The Crystal Skull is a good action movie but fails as an Indiana Jones movie

My initial problem, even before I got to the movie was that the trailers didn’t really show me much ‘new stuff’ – it looked like every Indiana Jones movie I had ever seen – I was hoping that after such a long delay, Spielberg may have had time to rethink the franchise and come up with something fresh, something that wasn’t heavily reliant on explosions, whips and silly one line humor. The trailer demonstrated that Spielberg may have failed in his endeavors as it was full of explosions and a ‘silly’ one liner. I really shouldn’t pre-judge a movie from a 30 second clip, but I’ve generally found that film makers like to put the juicy bits in the trailers. Well, being a huge Indiana Jones fan I decided that I’d give the movie a chance.

Straight away I’ll tell you that I was a little disappointed – although the movie is action filled and set in an intriguing and wonderful world, it simply doesn’t take me to the ‘next level’ I required – hard to explain what I mean, but as you read my opinion I hope I can convey more. It was if Spielberg ‘the robot’ had simply regurgitated all his previous Indiana Jones scripts, stirred them around a little, added a little age-centric humor and produced a movie that he knew would be a blockbuster and therefore didn’t really have to do anything but write a script and voila there’s your movie. The movie had a stagnant feel at times as if the characters themselves were searching for something original…maybe the next movie should be called “Indiana Jones and the Original Script”.

Set in 1957 about 20 years after the ‘Last Crusade’ – kudos to Spielberg here as this meant that the obvious age increase of Indiana was explained, although I always thought of Indian Jones as being ‘ageless’ – some American soldiers arrive at Hangar 51 – you know, the one where all the dead aliens are – well of course they aren’t soldiers but are some Russian spies – the nasty evil spies have Indiana Jones tied up in their trunk of course. Irina (Cate Blanchett) the leader of the Russian spies is intent on forcing Indiana Jones on assisting her on finding a strange magnetic object.

Well despite being a lot older, Indiana Jones still is able to escape and head of to South America in search of a lost professor who is searching for the Crystal Skulls in the City of Gold. Hmmm…..flash backs galore? Where’s the rolling rock? So then there’s the usual assortment of bad guys, traps and tribulations, bugs and scary things, beautiful yet creepy ruins, mystical things and well you know the usual Indina stuff…the plot gets a little convoluted and often seems to stutter..

Are you still with me, or has your mind started to fade? This is where I began to get disappointed with the movie – the plot is very unoriginal – well from an Indiana Jones point of view that is!! If you really analyze it, replacing the skull with an Arc, replacing the Russian with the Nazis, replacing…etc. etc…..you essentially have a re-hash of the original movie….and as far as that goes, it’s not a particularly great re-hash.

Well without killing the whole plot (there is one and it is quite complicated), Indiana gets into his old mode of world traveler, seeking mystical object, jumping over cars, into cars etc, through explosions, avoiding the natives etc etc….as I said before this movie takes the tried and tested formula that the previous movies used very successfully and relies on them to make the movie a good one….

Spielberg tries to set the 50s seen very quickly, showing how the Russians have suddenly become the evil bad guys as apposed to the Nazis – now as I am British a lot of the 50s references in the initial 20 minutes were totally lost on me – I noticed the audience reacting a little, but I was generally dumb to the references – I guess this is to be expected, but it really doesn’t help build the atmosphere for people who aren’t American.

The feeling of the old CCCP really comes to force and tries to set the ‘cold war’ type feeling immediately – to me this came of a little too much like a ‘stereo type’, and is more down to the perceptions we expect of a CCCP cold war, rather than the reality – not knowing too many Russians from that time, this is just a feeling. Whether this ‘cold war’ feeling really works is hard to judge – I had been so used to the Nazis being the bad guys that this was a very strange diversion for me.

Trying to cope with the loss of the Nazis and the introduction to the new enemy was difficult – there really needs to be another movie in between showing the demise of the Nazis and how this affects Indiana Jones – this would make this more real to me. It would have also been nice perhaps to see a Nazi or two in the movie – or more like a war criminal that had escaped justice…just a thought.

OK so there’s a saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ – this formula has worked over and over again and Spielberg has never failed to deliver – I just found that somehow this was a movie too far. It is a thrill trip, there are some pretty spectacular action sequences that are refreshing at times, and really make the movie fun to watch at times, but the depth of character, and the subtleties of the plot seem more forced than in previous movies. There are a lot of parts of the movie where it simply almost stops – this the 2 hours+ actually becomes too long for a change – there’s a lot of plot to digest, but the stagnant ‘pauses’ almost are distracting…..

Part of the problem for me was probably Harrison Ford – while he is a very good actor, and will always be Indiana Jones, it just didn’t feel like an Indiana Jones movie – he makes comments about how everything is more difficult now he is older, but from some of the side shots, you could really tell that he is getting old, and this somehow managed to the movie seem less real to me – perhaps I need my ‘Indiana’ to be young, vibrant and very physical – the new ‘Indiana’ didn’t quite have the sparkle of the 20 year younger Indiana.

It’s an indefinable ‘something’ that is missing – the actor looks like Indiana Jones, does all the same jumps, fights and explosion avoidance that Indiana Jones does, makes the same one-line quips just before biffing a bad guy in the nose – there’s just something intangible missing – it’s almost like Indiana is simply going through the motions……

While I did thoroughly enjoy the action, and the one-liners were typically funny, I felt that the movie was pretty poor when compared to ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ – it has lost a lot of its polish, and has simply turned into another action-adventure with a complicated plot that isn’t particularly new and has lost a lot of the conviction that the earlier movies held.

The performances of the actors were solid – despite Harrison’s obvious age, he was still professional. Personally, I don’t think Cate Blanchett was right for the movie – she played the character well, in a smoldering, sexy way in a similar vein to ‘Nikita’ from the Elton John song – and I always felt there was a certain S&M feel about her – but something about her didn’t make the character believable for me. I can’t really put my finger on why, as she is a very good and professional actress – perhaps all the acting simply felt like that – professional – it lacked a certain inspirational flash, a showing of pure emotion that seemed evident in all the previous movies. Perhaps the lack of a stand out character didn’t help.

Overall the movie was ‘adequate’ for me anyway (See below for my comment about how it will appeal to new watchers probably) – die hard fans will probably love it, as it contains many of the elements that made the previous movies so successful – action, adventure, romance, danger – but the lack of intrigue, the lack of something new….OK so Indiana Jones is an archeologist, but why must every artifact he goes after have mystical powers….I guess it is needed to make the bad guys want the artifact for their own nefarious needs, but surely Spielberg could have come up with something different after 20 years….and there’s the crux of the matter for me – Speilberg simply went with a formula that has always worked.

Undoubtedly there will be a fifth movie, but after watching this and now being extremely tired, I doubt I will go to the theater to watch it. Don’t get me wrong – the look and feel of the movie is great- the atmosphere is excellent, very similar to all the other movies – the attention to detail is still there and you do feel that you are back in the 50s (perhaps this is a little artificially set up) – as a purely action movie it does a good job, and overall isn’t really that bad – it’s just that I had come to expect more from Spielberg and quite frankly from Harrison Ford – the sparkle seems to have faded, the characters almost seemed jaded to me – in a way I felt almost as if Indiana Jones was saying ‘Oh no not again’ rather than ‘Woohoo here we go again’ – it’s that almost negative feeling I got that just didn’t ring true to me.

As I re-read through my review its hard to actually rate this movie – if you have never seen an Indiana Jones movie in your life then you will probably thoroughly enjoy the movie – but if like me, you’ve been anticipating this for almost 20 years then it is a huge let down, and an unexpected one at that…

Go see the movie and judge for yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you….

One final personal note - perhaps the way in which this movie has been promoted hasn't helped me - every where I go I see Indiana Jones - it's become very commercial, and this has killed part of the essence of Indiana Jones for me...i realize this is what the movie industry is all about....but still....!!

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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

I am a geek – thus when I first watched the Star Trek series as a teenager, I was filled at awe at the possibilities that space travel entailed and pledged to be a scientist and to fly into space one day. Now until they need spreadsheet wielding accountants in space, my dream of space travel are still a little way off! However, I still get to dream a little when I watch the Star Trek movies and series.

There are many that will argue that the original series of Star Trek was the best; I’m not one of those, I feel all of the Star Trek series have their own merits and each is different and unique in many ways, thus adding to the universe that Rodenberry created.

Of the first six movies that were immersed totally in the original series (TOS), the Undiscovered Country, for me, was the only one that captured the full range of qualities of TOS. You had some good old fisticuffs, a lot of humor and yet there is an underlying moralistic story that underlines some of the principles of the series. TOS always challenged the thinking of the day from the very first episode – with a black woman in a position of authority, a Russian, and Asian, they immediately tore apart many of societies misconceptions. This doesn’t change in this movie as they challenge a different type of prejudice – hatred.

As the last movie to be fully set in the TOS world, it marks the end of an era. The next movie, Generations, features some of the TOS cast, but really is a transitional movie. For many this is a sad ending for the classic series, signifying perhaps the start of the end for the franchise as a whole. I note that as I write this there is a new movie in production – but whether this will save the franchise or simply bury it further is unknown.

As the movie beings and we see an older crew inhabits the world, one which is perhaps nobler and less innocent than the heady beginnings they came from; we still see and feel the camaraderie between the major characters. It’s this camaraderie that makes the series work so well and makes the movies so enjoyable.

The plot for once is quite a good one, and goes a long way in answering some of the unanswered questions from TOS. As one of the moons around the Kilingon’s home world explodes due to an accident, the turbulent and dangerous enemy of the Federation seeks peace as they realize that the Klingon society will not survive without help as their home world will become uninhabitable.

As the Federation and Klingon nations are enemies and have generally battled each other throughout the ages, there is little trust and any negotiations are entered into with caution and distrust. The proud Klingons are already in trouble, with the Federation slowly gaining dominance in the war, and this act of seeking peace not only is surprising to the Federation, but is also seen by many Klingon’s as a sign of weakness and a foolish act.

A Klingon Chancellor who advocates this peace is sent to discuss terms of a cease-fire with the Federation. The Entreprise is sent, thanks to intervention with Spock who seeks peace throughout the galaxy, much to the anger of Kirk who’s own demons of his past will not let him get past the anger and hatred he feels towards the Klingon nation; most of this hatred is personal as his son was killed by Klingons. (See Search for Spock).

However, before the negotiations are completed, the chancellor is murdered. Due to Kirk’s obvious hatred, he is accused of the murder – McCoy, his trusty doctor is accused along with him. Worf’s grandfather (Worf is a Klingon from the Next Generation) defends the two, and despite his knowledge of Klingon Law and his status in Klingon society, he fails to absolve them of the crime and the two are sentenced to life imprisonment on a remote and dangerous asteroid – generally the hardest criminals are sent to this prison.

Spock, who perhaps blames himself for Kirk’s situation leads the search for evidence that will prove Kirk and McCoy to be innocent – he is in a pretty untenable position as he also has to try and hold together the peace negotiations that are unraveling due to the actions of Kirk, all trust evaporating with the death of the Chancellor.

Kirk finds life on the asteroid to be tough but tries to form alliances to try and escape the asteroid….

I have watched all of the Star Trek movies and the majority of the Star Trek ‘episodes’ spanning the decades. As a sci-fi fan I like them, but have always felt that there is perhaps a little soul missing from them. Series like Babylon 5, and now Battlestar Gallactica are more convincing to me, with more underlying stories and a more cohesive set of characters.

Star Trek was almost like a comic book, especially the original series – it portrayed all the characters as heroes, each with their own idiosyncrasies and skill sets. This was interesting, but meant that the series and most of the movies lacked a little substance.

The Undiscovered Country was therefore a pleasant surprise. It was more complex than previous movies on many levels; while staying true to much of what made Star Trek so good, with a lot of humor, much action and much moral commentary, it seems more cohesive in this movie. Perhaps because it is the end of an era, or perhaps because the actors and characters are a lot older – whatever it was, the movie seemed more satisfying and believable than those that have gone before. Now doesn’t that sentence sound like something Rodenberry could have written

The plot was very well written and intriguing – it is a fairly obvious plot, but there are a couple of interesting twists and turns that do enough to keep you interested. You know that Kirk is going to win in the end, he always does, but for once it isn’t really so clear how he will achieve his freedom and save the universe.

I was particularly impressed with the special effects – previous movies had been OK, but really hadn’t been up to modern standards – this movie improved and had some very interesting fx, ranging from a shape shifting alien, to some floating blood. Everything was more realistic, and flowed well with the live action making the whole ‘package’ much more believable and real.

All the elements of a classic action movie were there. Change the setting a little bit, remove the phasers and replace them with whips, and you almost have the feel of an Indiana Jones movie – this is evident in some of the humor that is very tongue in cheek and could fit well into Indiana Jones’s world. The suspense level was done well, and the movie slowly bought all the parts together in a timely fashion to build up to a very good ending – the pace was perfect, and gave you enough time to digest all the relevant information without getting bored.

The settings were good, but not particularly special – how can you really make the inside of a spaceship special? The prison was suitably barren and tough, although it really didn’t look any different from any other ‘barren and tough’ movie prison – aside from the aliens that inhabited it. The variety of aliens was very good – I always find that movies like Star Wars overdo the variety of aliens, this movie was just about right – not too many, not too few..Goldi Locks would be very happy.

Overall I felt this was the best of the ‘TOS’ movies – it was complete, and was very well rounded. The balance between action and intrigue was very good and while there were not many stand out performance, the assurance of the cast and the knowledge of their characters was excellent (well they have been playing them for 20 years or so). I do admit that it is sad that this is the last of the TOS series – I guess everything gets old, but I got comfortable with the cast and will be sad to see them go.....


I will miss the banter between the Doctor, Kirk and Spock – I will miss Scotty saying that something is impossible and then doing it within an hour….I will miss…well everything…farewell TOS!

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A Beautiful Mind

I used to work in Princeton and have spent many in the town and have wandered through the University many times. One of my colleagues loves to be an ‘extra’ and has been in many illustrious movies, albeit as a member of the crowd – one such movie he appeared in was ‘A Beautiful Mind’ – he appeared in a scene as Russel Crowe walked through the University. It was through his ramblings about the movie that I actually discovered the enigmatic John Nash, and while I have not been lucky enough to meet him, I have read a great deal about him and therefore could not wait for the movie.

I actually came back from a Renaissance fair this weekend, and again drove through Princeton. As we passed a simple stone stair case, I wondered where the real John Nash was, and was slightly disappointed that I didn’t see a kindly old man walking the grounds of Princeton – this explains the feelings that the movie has inspired for me

A Beautiful Mind, directed by one of my favorite directors Ron Howard, tells the story of John Nash (Russel Crowe). Nash is a man with an exceptional mind; his knowledge of mathematics and particularly his appliance of this knowledge to game theory is very evident as we watch him play a game of Go with fellow students; we also see an arrogance that is created by his own selfish belief that he cannot be wrong, despite evidence to the contrary. As he interacts with his student friends we are bombarded with this arrogance and rudeness, something that is not perhaps normal and is borne from the fact that he has an indefinable genius that is beginning to burgeon.

As we watch him throw a desk out of his window, with his newfound best friend and roommate, we begin to suspect that he walks a very thin line between genius and insanity, one in which frustration and anger are always seemingly at the surface. We also learn that this genius also seems to cloud his social skills especially with women, as he uses crudity and straightforwardness to cover his obvious shyness. Nash is portrayed as an indefinable man, one with idiosyncrasies and mood swings; this is in contrast to his genius.

With his competitiveness almost bordering on obsession he seeks something to make him stand out, to be the best. After working diligently he produces some impressive work on game theory and gains a high powered job in MIT, which together with being a professor finds him also working for the government; his skill at mathematics allow him to be a superlative code breaker. While working at MIT and despite his secretive and very sensitive work for the government, he meets Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). They have an instant attraction, which is one of equals as she is also brilliant. As he leads a double life, hiding his secret work from Alicia, we begin to see a strain take hold of him, one that infiltrates their relationship in a subtle way.

However, as he delves more into the codes he is breaking and thus begins to see sinister plots around the country, his happy family life begins to get threatened as events turn against him and the enemy seems to be closing in on him, endangering not only him, but his family………

At this point I’ll stop explaining the plot as it’s hard to continue without giving away the whole premise of the movie away……

Ron Howard has done an exceptional job to bring a true story to life, showing the story from John Nash’s perspective as well as from his wife’s Alicia’s perspective. Using stunning scenes from Princeton, he builds a very scholarly atmosphere that helps build Nash’s character and really demonstrates his brilliance as well as his eccentricity. With a combination of beautiful settings, excellent acting and simple storytelling, Howard manages to move you in many subtle and different ways.

The cleverness of the way in which the movie draws you in is unbelievable, and as the plot unwinds taking you in many different directions you will marvel at the profoundness that is created, and the ability of Howard to deceive the audience in such a complete way. This ability is what makes the movie truly great.

It’s one of those movies that is so soft and quiet to start, but not only does it get your adrenalin pumping at times, but it makes you get into Nash’s mind and almost experience what he goes through. Without giving anything away, this is very compelling, and at times very difficult to comprehend. This is a ‘human’ movie – while the story is important, and obviously is the backbone of the movie, it’s the way in which the story affects the individual characters that carries the movie. The interaction between all the main characters sets the tone, and ultimately sheds the light on the true underlying story.

Russel Crowe shows his own genius in this movie. Having seen footage of the real John Nash it is amazing to see how Crowe has captured many of the idiosyncrasies of Nash and manages to draw you into the movie and make you believe that he is Nash. His ability to show many different emotions ranging from confusion, to joy and ultimately to fear is amazing – I could not imagine a different actor playing the role.

Jennifer Connelly is also excellent in her role as the Wife who stands behind her man despite the desperation and anger she must feel. Jennifer plays her with determination, anguish and compassion and this shines through in many scenes.

The combination of the acting, the atmosphere created by the University combined with the subtle story telling that leads you into the wonderful mind (or Beautiful Mind) of John Nash. It simply is stunning – it doesn’t simply tell you Nash’s story, it makes you almost live it.

Ron Howard has taken an inspirational real-life story and told it in a compelling and compassionate way making this one of my favorite movies and a MUST SEE movie.

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Iron Man

I am not a huge fan of super hero movies, and have only really enjoyed a couple. The original Batman movies are partly to blame for this as they made it more ‘cartoon’ like rather than bringing the feel of the real Batman that lived and breathed in the comic books. A couple of recent movies have been quite good, with X-Men, Batman and Superman all becoming more like the feel I would expect. Therefore, as I wasn’t quite as disillusioned as before I decided to go and watch this movie at the theater

Tony Stark is a bright young man whose love of tinkering with gadgets continued on into adulthood and ended up with him becoming a military expert designing high powered weapons. Being the expert, he is asked to travel to Afghanistan to demonstrate his new weaponry, but would you know it, he goes and gets captured by terrorists. The leader, hearing of Tony’s prowess at gadgetry tries to coerce Tony to build a weapon for the terrorists.
Of course, being a goody two shoes, Tony builds himself some armored…ermmm armor…that allows him to escape.

Reveling in his new prowess in his ‘suit’ he decides to stop making weapons, and instead concentrates on enhancing the suit so he can defend the people of the world!

You may note a tone of sarcasm in my synopsis. When I started watching the movie, and realized it was based in reality, in a terrorist situation in the real world, I thought that the underlying premise of the plot may be closer to reality. However, I was disappointed when the usual Superhero makes good and wants to defend the world plot started to appear. I really wanted to see a movie that was believable.

I guess true comic book followers out there will castigate me as having a movie that is based in the real world would go totally against the story from the original comic book and animated series. To have recognizable bad guys, and a recognizable hero is important to these followers – however, I feel that this lets down the mass audience in a way, as they have not read the comics and therefore have a more open mind on how the character develops.

The movie tries to build the character of Iron Man by using flash backs; some are flashbacks to recent events to give background to the developing story, while others are flashbacks to his childhood, showing that although he was a ‘special’ child he still led a pretty normal life. In a way this does help to build the character, and also educates the audience very quickly about the underlying reasoning behind the character, but I felt this was a little disjointed. I guess it was needed though, so I’m not hyper-critical about the inclusion of the flashbacks.

As the movie progressed, I felt that the balance struck between action and non-action was very good. For once, in this type of movie, I felt that the action was a cohesive part of the movie, rather than being ‘fx’ that are added to make the movie ‘bang’ and ‘whiz’ and give the audience some thrills. The makers of the movie seemed to actually ensure that the action was relevant and not overstated.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some mega action sequences, but these were very well done and became more believable because of this I found it interesting in which the movie blended in scenes from Tony’s workshop with the action – thus showing a little of the genius of the character rather than just concentrating on the ‘super hero’ – while movies like Batman have attempted this, this is the first movie that seemed to make me believe that the ‘Iron Man’ suit was actually made in a workshop. This probably is convincing because it had the feel of the workshops you see in a James Bond movie – and seemed more like a geek playing with his favorite toys, rather than a super-hero building a mega suit.

This also enhanced the idea that anyone could be a superhero. Tony wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, or didn’t get caught up in something fantastical in space, so he has no real super-powers, aside from his genius, and his ability to apply the genius to real world matters – I guess this parallels Batman in a way, but somehow for me this distinction of the Super Hero simply being a normal man doesn’t quite come across in the Batman movies.

Overall, I felt that the movie was simply an introduction to Iron Man – it went a long way to explain his childhood, and his adult life and concentrated on explaining why and how he was driven to do good. There is plenty of action and a couple of cool bad guys, but the plot really wasn’t that complex and it’s my feeling that this movie was simply and introduction to the character, and now that they’ve gotten this part over with, they can concentrate more on plots and explosion in the future movies.

In a way, I felt that this actually made it a better movie – I like to know what makes my Super Hero tick, and while my adrenalin pumping male side of me was satisfied with the action, my hmmm more feminine, ‘I want to know the real superhero’ side was also satisfied, making this a well balanced and enjoyable movie.

As for the acting – well I always find it hard to comment on acting in movies like this – usually the acting is not important as the ‘fx’ dominate the movie. I have to admit though, Robert Downey Jr worked well as Iron Man. When I first saw him in the role I couldn’t quite grasp the fact that he was a ‘super hero’, but as the movie progressed and as the character was built, I found myself accepting this, and this is down to Downy’s acting abilities as he made me believe he was a normal man with extraordinary ‘normal’ talents that enabled him to become Iron Man.

As for the rest of the cast…well they were there. It’s surprising that such an illustrious cast, with the likes of Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, really didn’t do anything for me – they simply were side shows to the main act – Iron Man. While they were competent, they really didn’t have much to do as this movie was prevalently about building up the character of Iron Man.

Overall, despite the flaws, and despite the weak plot I felt this movie was very good. It made me want to find out more about the character, and made me want to go and see a second movie. The atmosphere that was built up was excellent, it was tension filled and exciting, and this was well matched by the romance and the character building. This is definitely one of the better Super Hero movies I have seen.....go watch it NOW!

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21 (In theaters now)

Take a group of very intelligent students, add in a greedy math professor, throw in some sex, drugs, drink and some cards and you have summed up the movie. As we watch Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) begin to teach a ‘gang’ of students the way to break the bank in Las Vegas, we are thrown into a story about self discovery, the gambling and debauchery seemingly just a catalyst that ignites the passion of a few young men and women.

As we begin, with a young Ben deciding that he’s not going to use his mother’s savings to go to Harvard, and as we watch him take a moral downturn, we begin to wonder about the reality of the plot. Someone told me that the movie was based on reality, but the reality was thinly disguised by Hollywood ‘pazzaz’.. We watch as the gang begins to learn systems using their talents for numbers, some devices and something akin to sign language.

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21

Kevin Spacey is one of my favorite actors, and it was his presence in this movie that made me go watch it, not the previews of the plot. For me anything that glamorizes gambling is a little dangerous, as it seems to teach that there is a way to succeed without hard work. However, before I let my own prejudice judge the movie, I tried to open my mind to the subject matter and tried to watch the movie without pre-judging.

Take a group of very intelligent students, add in a greedy math professor, throw in some sex, drugs, drink and some cards and you have summed up the movie. As we watch Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) begin to teach a ‘gang’ of students the way to break the bank in Las Vegas, we are thrown into a story about self discovery, the gambling and debauchery seemingly just a catalyst that ignites the passion of a few young men and women.

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Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

To understand this movie you really have to understand a lot of what has gone before as well as quite a bit that hasn’t been explained. As we begin and watch a pleasant ‘hobbit’ like creature fishing with his best buddy, we begin to see the importance of a certain ring, and the effects it can have on its wearer. As Smeagal begins to use the ring, and is corrupted instantly by its evil power, we see a strange and dangerous transformation. In perhaps a portent of what may happen to Frodo, we see Gollum emerge, a twisted shadow of his former self that has multiple characters and a desire to retrieve his ring from Frodo. His duality is obvious as he dances between wanting to assist Frodo and not hurt him to seeking revenge for losing his ring. Controlling him is his desire to retain the ring.

As Frodo and Sam forge ahead through the barren volcanic wastes of Mordor, we see Smeagol begin to push a wedge between Frodo and Sam, sowing the seeds of decent and distrust between the lifelong friends. This is enlarged by the detrimental effect the ring is also having on Frodo and it’s evil power is seemingly getting close to control. Gollum’s influence grows as he leads them through more sinister and dangerous landscapes, some seemingly perhaps not the safest routes - you sense early that Gollum has ulterior motives and you almost find yourself pulling your hair out in frustration as Frodo doesn’t see the deceit.

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Forbidden Kingdom

So it’s spring and those big blockbuster movies seem to be spewing out of Hollywood. Having just watched a mediocre '88' I was intrigued and perhaps a little reticent about seeing another blockbuster that promised so much. Could it deliver on that promise?

Well at the very least, when you push together Jet Li and Jacky Chan you expect a lot of fantastic action sequences – however you’re not really expecting too much drama – perhaps a smattering of comedy though?

Well having read the blurb on the movie prior to entering the movie theater I didn’t really know what to expect. Forbidden Kingdom takes the standard Western view of Chinese society and their inherent martial art laden myths and brings in two huge superstars to give it some grounding. I always have a problem with western produced movies like this as they don’t seem to capture the essence of the society they are trying to portray in the same way as some of the classic ‘dubbed’ movies do Aside from the corny English translations of these movies, the action and the story always seem to be more founded in reality

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