We are now reaching the end of the Aughts with strong genre films. 2006 began in May with X-Men: The Last Stand now under the direction of Brett Ratner. The battle between the X-Men and Magneto was pushed to absurd lengths and this movie was pushed out of continuity. Next, was the movie Bryan Singer was working on instead of X-Men, Superman Returns. The film attempted to be a direct sequel to the Donner movies, but was too silly with Superman lifting an island of kryptonite and Lois Lane’s super child. Still, Brandon Routh made a great Superman, so I still like this film. It was nominated at the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, it lost to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Alfonso Cuaron directed the sci fi drama Children of Men based on the P.D. James novel. Civilization is collapsing as humans are infertile, Clive Owens plays Theo who is protecting a pregnant woman in a dystopian UK. It was nominated for Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Film Editing. The year ended, December 29th, with the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. The Spanish title, El laberinto del fauna, is more accurate. It is my favorite del Toro film, one of the best fantasy films, and truly captures the darkness of fairy tales. Ivana Baquero plays Ofelia who is trapped in the Spanish Civil War and has to face the terrors of the Pale Man, one of del Toro’s best creations. It is the winner of Best Art Direction, Cinematography, and Make-Up. The film was nominated for Original Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Original Score. del Toro was not nominated for Best Director, but later won after eleven years.
2007 was fairly weak with genre films, really a mixed bag with two superhero films ending their franchises. It began with an ending with Spider-Man 3 on May 4th. It was the last of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films throwing in Venom to appease fans. It was only eleven years later that we had the symbiote with his own movie. On June 12th, there was Transformers, it was nominated for Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. It was also eleven years before we had a Transformers movie, Bumblebee, with a new director, Travis Knight. We also had Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the second film that ended this series, the chemistry still wasn’t there with the cast. Doug Jones did play Silver Surfer. The next month was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. David Yates began his run with that film and concluded the Harry Potter films. The second Fantastic Beasts reminded me of the fifth Harry Potter movie, it threw everything at you, but ended up hollow. Stardust was based on the fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman. It was directed by Matthew Vaughn who has a great visual style with comic book based films, but I can’t say the same here. Then, we had AVP: Aliens vs. Predator combining two franchises, but setting the action on Earth. Its director worked on the Resident Evil movies. Lastly, we had The Golden Compass based on the Philip Pullman book. It featured a great cast with Nicole Kidman and Ian McKellen who voiced the polar bear, Iorek Byrnison, but the film was weak. The movie was nominated for Best Art Direction. His Dark Materials, the book series, is being adapted by the BBC with Dafne Keen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and James McAvoy.
2008 revitalized and in some ways legitimized comic book films. It started in May with Iron Man which launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This also put superheroes into franchises and made Hollywood look for the latest IP to turn into franchises. Director Jon Favreau really risked everything to turn Robert Downey Jr. into a bankable star. His portrayal of Tony Stark, inventor and superhero, is now iconic. It was only nominated for Best Visual Effects which shows that the Academy doesn’t honor films that change the industry. Andrew Adamson directed the sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which was bittersweet with the older siblings having their last adventure in Narnia. It did introduce Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian. Peter Dinklage starred in his first fantasy project, outside of the comedy Elf (2003), here. Next, there was the second MCU film, The Incredible Hulk, it was directed by Louis Leterrier. Edward Norton played Bruce Banner, but was re-cast for The Avengers (2012). This an interesting exploration of Banner dealing with the curse of being The Hulk resulting in his counterpart The Abomination. Peter Berg directed a superhero film not based on any comic book, Hancock, co-written by Vince Gilligan from Breaking Bad. It of course starred Will Smith as John Hancock. Then, there was the 3D sci fi film, Journey to the Center of the Earth. A fun, family version of the 1864 Jules Verne novel with Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson taking on dinosaurs and dangers of the Center of the Earth.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo del Toro, hinted at his destiny and taking on the Elf Prince Nuada (Luke Goss). It was nominated for Best Make-up. Christopher Nolan continued the Batman story with The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger posthumously won Best Supporting Actor for playing The Joker. The acting award is prestigious for superhero films. The film also won Best Sound Editing and was nominated for Best Sound Mixing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Make-up, Film Editing, and Visual Effects. The last film is The Day The Earth Stood Still which 57 years after the original. It has an alien visitor, Klaatu, that takes the form of Keanu Reeves. 2009 was another year for interesting genre films. After he played the Human Torch and two years before he took up the shield, Chris Evans was in Push. He played Nick Gant, a telekinetic Mover and has to help a psychic girl escape from Division. In May, we had the film adaptation of Watchmen, but I’m not keen on adaptations that take from Alan Moore’s work. Then, we had the vision of director Duncan Jones with Moon starring Sam Rockwell playing a man alone on the moon having an identity crisis. The following month, July, was Race to Witch Mountain 34 years after the Disney film. It featured Dwayne Johnson as a cab driver who gets involved with two teens with power, a good action movie that has fun with UFOlogists and conspiracies. The next month was the release of District 9 directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was based on his 2006 short film, Alive in Joburg. The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, and Visual Effects. Blomkamp’s directing potential seemed to diminish with his other movies. Terminator Salvation was yet another sequel without James Cameron’s involvement. The near future was not apocalyptic and had the human Resistance fighting against Skynet and the Terminators.
JJ Abrams rebooted Star Trek, this was set in the Kelvin timeline, it had Chris Pine as a young Captain Kirk and it is his first voyage on the Enterprise. The movie won Best Make-up and was nominated for Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. Also, released on the same day was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it featured the story of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and was based on Wolverine: Origins comic book. It seems like this origin and movie may have happened, but let’s not mention it. The film was not well received by fans and awkwardly introduced Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool seven years before his own film. In November, there was the sci fi thriller, The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich as a psychologist who uses hypnosis to uncover alien encounters. David Yates directed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where Harry now works with Dumbledore to destroy the Horcruxes that contain Voldemort’s soul. It was nominated for Best Cinematography for Bruno Delbonnel. All of the films were overshadowed by James Cameron’s Avatar released in August. We were introduced to the world of Pandora which had its own eco-system, native people, and mysticism. Cameron popularized 3D with the film, but that trend seems to be faltering really because filmmakers don’t understand the medium, but Cameron had experience with the Universal Studios attraction T2 - 3D: Battle Across Time. It was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing. It won for Best Art Direction and Cinematography. The long delayed sequels begin with Avatar 2 in December 18, 2020. The year finished with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directed by Terry Gilliam. Heath Ledger passing away resulted in his character transforming into Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell. The movie was nominated for Best Art Direction and Costume Design. We have great entries with fantasy, superheroes, and science fiction with this decade!
#ChildrenofMen, #PansLabyrinth, #IronMan, #Avatar
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