girls could count on. Aside from the scarce remnants of Wonder Woman, who was from another (older) era, we didn't really have too many heroines.

Until of course, came the lady who could make Indiana Jones drool, Lara Croft.

She was tough, cool, and British.

She became my hero, even if I never really completed any of her numerous games. Imagine my delight when in 2001, a Tomb Raider movie was announced. When I found out that Lara Croft was going to be played by Angelina Jolie, I was apathetic, I didn't really care who was going to be Lara Croft, as long as a female adventurer got up the big screen and kicked ass.

I loved the movie.

And despite the mass consensus, I loved the second one, Cradle of Life, too.

Now, they've just announce that a third Tomb Raider film is in the pre-works. However, it seems that many are voting for a story reboot. A reboot is nice, and admittedly welcomed, but I just really hope that they find an actress worthy of succeeding the mantle. Angelina Jolie owned the Lara Croft character, and someone similar to her should succeed the character.

Someone with sizable acting chops, awesome action abilities, and of course, the requisite sex appeal. Someone more than Megan Fox. Not to be judgmental, but Megan Fox has proved that she cannot insert emotion during action scenes, as evidenced in the mindless mega blockbuster hit Transformers.

This picture says it all.
Shia Labeouf - Emoting. Confused. Scared. Constipated.
Megan Fox - Squint eyes. Pout. Show cleavage. Look pretty.

Lara Croft may be created for the male audience and gamers, but I will always be grateful to my first hero. After all, other than cutesy characters made from sugar, spice, and everything stupid (yes, I'm referring to you Powerpuff Girls), there still aren't too many popular female heroes.

You could do worse than idolizing a hard-as-nails-genius-ass-kicker-British-unemotional-sexpot.

That new Tomb Raider movie better be good.

"Changeling" Film Review

It’s no wonder why Changeling received great reviews when it premiered in the 61st Cannes Film Festival early last year in May.

Changeling is a period drama film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood in 2008. The film is written by J. Michael Straczynski, and stars Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Gattlin Griffith, Jason Butler Harner, and Amy Ryan.
(May Contain Spoilers)

The story of Changeling itself, which is based on true events, is truly compelling on its own. The actors’ performances only add another level of depth to the film. Angelina Jolie deserves every letter of praise she gets. She performed with endless grace and poise truly reminiscent of a lady in the 20’s era. Jolie managed to convey an innate strength and earnest tenacity to her character, even when she was nose to nose with a psychopathic killer, was thrown into an insane asylum, and was verbally manipulated by a man who was supposed to protect her. Jason Butler Harner as Gordon Northcott was amazing. Normally, that type of bumbling clumsiness would get on my nerves, but Harner delivers an eerily pathetic plight to his psychotic character that makes you want to slap him in both fury and pity. John Malkovich, as usual, is enigmatic yet magnetic. Jeffrey Donovan as J.J. Jones, the police captain, is every bit the charming snake that we all love to hate, and hate even more because his clean cut prestige is completely wasted by his lack of a heart and soul.

One of the best scenes I loved in the Changeling film was in the first few minutes wherein we get to see the relationship between Angelina Jolie’s character Christine Collins, and her son Gattlin Griffith’s character, Walter. Christine and Walter exhibit a quietly intense dependence on each other. One of the little details that clearly show this love is when Christine and Walter were on the bus. The bus stops at Walter’s school, and as he leaves the bus to enter the school, Christine escorts him off the bus, affectionately ruffles his head, and returns to the bus again to continue her journey. It was completely illogical because she could have just said her goodbyes without having to get out of the bus, but it was also the obsessive fussing that clearly shows a mother’s instinctual love, the need to be as close to your child as long as possible even if it’s just a mere few steps. Another one of the best scenes I loved, of course, is the court scene wherein the Captain and Police Chief totally got what they deserved, I also loved the part where Christine confronted Gordon Northcott before the day of his execution, it was intense, disturbing, and goosebumps worthy.

The detailed arrangement of the whole set to emulate the 20’s ambiance and design was absolutely riveting, everything was so perfectly coifed and pressed to a believable 20’s era casual glamour. The music was also great, very in tuned with the emotion of the scene. Overall, Changeling delivers a heavy story with a heavy message, and it does so without making the audience faint with the heaviness.

Changeling is as much about a missing child and his mother’s desperate attempt to find him, as it is about the shameless corruption of people in power, and the constant demeaning of women. A film that wraps itself around all of these issues, and successfully tackles each one and does even more, deserves an extra kudos. And I’ll leave that extra one to the Oscars.

And remember folks, a mother’s love always wins.

Christine Collins: "He's not my son."
Capt. J.J. Jones: "Mrs. Collins..."
Christine Collins: "No, I don't know why he's saying that he is, but he's not Walter and there's been a mistake."
Capt. J.J. Jones: "I thought we agreed to give him time to adjust."
Christine Collins: "He's three inches shorter; I measured him on the chart."
Capt. J.J. Jones: "Well, maybe your measurements are off. Look, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all of this."
Christine Collins: "He's circumcised and Walter isn't."
Capt. J.J. Jones: "Mrs. Collins, your son was missing for five months, for at least part of that time in the company of an unidentified drifter. Who knows what such a disturbed individual might have done. He could have had him circumcised. He could have..."
Christine Collins: "...made him shorter?"

"Wanted" Film Review

Wanted is a film by Timur Bekmambetov loosely based on Mark Millar’s miniseries comics of the same name. Wanted stars James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann, Konstantin Khabensky, and David O’Hara.

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), is a boring account manager with a bullying boss, and a girlfriend who’s cheating on him with his best friend. His life, in his opinion, is simply insignificant. That is until he finds out that his father, (whom he thought walked out on him a week after he was born), was one of the greatest assassins that ever lived, and was recently killed by his arch nemesis, Cross. Cross (Thomas Kretschmann), is a rogue assassin who left The Fraternity. The Fraternity is a thousand year old group of assassins that “kill one to save a thousand,” the group is led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Fox (Angelina Jolie), is the gorgeous assassin sent by Sloan to save Gibson from Cross, and trains him to become an assassin himself so that he can follow in his father’s footsteps.

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(Major Spoilers Ahead)

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I liked this film, the action was brilliant, brutal, and unapologetic. However, story-wise, I wasn’t necessarily convinced. Some parts lacked originality, you could practically smell the big twist a mile away. I get the intent of the story, but it asks a lot of questions, and kinda gives the wrong answers.

Following your destiny is great and all, but is it still so great when you’re destiny is to kill people? This is only the tip of the iceberg.

The main idea of Wanted, in my humble opinion, is about fate, faith, and the courage to deal with both. The Fraternity is a group of people who rely on The Loom of Fate for guidance, this can easily be a representation of a number of concepts in our society, namely, religion. Sloan’s character was appointed the leader of the group, but he directly disobeyed The Loom of Fate in order to save himself and earn money. Sloan was, simply put, a priest that went bad. What was so damaging about his evilness is that his followers did not know that he was evil, so they killed whomever Sloan told them to kill. He asked a very important question during his standoff with Gibson and the other assassins, (not verbatim) would you rather save what you believe in, or save your life? The only person who had the courage to completely surrender to what they believed in, was Fox. Of course, that whole idea is just moot because there is nothing good or positive about killing other people before committing suicide so that you can prove a point, no matter how frickin cool you did it.

Gibson’s journey throughout the whole film was much too self-centered than it ought to be, after all, his destiny is supposedly affecting thousands of people, but all I saw was him killing lots of people because he’s angry he got played. He was all about revenge, taking control of his life, and following in his father’s footsteps. Pretty clichéd if you ask me.

The parts that I loved about Wanted?

- Mainly the action scenes, major kudos to McAvoy for not being conscious about his mouth flapping all over the place.

_ Cross' character, heartwarming dad in the midst of his cold, murdering reputation.

- Rats and peanut butter being used as bombs. Frickin hilarious.

- Bending bullets. Frickin wicked.

Parts that I hated?

- The fact that the real hero in the story had to commit suicide in order to preserve fate’s orders. And all everyone focused on was how the leading character finally grew some ba- found the guts to live his own life and not take any crap from other people.

- The fact that their superpowers were given silly explanations, super-fast adrenaline? Come on, you can should do better than that.

- Don't even get me started on the mighty Loom of Fate.

- And, what is up with all the CGI scenes? If you can’t flip a car on a bus in real life, then you can’t flip a car on a bus, period.

Overall, Wanted is a fun, crude film with a talented cast. It’s a fast-paced, knuckle-whitening, thrill ride that is sure to get your heart pounding. It’s a grade-A action film. No more, no less.

Now, I’ll leave you with the words of the man himself, Wesley Gibson:

“This is me, taking control of my life.
*cue badass glare*
What the fuck have you done lately?”