Man of Steel: Up, up...and over the top...

It turns out there can be such a thing as too many special effects - at least that's what it felt like during the overwhelmingly busy mayhem unleashed during the third act of Man of Steel.

I enjoyed Man of Steel, but I was also disappointed. Director Zack Snyder does a great job of making the evolving young Kal-El into a character we feel for - Henry Cavill is well cast and brings a lot of compassion and heart to the character. Cavill - (along with spectacular young actors Dylan Sprayberrry and Cooper Timberline, both great as young Clark) is a great choice and his best scenes are those where he's relating to people - his parents (Costner is terrific as Pa Kent) and Amy Adams as Lois Lane. It's when Kal has to mix it up with arch foe General Zod that the audience starts to tune out.

The film's more character-driven small-scale moments are without a doubt its most pleasing - but when the film rips loose on a big canvas, things start to become numbing. We begin with an enormous opening sequence on planet Krypton with Kal's father Jor-El (Russel Crowe) warning the planetary rulers of imminent doom. Krypton is a gigantic heavily-designed place - Clad in thick, bristly armor, General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his band of cronies feel a lot like the Harkonnens in David Lynch's Dune. Shannon is a charismatic presence, but his work feels less like a performance and more like a series of him erupting into increasingly wide-eyed, clenched-jawed fury outbursts, that feel like the result of one take too many. I found myself quickly longing for the icy control and depth of Terence Stamp's Zod - whose place in history remains secure.

The first half of Man of Steel is pretty entertaining and scenes of vagabond Kal/Clark roaming the world and helping people are superb - a rescue involving an oil rig at sea is amazing - and Cavill's chemistry with Amy Adams is really nice.

But once Zod comes to Earth, despite my strong desire to love this movie, I began to check out. We just saw New York under pretty epic seige in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, and that was a completely enthralling and visceral, easy-to-follow action extravaganza. Man of Steel gives us endless Metropolis attacks, with Supe battling Zod and his armored henchfolk, with lots of high-speed hurling of bodies through buildings and such. Some scenes feel like they're alternate edits of the Destroyer street fights from Thor. After a while, it just seems too generic and annoying - particularly when rather than leave my jaw hanging at images I'd never seen before, the fights and effects are pretty blurry CGI and seem to have been hastily rendered. The Kryptonian spaceships don't evoke awe and seem to have popped over from Skyline or Battle: Los Angeles. The repetitive, middling CGI really disengages and fight after fight with Zod never thrills or catches fire. Many moments feel like the third act of The Matrix Revolutions.

I have to give Man of Steel a B-minus. It's fun a lot of the time and certainly entertaining - but would I want to own it? See it again...? Probably not, and that's always been my litmus for a movie being a great movie.

The final moments of Man of Steel are fun and certainly made me smile - if we get a sequel, I'd strongly encourage Snyder not to retell the same story we've already seen - let's get Superman in a new story - and be sure to let Cavill and Adams have a lot more time together - their energy as characters is what keeps the movie aloft - not the overwrought airborne debris.

Richard Matheson - Legend Incarnate

We just lost one of the greats - one of my all-time heroes, the master of the amazing, novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson.

His creations and influence over fantasy are unparalleled - he wrote novels that would have many incarnations as films - The Incredible Shrinking Man, I Am Legend (with Vincent Price and Charlton Heston, long before Will Smith), The Legend of Hell House, Somewhere In Time, What Dreams May Come, A Stir of Echoes - his Twilight Zone episode Steel later became the basis for Hugh Jackman's Real Steel, as well as early Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe including The Raven, House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum.

He was a television legend - his other Twilight Zone episodes included the famous Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and The Enemy Within episode of Star Trek.
His short story Duel became the TV movie that launched Steven Spielberg's career - he won an Edgar for his teleplay on The Night Stalker movie, which preceded the Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series and was a prolific contributor to many anthology TV series of the 60s and 70s, including The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Lawman, Rod Serling's Night Gallery, The Martian Chronicles and Amazing Stories.

Chris Carter named Fox Mulder's X-Files government source "Senator Matheson" after him.

Born in New Jersey, Matheson grew up in Brooklyn and served in the infantry in World War II. He was 87 and leaves one hell of a legacy. That's what a writer is supposed to be. I can't begin to thank you enough, Mr. Matheson. The rest of us can only look up, and tip our hats.

James Gandolfini...

This came as a complete shock and being from a let's say, similar vintage, the all too soon passing of actor James Gandolfini at 51 hit hard. His portrayal of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano was already the stuff of legend. Now, the character can only move to some completely iconic, cultish sphere. I first saw Gandolfini in True Romance and it wasn't long after that HBO made him a household name. He infused the brutality of Tony with a vulnerability that somehow managed to keep him human and identifiable, despite his atrocious actions. From one hefty hothead with mother issues to another - Tony...we'll never forget you.

Thanks, NECA!

To my complete surprise, I won NECA's Facebook Aliens Caption Contest!

Who says cracking-wise doesn't pay off?!

NECA has just released their first wave of figures from the Aliens line and they're pretty jaw-droppingly amazing, let me tell you! Their ED-209 from Robocop is looking just insane, too. Here's hoping NECA goes crazy with these lines - would love to see every character from the first two Alien films done justice!

Thanks, Gods of Plastic! I salute you!

David Bradley is THE MAN!

Thanks to Jonas (still keeping your secret, friend, otherwise, I'd shout-you-out!) for pointing this out, as I was completely oblivious - but during Sunday night's brain-erupting Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones, the Father of the Bride - one Walder Frey (I'm still pronouncing it "fry") was played by actor David Bradley, the very same actor who played Hogwart's "gamekeeper" (does that mean "Janitor?") Argus Filch, for an entire decade of Harry Potter movies! The man has one hell of a resume including an Olivier Award and will be seen coming up in Edgar Wright's The World's End. Mr. Bradley, you are the man, Sir - though you may have a really hard time getting any houseguests in the future...





Mirror, Mirror: Star Trek Into Darkness

Like an overdue shipment of dilithium crystals, Star Trek Into Darkness is here at last - it's been a while, but it felt like damn near everybody was in a major hurry to get to this one opening weekend, as the shelf-life on the secrets of this movie is bound to be brief - and it looks like fans old and new turned out in droves.

It's not just that this is the long-anticipated sequel to 2009's Star Trek. With the recent news that director J.J. Abrams had also been tapped to re-energize the Star Wars franchise and that he'll be directing that next, the collateral excitement for this new film has been palpable - after all, those signing the checks at Disney must have seen Star Trek Into Darkness before signing J.J. and it must have made a sizable impression for them to bring him into the fold. In a way it feels like a preview of what that film might feel like.

I had all kinds of angst about this film, but it's deliriously entertaining and as a long-time die hard original series fan, I just loved it. If you're married to "canon" and demand Torah-like fealty to what's come before, you may want a shot of cordrazine before strapping yourself in for Star Trek Into Darkness. First, know that the new film is probably going to end up being considered superior to the first one. Star Trek had the infectious glee of an origin story, but this new film is a rip-roaring action-fest with some truly amazing sequences. It's crowd-pleasing in the extreme, and I enjoyed it much more than Iron Man 3. At the end of the day it just feels like an episode of the old series - a $180 million episode, granted, but the dynamic of the characters and their values together are the glue that makes this story take off.

In an outlandish opening sequence, Kirk makes a very human choice to disregard the prime directive to save Spock's life - a decision that will have great consequences and which sets the theme of friendship, morality and doing what matters in motion, that is frankly refreshing to watch unfold. This James Kirk is brash and nobody can tell him anything - he's willful to a fault and quickly finds himself in hot water with the brass at Star Fleet Academy, including his mentor, Christopher Pike. But there's little time for reprimands as a shadowy figure emerges to begin wreaking vengeance on Earth. This foe may seem familiar, but he's reinvented in a more political landscape, and with a strong post-9/11 subtext - Star Fleet finds itself at the juncture of becoming a more military, vindictive entity, in order to fend-off the approaching darkness they fear is at their door.

Much of the story behind Star Trek Into Darkness draws from recognizable waters, but it does a pretty smashing job of reinventing elements from the series and the films and reflecting them through the lens of the new reality of this particular Trek universe. For the most part it's cleverly done and there are plenty of affectionate winks to the fans, most of whom I think will be extremely pleased with the results. The action and special effects in the film are just stupendous - I saw it in 2D and I'm glad I did - nothing made me lament the lack of 3D, which just seems to dim the image way too much, as in the recent Iron Man 3. The CG is beyond top notch and things seem utterly tangible - the Enterprise feels enormous and real and the futuristic cityscapes and alien worlds all have a rich atmosphere but feel convincing.

There are some plot mechanics that you'll likely see coming about 20 minutes ahead of the characters, but the thing is - you're just not going to care. I found myself wildly entertained, thanks to the tremendous energy and heart of this cast - they utterly embody these characters. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are marvelous and witnessing the early days of the Kirk/Spock friendship evolve is great fun, as we see both these characters develop, each still grappling with their own convictions. Zoe Saldana is terrific and once again, Karl Urban steals every scene he's in. They have got to make McCoy a larger part of the action in the next film - he's sensational, as is antagonist Benedict Cumberbatch, putting his own stamp in the Trek universe.

There's bound to be some great chat-room arguments about some of the events in Star Trek Into Darkness, but for this vintage old school Trek fan, I couldn't imagine a better place for this film to leave off, pointing towards the beginning of a voyage we can't wait to start. "We're supposed to be explorers," someone laments during the film. It's my hope that when J.J. and company next return to the Enterprise crew, we're at long last seeking out new life, strange new worlds and all. This crew is more than ready for what's out there.

On His Majesty's Next Feature...

When Sam Mendes announced he would not be available to helm another Bond picture after the incredible success of Skyfall, the "how do we top that?" dilemma echoed throughout the halls of MI6. Well, it's no secret that director Christopher Nolan is a massive James Bond fan - Inception's elaborate ski attack sequence is a pretty clear nod to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Now, in a pretty nifty case of synchronicity, word comes that Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have been talking to Nolan about fulfilling his dream of playing Bond's sandbox. "It would have to be the right situation and the right time in their cycle of things," Nolan mentioned to Empire last year, when they asked him their prescient what-if question. Nolan is busy with his space opus Interstellar, set for a November 2014 release. Bond producers have been eyeing a 2015 release for any Skyfall follow-up, so timing, a knockout script and Nolan's energy level after coming off of Interstellar would all need to be carefully baked. One thing's for sure, it's one helluva rumor...