The Avengers

Why is the new movie The Avengers so good? One reason is that the super heroes are so human. The Hulk has anger issues. Iron Man is full of himself. Captain America is desolate because of how much he has lost.

In the midst of spectacular special effects in this year's biggest blockbuster film, audiences are finding the beating (and bleeding) human hearts of its main characters.

In my line of work, as an organization development consultant, I am often asked to design and facilitate team building sessions. Unlike many of my peers, I seldom use movie clips when building teams. However, having just seen The Avengers the other night, I may now be referring to this film in my upcoming engagements.

As a big fan of comics-based super hero movies, I was really looking forward to this mash-up of multiple Marvel characters. I was not disappointed. Filmmaker Joss Whedon has performed a miracle, somehow squeezing four huge Marvel figures into one movie. The Avengers is fully satisfying on all the major aspects: story, effects, action, and humor.

As the threat to Planet Earth appears, and SHIELD chief Nick Fury scrambles to assemble his team, you wonder, How will this motley crew of soul-damaged super heroes ever come together and work as a team? Of course, you know they will. But one of the delights in this film is watching each hero get their screen time, revealing their past pains and psychic scars. All the actors are good! Especially Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk. The newcomer to the Marvel franchise, Ruffalo is terrific, giving The Big Green Guy the humanity he deserves.

In the midst of spectacular special effects scenes, this year's biggest blockbuster film delivers, from the heart.

Posted by Terrence Seamon on Wednesday May 9, 2012

We Like to Watch

Like some who have flocked to see The Hunger games, I had not read the book (still have not read it, btw), and was not planning on seeing the movie, even though I am a sci fi fan. Then the opportunity arose to go with my wife (who has read the books and is a fan) and sons, so I went.

I enjoyed and appreciated it, especially the acting (Jennifer Lawrence in particular) and the music (by James Howard Newton). But the story left me flat. I wasn't engaged by it for some reason. Maybe it would have worked if I had been a fan of the book.

However, now that a couple weeks have gone by, and I have now seen the new horror movie "Cabin In the Woods," I have a new observation to make. Both of these films have a very prominent theme of voyeurism, i.e. other people watching your every move.

In both THG and CITW, the fact that audiences are watching the main characters suffer and die was somewhat sickening. At the same time, this is a savage critique of our own society today, especially when you consider that some of the most prominent reality TV shows, from Survivor to The Amazing Race, operate on the same principle. As much as I don't like what it says about us, I guess it's true. We like to watch.

Another parallel, in both THG and CITW, there are technicians in a control room filled with monitors, buttons and levers at their disposal to not only watch the hapless contestants/victims, but to influence the choices and outcomes on screen. (As some have pointed out, this is just like the film The Truman Show with Jim Carrey of several years ago.)

Despite the massive bureacracy designed to control what is happening, in both THG and CITW, their attempts to control the outcome eventually fail. As much as we would like to control things in life, we actually can't. (My son pointed out that this is also the gist of another recent film called The Assassination Bureau.) People are far more complex than computerized systems, and often quite surprising to those in charge.

Though I haven't read the books, I have heard that in the second and third installments of THG, Katniss and other characters do take part in a rebellion to take down the hateful system that oppresses them.

At the end of CITW (warning: spoiler ahead - stop reading now if you don't want to know how the film ends), the complicated heroes not only bring down the system and foil the controllers, they inadvertently cause "all hell to break loose." It's actually quite hilarious to watch, along the lines of the end of the film Dr. Strangelove.

Posted by Terrence Seamon on Sunday April 22, 2012

The Hunger Games

My wife and I saw the new film The Hunger Games last night. Here is my review and general commentary.

Overall, this is a good futuristic tale of a post-war world where evil reigns and the poor are held down in poverty by the ruling class. Every year, to drive fear and despair into the populace, children and teens are selected from the twelve districts of the country to participate in a deadly competition called The Hunger Games. The games are a huge event, televised to all the districts, and controlled by politicians and technicians who can create a forest fire, or a rampaging pack of monster dogs, at the push of a high-tech button.

The starring performance by the excellent young actress Jennifer (Winter's Bone) Lawrence is the big reason to see this film. She is great, and should get an Oscar nomination for this. The rest of the cast does quite well, including the weirdly Oz-like games masters played by Stanley Tucci and Wes Bentley. Woody Harrelson as the girl's mentor almost steals the movie too. I also liked the score by composer James Newton Howard.

Now a more general comment. I have not read the books. So I rely on my wife's comment that the movie did a nice job of translating the first book to the screen.

While watching the film, I found myself shifting in my seat a lot. Not exactly bored, but also never fully engaged by the tale, I have been trying to figure out what the problem was.

Here it is: The Hunger Games is derivative of so many other films, TV shows, and stories that I found myself thinking more about them than the movie in front of me. For example, I found myself reflecting on the classic UK TV series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan where Number Six keeps trying to escape The Village but is always brought back by his shadowy techno captors.

Other reviewers have mentioned the similarities of the movie to Battle Royale, The Running Man, and others.

There's nothing wrong with being derivative, and resembling other literary works. I guess what I would ask of such a film is to do something really different and original. Like McGoohan did with his Prisoner series.

Knowing that there are two more books, and I would assume two more movies, to go in the Hunger Games series, I will await the next installments, hoping that the story goes into more creatively original directions.

Posted by Terrence Seamon on Monday April 2, 2012

Throwing In the Towel on the Oscars

After watching the annual Academy Awards show every year of my life, I am hereby done. Throwing in the towel. For good.

Why, you ask? Did you see last night's show? All the things that have always been "wrong" were in evidence and then some:

- Poor judgement for shunting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to another night.

- Cowardice for not allowing performance comic Sacha Baron Cohen to play his merry pranks on camera. What would have been the highlight of the night was completely shut out.

- Taking the easy way out with host Billy Crystal who, though he is sweet and easy to take, is no Ricky Gervais.

- So much self-congratulating it makes you sick.

- Huge production numbers that do nothing but hurt the flow of the show and reduce the time available for acceptance speeches.

There were a few bright spots including wins by Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer, a comic focus group (from the Christopher Guest Ensemble featuring the wonderfully daffy Fred Willard), and a beautiful rendition of "It's A Wonderful World" by jazz singer Esperanza Spalding.

A few weeks back, I declared that I was not going to watch. Then, I ended up watching. Old habits die hard.

But last night's snooze fest was the clincher.

Goodbye, Oscar! I will be watching the Golden Globes and the Independent Spirit Awards. Anything but you.

Today's Deep Mythos

There are two archtypal questions that have come to define Western culture in the past 200 or so years:

- Can a man (or woman) intentionally use science to bring the dead back to life?

- Can a man (or woman) survive death and "come back" for an eternal life?

The first question stems from the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley in 1818. The second comes from the novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897.

Bookending the 19th Century, Shelley and Stoker gave us stories that have reverberated in our imaginations, echoing ancient themes about the boundaries of human innovation and of life itself...and what comes after.

Is it any wonder then that each new generation of filmmakers is drawn to these stories which are rooted in our psyche?

Recently, my son Kevin, a budding filmmaker, asked me what I thought of Branagh's version of Frankenstein with Robert DeNiro as the Monster. While I did not care for the casting choice for the Creature, I did admire director Branagh's over-the-top vision for the film.

Today, I read that film director Danny (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) Boyle is mounting a stage production of Frankenstein, starring Jonny Lee Miller, in the UK.

And as for Dracula, I love what Francis Ford Coppola did with Stoker's tale, casting a highly unlikely Gary Oldman as the Count, but delivering the most ripe and lavish Dracula ever.

Next to zombies, vampires are as popular in film as ever. The Twilight books became successful films. And Italian filmmaker Dario Argento plans a 3D version of Dracula soon.

Should we just put a stake in these stories and put out a moratorium on any more film versions? In my view, absolutely not. These stories reflect questions that go very deep into our wiring. We must explore them. We must ask...and follow where the questions lead us.

Posted by Terrence Seamon on Wednesday February 23, 2011.

Bernard Herrmann's Centennial

One of the greatest American composers of the 20th Century was Bernard Herrmann. As 2011 is his centennial year, I want to celebrate the man and his music.

Here are some favorites from his marvelous music for movies.

Jason and the Argonauts - One of the first films I saw as a kid that featured Herrmann's music.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - One of the loveliest scores ever to come out of Hollywood.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Can music take you on a ride into outer space? You bet it can.

Mysterious Island - William Stromberg conducts the MSO in this wild track called The Balloon.

White Witch Doctor - Hold on to your pith helmet when you hear this one!

On Dangerous Ground - Brace yourself for "Death Hunt," a ferocious piece performed by Esa Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

North By Northwest - Herrmann's fandango for Hitchcock's classic.

Obsession - "Giving it everything he's got" sums up Herrmann's ravishing score for this DePalma thriller.

Taxi Driver - One of Herrmann's final scores featuring a sweeping jazz sax solo.


Posted by Terrence Seamon on February 5, 2011.

It's Awards Time

This is the time of year when various film industry organizations hand out awards for the best in movies for the previous year. I love awards season! But an annual frustration occurs too when movies that I really liked get snubbed at the awards. For example, director Christopher (The Dark Knight) Nolan's Inception, which I thought was the Best of the year as an overall film. Second place would go to the Coen Brothers' True Grit for taking a great American story and spinning it beautifully to life. Third place would go to David Fincher's The Social Network which chronicles the birth of facebook.

Will it go the way I'd like it to? Probably not. It's likely that the King's Speech, an historical bio from the UK, will sweep the awards at Oscar time. It's a good little film, the kind that Academy voters tend to swoon for.

So, let me take this opportunity to give out the Terrys, my own award to the movies and the artists who make them.

Best Film: Inception

Best Director: Christopher Nolan (runner up: the Coens)

Best Music Score: Hans Zimmer for Inception (runner up: Carter Burwell for True Grit)

Best Actor: Colin Firth for The King's Speech

Best Actress: Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit

I still haven't seen The Fighter or Toy Story 3. So I have some catching up to do.

By the way, here is an excellent new blog devoted to film music: http://musicatthemovies.wordpress.com/

This blog entry is dedicated to the memory of legendary film composer John Barry who died a few days ago.