Film Review: "The Tree of Life" (2011).

From the director of The Thin Red Line and The New World comes The Tree of Life. This experimental epic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Jack tries to mend the troubled relationship that he shares with his father, Mr O'Brien. He attempts to find the true meaning of life in the modern world and questions the existence of faith.

After the release of Days of Heaven (1978), Malick began working on a project entitled Q, that would explore the origins of life on earth. He ultimately abandoned the project. During development of an early version of Che, Malick pitched the concept to River Road Entertainment head Bill Pohlad. Pohlad agreed to finance the film. However, Malick struggled to get the project off the ground. During a meeting between Malick, his producer Sarah Green, and Plan B Entertainment, Malick brought up the project. Ultimately, the decision was made for Plan B to finance the project. In late 2005, after the release of The New World, the film was officially announced. Heath Ledger was set to play the lead role, but dropped out. Ultimately, Pitt replaced Ledger. By March 2008, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, Hunter McCracken, and Fiona Shaw rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout Texas, Utah, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Iceland, Italy, Chile, and Palau. According to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, as with The New World, he and Malick laid down a series of parameters (a dogma) to be used throughout the film. In an October 2008 interview Jack Fisk, a longtime Malick collaborator, suggested that the director was attempting something radical. He also implied that details of the film were a close secret. Dissatisfied by the look of modern computer generated visual effects, Malick approached veteran special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull, who was responsible for the visual effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), to create the visual effects for the film using bygone optical and practical methods. According to Lubezki, Malick actually consulted with NASA for footage of the cosmos as well as other grand visuals. As was the case with James Horner's music for The New World, much of the music composed Alexandre Desplat never made it to the final cut of this film. Even though he is credited as composer, only a few minutes of his music are heard in the film. The film was shipped to theaters under the code name Oak. Malick wrote a letter with specific instruction to every projectionist in showing the film.

The film stars Pitt, Chastain, Penn, Eppler, Sheridan, McCracken, and Shaw. The cast find the perfect tone for scenes of a few seconds or a minute, and then are dropped before a rhythm can be established.

The Tree of Life is a journey through the life of the cosmos, but it is also a journey through internal space. It conjures visceral emotions by making you sit through its study of a man and his family, spending time just being in their minds and souls.

Simon says The Tree of Life receives:

Film Review: "Cowboys & Aliens" (2011).

The movie's tagline "First contact. Last stand" makes Cowboys & Aliens an unusual movie. This science fiction Western film directed by Jon Favreau; written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus and Hawk Osby; based on a screen story by the latter two along with Steve Oedekerk; based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. The main plot revolves around an amnesiac outlaw, a wealthy cattleman, and a mysterious traveler who must ally to save a group of townspeople abducted by aliens.

The project began development in April 1997, when Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures bought film rights to a concept pitched by Rosenberg, former president at Malibu Comics, which he described as a graphic novel in development. After the graphic novel was published in 2006, development on the film was begun again, and Favreau signed on as director in September 2009. By April 2010, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig were cast. Favreau had cast Craig and Ford in the film because they were actors who suited the action-adventure roles so the characters would be less seen as comedic. On a budget of $163 million, filming for Cowboys & Aliens began in June 2010, in New Mexico and California. Despite studio pressure to release the film in 3-D, Favreau chose to film traditionally and in anamorphic format (widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film) to further a "classic movie feel". Measures were taken to maintain a serious Western element despite the film's "inherently comic" title and premise. The film's aliens were designed to be "cool and captivating", with some details, such as a fungus that grows on their wounds, created to depict the creatures as frontiersmen facing adversity in an unfamiliar place.

The film stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown and Keith Carradine. The cast gave lacklustre performances that were borderline comical and silly. Craig and Ford unintentionally drew silly caricatures of themselves when they intended to deliver two new additions to the list of great action heroes. Wilde just seemed to be nothing but eye candy for the men in the audience, especially with that one scene. Her character lacked real personality and purpose even though she was the key to the whole film.

Cowboys & Aliens is a middling sci-fi / western crossover fodder, at best. As a kid, I would enjoy this movie much more than I would as an adult. Aliens and cowboys in a single movie. It seems contrived and dull. Pretty much the end of Favreau's career for serious filmmaking. It starts off really well, stalls a little toward the middle, goes bonkers for one really odd scene, and then derails completely at the end. In the end, it doesn't deliver all that much of what the title promises.

Simon says Cowboys & Aliens receives:

Film Review: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011).

The film’s tagline "Evolution Becomes Revolution" sums up the premise of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series. A substance, designed to help the brain repair itself, gives rise to a super-intelligent chimp who leads an ape uprising.

In 2006, screenwriter-producer Rick Jaffa was searching for a script idea. As Jaffa searched a newspaper articles clipping, one about pet chimpanzees that become troublesome to their owners and heartbroken for not adapting well to the human environment intrigued him. As Jaffa eventually realized it fit the Planet of the Apes series, he called his wife and screenwriting partner Amanda Silver to express his ideas of such a chimpanzee eventually starting the ape revolution, and then the couple started developing the character of Caesar. Jaffa and Silver then wrote a script and sold it to Fox. The script added other elements which the couple had researched, such as genetic engineering. Several tributes to specific scenes, characters, and cast and crew from the previous Apes film series were added in the script. In a 2009 interview, Wyatt said, "We've incorporated elements from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, in terms of how the apes begin to revolt, but this is primarily a prequel to the 1968 film...Caesar is a revolutionary figure who will be talked about by his fellow apes for centuries...This is just the first step in the evolution of the apes, and there's a lot more stories to tell after this. I imagine the next film will be about the all-out war between the apes and humans." Filming began in July 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Filming also happened in San Francisco, California and around Oahu, Hawaii. As the animals in film were meant to be actual apes instead of the anthropomorphic simians of the original franchise, the producers decided not to use actors in make-up or animal suits. After considering real apes, instead Weta Digital created the apes digitally in almost every case through performance capture. 

The film stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton and Andy Serkis. The cast gave amazing performances. But the true praise goes to its unlikely star – Caesar, played by Andy Serkis. He gave an amazing performance that genuinely allowed the audience to see the whole movie through his eyes and understand where he comes from and what are his motivations. He made this movie, without him there would be no movie. Full stop.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes summons up moments of great eloquence and power. It's not just the birth of Caesar we're seeing in this triumphant interpretation, it's also the dawning of the beginning of humanity’s end. Here's how any great franchise should start: with care, precision and delicately wrought atmosphere. It's a refreshing approach to the genre, even when revisiting years later, in an era inundated with science fiction movies where each tries to better the last's visual effects budget.

Simon says Rise of the Planet of the Apes receives:

NZIFF Film Review: "Incendies" (2010).

"The search began at the opening of their mother's will." This is at the story of Incendies. This Canadian mystery-drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve, adapted by Villeneuve and Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne from Wajdi Mouawad's play of the same name. Fraternal twins, Jeanne and Simon, journey from Montreal to an unnamed Middle Eastern country to fulfill their mother's dying wish to locate two lost family members; their quest parallels their mother's difficult adolescence in the midst of a religious civil war in the 1970s.

In 2004, Villeneuve first saw Mouawad's play at Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal. Villeneuve acknowledged unfamiliarity with Arab culture, but was drawn to Incendies as "a modern story with a sort of Greek tragedy element". In adapting the screenplay, Villeneuve, while keeping the story structure and characters, replaced "all" the dialogue, even envisioning a silent film, abandoning the idea due to expense. He showed Mouawad some completed scenes to convince the initially reluctant playwright to grant permission for the film. Villeneuve spent five years working on the screenplay, in between directing two films. Mouawad later praised the film as "brilliantly elegant" and gave Villeneuve full credit. For the part of Nawal, Villeneuve said he conducted an extensive search for actresses across Canada. He considered casting the main character to be the most challenging, and at one point contemplated using two or three actresses to play the character, since the story spans four decades. He finally met Moroccan Belgian actress Lubna Azabal in Paris, intrigued by her "expressive and eloquent" face in Paradise Now (2005). Although she was 30, Villeneuve thought she appeared 18 and could play the part throughout the entire film, using makeup. With a budget of $6.5 million, the film was shot in Montreal and Jordan. The film took 40 days to shoot with Villeneuve aiming to film no scene without being sure it would not be cut. For the scenes filmed in Jordan, Villeneuve used a Lebanese and Iraqi crew, though he feared the war scenes would be too reminiscent of bad experiences for them. However, he said the Arab crew members felt "It’s important that those sorts of stories are on the screen".

The film stars Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, and Rémy Girard. Tour de force performances were given by the cast, especially by Azabal, who gave a performance that was just as much of an emotional rollercoaster ride as Nawal's life.

Incendies is a nice follow-up to Villeneuve's 2009 film, Polytechnique, another story of vengeance and forgiveness in a cruel, cold world. The virtue, and also the limitation, of this film is that it confronts senselessness and insists on remaining calm and sane. It is a hundred and thirty minutes of pure cinema in which the Canadian director skilfully handles a subject as difficult as the undermined but powerful feminism. The pure emotion and the truths layered into the film are raw, real and devastating. Almost from beginning to end, we're filled with dread and, I must say, a morbid sense of anticipation.

Simon says Incendies receives:

Film Review: "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011).

"When patriots become heroes." This is Captain America: The First Avenger. This superhero film directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Set predominantly during World War II, the film tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull, Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry and the leader of an organization that intends to use an artifact called the "Tesseract" as an energy-source for world domination.

In April 1997, Marvel was in negotiations with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce Captain America, with Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem were set to pen the script. In May 2000, Marvel teamed with Artisan Entertainment to help finance the film. However, a lawsuit arose between Marvel Comics and Joe Simon over the ownership of Captain America copyrights. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003. Following the settlement, Marvel was preparing to license the film rights to Warner Bros. until producer David Maisel suggested that the company produce the film themselves. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including Captain America. Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film. Originally, the film would stand alone. In February 2006, producer Avi Arad hoped to have a summer 2008 theatrical release date. In April, David Self was hired to write the script. The film was put on hold during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. However, in January 2008, Marvel Entertainment reached an interim comprehensive agreement with the WGA that would put writers immediately back to work on various projects that were under the company's development. In early May, after the success of Iron Man (2008), Marvel announced the film for a May 6, 2011 release date. In November, Johnston was hired to direct and he hired Markus & McFeely to rewrite the script. Feige cited Johnston's directorial work on October Sky (1999) and The Rocketeer (1991) and his special effects work on the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-83) to explain why he was an appropriate choice. In March 2010, it was reported that Chris Evans was cast in the title role. By late June, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, with a budget of $140 million, principal photography commenced and took place in London, Manchester, Caerwent, and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and Los Angeles.

The cast gave spectacular performances, especially Evans, who was magnificent as the iconic American hero and epitomized Justice and heroism in the most American sense.

It is one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American superhero movies ever made. It is the ultimate Marvel action adventure–a film so funny and exciting it can be enjoyed any day of the week.

Simon says Captain America: The First Avenger receives:

Film Review: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" (2011).

"It All Ends Here" in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. This fantasy film directed by David Yates, adapted by Steve Kloves and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the second of two cinematic parts, as well as being the eighth and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010). The story continues to follow Harry Potter's quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes in order to stop him once and for all.

This British-American film series, based on the novels by author J. K. Rowling, is now coming to a bitter-sweet end. Beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001 and culminating with Deathly Hallows – Part 2 this year. But how this unlikely phenomenon begin? Late in 1997, film producer David Heyman's London offices received a copy of the first book in what would become Rowling's series of seven Harry Potter novels. The book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was relegated to a low-priority bookshelf, where it was discovered by a secretary who read it and gave it to Heyman with a positive review. Consequently, Heyman, who had originally disliked "the rubbish title", read the book himself. Highly impressed by Rowling's work, he began the process that led to one of the most successful cinematic franchises of all time. Heyman's enthusiasm led to Rowling's 1999 sale of the film rights for the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million (US$2,000,000). A demand Rowling made was that the principal cast be kept strictly British. Rowling was hesitant to sell the rights because she "didn't want to give them control over the rest of the story" by selling the rights to the characters, which would have enabled Warner Bros. to make non-author-written sequels. Then conversations began with potential directors, including Chris Columbus, Jonathan Demme, Terry Gilliam, Mike Newell, Alan Parker, Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Reiner, Tim Robbins, Brad Silberling, and Peter Weir to helm the first instalment. It was then narrowed down to Columbus, Gilliam, Parker, and Silberling. Rowling's first choice was Terry Gilliam. However, on 28 March 2000 Columbus was appointed as director of the film, with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone (1990) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) as influences for their decision. Steve Kloves was selected to write the screenplay for the first film. He described adapting the book as "tough" since it did not "lend itself to adaptation as well as the next two books". In 2000, after a seven-month search, lead actor Daniel Radcliffe was discovered by producer David Heyman and writer Steve Kloves seated just behind them in a theatre. Also in 2000, the then unknown British actors Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were selected from thousands of auditioning children to play the roles of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, respectively. Their only previous acting experience was in school plays. Grint was eleven years old and Watson ten at the time they were cast. Filming of the series began at Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England, in September 2000 and ended in December 2010, with post-production on the final film lasting until summer 2011. Leavesden Studios was the main base for filming the series. For much of the series, each novel was adapted into a singular film. However, for the seventh and final novel, Warner Bros. decided to split the Deathly Hallows, into two cinematic parts. The two parts were filmed back-to-back from early 2009 to summer 2010, with the completion of reshoots taking place on 21 December 2010; this marked the end of filming Harry Potter. Heyman stated that Deathly Hallows was "shot as one film" but released in two feature-length parts. All the films have been a success financially and critically, making the franchise one of the major Hollywood "tent-poles" akin to James Bond, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean. The series is noted by audiences for growing visually darker and more mature as each film was released. The franchise would become the 2nd highest grossing film franchise of all time behind only the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, with the eight films released grossing over $7.7 billion worldwide. Without adjusting for inflation, this is higher than the first 22 James Bond films and the six films in the Star Wars franchise. Chris Columbus's Philosopher's Stone became the highest-grossing Harry Potter film worldwide upon completing its theatrical run in 2002, while Alfonso Cuarón's Prisoner of Azkaban grossed the least.

The film stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. As well as Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid, Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick, Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore, John Hurt as Mr Ollivander, Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Kelly Macdonald as Helena Ravenclaw, Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall, David Thewlis as Remus Lupin and Julie Walters as Molly Weasley. The cast gave the best performances of any instalment and probably the best performances of their careers. Especially to the three leads, they proved to be the right heroes and role models for these times filled with troubled youths. They have become such an integral part of the franchise that it would be impossible to imagine anybody else embodying those roles.

With the unflinchingly grim Deathly Hallows - Part 2, the Harry Potter franchise comes to an exciting, poignant, and overall satisfying conclusion. It's scorchingly tense. The movie is genuinely powerful and this might be the most emotional blockbuster in recent memory, a film that starts out full of magic and goes on that promise, then to deliver a glimmer of hope in the final moments. It’s a bold statement about the unforgiving nature of war and death, unashamedly dreadful conflict between good and evil and the devastatingly human spirit in its emotional effect.

Simon says Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 receives:

Film Review: "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (2011).

"The battles are over. The war begins" in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This science fiction action film directed by Michael Bay, written by Ehren Kruger and based on the Hasbro Transformers toy line. It is the third installment of the live-action Transformers film series and a sequel to 2009's Revenge of the Fallen. Sam Witwicky and the Autobots must unravel the secrets of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon before the Decepticons can use it for their own evil schemes.

In mid March 2009, before the critically panned but commercially successful release of Revenge of the Fallen, Paramount Pictures announced a third film, as well as a July 1, 2011 release date and that it would be released in IMAX 3D. Original writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman declined to return for the third film. So Revenge of the Fallen '​s co-writer Ehren Kruger became the sole screenwriter for the film. Due to the revived interest in 3-D technology brought in by the success of Avatar (2009), talks between Paramount, ILM, and Bay had considered the possibility of the next Transformers film being filmed in 3-D. Bay originally was not much interested in the format, but he was convinced after talks with James Cameron, who even offered the technical crew from that film. By late May 2010, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, Jess Harnell, Tom Kenny and Frank Welker reprised their roles, with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Leonard Nimoy, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Alan Tudyk, Ken Jeong and John DiMaggio were cast as newcomers. Megan Fox was originally expected to return. But, according to various published sources, Fox's absence from the film was due to Bay ultimately choosing not to renew her role in light of her comparing him and his work ethics to Adolf Hitler. Bay later claimed that Fox was fired by executive producer Steven Spielberg, a claim which Spielberg denied. At the same time, with a budget of $195 million, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early November. Filming took place in Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Esther and Titusville, Florida; Gary, Indiana; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Moscow, Russia; Pollepel Island, New York; and Washington, District of Columbia. Though about 70% of the film's live action footage was shot in 3-D using Arri Alexa and Sony F35 cameras, more than half of the film still had to be converted into 3-D in post production to fix technical flaws 3-D filming produces. 35 mm cameras were also used for scenes where the 3-D cameras proved to be too heavy, or were subject to strobing or electrical damage from dust

The performances given by the cast are some of the worst performances they have ever given, as well as being some of the most worthless performance given by them. End... of... story.

It's another noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch. The longer this franchise goes on, the less interesting it becomes; it just wears you down.

Simon says Transformers: Dark of the Moon receives: