Tim Burton: What the fuck happened?

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before when I started to get seriously into films there were a number of directors I became mildly obsessed with: Kevin Smith, Terry Gilliam, & Tim Burton. Much like the interest with Gilliam I mentioned last time, my appreciation of Tim Burton began before I even knew who Tim Burton was.

As a child I gravitated towards the outlandish, I’d watch pretty much anything with robots, aliens, superheroes or monsters, anything that wasn’t inside the normal realm. Which is why I loved Beetlejuice, a tale of ghosts & ghouls, and why I loved Batman. Like anyone my age or older, your first exposure to the caped crusader was through the 1960’s TV series with Adam West, of course since Burton’s Batman there have been numerous films and series featuring Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego. But when I was a kid Adam West was pretty much it, so when Burton unleashed his version of the dark knight it was a revelation, he was just that, a dark knight.

After that came the urban fairy-tale of Edward Scissorhands, and Burton’s first team up with Johnny Depp. Again very much drawn to it, still having no idea these films were all made by the same man.

Then came the only sequel he’s ever done, Batman Returns. I went to see this at the cinema with my Dad and his friend, feeling incredibly lucky to do so, as the film was a 12, and at the time I was only 11. Granted nowadays we have 12A, if you’re under 12 it is acceptable to watch a film of that certification if accompanied by an adult. But this was ten years before that classification existed, basically I’d seen Batman Returns when I shouldn’t have and that made me cool…in my head at least.

After Batman returns Burton served up Ed Wood, Mars Attacks, and Sleepy Hollow, as well as serving as producer on the phenomena that is A Nightmare Before Christmas, an animated feature based on his own story and directed by Henry Selick.

Then it started to go all a bit wrong, while many of his previous films had spawned from some sort of source material, Mars Attacks was created around images from a series of bubblegum cards, not since Batman had Burton tackled something so established as The Planet of The Apes. I’m sure I’ve mentioned in some previous post about my love of the original apes films, and I’ve already mentioned here my love of Burton, so when I first learned that the two were coming together I was somewhat excited, but ultimately disappointed. In attempting a remake, reboot, rehash, whichever word you care to use, any sense of character and charm the original films had was wiped clean.

The often forgotten Big Fish followed, and quickly after came another Burton reworking with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and although it stuck much closer to the book, and had the trademark Burton look, it had, like Planet of the Apes, also lost the magic of the original. Gene Wilder will always be Willy Wonka.

Things started to look up as Burton started to diversify, directing his first animated feature in The Corpse Bride, and his first musical in Sweeney Todd. But the improvement in output was temporary, yet again Burton molested the established, but rather than cry rape, Alice in Wonderland, grew up and went on a killing spree. It was the second highest earning film in America after the Oscar winning Toy Story 3. But after watching I was the one feeling abused.

Which leads us up nicely to Dark Shadows…

When I saw the trailer I’m not going to lie, I had no desire to see this movie, it looked shit, and Burton’s let me down so many times in recent years. The film’s based upon a gothic soap opera that ran in America in the late sixties/early seventies, which about six months in introduced ghosts to the mix. But it wasn’t until the arrival of Vampire Barnabas Collins, that the show really took off.

Johnny Depp plays Barnabas, in his 7^th film with Burton, a man who’s spurned lover casts a spell upon him, turning him into a vampire, and then leads the towns people against him, eventually burying him alive..ish. This first 20 minutes, given a bit of fleshing out could have made a good movie. Barnabas however is accidently dug up 200 years later, and after gorging on the unsuspecting construction workers sets about restoring his family to their former glory.

As I’ve said I didn’t want to see this movie, but the future Mrs Lazertooth likes Burton, likes horror, and loves Depp, so because she wanted to see it, we went. For the most part I was pleasantly surprised, the set up was good, and as it started to unfold it carried along the same lines. But the longer it went on the more I started to have issues with it. Burton was attempting to recreate the soap opera feel, adding more and more elements, each character having their own storylines. The problem with this method is nothing is explored, everything is rushed, if it had been made into a TV series it would have had the room to breathe, but having it crammed into two hours suffocates it.

Then we get to the climax of the movie, and what a fucking car crash that was. It seems like Burton saw how much money the Twilight films have made, and thought I can pull that shit off, however he also seems to be trying to make Alice in Wonderland. It’s like the fly. Twilight attempting a transportation experiment, while its not looking Alice in Wonderland flys into the chamber, the two fused together in some mutated monstrosity, better off dead and buried under the patio.

It is a real shame, the character of Barnabas is brilliant, and brilliantly played by Depp. If the film focused more on him, and less on the other shallow stories, like the thieving uncle, or the werewolf cousin, and focused more on Barnabas trying to fit into the modern world, or at least 1972, it would have worked.

Top Tim

Since I’m trashing him somewhat it’s only fair I mention a few of my favourite Burton productions:

1.       Beetlejuice (1988) – This was the film that helped to make his name. The tale of a recently deceased couple who hire fellow spook Beetlejuice to scare out the current residents from their beloved home, but end up wishing they’d left ‘the ghost with the most’ well alone.

2.       Batman (1989) – The Burton Breakthrough. After Beetlejuice had proven his talents, Burton was intrusted with what was hoped to be a lucrative franchise.

The Dark Knight may be a brilliant Batman movie, especially Heath Ledger’s Joker performance, but this is still my favourite Cinema outing of the caped crusader.

3.       Ed Wood (1994) – A Biographical film chronicling the early life of the man dubbed ‘worst director of all time’, from his first Hollywood steps to the premiere of his most famous work.

The use of black & white helps give it the feel of a 1950’s production, as well as giving the film a warmth, which in turn helps to highlight the enthusiasm and genuine caring of an extremely interesting individual.

Dark Shadows Trailer

Ed Wood Trailer

A Voice of Ink and Rage

I first became aware of the author and acclaimed journalist Hunter S. Thompson while at college, it was during my time there studying media that my film addiction truly took hold; I couldn’t go a day without watching at least one. I used to spend a substantial amount of my weekly wage buying second hand videos from Cash Converters, a plastic bag of tapes to fuel my dependence. I would read up about directors, actors, anything to increase the buzz. I had encountered the trip that was Terry Gilliam after stumbling upon my parent’s video collection, viewing the likes of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Time Bandits, but it was Gilliam’s second and more intense time travel head fuck 12 Monkeys that this particular addiction strand was formed. Scouring the streets for another fix the drug ravaged lunacy of Thompson was unveiled to me with Gilliam’s adaptation of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

“Those of us who’d been up all night weren’t in the mood for coffee and doughnuts”

The creator of gonzo journalism, a style of reporting in which the reporter involves themselves in the action to such an extent they become the central character in the very story they’re trying to tell. With many of Hunter’s stories involving his epic substance abuse.

It was during the making of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, a gonzo account of an assignment to the city of neon and shame, Thompson struck up a friendship with Johnny Depp. The pair spent much time together, Depp trying to capture the mannerisms and character of Thompson in order to portray him on screen, and it was during this time that Thompson first showed Depp his unpublished manuscript for The Rum Diary, one of Hunter’s few works of fiction.

I say fiction, The Rum Diary, while being a fabrication is heavily influenced by Thompson’s own time in Puerto Rico as a journalist, and anyone who watches it can see its semi-autobiographical nature. Hunter worked for a Puerto Rican newspaper in his early days, the building he describes in the now published book is the very one he worked in. It’s also quite clear that the protagonist is a version of Thompson, a writer who hasn’t yet found is own voice, and probably why Depp portrays him as a young Raoul Duke, who for those unfamiliar with Fear & Loathing is the name Thompson gives himself in the book.

The alliance of Depp & Thompson spent many years, from that first reveal to Hunter’s grand exit attempting to get the book to screen. Eventually, after various people had been linked to the production, including Depp’s Fear & Loathing co-star Benicio Del Toro, Bruce Robinson was convinced to abandon his directorial retirement, and film the shit out of it, but we’ll get to that later.

Depp, while starring, also served as producer, and righty insisted that along with his name printed chair, there was also one for Thompson. The chair was set out every day, at every location, so that the spirit of Thompson would always be present. Upon the chair would sit Hunter’s favourite drink, and everyday Depp and Robinson would dab some behind their ears like cologne, essence of depravity.

Sadly Thompson never even saw the project reach pre-production. At the age of 67, Thompson, who suffered from various health problems, committed suicide, four years before Robinson started the screenplay. At his request he was cremated and his ashes fired from a canon.

“Don’t fuck with me now, I am Ahab”

Bruce Robinson is a man of many talents, screenwriter, director, actor, novelist, with his most notable work being his semi-autobiographical film Withnail & I. A farcical tale of two out of work actors, and their destructive, yet functional friendship.

He would then go on to direct the surreal How to get a Head in Advertising, and the underrated thriller Jenifer 8, before taking a little break from directing, some seventeen years to be precise. Maybe it was the obvious correlation between the novel and his early life that brought Robinson out of retirement to create the adaptation.

While attempting to write the screenplay for The Rum Diary he suffered from writer’s block. In order to combat the problem, Robinson, who had been sober for six years, began to drink every day until the screenplay was completed, quitting once again thereafter. Clearly it helped get him in the right mind set.  

“Holy Jesus, What are these goddamn animals”

Anybody who is looking for some kind of Fear & Loathing sequel will be disappointed; The Rum Diary is as different from Fear & Loathing as that was from Where the Buffalo’s Roam, the 1980 film starring Bill Murray as Thompson. Fear & Loathing could only ever have been made by the twisted imagination of Terry Gilliam, whereas The Rum Diary could have been made by anyone, but I don’t think just anyone could have done the job as well as Robinson. The film has a similar feel to Robinson’s first work, less bleak and British, more sun drenched and Puerto Rican, but just as dysfunctional, just as many misadventures and trouble with the locals. Whether it was worth Robinson’s day release from his self-imposed directorial exile is up for debate, but he certainly writes like Thompson.

It’s not the greatest film Robinson has made, he’ll be hard pressed to ever better his debut, and Gilliam’s effort will forever be the Thompson benchmark, it is however clear this was a labour of love for all involved, which I don’t think would have seen the light of day if Depp hadn’t done the pirates movies, his name is so big right now filmmakers can probably make their money back just from the audience percentage attending simply because it’s ‘the new Johnny Depp movie’ without actually knowing anything about the plot. In fact you could probably make a tidy sum just filming him pissing about in the costume department…in 3D.

If this were a superhero movie, it would be the origin story, where the young photographers bitten by the radioactive spider, where the little richboy sees his parents slain and turns vigilante, where the heavy drinking writer finds his voice and blazes the trail for the verbally unhinged.

The Rum Diary Trailer

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Trailer

Withnail & I Trailer

Assembly Required

Brace yourself!! This is the longest blog so far, there’s just so much to talk about, like why it’s called The Avengers in America and Avengers Assemble, which is a good title, but a title for the inevitable sequel. Apparently it’s because the Americans think we’re retarded, somewhat bottle & kettle I think, as the  upper crust pipe smokers and cockney chimney sweeps we are, we British are either to inbreed or illiterate to distinguish between a group of superheroes fighting the forces of evil, and a camp sixties secret agent television series, or its subsequent big screen re-hash.

So to help prevent any of your brains exploding from the concept that Uma Thurman isn’t in this one, I’ve split the usual ramblings into easy to manage sections, so if it all gets a little much you can have a nap halfway, and not get lost on your way back.

Marvel

Don’t go for that nap yet, here’s the history lesson. Founded in 1939 under the name Timely Comics the giant of panels and speech bubbles was born. By the 1950’s it had taken its first alter ego in Atlas Comics, fighting crime and fleecing children everywhere of their pocket money. It wasn’t until the early 60’s the identity of Marvel Comics was assumed, named after Timely’s first publication. It was here the publisher put on its cape and big boy pants, and became the legend we all know and love.

Coincidently this was also the time a man named Stan came to Marvel town, and with his friends Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko created a collection of superheroes. A roster unlike any other, although DC Comics would give it a bloody good go, a roster that includes: Spider Man, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and X-Men.

Marvel has always regaled us with the adventures of its heroes through the medium of comics, but from early on they ventured into the realm of the moving image. In the late 60’s they licenced out its characters resulting in animated productions of Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man, and their pre-Marvel creations Captain America and Sub-Mariner.

During the 1980’s Marvel also had its own production company, Marvel Productions, who with collaboration are responsible for some of the most popular animated series of the decade, including: Transformers, My Little Pony & G.I.Joe (or Action Force as it was known on these shores)

In 1990 we received a Captain America movie, but anyone who’s seen it will understand why it took so long for the current comic book explosion. DC Comics had had some success with the Superman movies in the late 70’s & early 80’s, and then again with Batman in the late 80’s & early 90’s, however it wasn’t until Bryan Singer gave us X-Men that comic movies took off, now every summer is littered with superhero films.

The build up

Comic books are a fairly standard source for movies nowadays, but as I’ve mentioned it wasn’t until the success of X-men that the world of comics became so acceptable. Since then we’ve not only had a slew of super hero movies, but comics, and graphic novels have been used as source material for a number of other films, such as: From Hell, 300, V for Vendetta & Sin City.

Marvel had already put out a couple of films based on their most well-known characters in conjunction with other studios, but it wasn’t until Iron Man that they made a live action movie all by themselves. This is also where the first seeds of The Avengers movie were sown. After the credits, something that would become a trend, Tony Stark is approached by Nick Fury about the Avenger initiative.

The Incredible Hulk was released the same year, a lose sequel to the 2003 Ang Lee film Hulk. After re-acquiring the films rights from Universal Marvel were able to tie the series into the grand scheme. The post credit sequence shows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) approaching Bruce Banner about the Avengers. Edward Norton, who plays Banner in The Incredible Hulk, was originally going to reprise the role in Avengers Assemble, but was later replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

In 2010 we get an Iron man sequel which takes place several months after the events of the first film, and directly before Marvels next film Thor. The post credit sequence shows Agent Coulson in the desert, following up the discovery of Thor’s hammer. Iron Man 2 also introduces us to Scarlett Johansson’s character Black Widow.

2011 brings us the last of the run up films, Thor and Captain America. Thor as well as revolving around the Asgardian, introduces us to Hawkeye. The final two films also lay a lot of the ground work for Avengers Assemble, but you don’t need to see them to enjoy the film, everything is made pretty clear.

Joss Whedon

if you don’t know who Joss Whedon is you can’t call yourself a geek, he’s the man behind some of the greatest Sci-fi & Fantasy series of the last twenty years. The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, Firefly, which may have been short lived, but also spawned the excellent film Serenity, and most recently Dollhouse.

As well as writing and directing countless episodes of the aforementioned series, he wrote the scripts for the original Buffy movie and Alien Resurrection, and co-wrote Toy Story.

He’s also not unfamiliar with the world of comics, being a fan himself he’s made numerous comic references within Buffy, for example when the character Xander loses an eye and starts wearing an eye patch, he likens himself to Nick Fury. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Nick Fury character outside the recent marvel films, before the introduction of the Ultimate Avengers comics Fury was a white man who had fought in Vietnam. It was in the ultimate avengers, an updated retelling of the Avengers adventures, Fury became black, who at one point is described as Samuel L. Jackson with an eye patch, which is why it was so cool that Jackson was signed up to play Fury in the new films.

Okay went a little off track there, back to Whedon’s comic book credentials. As well as writing for spin-offs of his own productions, he has also written for the X-men comics, so he’s certainly familiar with the world of superheroes and the world of marvel. So not only does he know his comics, he’s also well versed in high concept production, he’s a skilled writer and an accomplished director.

Avengers assemble

This is the greatest comic book movie ever made, and will take some beating, though it has competition on its way later this year from Spiderman reboot, The Amazing Spiderman, and the final part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Dark Knight Rises.

A film which technically has taken a decade of build-up, and six other movies to get there. A movie I’ve been creaming over since Iron man, and every instalment up to this point. A movie that was every fanboys wet dream, a movie that was worth the wait, and a movie rarer than a unicorn pimped out in leprechaun gold, a movie I would actually pay to see again.

It’s got all the things any fan wants to see from a movie of this nature, smack downs between the various heroes, Iron Man vs. Thor and Thor vs. Hulk. As well as an epic, city wide scrap between The Avengers, Loki & the alien Hordes.

One thing I can say for certain is Hulk steals the show, big green gives us the two funniest moments of the film. Moments where, and I’ve never experienced this before, even when seeing a comedy, everyone in the theatre was laughing, and not just a little, but a lot. Laughing so hard and long, I was starting to wish to myself that they’d all shut up so I could hear the film, wishing while hypocritically laughing myself.

Animated

Marvel have made a number of animated movies based upon their characters, including two Avengers movies. The best of these films are:

·         The Next Avengers – The original Avengers are dead, at least most of them. One of the survivors Tony Stark a.k.a. Ironman has spent the last 13 years in hiding, as protector of the next generation, the child of the Avengers.

·         Thor: Tales of Asgard – The first major adventure of Thor, Loki, Sif & The Warriors Three

·         Planet Hulk – After being exiled from earth, Hulk finds himself on an alien world where he is forced to take part in gladiatorial battles.

And that’s me done.

Avengers Assemble Trailer

Next Avengers Trailer