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Based on the Trailer – Doctor Strange
Marvel fans have long claimed Marvel Studios has had a special kind of magic. Turns out it was more literal than they thought.
Doctor Strange introduces Marvel fans to the Sorcerer Supreme and the mind-blowing magic of the MCU. Is it magical or simply strange? Well, let’s take a look at the trailer and find out.
So who stars in this movie? Benedict Cumberbatch of Star Trek Into Darkness is Stephen Strange himself, and Tilda Swinton of The Chronicles of Narnia is his mentor The Ancient One. Rachel McAdams of Mean Girls is his love interest Christine Palmer, Mads Mikkelsen of Hannibal is the villainous Kaecilius, and Chwetel Ejiofor of Serenity is Baron Karl Mordo.
The director is Scott Derrickson, a director best known for his horror films like Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. The man clearly has a grasp of the unusual, and I’m interested to see if any of his horror sensibilities affect this film, but for the most part, this film is new territory for him, so I’m curious to see him go in a new direction.
The trailer opens with Doctor Strange using his hands for surgery and music. But that life is quickly ruined by a car crash that damages his hands beyond repair, making it the most oddly specific car crash in history. “You think you know how the world works?” the Ancient One asks. “What if I told you the reality you know is one of many?” As long as there’s not a reality in which Doctor Doom is a blogger, I’m good.
“I’m going to train with Ra’s al Ghul so I can get vengeance for my hands.”
Strange and Ancient walk through a shattered mirror of reality, and Strange says it doesn’t make any sense. “Not everything has to,” Ancient replies. I hope they didn’t apply that philosophy to the script. Ancient shows off her reality-warping mystic arts by turning a New York street into a fun house mirror and walking through a portal that carries her thousands of miles away while also changing her outfit and conjuring Strange out of nowhere. Which I know is just editing, but if you’re going to put those two side by side, expect us to draw the logical connection.
Beats taking the subway any day.
“How do I get from here to there?” Strange asks. Dude, did you miss the magic portal lesson she just gave you? But Ancient tells him it’s the same study/practice method he used to become a doctor, only with more yoga and ancient tomes and producing glass rainbows out of the air. “There’s a strength to him,” Baron Mordo says. But it ain’t in his hands, cause those babies got crushed.
“He’ll never play ping pong again.”
Strange stares at his cloak, washes up to give us the obligatory superhero chest shot, and finds three doors to different climate zones. One of the Ancient One’s students warns him that “stronger men than you have lost their way.” Specifically Kaecilius over there. He walked into a Victoria’s Secret by mistake, and now his eyes are all burned. “I am death and pain,” Kaecilius says. Well, Benedict Cumberbatch is fire and death, so there. The lights in the operating room explode, and Kaecilius tells Strange he’ll die protecting the world before turning New York into some dream architecture from Inception.
“I have seen things that can never be unseen.”
“I can’t do this,” says Strange, but Mordo tells him there isn’t any other way. Unless we called in the Avengers. I hear Scarlet Witch has some aptitude for magic. Strange pulls out a light whip and struggles to put back together a burning New York. Kaecilius and his goons use Dreamscape New York as their giant bouncy castle. Strange flings on his cloak and runs out to do business as Ancient says, “I’ve spent so many years peering through time, looking for you.” You’ve been looking through time and space for Benedict Cumberbatch? Wrong British TV show, dude.
“The game, Ancient One, is on.”
So based on the trailer, do I recommend the movie? Yes, yes I do. It’s a Marvel origin story, and those are starting to wear thin, but it’s visually stunning and it’s got great talent on and off camera. It remains to be seen whether that and the story are enough to push Doctor Strange beyond serviceable to truly great, but either way, it’s worth at least one watch.
Who knows? It might be Strange-ly appealing.
Doctor Strange is owned by Marvel Studios.
Based on the Trailer – Aloha
In case it’s not clear, Based on the Trailer reviews are supposed to be funny, full of jokes with an honest assessment at the end. So how do I make jokes about a trailer with much better jokes already built in? I guess we’ll find out together.
Aloha tells the story of a man who travels to Hawaii on business and rediscovers life and love. Should we tell this movie “aloha” as in hello or “aloha” as in goodbye? Well, let’s take a look at the trailer and find out.
So who stars in this movie? Bradley Cooper of American Sniper and Guardians of the Galaxy plays Brian Gilcrest. His ex-girlfriend Tracy is Rachel McAdams of Mean Girls and Sherlock Homes. His new love interest and Air Force liason, Allison Ng, is Emma Stone of The Help and The Amazing Spider-Man. Other cast members include Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock, John Krasinski of The Office, and Bill Murray of Ghostbusters.
The director and writer is Cameron Crowe, whose other films include Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, and We Bought a Zoo. I haven’t seen his work before, but from what I know about it, the man knows a thing or two about humor and human drama in his films.
The trailer opens with awkward silence, broken by Alec Baldwin screaming about how there were no good times. It’s kind of like War and Peace, only without the best of times. Apparently, Brian just blew a huge deal involving a new space command center. Thanks, Brian; because of you, Star Trek will never happen. “You are going to wear this like Flavor Flav wears a clock,” Alec tells him. And for people like me who had to Google it to get the joke (I don’t call myself the Nerd King for nothing), that means hanging around his neck.
“Live long and prosper. Oh, wait.”
But Brian refuses to let destroying the future of space travel get him down, and he gets a second chance as his old boss, Bill Murray, hires him back to work in Hawaii. So instead of punishing him for his meltdown, we’re giving him the working vacation most Americans would pay good money for? And with Bill Murray? Remind me to blow up at my job one day. Brian is introduced to Allison, whom he quickly discovers is chock full of energy (and is really smooth with a pair of sunglasses. “I’m so jacked for today,” she says, prompting Brian to triple his espresso order. I’m not sure whether that’s in order to keep up with her or to keep him from slapping her, but it’s a good call either way.
Aviator sunglasses equals instant ninjawesomeness.
As if one beautiful woman in Hawaii isn’t enough, Brian also meets his ex-girlfriend and wonders why they broke up. “Because you’re a workaholic who creates work to avoid real work,” Tracy tells him. So he’s a lazy workaholic? That’s got to be a first. “You wrecked everything,” she goes on, “and I put my life back together in spite of you.” Yeah, but did you lose a space command center because of it, Tracy? Huh? DID YOU?!
This is the face that says “I stopped taking you seriously the day I met you.”
Brian and Allison start arguing about whether Allison is actually needed for the mission or whether Brian works better alone and how Brian is cynical and whether or not his brains are unpickable and … okay, let’s just jump to the part where they start kissing. They’re so obviously going to fall in love, as much as they argue. We get a shot of Emma Stone learning to hula dance (which I didn’t know I needed in my life until now) and she tells someone over the phone (I’m guessing her mother, because who else would she be talking to a guy about?) that Brian could have been great if everything hadn’t blown up. Kudos to the trailer for not telling us what caused this horrible meltdown in Brian’s life. Less kudos to the movie if it turns out to be just his failed relationship with Tracy and nothing else.
“All he needs is web shooters and he’s the perfect boyfriend.”
Speaking of Tracy, she and Brian talk about Allison and having what they want in a way that suggests love triangle to me, a route I kind of hope they don’t go because then Allison wouldn’t have anyone and neither would Woody (John Krasinski), Tracy’s current boyfriend who doesn’t talk. Fortunately for that relationship, Brian can translate Woody’s nonverbal communication. Dude, you missed your calling as a sign language interpreter. Maybe if you’d had that job, you wouldn’t have cost us a space command center (no, I’m not letting that go; you will wear it like a clock, doggone it!).
“I’m sensing some tension here. What say we hug it out?”
Tracy says Brian came back to Hawaii for a reason. Yes, to take a job with Bill Murray so he can make money and not be homeless. “Let’s just talk about it before I explode,” she pleads. Yes, let’s not have this turning into a slasher film. Allison tells Brian she had fun on their day together, and Brian remarks that nothing beats fun. I should hope not. Don’t beat fun; what did fun ever do to you? “Your life is about to become very, very complicated,” Bill Murray tells Brian. And I know about complicated lives, because I spent several complicated lifetimes living the same day over and over again.
“No, you do not need that guy’s leg. Stop it.”
We get a rundown of the cast, and Bill Murray says, “The future isn’t just something that happens.” It’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey … stuff. “It’s a brutal force with a great sense of humor that’ll steamroll you if you’re not watching.” I’m sorry, Bill Murray, are we talking about the future or you? And that’s the note the trailer leaves us on. I get from the wonder in everyone’s eyes that the future being all these things is supposed to be good, but somehow I find the idea of being steamrolled by a brutal force less than comforting.
“Oh, look, a meteor coming to steamroll me.”
So based on the trailer, do I recommend the movie? Yes, yes I do. It seems like a sweet, funny, and poignant story with some great talent behind it. The trailer lets us fall in love with the characters without revealing too much of the plot, which is a novelty these days. Keep in mind it’s rated PG13, so it probably has some problematic content, but for older teens on up, this looks like a fun movie to see with your friends or your sweetheart. I don’t know that I’ll see it in theaters, but I’ll definitely check it out when it comes out on DVD.
It’ll tide me over until they put Bill Murray in charge of a space command center in Hawaii.
Aloha is owned by Sony Pictures.
The Nerd King 