The Mid-Aughts started in 2003 with Daredevil in February. It had Ben Affleck in his first superhero role playing the blind attorney, Matt Murdock, who has super senses and fights street crime. Daredevil is of course a Netflix show that has started in 2015 and is ongoing.
Pre-MCU was the Hulk movie, directed by Ang Lee. It has a comic book style with scenes shown in panels, but the story is confusing. X2: X-Men United was next bringing in Wolverine’s origin, a pattern of the X-movies focus on the popular characters, with Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler perfectly capturing the comic’s character. It was one of the top films at the year’s box office. The Matrix Reloaded was another sequel and it was filmed concurrently with it’s sequel. Neo (Keanu Reeves) uncovers the secrets of the Matrix, but also faces his dark reflection in Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines continued the Terminator story without James Cameron. There is a new Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken) sent to kill John Connor again. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen debuted which was a collection of literary and horror figures in a cyberpunk story loosely based on the comic book.
Five months after the last Matrix movie, there was The Matrix Revolutions finishing the trilogy, Neo met his destiny to finish the Matrix before the Sentinels destroy the last human resistance in Zion. There was a Peter Pan film that was an authorized adaptation with Jeremy Sumpter taking on Jason Isaacs’ Captain Hook, but it failed at the box office. At the end of the year was the conclusion of another trilogy, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it was a financial success, top of the box office, and critical winner. It swept the Academy Awards and won prestigious categories not simply technical awards with usual sci fi movies like Avatar and Star Wars winning. Fantasy, in the form of LoTR, is most honored of genre films, and won the most awards. Return of the King won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Song, “Into the West”, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Make-up, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Genre films in 2004 began with Hellboy, based on the comic book by Mike Mignola, it was directed by Guillermo del Toro. It featured Ron Perlman as the working class demon/superhero fighting a resurrected Rasputin.
The same month was the release of the fantasy, Ella Enchanted, based on the Gail Carson Levine novel. The film had Anne Hathaway as the girl cursed by a fairy to obey and has to find her to undo the spell. There is some singing and comedy, but it is essential like a family cable movie. Later, was the second The Punisher movie starring Thomas Jane, 15 years after the Dolph Lundgren film. It shifts the setting to Tampa Bay and has Frank Castle taking on the crime boss, Howard Saint. This was 12 years before his appearance in Netflix’s Daredevil. Next, was The Day After Tomorrow, directed by Roland Emmerich with other disaster movies to follow. This was based on Art Bell and Whitley Strieber’s The Coming Global Superstorm (1999) which I read. It follows Jake Glyllenhal and Emmy Rossum surviving the sudden Ice Age. Strangely, it was topical and reached #7 at the box office, but there was no coverage in science magazines when the movie was out. The third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, came out in June. It was directed by Alfonso Cuaron and seemed more grown up as a fantasy. Harry gets more of a family connection with the mysterious Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). It was nominated for Best Score (John Williams) and Best Visual Effects.
2004 continued with The Chronicles of Riddick. The sequel to Pitch Black featured Vin Diesel’s character, Riddick, escaping mercenaries and facing the Necromongers. Then, we had one of the top box office films of the year, Spider-Man 2, directed by Sam Raimi. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man faces Dr. Octopus played by Alfred Molina. One of the better Spider-Man films, it was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It won for Best Visual Effects. In July, there was the release of I, Robot, directed by Alex Proyas. It was based on the Isaac Asimov stories and featured Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner, part-cyborg, investigating a murder that involves the next gen robot, Sonny, played by Alan Tudyk. It was nominated for Best Visual Effects. A strange entry for comic book films was Catwoman starring Halle Berry. She played Patience Phillips who gets super powers from cats. There is no real connection to Batman and it would be eight years until we got a new version of the character. Next, was Alien vs. Predator, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film had archeologists sent by the wealthy Weyland to Antarctica and getting involved with the war between Aliens and Predators.
Then, we had the CG backlot of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, it offered a futuristic diesel-punk, but not much of a story. The last of the Blade movies, Blade Trinity, arrived with the Nightstalkers including Ryan Reynolds in his first superhero role as Hannibal King. They take on Drake played by Dominic Purcell who is currently Heat Wave on Legends of Tomorrow. The year wrapped up with Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events with Jim Carrey as Count Olaf based on the book series by Daniel Handler. It has a group of orphaned kids ending up in the care of Count Olaf. It was nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design was the winner for Best Make-up. Thirteen years later, there was a Netflix series with Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf. 2005 started in genre films with Elektra, spinning off from Daredevil, with Jennifer Garner as the assassin. A terrible adaptation of the comic books. Next, was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy based on the Douglas Adams’ book. There was a BBC television series 24 years before the film’s opening. Martin Freeman played Arthur Dent, hapless average guy, caught in a hilarious, galactic adventure.
The last of the Star Wars prequels tied close to the Original Trilogy with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. It had the end of the Jedi, the rise of the Emperor, and leaves just a thread of hope with the birth of the twins. It was nominated for Best Make-up at the Academy Awards. Then, there was Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins which mixed James Bond, The Shadow, and Batman: Year One in telling the origin of Batman. Christian Bale made a great Bruce Wayne and Batman fighting against Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Shadows. It was nominated for Best Cinematography. Next, was Steven Spielberg’s remake of War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier, a dock worker?, trying to unite his children with their mother. It was nominated for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. Another comic book film arriving in July with Fantastic Four which had a cast without chemistry. It was nice to see the FF on the big screen, but not with a weak story, direction, and cast.
Michael Bay attempted to direct a sci fi film with The Island which had Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as clones trying to discover the truth of their world. Then, there was Doom, the adaptation of the sci-fi video game sensation starring Dwayne Johnson, but it sputtered at the box office. Jon Favreau directed Zathura: A Space Adventure based on the Chris Van Allsburg book about three kids transported by a board game into a space adventure. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the next film in the series, directed by Mike Newell, it is my favorite of all of the series. The movie compressed and expanded on the story of the novel expanding on the world of Harry Potter. It was nominated for Best Art Direction. Charlize Theron starred in Aeon Flux, based on the MTV animated series by Peter Chung, which was a surreal story. Lastly, there was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. This film impressed me since the visuals were so different from what I imagined Narnia, but captured it’s heart. It was nominated for Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects and won for Best Make-up. This was another highlight for fantasy films. More superhero movies were being produced, but they were a mixed bag. Sci fi movies were caught with dark films in contrast to the epic scale that was seen in fantasy. We getting closer to wrapping up the movies of the Aughts!
#ReturnoftheKing,#BatmanBegins, #RevengeoftheSith, #TheLionTheWitchandTheWardrobe
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