Jun 14 2013

Man of Steel

Raised in rural Kansas by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane), Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) had very normal Midwestern American upbringing. The trouble is, Clark is anything but “normal” himself; as fate would have it he was actually born on the planet of Krypton just before the planet collapsed. Against all odds Clark’s biological parents Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van (Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer) had the good sense to ship their baby son to Earth with the idea that he would be raised to fit in and someday give hope to the people. On Earth, in a different atmosphere than Krypton, Clark’s body develops to superhuman strengths and abilities, it’s these abilities he must sharpen in order to stop the power hungry survivor of Krypton, General Zod (Michael Shannon). But will Clark be able to rise to the occasion or will Zod’s plan of destruction bring an end to all life on earth?manosteel Directed by Zack Snyder there’s lot’s to like about this latest reboot of one of America’s most beloved comic characters. In particular, Snyder’s ability to grasp the scope of the Superman mythos, and the fact that the film is beautifully cinematically stylized. Henry Cavill seems to be a great fit for the role, he’s ridiculously good looking, wears the cape well, and understands the humor and humility of Clark Kent/Kal-El without being campy. Michael Shannon’s take on General Zod is equally fitting and even in their smaller roles Costner and Lane hold Kansas together perfectly, then again, all you have to do is put Costner in a corn field and you’ve got cinema magic. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is kind of plain but honest, this isn’t her fault, she’s just not written with much of interest. So where does the other shoe fall? As expected we get an eyeful of CGI most of which is fine, but the bizarre phallic depictions of Krypton are almost chuckle inducing and Krypton itself is a bit much overall. But it’s the film’s final act where things go off the rails, granted it’s a tough balance of too much action or not enough, but seriously, one fist fight after another, and after seeing so many buildings of Metropolis come crashing to the ground one begins to wonder “how many more buildings can there possibly be left standing?” and “who could possibly still be alive in Metropolis?” The whole thing becomes a bit numbing after a while, this might explain why nobody in Metropolis seems to care after the fact either. So in essence we have a very faithful body, but seem absent of soul. Still, it’s an epic beast, and we’ll definitely want to see more of this man of steel. A story of fathers and sons just in time for father’s day, go on, take your dad, it’ll be fun. Man of Steel is rated PG-13.


Jun 14 2013

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

As if it were orchestrated to coincide with this last week’s information leak regarding Verizon Wireless and the National Security Administration, Director Alex Gibney’s latest documentary detailing the odd life and times of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning hits theatres this weekend; Assange, the developer of Wikileaks, the seemingly indestructible website responsible for the release of top secret U.S. military documents allegedly supplied by private Bradley Manning who’s currently still awaiting trial at Guantanamo Bay (so much for a speedy trial).wiki Crafted with meticulous detail Gibney efforts sources from around the globe to put the pieces together on this ironic and twisting schadenfreude where no one ends up with a clean getaway. Smart, insightful, and now with potentially new chapters as this review is being written, how the final chapters will play out remains a mystery. Worthy of your time as we boldly charge towards what feels like a real life Orwellian plot of our own. What secrets are worth keeping, what does and should our government know, and more curious still, who is it that’s really responsible for spilling the beans and what might they in fact be hiding themselves? We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks is rated R.