SUPERMAN: MAN OF TOMORROW (2020)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

This standalone Superman film is much better than the thoroughly mediocre product that so often appears from the DC Animated Universe, yet it's just not quite outstanding enough to give it more than a "fair" rating.

I certainly appreciate that the Tim Sullivan script, directed by Chris Palmer, makes a studied attempt to give Superman a consistent character beyond "Big Blue Boy Scout." This is particularly surprising in that the DTV is said to be derived by Mark Waid's "Birthright" continuity, an arc I read but found underwhelming. From glancing over a summation of the comic book series, I see barely any common points, except that both narratives take place at the outset of the Man of Steel's superhero career.

It helps that in this particular iteration, Clark Kent's foster parents are still alive on their farm, which allows the hero to visit them for input on his desire to help his adopted people. The viewer gets to see young Clark interning for the Daily Planet at a time when Lois Lane rockets to prominence, breaking a major story that gets Lex Luthor put in prison for the first time. In his first few attempts at saving people, the fledgling hero wears a makeshift disguise, which will lead to the making of the iconic costume after his clothes get shredded by his first major challenge-- 

LOBO?

Really? I mean, I realize that Lobo always offers Superman fans the prospect of good basic brawls, spiced by the alien biker's scorn for the hero's scout-like personality. But Lobo isn't really a great vehicle for introducing Superman to his alien heritage, much less introducing him to kryptonite. Lobo's been sent by some unnamed alien villain to bring back the hero dead or alive, so that the evildoer might be responsible for giving the bounty hunter a ring of the Green Death. Yet Sullivan's script not only drops the subject of Lobo's employer, even Superman seems utterly uninterested in the matter.

Sullivan does considerably better by giving this version of Superman his first meeting with a future fellow Justice Leaguer, J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter. J'onn not only helps out against Lobo, he uses his formidable mental powers to give the Man of Steel some perspective on his Kryptonian backstory. The script doesn't enlarge on how the Last Martian came to live on Earth, despite the fact that he's aware of Earthlings' propensity for xenophobia. He uses his shape-changing powers to keep a low profile, and he suggests that Superman may want to do the same thing. The exchanges of the nascent superheroes on the dubious nature of defending mankind is easily the best psychological aspect of TOMORROW, though I also appreciated that Lois doesn't immediately become lovestruck the first time she sets eyes on the Hunk of Tomorrow. (Since the entire story is a justification of Clark's career, perhaps his destiny is the "tomorrow" referenced, since the phrase isn't used in the script.)

The real Big Bad of the story is not either Lobo or Luthor but The Parasite. This character is not based upon the first incarnation that appeared in the Silver Age, but a latter-day Bronze Age iteration that first appeared in the FIRESTORM comic. Whatever the provenance of the second Parasite of the comics, this one at least shares that character's name, Rudy Jones (so that TOMORROW seems to be "jonesing" on characters named Jones). Rudy gets exposed to toxic chemicals as a result of the fight between Superman and Lobo, and he quickly mutates into a freakish being who can suck energies and memories out of anyone, normal or "super." This ALIEN-style Parasite thus becomes the dominant threat that results in an uneasy alliance between Superman, J'onn, Lobo and Luthor.

Though the Parasite arc is ably done, he too doesn't really seem to fit in a story devoted to Superman's initial adventures. So the Manhunter from Mars is the only "added" character who really works in such a context, at a period when Superman hasn't even met Batman (though Ma Kent mentions that she got the idea of giving her heroic son a cape in imitation of the Gotham Knight's ensemble). Still, compared to many of the lame DC DTVs I've reviewed, it's refreshing to find one that's at least a little better than average.

PIXELS (2015)

 

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

PIXELS is just another "underdog comedy," in which social outcasts find that they, and only they, can preserve the world against destruction. I'm not sure of the trope's provenance in cinema but I saw similar ideas propounded in dozens of Stan Lee fantasy-tales of the sixties, and I'm sure there must have been several precursors in prose fiction.

As middle-school kids, Sam, Will and Ludlow are nerds obsessed with video games. Sam gets a rare moment in the sun, competing in a major videogame contest, but he loses to an upstart named Eddie "The Fireblaster." Inexplicably videocassette footage of the competition is loaded into a time capsule and sent into space as a representation of human culture to any aliens who might open the capsule. I think comic books would have been better, but that's me.

As adults, Ludlow has become a conspiracy nut and Sam (Adam Sandler) is an electronics installer. Will (Kevin James) is rather more prosperous, having become President of the U.S., but at heart he's still a nerd, hanging out with Sam so they can discuss important topic like their favorite hot celebrity. Sam later gets further humiliation when he encounters a hot chick named Violet (MIchelle Monaghan), and she puts him down for his low-paying occupation. But Sam starts to get payback when he's summoned to the White House-- where Violet also works, as a military aide-- and asked to consult in his capacity as a videogame expert.

It turns out that some metamorphic aliens did encounter the space capsule, but because of all the war-games inside, they thought Earth was challenging them to combat. They allow the challengers to pick the "weapons," and thus they start attacking in such forms as the invading ships of Galaga, a giant Pac-Man, and the almost inevitable Donkey Kong. The three super-nerds are joined by Sam's old rival Eddie (Peter Dinklage) and together they must mount a defense against the quixotic aliens.

The director and writers keep things as superficial as possible, though there is an odd line, by an alien in the form of "Q-bert," to the effect that his people were once a grim race without any happiness. (I suppose another probable model for PIXELS might be the Classic Trek episode A PIECE OF THE ACTION.) The plot, and Sam's romantic arc with Violet, follows very predictable courses, but I graded the mythicity as fair just because the film does get kind of "meta" about including all these videogame references. There's no attention to the dynamics behind each fantasy, though, in marked contrast to the superior WRECK-IT RALPH. 

In terms of crossovers, there are none here, since Q'bert and Pac-Man and the rest are all fake versions of the game-characters, also in marked contrast to WRECK-IT RALPH.

ELECTRA WOMAN AND DYNA GIRL (2016)

 

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

The second comedic incarnation of the nominally serious ELECTRA WOMAN AND DYNA GIRL would be a good way for the franchise to come to an end. This ELECTRA started out as a series of web-episodes starring two Youtube celebs, a series later seamlessly edited into a feature of eighty minutes for DVD release. It's far from being either the best or worst superhero spoof, but even being in the middle puts this one ahead of the pack.

Though I've no idea if the celeb-performers (Grace Helbeg and Hannah Hart as EW and DG respectively) or their uncredited writer(s) saw the unsold 2001 pilot via bootleg, there are are some interesting parallels, apart from the basic idea of playing the two lady heroes for yucks. First, in contrast to the 1976 show, EW and DG exist in a world where other super-crusaders are more prominent (though the pilot had silly versions of famous comics-heroes, while 2016 makes up its own roster). Second, though the 1976 version places the older Electra Woman in a senior position to the younger Dyna Girl, in both 2001 and 2016 Electra Woman is something of a goof-up and Dyna Girl has to keep an eye on her.

There's still little detail on how EW and DG became superheroines in the first place, but there's some odd background to their world this time. In some vague "Shadow War," the heroes either slew or exiled all the super-villains. This leaves the surviving heroes in the position of dogs fighting over scraps, the scraps being petty crooks. EW and DG, who don't have actual powers but only a few erratically-functioning science-gimmicks, occupy the lowest level of the dogpile.

But when the girls stop a crime and get new media attention, they get invited to L.A. by a big ad agency and turned into corporate shills, like most of the other costumed cut-ups. Particularly obnoxious is the super-powered "Captain Vaunt," though a lot of the other briefly seen heroes aren't any more impressive than EW and DG. The biggest threat to their continued existence is that EW begins to flake out and let DG be treated like a kid sidekick, so that the two quarrel and endanger their partnership. (One odd thing is that the ad agency begins to have the girls dress more conservatively than they had on their own-- which may be in line with what the performers wanted, given one joke about "unforgiving spandex.")

Then a real super-menace descends to Earth, an entity called "the Empress of Evil" (named for a villain from the '76 series). No one's seen her before, so she's evidently not one of the exiled evildoers. Yet she has power enough to blow away Captain Vaunt, thus cowing most of the super-doers-- except for one courageous pair. (Guess who.)

Unlike the '76 champions, who depended on electronic gadgets, this EW and DG can actually fight hand-to-hand, whereas the funny females from the pilot could barely do so. Fight choreography, costumes and even the very minor FX are much better than I would have expected for a web-series, though the producers may've saved by avoiding the expense of SAG actors-- so, no familiar faces here. Some jokes land and some don't. But I will say that the gross manner in which the good girls destroy the bad one is one I've never seen before, and may be the most "electra-fying" part of the film.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: APOCALYPSE WAR (2020)

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

In practice, FINAL CRISIS merely proves the rule about mega-crossovers: with great numbers of powerhouses come diminishing returns. I'm not one of those fans who insists that the "story" is no good unless it's heavily plotted. By its nature, the mega-crossover has the structure of a vaudeville show, where each performer comes out and does his/her thing before being quickly followed by someone else.-- FINALLY, CRISIS.

The title is a misnomer in one sense: WAR is not a story solely about the subcategory of "weirdie Justice Leaguers" like 2017's JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK. Several of the "JLD" members-- John Constantine, Zatanna, The Demon, and Swamp Thing-- have key roles in WAR's plot. But they're no more important than regular League characters like Superman and Batman, Teen Titans like Raven and the "Damian Wayne" version of Robin, and such Suicide Squad luminaries as Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and King Shark. In other words, this is an "event" story like at least two of the comics-sources on which it's based, the aforementioned FINAL CRISIS and 2015's DARKSEID WAR. But because this WAR is a 90-minute DTV film, its "mega-crossover" has to have all of its "vaudeville performers" do their turns pretty rapidly.

The movie is also the sixteenth and last film to be issues under the umbrella of "DC Animated Movie Universe," which in the last few years has been superseded by the "Tomorrowverse" line. In this sense, it would be appropriate to use the term "dark," since WAR is the "twilight of the franchise." It's also appropriate in that the DTV's tone is far darker than any of its influences, for the story, unlike its comics-influences, is structured like a war movie. 

The main body of the film takes place after the Justice League has tried and failed to prevent an incursion by Apokolips-lord Darkseid. Both Cyborg and the (Barry Allen) Flash have disappeared and are thought dead, though they're later revealed to have been forced into ugly forms of servitude on Apokolips. Other heroes have been turned into slave-warriors, like Wonder Woman and Starfire. Superman has lost much of his power after Darkseid's tech-masters created a species of soldier with Kryptonian DNA, and Batman has been turned into one of Darkseid's coordinators, with Lex Luthor as his flunky. Zatanna, lover to John Constantine, has died and Constantine is thought to have fled the fight in cowardice (though this isn't the whole truth). And some problems simply continue from earlier continuity, as with the Teen Titan Raven, who constantly struggles not to release her demon-father Trigon from his prison inside her body.

All of this "disaster opera" (my term) sounds a lot like not only the standard tumults seen in comics crossovers but also like two or three of the DCAMU productions, such as the odious JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE FLASHPOINT PARADOX. But happily, the two directors and two credited writers-- whose resumes all include an ample supply of both hits and misses-- rose to the occasion. The script for WAR allows for far more humanity and humor than I've ever seen in any other DCAMU effort. Possibly the tight run-time and the big cast worked to the writers' advantage, so that things like the romantic arc between Raven and Damian are kept short and to the point. That said, the script manages to work in one reference to an earlier DCAMU film, wherein brainwashed-Batman verbally castigates his son by talking about the events of BATMAN: BAD BLOOD. However, I should mention that many of the disasters on display here are somewhat mitigated by an ending which suggests that this "Disastrous Cosmos" may get a do-over. 

As for humor, I will mention only (1) a ring-match between combatants Lois Lane and Harley Quinn, and (2) a shouting match between Brit Constantine and Aussie Captain Boomerang that ends with them both using the "w word" for one another.

If I had to make a criticism, I could have done without Trigon, a boring villain, who naturally wins free and possesses one of the heroes. But even he has a pretty good fight with fellow mega-villain Darkseid. Some of the outstanding voice-acting include Matt Ryan as Constantine, Rebecca Romijn as Lois Lane, and Hynden Walsh as Harley Quinn. I only wish the majority of the JUSTICE LEAGUE animated films had been half this good.

CIRCLE OF IRON (1978)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*


Just to get the phenomenality question out of the way: most of what transpires in CIRCLE OF IRON falls into the realm of the uncanny, but given the presence of a tribe of apparently real "monkey-men," this boosts the film into the realm of the marvelous.

I don't know how far the revised 1978 CIRCLE script is from the version scripted in part by Bruce Lee circa 1970. However, Lee knew on what side his spring-roll was buttered, and throughout his career he was known for tossing out psuedo-Oriental bits of wisdom. In the early days these pearls were presumably provided by TV-writers raised on Charlie Chan, but I suspect that over time Lee worked such aphorisms into his verbal routine as a means of selling himself in Hollywood. Even classic action-films like ENTER THE DRAGON and RETURN OF THE DRAGON are littered with all manner of alleged Asian profundities.

CIRCLE stars a character named Cord, who would have been played by Lee himself had the actor not passed away in 1973. The hero is a thoroughly arrogant young fellow who embarks upon a journey to find a great kung-fu priest named Zetan, in order to challenge him for the ownership of a great Book of Wisdom. During his search for Zetan, Cord continually encounters enigmatic presences, all of whom fill his head with confusing advice, apparently with the aim of blowing his mind Zen-style. David Carradine plays four of these characters, and he's the only saving grace of the film, as he obviously reveled in the opportunity to play so many distinct parts in the same film. True, his blind flute-player has strong overtones of Carradine's classic hero Kwai Chang Caine from the KUNG FU series. Other renowned actors, such as Chris Lee and Roddy MacDowall, have small roles in CIRCLE, but for the most part the emphasis is on Cord interacting with the Carradine characters.


The best I can say for main actor Jeff Cooper is that he tries to undertake his role with conviction, though his fighting-scenes are underwhelming and his big-haired, surfer-dude appearance makes his earnest character entirely risible. Of course, the endless flow of phony-baloney aphorisms would have made Bruce Lee himself sound stupid, and the film achieves a certain "so bad it's good" form of reverse-entertainment.

I don't know how well-read Bruce Lee was in either Zen or general Asian mythology, but it does seem that he adapts, very freely, various Asian tropes. Particularly odd is a sequence in which Cord encounters "the Man of Oil" (Eli Wallach), an ascetic fellow sitting out in some desert in a pot full of oil, slowly allowing the oil to bake away his legs and genitalia. This sounds like it could've been borrowed from Hindu stories describing how sadhus could reach enlightenment by mortifying the flesh, but as presented, the scene only succeeds in mortifying the viewer's sense of credulity. Cord's climactic meeting with Zetan (Lee) suggests another Hindu myth, that of the Chakravartin who seeks to hoodwink another victim to take over his earthly burden. The fact that someone involved in the scripting is the only reason I give CIRCLE a fair mythicity-rating.

G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON (1943)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*




In earlier years I'd seen G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON in a re-edited TV version. Now that I've seen the entire film, I'd say that it ranks with the best of the sound serials. True, it doesn't have a really memorable starring hero, like THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, or starring villain, like the MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN. But like most of the serials directed or co-directed by William Witney, G-MEN delivers a great variety of well-mounted action scenarios, some of which are pleasingly shot on location rather than on studio sets.

During the height of WWII, G-Man Rex Bennett (Rod Cameron) is assigned to seek out agents of the infamous Black Dragon espionage society. This spy-ring is bent on acts of sabotage, directed by its mastermind Haruchi (Nino Pepitone), who's smuggled into the U.S. inside a mummy case. Aiding Bennett throughout the serial is a resourceful female agent, Vivian (Constance Worth, memorably seen wielding a machine-gun against some thugs) and a Asian fellow named Chang Sing-- though the latter character doesn't do very much after the early chapters. He may have been introduced largely to remind American audiences of the period that not all Asians were identical with the nation's Japanese enemies-- though the opening chapter of the serial does itself no favors in modern eyes by boasting the chapter-title "The Yellow Peril."

That said, in contrast to some of the more notorious wartime films-- notably the first BATMAN serial, which came out the same year-- there's no racial derogation of the Japanese, though Haruchi is not played by an Asian (unlike the aforementioned Chinese agent) and his main servants are Caucasians. If anything, the Black Dragons seem a pretty formidable bunch, and in one episode the husky Bennett has a lengthy struggle with a smaller enemy agent, who equalizes the size differential with judo moves.

As for the gimmicks, Haruchi avails himself of three. A Black Dragon uses a pen full of knockout gas to stun a guard, and one of his agents employs a trained raven whose talons have been poisoned to get rid of yet another guardsman. I have to mention one of the serial's death-traps not because it's uncanny, but because it's a hearkening back to the silent serial era: Haruchi's men tie Vivian to a sawmill-like contraption and threaten to split her differences. However, Haruchi also puts together his own more ingenious trap in one of his hideouts-- an "infernal machine" set with a timer so that at a certain point it will shoot forth a metal spear to impale a bound victim-- Vivian again, seen in the above still waiting for her fate.

Cameron is quite good as the practical-minded, square-jawed hero, and Worth provides a fine backup. Pipitone's villainous spy, however, is more than a little monotonous, and the actor's performance gives no evidence that he sought to emulate the sound of real Japanese speaking English.

HONOR ROLL #234

 CONSTANCE WORTH shows enemy agents what she's worth.

JEFF COOPER is happy to go in circles, as long as they're iron.

Lots of heroes and villains opposed Darkseid, but only one major monster, THE DEMON.

GRACE HELBEG and HANNAH HART charge things up.

President KEVIN JAMES learns that defending the country is really just a game.

For the first time, Superman gets a debut adventure which includes that spawn of eighties excess, LOBO.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023)

 

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

Unlike the majority of moviegoers, I found INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE rather predictable, so I didn't bother to see the sequel in the theater. Ironically, aside from one giant demerit, ACROSS is a much more entertaining film than INTO. I notice that though there's one writer who worked on both scripts, there were two new scripters involved with ACROSS-- which has much funnier dialogue, for one thing. (An early scene, in which Spider-Gwen fights a variant Vulture, includes some humorous stuff about the subjectivity of art that may be intended to comment on the movie's own status.) There was still far too much of Miles' family, but at least even they had a few laugh-lines.

Though Miles Morales gets the lion's share of attention once again, there's more focus on his interaction with Spider-Gwen, while most of the other Spider-variants play subordinate roles, including the most virtue-signally one, "Jessica Drew as Black Pregnant Spider-Woman." The confusion of continuities from INTO continues here, but with a greater sense of consequence. Spider-Gwen, Miles learns, has been inducted into a dimension-spanning "Spider Society" oriented on preventing temporary abnormalities. Trouble is, to ride herd on the right running of time, they must sometimes let innocents die. 

The whole "preservation of time" trope is nothing new, and ACROSS' script doesn't bring that much conviction to the theme. But the action is much better executed this time, once more supporting the dictum that animated superheroes will always be able to do things that their live-action "variants" cannot. And nothing proves this better than the villain. Whereas INTO was boring in its choice of providing variations of the most famous Spider-foes, ACROSS took a fairly minor rogue, The Spot (Jonathan Schwartzmann) and made him a visual delight.

Those who have seen the film will easily guess the "big demerit" I mentioned: it's a Part One without having advertised as much. I tend to doubt that there's enough of a story here to justify a Part Two, and I think it likely that the filmmakers just got intoxicated with all the neat things they could do with crazy-ass Spider-continuities. Or maybe they realized that in the last couple of years, the only superhero franchises that have remained strong have been those of Batman and Spider-Man-- and they want to reap what rewards they can from the Spider-franchise, lest even that one go the way of all celluloid.

SON OF SINBAD (1955)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*

FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*

CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological, cosmological*


One of the original Sinbad's feats was to tie himself to the leg of a giant Roc, which creature was called a "Simurgh" in some versions. On that basis I choose to dub this sort of Hollywood amalgam of Arabic motifs-- Sinbad, Omar Khayyam, the 40 Thieves, and the legendary "Greek fire"-- a "simurghasboard."

Bad puns aside, the most interesting thing about SON OF SINBAD is that it's an example of the uncanny motif "exotic lands and customs" set within a faux-historical period. This stands opposed to my more usual application of the term to either narratives set in prehistoric periods (CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR) or in primitive backwaters within the modern world (just about every Tarzan film).

In the case of SON OF SINBAD, it's not simply that the scripters of the film were ignorant of the temporal difficulties of having the son of Sinbad (the very American Dale Robertson) be best friends with Omar Khayyam (Vincent Price). This conflation is not a simple result of carelessness; rather, SON represents a deliberate lumping-together of Arabic story-motifs, in much the same fashion that makers of prehistory pictures would lump together cavemen and dinosaurs.

SON is usually listed in concordances because a main element of the plot-- which doesn't really bear analysis in itself-- involves the son of Sinbad encountering a weapon unknown to his period or that of Omar Khayyam-- the incendiary explosive "Greek fire." But this is not a marvelous phenomenon, given that it's merely an exotic form of gunpowder. It is an uncanny phenomenon because it appears out of its proper time-frame. At the climax, Sinbad's allies coat arrows with Greek fire and use them to blow up their enemies in much the same way Rambo blasts his foes with dynamite-shafts. It's the same physical phenomenon, but only the former manifestation carries the aspect I've termed "strangeness."

For good measure, the proto-scientist who discovers Greek fire's secret encodes the process for its manufacture within the brain of his daughter, by using a special hypnotic lamp-- hence adding the uncanny phenomenon of "enthralling hypnotism" to the mix.

"Weird families and societies," in turn, is ably represented by an all-female band of warriors, the daughters of the original Forty Thieves, who become Sinbad's allies for the big climax. I'd say that the concept of a band of Arabic Amazons-- all played by glamorous Caucasian girls, of course-- being able to operate in any period of the Islamic Middle East is a greater stretch than the rediscovery of Greek fire. In keeping with SON's avoidance of marvelous devices, the famous cave of the Forty Thieves uses purely mechanical means to "open sesame."

Overall, this is an entertaining bit of Hollywood gibberish, with lots of pretty girls and Robertson ably swashing buckles, at least for this sort of lower-tier product. Vincent Price gets the best lines, intoning pastiches of Omar Khayyam in his usual orotund fashion.

FIREFIST OF INCREDIBLE DRAGON (1982)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

I confess that this sterling review of the featured 1982 South Korean "kung-fu-and-ghosts" flick does a better job of summarizing FIREFIST than I ever could. I flatter myself that I'm usually pretty good at forging my way through nonsense-narratives and gleaning whatever diamonds I can find in the rubbish-- for example, as with my 2023 review of the far superior WOLF DEVIL WOMAN.

FIREFIST OF INCREDIBLE DRAGON-- whose title refers to precisely nothing in the film-- is however not crazy by virtue of its creators' undisciplined energies, but by virtue of laziness. There's very little story in FIREFIST, so what the creators did was just inject lots of sleaze, violence and weird supernatural effects as possible to pad out the running time. 

The A-story is that of Master Liao (Chen Pao-liang). He's some sort of bigwig in his unnamed city, with such enormous wealth and power that he can keep hot and cold running sex-slaves and no one seems to notice. At the start of the film he's already had his minions bury four or five of his latest victims beneath the mountain snows. However, a floating heart emerges from one of the bodies and kills several minions-- and this is the beginning of Liao's many troubles.

The B-story, then, is comprised of two young heroes out to nail Liao for his crimes. Of the two, the female Kun-Kun (Poong Im) is trying to find her twin sister, who may or may not be one of the murdered women. Male hero Ten-Chi (Jae-Young Lee) doesn't really seem to have a motive for his beneficence. I imagine the English cut I saw could have left a lot of motive on the cutting-room floor. But it's just as likely that the filmmakers didn't bother to include any, particularly knowing that one of the producers was Tomas Tang, and one of the other technicians was writer-director Godfrey Ho.These two Hong Kong luminaries have rarely shown any interest in continuity, so yeah, not much reason to blame the dubbing staff.

Amidst all the time-wasting (and boring) sleaze and violence, I found two scenes that justified FIREFIST slightly. In one, the evil Liao dreams that five of his bloody-robed victims spring out of the snow and assail him. The other scene comes at the climax, when Ten-Chi and Kun-Kun have a decent, fairly bloody battle with Master Liao. But supernatural revenge overtakes Liao before the battle's done, and so the heroes are left to pick up the pieces-- assuming their viewers can figure out where all the pieces go.

LUPIN III: THE ELUSIVENESS OF THE FOG (2007)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

One good thing about ELUSIVENESS OF THE FOG is that this TV special proves that LUPIN III just doesn't belong in pure science-fiction situations.

All four members of the Lupin Gang are engrossed in another heist when once more Zenigata shows up with Interpol forces. Fujiko goes off in one direction while the three males take off in another, with Zenigata in hot pursuit. Then a new player, name of Kyousuke Mamoh, opens a time portal that sends Lupin, Goemon and Jigen back to medieval Japan, with Zenigata accidentally pulled along for the ride.

Zenigata ends up having little to do with the story, spending most of his time in a feudal-era lockup. The three super-thieves are greatly confused, not least because they get dropped into a city under siege by a rival city. The respective rulers, Queen Iseka and Prince Ethica, are really decent types, but Iseka's land possesses a magical flame-tower that gives her people heat in winter, and Ethica's people want that power. 

Fortunately Mamoh, a time traveler from a far future era, provides the gentleman crooks with exposition, telling that he's doomed them to perish in an era not their own. His motive is perhaps overly comical: in his own time Mamoh lost his best girlfriend to a descendant of Lupin, so the time-traveler quixotically decided to take vengeance on 21st-century Lupin. 

Or is that the only reason? Mamoh ought to just boogie back to his future world, but he keeps monitoring the Lupin Gang for reasons that the script doesn't explain adequately. Thanks to making some feudal-era allies-- Takaya, a young kid seeking revenge, and Ofumi, a dead ringer/ancestress of Fujiko-- the crooks learn of a prophecy about a treasure that might have the power to return them to their own time. So the quest for this treasure tasks the cleverness of Lupin, the gun-skills of Jigen and the uncanny sword-skill of Goemon. And there's some suggestion that Mamoh wants the treasure too, though it's not clear if he knew about the prophecy when he sent his foes back to this particular time.

The revelations about the treasure involve some sizable time-paradoxes, which depend in part on Mamoh continuing to hang around. So the fittingly named FOG devolves into a morass of meandering coincidences, all of which will of course lead the crooks and their cop-enemy back to the 21st century in the end. The stunts and the comic bits are ordinary at best, though I liked Ofumi, who's more kick-ass than Fujiko usually is (albeit not as amply endowed). So this FOG would be easy to dispel from one's list of good Lupin movies.

THE ONE (2001)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

A lot of modern film-critics hate the concept of multiverses as popularized by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But seven years before IRON MAN, James Wong's THE ONE got there first-- sort of. Wong and writing-partner Glen Morgan, who'd done mostly TV episode work in the nineties, don't really use the concept of a multiverse as anything but a near-infinite hunting-ground for their villain Yulaw (Jet Li)-- and a way of motivating the evildoer's struggle against the hero (also Li).

The strucure of THE ONE is suspiciously similar to the franchise HIGHLANDER, which arguably became more noteworthy as a TV show than as a movie series. The immortals of that franchise went around killing one another in order to reap the power of those slain. In Yulaw's case, he has some metaphysical connection with every other doppelganger of himself in the multiverse, and when he jaunts to other dimensions and kills a version of himself there, his kung fu becomes more powerful. Dimension-protecting agents Rodecker and Funsch (Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham) finally track down Yulaw after he's killed 123 other self-reflections, and now there's only one left, Gabe Law of Los Angeles. Predictably, Yulaw gets free and invades the Earth-dimension.

There's a lot of running around and shooting until the film gets around between the Battle of the Two Lis, and Wong's direction is pedestrian, like the script. Wikipedia notes that the original star was projected to be Dwayne Johnson, and the substitution of Li in the two roles proves at least a moderate improvement. Because Li unlike Johnson is a martial performer, this obliged the script to distinguish the two foes on the basis of martial style, with Yulaw using aggressive, thrusting moves while Gabe uses more organic, cyclical stratagems. The film's ending stresses that Yulaw ends up in a hell of eternal battle while Gabe gets a new chance at love.

The film's most amusing moments are Jason Statham's scenes. Throughout the movie he painfully affects a neutral accent in place of his usual distinctive British lilt. He gets absolutely no chance to show off his own fighting skills in THE ONE, and even gets kicked around by Yulaw. This proves ironic since the two performers are situated as equal martial masters in the 2007 Statham-Li vehicle WAR. One year later, Statham broke out as a headliner in the first entry in the TRANSPORTER series, and I suspect THE ONE is one role he'd like to forget.

BAFFLED! (1972)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

PARTIAL SPOILERS



Aside from the 1952 boxing movie KID MONK BARONI, the failed TV-pilot BAFFLED would seem to be one of the few times Leonard Nimoy was the main selling-point of a film or television project. To be sure, his character of Tom Kovack-- a race-car driver who begins having psychic visions-- forms an ensemble of two with his fellow psychic investigator Michele (Susan Hampshire), but I tend to doubt that Ms. Hampshire had much "name-above-the-title" standing in 1972.

Like most Good Samaritans in TV-land, when Michele informs that someone's life will be in danger if Kovack doesn't investigate his visions, Kovack drops everything in his schedule and flies to England with Michele. In order to gain access to a family manor, Kovack poses as a distant relative to the family, and Michele gets in on some other pretext. The English side of the family also plays to a real American relation, Andrea (Vera Miles) and her middle-school aged daughter Jennifer. They hope to be reunited with Jennifer's estranged father after being separated from him for over ten years. At the same time, Jennifer seems to be manifesting her own psychic powers, and she has a strange, midnight conference with her father, in which he mouths the suggestive lines, ""In some ways you'll have to give up being a child... you'll have to keep a number of secrets from your mother..." At the same time, the man gives Jennifer an odd amulet, which causes her to act more "grown-up," so much so that Michele passes a remark about Jennifer having gone from thirteen to fifteen in the space of a day.

The mystery aspects of the story are typical TV-fare, amounting to a lot of incidents that don't necessarily add up in the final analysis. The amulet-business is one of the least well-explained. The man who gave it to her-- not actually her father, but a masquerading conspirator-- is supposed to be some sort of mystical expert, and yet his main concern in the story is to bilk Andrea out of the family inheritance. The two plots don't cleave together in the least. As if to make up for the deficiency of the mystery angle, the pilot-film does conclude with a pretty good fight between Kovack and his opponent, which suggests that, had the show been bought, it might have been more action-oriented than most TV-shows about occult detectives.

For modern viewers, most of the interest will be gauging whether or not "Spock" could have carried this somewhat bland teleseries. But those viewers will be forever "in search of" the answer to that question.

HONOR ROLL #233

When Leonard Nimoy tried to switch from "ear power" to "sixth sense power," SUSAN HAMPSHIRE came along for the ride.

JET LI's cry: "There can be only The One!"

KYOSUKE MAMOH wanted to destroy Lupin, but he just couldn't find the time.

POONG IM goes down, down, down into a burning fist of fire.

I guess Sinbad must have sailed all the way to the Old West to spawn a son like DALE ROBERTSON.

The best thing about the second Spider-Verse movie was that it was Johnny-on-THE-SPOT.

ZORRO (1975)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

The Walt Disney ZORRO teleseries sparked a fair number of copycat Zorro-productions in Europe throughout the decade of the 1960s and for the first half of the seventies. Of those I've seen, the 1975 ZORRO is the best, though oddly it diverges not only from Disney but from the original 1919 Johnston McCulley text.

In the first Zorro story, Diego is a Spanish noble whose father has a governmental position in Nueva Aragon, a colony in Spanish California in the early 1800s. Having heard from his father of the rampant corruption in the region by the military, Diego goes to the States to help-- but with an advance plan to pose as a fop while working against the military in a colorful disguise. Diego's motives, when stated at all, involve "noblesse oblige," the obligation of the ruling class to dispense justice to their subjects. In the course of stamping out evil, Diego meets a comely young lass, Lolita Pulido, who has contempt for Diego's mincing persona but falls in love with his swashbuckling identity. 

Unlike the book, ZORRO starts at the beginning, but gives Diego a rather proletarian makeover not unlike the one seen in THE MASK OF ZORRO. Diego (Alain Delon), who knows swordsmanship but whose familial connections are not mentioned, is first seen visiting in Spain, paying a visit to his close friend Miguel de la Serna. In common to Diego, whose clothes are those of a working man, Miguel is richly dressed, and has a fine house, a wife and a young son. Miguel announces that he plans to succeed his late father as governor of Nueva Aragon, after the latter perished of malaria. Worldly-wise Diego informs Miguel that there's no malaria in Spanish California, and cautions Miguel to be wary. However, that very night assassins strike, taking Miguel's life before Diego can kill them. 

Thus, whatever Diego's life was before, he devotes his existence to vengeance for his idealistic friend. He goes to California, posing as Miguel, and assumes the role of governor, though he plays the part with a foppish air. The head of the corrupt military, Colonel Huerta (Stanley Baker), is disappointed that his assassins failed and can find no way to prevent the newcomer from taking charge. 

Diego doesn't have the idea of a double identity in mind until a young boy tells him about some local legend of a crusading bandit whose name is Spanish for "fox." In the mansion of the late governor (i.e., Miguel's father), Diego meets Joaquin, a deaf-mute who served the governor, and the governor's widow, who never encountered Miguel earlier and has zero interest in her supposed nephew. (The aunt plays a minor comic role but is not important to the story.) Diego even gets help from the late governor's dog, Assassin by name, who shows Diego and pseudo-Bernardo the entrance to a secret chamber. Possibly this discovery helps the two decide to become allies in the Zorro project, though the movie never shows this resolution.

Though Diego spends a little time masquerading as a common laborer to suss things out, soon he dons cape and mask and begins his career of battling the tyrannical soldiers. He also meets his romantic interest, Hortensia Pulido (Ottavio Piccolo). She is also becomes a little more proletarian than her book-model, for evil Huerta caused Hortensia's family to be dispossessed of their riches. Huerta also puts the moves on Hortensia, but Zorro's on hand to thwart him there as well. Oh, and in the only real shout-out to the Disney series, one of Huerta's men is heavyset Sergeant Garcia (comedian Moustache), whom Zorro also humiliates.

Huerta sets a trap for the Fox. using Hortesia as bait, but Zorro easily rescues the lissome lady and eludes capture. However, in a subsequent chase, Zorro appears to perish. Huerta celebrates by setting up a wedding for himself and Hortensia. But Zorro re-appears, sparking the downtrodden people to rebel and overcome the soldiers. (One noblewoman even gets into the act, judo chopping a soldier into unconsciousness.) Then there follows a protracted swordfight between Zorro and Huerta, which by its length may have been seeking to equal the run-time of the eight-minute duel in the 1952 SCARAMOUCHE. (To be sure, Huerta loses his sword for a bit and makes up by using both a spear and an axe in its stead, though the antagonists finish up with the traditional rapiers.) I think ZORRO's battle is two minutes longer, but I suppose it depends what scene you start with.

Delon throws a lot of charisma into the heroic role and has a little fun with the fop persona, though the script doesn't do much with that aspect. Baker, in his last role, makes a good villain, and the stuntwork is generally good. Though Zorro rides a horse, there's no nod toward giving the steed a name, as in the Disney show. In fact, the dog Assassin gets more screen time. The movie's only fault is a really corny theme song, which unfortunately is played both at the beginning and end of the film. From a quick Wiki-check it looks like this and a couple of other flicks were the last European Zorros of the decade-- and a few years later, the big franchises to imitate became STAR WARS and MAD MAX, effectively ending Europe's original love affair with the foxy bandit.

THE THRONE OF FIRE (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

Aside from the naturalistic thriller LAST HOUSE ON THE BEACH, the only directorial works I've seen from Franco Prosperi have been the two sword-and-sorcery movies with which he apparently ended his movie career. The first of the two, THE INVINCIBLE BARBARIAN, shared the same star as THRONE OF FIRE, Italian actor Pierro Torrisi, billed as "Peter McCoy." Unfortunately, BARBARIAN suffered from a mostly incoherent script. I don't know anything else produced by the two credited writers of THRONE. But THRONE, whatever its flaws, at least makes some degree of sense.

Like a lot of sword-and-sorcery movies, THRONE takes place in a polyglot world, one mingling pagan and Christian references, and both are used to justify a larger-than-life pattern of "dueling destinies." The first destiny begin when a widow named Azira (Beni Cardoso, confusingly billed as "Benny") has a supernatural visitor. She's later said to be a witch, and though there's no evidence of this, maybe that's why her visitor feels free to impose himself on her, telling her that they're going to spawn a son who will rule the world. This sounds like it's right from the ROSEMARY'S BABY playbook, but strangely, the fellow making it with Azira is not Satan, but Satan's messenger Belial (Harrison Muller). I'm not sure why the writers chose to settle for a functionary to spawn a mortal king of evil. But in any case Azira and Belial conceive a child named Morak, who in his adulthood will also be played by Harrison Muller.

However, a good magician named Antar figures out the lay of the mystic land, and he brings into being-- with very little details presented-- a heroic avatar of good, Seigfried (McCoy). The audience doesn't see the upbringing of either Morak or Seigfried, which may be all to the good, given that how badly those tropes worked out in BARBARIAN. 

So we fast-forward to adulthood for hero and villain. Morak gathers an army and assails the castle of the rightful king, killing everyone except the king's nubile daughter Valkari (Sabrina Siani). Morak wants to force Valkari into marriage to secure his reign, but there's an additional hurdle involved. To master the realm, Morak must not only marry into the rightful bloodline. In order to gain total sovereignty, the usurper must also sit upon the Throne of Fire, a magical item of furniture sent to Earth by the high god Odin. Moreover, the Throne--which will literally burn up anyone who sits upon it without being entitled to do so-- can only bestow sovereignty to the princess' usurper-husband on a special date: "the day of the night of the day"-- which cryptic riddle Morak doesn't know how to interpret.

(Incidentally, in Nordic myth the hero Seigfried is the grandson of Odin, and his lover is a valkyrie-- and that Seigfried possesses two of the powers that this Seigfried will eventually receive.)

Complicated? Sure, but once the script puts across this setup, the rest of the film is largely decent if not exceptional action-fodder. Seigfried, knowing that Morak's plans hinge upon marrying Valkari, infiltrates Morak's castle and tries to abscond with the princess. However, Morak's guards overpower the hero and consign him to a "pit of madness" beneath the castle. (Maybe a subsection of the Hell occupied by Morak's never-seen-again daddy?) The doughty fighter manages to battle his way past a handful of low-budget menaces and finds his way into the castle's dungeon-- and to his surprise, he also finds his father Magician Antar in one of the cells. Seigfried believed Morak had killed Antar, but it seems Morak kept the wizard alive to interpret the cryptic prophecy. The swordsman wants to liberate his dad, but Antar insists that rescuing Valkari has to be their priority. Antar uses magic to endow his son with the twin powers of invisibility and invulnerability, though he will lose both powers if struck by fire.

Invisible Seigfried enters Valkari's boudoir and tries to talk her into leaving with him. Being no fool, she gives him a little static, but finally agrees to his plan. Unfortunately, for some reason Morak's listening in on their conversation, and in the process of convincing Valkari, Seigfriend reveals his vulnerability (also a minor feature of the original Seigfried tale). Hero and princess make some limited progress in their escape, but Morak shoots Seigfried with a flaming arrow, and that's the end of the champion's super-powers. 

A little later, while Seigfriend languishes in prison, Valkari manages to escape by using both guile and her considerable sword-skill. Morak releases Seigfried so that Morak's forces can follow the hero to the princess, and this ends Valkari's brief freedom. Back at the castle, Morak sentences Seigfried to be killed in an arena by a big bald fighter, but doesn't stay to watch, so of course Seigfried wins the bout and escapes again. Yet his efforts to prevent the marriage, amusingly enough, are aided by the marital priest taking his sweet time with the ceremony. Meanwhile, the prophecy's mystery is solved-- the assumption has to take place during the just commencing eclipse. But the marriage is averted and guess who ends up roasting his chestnuts on the Throne of Fire.

There's no great depth in the script's cherry-picked myth-tropes, but at least they don't undermine one another. McCoy and Siani are both good-looking heroic characters and they have some OK fight-scenes. My verdict on the movie: if one wants a decent if very basic sword-and-sorcery flick, THRONE is worth sitting through.

BATMAN: BAD BLOOD (2016)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

Though there was one more Bat-film that was issued under the "DCAMU" rubric, that last entry, BATMAN: HUSH, appeared three years after this DTV release. In contrast, SON OF BATMAN, BATMAN VS. ROBIN, and BAD BLOOD all came out in three subsequent years, and all focus in differing degrees with the period during which "Fourth Robin" Damian Wayne. son of the Crusader by Talia Al Ghul, became a sometimes unruly member of the Gotham Bat-family. Thus all three together become a rough "Damian Trilogy," even though they select assorted sequences and motifs from different comics-stories. Despite this shared focus, though, the three movies fail to express common themes and are occasionally wildly divergent in characterization. 

BLOOD derives several tropes from the interlinked Grant Morrison serials DEMON STAR and GOTHAM'S MOST WANTED, which focused less on Damian than on the long and complicated relationship between Batman and his sometime love Talia. The Talia character, appearing in the 1970s slightly before her more famous father Ra's Al Ghul, has for the past fifty years been portrayed as angel or as devil by various DC raconteurs, and in Morrison's case, he chose "devil, but with an explanation." Unfortunately, the three DTV Bat-films, perhaps because of over-focusing on Damian, don't come close to consistency, ranging from "angel" in SON, no appearance at all in VS., and then to "devil" in BLOOD. 

I gave VS. a high rating, a just-barely-fair rating to SON, and BLOOD falls in the middle. Since both SON and BLOOD were indebted to Morrison, I suspect that his take on the Bat-verse is just too far-out for DC's animation-scripters to assimilate, not least because the same writer who did a good job on VS. did a mediocre job on BLOOD. 

Though Talia is at least roughly as "devilish" as she is in the Morrison comics, DeMatteis dispenses with any explanation for her evil, except for a line where Damian claims she's all about "control." To be sure, her opposite number Batman isn't exactly an indulgent father either-- that, indeed, was the main theme of VS.-- and in fact for most of BLOOD he's under the brainwashing aegis of Talia, which undermines whatever point the script might've had about contrasting the two approaches to familial dynamics. The script musters a couple of weak lines about how Batman can bring diverse heroes together through their shared pain and trauma, but this idea remains stillborn.

Talia's master plan is strictly Superhero Villainy 101; using electronic brainwashing techniques (facilitated by The Mad Hatter) to manipulate key figures in government. Her deviltry is just a backdrop for tensions between Damian and Nightwing (who masquerades as Batman while the genuine article is Talia's prisoner) and for the animated debut of "the Kate Kane Batwoman" and Batwing. The latter was one of Morrison's creation for his Batman run of the 2010s, while Batwoman, DC's first starring lesbian heroine, had appeared in 2006. Both debuts are decently if not imaginately handled. The biggest indulgence of the BLOOD script is that De Matteis injects far too many unnecessary costumed crooks into the mix, particularly in the movie's first half-- villains who are, as Batwoman herself points out, "C-listers." One wonders why a magisterial master planner like Talia would have bothered with such mediocrities, when she has her own League of Assassins (redubbed "the League of Shadows" thanks to one of Chris Nolan's lesser sins).

Once one gets past the movie's first half, there's some decent interfamilial drama and some decent action, particularly hand-to-hand battles between Talia and Batwoman and between Nightwing and the brain-fogged Batman. But it's a bit of a slog to get there, although this time out, I confer top voice-acting honors on Sean Maher, whose Nightwing provides the glue holding together all the disparate pieces. Amusingly, three years after this uncertain paean to "Bat-family values"-- which at least bore some similarities to Morrison's theme-- BATMAN: HUSH ends on the image of Batman's trauma pushing members of his family away, rather than uniting them.

WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Although Enzo Castellari's WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND is just a cheapjack MAD MAX imitation, I've certainly seen much duller ripoffs, such as 1991's DUNE WARRIORS. At least there's some goofy inventiveness in the gimmicks used in the rival vehicles of this post-apoc world, even though a couple of online reviews correctly pegged the cars themselves as being like glorified "golf carts." In fact, I might have nudged the mythicity of WARRIORS up to "fair" if the scripters-- mainly Castellari and Tito Carpi (who seemed to do better with softcore sex romps)-- had delivered on the sociological conflict suggested in the opening.

Once again a nuclear catastrophe has reduced civilization to scattered enclaves of human habitation, and once again these pre-industrial settlements are preyed upon marauders who have a variety of tricked-out supercars to take the place of plain old riding-horses. This time the marauders are called "Templars," and in keeping with that name they have a quasi-religious mission: to annihilate all life. Their leader (George Eastman) calls himself "One," which results in a hilarious scene with his subordinates chanting, "One, One, One."

Some post-apoc flicks have a stranger-hero who comes from nowhere and intervenes to save the settled people for no particular reason. But this script's hero-- Scorpion, played by an Italian actor with the faux-English name "Timothy Brent"-- used to be a Templar, and it really bugs One that this guy rides around in his own funny-car, knocking off other Templars. Why? If there was a reason, Castellari left it on the cutting room floor. The only incident that comes close to furnishing an explanation takes place after One captures Scorpion. A visually confusing sequence makes it look like One may be committing rape on the hero. But in their performances neither Brent nor Eastman communicate anything like a quarrel about erotic fixation, such as viewers may find in the marginally better RED SONJA.

After Scorpion kills a small band of Templars, thus drawing down reprisals from One, he hangs out at some small enclave, where he's hero-worshiped by a little blonde kid who barely figures into the story. The hero also encounters Nadir (Fred Williamson, but not with his own voice). Nadir has even less of a raison d'etre than Scorpion, seemingly existing just to walk around with a souped-up longbow that fires explosive arrows. The two macho dudes seem to have a slightly acrimonious relationship, but again, there's nothing like backstory in the English language version. Oh, and Scorpion rescues a hot chick (Anna Kanakis) from some Templars, but she too has no function in the plot and could have been excised easily.

Williamson offers a little verve despite being dubbed, more so than stone-faced Brent. But the main attraction is watching countless stupid-looking cars tool around the desert, equipped with flame-throwers and buzzsaws and so on. The cars are often filmed in slow motion as if the director wanted everyone to contemplate their glories the way Shelley meditated on skylarks and mountains. I'm sure Castellari did so just to make sure he didn't have to shoot many retakes. But all of these artless cars do make WARRIORS stand out from a generally undistinguished pack.

FEARLESS FRANK (1967)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *irony*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*


FEARLESS FRANK is an undercooked mess with the intention of being a superhero satire.  It was the first starring film for actor Jon Voight and the second writer-director outing for Philip Kaufman, both of whom would fortunately go on to much better things.

When I saw the film on television in the 1970s, I'm sure I disliked the bare-bones look of the project. Today I find the minimalism of the project one of its few charms. However, any good will that the film builds up today is quickly dissipated by Kaufman's script. Strangely, though the same writer-director would collaborate on RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, here Kaufman labors rather tediously to convince his viewers that all the familiar tropes of superhero films are fundamentally stupid. There's nothing wrong with this in a satire, but FRANK's analysis of superhero melodrama has less wit and content to it than an episode of Jay Ward's DUDLEY DO-RIGHT cartoon.

Frank is a country boy who plans to seek out the big city and make his fortune, not unlike Voight's more celebrated character from 1969's MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Before Frank even makes it to the city, the city comes to him, in the form of a pulchritudinous woman named Plethora (Monique van Vooren, the titular villainess of 1953's TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL.)  She's running away from an obnoxious crime-lord known only as "the Boss," who is served by a Dick Tracy-esque contingent of weird henchmen with names like "the Rat," "the Cat," "Screwnose," and "Needles" (portrayed by famed naturalistic author Nelson Algren). The Boss' henchmen catch up with Plethora just as she appeals to Frank for help, and the hoods shoot Frank to death before he even knows what's going on.

Frank is brought back to life by a scientist known only as the Good Doctor (popular character actor Severn Darden). The Doctor also gives Frank superpowers-- flight, super-strength, and invulnerability-- and sends the naive Frank out to be a crimefighter. Initially Frank accepts this injunction with a sort of blase good humor; he doesn't even seem to remember getting killed.  Over and over Frank shows up as the Boss' goons commit crimes and trounces them easily.

The irate Boss retaliates. Faced with a superhero, he rings up a mad scientist named Claude, who promptly cooks up a robotic duplicate of Frank, usually called "False Frank." Claude cautions the crooks not to interact with False Frank, as it may impair his ability to be a super-killer.  Unbeknownst to the crooks, Plethora sneaks into the lab. Though she shows no further desire to escape the Boss-- in fact, she even helps him commit a crime or two-- she mistakes the robot for the young man who died for her. She doesn't precisely have sex with him, but she lavishes some affection on the automaton.

Meanwhile, back at the Good Doctor's lab, relations between Frank and the scientist deteriorate.  Frank gets tired of being sent out on superheroic errands all the time; further, the scientist's daughter Lois-- one guess what famous character she was named after-- takes a shine to Frank. One night Frank barges into Lois' room, and after a cutaway that reads "Wham! Pow!" in imitation of the BATMAN teleseries, the two have made love-- though oddly, Lois seems to be seducing Frank rather than the other way round.

This begins Frank's fall from grace. He wins a fight with the robot, which fails to drain away Frank's energy, possibly because Plethora sapped the automaton's killer instinct.  The robot escapes but then allows itself to be put in jail. Frank loses any of his beneficent characteristics-- perhaps the robot absorbs them?-- and slaughters a bar full of tipsy patrons. The Good Doctor passes away, and Frank ultimately takes a literal fall and is destroyed. Yet the robot assumes his heroic stature and prevents mad Claude from destroying the whole city.

Though FRANK was almost surely Kaufman's attempt to latch onto the popular satirical coattails of the BATMAN series, Kaufman doesn't show much wit in his deconstruction of superhero tropes. It's enough for him to point out, "this or that trope is silly" and nothing more. In contrast, the BATMAN show had a far more trenchant ability to play inventively with the very absurdities it mocked.

Only in two instances does Kaufman manage a little originality. First, his script essentially swaps the traditional roles of the "gang moll" and the "scientist's daughter," for the former generally functions as the "good girl" in redeeming False Frank, while the latter acts the part of the "bad girl," polluting Frank with a sexual consciousness. Second, although the robot's last-minute savior-act conforms broadly to the combative mode-- even if he has to usurp the main hero's role to do so-- the robot then gets in a boat with Plethora, Lois and the Good Doctor's assistant and sails away, having nothing more to do with superheroics. Kaufman gets in just one semi-good line about how the hero is "leaving us all to find our own endings," but it's the only time his satire comes close to a thematic statement; almost everything else strikes of laziness and unjustified conceit.

GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE (2024)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

When I reviewed GODZILLA VS. KONG, I remarked that I wouldn't have minded if the series ended there. To my surprise, EMPIRE is actually better, even though the conflict no longer focuses upon a "Clash of Franchise-Titans."

Two broad improvements: fewer inconsequential humans and more development of the Monsterverse. The 2021 film was all about establishing the boundaries of the Titans with regard to each other and to the human population. EMPIRE is about the formation of new societies out of the legacies of old ones. One will find no similar tropes in either the 1954 GODZILLA or the 1933 KONG. The first is about an apocalyptic beast  who almost devastates ordered society thanks to having assimilated the power of humanity's most apocalyptic weapon. The second is about the last vestiges of a primeval world surviving on the periphery of the civilized one, with the one doomed to die upon encountering the other. 

The medium for continuing an ancient legacy is EMPIRE's crossbreeding of GODZILLA '54's concept of a monster-filled under-earth with an even older sci-fi idea of the "primeval super-science culture." The 2021 movie fairly broadcast the likelihood that Kong would not truly be the last of his kind, so the revelation of a tribe of semi-intelligent giant apes in the Hollow Earth comes as no surprise. But the EMPIRE script-- which shares only one of the writers from 2021-- doubles down on the Big Reveals, for the under-earth also plays host to a tribe of telepaths with some sort of crystal-technology. 

Given their links to the moth-Titan Mothra, this vaguely Polynesian-looking tribe shares some literary genetics with the primitives of Infant Island in the Tohoverse. But the Hollow-Earth natives turn out to be distant relatives of the Iwe, the human occupants of Skull Island. The 2021 KONG wiped out the Iwe, except for sole survivor Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who was adopted by Titan-exert Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). Jia's only significance is that she shares a psychic rapport with Kong in that they're both the only intelligent survivors of Skull Island. EMPIRE's script is far from subtle in showing the loneliness of both Kong and Jia, deprived of a society of common heritage. But at least Jia becomes a bit more sympathetic this time out, though of course the audience's main concern is for Kong. 

The natives initiate the action, sending forth a distress signal. This draws a exploratory team of humans to investigate, consisting of Ilene, Jia, comic-relief blogger Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry), and a new character, "monster-doctor" Trapper (Dan Stevens)-- oh, and a redshirt who gets killed early on. Godzilla also seems to sense something in the offing, since he devours a French nuclear plant to empower himself. Upon meeting with the proto-Iwe, the explorers learn that eons ago Godzilla confined the ancestors of the ape-tribe to Hollow-Earth, much as Kong self-exiled to that world to avoid trespassing on Godzilla's territory. Now the scurrilous simians, led by the malignant Skar King, have found a new access to the surface world, which they plan to conquer once more-- in part thanks to their having enslaved a dragon-like Titan that can breathe freezing gas. The only thing that can stop the rebellion of those damn, dirty apes is an alliance between Kong and Godzilla, and that's only possible if Jia can mind-meld with Mothra to broker a peace between the rival monsters.

To be sure, the main virtue of EMPIRE is that  returning director Adam Wingard and his FX team sell the audience on an endless series of battles between quarrelsome colossi (including a mini-Kong who has an occasional nasty edge, so that he's not repugnantly cute). But I like the fact that the script gives us a Hollow-Earth reflecting the two main phrases of the "lost world" trope: one where the lost world is inhabited by degenerate brutes, the other, by shining, though still fallible, angels in human form. 

Jia and Ilene are still flat characters, but this time the script gives them one interesting bit of business: Ilene fearing that her adoptive daughter will immediately run off to join her eons-old kindred. But Bernie and Trapper get all the clever lines because they're not confined to performing simple plot-functions. If there's a third film in the series, maybe the writers will manage to jettison all of the dullards.