Vidocq

So there is a lot of conflicting concepts and ideas going on with how this movie is both advertised as well as some of the core concepts of the movie. Most of the information I had gotten about Vidocq (for some reason, most US releases I have seen around have renamed it Dark Portals... I've seen it and still don't understand that) beforehand had been that it's a very good Steampunk movie, something I haven't really seen done well to date. Then I find out that Eugène François Vidocq was a real person and probable inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes. So I've already got a little bit of cognitive dissonance going into this movie and I haven't even seen frame one yet.

So the opening of this movie gives us Gérard Depardieu as the titular character stalking someone through a dark, crowded, fiery place leading to a quick fight with a Mirror Masked individual which ends with Vidocq's apparent death. End of movie I guess. But no, a young man claiming to be Vidocq's biographer arrives and begins investigating Vidocq's murder to avenge him and so we get to watch as the intrepid reporter tracks Vidocq's movements, followed by flashbacks to Vidocq's movements tracking down the nebulous and sinister Alchemist. And in a shocking twist that no one saw coming, at least you wouldn't have seen it coming if you weren't paying any attention whatsoever, Vidocq did not die in the fire hole he fell into at the beginning of the film and our intrepid reporter is, in fact, our nefarious villain. Oooooh. Big mirror fight and the villain is stabbed with a big glass shard, thrown out a window to fall some ridiculous height into the river below to die... or does he?

So this isn't quite as bad as it sounds. Sure the overall structure of the story is pretty standard and there's no real surprise to the ending whatsoever, but there are some interesting character tweaks and villainous foibles which are kind of interesting and stupid at the same time. Like the villains mask. Stylewise it's an absolute win, but then they go and make it a magic mirror mask that sucks people's souls in when they die and it gets a little ridiculous. And Gérard Depardieu. The character of Vidocq is actually kind of interesting and I don't think I've seen a grumpy, bitter Depardieu before and I think if they had made this more of a Depardieu centric movie it might have possibly been better for it. But then we see them try and film an action sequence with an easily 300+ lb. actor and his not so robust fight double and it's just a little silly.

But the one thing that annoyed me the most was the director Pitof. Pitof served as the visual effects supervisor for most of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's best films (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) and that comes through loud and clear with the way that this movie looks and feels. It viscerally dirty but at the same time you get these fantastic and otherworldly panorama shots and the two blend from one scene to the next so seamlessly that it's like your visual cortex is relaxing on ocean waves. And then we see the camera work and direction for any scene that requires tension or even a little bit of action and you are subjected to hyper-close-ups that are disorienting and impossible to follow sucking any drama that those scenes were supposed to instill. Overall, it's interesting but I'd love to see another director tackle the character.

Rating: C-

 

Centurion

At the time this came out, Dominic West
was the big name in this movie.

After his portrayal of Magneto in X-Men: First Class, Michael Fassbender seems to be showing up just about everywhere I look nowadays. His imdb page shows no less than 6 projects due out in just the next year, so I thought I'd take a look at some of his earlier work. In 2010 he was in two movies, and I think I may be the only person I know who has seen both of them. In Jonah Hex he played the sadistic sidekick to the villain of said film, so let us take a look at Centurion where he takes on the leading role.

First off, this movie starts with a terrific line, with a voiceover from Fassbender saying, "...this is neither the beginning nor the end of my story." Fassbender plays Quintus Dias, or QVINTVS if you want to get picky about it, a Centurion stationed at a remote fort in the northern regions of Britain that is attacked in the dead of night by the Picts and he is taken captive. While that is going on, the Ninth Legion led by General Virilus (West), is ordered to take his troops north to break the Pictish rebels, an order that he believes is wrong, but an order nonetheless. He is given a Pict guide, Etain (Kurylenko), a mute whose family had been butchered by Romans and had her own tongue cut out. And that is information they know when they decide to let her guide the Ninth Legion north. I'll give you three guesses what she's going to do a little later on.

Etain on the hunt

So, Quintas escapes from his captors and is able to evade capture until he stumbles upon the marching Ninth, and after Virilus learns that Quintas's father was a famous gladiator, Quintas becomes a favorite of the general. For all of five minutes before the Ninth is led into a trap by Etain, and the Ninth is annihilated and Virilus is taken captive. Quintas, along with six survivors, decide to track down and rescue Virilus from his almost certain execution, but fail to in the attempt and instead must flee from Etain and a large band of Pictish warriors back to Roman held territory. At this point, there's still about an hour left to the film, and I don't want to spoil the rest because it is actually quite good.

It really is a pleasure to review this film because it was such a pleasure to watch. I like the choice of setting the story around the Massacre of the Ninth Legion. It's not something I've seen very much of and, except knowing that they did get massacred, not something I know to many supposed details of. The acting is fantastic all around here with Michael Fassbender and Olga Kurylenko giving some of the strongest performances in the film. And I am happy to note that even though this is an action movie, the script writers go out of there way to give the story and characters depth and real emotion. All around this is a very, very good movie.

Rating: A