Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Rating: 4.5 Shurikens

Johnny Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series from Disney. Depp is famous for some of the more eccentric roles in movies, like Edward Scissorhands and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, not to mention the Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He most recently did the voice of Rango, and played the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. Jack Sparrow is a thieving pirate with a an instinct for self-preservation.

Cast members from the first three Pirates movies include Depp, Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa, the pirate captain, and Kevin McNally as the first mate Gibbs. Two of the other top stars of the first three Pirates movies, Orlando Blum and Keira Knightley, decided not to reprise their roles. Ian McShane, a very fine actor in my opinion, is the pirate Blackbeard, and Penelope Cruz plays his daughter, a woman from Jack Sparrow's past. Ian McShane played Coach in Death Race, and starred in The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. His acting in the HBO series, Deadwood, was almost Shakespearean. Penelope Cruz was in Vanilla Sky, about 10 years ago, her only movie in the sci-fi genre, that I know of.

The story begins with Jack Sparrow on trial in London, with a hanging in his very near future. Somehow, he has Gibbs standing in his place, and Jack has arranged an escape by impersonating the judge in the case. After leaving the courtroom, they are escorted into a prisoner wagon, where they hope to be released by the driver who has been paid off. Instead, they are recaptured by the British, and taken to the king. Jack makes another daring escape, and ends up in a tavern where he meets Angelica, who is impersonating him and hiring on a crew of sailors. Again, the soldiers catch up to them, and they escape, but Jack is knocked out and wakes up as a sailor on the ship of Blackbeard the Pirate.

Apparently, Blackbeard, the British Crown, and the Spanish, are all on the track of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Jack foments a mutiny, and learns the hard way about Blackbeard, and why he is so reared as a pirate. He manages to survive and makes a fast deal to save himself, by promising to help Angelica and Blackbeard find the Fountain. Meanwhile, Barbossa has signed on with the British Navy and with Gibbs as his guide, they try to get to the fountain first, where Barbossa plans to get his revenge on Blackbeard for his taking of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow's pirate ship from the earlier stories.

There is lots of action, with plenty in between to allow the story to develop. The camera angle changes are pretty frequent, although not as bad as some movies I have seen. One problem with action movies is the tendency to overuse different camera angles trying to capture every movement, and at the same time leaving important parts of the action off the edge of the screen. It seems to be true of all action movies these days. I guess I have to be satisfied if they don't do it too much, and this Pirates movie is not too bad in this respect.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is good and long, 2 hours and almost 20 minutes and uses every minute to good effect. The story is fairly complex and entertaining. It manages to be interesting, with a few twists and turns, but without any real surprises. It resolves well towards the end, with another sequel an obvious possibility. There are lots of sword fights and musket shots, but surprisingly few people are killed. They parry and thrust, blades clanging, and then bonk their adversaries on the head. I can't remember a single time where the pirate jack Sparrow actually kills someone. This is good for the children who want to be Jack Sparrow next Halloween.

I recommend this movie for good entertainment, safe for most younger viewers. There isn't too much in the way of romance, but that isn't a big drawback. The whole package makes for a nice evening at the movies. It gets 4.5 Shurikens for lots of good action, some excellent characterizations, and a good storyline. If you haven't been to the movies in a while, this is a good reason to go.

Priest

Rating: 4 Shurikens

Priest is a pretty exciting and entertaining movie. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, where history is one of a constant war between humans and vampires, the main character is a member of an order of clergymen who are the main weapon of humanity against the vampires. The Church is the highest authority of the humans, who have battled with vampires for what seems like decades. The Priests were the decisive weapon in the victory over vampires, and after winning the war and imprisoning the last remaining vampires, the Church disbanded the Priests, and left them to fend for themselves in a society where they have no real skills.

The future world is depicted as dingy, crowded cities like the ones in Blade Runner, set in a desert wasteland like Mad Max. The social order in the cities is regimented in an Orwellian fashion, with slogans and pictures of the Monsignor everywhere. The church is obviously modelled upon the Catholic religion, but is respectful of the actual religion, using it as a fictional vehicle without making fun of its practices. The movie is filmed in almost black and white with very subdued colors, a lot like the recent Sucker Punch, but with better effect.

The main character is called Priest, one of the best of his kind, and is played by Paul Bettany, who is possibly best known for being the albino in The DaVinci Code, and the Angel Michael in the movie Legion . During the vampire wars, a group of Priests enters a vampire hive, and is ambushed. Most of the Priests escape, but one, played by Karl Urban, is captured by the vampires. Karl Urban was Dr. McCoy in the Star Trek movie, and will be again in the upcoming sequel. Anyway, Priest was holding onto him when his grip slipped and he was pulled away. He comes back as the villain called Black Hat, and kidnaps Priests niece in order to get his revenge over being lost to the vampires.

As an adaptation of a graphic novel, the characters and story are very comic book-like. The Priests have super-human abilities which make them very good at what they do. The villains of the are also not your customary vampires. The are like Gollum in Lord of the Rings, rather than the Dracula of the classics. They are susceptible to sunlight, but don't turn into bats. They don't have eyes, either, but they do have some very mean fangs. They reproduce by a queen, like insects, rather than the vampires of legend which rise 3 days after being bitten by another vampire.

The Church has decided that it is better to forget about vampires. The head of the Church, the Monsignor Orelas, played by the venerable Christopher Plummer, is determined to forget about the wars with vampires and keep the people in the fold of his church, and safe within the cities. He forbids Priest from going after his niece, but of course Priest rebels and forsakes his vows. Monsignor then dispatches four other Priests, including Priestess, played by Maggie Q, to stop him. Maggie Q was in Live Free and Die Hard, and also Mission Impossible III. Accompanied by the wildlands sheriff Hicks, played by Cam Gigandet, who played in the sci-fi thriller Pandorum,  Priest and Priestess try to take on Black Hat and the hordes of new vampires determined to exterminate the humans.

Priest is the best movie of the week, in the week before the latest Pirates of the Carribean, and the week after Thor. It is a nice diversion, not excessively gory, and a satisfying ending, which leaves plenty of loose ends to be resolved in a future sequel, if enough people get out to see this one. I do believe it to be worth seeing, and worth a sequel, so go! This one gets 4 Shurikens for good plot, good story, decent acting and plenty of action.

Thor

Rating: 5 Shurikens

If ever there was a movie that has to be seen, Thor is it. Based on the Marvel comic book which was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in the 1960's, it precedes the other Marvel Comics adaptations of  Captain America and the X-Men prequel, due later this summer. At the same time DC breaks from the old Superman and Batman habits to release the long-awaited Green Lantern. This promises to be a great summer for comic book and sci-fi movie lovers.

The movie, Thor, captures the essence of the original comic book series of the 1960's and 70's, although some changes have been made to the storyline in the interest of the big screen. The concept of adapting an entire mythology to a comic book was due to the comic book geniuses Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. They depicted the grandeur of Asgard, and brought Thor to Earth as a one-armed doctor who had been sent to learn humility. He found a walking stick while vacationing in Scandinavia, and learned that he could strike the cane on the ground, and be transformed into Thor. Thor became a superhero, and a member of the Avengers.

They evolved the contentious Thor-Loki relationship, which was an aspect of Marvel comics heroes of that time, in that they had extraordinary lives but they had real-life problems. Thor had his dear brother, whom he loved, but who was also prone to doing evil deeds. There was friendship, rivalry and forgiveness. Thor's father was the extremely powerful Odin, also the King of Asgard and the Realm Eternal. He was a tough parent himself, and Thor had to deal with a father who was beloved yet also was kind of overbearing, much like real fathers can be sometimes. People could relate to some of the human problems that Marvel heroes experienced, but which were quite absent from DC heroes, until much later.

The movie shortens the storyline somewhat, but does feature all of the main characters, including the alter-ego Don Blake, who was Thor's identity in the comic book. Also, Jane Foster, the scientist in the movie, was a nurse in the comic series. Thor's warrior companions from Asgard, .the Warriors Three, Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg, are featured in the film, very much like the original as they were in the comic series co-written by Lee and Kirby. As an avid reader of comic books in the day, I can say that Jack Kirby would be proud if he were alive to see it. The excellence of Thor surpasses the Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer movie, and at least two of the Spiderman movies.

The story begins with Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, ascending to the throne of Asgard. Hemsworth was George Kirk, father of James Kirk, in the recent Star Trek movie. As Odin, played by the accomplished actor Anthony Hopkins, is preparing to hand over the power of King, a small number of Asgard's rivals, the Frost Giants, enters Asgard and causes a distraction which keeps Thor from being actually named king. Thor wants to get revenge on the Frost Giants, but Odin tries to convince Thor not to be rash, and an argument ensues. They call each other names, and Odin takes away Thor's hammer and his powers and sends him to Earth.

Jane Foster is a scientist, played by Natalie Portman. Natalie is a pretty famous actress, having starred in three Star Wars films, although her acting was not that good. She has been in many other films, both good and bad, and recently appeared in Your Highness, reviewed here previously. As Jane Foster, she actually impressed me, because I have been dubious of here acting abilities. I saw Black Swan, and was not impressed, and of course the aforementioned Star Wars movies, which could have been poorly-written scripts. She portrays a great character in Thor, adding to the experience as a love interest, and a believable scientist, even though the character did not exist in the comic book, in an absolute sense.

Anyway, Jane Foster is studying electromagnetic anomalies in the weather in order to find actual wormholes, when she happens upon the fallen Thor. There is some pretty good comedy as Thor learns the ways of Earth. Meanwhile, Agent Coulson of  S.H.I.E.L.D. locates Thor's hammer which has landed in the same desert as Thor, but fifty miles away. Agent Coulson is played by Clark Gregg, and was seen in Iron Man and Iron Man 2. In the post-credit teaser from Iron Man 2, he finds Thor's hammer in the Arizona desert. This teaser turns out to be an actual scene in Thor. Clark Gregg is set to appear in the upcoming Nick Fury and The Avengers.

Loki portrayed by Tom Hiddleston, is somehow involved in the events that cause Thor's elevation to king to be interrupted. To say much more would be to give away too much, and I am not a spoiler.  Hiddleston is a relatively unknown actor to me, but his acting is really good. He does a great villain, and a really good Loki. The energy and the brotherly rivalry between Thor and Loki is evident, and the drama is so believeable that you hardly think you are watching the adaptation of a comic book, it is that good. Even the resolution of the storyline in the later parts of the movie is unexpected, but superb. The plot does take a twist or two, and even though the outcome is already expected, due to the fact that the comic book series runs a span of decades, it manages to surprise.

Rene Russo plays Frigga, Thor's mother. She has only a few scenes in the movie. She was probably at her best in the Lethal Weapon movies of the 80's. Some other characters never appeared in the comics, but seem to have been created especially for the movies.  Erik Selvig is Jane Foster's mentor in the Thor movie, yet I can't place his character in any comic book I have read. The actor, Stellan Skarsgård has a lot of cinematic credits under his belt, and will reprise his role of Erik Selvig in The Avengers, next summer. The other is Darcy, Jane Fosters assistant. Darcy Lewis is played by Kat Dennings, who was also Nora in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist.

Thor is an entertainment masterpiece. It has excellent action sequences without too many different camera angles, although there could be less of that. The special effects are pretty good, too, and the acting is really top-notch. The audiences were pretty large, and the number of people waiting for the teaser after the credits was as much as half the number who crowded into the theaters to watch the movie on opening night. The story flows easily from one scene to the next, and at the end you are left with the feeling that you have just seen a really good movie. Even people who have never read a comic book in their life ill enjoy Thor. This is rated a Must See, with 5 Shurikens for fantastic all-around enjoyment. This is truly a white giant star in the comic book movie universe.