Divergent

Dustin: 2.5 of 5 stars Nick: 2 of 5 stars Average: 2.25 of 5 stars (Canary on life support)

Dustin: Divergent is yet another YA movie set in a George Orwellian near future. It has all the staples of the genre: a heroine, Tris (Shailene Woodley), who is somehow different than the rest of society, a hunky male love interest, Four (Theo James), and lots of gorgeous young people solving problems made by grownups.

What did you think of Divergent?

Nick: Like The Host (another YA novel turned to film), the dystopian future is well crafted on the surface, but crumbles when you think about politics, factions, or anything deeper. Who cleans this dystopian Chicago?

Dustin: For those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book, the movie is set in a crumbling, near future Chicago. They never say what year, so I’m guessing 2017. Chicago has blocked itself off from the rest of the world, ostensibly to protect themselves from the outside. Society has divided itself into five factions: Abnegation (the do-gooders who run things and help the the faction-less), Candor (the lawyer-types),  Dauntless (G-men/Chicago's Olympic parkour team), Erudite (the academics) and Amity (dirty hippie farmers).

The setting crumbles when you realize society can’t function (at least, not a large city requiring constant infrastructure maintenance) with only these five jobs. We never see who takes out the trash, maintains the buildings, drives the train, cooks the food, or makes the clothes they’re wearing. The city is closed off from the rest of the world, so they’re clearly not importing these sexy, form-fitting clothes from China.

The filmmakers must've noticed this massive plot hole in the book and did their best to sidestep it, knowing they couldn’t fill the hole without drastically altering the story. They’re careful not to show the conductor of the train so the audience might not question it. But once you notice it, the whole narrative falls apart.

Nick: There are plenty of errors, but one that was front and center was Tris’s best friend, Christina, who failed in EVERY test, EVERY time she was shown on screen, and somehow ranked high enough to stay in the faction. While Tris, who is starting to nail everything, never gets bumped up more than 4 spots. Since two-thirds of this movie is watching Dauntless train, this was a giant miss-step.

Dustin: That’s a good point. We never see how the other recruits rank as it only focuses on Tris. Though if she barely squeaked through then its easy to imagine Christina wouldn’t have made the cut.

Nick: Did you feel any emotion while watching Divergent? There are many scenes where we are supposed to feel, but it always seemed forced or trivial.

Dustin: We knew Tris and Four were going to fall in love from the outset, since they're both attractive, but everything leading up to them falling in love was perfunctory. Especially when he takes off his shirt and reveals a tattoo of all five factions’ symbols. It seems like someone who was “divergent” wouldn’t be sufficiently vested in the system to tattoo the symbols on his back. Also, if you’re trying to hide the fact you’re divergent, getting a giant-ass tattoo with all the factions’ symbols isn’t the best way to hide it.

Nick: But it looks so cool! At least there isn’t a love triangle (yet)! Though, Four (who is named this way because HE IS THE RUNAWAY!!! OMG) has all the faction tattoos because he rebels against the system, but, as you say, is also stupid if you are trying to hide that you are “divergent.”

Dustin: The film tried too hard to make Four deep. When we first meet him, he is a douchey alpha male who is mean for no apparent reason. We’re supposed to guess he’s hiding an insecurity and he’s deeper than he seems. The film would've worked better if he was like Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Tris just had an animal attraction for him. The romance would have been more believable that way. But then again, people would complain that Tris, being a strong woman, wouldn’t fall for a guy like that.

Nick: Well, that wouldn’t set a very good standard for impressionable tween girls, now would it, Dustin?

What’s up with neatly cut underground lairs in these YA movies? I wondered if they used the same set from The Host.

Dustin: It makes sense in The Host, because the humans were hiding from the one alien who was trying to root them out. But here, the G-men have no reason to hide, as they are a functioning and respected part of a smooth-running society.

Do you think they have a high mortality rate? You only see a few of the cops over 25 or so. Where are the Dirty Harry Callahans in this universe? The movie would've been better with a Dirty Harry-type as the protagonist. He would have just blown Kate Winslet’s head off with his .44 Magnum with an awesome one-liner. YA movies often assume that youth and innocence more than counterbalance years of experience and training.

Nick: While they were sparring it crossed my mind of how much brain damage each of them has suffered. This might be the worst training regiment I’ve witnessed in a movie. Did you recall seeing anyone noticeably younger than our heroine?

Dustin: Didn’t notice any children. I guess they all have to go to their sorting hat ceremony at a certain age, so we would have no reason to see anyone younger.

Was there anything you liked about this movie?

Nick: The CGI was fantastic. Another thing YA films do is cast a superb young actress as their weakly crafted heroine. Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games), Saoirse Ronan (The Host) and Shailene Woodley in Divergent. They are all phenomenal actresses, but Woodley was the most convincing in her role.

Dustin: The acting and special effects in this movie were top notch. That’s what prevented me from giving it a lower rating. It speaks volumes about Woodley’s and James’s abilities that they could keep this movie afloat. The zip-lining scene from through the Chicago skyscrapers was probably the highlight of the movie.

Nick: Woodley and Miles Teller (Peter) were love interests in The Spectacular Now (one of my favorite films of last year) so it was hard for me whenever he was mean to Tris, and especially when he kicked her ass in training.

Dustin: That little movie connection actually made it a little more fun to watch for me. Teller is very good at playing cynical jerks, and he doesn’t disappoint here. Unfortunately, he’s not famous enough yet to turn down roles that are beneath him.

Nick: Teller has the same role in The Spectacular Now!

Dustin: He played the same role in 21 & Over.

Nick: I’m guessing he played the same role in That Awkward Moment, but I have no interesting in seeing it.

Dustin: Anything else you want to add about the Divergent?

Nick: One thing that will interest me in seeing the sequel is to know what's on the other side of that fucking wall. If they are Titans (Attack on Titan) I’m going to go apeshit!

Dustin: Divergent will be a trilogy, and I hope the sequels will expand and improve its dystopian world. While the script wasn’t particularly strong, it did have a coherent story that didn’t feel like they were making it up as they went along (like Twilight), even if the whole story was derivative.

Which faction would you belong to? I would be Slytherin.

Nick: I’d be factionless. (No talent)

Dustin: A muggle?

Nick: A half-blood. I wouldn’t fit in anywhere.

300: Rise of an Empire

Nick: 1.5 of 5 stars Josh: 2 of 5 stars Average: 1.75 of 5 stars (Canary on life support)

Nick: Our much beloved version of Burapi, Dustin Dye, is gone for the next week, off being bored in places like China and Mongolia. To fill his void we've brought in Josh Hammond, who was originally a member of Canary Movie Reviews until we realized he made us look foolish so we had to cut the poor guy loose. While being one of the most handsome and charming men that you could meet, Josh is a counselor at a psychiatric facility. The only thing that equals his love for people is his passion for media. We often get heated in our discussions of trivial art but at the end of the day it’s birthed out of a mutual respect for each other’s opinions. I think...

300: Rise of an Empire is an exact copy of its predecessor if the only thing you got from 300 was blood, breasts and pointless slow motion. Instead of following a “hero” the film mostly focuses on Artemisia (Eva Green), a Greek who chooses to fight for the Persians, whose main goal seems to be to fuck (I mean fight) Themistocles.

Nick: What did you think of 300: Rise of the Slow Motion?

Josh: Well, the slow motion was something that worked in the first one, but in this day and age it feels overused.

Nick: Rise of an Empire used 3-D as if it was the first movie ever to think of the effect and chose to show it off constantly. Slow motion can be an amazing movie trick, but when over used and misplaced it just looks sloppy.

Josh: There just wasn't a lot to the story so they had to lean on 3-D and slow motion. In the original it felt new and different, but in this one it feels like something we have seen before.

Nick: As you say, Empire definitely lacked on the story. In screenwriting a page equals a minute onscreen. In a non-exaggerated way, this could possibly be the thinnest script ever written. There is hardly any dialogue. Mostly just slow motion, one liners, sneers and war shots. It would not be surprising if one page lasted 10 minutes on screen.

Josh: The strong points of the first were the visuals and the writing of Frank Miller. This one seems to lack both of those qualities.

Nick: The writing in 300 is certainly overlooked because its just so macho that people write it off as though it was what the film needed to be with the style it had. I’m not one for movie quotes, and although it’s been five years since I've seen the original, I could quote at least 10 lines. Not only that, but there are many shots that I can recall because they were so interesting and beautiful to me. Rise of an Empire had no effect on me.

Josh: What 300 had going for it was the source material of the graphic novel. It’s both well written and very stylistic as well. Zack Snyder pulled off a faithful adaption that worked. Rise of an Empire, on the other hand, without source material seems like it doesn't know what it's doing or where to go with the script or visuals. Thus everything feels disjointed and overly flashy.

Nick: None could argue about Frank Miller when it comes to crafting captivating graphic novels, but when it comes to movies all that has to be said is The Spirit and I throw up a little in my mouth.

Was there anything that you liked in the movie?

Josh: The fights scenes were well choreographed. I also like how it wasn't just a straight sequel like the trailers led me to believe. I thought that idea seemed a bit pointless, like having a sequel to the Alamo. The movie takes place before, during and after the events of 300 and gives you a little more insight into the war and characters. Was there anything you liked?

Nick: Two of the things that made a terrible film better were Eva Green (Artemisia) and someone who I've never seen before--Sullivan Stapleton (sweet name) as Themistocles. Since the script had absolutely nothing within it, these two really had to chew up scenery for the film to be entertaining. Green reminded me of Nicolas Cage in his worst movies. I mean this as a total compliment. When a film is bad, overact and maybe it could be entertaining.

Josh: Green is fantastic and it was nice to have a strong female character. As far as overacting, I think it totally works in a film like this that is not built on subtlety. It’s hard not to enjoy the sex scene turned fight scene!

Nick: Highlight of the film! One thing that was totally ridiculous in the film was how (like the first movie) they had a father and son relationship brought into the midst of the battle. While it worked in 300, now it seems incredibly lazy to take a majorly insignificant part of the plot of the first movie and just throw it into the sequel. Twist! Though this time his father doesn't want his son to fight.

Josh: That part was very forgettable. In fact I had totally forgotten about it until now. The film definitely would have benefited from some more time spent on the relationships.

Nick: Another silly thing that we all noticed was how Themistocles would be wearing his helmet before the battle would begin but would take it off immediately as the battle started. He wore it through the first battle and it saved his life a couple of times but he must have felt it was useless in those other battles. If I had been with the Athenians and was one of the grunts and saw him throw his helmet on the ground I would have been plenty pissed that he didn't just give it to me before the battle. What an ass!

Josh: Haha! Yeah, I think we laughed uncontrollably after the third time he did that. As if they weren't already wearing as little armor as possible. Like the loincloth was all they needed for the job. But Nick, how else are we going to see Themistocles sexy face in battle?

Nick: It was really sexy!

The Wind Rises

Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 3.5 of 5 stars Average: 3.75 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: The Wind Rises is purportedly Hayao Miyazaki’s final film (he says he’s for real this time). The film follows Jiro, who dreams of sushi flying. Miyazaki presents a fictionalized account of one Mitsubishi engineer’s drive to create the perfect flying machine, the Zero.

What did you think of Miyazaki’s final effort, Nick?

Nick: The Wind Rises was a more serious film and less fantastic than all of his previous creations. It threw me for quite a loop.

Dustin: This was less fanciful than most his films, but it still had his trademark dreamlike elements, such as the ominous dream that opens the movie with shadow-like figures dangling from aircrafts, and Jiro’s recurring encounters with his Italian hero through his dreams.

I thought this was a solid film, and if Miyazaki does bow out now, he’s left on a strong note.

How do you think this rates compared to the director’s other films?

Nick: Considering that I’ve seen every film in his illustrious career and that I wouldn’t put a single one under 3 ½ stars it’s quite an achievement. The Wind Rises (at first viewing) would rate at the very bottom.

The script is not focused enough. The film at the beginning was all about the beauty of flight, and at some point it lost this altogether. Just because they bring it up again in one more scene at the end doesn’t mean the idea was kept all the way until the end.

Dustin: I thought the script was focused enough. It starts out with Jiro’s origin story. We see him in middle school, then in college, then out in the real world. All these early scenes show his obsession with flight. The passage of time is done gracefully, usually with an allusion about the next stage of his life, followed by showing him heading for that stage with a slight change in his character indicated by a deeper voice or more rigid posture. Then it gets into the heart of the story, which is Jiro attempting to create a state-of-the-art plane for Mitsubishi. There are some subplots about Japan racing toward a futile, all-out war and Jiro falling in love. But I thought the script remained on track.

Nick: I was about to change topic until you mentioned that Jiro falling in love was just a subplot.  When his love interest is added it immediately becomes the plot and the story focuses on that more than what the plot was at the beginning. But enough about that.

One thing that will always amaze me is the animation work done by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.  There is none better, and the creators of Pixar all talk about how Miyazaki and his studio inspired them to craft their own animations.

Dustin: It’s interesting how the inspiration has come full-circle. I saw some Disney influences in this film, as well as other Miyazaki films. The way the “camera” seems to move in the film, even though there is no real camera. I think Disney invented that technique with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now, Disney/Pixar films pay homage to Miyazaki. In Toy Story 3 you can see a plush Totoro in one scene.

Nick: The way the world seems to breathe in Miyazaki’s films--clouds moving, grass wavering and wind blowing. Every little detail is so focused upon when concerning the animation.

Dustin: That description could be about Disney or Miyazaki.

Nick: Disagreed. Not at all Disney animated films are like that. At some point money was more the focus for their animations and that led to faster productions and less detail. I’m definitely not saying all. I watched 101 Dalmatians the other day and was geeking out over the animation in that film.

Dustin: I was talking about Disney the person, not Disney the corporation (although, you can make an argument corporations are people too). Walt Disney was a visionary, who revolutionized animation. All animators today owe something to Walt Disney. But I’m definitely not saying all Disney films are great. There are definitely some movies in their catalogue I would describe as “cynical money-grabs.”

Nick: Every animator does owe something to Mr. Disney, but when I say these great things about Studio Ghibli’s animation I mean these things occur for no reason. They are happening behind the characters. There is no point to it besides making the world more real. It takes a lot of time to do all of that. This does not happen in the old Disney films. I’m not decrying Disney for that, but praising Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli for working as hard as they do.

Dustin: I agree. I think that’s why Ghibli movies stand head-and-shoulder above other Japanese anime films. I’m sad to say anime is mostly a genre devoid of innovation. We see the good ones in the U.S. because only the good ones make it here and we don’t see all the slush. Most of the animation is subpar in Japan, with nothing moving in the scene other than the mouth of the one character who’s talking, even then the shape of the mouth doesn’t even match the sounds of the words. Pixar made Toy Story almost 20 years ago, but the Japanese are nowhere near reaching that level of sophistication in animation. Ghibli is really the exception rather than the norm.

Nick: In ALL of Miyazaki’s previous work I have cared very deeply for whomever the main character may be, and while that started to be the case in The Wind Rises it slowly started to vanish. His characterization kept losing momentum as the film moved on. With the focus being more on his wife stricken with tuberculosis.

Dustin: I agree for the most part, which is why I took a star away from this film. This was soaring toward five stars, but the movie seemed to be missing an act. I will give a spoiler by mentioning what’s NOT in the film. After Jiro created the Zero, there really needed to be a scene where American and German engineers surpassed Jiro’s design, and his airplane was used by kamikaze for suicide missions only. In fact, with the title The Wind Rises, I was sort of expecting that. Kamikaze literally means, “Divine Wind,” so I figured the wind in the title (Japanese title Kaze tachinu) was referring to the “kaze” in kamikaze. I needed to see the effect of Japanese pilots crashing Jiro’s planes into American aircraft carriers on him for the movie to have its full effect. Instead, the movie jumps from perfecting the Zero to the end of the war, and we’re deprived of that scene.

Nick: Actually at the end Jiro has one of his dreams where he’s talking to his idol and looking up in the sky at thousands of planes and says, “None of them returned.” I took that as kind of his sadness for the act of what his planes were used for. For all the drama in the film Jiro seemed to lack visible emotion. His feelings were mostly muted.

Dustin: I thought that scene was sort of a wimpy version of what I expected. How did he react the first time he learned his plane was used for a suicide mission? We get a scene here reminiscent of the scene in The Best Years of Our Lives where he walks through a field of broken down planes and remembers his (and the planes’) glory days. Some time has passed and he’s distant from the act. I think for the full effect, we needed to see his initial reaction to his planes being used as manned missiles. Instead, he seems to shrug it off and say something like, “Flying is still a beautiful dream.”

Nick: For sure, thats what I meant by his feelings are often muted. We don’t get to see his reaction to his wife dying nor his first feelings of what his planes were used for. While there are many emotions and drama going on around Jiro, the audience is never treated to a scene of Jiro breaking down.

Dustin: In conclusion, The Wind Rises is a fitting swan song for Miyazaki. It’s not really a family film (I can’t imagine my daughter would sit through it), but adults and Miyazaki’s fans will appreciate it.