Bryan Singer
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced by X-Men (2000), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Plot Themes
The whole thing sounded too much like a copyright-skirting nod to Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, of “X-Men” fame.
Other viewers will see echoes of X-Men , Groundhog Day , Ladyhawke , Toy Story and even the 1980s Biggles movie, as the story progresses.
The movie's a testament to outsiders, as most of Burton's films are, though the source material (the novel) feels to me like inorganic matter, made up of too many easily identifiable fantasy reference points, from Harry Potter to the mutants of "X-Men."
Guided by Ransom Riggs’ YA novel on which the film is based, Burton riffs on X-Men and (to a lesser extent) Harry Potter, and while the combination may look winning on paper, the results are tragically clichéd and will likely leave fans of both Burton and the novel frustrated and confused.
It just can’t stop coming up with limitlessly peculiar stuff, much of which has a familiar odor: It’s “X-Men” meets “Alice in Wonderland” meets “Groundhog Day,” plus there’s a kind of Addams Family versus the Holocaust vibe — “They’re creepy, they’re spikey, they’re totally Third Reich-y.”
This is pretty much Burton doing an X-Men movie, with a plucky yesteryear vibe and evil Samuel L. Jackson thrown in for extra fun.
Den of Thieves (2018)
Directed by Christian Gudegast
influenced by The Usual Suspects (1995)
Plot Themes
It’s a blatant Michael Mann knock-off, homaging Heat to the point of borderline plagiarism, and its complicated heist plot has shades of films like Inside Man and The Usual Suspects.
The execution in these moments is thrilling, although muddied by a final plot twist that slavishly apes “The Usual Suspects.”
Finally, there's a twist ending that makes the one in The Usual Suspects seem credible by comparison.
But there’s another movie whose influence hovers over this one: Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects.”
Time has not been kind to Gudegast’s film: Den of Thieves is such a dumb misunderstanding of the genres in which it plays, such a loud, interminable shart of unmitigated machismo, such a heavy-handed rip-off of Heat and The Usual Suspects and even Ocean’s Eleven (and maybe even The Fast and the Furious, but for scumbags) that it feels anachronistic on arrival, the kind of melodramatic, pulpy studio action flick that doesn’t get made anymore because it shouldn’t.
“Den of Thieves” may not be as moody as “To Live and Die in L.A.” or as clever as “The Usual Suspects,” but it works well on its own terms.
In what might be viewed as an attempt to show geek cred, it gamely references numerous touchstones: Harry Potter (there's a game of quidditch), X-Men, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and so forth.
At least then we might have escaped a plethora of racial, social and ethnic stereotypes, not to mention pop culture references to Harry Potter, “X-Men” (which these clowns say they never heard of) and Jennifer Beals’ legwarmers that are about as current as the Eisenhower administration.
The age-versus-youth theme, however, is as subtle as a meat cleaver: Are we supposed to buy that Billy and Nick are unfamiliar with “X-Men” and “Harry Potter,” or that Billy can’t remember that the term is “online,” not “on the line”?
There are certainly myriad issues however, from the ceaseless, not particularly funny pop cultural references (“Star Wars,” “Big Bang Theory,” “Harry Potter,” “X-Men”), to the down-to-the-second predictable structure, to the excruciating use of pop music.
Another distracting contradiction finds Vaughn and Wilson completely unaware of contemporary popular culture, since multiple scenes depend on them not knowing that “Professor Charles Xavier” is a fictional X-Men character.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Directed by Rob Reiner
influenced Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
Plot Characters Themes Visuals
It does improve after the initial assault, with a few scenes reminiscent of the comic vibe of The Princess Bride and story elements that could have been inspired by the brilliant chapter of C. S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair, where Eustace and Jill are almost turned into meat pies by giants.
Tucci gets the best role by far, a smirking baddie who evokes The Princess Bride with Roderick's duplicitous sarcasm and irony.
And is it a coincidence that Andre the Giant appeared in “The Princess Bride”?
It’s “The Princess Bride” without the laughs.
Good thing, too: McGregor’s quaffed popinjay and Tucci’s boo-hiss villain are walking hams, and Singer chooses to keep the jokes broad and flat instead of attempting the sharp satire that glints through The Princess Bride .
In the month that sees the 25th anniversary and re-release of The Princess Bride , the family audience deserves better than this.
With all eyes and ears on a fluctuating sense of “superhero fatigue” amongst moviegoers, musical biopics quietly became just as oversaturated after Bohemian Rhapsody’s baffling Oscar sweep.
More often than not, we’re bombarded with mediocrity, such as Bohemian Rhapsody, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
Other elements of this soft-focus drama are terrible reminders of other bad musical biopics, namely “Bohemian Rhapsody” — which shares in common with this movie the same atrocious cameo actor and a nagging sense that part of the story isn’t being told for the sake of maintaining a deceased star’s still lucrative legacy.
The modern musical biopic is less biography and more hagiography, usually with a great soundtrack. Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis, and Walk the Line have no interest in telling the real story of the people who made the songs we love.
…culminating with the near-billion dollar success of Bohemian Rhapsody…
This is a film that can be placed next to dull, plodding, beat-hitting films like the embarrassing "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Directed by David Yates
influenced by X-Men (2000)
Themes Visuals
The wizarding community has been forced underground due to intolerance that channels "X-Men."
It’s the same logical flaw that operates in both the “Avengers” and “X-Men” franchises, and Rowling doesn’t have much to add to the “Potter” franchise … yet.
In the wake of several violent attacks on New York, causing all manner of social, political and architectural upheaval, the movie makes the compelling argument that the willful repression of one’s supernatural abilities can lead only to destruction and chaos — a point that harks back to Bryan Singer ’s “X-Men” movies, with their resonant subtext equating mutant powers with homosexuality.
That hatred toward those who possess unique powers (something highlighted in the film's opening that features related newspaper headlines that, as in the "Potter" films, come along with animated panels) and the need for those to lead secret lives also gives the flick something of an "X-Men" vibe, particularly when Farrell's character shows displeasure toward regular folk getting more regard than wizards.
As with mutants in the X-Men movies , there’s a Civil Rights-era difference of opinion between leaders in the minority community with peaceful visions, like Professor X and Martin Luther King Jr., and those with more violent visions, like Magneto and Malcolm X.
There are scenes, typically the most destructive ones, that could be plopped into any old "X-Men" movie.
(Mike Myers, whose “Wayne’s World” character re-popularized our love for Queen’s camp-rock in the 1990s, has a brief and funny turn as a clueless label executive.)
Mike Myers (the SNL comedian not the Halloween serial killer) famously used the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” to good effect in Wayne’s World, where he and co-star Dana Carvey are shown head-bobbing and lip-synching to the music.
There’s even a Wayne’s World reference.
The music executive is played by comic Mike Myers, whose 1992 film Wayne’s World revived “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a theme honoring nerd arrogance — the wrong-taste rebellion that defined unhip working-class fantasy and pleasure.
It’s a pretty ominous sign when your film promises to be remembered mainly for an eye rolling, bizarre meta-joke involving a walk on by Mike Myers who is obviously cast only for his background with Queen and “Wayne’s World.”
“No one is going to be head-banging in the car to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’!” he thunders, a declaration of wink-wink dumbness — that’s exactly what Myers’ Wayne Campbell and his slacker friends do in Wayne’s World.
Stargate (1994)
Directed by Roland Emmerich
influenced X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Visuals Themes
Many moons ago, the first mutant Poe Dameron… whoops, sorry, make that Apocalypse (Oscar Issac) was inexplicably blindsided by a bunch of slaves he thought were under his thumb who buries him for all time — cue Stargate theme — right up until someone foolishly unearths his tomb in Egypt and provides exactly the right ingredients to bring him back to life.
Isaac’s bellowing “all-powerful” Apocalypse, who strode the Earth in 3,600 B.C., appears to have been borrowed from the deliberately camp 1994 mashup of sci-fi, ancient Egypt and transgender daring that was “Stargate.”
But here’s an entry that starts more like “Stargate” or “The Fifth Element” than “Captain America: Civil War.” It’s here we meet our main baddie: the eponymous blue meanie, played by the usually charismatic Oscar Isaac, trapped in makeup and a suit that make him look and act like a block of painted granite that talks (occasionally, a bit).
This messy sequel (technically still a prequel) goes back further to ancient Egypt, where a proto uber-mutant’s Temple of Doom- style-meets- Stargate regeneration is stalled, only to resume in 1983.
There's even a tantalizing tease to further whet appetites (less savvy viewers will be forgiven for thinking they're watching an outtake of Jaye Davidson in Stargate).
Humankind’s only hope involves the “just shut up and go with it” use of time travel, here employed in a manner (highly) reminiscent of James Cameron ’s The Terminator.
The plot borrows elements from John Byrne and Chris Claremont’s seminal comic stories, a bit of The Terminator, a dab of The Matrix, with lots of Watergate-era paranoia and funkiness thrown in for kicks.
Sure, the narrative legwork in the early minutes of Days of Future Past can be a bit convoluted and labyrinthine but it’s mostly there to set-up a time-travel story in the vein of Back to the Future or The Terminator.
In the manner of The Terminator , they’ve identified the historical schism that set the world down its current path and need Kitty Pryde to send Wolverine’s mind back to his 1973 body in order to prevent the blue-skinned Mystique (Lawrence) from assassinating Dr Bolivar Trask, a mutant-fearing scientist played by Peter Dinklage (riffing on his Game of Thrones disreputability) whose work will lead to the creation of the Sentinels – but only after Mystique kills him.
The new “X-Men” plays like “The Terminator” crossed with “American Hustle” via “12 Monkeys.”
Fast, ferocious and inevitably a bit too pleased with its own cleverness, this Fox-produced offshoot of the “X-Men” series nevertheless can’t help but feel like a nasty, nose-thumbing tonic next to the shinier delegations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as represented by Disney’s “Avengers” franchise (and its various subfranchises) and Sony’s not-so-amazing “Spider-Man” movies.
He’s played the part before, in the very first of the X-Men solo spinoffs, 2009’s all-around-regrettable X-Men Origins: Wolverine .
It continues in the opening credits, which list the stars as "God's Perfect Talent," "A Hot Chick" and whatnot (I won't give away all the jokes), and picks up with Deadpool's consistent references to Marvel Comics' "X-Men" movie franchise ( a stiff, staid thing at this point ), to which he belongs, because he cavorts with two of its characters, but at the same time doesn't belong, because he references Professor X and Wolverine by the actors who play them in the movies we've seen in our reality.
Its anarchic luster is purely cosmetic, an edgier “X-Men” film that struggles to conceal its dud of a story that has nothing new to offer to anyone but middle schoolers.
Still, there's Reynolds, and a R-rated comic-book script which delights in its own filthy dialogue and bloody action without tipping over into unintentionally ridiculous sex scenes (like "X-Men") or way-too-gruesome gore (like the "Sin City" movies).
The Doors (1991)
Directed by Oliver Stone
influenced Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Themes Plot Characters
And how does it compare to other rock biopics like ‘The Doors,’ ‘The Buddy Holly Story,’ and ‘Last Days’?
But if it doesn’t have the family drama of “Walk the Line” or the psychodrama of “The Doors,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” does deliver what any music biopic must: convincing characters and some kick-butt simulated concert experiences.
The last time I saw it done this well was Oliver Stone's "The Doors" in 1991, starring Val Kilmer as the doomed and drugged-out rock-star icon Jim Morrison.
Missing here is the raw biography of films like “The Doors, “The Rose,” or “Ray,” where the audience gets to know the artist as a flesh and blood, flawed or passionate human expressing him or herself through their craft.
It is on occasion, closer to Spinal Tap than Oliver Stone’s The Doors; a film that comes dangerously close to being entirely constituted from moments that have been retrospectively remade as symbolic or iconic.
The rest of his bandmates are also strong, with Brian May (Gwilym Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), and John Deacon (Joe Mazzello) all well-repped, producing a group chemistry vastly better than most such arrangements (for the genre's nadir in this regard, try re-watching Oliver Stone's The Doors , beyond Val Kilmer's performance and see where that lands you).
Compare to the X-Men movies, which are great fun, but also have an agenda--setting up Magneto and Professor Xavier as Malcolm X/Martin Luther King counterparts in the struggle for leading an oppressed race, or the anti-Patriot Act themes of the second film.
Hellboy's partner and housemate Abe Sapien, an amphibious genius played by Doug Jones and voiced by David Hyde Pierce, comments, "All us freaks have is each other," reminding us of the kinship Hellboy shares with X-Men .
Indeed, “Hellboy” is basically an occult version of “X-Men,” with John Hurt taking the Patrick Stewart role of a fatherly professor with an English accent.
Good superhero movies—from the first Batman (1989) to X-Men (2000)—are like superhero comics, in that they come from a distinct emotional place: that feeling of adolescent outsiderness that drives kids to live through … superhero comics.
Particularly in its treatment of the relationship between Hellboy and Liz, there are times when "Hellboy" resembles Bryan Singer's "X-Men," one of the few other recent comic-book adaptations that understood that comics aren't just about action, but also about mood and language and lyricism.
But on the heels of such successful comic-book adaptations as X-Men and Spider-Man, Johnson's film makes Daredevil look like the second-rate hero he never really was.
It’s a little darker, a little bloodier, and a little more adult than its Marvel Comics-spawned counterparts "Spider-Man" and "X-Men."
"Daredevil" is one of the darker Marvel comics, incorporating a grittier detective persona to the title character, and this may be why it's more of a cult comic than a huge fan-based comic like " Spider-Man " and the " X-Men " books.
As scripted by Anthony McCarten (“Darkest Hour,” “The Theory of Everything”), it lacks the cathartic intimacy, the rippingly authentic you-are-there excitement of a great rock-world biopic like “Sid and Nancy” or “Get On Up” or “Love & Mercy.”
We see the band's rise, as they tour the world, as well as some decent scenes of them in the studio, which are reminiscent of the Pet Sounds sessions in Love & Mercy.
The sequence recalls the Pet Sounds section of Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy but Bohemian Rhapsody does not benefit from the comparison.
This biography of Mercury (and to a much lesser extent, his bandmates) doesn’t chart any innovative narrative courses, or even pick up on the recent trend of zeroing in on a few important moments from an eventful career; it’s not the Queen equivalent of I’m Not There or Love & Mercy .
But Jonathan instructs him to resist the urge, and this advice is largely what leads the adult Clark (now played by Henry Cavill) to wander the backroads with no real purpose, a bearded laborer who takes any job he can find (these scenes, combined with Clark's shaggy whiskers, bring to mind Hugh Jackman's wanderings in X-Men and X-Men Origins: Wolverine).
The “X-Men” and the “Dark Knight” sagas have trod this territory, but it’s new for the cinematic “Supermans,” at least to this degree.
Then it struck me: Malek wasn’t just channelling hurt; he was channelling Hurt—Malek’s quiet and nearly abashed delivery of lines, in a way that emphasizes both Freddie’s extra teeth and the emotional effect of being singled out for them, reminded me of John Hurt’s performance as John Merrick, in David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man.”
Other superhero movies have dabbled in big ideas—the Dark Knight trilogy most notably, and the X-Men franchise to a lesser degree.
Logan and The Wolverine both exist in the same world as the other X-Men films, but both have a distinct style that feels more like James Mangold films (the man adores the iconography of Westerns) than anything Bryan Singer did with his X-films.
In aesthetic look and spirit, it shares more in common with The Lion King than, say, X-Men .
Beyond Wesley Snipes in the "Blade" movies, Halle Berry in the "X-Men" ones and Samuel L. Jackson in various "Avengers" related flicks, you'd probably be hard-pressed to name another three.
It doesn’t copy the William’s, Zimmer’s, Romer’s, or Ottman’s score, but it feels like it’s honoring every single theme.
It wasn’t enough that director Bryan Singer did the exact same thing in his SUPERMAN RETURNS back in 2006?
Much like Donner’s original, Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns and Snyder’s Dawn Of Justice, Gunn’s film once again sees David Corenswet’s Superman take on Lex Luthor…
Jumping ahead to the 21st century, this Superman is the third attempt at a live action film franchise for the Last Son of Krypton in the last 20 years, after Superman Returns (dir. Bryan Singer, 2006) and Man of Steel (dir. Zack Snyder, 2013).
Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns is a misbegotten mess…
…with various versions of the characters coming across as glum, dour, or whatever Superman Returns was supposed to be.
You might think The Avengers , renamed Avengers Assemble for Britons, in a slight to their intellect, is a new staging post in a cycle than began a thousand years ago with Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000).
Compare this to Bryan Singer’s slickly ponderous first X-Men movie, in which there’s a whole lot of scene setting and not much else.
Most will agree that both the “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” series were for the most part good, but there were bizarre diversions, like “Daredevil,” “Ghost Rider” and the odious and nonsensical “Hulk” by Ang Lee.
Then there is a second level that includes "Superman II," the Tim Burton "Batman" films, the last "X-Men" epic and the first "Iron Man"--all solid films that nevertheless lack that final spark that separates the good from the great.
Fox and His Friends (1975)
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
influenced Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Plot
Or what he did do: See 1975’s “Fox and His Friends,” whose plot at times eerily mirrors the new film.