DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (2024)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

I also noticed that whereas the first film had some fun dealing with "female-objectification" tropes, Number Two apparently decides that it's more important to play it safe with a half-dozen "homoerotica" tropes. The first film was more even-handed, while this one seems designed to defuse politically correct criticism. -- my review of DEADPOOL 2.

Though the third DEADPOOL film pours on the homoerotic jokes like they're going out of season, I don't object to them because (a) they're tossed out quickly, without showing a concerted idea to make a straight audience uncomfortable, and (b) they're focused upon a character established as being at least bi-curious. All that said, I will comment on one odd aspect of the film's sexual politics. Officially, the reason for Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) to go through all the chaos of the film is to save his timeline. However, before the time-business even starts, the former killer-for-hire has sought to become a "hero" in order to please his off-again, on-again girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Yet there's no promise of sexual rewards for the would-be crusader, just the companionship with a circle of buddies. So yeah, I tend to believe that, contrary to one of the film's jokes, cocaine-snorting wasn't the only pastime that Disney kept off the table.

D&W is also a contradiction in terms re: being a "multiverse" film. True, Wilson sneers at the whole idea of multiverses (with a false analogy to the 1939 WIZARD OF OZ). But without multiverses, D&W could not exist, so Wilson's protests come to sound a little like Br'er Rabbit protesting against being tossed in the briar patch: a hoax to get his victim to go along with his plans. Yet from the box office records being set by the movie in its opening weekend, it's a hoax with which the audience was eager to engage with-- in contrast to the more tiresome universe-crunching of "straight" movies like THE FLASH and DR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. 

At the same time, the writers of D&W are much smarter about what they expect "normies" in the audience to know about the history of superhero films. MCU movies that depended on viewers having seen all of the company's films and streaming shows, like the MULTIVERSE film mentioned above, were clearly misguided. Instead, when Deadpool goes hunting for an alternate-universe Wolverine to save his own timeline, the script (credited in part both to Reynolds and director Shawn Levy) spotlights franchises that appeared some time back, particularly those of 20th-Century Fox, whose properties Disney acquired via purchase. A "normie" won't know a lot of the references tossed out and won't religiously check all the Easter eggs on YouTube. But when the film makes a FANTASTIC FOUR joke, he's likely to get the general sense of it as long as he knows some general stuff about pop culture.

The writers keep the plot very loose to make room for all the references, and in some ways it's just another "save the universe" story whose main purpose is to bring together an "odd couple:" wacky Wilson and taciturn Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Reynolds cuts capers throughout most of the film, and gets a little monotonous at times, but it's likely he does so to clear the decks for Jackman to be more brooding and tragic. The tragic backstory for Wolverine is just okay, but Jackman's intensity serves as an "anchor" for the whole film, much like the character is supposed to "anchor" Wilson's timeline. (Hmm, if Wilson's timeline is doomed to decay without a living Wolverine, doesn't that mean that whatever timeline loses its Wolverine goes down the toilet?)

As I was born during a period in which no hero ever slashed or gashed his opponents-- not counting sword-fighting swashbucklers and the occasional samurai-- I'm not blown away by the almost endless impalement-scenes during most of the battles. (Even three of the four "guest stars" who take place in one big battle are blade-users.) The initial villain of the movie is so weak that a secondary villain takes over his function in the last half-hour, but I must admit that said evildoer Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) made me wish she'd been the main Big Bad from the start. 

 Like the other two, this one is just "fair" on the mythicity level, though I still rate the first DEADPOOL as the funniest of them all. It would be nice if Disney/MCU learned something from Reynolds' shakeup of their icons, but it seems unlikely.

MILS MASCARAS: ACADEMY OF DOOM (2008)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*

MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*

CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*                                                                                                                                              One online review asserts that this item was shot on an American college campus by some of the same crew that worked on the more professional MIL MASCARAS VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY. This choice of locations affected the plot of this amateurish production and its seven-years-later sequel. The "academy" of the title is "Mil Mascaras Wrestling Women's Academy," which means a lot more females in the narrative than in the average luchador film. Said wrestling-school is menaced on two fronts: Luctor, a criminal mastermind (complete with luchador-mask) who wants to buy the school by hook or by crook, and a mysterious killer who attacks people and eats their brains.  (Contrary to the copy on the movie poster above, the monster has nothing to do with the 1960s "Brainiac" creature.)                                                                                                                                                                                 Some online reviews esteem the movie for trying to capture the cheesy appeal of the famous luchador-movies from the sixties and seventies, albeit on a very restricted budget and with a lot of amateur actors. I could get behind that, even given that all aspects of the script, including the revelation of the monster's ID, are exceedingly moldy. But it's not worth doing a luchador-homage if you can't set up even half-decent fights, particularly when one has the services of a famous cinematic wrestling-figure. About the only item of interest here is that the female wrestler La Torcha (Sabrina Braden) made a non-speaking appearance in MUMMY, but here she's upgraded into something like a quasi-partner to Mil. Oh, and as in MUMMY, there's an attempt to sell Mil as more than a wrestler, but a bon vivant with extensive knowledge of physics and philosophy-- a depiction that actually plays into the plot of the following installment.  

CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991)

 

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, psychological*

CAST A DEADLY SPELL was one of two HBO original films. Both this one and the subsequent WITCH HUNT were written by Joseph Dougherty, though only SPELL was directed by Martin Campbell, just a few years away from his graduating to the big time with 1995's GOLDENEYE. 

Both movies take place in Los Angeles circa 1948-1950, but on an Earth where magic works, and is practiced openly. Thus the gangsters of L.A. are as likely to put a hit on their targets with curse-ruins as with tommy-guns, and many professionals on the police force learn to use magic defensively against such criminals. A noted exception is ex-cop P.I. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Fred Ward). Though Lovecraft barely manages a living, operating out of a run-down office where his landlord constantly nags him for the rent, he's repeatedly asked why he won't practice magic, even in self-defense. His longest response on the subject is that he wants to be his own man, beholden to no gods or spirits. Clearly Lovecraft is meant to be the epitome of the lonely crusader who won't sell out to corrupt forces in the police force or the upper classes, though the script isn't really interested in making any serious critique of magic or even paganism. (A modern character remarks on her knowledge of the current worship of Diana.) The entire concept of SPELL is meant to be as playful, as seen by the in-jokey usage of the name of horror-author H.P. Lovecraft for the heroic protagonist.

Ironically, one of the main distinctions of Original Lovecraft's work was that he broke from the use of magical-themed menaces for his terror-tales, focusing for the most part on quasi-scientific concepts. He did borrow popular tropes from "magical horror," but the connotation was that human beings were using these tropes to contact extra-dimensional entities through some form of psychic operation. Doughtery's concept is closer to the model of the "rational magic" subgenre of horror-fantasy, often seen in the forties pulp magazine UNKNOWN, which generated such classics as Fritz Leiber's CONJURE WIFE and Robert Heinlein's MAGIC, INC. Thus the only truly Lovecraftian motif of SPELL is the villains' plans to unleash the demon-god Yog-Sothoth upon helpless humanity.

Detective Lovecraft is hired to find a missing grimoire, which his employer needs for a special ritual. The fine details of the "mystery" are not memorable, but the cast does a good job of polishing up all of the hoary hard-boiled tropes, with David Warner and Clancy Brown as two of the villains, Julianne Moore as a shady lady with whom Lovecraft has a checkered past, and Alexandra Powers as a "virgin sacrifice"-- a trope Original Lovecraft would never have touched with a pole the length of infinity.

The adventure verges on comedy, but there's enough straightforward menace (as when a hulking zombie drowns a man in a pool) that keeps things from being too jovial. Ward is the movie's main strength, maintaining the insouciant appeal of the noble P.I, who can never do things the easy way. He too did not return for the second and last film, but SPELL stands as one of the actor's best performances.

LION MAN (1975)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*                                                                                                                                                  The Turkish film industry is renowned for producing knockoffs of Western franchises. the so-called "Turkish Star Wars" being a famous one, though not one I've seen. But the movie LION MAN-- currently on streaming under the blah title THE SWORD AND THE CLAW-- is a reasonably original take on Tarzan, but one where the future hero (Cuneyt Arkin) is raised from infanthood by a pride of lions.                                                                                                      

The place name "Byzantium" is tossed out at one point, so I guess the opening conflict takes place between Byzantine Christians and Muslims of that period. The Christians lose a rather ratty looking battle, and their representative lord Antuan (Yildririm Gencer) appears at the court of Suleiman Shah (also played by Arkin) to come to terms. Unbeknownst to Antuan, a lady of the Christian court, Princess Maria, finds Suleiman beguiling despite his being married to his own queen. Maria and Suleiman do the deed. Some time passes, during which Antuan lays plans for an assassination and the queen delivers a son to Suleiman. However, Antuan's assassins attack the shah at court and kill all his people, including the queen, which apparently paves the way for the Byzantines to conquer the country. However, one of the queen's servants gets away with the shah's infant son. This son is lost in the wild and gets raised by lions. Antuan tops off his triumph by marrying Maria, little suspecting that she has a Suleiman-bun in the oven.                                                                                                      

Twenty years later, the Byzantines exert a cruel hold upon the kingdom of Wherever It Is, and a resistance movement of Muslim nationals has arisen. Antar (Cebil Sahbaz), the grown son of Maria-- whom Antuan assumes to be his own progeny-- serves the Byzantine cause, and during a patrol he and his soldiers are attacked by rebels. For reasons I forget, Aslan the Lion Man intervenes to help the Byzantines. The two half-brothers exchange pleasantries, to the extent that Aslan can't speak human lingo.                                                                             

Living with the lions has conferred upon Aslan superhuman strength, at least on the level of a Maciste-movie, and the movie's highlight is seeing the hero attack people with his naked fingers poised like claws. Aslan's interference with the rebels cheeses off the daughter of the rebel leader, so she sets up an occasion to meet the wild man. When he drops his guard, she stabs Aslan-- and then belatedly sees that he possesses a royal birthmark, attesting to his true lineage. Soon Aslan joins the rebels and learns to speak and follow other human customs-- though surprisingly given the Tarzan influence, there's no romantic arc between Aslan and any female of his own species.                                     

   Meanwhile, Maria finally confesses to Antuan that Antar is not the Byzantine's son. (Antar also possesses the birthmark of the shah's line, but I guess none of the Byzantines knew what it meant.) Antuan hurls Maria into durance vile and begins counter-attacking the rebels and their new ally. After various martial encounters, Antuan tries to nullify Aslan's claw-powers by pouring acid on his hands. However, a rebel blacksmith makes metal claw-hands for the hero, so that he becomes more powerful than before. Eventually Antar learns his true heritage and the half-brothers unite to destroy the "false father."                                                                                                                       Surprisingly, aside from avenging the death of Suleiman, the movie's main plot-thread is about the two siblings finding one another. LION MAN has a delirious concept, but at most turns it's undermined by the poverty of the production, resulting in bad fight-choreography beside which even an Italian knockabout comedy looks good. Some battle-scenes are even scored with a peculiar jaunty tune, rather than something more suitably adventurous. Arkin's the only performer who projects a little personality, though I can't say he overshadows even Gordon Scott, much less Johnny Weismuller.    

WHAT WAITS BELOW (1984)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological*

WHAT WAITS BELOW comes very close to being a mythic movie, but the script, co-written by cartoon-writer Christy (CONAN THE ADVENTURER) Marx, doesn't quite bring all the elements together into a pleasing whole.

After a brief sequence in Nicaragua to establish that the main hero "Wolf" Wolfson (Robert Powell) is a badass, the lupine hero, who's also proficient in caving, is hired by the U.S. Army for a spelunking assignment in Central America. Once he gets there, Wolf has a "meet-cure" with sexy blonde Leslie (Lisa Blount) and learns that she belongs to a geological expedition in the same area. Wolf also finds out that the head of the army's detachment, Lt. Stevens (Timothy Bottoms), wants to evict all the civilian personnel-- mainly Gannon (Richard Johnson) and Freida (Anne Heywood) as well as Leslie. Wolf manages to talk the tight-butted lieutenant into letting the experience spelunkers find a perfect underground location for their project: a radio transmitter powerful enough to send signals through solid rock to a waiting submarine.

Despite the truce between the civilians and the military, a certain tension remains evident as the explorers descend into the nearby caverns. However, they not only find bioluminescence in the walls of certain caves, they discover a whole civilization of albinos, called "Lemurians" in the script, have implicitly one that's existed in isolation since primitive times, not unlike the premise of THE MOLE PEOPLE. These albinos, however, communicate in a garbled language that the confused humans cannot understand, and they also immediately attack the surface dwellers as trespassers-- which of course they are.

Though one of the soldiers dies at the fangs of an underground serpent, the armed military men have the advantage. But hardass Stevens insists on completing his mission with the transmitter. The script fails to make this intransigence convincing. I found it unlikely that any military officer, upon learning that his mission might impinge on the discovery of a new subspecies of humanity, would not at least report to his superiors for further orders. But to make the shaky script work, Stevens has to be irrationally motivated to carry out orders that are merely experimental in nature.

Eventually most of the civilians are captured by the Lemurians. When Leslie stands in danger, Wolf challenges the Lemurian's toughest warrior to single combat and defeats him soundly. Gannon and Freida still get killed but Wolf escapes with Leslie. However, when Stevens activates his transmitter, it initially irritates the Lemurians' sensitive ears-- until they strike back with a sort of "sonic scream." With most of the soldiers dead, Wolf and Leslie are able to take steps to make sure no one trespasses on the lost civilization again. (Incidentally, since the Lemurians are the stars of this show, they, not viewpoint character Wolf, are the combative agents of the film.)

In addition to all the cosmological knowledge about the nature of the "inner Earth," BELOW had good potential for showing a "clash of cultures." But the budgetary limitations, poor characterization and listless direction all contribute to the film's poor reputation, even with viewers seeking films "so  bad they're good."

DARK PLANET (1997)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

DARK PLANET has received a number of critiques for director Albert Magnoli's having shot too many scenes in partial darkness. I've had similar criticisms of other films, but Magnoli's use of partial-dark scenes didn't bother me, since I think he was pretty good at highlighting the faces of the four main actors-- even if they weren't given very many good lines by the three writers, one of whom was Buzz Dixon, famed for various cult cartoon-shows.

The setup had potential. On a far-future Earth, but one which has not yet managed to colonize any planets despite mastering space-travel, two factions have been fighting for decades. One faction is comprised of humans who have been genetically modified, the Alphas, while the other group is unmodified. Curiously, the latter group is termed "The Rebels," as if the non-modified types at some time might have been ruled by the enhanced Alphas. But the underwritten script never elaborates on the genesis of the Rebels' group cognomen, any more than it's at all clear about what sort of things the modified humans can do, with the exception of one character, a telepath. 

For reasons not outlined until the last half hour, the Alphas and Rebels institute an armistice. The authorities on both sides designate a joint task force to make a landing on the so-called "Dark Planet," which implicitly is known through artificial probes. Said world can theoretically be reached by piloting a spacecraft through a wormhole, and that's never been accomplished before-- except by one man.

Though the task force is roughly ten soldiers from both sides, only four characters are important. The Alphas are represented by the conscienceless military commander Winter (Michael York) and his telepathic subordinate Salera (Maria Ford), while the only Rebel of consequence is an officer named Brendan (Harley Jane Kozak). Standing between these uneasy allies is Hawke (Paul Mercurio), a non-enhanced human who was arrested by the Alphas for weapons smuggling. While fleeing pursuit, Hawke drove his spacecraft into a wormhole and managed to emerge with his life, though another crewmember, Hawke's wife, perished for unexplained reasons. The Alpha-Rebel alliance drafts Hawke to be their navigator in order to reach the Dark Planet, though no one speaks as to why this mission is so important.

I'll give the Big Reveal away now: the Planet Earth is due to become uninhabitable in two years, thanks to bioweapons unleashed by both factions. Winter and Brendan both know that they must colonize the one human-friendly world in order for humankind to survive, and yet both officers have contingency plans to ace out the other group, which doesn't make a lot of sense given that the allied authorities back on Earth would still be in charge of who gets to emigrate to the new world. 

Hawke, in theory, is the random element. Despite Paul Mercurio's weirdly downplayed performance, Hawke professes a belief in the primacy of human instinct, and he attempts to win over the repressed Salera with rather ham-handed advances. Hawke more or less throws in with the sympathetic Brendan rather than the despicable Winter, but all three characters are too sketchy to provide much drama. The action isn't strong, though Winter has both a brief throw-down with the rebellious Salera and an end-battle out in space, with Winter and Hawke fighting one another in spacesuits. By virtue of such scenes, PLANET is a combative film.

Despite playing a flat character, York is the only actor who's a pleasure to listen to even when the dialogue is bad. Kozak, Mercurio and Ford, whatever their talents in other productions, are incapable of transcending the banal script. 

Keith Bailey's site not only reviews the movie, but also conveys the experience of a writer, Bill Vellaly, assigned to the project but excluded from the final credits. (Actually, the aforementioned Buzz Dixon is only credited on the movie's IMDB page.) I don't know if Vellaly's concept for the script would have made a better film, but PLANET remains damned underwhelming in its final form.

HONOR ROLL #265

 PAUL MERCURIO faces a dark future.       

What Waits Below is a whole tribe of mutants spoiling for a fight with ROBERT POWELL.                                                                             

CEMIL SAHBAZ may be Turkish, but he's no delight.                          

Deadly spells can't resist being warded off by FRED WARD.               

 SABRINA BRADEN had to wrestle with her conscience about doing this movie.                                                                                     

Is EMMA CORRIN more screwball than cueball?