Saturday 10 May 2008

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I know this one seems kinda obvious for inclusion on the ole' grenade. The first film in the series was generally panned by the critics and the public, yet it made a bundle in the theaters. So they made a sequel and the term "franchise" has been bandied about. It was also panned by critics and the public while making another great big bundle o' cash at the box office. Sometimes moviegoers just want some expensive popcorn and soda, I guess. The Junior Mints are good too.

I sat through this one, believe it or not, two different times. The first time I watched it I missed the first 20 minutes or so. I'm familiar with the story of the Surfer from the comic-books so I was able to jump right into the action. And I'm not retarded. I started watching it again tonight to catch the parts I missed and Gia was enduring it with me. Turned out that she was enjoying it so I watched the rest of it with her.

Something funny happened.

I didn't hate it as much as the first time I watched it a few days ago. I think it was because Gia is a comic-book novice and she kept on asking all kinds of really cute questions. "So, he's made entirely of rock? Geesh!" Stuff like that. And she fell in love with The Thing. She likes the big guys, if ya know what I mean. ::wink::

I think what really made change my tune on the film is looking at it through her eyes. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to movies in general. I expect a lot. It's even worse for movies made from comic-books. I expect the world. But Gia took the film at face value for what it was. Brain candy, and a welcome diversion in some fairly difficult times frankly.

So while I wouldn't call this film "high art" or quality film-making...by any definition...it works on one level that might be appealing to somebody out there. It doesn't make you think very hard.

Sometimes that's as glowing a review as you want for a film.

4 comments:

Bruce Johnson said...

I am pretty much writing off 90% of what Hollywood puts out these days. Which is to say 90% of the Comic Book inspired films. Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Superman, I mean really, supposedly they have G.I. Joe in the works along with Aquaman and The Flash. Tell me why I should really want to see these film when I can re-watch Apocolypse Now and American Beauty over and over and never get bored?

Verdant Earl said...

Lotus - I don't mind popcorn-type films every once in a while. And the comic-book stuff is right in there. I just want it to be good. Spider-man2, X-Men2, Batman Begins...all really good movies. The rest of them have been crap.

badgerdaddy said...

I thought the first FF was pretty poor but kind of fun... But I had high hopes for the second, as the trailer looked like the story included bits of one of my favourite FF stories. I still haven't got round to seeing it yet, but my lovely wife wants to so it will happen sometime soon...

Verdant Earl said...

They were both pretty bad...I can't really tell you which one is worse.