Red Dawn (2012)

Rating: **

Like another release this year, Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods, this remake of the John Milius 80s hit, Red Dawn, has been rescued from bankruptcy purgatory, a near-terminal condition it enjoyed thanks to the shaky financial ground of studio MGM post-recession. But like Cabin in the Woods, Red Dawn is now free to regale us with its tale, but really that's all you can say about this film on the occasion of its release. Instead, Red Dawn is a bizarre time capsule of a movie now, a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth, a pre-Hunger Games Josh Hutcherson, a pre-father's-separation-from-Katie-Holmes Connor Cruise...

Of course, the original Red Dawn is a time capsule in its own way. A call back to the last, great gasp of the Soviet Union, the renewed fears in the mid-80s of nuclear stand-off, and Star Wars, and an evil empire ready and willing to gnarl its teeth at the world's beacon for freedom. Sadly, the world nearly 30 years after the first Dawn is a completely different place. We know now the villains of the world are more likely to be lone wolves rather than empires, and although there are some countries ready to fit the part, they lack the desire to conquer militarily, or the capability.

Which is why this Red Dawn starts a step back to begin with. Originally casting China as the villain, the movie may have been able to earn, at least, an iota of plausibility, but the cynical move to recast the bad guys as North Korean, lest lucrative Chinese box office money be lost, automatically puts Red Dawn on a bad footing. Granted, if you know anything about real world politics, a Chinese invasion is pointless considering that country is literally the economic centre of the world as it is, but North Korea? They can put on a good parade, but they've only ever been able to fight their southern neighbours to a stand still. Honestly, if you're going to conquer the world, why not start with South Korea?

Of course, logic has no place (mostly) in an action movie. In this film, it is North Korea that launches an all out invasion of the United States, although it is inferred that they're getting help from the Russians, which frankly poses more questions than it answers. In small town Pacific Northwest U.S., several teens manage to escape the North Korean paratroopers and set themselves up as freedom fighters living in the woods on the outskirts of town. Leading the ragtag group is Army veteran Jed Eckert (Hemsworth), who teaches his younger brother Matt (Josh Peck), love interest Toni (Adrianne Palicki) and a group of assorted and demographically well-represented teens (Hutcherson, Cruise and Edwin Hodge) in the fight against the Koreans. Taking the name of the local high school football team, The Wolverines, they make life miserable for the local commander (Will Yun Lee) and the occupation force.

But seriously, if the initial premise didn't already strain credibility, seeing this group of Breakfast Clubers fight the mighty, North Korean military machine with the efficiency of the Dirty Dozen is out and out laughable. Hemsworth, naturally, is believable as a bad ass, all square jawed steely eyed even in pre-Thor mode, but the others were tough to buy as an effective fighting force, let alone becoming Merry Men like resistance folk heroes worthy of song and story. Former Disney Channel staple Peck is especially problematic because he spends half the movie pinning for his girlfriend (Isabel Lucas), until he puts his entire squad in danger in a ham-fisted rescue attempt. Hardly the stuff of military legend. Of the rest of the cast, at least Hutcherson is buttressed by his Hunger Games role, Palicki too given that she's Lady Jay in the upcoming G.I. Joe sequel.

The real problem though is that you never quite buy the storyline, and despite all the ADR and CG-flag pasting, the film's so busy trying to make sure you buy the Koreans as a globe-spanning conquering army that they don't get a chance to do what these types of films are supposed to do best: convince you of the awesomeness of America. There was hardly any flag-waving, no soaring speeches, no thoughtful allegory, no quoting of great Americans past. There was more patriot fervour in those National Treasure movies for crying out loud! What this film needed, sadly, was a bit of Michael Bay.

Another problem, perhaps exacerbated by the 11th hour recasting of the evil invaders, is that The Wolverines have no one proper to throw any of that patriotic vim. Lee, who's actually played a North Korean officer in the recent cinematic past (in Pierce Brosnan's final Bond, Die Another Day) seems to have barely any presence at all, and I honestly can't remember if he had any dialogue in the film at all. Perhaps every line he had referenced China, but without a villain of suitable stature its hard to get behind our band suburban heroes, and the Koreans look even more helpless against the high schoolers who are taking their guns and raiding their supplies. Basically, the conquerors look like Keystone Cops, and that doesn't exactly breed dread or drama.

In all, I can't think of a single thing in Red Dawn done, at least, marginally well, except for maybe the authority of Hemsworth as he delivers speeches and encouragement with the believability of a young Lee Marvin, complete with glare as cold as an northerly wind. The rest feels like a film that you'd expect from a movie development history of Red Dawn, basically, it's been chopped up and repainted so many times that it doesn't look like what it was probably supposed to be in the first place. Some things are better left in the 80s, I guess.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Rating: ***

Obviously, this ain’t your mama’s Snow White. Not just because the titular princess is played by vampire bait emo-queen Kristen Stewart, and not just because Charlize Theron paints the evil queen as one of her recurrent sexpot roles, but because the film revels in the style implied by the name of the original Snow White authors: Grimm.

Under the supervision of commercial director Rupert Sanders, Snow White becomes a Tolkien-like epic across a sprawling fantasy landscape to battle improbable evil forces to save the kingdom from evil. And because of that, it’s less a damsel in distress-y tale where the limp and weak princess needs constant saving. Well it kind of is, but at least there’s a feeling that although Snow White may need occasionally (frequent) rescues, she’s not waiting for rescuers, be they drunken hunters, or seven little dwarves.

In this Snow White, trouble comes when the grief stricken king rescues the beautiful captive Ravenna (Theron) from an evil army. But Ravenna has her own dark agenda, and after seducing the king, she murders him on their wedding night, seizes his kingdom and locks up his daughter Snow White (Stewart) high up in the castle tower. Years later, Ravenna is told by her magic mirror that she’s not the fairest anymore, but if she wants the title forever she’ll have to literally take the heart of Snow White.

Here’s where the fairy tale goes off its traditional course for a more post-modern turn: Snow White uses a rusty nail to strike Ravenna’s brother (Sam Spruell) when he comes to collect her for dinner. She runs through the castle, evades the guards, escapes through the sewer, steals a horse and rides through the dark forest before the bad guys are able to catch up with her. Like Robert Munsch’s Paper Bag Princess, this royal knows how to handle herself.

In this movie, Snow White even has a “Prince Ronald.” Not that Snow’s long-lost childhood love William (Sam Claflin) is superficial and self-absorbed, but William as the story’s prince, doesn’t serve a tremendous function. Indeed, the Huntsman (played by Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth) is probably closer to being Snow White’s love interest here, although I don’t think that’s the point. Whether a matter of function or a matter of chemistry, it only helps the story’s new narrative, Snow White is not (just) the object of romantic desire, but a symbol of freedom from the evil, youth sucking claws of Ravenna. Sure, there’s still a poison apple and a kiss, but the tone and intention of those scenes is changed I think.

But while the screenplay does some interesting things with the story and its inherent archetypes, it is a letdown in some regards. It feels like the story wants to do so many things, but its running time is an issue and thus it all seems rather crammed. In the end it seems as if Ravenna’s forces go down so pitifully that you’re wondering what took the cowering masses of the kingdom so long to take her down. The time between Snow’s escape and climactic showdown seems like a series of checkpoints, and though it comes across as a Lord of the Rings-style epic journey, Snow White lacks Rings’ leisurely indulgence.

But the joy of Snow White is how it plays against expectations. Theron as the evil queen never ceases to be mesmerizing, and the actress throws herself into the part and all the assorted goo that comes with it. It’s actually surprising how much Theron gets away with, from some not so subtly implied incest between Ravenna and her brother, to the fact that Ravenna practically orgasms after she kills the king.

Against Theron, it’s hard for Stewart to keep up in the much blander role of the movie’s heroine, but unlike the majority of movie fandom, I find Stewart perfectly lovely and talented, and she’s at least believable as a butt-kicking princess in shining armour. She struggles in the giving of inspirational and commanding speeches, but she doesn’t come across as wholly out of place in the fairy tale world of the film.

Hemsworth is perfectly fine as the Huntsman, but really that’s all you can say about the character. It’s said that he had a wife, and after her death succumbed to despair and alcoholism, thus making him the type of brigand that I compare favourably to Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Han Solo in Star Wars. What’s missing though is what it is about Snow White that changes the Huntsman’s mind about turning her over to the queen, and the reason why he sticks around after he turns on the queen’s lackeys.

But where the film falls flat repeatedly is the hints at story threads that never get played up (or might get played up in a sequel). There’s hints that Ravenna is quite mad, as we see a scene where she talks to the golden cloaked figure that comes out of her mirror, but she seems to be the only one that sees him. The assembled dwarves have a beef with the queen, but it’s never explained what that is. It’s also never explained how Snow White can seemingly commune with the giant stag, or why the bridge troll retreats when she looks in his eyes. And it’s also never made clear why the land actually withers as Ravenna rules, and comes back to life when Snow White takes back her throne (a meme borrowed from The Chronicles of Narnia).

Snow White and the Huntsman is a middle of the road fantasy epic that has some interesting things in it, and has an interesting spin on a classic. It’s a cover tune, and a decent one at that. It’s a cover that feels like there’s reason and idea for it to exist although no one, least of all the filmmakers, seem to know what that is. Naturally, a sequel is already in the works, and I’d be interested to see what the filmmakers can make of the story now that Snow White’s “origins” have been established.

Either way, the film should make feminist critics of the Twilight films happy, for at least this time Kristen Stewart plays a princess that can save herself.