Film Review: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) — A (World) SFF Film Odyssey
Readers may be familiar with director Luc Besson’s previous work, which includes the excellent films like The Fifth Element (1997), Leon the Professional (1994; featuring a quite young Natalie Portman), or the lesser-known, but personal favorite, Unleashed (2005; featuring Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, and the late Bob Hoskins). These are wildly different films, but they are a testament to Besson’s versatility as a writer and director. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec; 2010), seems, then, to be a departure from what has come before, in no small part because this is a film which is coded for a younger audience by its humor and delivery. In that respect, it is a fun, if not somewhat uneven adventure comedy.
Film Review: Shank (2010) — A (World) SFF Film Odyssey
Most of you haven’t heard of Shank. On some level, that’s probably a good thing. Though low-budget can sometimes produce remarkable results, Shank is a film which suffers from a feeling of inexperience, overexertion, and disjointedness. Set in a depression-rattled London in 2015, Shank follows a ragtag group of young men who are trying to earn enough money to do…something. It’s never made clear exactly why they need to raise the money to go wherever they’re going, and this fact becomes irrelevant when Junior’s (Kedar Williams-Stirling) brother, Rager (Ashley “Bashy” Thomas — the UK rap artist), is murdered by rival gang leader, Tugz (Jerome Holder). His dreams crushed, Junior sets off on a journey to get revenge, bringing along his family of gang members: Kickz (Adam Deacon), Craze (Michael Socha, who looks suspiciously like Jake Gyllenhaal), and Sweet Boy (Jan Uddin).
Film Review: Trollhunter (2010) — A (World) SFF Film Odyssey
Trollhunter (2010)(Trolljegeren in Norway) is André Øvredal’s most popular film, though it is, I’d argue, sorely overlooked by American audiences. Originally released in October 2010, the film was eventually transplanted to U.S. audiences via the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011. The premise is fairly simple: Under the guise of presenting secret footage, Trollhunter follows a trio of student journalists who arrive in the mountains in order to interview and document the actions of a mysterious man named Hans who locals suspect is illegally killing bears. In their attempts to catch the man in the act, they follow him and discover that Hans is actually a trollhunter, protecting the borders between human and troll territories with a UV light gun and other clever amenities. Invited to ride along, the trio document Hans’ journey to determine what has caused a recent series of violent troll events, only to realize that they’re in over their heads.
A (World) SFF Film Odyssey: Mutant Girls Squad (2010) and Anime’s Excesses
Warning: there are some graphic images in this post. NSFW. Not too long ago, I set myself the goal of viewing every SF/F film released in 2010. It figures that the first non-American film I decided to view would be one of the most ridiculous, violent, and bizarre films I have seen in a while. After being bullied by her classmates, high school student Rin (Yumi Sugimoto) returns home to discover that her father is actually a humanoid mutant known as a HILKO (or hiruko — the subtitles use HILKO, but descriptions of the film use “hiruko,” so I’m not sure which one is correct). But before she can take in this surprising news and its implications for herself, she and her parents are attacked by an anti-HILKO military unit. What follows is an all out bloodbath as Rin tries to escape not only the military, but the blood-thirst of her home town. Later, she is picked up by other HILKO members and trained and indoctrinated into a violent counter-revolutionary force run by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), who believes his pack of teen girl HILKOs are the perfect fighting force for making Japan a human-free zone.
