Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - I Mean, We're Talking Loooong Walk

This may be the most appropriately titled movie of the year.  Perhaps ever.  There were such high expectations for this film.  On paper it's a knockout - a Nelson Mandela biopic with Idris Elba in the lead?  Come on, that's a no-brainer.  To be fair, Idris Elba hits it out of the park with his portrayal of the South African anti-Apartheid leader.  You just end up wishing he had been given a better film to work with.

The film spans most of Mandela's adult life, from his beginnings as a lawyer in segregated South Africa to his years as a revolutionary and then his subsequent arrest and imprisonment for 28 years and finally his activism after being released, ending with his election as the first Black President of South Africa.  The scope of the film ends up being its biggest problem.  Rather than focusing on some pivotal moment in Mandela's life, this perfunctory and cursory overview of his whole story feels shallow and moments that should make heart race or your blood boil felt hurried and trite.

Being someone who doesn't know much about Nelson Mandela, particularly his early role in South African politics, I found myself wanting the film to stay put on one time in Mandela's life and really flesh-out what impact it had on the man he would become.  I didn't know that Mandela was a radical during the 60s.  I didn't know he was arrested because he was involved in bombings of government buildings.  I found those scenes really compelling, but that whole era of his life is covered in about 20 minutes of a two-and-a-half hour film.  I'm also a sucker for courtroom dramas and I found myself thinking, "I would love to see a whole movie with just the court battle."  But again, the movie brushes past that part.  In fact it took awhile for the movie to settle on what the majority of the film would be about.  It ended up spending the most time on Nelson's 28 years in various prisons.  Now granted, this is a pivotal and important part in Mandela's life and the shaping of his worldview, but it doesn't make for gripping cinema.  The end of the film picks up a little as he negotiates his way out of prison and eventual gets elected President, but again, we've spent so much time on other things that this part of his life feels rushed.

Now not everything in the film was awful.  As mentioned before Idris Elba gives a towering (quite literally, Mr. Elba is a broad-shouldered 6' 3") performance as Nelson Mandela.  He commands each scene and often makes the character rise above the uneven script.  He is joined by Naomie Harris (Skyfall) as Winnie Mandela in a touching and often heartbreaking performance of her own.  In fact their relationship and Winnie herself are very interesting parts of the film that could have a film all their own.

After Nelson is freed from prison, he finds his relationship with Winnie strained.  This shouldn't be surprising as they have been married for decades, the overwhelming majority of which they have lived apart; both spending time in prison.  Also, Winnie becomes much more militant after her time and torture in prison while Nelson's views have softened towards pacifism.  These added strains cause the couple to eventually separate (and ultimately divorce, though not shown in the film).  It's an interesting pairing that was founded on love, but seemed to have been sustained through political necessity.  If only there was more time to explore these ideas.


So, while not without its charms, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, suffers from narrative overload and doesn't offer anything new to the biopic genre or to life and story of Nelson Mandela himself.  Even with the wonderful performances this film can't escape falling victim to one of the most important rules in storytelling: Whatever you do, don't be boring!

Thor: The Dark World - He Will Rock You!

Chris Hemsworth is back as the titular demigod of Thunder, Lightning and Hitting Things with a Big Hammer in the latest from Marvel's Avenger universe, and for the most part, he's back in big, impressive way.  The original Thor (2011) was one of my personal favorites in the Marvel canon.  The idea that a super hero (a god even) would have to come down to earth and learn to be human in order to inherit his rightful place as a king, resonates with me and the film was also funny, it had some heart and some great action.  Now Thor has moved beyond his boyish whining and headstrong arrogance, and with that you lose some of what made him such an intriguing character at first, but in the end this film is none the worse for it.

This time out Thor is back on his home planet of Asgard (after the events of the Avengers) bringing peace to the Nine Realms (other planets under the protection of Asgard).  Since the events of the first Thor the Bifrost (a magical Rainbow Road that transports people between the Nine Realms) has been fixed and Thor and his posse can travel instantaneously between the worlds to fight off any and all badies.  And they do it with aplomb.  After securing the freedom of all the people, however, Thor isn't in the mood to celebrate.  His father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), has made it clear that it is time for Thor to take his rightful place as King of Asgard, and as such should look for a Queen.  Odin hints that Sif (Jaimie Alexander), the lone girl warrior and resident Thor-ogler, would be the perfect match, however, Thor's thoughts are more earthly-bound.  He can't wash the mortal Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) from his perfectly coiffed golden locks.  He worries about her and goes to the Guardian of the Bifrost, Heimdall (Idris Elba) to see how she is doing, but Heimdall who can see everyone in the Nine Realms, can't find her.

Turns out Jane stumbled across a portal between realms where millenia ago Odin's father hid the Aether, a really bad liquidy thing, that the Dark Elves, led by Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) tried to use to destroy the universe.  And wouldn't you know it?  They're back and ready to take the Aether (which has now possessed Jane) and get back to their original task.  See these Elves believe that the Universe as it is now was never meant to be.  Before the Nine Realms, we're told in a prologue, there was darkness and the Elves want the darkness back.  Why?  Well because they're Dark Elves and that's what they like.  Pretty one dimensional, but they look great and Christopher Eccleston (the first Doctor of this generation's Dr. Who) does a great job of being menacing.

However, despite the Elves being designed so well, their goal is so impersonal and their actions so apocayptic that it's hard to get too invested.  Luckily the story makes a few small personal choices that bring the story down to relatable levels.  But I've spoken before about my aversion to the new trend of destruction-based superhero movies and the effect I think it has on us.  Luckily the stakes are kept mostly personal and the finale isn't so loud and destructive as to dull you into a noise coma.

To protect his earthly love Thor brings Dr. Foster to Asgard so his physicians can take a look at her.  Odin isn't happy with Thor's actions, but is shocked to find Jane infected with the Aether.  Here we get one of many gobbledy-gook explanations about the evil and the darkness of the Aether and how it can't be destroyed.  Thor is concerned for Jane's life, Odin is concerned for the fate of the universe.  Both of their concerns come to fruitition when Malekith and his badies come crashing into Asgard looking for the Aether.  And Thor and his warriors are able to fight off the Elves, but not before Malekith is able to strike a huge blow to Asgard.  Now Thor is determined to hunt down the Elves so they can extract the Aether from Jane and he can destroy.  But Odin has ordered the Bifrost closed and there is only one secret way off of Asgard, known only to one prisoner.

Enter Loki (Tom Hiddleston), likely the reason for a lot of fans returning to the film.  Loki has been imprisoned for his actions during the Avengers and Thor comes to him for help only because he is most depserate and Loki similarly has cause for revenge against the Elves.  This is where the movie really takes off.  A daring and treasonous escape from Asgard, a brutal battle with tricks and double crosses on the Dark World and a great finale.  Loki and Thor have a great back-and-forth and it's nice to see the film take a less serious tone in the latter two-thirds.

The funniest stuff of the film, though, goes to Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard).  After having, in his words, "a god in [his] head" for most of the events preceding and during the Avengers, Erik is a little off his rocker, but he has figured out how to stop the Elves from using the Aether to destroy the NIne Realms.  It's one of those easy fixes that you don't have to explain because the science doesn't actually exist, but it has to do with placing poles that create a gravitational field around the source of the Convergence (the aligning of all the realms that the Dark Elves plan to use as a portal to unleash the Aether) so you can manipulate and close the portals.  It's convoluted, and convenient, but it makes for a pretty cool space jumping finale.

Overall, Thor: The Dark World is a fun ride.  The plot is a little convenient at times and the villain isn't as fun or compelling as Loki himself, but it doesn't much matter when a film looks this good, is this strongly directed and has this much heart and humor.  It's pretty spectacular that Marvel has had this much success and kept up the quality of films this well for a series of interconnected super hero movies for this long.  Thor is one of my personal favorites in the series and The Dark World proves there are stories left to tell from Asgard.