Monday, July 7, 2008

Masterpieces and Messes: Summer Cinema

I spent the day at the movies-- unintentionally. I originally was only going to see Wall-E, but upon exiting the auditorium, right next door, was another auditorium just beginning to show Wanted. I had nothing to do-- of course I slipped inside.


Wall-E is spectacular. It is a masterpiece, and the best Pixar film since Toy Story 2. It has moments so sublime, so intensely emotional, so heart-rending and adorable that the only real thing I can say is that it must be seen. It is not a children's film. (Anecdotally, the screening I saw had far more adults without kids present than yapping, nasty children. In a half full auditorium, there were perhaps four.)

The plot plays like the heir apparent to both Kubrick and Spielberg, a masterful conflation of 2001 and E.T. The earth has been covered by trash, forcing humanity to flee into space and leave behind a fleet of trash-compacting robots to clean up the planet prior to civilization's return. Seven hundred years later, the scheme has failed, leaving behind only one robot (Wall-E) who has developed expression and emotion and longs for love like he sees in the frames of a worn-out VHS copy of Hello, Dolly!. One day, another robot arrives, named Eve, with mysterious intent-- before long, Wall-E charts into space to protect his new lady love.

Clearly, the plot is sacchrine sweet and the environmental messages grow heavy-handed. The film rises above these flaws and reaches the pinnacles of great science fiction-- this is the best since Close Encounters. Awe-inspiring sequences combine with heart and humor in ways that are delightful and unexpected. Pixar has given up making films that can even be considered 'children's films'. They just make great cinema.


***

Now, to Wanted, which is the precise opposite of Wall-E-- offensive, dull and stupid. Here, friends, is a film about an ancient religious cult who worship a magical loom. Seriously, I'm not making this up. Perhaps, somewhere in this sticky mess is a treatise against organised religion-- I didn't care enough to try and find it.

The film resembles a lackluster conflation on Fight Club and Shoot 'Em Up, without the satire or the fun. Sure, Fight Club missed as many marks as it hit, was irresponsible and unpleasent, but at least it tried to do something and failed. Wanted never tries.

This is a cliched, wholly-American tale of regeneration through violence, where a sad-sack loser reforms his life and 'makes something of himself' after discovering violence, fast cars and Angelina Jolie. It furthers the notion that all American males are incomplete until they have both A.) been shot, and B.) reconnected with their absentee father. Vomit.

The film is a giant male ego-stroke-- filled with shoot outs and car chases and father-son reflection and fraternal camaraderie and escaping from dismal, oppressive office jobs in humorous ways. Sixty years ago, this film could have been made by John Huston, but he would have inserted the pathos to make it digestible. The fact that the women in the audience weren't rolling in the aisles in laughter at this absurdity and the men leaving in anger made me a bit sad. In fact, as the giant masculine orgy that this film is, the mere prescence of Angelina Jolie is gratuitous. That she gives a performance far better than the material deserves makes me pity her.

What did these actors (Jolie, James McAvoy playing whiny and annoying, Morgan Freeman playing the Liam Neeson role, Terrence Stamp in a glorified cameo) think this film was about? Even if they missed the obvious, offenseive subtext, why would anyone want to make a film about the worship of a magical loom? Worst of all, hovever, Wanted commits a cardinal sin even more dire than being offensive, or stupid-- it's boring. This film is god-awful.

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