Affleck... the Director!

Ben Affleck the actor probably never won the range of accolades that Ben Affleck the director has already won, even though the portfolio of the latter encompasses no more than three films, with the last one being the recently released Argo. But when someone can hit a hole-in-one three times in a row, achieve critical success followed by commercial one, you would be a fool to not see that here is a real talent whose qualities lie more behind the camera rather than in front of it. As an actor, I still liked Ben Affleck though was never over-awed by him. He broke into the minds of the movie goers as the side-kick of Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, the movie that famously won the duo an Oscar for Best Screenplay. What followed were memorable but not remarkable roles in Armageddon, Pearl Harbour and Daredevil (ya ya, you are free to disagree!).

But it was in 2007, when the real Ben Affleck stood up, with the release of Gone Baby Gone, his directorial debut (holds an IMDB rating of 7.8). What followed was The Town in 2010 (IMDB rating of 7.6) and Argo in 2012 (IMDB rating of 8.5 presently, though that is likely to moderate somewhat). Ben Affleck has played the lead character in the last two movies, and yet you may just happen to be unaware of that. For you are simply in awe of the way the story has been handled, nothing short of how the best cook would ensure the perfect icing on a cake. Affleck’s movies so far have been about characters, about people and their emotions, their ways to deal with varying situations. The movies have been filled with a range of feelings... hope, angst, love, fear, hate, so beautifully intertwined that one emotion effortlessly switches with another taking you and me along with it.

And yet each one of Affleck’s movies cannot be termed as a ‘Drama’ film for it has involved a thrilling fast-paced aspect to it that keeps you riveted. It is a unique combination, one that is easy to goof up with. But when you do not, you end up with works of art... as Affleck has done! It comes as no surprise to me that his name is being linked to directing a Justice League film in the future. When you remember that Affleck is only a mild 40, there is still a lot of great work that can be expected from him... as he continues depicting human emotions in its truest form with the cleverness of a director that understands the audience and its tastes. Ben Affleck the director... I await your next masterpiece!   

Remakes and reboots... serving a pupose!

Remakes and reboots... not entirely something new but we have been hearing them a bit too often it seems in current times. Does an excess of them indicate a deterioration in the quality of writing freshly-minted scripts? Not necessarily. And remakes too serve a purpose. They allow the veterans to relive their old memories and the latest bunch of viewers to catch a glimpse of some of the old tales that deserve a second watch. But you need to get it right. You need to take the soul of the original movie and weave a new tale around it. Someone who has already seen the original should feel a bit nostalgic when seeing the remake/reboot and yet find himself immersed in a new tale moving in a new direction. It’s not an easy task!

This year saw Total Recall manage to do what a remake should not. Being devoid of innovation. Len Wiseman’s take on the 1990 Schwarzenegger hit simply took the broad story of the original and placed it in a CGI-filled futuristic world while refusing to take the story further beyond what the original did. In fact, it might even have been regressive when compared to the original plot. On the other hand, the recently released Dredd 3D built a new plot around the comic icon Dredd and deviated away from the original (which was very much essential), though its box office earnings have been unreflective of the same. Blame it on the bad voodoo that the Stallone starrer Judge Dredd has left behind.

The most anticipated reboot of the year, which surprised many since the previous instalment began just a decade back, was the web-slinging The Amazing Spiderman. The highly successful Spiderman trilogy built by Sam Raimi was left in a wrench due to differences between the studio and the director on how to take the script forward and the studio took a strange but bold decision to reboot the franchise. For me, they got it right! While The Amazing Spiderman collections fell short of the earnings of the previous Spiderman movie, it has still earned a whooping $750 million worldwide that has already warranted a sequel. The Amazing Spiderman felt a bit edgier, had a super-cool villain in The Lizard, dwelt on a story about Peter Parker’s parents that had not been covered before, replaced a lady-in-distress Mary Jane with a punch-you-in-the-face Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone!!) and still carried the swagger and the touch of the previous Spidey movies (the way he swings never seems to change!).

The studios again pulled off a good move getting the Bourne series to the theatres again. We miss Matt Damon, any Tom, Dick and Harry would tell you that. But did it stop my eyes remaining glued to the typical seamless Bourne kind of action happening on the screen once again? Nope. The Bourne Legacy is more of a reboot / sequel to the previous trilogy. It continues from the events of The Bourne Ultimatum and cleverly brings in the life of a new character, that of Aaron Cross played superbly by Jeremy Renner, who is again on the run. The studios got Tony Gilroy to direct The Bourne Legacy who has written the screenplay for the previous three along with this, and that seems to have been oh so important for the continuity in the plot to remain. Hoping for the Bourne series to continue and if we really wish for it, maybe Damon’s Bourne would materialise in one of them too.

Remakes and reboots are not going to end anytime soon. And it is clear that the success of one depends more on what goes into building the new movie rather than the success or failure of the previous one. The Mummy remake is already on the cards for 2014 with Len Wiseman in the director’s seat (hope he does a better job than what he did with Total Recall). It would be surprising if a Batman reboot or a Justice League movie does not become firm soon. Reboot of Superman, aka Man of Steel releasing in June 2013, is already underway and probably is one of the most anticipated reboots with the likes of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan involved. So remain seated as things from the past hit you back... and in the mayhem hopefully another Inception like original masterpiece shall also emerge.