It used to be that if you wanted a big, kick ass action movie, you would have to wait for the next Bond movie for all the stunts and explosions and cheesy villains and whatnot... now, it seems, every other movie is trying to be the kind of thing Bond used to be...Damn... now I just sound really old...
Anyway... I have to say though, that none of them have done it with such obvious style and a definite sense of tipping the hat to the Bond movies than Stormbreaker...
Given that the whole premise of both the movie and the Alex Rider books is essentially "Baby Bond", that's probably to be expected, but even so, this movie really does do it with a great sense of style.
The whole thing put me very much in mind of Moonraker actually... whether it's the whole Stormbreaker/Moonraker name similarity... or the "stuck in the evil villain's base" thing, or what, I don't know... but Moonraker kept floating through my brain at certain points... but not in a "this is kinda bad like Moonraker was" way.
Normally I'm not big on actors chewing their way through the scenery (okay, so that's kind of a lie under the right circumstances), and there's a LOT of it in Stormbreaker... and I mean A HELL OF A LOT! Missi Pyle, Mickey Rourke and Andy Serkis as the evil trio in the movie essentially spend the whole time gnawing on the scenery, as does Bill Nighy... but whereas in some movies it's just bad... in Stormbreaker's case they're all hilarious. It's just tongue in cheek enough and over the top enough to actually work... especially since Alex Pettyfer stays very serious, yet appropriately bemused, at all this overly hammy acting going on around him.
Speaking of Alex... I'm officially putting him in a box labelled "Open in 2008" (the year he turns 18)... he's going to be heartbreakingly gorgeous in a couple of years time... he's about a step and a half away from that now, and for someone who was 15 when the movie was made has an almost impossibly deep voice. Definitely one to keep an eye on. In fact in another fifteen or twenty years, I would seriously think that he could be a contender for the "real" James Bond role (that is if they're happy to keep with the blonde Bond thing).
I know that they seriously adapted and truncated and altered the original plot from the book in certain spots, but it's been a while since I read it, so I couldn't tell you all the liberties that they took... although since the screenplay was written by the author, Anthony Horowitz, I wasn't overly bothered by the alterations they did make. I've been a big fan of Anthony's work back since I was a teenager after reading The Falcon's Malteser and Public Enemy Number 2, part of his teenage gumshoe "Diamond Brothers" series of books. He actually does really well at taking that kind of "adult" concept, whether it's the Humphrey Bogart/Sam Spade thing from the Diamond Brothers, or the Bond concept in the Alex Rider books and turning it into something for a younger audience (but at the same time keeping enough of a nod and a wink to those of us who know and get his original references).
Getting back to the movie though, while I don't normally pay that much attention to the soundtrack, at least not during the actual movie... in Stormbreaker's case the soundtrack not only worked really well with in the context and feel of the movie, but it was memorable... I Predict a Riot by the Kaiser Chiefs, Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz amongst other things (I actually can't find a full listing of the tracks online anywhere at the moment).
On the (very slight) downside it did feel a little rushed in a couple of spots... but I suppose when you're essentially trying to fit an "adult" movie into a 93 minute "kids" movie (I use the quotes since Stormbreaker is actually rated M here, meaning that it's "recommended for mature audiences aged 15 years and over"), then it is going to feel rushed at times. The other nitpick was a reference to sodium pentothal being a substance that would make "anyone do your bidding for up to six hours"... I mean c'mon... they couldn't have just made up the name of a random chemical?
But all in all it was just enough of everything... action packed enough to stand up next to a Bond movie... funny enough to make me laugh in places... smart enough to keep me interested... visually interesting enough (especially the scenes in and around London) to entertain me... and well acted enough to just be a damn good movie.
yani's rating: 4 Baby Bonds out of 5
4 comments:
Come on, Moonraker was not that bad - at least up to the section when Bond goes into space.
By then again there was the naming of Dr Holly Goodhead - so you may have a point!
Pigeons doing a double-take... need I say more?
The pigeon is bringing back some memories - was that during the gondola chase through Venice?
Indeed it was... as Bond comes out of the canal on the "hover gondala"...
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