A Look At The Birdman Movie

Michael-Keaton-Birdman

One of the most acclaimed movies of 2014 is Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and with good reason. The film follows Riggan Thomson, played by Michael Keaton, who is a former movie star who played superhero Birdman for three movies in the 1990s. Thomson is a shadow of his former self and is no longer a movie star. He has a broken relationship with both his daughter and ex-wife played by Emma Stone and Amy Ryan respectively. In an an attempt to prove he is not a talentless hack he decides to write, direct, and star in a Broadway show.

This is where the movie starts, Thomson is trying to make a last minute replacement for an actor he believes is incompetent. After going over lines with method actor Mike Shiner, played brilliantly by Edward Norton, he immediately hires him to take the part just one day before the first preview of the show, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”.

When that day comes Shiner decides to drink real liquor on stage and makes a scene and we start to see Thomson unravel. Keaton plays a very believable character struggling with self-doubt.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, a Mexican filmmaker best known for his films 21 grams and Babel, wrote and directed the film. His films often explore the cruel world and the imperfect people that reside in it, Birdman is no different. What is different is the cinematography. The entire film is made to look as if it were shot in one single shot.

If you went to the theater expecting to see a caped superhero you may be disappointed. And if you thought it would be some sort of social commentary on comic-book movies you’d be disappointed as well. It does, however, have some elements of social commentary on the world of Broadway vs. the world of Hollywood. Birdman only makes a few appearances as a character that haunts the actor and acts as a sort of anti-conscience.

X-Men: Days of Future Past Review

X-Men Days of Future Past

X-Men Days of Future Past

X-Men is one of the most popular franchises in movie history, and for good reason. Not only is X-Men a brilliant Marvel comic with powerful story lines and complex motifs, but it boasts an increasingly famous cast of mutants. Newcomers in this film were Jennifer Lawrence, Peter Dinklage, and James McAvoy.

Not only did the film do well in the box office, as all X-Men films do, it received critical acclaim as well. Bryan Singer is an amazing director, he is best known for, “The Usual Suspects” but has comic book to movie experience with previous X-Men films and Superman Returns. He does not disappoint with X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The plot sets this movie apart from the rest.

The movie is set in the future, and rather believably so, where sentinels are on the brink of exterminating not just mutants but the humans who dare to assist them. The sentinels are robots that can mimic mutant mutations, so as soon as they are attacked by a mutant they absorb that power and can use it from thereon. There remains a few mutants in this future and we finally see Xavier and Magneto come together to fight their common foe. To do this, they must project someone into the past to stop this from ever happening.

Let the spoilers begin: [WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Every X-Men movie has to have Wolverine. This beautiful predictability leads the writers to send Wolverine back to 1973 to stop Bolivar Trask, the creator of the sentinels, from being assassinated by Mystique. This event sparks a mindset for humans of us vs them. This is another subtle but not preachy X-men motif pulled off with flawless execution.

X-Men movies are not going anywhere, they make too much money, and the market is too big. The other good news for X-Men fans is that there is 40 years worth of stories, and Hugh Jackman is as timeless as Wolverine.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

justin perich captain americaCaptain America: The Winter Soldier – The latest Marvel movie is a nonstop action ride that will hold your attention from start to finish and not a second longer. Chris Evans, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, and Scarlett Johansson all turn in solid if somewhat stiff performances in this flick conventionally directed by Anthony Russo, a newcomer to the superhero genre who spends his allotted two hours attempting to build his bonafides by playing it safe and following his predecessors. As a result, the film never reaches the heights of The Avengers, Joss Whedon’s clever and inventive smash hit from a few years ago. Following the events of that movie, The Winter Soldier gives us a Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) living a quiet life in DC, attempting to adapt to modern life until another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is put in danger. The Captain teams up with the Black Widow and the Falcon to kick some ass, uncover an enormous global conspiracy, and save the day. It’s a formula we pay for and formula we get with this one–fortunately and surprisingly, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely pen their best script yet, and the resulting films includes enough comedy, tension and pathos that we find ourselves caring about the characters the way you might care about an action figure toy–it may be lifeless and a dime a dozen, but there’s undoubtably a connection there. 4/5 stars.