X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (2011)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*

FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure *

CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

This 12-episode anime was a collaboration between Marvel Entertainment and the Japanese anime studio Madhouse, part of a joint endeavor that also included serials for Wolverine, Blade, and Iron Man.  Wikipedia claims that X-MEN writer Warren Ellis "guided" most of these series, and in one of the promotional commentaries a speaker claims that they were guided by Ellis' version of the X-Men.

I confess to being completely unfamiliar with Ellis' contributions to any X-books. However, most of the plot-arcs in X-MEN are borrowed from the work of other X-writers.

The continuity, in a rare turn from most X-adaptations, begins in the wake of the death of Cyclops' beloved Phoenix, a character associated with the Claremont-Byrne run. The X-Men's first opponents in this series are the "U-Men," human fanatics who seek to gain super-powers by incorporating mutant flesh into themselves, from Grant Morrison's 2001 continuity.  They seek to help a Japanese mutant girl who joins the X-Men and takes the code-name "Armor," a character originated in ASTONISHING X-MEN by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.  In the heroes' encounter with the U-Men they rescue another Claremont-Byrne creation, the White Queen, who in this iteration is associated not with the comic-book "Hellfire Club" but with"the Inner Circle," which is apparently a legacy from this 2009 American adaptation. One other Hellfire alumnus is also represented as having been a member of the Circle: Mastermind, adapted by Byrne and Claremont from the old 1960s Lee-Kirby character.  And finally, we see another Claremont-Byrne borrowing in that the X-Men end up fighting a super-mutant named Takeo.  This character is freely adapted from the character "Proteus," the son of the X-Men's mentor Professor X, though Takeo's mother is, in the interest of keeping the action in Japan, a Japanese woman.

I have no problem with Ellis using any or all of these materials, given that they are all the property of Marvel Comics. But it does irk me that this was represented as being in tune with the comics-work of Warren Ellis, when so little of it derives from his plot-concepts.

That said, all the usual preachments on the injustice of anti-mutant prejudice are here, neither better nor worse than the usual sociological observations in the comic book series. Cyclops, who only reluctantly leads the heroes due to grieving over his deceased love, gets a little more character-attention than he often does in animated cartoons, but other characters-- Beast, Storm, Wolverine, White Queen-- sometimes prove fairly interchangeable.  I didn't listen to the English-language version, but I rather doubt that the scripters managed to catch the comic potential of either Beast or White Queen, since most of the proceedings unfold with an apocalyptic grimness.  I rated the action-scenes of WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN as "above average," and in contrast most of the fight-scenes in this Japanese co-production unfold in a welter of bedazzling FX-powers, engendering more confusion than excitement. On the other hand, though this X-MEN mixes in a lot of plot-threads, they all come together at the climax, whereas the WOLVERINE production was all over the place in terms of unity.

It's a pleasant enough series, but by far the greatest pleasure it offers is seeing the X-Men, who are supposed to belong to a myriad of cultures, using phrases that would've fit a Toshiro Mifune samurai-film:

"You must harden your heart against adversity! That is the fate of being-- an X-Man!"

STRANGER FROM SHAOLIN (1977)

 

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

This low-budget chopsocky depicts the avenging arc of Yim Wing Chim, a young woman left homeless when an evil agent of the conquering Manchu Dynasty kills off her whole family. She desires vengeance, and seeks out the Shaolin monastery to get the training she needs. One little problem: the monastery is only for guys, who typically practice their kung-fu moves with their shirts off.

Fortunately for Yim, the abbot suspects her identity and gives her a special form of training apart from the other students, so that she doesn't have to reveal herself as a girl. One of the young male students figures out the truth and becomes her chief helper, though no actual romantic complications ensue. For those interested in the female-centered martial arts discipline known as "wing chun," Yim gets some of this training as well as the film wends its routine way toward vengeance on Kang, the Manchu's chief hit man.

Kang is the film's only source of metaphenomenal content. Like some of the other kung-fu characters I've mentioned in previous reviews, he has an uncanny "body-hardening" power, so much so that Yim can't cut his flesh with a sword. In addition, he uses his long hair-queue as a weapon to confuse or entangle people. The Shaolin abbot explains his power as the result of this Taoist monster drinking "children's blood" to gain more power-- a rare trope in my experience, as most such martial "powers" are usually explained through breath control and so on. Maybe the long forgotten scriptwriter had a mad-on for Taoists?

LOGAN’S RUN (1976)

 

HENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

I’ve not read any of the three novels written about Logan and his world by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, but I wouldn’t have any trouble believing the statement that the movie doesn’t borrow much from them but the bare situation. In every way, the film LOGAN’S RUN seems like a bad imitation of the better dystopian novels found in prose science fiction.

RUN puts forth an idea that was well-traveled even in 1976. Following a nuclear catastrophe, a group of human beings take refuge in a city where their entire destiny is controlled by a computer. In order to maintain the city’s fragile ecosystem, the computer or its long-deceased programmers have engineered a “Big Lie” to prevent overpopulation. At the age of thirty, all citizens must participate in “Carousel,” in which their bodies are destroyed but their souls are later reincarnated. The other citizens watch the spectacle and cheer as if witnessing arena-fights, possibly because the old bodies of Carousel-victims appear to get blown up. Nevertheless, most citizens believe that their fellows will come back renewed—though there are a few unbelievers.

Said apostates, called “Runners,” seek to evade their fate in the ritual by escaping the borders of the city. While one might think the city-computer would welcome such desertions to get rid of surplus population, apparently the machine has been programmed to persecute such dissidents by sending enforcers called “Sandmen” to execute the Runners. Two such enforcers are Logan (Michael York) and his buddy Francis (Richard Jordan). In addition to genuinely believing in their mission, the two city-cops enjoy all the privileges of sybaritic life, which includes swanky living-quarters and getting hooked up with potential temporary mates, actual marriage being unknown. Logan makes an attempt to hook up with a young woman named Jessica (Jenny Agutter). When she doesn’t come across like most city-women, Logan is mildly intrigued by Jessica’s refusal.

Not only does the computer not want any dissidents escaping its reach, it keeps tabs on the beliefs of the Runners. The computer enlists Logan for a special assignment, to find the place called Sanctuary, to which refuge many escapees have supposedly migrated. To sell the idea that Logan wants to be a Runner, the hapless Sandman’s own life-cycle is cut short, so that he can infiltrate the dissidents and locate Sanctuary. The Runner-ranks just happen to include Jessica, who despite her earlier refusal is quite taken with Logan and helps him make contact with the “underground.”

Sadly, the script’s idea of the Runner-underground is even more poorly worked out than the rationale behind Carousel. Logan and Jessica experience an assortment of disjointed adventures—one of which includes Farrah Fawcett, prior to her star-making breakout on CHARLIE’S ANGELS—and eventually, with no real help from other Runners, the two fugitives succeed in escaping the city. However, Logan’s comrade Francis hasn’t been let in on the deception, and he relentlessly pursues the escapees, intending to terminate both of them. Passing over some of the more pretentious experiences of the fleeing couple, eventually the two of them return to the city and liberate all of the gullible citizens from the computer’s control.

To misquote John Lennon, LOGAN’S RUN sports enough plot-holes to fill up Albert Hall. Such inconsistencies don’t automatically doom a film, though, and I can find various plot-problems with the 1968 PLANET OF THE APES. Yet in RUN’s case, the only thing the movie has going for it is its (rather minor) ability to conjure with the audience’s fears of such fantastic eugenics-programs, and that appeal is cancelled out by the script’s artless coincidences and dramatic posturing. Actors York, Jordan and Agutter all project utter sincerity in their thinly-drawn roles, but none of them are able to infuse life into the ramshackle structure.

Arguably, though RUN was not quite the last of the “didactic sci-fi problem films” that proved popular in the sixties and seventies, the movie may represent a temporary culmination of the form for that time-period—or maybe a burnout case, since RUN is in no way equal to the best of that tradition. By the next year, STAR WARS temporarily became a major, if not exclusive, model for big-budget science fiction films. Perhaps coincidentally, STAR WARS’ careful attention to physical detail—whether with respect to space battles or comical robots—makes LOGAN’S RUN seem even more hackneyed, especially when the post-STAR WARS viewer gets a look at “Box,” RUN’s extremely cheesy version of a mouthy robot.

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS (2000)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, sociological*


It's been fourteen years since I watched this notorious flop on DVD, so I re-watched it today, wondering: would I see anything that I'd missed before? It's rare, but every once in a while I re-screen a film that I didn't like on the first go-round, and find interesting tropes in it, even if it's reviled by most of its audience. If I could get something on a second viewing of PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES,  maybe even a film widely despised by its target audience might have some buried nuggets.

Not so; a second viewing of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS fills me with the same repulsion for its inert, clueless storyline. Its main sociological theme follows a basic "aristocracy vs. the people" pattern, in which the mages of the otherworld Izmir stand in for the corrupt aristocracy, ruling the magic-less common folk with an iron hand. One good mage, the Empress Savina (Thora Birch), stands against corrupt magic-wielders like the primary villain Profion (Jeremy Irons), but even though she's called an empress, she doesn't seem to have much in the way of political support. Her first lines in the film have her prating about how she feels "in her heart" that political liberation is the way of the future. Instead of a strong, beleaguered leader, she sounds like an old hippie. But Profion must think that she poses some kind of threat, for he's working on a plan to obtain mystical control of Izmir's dragons, which he will use as shock troops against the Empress.

While all this is going at the higher levels, two young thieves from society's dregs-- Ridley (Justin Whalin) and Snails (Marlon Wayans)-- decide that they're going to break into the city's Magic School and steal valuable magical doodads, apparently with the idea of selling them. The script takes no pains to figure out what kind of market there might be in this fantasy-world for stolen supernatural artifacts; it just takes it for granted that these two low-class thieves think they can somehow turn a profit with their hastily planned endeavor.  (Maybe I should say Ridley's endeavor, since for the most part he talks his reluctant partner Snails into the adventure-- more on which later.)

The two youngsters successfully break into the school, but they're stymied by the spells of neophyte sorceress Marina. Fortunately for the thieves (sort of), on the same night Profion's evil henchman Damodar (Bruce Payne) comes calling with his soldiers, seeking to steal a map desired by his master. Marina gets hold of the map, creates a teleportation-portal, and escapes the school, taking Ridley and Sanils along with her for no good reason.

The scripters apparently thought that, in order to imitate the RPG, they had to send the protagonists on a journey, fending off evil pursuers and making allies. Said allies include an armor-clad female warrior-elf (seen above) and an axe-wielding dwarf who, if the script were honest, would have been named something like "Gimli Mark Two." However, even though Ripley and his allies run around through some very nicely designed sets-- which reflect the $35-million budget-- all of the dangers they encounter, like the villains Profion and Damodar, suffer from a poverty of the imagination. Ridley, in the long-running tradition of the "Thief Who Gets Religon," pretty much forgets about his monetary motivations once Marina presents him with the chance to overthrow mage-rule. Snails never catches the idealism bug. The only reason the film gives for him to go along with the others is that Damodar has put out wanted posters on the refugees, so perhaps one can reason that he doesn't want to be caught alone. His allies don't end up doing him much good, though, for Damodar catches up to them. The wizard kills Snails when he won't give him what he wants, which makes for a sort-of heroism on his part, though the way it's played doesn't give Snails much in the way of dignity.

Damodar finally gets the magical doohickey his master wants, and once Profion has the doohickey, he declares dragon-war on Savina. Ridley, eager to avenge Snails, throws himself into the fight, though where he acquired above-average swordfighting-skills, no one knows. He ends up bringing down both Damodar and Profion, while Marina, the elf and Gimli II provide only modest aid.

The worst thing about DUNGEONS-- aside from the fact that there are hardly any dungeons in it, just dragons-- is that few of the characters have even half-decent reasons for acting as they do. I assume that the producers' main model was Lucas's STAR WARS, but even though Lucas's characters seem sketchy at first glance, they are internally consistent in most regards. The relationship of Ridley and Snails is particularly objectionable.  I don't automatically invalidate the antipathy of some critics to the trope of "hero's partner gets killed to give him a reason to get mad," an antipathy that becomes most pronounced when the main hero is white and the partner is not. But even if both thieves had shared the same ethnicity, their partnership would have been ill-defined. As it is, it's hard to believe that the film's producers didn't see the disadvantage in having a black actor play the part of a perpetually-scared sidekick with a name connoting "slowness."

The one good thing about DUNGEONS is that it disproves the adage that the public will always buy crap, for the film was unpopular both with the mass audience and the core D&D enthusiasts. The two made-for-TV sequels didn't redeem the franchise, but as I'll show in future reviews, they're at least tolerable entertainments.

ZATOICHI MEETS THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN (1971)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*

FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*

CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*


I determined the first of the ZATOICHI films to be a "combative drama," but I suspect most of the series tended toward the "combative adventure" mode.  

Produced at the height of the kung-fu craze, SWORDSMAN is a solid but unremarkable tale teaming the blind warrior-masseuse with a version of the popular Hong Kong franchise, "the One Armed Swordsman," essayed by the actor who created the role, Wang Yu.  Plotwise, the story seems the reverse of a Marvel superhero comic of the period.  Instead of the heroes coming into conflict near the story's beginning, only to become allies against a common foe later, here Zatoichi and the Swordsman rub each other the wrong way, proceed on separate paths to decimate the forces of a nasty yakuza-boss, and then end up having a climactic battle.  Hint: it's a Japanese production, so it's no surprise which hero wins.  Though the tragic motifs are rather light, the film is true to the Zatoichi mythos in that the conflict is fundamentally needless, spurred by the inability of the two leads to understand one another's language.

In contrast to the original, low-impact ZATOICHI, the blind hero's sword carves up a lot more flesh, enhancing the main character's sense of being an uncanny presence.  At one point Zatoichi even cuts a wagon-wheel in two with his sword-cane.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 (1988)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological, metaphysical*


Renny Harlin's sequel to Part 3, subtitled THE DREAM MASTER, does a far better job in the department of creepy dreams, and even though it has some of the weaknesses of any sequel, I don't blush to state that it's my favorite in the series.  To be sure, it doesn't bother to provide any reason as to why the banishing-ritual ceases to work, and Freddy's mother-- the source of this advice-- is not referenced.

ELM 4 picks up with the former inmates, who have all been released into normal life.  This means that they are back in the care of unthinking parents, though only Kristen's mother is seen for any length of time.  Kristen is once again first to foresee Freddy's imminent return, but this time her ability to pull her friends into the dream-world doesn't pan out so well.  However, the script introduces Rick, a new boyfriend for Kristen, and his sister Alice.  Alice assumes Kristen's role as the central heroine when Kristen buys the farm-- ironically, because her overprotective mother slips Kristen sleeping pills and thereby places her in Freddy's clutches.  Alice is a mousey type who can't even summon the guts to approach her love-interest Dan, though soon enough he too is drawn into the pool of potential victims.

Clearly one of the purposes of this film was to expand Freddy's reach, so that he would not be confined to the children of his murderers. ELM 4 succeeds admirably in this respect, as well as sculpting scenarios that take advantage of dream-illogic-- particularly one in which Alice must watch Krueger destroy one of her friends in their classroom, while the rest of the students remain oblivious of the mayhem.  More importantly, Alice begins to become somewhat like Freddy-- not in the simplistic "Jekyll-Hyde" manner of ELM 2, but in that she too begins to absorb powers from those Freddy kills.  It begins when the soul of the murdered Kristen literally sends energy into Alice, giving her the ability to enter dreams.  After the deaths of friend Shelia and brother Rick, Alice absorbs some of their aspects as well-- all of which leads to a martial confrontation between Alice and Krueger that manages to be thrilling and forbidding at the same time.  Alice turns the souls in Krueger's flesh against him, destroying his dream-body-- at least for the time being.

HONOR ROLL #52, SEPTEMBER 4

LISA WILCOX scored as the first Freddy-fighter to give the ghastly ghost a fair tussle.

JIMMY WANG YU won international fame as "the One Armed Swordsman," but in his Zatoichi appearance he's playing a "one-off" version of that character, giving the blind masseuse one of his best bouts.

JUSTIN WHALIN should have left his role here in some dungeon.

Little did MICHAEL YORK know that his run as Logan was going to be run over by the Millennium Falcon.

CECILIA WONG, don't be a stranger, even in Shaolin.

Diamonds are a WHITE QUEEN's best friend.