Reaching back, we find that I've already covered Street Fighter, focusing on the movie featuring Raul Julia in his last role. Instead of rewriting all the background, I'll just send you to re-read it if you want and then continue.
Done? Great!
The year 2009 had a glut of action movies. Not all of them lived up to the promise of the trailers. One such movie was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. The movie chronicles how the titular character grows from young girl to, well, street fighter. Essentially, an origins movie. Kristin Kreuk starred as the adult version of Chun Li as she struggled to find meaning after her father disappeared and her died. Her search took her to Bangkok to study under Gen, once a member of Bison's gang who now protected the downtrodden from the villain's schemes. He took Chun Li under his wing, teaching her new techniques and leading her to find a new balance and lose her anger*. In the meantime, Charlie Nash, an Interpol agent, also arrived in Bangkok to assist the local police, including Detective Maya Sunee of Gangland Homicide, in finding who was responsible for the deaths and beheadings of eight major gang leaders.** Nash had been on the trail of Bison for several years and is hoping to finally put him away. Despite having Chun Li narrate for most of the beginning, turning "show, don't tell" into "show and tell", the movie maintains a decent pace thriough the investigation by both Nash and Chun Li and has decent action sequences.
Overall, the movie worked as an action flick, something to watch in the heat of the summer in a cool, dark theatre with a large bag of popcorn and a soft drink of one's choice. So, why was there a problem?
It wasn't Street Fighter.
Oh, sure, it's there in the title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. Kristin Kreuk played Chun Li; it's even there in the credits. And she took on Bison, Balrog, and Vega.
But, if the audience wasn't told that who the characters were, who'd notice the difference? None of the characters were in the costumes from the video game. Unlike Street Fighter – The Movie, where everyone eventually wore the trademark costumes from the game, outside of one scene in Legend of Chun Li, they could have been called anything else. The one scene? Featured Chun Li with her hair in the same style as in the video game wearing a short blue dress as she seduced Bison's henchwoman***.
I dare say that if the movie didn't have the Street Fighter character names and links (a couple of scenes, really), the movie might have been better. Expectations would have been different. Change Shadaloo to a generic Triad, Tong or even the Russian mob, change Chun Li to Suki or Mei Lin, change Bison to Biyall, and the movie still holds together. It's as if an existing script was taken and modified to slap the Street Fighter name on to draw in more people. From a marketing perspective, this makes some sense. Action movies in the summer have a lot of competition. Adding a familiar name can get attention far easier and potentially far cheaper than putting in an effort to tweak the trailers to maximize interest. Problem is, slapping a known franchise name can backfire when the movie has a fairly generic plot and characters that could be renamed without affecting the story, the case with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.
So, the takeaway here is that if one wants to put the name of a franchise on a movie, the writing has to add recognizable elements from the franchise beyond just the names. This may fall under the concept of caring for a property. Slapping a name on a product is easy; making sure that the product reflects the name takes a bit more effort. Thus is the case of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. A decent action movie with baggage that added expectations it couldn't handle.
Next time, a holiday classic.
*Apparently, anger not only leads to hate but to distraction.
**Yeah, guess who ordered the killings.
***Yay, fanservice? The fight in the washroom was just as fanservice-y.
Fairy tales have long been a core element of Western culture, a base of storytelling that many have built from over time. Many of Disney's popular movies were based on fairy tales, somewhat cleaned up for modern sensibilities. These are stories told as bedtime stories, told around campfires, adapted as plays and movies, and expanded to tell what happened after. The tales are so common that it comes to many people's surprise when they meet someone not familiar with at least one.
The 2011 fall TV season saw ABC air Once Upon a Time. As expected from the title, the series is based on fairy tales. (Why else would I start this entry off discussing them?) However, there is a twist. The evil queen, the one who poisoned Snow White for being the fairest, showed up at the wedding of Snow and Charming to give them an unwanted gift, the knowledge that the queen herself will get her own happy ever after and take away everyone else's. Meanwhile, in the now in our reality, Emma, the lead character, spent her birthday chasing after a bail jumper followed by having a cupcake at home. She made a wish, blew out her lone candle. Immediately after, there was a knock on her door; a boy, Henry, had found her. Henry claimed that Emma is his birth mother and that his home, Storybrook, needs her help. Emma, unsure of the boy's story, took him home, listening to his farfetched stories about how she is meant to save the fairy tales and restore their happy endings.
Back in the fairy tales, Snow and Charming did what they could to prevent the evil queen's happy ending. They even went into the dungeon to speak with Rumplestilskin to find out more. Snow, pregnant, was willing to pay Rumplestilskin's price to protect her unborn child, well aware of the consequences. She received a cryptic answer, enough to figure out what the queen's plan is and brought in her trusted advisors. Ultimately, it was determined that Gepetto can use the magic in an old tree to create a wardrobe that will protect one person.
Meanwhile, Emma has arrived in Storybrook. She stops to get directions from a young man who looks lost. When she and Henry return to her old Beetle, Henry explains that the young man is really Jiminy Cricket. Emma still dismissed the boy's claims and takes him to his home, the manor of the mayor. The rest… No spoilers at this time.
The writing of the pilot was strong. Pilot episodes have a difficult job; they have to introduce the show's premise, the show's characters, and tease viewers to keep watching while at the same time providing a story on its own. Backstory needed has to be brought out without going through an info dump. Once Upon a Time's pilot managed to do all that with aplomb. Henry's stories, bordering on fairy tales themselves, slowly are revealed as truth as the characters, such as Gepetto, Rumplestilskin, the Seven Dwarves, and Charming are revealed to the audience (though not to Emma). The casting is strong to match the writing. Gepetto comes across in the modern era as a lonely old man who desperately wanted a child with his wife. The queen oozes evil when needed. Little touches, such as the mayor offering Emma a glass of apple cider, add to the mystery and the charm of the show. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the show can maintain the promise, but the first episode of Once Upon a Time succeeded in adapting fairy tales into its own narrative.
Next time, experience only works if you pay attention.
George RR Martin is a prolific writer, having writen numerous novels, short stories, even teleplays. Along with writing, he has been an editor, notably on the Wild Card series of anthologies. In 1996, his latest work, A Song of Ice and Fire, was released beginning with A Game of Thrones. The epic story follows the upheavals of Westeros and its peoples as the status quo is once again upset with the death of Robert the Usuper, who had taken over the throne of Westeros after killing the previous tyrant. The books follows the politics, the maneuverings, the desires of the various pieces on the board, from pawn to queen, with chapters written from a different character's point of view. A Game of Thrones sets up the upheaval, showing how members of House Stark (led by Lord Eddard), House Baratheon (formerly led by King Robert the Usurper), House Targaryen (the family of the deposed King Aegon), and House Lannister King Robert's death. Allegiances are made and broken. Characters are promoted or killed. Script immunity is non-existant. There are children crippled, respected characters killed, and foul men who avoid karmic punishment. The plot and the characters pull the readers into the world and leave them wanting more.
In 2011, HBO takes a chance on adapting the novels. The cable channel's success rate with adaptations of late has been excellent, with True Blood, based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, and Deadwood, based on the historical western town, having received critical and popular appeal. The TV series A Game of Thrones was no exception. The first season followed the events from the first book. The adaptation was relatively faithful. There were a few cuts of minor scenes, and several characters were aged up, notably the younger ones. The aging made sense, though – what was acceptable in the era portrayed in the book would result in serious criminal charges today. And, being an HBO production, a little extra sex and nudity was added, though nothing that wasn't implied in the novel.
So, was the first season a success? HBO believed so, enough to renew the series after the first episode. The minor changes mentioned above didn't detract from the story. Casting of the roles worked brilliantly from Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark to Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. The format is perfect for the story – a miniseries format with no need to expand or contract to deal with the vagaries of a 22 episode season or a two hour movie. Successful, indeed.
Next time, could this be something recent?
Seeing a void left by Mattel, Hasbro introduced a line of toys as the boys' counterpoint to Barbie. G.I. Joe was a military-themed line of dolls, designed to let boys have adventures with them. However, reaction to US involvement in Vietnam resulted in reduced sales of a doll in army fatigues. An attempt to revive Joe as an adventurer with kung-fu grip in the 70s didn't pan out as well as expected, and the toy went back to the drawing board. In 1982, though, Hasbro saw the success that Kenner had with its Star Wars line of action figures and relaunched G.I. Joe as its own line, turning the doll into a secret organization fighting the likes of Cobra, a terrorist organization out to rule the world. The action figures were coupled with an animated series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
In 2009, G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra came out during a summer filled with reboots, remakes, and adaptations. The movie did not fare well critically. Or well at all. The movie showed the fight between the G.I. Joe organization, now a multinational special operations team made up of the best of the best of member nations' military forces, and Cobra, an unknown group headed by weapons magnate James McCullen (played by Christopher Eccleston). The movie started decently enough, giving some background to McCullen and his ancestor who was caught selling weapons to both the English and the french in the 1640s. It then went on to show the current generation of McCullen making a speech to NATO about his new weapon, nanomites – miniature robots that can be programmed to eat just about anything. (Also known as nanites.) The opening action sequence introducing Duke (played by Channing Tatum), Ripcord (played by Marlon Wayans) and the audience to G.I. Joe racheted up the tension, showing Cobra's capabilities and weapon technology far outclassing the US Army's. Only the timely intervention of Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), and Snake Eyes (Ray Park) managed to protect one of the four nanamite warheads, Duke, and Ripcord.
The movie broke down the moment the nanamites were weaponized. Naturally, to weaponize tiny, nanoscopic robots, one takes them to a particle accelerator lab to be spun. (I guess making the nanamites dizzy gets them upset.) The bounds of the suspension of disbelief shattered. The scene may have looked good on screen, but the average person could have thought of something more credible, like reprogramming them or introducing a computer virus. After all, nanamites are robots. Even switching the Good/Evil switch to the Evil setting would have been acceptable. The action sequence following, the chase where the above mentioned Joes go after the Baroness (Sienna Miller), Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee), two disposable Cobra super-soldiers, and the nanamite missiles, carried on the problem. The CGI was noticeable. Sure, the accelerator suits (which, for a super-heroic-style movie weren't too farfetched) required CGI, since no human can run at highway speeds. Scarlett on a motorcycle and most of the traffic also appeared to be CGI animation, adding a disconnect.
From then on, the movie fell into a series of background flashbacks and action sequences that felt… borrowed. The big raid on the Empire'sCobra's Death Star underwater Arctic base by the RebelsJoes in their X-WingsSHARC attack subs felt familiar somehow. Worse, the ending left room, a lot of room, for a sequel.
What happened? At some point, scriptwriters started forgetting what they wrote earlier. The Eiffel Tower, McCullen's first target to show off the power of Cobra, was supposed to be evacuated according to the info Breaker received during the chase. Yet, when the heroes get there, there's nary an official there despite the throngs of tourists still there. Likewise, in Eccleston's first scene, McCullen specifically mentions that the nanamites can be programmed to eat anything, including metal. So why the spinning? Did the writers forget that the nanamites are programmable?
Not everything was a loss. Some of the action sequences and the training montage were well done. Bits of decent in a movie that discovered gravity on a slippery slope. Christopher Eccleston, like Raul Julia, seemed to know what sort of movie he was in and let loose his inner ham. (Mind, the villains seemed to get the better lines in this type of movie.) The Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow subplot held its own; Snake Eyes, for a character with no lines, had a strong presence on-screen. And, surprisingly, the presence of a Wayans brother didn't cause problems.
Still, the movie is, at best, forgettable. The plot was thin, and for a movie that seemed to be trying to set up a series, couldn't hold its own past the opening scenes.
Next time, adaptation is coming…
