SEND IN THE CLONES: Sequels, Prequels, Reboots and Remakes

I haven’t been on here much in recent weeks. Summer is my busy season of year, working for two international festivals at the same time; the Just For Laughs Festival, and the Fantasia International Film Festival. From the latter, I can already tease that I have two interviews in the can to be published in these pages in the coming weeks; one with legendary director, film connoisseur and Monster Kid, Joe Dante (GREMLINS), and another one with emerging filmmaker Robert Krzykowski, who along with star Sam Elliott, will talk to us about the fascinatingly titled THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT.

Summer is also a time we are invaded by clones. We are planning a night out at the theater, get your family or friends together and get to the multiplex, hungry for entertainment. And as you wait in line to buy your tickets, it strikes you; You are surrounded. Staring at you, pleading for your attention, the clones are watching your every moves.

Movie posters of coming attractions, promising something familiar and new at the same time. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and adaptations of beloved comic books and video games, summer movies have long been cashing in on people’s awareness of popular franchises, and have a tendency to have cold feet towards anything new and challenging. Yet there is something comforting about walking into a dark room knowing full well who is going to spend the next couple of hours with you. Even though the box office for a sequel or a remake may not necessarily be as exorbitant as the original, it usually is lucrative enough still to qualify them as blockbusters.

So now for your perusal, here are a few capsule reviews of the latest derivative blockbusters we have been offered this warm season as a way to sit in an air-conditioned amphitheater, and get away from the sweltering heat.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

There can be such a thing as knowing too much about a character. In Ron Howard’s SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, we learn about Han Solo’s first meeting with Chewbacca, how he got him his nickname Chewie, how he made the Kessel run in ‘’12 parsecs’’, using his newly acquired Millenium Falcom, which he just got from newly encountered Lando Calrissian, how he got his beloved blaster and even how he got stuck with his moniker. All this through one particularly rich adventure. The script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan is not lacking in great action set-pieces (The train robbery is a fine example of pulse-pounding cinema), but accumulates in an awkward fashion those formative moments in Han Solo’s history, not unlike the cringe-worthy opening of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE where River Phoenix’s young Indiana Jones went through in one afternoon a sole adventure that provided Indy with many of his iconic trademarks. You would have thought a lifetime of exploits would eventually lead to the making of rugged heroes like Han Solo and Indiana Jones. But no. Just one...goddamn...adventure.

It is of course to satisfy this unhealthy desire to reveal everything about a character’s past; providing a so-called ‘’origin’’ story. But do we really need to know? It’s not as insufferable as the dreary STAR WARS prequels (Was it necessary to know that Darth Vader was once a whiny little bastard?), but it is ultimately as irrelevant.

The cast is capable, Donald Glover as Lando being the standout performer of the lot, but poor Alden Ehrenreich is given the thankless task of replacing Harrison Ford, which means it takes quite a while to be able to accept him as Han Solo. Try as he might, he can never fully evoke Ford’s unique blend of swagger and vulnerability. Overall, it’s an entertaining enough film, in the hands of a talented filmmaker who gave us the outstanding APOLLO 13 , but also the indigestible WILLOW, but it checks a number of boxes too neatly and plays it too safe to be truly memorable. I can't imagine anyone yearning for another SOLO adventure...

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM

I love monster movies. Tell me there are going to be a bunch of dinosaurs running amok in a film, and you have just sold me a ticket. So it was a given that I would be sitting through the fifth film in the series so masterfully started by Spielberg in 1993. And while J.A. Bayona is a terrific director (all his previous features deserves to be seen, from the creepy THE ORPHANAGE, the thrilling THE IMPOSSIBLE to the touching A MONSTER CALLS), he has to serve a criminally weak script by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow (Who had directed the previous installment). Most scenes and plot points are variations on highlights from the previous four films, and the last act, while showing a bit of originality by having the dinosaurs roaming around inside a vast gothic mansion, still lacks the sense of terror and awe that the original film did so well.

And one of the element that helped the audience feel this mixture of wonder and terror was to cast actors that were in many ways normal folks. Sam Neil and Laura Dern’s commonality reflected the viewers’ own, making their reaction to the extraordinary all the more poignant. The last two films opted instead to cast a superhero in the main role. No matter what happens, the moviegoers just know that no ill can befall Chris Pratt. As a matter of fact, while the early films in the series didn’t shy away from killing off sympathetic characters in shocking scenes that helped to set in this sense of terror, the only ones this time around to end up into the jaws of the monstrous clones are the ‘’bad guys’’, thus lessening the suspense.

In fact, inexplicably, Bryce Dallas Howard’s character is now a dinosaur right activist, adding unnecessary pathos to the plight of the anachronistic creatures, and turning them into ''victims'', again sopping up most of the horror from the situation.

It is somewhat sad to realize that by this point, the T-Rex is just not striking terror in our hearts. One would think that with the proper script and direction, there would still be a way to properly instill a sense of dread around the awesome presence of what once was the World’s largest carnivore. But instead, in the last two movies, we are presented with genetic manipulations that attempts to be bigger and better than the original, but somehow falls flat, ironically a bit like the films themselves.

THE INCREDIBLES 2

I loved the first THE INCREDIBLES movie. From the sixties style music by Giacchino to the overall retro feel of the ‘’sets’’, not forgetting the engaging story centering around a family of superheroes dealing with a changing world. I am of those who feel very strongly that in many ways, this is the best FANTASTIC FOUR movie ever made. And just for the amazing THE IRONGIANT, I have given Brad Bird a free pass, but it has proven to be unnecessary when considering the rest of his filmography (THE INCREDIBLES, RATATOUILLE and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL…and...ok, maybe TOMORROWLAND is the one that breaks that perfect spell.)

It took 14 years to come up with this sequel, and was it worth the wait? It certainly was if you consider just how entertaining the darn thing is. Like most sequels, we are offered a certain amount of familiar tropes, with just enough twist to make it fresh. In a movie landscape that has started to feature more prominent female action heroes in the last few years, it was a natural to focus on Elasti-Girl this time around, as she is chosen to bring legitimacy to superheroes again after they had been outlawed by the government. The subplot of having Mr. Incredible thus becoming a stay at home dad may be an old cliché, yet it fits perfectly in the retro feel of the film, bringing memories of sixties comedies cashing in on the feminist emancipation movement, and evoking the insecurities of some males towards this trend towards female heroes being featured more predominantly in popular franchises. Inventive action set-pieces, inspired humor and a lot of heart, THE INCREDIBLES 2 makes me deliriously happy Brad Bird hasn’t abandoned animation altogether. (And hoping that all those references to Johnny Quest in the film are subliminal hints to some future project.)

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP 

In 1962, when dr. Hank Pym shrank to the size of an ant using his reducing serum in Tales to Astonish #27, few would expect he would eventually grow back to be a movie star over 50 years later, least of all his creators Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. 

The Jack Kirby cover for the first appearance of Hank Pym, getting acquainted with his future allies in this 1962 issue of TALES TO ASTONISH.

The character still had great potential, and most likely inspired by DC’s silver age version of The Atom, who saw the light of day a year prior, Pym became a bona fide super-hero in Tales to Astonish # 35, and would now be known to the world as the Ant-Man.

Original Kirby artwork for the Splash Page of the first appearance of Pym as Ant-Man in TALES TO ASTONISH # 35.

One of the founders of The Avengers in 1963 along with his wife Janet Van Dyne Aka the Wasp, Ant-Man went on to a long history at Marvel, soon acquiring the capacity to enlarge himself and become Giant-Man, and developing a series of personality quirks that made him change identities many times and becoming more aggressive and even turn into a full-fledged wife beating creep in the 1981 issue of AVENGERS #213. 

Hank Pym, as Yellowjacket, crossing a dangerous line as an abuser in AVENGERS # 213

Writer Jim Shooter had an interesting psychological profile of Pym:

‘’ His history was largely a litany of failure, always changing guises and switching back and forth from research to hero-ing because he wasn’t succeeding at either. He was never the Avenger who saved the day at the end and usually the first knocked out or captured ... Meanwhile, his rich, beautiful wife succeeded in everything she tried. She was also always flitting around his shoulders, flirting, saying things to prop up his ego.  ‘’

Of course, this disturbing past didn’t quite fit with the lighter tone desired by Marvel Studios for the more recent iteration of the character that has appeared so far in three movies in the successful series. One can assume that distancing themselves from Hank Pym may have been prompted by this troubled past (made only much worse in the more recent ‘’Ultimate’’ version of the character that literally tortures his wife), and they wisely decided to use instead the Scott Lang incarnation of Ant-Man, as created by David Michelinie and John Byrne in Marvel Premiere # 47 (1979).

The 1979 issue of Marvel Premiere that introduced Scott Lang's version of the character. Artwork by John Byrne.

The first ANT-MAN film turned out to be a surprise hit, especially considering that the original director attached to the project, the enormously talented Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, BABY DRIVER) was replaced by the rather mundane Peyton Reed (BRING IT ON, YES MAN). However, helped by the extremely likable Paul Rudd as the shrinking hero, and an equally inspired cast (lead by Michael Douglas as Hank Pym-who bore none of the stigma of the comic’s version of the character, Evangelyne Lilly as his daughter Hope Van Dyne, and the scene-stealing trio of David Dastmalchian, T.I. and Michael Peña), the film amassed over half a billion at the world box office, and introduced a charismatic new hero to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While certainly not an auteur, Peyton Reed nonetheless directed a highly enjoyable and entertaining flick.

At the end of the first film, Michel Douglas’ Hank Pym shows his daughter Hope a super-suit he has been working on for her. ‘’ About damn time!’’ she exclaims, expressing both the views of comic book fans eager to see the Wasp on the big screen, and also decrying the sad fact that movie superheroes is still mainly a boy’s club that can benefit from a bit of estrogen. As promised, she shares top billing in this year’s sequel ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, and proves herself, as was hinted in the original film, a formidable ally to the occasionally hapless Rudd. All the original cast is back, with the addition of Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne, Hannah John-Kamen as the troubled foe ‘’Ghost’’, and Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster in a cool homage to 1975’s BLACK GOLIATH.

The Gil Kane original art and final Cover to the first appearance of Black Goliath in the pages of LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN in 1975. The unknown past of Laurence Fishburne?

Pretty much like THE INCREDIBLES 2, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is fast-paced, funny and light, which is a welcome change after the dread that permeated AVENGERS INFINITY WAR. Needless to say, we can expect Ant-Man to appear in the next chapter in the Thanos saga, creating an almost complete reunion of the comic book founding members of the Avengers (Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Ant-Man and The Wasp).

The original roster of The Avengers, minus Captain America who would join in issue 4. Pretty much the main cast of the next Avengers film.

My only beef with the film is in a script that can occasionally be lazy, in particular with a fairly irritating Deus Ex Machina at the end of the film, in a scene that too conveniently collides two story lines into a rather unbelievable conclusion. It’s nowhere near bad enough to make the rest of the film lose its appeal, but it is one hell of an eye-roller.

So here we are. Sequels, remakes adaptations and reboots have been with us ever since the creation of cinema. Why, Lyman Frank Baum’s THE WIZARD OF OZ had no less than 7 screen adaptations starting in 1908 before Victor Fleming’s definitive interpretation of the material in 1939. Serving the audience familiar fare and cashing in on name recognition, as well as a democratization of special effects, insure that blockbusters will keep bringing up more superheroes, video games and other pop culture favorites onto Imax screens, drowning our potential apprehension in a blaze of light and sound that will resonate for years to come.

We have been warned.