ICFR! 'Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows,' lack of wits

It's too often that Hollywood sequels aim for what audiences like to see and not what audiences like to experience. It's even worse when they miss the mark completely.

This week,  "Sherlock  Holmes: Game Of Shadows" struck me as one of  these rare films: the offspring of a fantastic, intelligent and stylish adaptation that seems to have been locked in the closet and taking swings at a pinata that's not even in the damn room.

(I'm getting to the point. I promise) Even MORE astounding is that the original cast returns with the same director and they even added the fantastically undertoned work of Jared Harris (Mad Men) as Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes' archnemisis. In a rather dry and flavorless movie, Harris adds a hint of deliciously peppered malice.
When Moriarty was hinted at (VERY much in the same vein as The Joker tease in "Batman Begins") in the original Sherlock  Holmes, I was ecstatic. I may be a novice in the world of Holmes, but any childhood nerd knows of the deadly battle of wits between Holmes and Moriarty.

Which brings me to my point: there's not much to fuel the fight in this movie. We open with a quick idea of the volatile political  environment that serves as a backdrop, but there's as much history mentioned between the two characters as there is behind a possible Bob Dylan/Justin Bieber duo album.

That is, of course, except for Moriarty dropping Rachel McAdams' character like she planned the Greek  economy. (Bieber AND political jokes? I'm on fire!)

So we're left with a somewhat aimless march through the paces. The paces being the things producers think will sell and NOT MUCH ELSE. Lots of stylish editing, lots of overly-charming banter, lots of chuckles. NOT. MUCH. ELSE.

Which left me wondering: where is the mystery? Where is the intrigue? Where is the incredible wit of Holmes and Watson?

It's been gutted and replaced with Watson and Holmes acting more like  Captain America (well, Captain England?)  without any super powers.

It seems that "Game Of Shadows" is a hollow attempt to keep  a franchise paletable to the general public by removing any chance of a truly chalenging mystery or compelling story.

'Superman vs. the Elite' updates classic comic story

One of the biggest questions that has always plagued comic book fans is why heroes don't just kill some super villains, instead of arresting them so they can come back and terrorize more citizens.

In the Superman story "What's so Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way" writer Joe Kelly introduces The Elite, a team of heroes who kill villains, becoming judge, jury and executioner. This idea does not sit well with the Man of Steel and a confrontation is inevitable.

In DC Animation's latest film "Superman vs. The Elite" Kelly brings his critically acclaimed story to life.

George Newbern returns to voice Superman, "NCIS" star Pauley Perrette is Lois Lane and accomplished voice actor Robin Atkin Downes is Manchester Black, leader of the Elite.

What makes the story so fascinating is that it poses very real questions in the guise of a fictional comic book world. For Kelly it was answering these questions that drove him to write the original comic.

"The germ for the story really came from a very visceral reaction I had to a comic I was reading at the time – 'The Authority.' It was a dark anti-hero comic," Kelly said.

"I really like the Authority and its characters, but there was an issue in particular that felt like it had pushed the boundaries of what makes a hero and what makes anti-hero. I found myself getting ‘fanboy mad,’ which I don’t normally get," Kelly continued. "We had an anniversary issue, and I asked Eddie (Berganza) if we could directly address those characters. I wanted Superman to take those characters on. And that became the germ for 'Action Comics 775.'"

Of course the original story was told in a single issue, so Kelly had to expand things a bit to fit a film script.

"We wrote a lot of new content for the film, and it was funny looking back at the comic because I forgot how much is discussed rather than shown. There’s so much going on between the panels," Kelly said. "It was very exciting to get to see the action sequences that were just hinted at. I’d always seen them in my head, now I get to see them played out in animation."

So does Kelly agree with The Elite's quick justice or Superman's more civilized ideals.

"I’m definitely more in the Superman camp. There are plenty of people I get angry about, and the eye-for-an-eye mentality does flash though my head. I think it does for anybody. But at the end of the day, I do believe we need to aspire to higher ideals. Maybe I’m being naive, and I may not be able to achieve those ideals myself, but we must make the attempt," he said.

"Superman vs. The Elite" is out on DVD and video on demand today.

Great Ideas Episode 15: Shark Boxing!

Sasha and Dan have returned! Great Ideas has a new episode available now.

This week, Dan and Sasha get deep on some of  the more interesting news stories of late including zombies, marijuana, Planned parenthood and children in pain!

Sounds funny, right? If you nodded at your computer screen like a mental patient, than you should CLICK  HERE!

MovieCats Episode 3: Snow White and the ZZZZZ

Heillo, Inscaped fans!

I bet you're wondering "Where can I find to slightly mentally unstable people who boil movies down to insane rants, then throw it out there in an amusing fashion?"

Well, I have an answer! The totally free and mostly  amusing Moviecats podcast! The new episode is available now and you can listen by CLICKING HERE.

Black Panther may join the fight

There's been plenty of rumors over the years that Marvel was greenlighting a Black Panther movie. However, the website Latino Review has report that says Black Panther will be Marvel's next big hero movie.

The idea certainly fits with Marvel's current franchise since the Black Panther has fought both with and against The Avengers.

Latino Review suggested "Red Tails'" Nate Parker for the role and while he might work as a young Panther, he wouldn't be believable as the King of Wakanda.

We've casted this role before and narrowed the choices down to Chiwetel Ejiofor or Idris Elba. Of course now that Elba is Heimdall in "Thor" he's out of the running.

Ejiofor is the only actor who can realistically pull off T'Challa's mix of royal gravitas, scientific genius and badass warrior. Plus he has to be able to hold his own with Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson.

Not to mention the Black Panther has a long romance with and eventually marries Ororo Munroe a.k.a Storm. So even though it will never occur on screen, this is the man who will end up with Halle Berry.

Parker couldn't certainly work in a smaller role but Ejiofor is the only logical choice.

The Theron of Them All : Snow White and The Huntsman

I wanted to really sink my teeth into the dark fairytale of Snow White and The Huntsman. But I couldn't and for the reason simply being there was not enough to sink into.

The film, started with great promise, lush and dark colors hinting that this would be the grimmest retelling of the story and not the high-camp-fluff of the Julia Roberts clone Mirror, Mirror. No, this had serious actors, like Charlize Theron, Ian McShane, Nick Frost, THOR (Chris Hemsworth) and of course, K-Stew.

This. Is. A. Serious. Movie, Guys.

Despite its early promise, a really cool breaking out of the evil castle scene done by Snow White, the movie gets stuck right when things should pick up. For starters, Kirsten Stewart was miscast. That is one of the pivotal sins of this movie and I saw this hoping that Stewart would break free from her Bella rut of passivity and one-note facial expressions, but oh no, I was wrong. Instead from time to time, I could have sworn I was watching Twilight and that's not a good thing. The character for Snow White and the Huntsman is ideally a feminist character (note: ideally) and she's supposed to be unlike that other Snow White who waits around waiting for her prince to come... someday. Nope, not this one. Our new Snow White jumps out of castles, yells, runs in armor, slashes faces, coming for the throne all the while remaining painfully awkward and still, waiting for someone more equipped to do the rest of the job, like fighting the bad guys and oh yeah, ripping her own dress.

At one moment, in a bizarre rallying cry, she inspires her legion of followers to uprise against the evil Queen, Ravenna but all she can muster is "use me as a weapon!"

What? Use YOU?  Um, no.

And while it would be easy to blame Stewart for the lag in Snow White and Huntsman its essentially the writing that does more damage than any poisoned apple could. It's clunky and trope-o-rific, Snow White is the destine one, her beauty is pure and innocent, she is pure and innocent and repeat. As you can see there is little character development here.

However, all is not lost in the dark forest. While Stewart may be the odd choice, supporting actors in this movie really do carry the film and carry they do try. Theron is magnificent, cruel and oh so glamorous in couture pieces that most fashionistas would froth over. The evil queen has complexity and makes for good screen time whenever we see Theron and her icy eyes. She radiates evil and contempt for men all the while devouring the youth of virginal peasant girls. Part of the premise of Snow White makes for good feminist critique: only the purest and fairest can defeat Ravenna? Yet, Ravenna's tragedy is that the very same qualities that were ideal for her success are also her tools for destruction. Despite Theron's candor, there is still room for improvement, Theron's evil queen is decidedly evil but makes too much of a show by screaming how evil she is. What's more, with such a stellar performance from Theron is the audience really expected to believe that Stewart is the fairest among them?

Running at an almost over-indulgent 2 hours, Snow White and The Huntsman manages to delivers the goods on special effects (price of admission for the Dark Forest and a screen by screen rip off of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke) Braveheart and Lord of the Rings fantasy and war portions with a healthy dose of cross-cultural European influences with a decidedly American cast.  It's not the grimmest it should have been or could have been, the potential is staggering in the first half and loses its cool during the second right around when we see Ravenna lose hers. In time for the onslaught of the summer blockbusters, its good but not great, dark but not sinister, plausible but not convincing. But most damning of all, new but not revelatory.