The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the second in the motion picture fantasy franchise created from the books by C.S. Lewis. The story recounts the adventures of the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, as they re-enter Narnia to help Prince Caspian fight for his rightful place on the throne. In this installment, directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek) and starring an ensemble cast of newcomers and well-known’s, we see a darker, wilder Narnia, with more action and deeper character development than either the book or the first film.
Narnia came on to the latest fantasy film craze a little late and in some ways it shows. Production-wise, the film is fairly good with breathtaking scenery and sets. However, after ten and a half hours of The Lord of the Ringsand five Harry Potter movies, the general audience may not appreciate some of the locations (many of which were filmed in New Zealand) and effects. In places the CGI seems overdone and cheap, but on the other hand, the costuming and small sets are done quite well. Giving the Telmarines (revealed to be seafarers that ended up in Narnia through an island cave) a Spanish conquistador air is clever and successfully done, and the high point of costuming is the Telmarine costumes inspired by the unconventional Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco. A conscious effort was made to make the world look Medieval, as while only one year has passed in England since the Pevensie children left Narnia, 1300 years have passed in Narnia since Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) broke the stone table, and Narnia has entered into a dark, savage age.
And so on… and so on… and so on. As The Incredible Hulksmashed into theaters June 13th, the old rants about Ang Lee’s ponderous epic Hulk emerged again, with some new whining that even the jade goliath himself would probably snort at. Seriously, it’s an interesting cultural study in media spin and short memories to see how both Hollywood and humanity are transformed, like gamma rays, by marketing and snappy judgments.
Think you have a TRUE memory of this corner of our earlier decade? Think again.
As I mentioned in my own Incredible Hulk review, I grew up watching the 70s television show with my Dad. I have read the Hulk since the late 80s, and own EVERY Hulk comic. Seriously. While I may not be the strongest one there is, I certainly have some qualifications when it comes to the adaptation of this green goliath. I walked out of Ang Lee’s 2003 magnum hulkus with my father and a warm smile on my face… and found out that almost nobody else got it.
A Review of The Fall by Claudine Elizabeth Miller
Directed by Tarsem (Singh)
Rated R
Bandits! Smart Monkey! Oh My!
But, being as how this review is supposed to be longer than 10 words, here are my reasons why you should see Tarsem’s The Fall:
Reason #1: Sure, Tarsem (he has recently dropped his surname, Singh, for his filmmaking credits) was the director of the icky and poorly cast The Cell, but he does have a way with fantastical visual imagery. From the first shot to the last, The Fall captures you with such epic, poetic, vibrant images that perfectly brings to life a story that is running through the mind of a young child. I must admit, I was quite skeptical about seeing this film. After all, the reviewers were already calling it a “vanity piece”, “ostentatious”, and “flat”. But with the opening sequence (a black and white hauntingly beautiful shot involving a train bridge, an old steam locomotive, a Native American, and a horse hanging from a rope) I was sucked in.
One of my Top 10 films is John Carpenter’s The Thing. One of my guilty pleasures as a ten-year old television viewer was the man-morphing “Manimal”. The only film that made me cry in high school was Edward Scissorhands, and The Terminator will always be one of my favorite James Cameron movies, despite that bloated boat movie he made years later.
What do all these have in common besides my childhood? Despite different actors, directors, and producers they, and many more films, have Stan Winston in common. The special effects GENIUS passed away June 15th after seven years of battling multiple myeloma.
If Ray Harryhausen owned the special effects world up until the 80s, the crown definitely passed to Stan Winston in the 80s and he owned it well into the 21st century. This man designed Schwarzenegger’s stiff metal skeleton, made me believe Sigourney Weaver could go head-to-head with an Alien queen, made me tremble that a Tyrannosaurus could walk and terrorize again. The man took home three Academy Awards and had more nominations than I can remember. In many ways, he WAS special effects, and even in our new world of studios vying to make their mark in the 21st century with digital effects, he still built the suit Iron Man wore to wow us this summer in the blockbuster of 2008. It’s apropos, as one of his early gigs was designing the Mr. Roboto facemask for Styx.
It is men like Stan Winston, with such a visionary eye, an overabundance of creativity and imagination, that help me more fully appreciate our place as image-bearers of the Creator. This man got to create new animals, aliens, recreate events at Pearl Harbor, and even do makeup for angels and demons (albeit fictional). The honor to be designed with that spark of creativity, that impulse and attribute of God, is truly a wonder to behold in someone so gifted. Did he understand the true extent of his talents and gifts? I hope to find out someday.
Domo Arigato, Mr. Winston. You will be missed.
Recommended films featuring Stan’s handiwork:
* The Thing (1982)
* The Terminator (1984)
* Aliens (1986)
* Predator (1987)
* Pumpkinhead (1989)
* Edward Scissorhands (1990)
* Batman Returns (1992)
* Jurassic Park (1993)
* Interview with the Vampire (1994)
* Galaxy Quest (1999)
* Iron Man (2008)
A Review of The Incredible Hulk by Pastor James Harleman
Starring Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, and William Hurt
Directed by Louis Letterier
I can remember my Dad racing home furiously in our Volkswagen Beetle, hoping to drop us in front of the television before the pilot for the 1970s Incredible Hulk began. We rarely missed an episode, and read the comics together from my youth into adulthood. It became such a father/son bond that in 2003, he came up to see a midnight showing of Hulk, the oft-maligned Ang Lee outing that these lifelong fans did not find lacking. As the familiar piano music of the “Lonely Man” theme plays (which always accompanied the fugitive Banner in the 70s show) I find myself a touch melancholy seeing the sequel without my father, who passed away in 2005. With decades of watching, reading, and relationship intertwined with this less than jolly green giant, I hoped 2008’s movie would truly live up to it’s added adjective: “incredible”.
I’ll answer the question on everyone’s mind (and make the Hulk angry - you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry): as far as the films go, The Incredible Hulk is NOT as good as its recent Marvel movie brother, Iron Man. The way THAT film took off and blew the pop-cultural consciousness, I’m not sure there’s any way even The Incredible Hulk could have delivered the same punch. Director Louis Leterrier’s style is complementary to Jon Favreau’s, but the pacing, effects and editing fall short of the heights to which Iron Man soared.
Still, it IS evident that Marvel Studios is creating something of a house style, and the film fits nicely in the same stable as Iron Man. From the opening credits showing military equipment by Stark Industries to the ending scene with Robert Downey Jr. the film takes its place as a successful, enjoyable installment in the expanding “Marvel Universe“. As the character and narrative are not intended to be as light as this summer’s Iron giant, the new Hulk film falls tonally somewhere between the Iron Man and X-Men films, probably due to the fact that screenwriter Zak Penn wrote both X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Preppy teenagers cruise along in a 50s roadster, urging the square-jawed men with serious faces next to them to loosen up and enjoy the ride. The latest Indiana Jones installment, with a 65-year old Harrison Ford reprising his role as the archeologist/adventurer, opens with a whimsy and nostalgia that beckons us to do the same. The film plays early on with reflections and nods to the previous installments, and tests whether we’re ready to go for another serial-inspired expedition into the world George Lucas and Steven Spielberg birthed more than 25 years ago.
I revisited Raiders of the Lost Ark the weekend before “Skull” opened, to glean some fresh perspective on the classic versus carrying a few decades of accrued childhood warmth into my expectations. Raiders is fun but clunky, awkward in places yet always entertaining. It still holds a place in my list of top 10 films. However, it is not perfect, or entirely even; despite its flaws and age, however, it has an undeniable charm and energizing spirit that pervades and lingers as John Williams’ score trumpets at the credit roll.
So, with the worn, trusty Indiana hat dusted off, I saw the fourth flick downtown with friends at Seattle’s famous Cinerama, hopped up on Top Pot Donuts and sweetened coffee. Collectively, feelings were mixed, but although it was a bit of a bumpy ride (much like the kids in the 50s roadster, bounding over country fields) overall I was satisfied. While not as good as the original, inspired piece of pop culture offered up in the 80s, the journey to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a worthy reunion of Jones and the generation raised on his machismo.
After scuffling with commies at a mysterious hanger in nuclear testing territory, Jones finds himself under the scrutiny of McCarthy era Feds who question his allegiance, even for the military service we find out he gave during World War 2. When Jones runs into Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), a greaser with ties to a few of Indy’s old friends, he realizes that the Reds are after a crystal skull that has some connection to El Dorado, the fabled City of Gold. Traveling to the Amazon, reunited with old friends and discovering new family, the aged adventurer must come to terms with loss, mistakes and regret… and in the process he finds new things to fight for, and new things to live for. (more…)
Cinemagogue Content
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
(many of which were filmed in New Zealand) and effects. In places the CGI seems overdone and cheap, but on the other hand, the costuming and small sets are done quite well. Giving the Telmarines (revealed to be seafarers that ended up in Narnia through an island cave) a Spanish conquistador air is clever and successfully done, and the high point of costuming is the Telmarine costumes inspired by the unconventional Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco. A conscious effort was made to make the world look Medieval, as while only one year has passed in England since the Pevensie children left Narnia, 1300 years have passed in Narnia since Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) broke the stone table, and Narnia has entered into a dark, savage age.
by James Harleman, Cinemagogue Editor-in-Chief
and found out that almost nobody else got it.
A Review of 
The special effects GENIUS passed away June 15th after seven years of battling multiple myeloma.
In many ways, he WAS special effects, and even in our new world of studios vying to make their mark in the 21st century with digital effects, he still built the suit 
Recommended films featuring Stan’s handiwork:
A Review of 
(which always accompanied the fugitive Banner in the 70s show) I find myself a touch melancholy seeing the sequel without my father, who passed away in 2005. With decades of watching, reading, and relationship intertwined with this less than jolly green giant, I hoped 2008’s movie would truly live up to it’s added adjective: “incredible”.
The way THAT film took off and blew the pop-cultural consciousness, I’m not sure there’s any way even The Incredible Hulk could have delivered the same punch. Director 
While not as good as the original, inspired piece of pop culture offered up in the 80s, the journey to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a worthy reunion of Jones and the generation raised on his machismo.