Movie of the Week: After Earth

Catching up with Movies of the week from three weeks ago. After Earth is Will Smith and his son Jaden as father and son Cypher and Kitai Rage in a science fiction deep-space setting when man has spread amongst the stars, but found deadly danger from aliens. The father is a legendary warrior, the son a youngster on the brink of manhood who hasn't yet found where his skills lie. Desperate to be a ranger like his famous dad he pushes himself further and faster than all his classmates, but still isn't deemed to be ready. Disappointment ensues. His father is hard to please and not terribly understanding.

When a deep space mission goes wrong Cypher and Kitai are the only human survivors of a wreck on an inhospitable planet. The other survivor is one of the aliens that was being transported in a now-defunct containment shell. With Cypher badly injured it's up to Kitai to cross the deadly jungle planet, avoid the alien and set the beacon in the tail end of their ship which has broken apart and landed far away.

And yes, the jungle planet is long-deserted Earth.

So this is a father and son movie, and a coming of age story at the same time with Will Smith happily playing second fiddle to his son who probably has a lot of potential but mainly plays this on one note. There's a lot of Will Smith sitting around looking pained and trying to offer advice long-distance and Jaden running, jumping off things and squaring up to personal fears. It's an OK way to spend 100 minutes of your time on a wet Wednesday afternoon.

Movie of the Week: Man of Steel

Catching up on movies of the week from 2 weeks ago...

Well, we all know the Superman origin story and this is yet another take on it in which Superman never wears his underpants outside his trousers, but instead ends up in a heavy rubberised suit more reminiscent of The Dark Knight. Costuming issues aside, the visuals on this are superb, especially the scenes on Krypton. Russell Crowe gets plenty of screen time as Jor-El and much kudos to Kevin Costner in the smaller role of the ill-fated Pa Kent, but it's Henry Cavill's movie as the dour and troubled young Clark Kent coming to terms with himself and his powers and finally donning the (muted) blue suit and (dark) red cape.

I enjoyed the new aspects of the character, hiding himself away, bumming around, bearded, as an itinerant worker until finally coming home and accepting who he is.

Comparisons with the Chris Reeve Superman movie are inevitable and the big difference is that Man of Steel takes itself very seriuously. There aren't any laughs or light moments. Chris Reeve played it very subtly but the sparkle was always there. Henry Cavill is straight up serious all the way through. Amy Adams is fairly bland as Lois Lane, but at last they've given her credit for being able to keep a secret.

Question: If Superman can grow a beard what metal on this earth can shave his chin clean again?

Movie of the Week: Much Ado About Nothing

Not just Much Ado About Nothing but Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, reputedly shot in a couple of days, in modern drsss, black and white, in Joss' own home, with a cast of his regulars more often seen fighting vampires or running illicit cargoes through the 'Verse. And it's fun.

My only complaint is that this movie has such limited release that we had to trek to a little-known part of Sheffield to find an art-house cinema with one showing, luckily on a Wednesday. It was, however, worth the trek.

You probably know the storyline: a pair of young lovers being messed about by malicious intent while the two people trying to set things right, despite their own relationship being somewhat gladatorial, end up finally admitting they are in love, due initially to a jest played on them by friends. It's not a play I'm overly familiar with (I don't think I've seen it since my school days) but it's not difficult to grasp, especially since it's played so well, with lovely touches of humour and a modern take on the songs.

Amy Acker (Angel/Dollhouse/Cabin in the Woods) plays Beatrice while Alexis Denisov (Buffy/Angel/Dollhouse/Avengers Assemble) plays Benedick. They are an engaging pair of leads with good chemistry and an excellent delivery of Shakespeare's words combined with great body-language. Fran Krantz (Dollhouse/Cabin in the Woods) plays Claudio while Sean Maher (Firefly/Serenity) plays the wicked Don John, responsible for deliberately setting two young lovers against each other.

Kudos to a much beefed up Nathan Fillion (Buffy/Firefly/Serenity/Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog) for his beautifully comic take on the wonderful Dogberry, played as a classic comedy double act with Tom Lenk (Buffy/Angel/Cabin in the Woods).

There are few faces here that you haven't seen in a Joss Whedon production, but it's great to see them all grasping the chance to do something different with both hands. They are all excellent , but this really is Amy Acker's movie.

Thank you, Joss, another hit.