PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* MYTHICITY: *good* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, metaphysical, psychological, sociological* Since my original theatrical viewing of David Lynch's DUNE, I doubt that I re-watched it in full since I did so to rewrite this review. I mention this because when I viewed the first part of Dennis Villeneuve's more recent adaptation, I found myself frequently thinking, "Lynch did this scene so much better-- and this one-- and that one..." Lynch's directorial skills, in other words, were so far above those of Villeneuve that even an extremely flawed movie-adaptation by Lynch remains much more memorable than one that never comes close to encompassing the conceptual breadth of Frank Herbert's novel.
I recorded some of my analyses of the Herbert novel here so as to avoid reflecting in this review on the source material for DUNE '84. In that essay, I identified the master trope of the novel as "good colonists fighting bad colonists for the control of tribal resources." Whereas Villeneuve elides a lot of interpersonal drama concerning the two colonial families fighting over the precious spice of the dune-planet Arrakis, Lynch arguably does the opposite. Roughly the first hour of his movie's 137 minutes is devoted to ticking off not only the main hero, Paul of the noble Atreides family, but almost a dozen others in his retinue, both literal family members and royal retainers. (By contrast, the viewer needs to concern himself only with about four representatives of the villainous Harkonnens.) I've read no histories of DUNE's filming, so I don't know if Lynch really believed he needed to include every single Herbert character, even those who played no real role in the film. But other Lynch projects have indicated the director's liking for working with ensemble-casts whose members display a lot of, shall we say, idiosyncrasies. I think that's likely to have been Lynch's real creative motive for the overstuffed first half of DUNE, not pure fidelity to the novel.
The strongest element of DUNE '84's first half is the portrait of Paul Atreides (Kyle Maclachlan). At times Paul seems somewhat full of himself, being that he's the only child, at least that we know of, of Duke Leto (Jurgen Prochnow) and Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis). Yet Lynch quickly establishes the heroic nature of Paul. Though I don't suppose Lynch had that much interest in the space-opera hero-fantasies of George Lucas-- which almost certainly got DUNE '84 greenlighted by Hollywood producers-- I appreciated that this version of Paul has as much on the ball as Herbert's original. He, like his father, is the epitome of the "good colonist," and it's only the dark plots of the Atreides' enemies-- including the Emperor of Known Space-- that propel Paul into the very different destiny of a foreign-born messiah who liberates the tribal people who adopt him. The scene of the "gom jabbar," in which Paul's mettle is tested to the utmost, foregrounds some of that destiny.
Once the long setup is done, the Harkonnens make their move. Paul's father is assassinated and the hero is thrown into the hostile wastes of Arrakis with his mother Jessica. Their special mental skills, which get only cursory explication, allow them to survive long enough to enter the company of the desert tribes known as Fremen (as in "Free Men," get it?) As Lynch moves to the film's second half, he rushes through many of the novel's important scenes, not least Paul's romance with the Fremen female Chani. The scenes with the Sandworms dominate the latter half, but the visionary segments, in which Paul taps into his special destiny as the savior of Arrakis, are just fair-to-middling. The revelation that Jessica harbors her lord's last child in her womb, their daughter Alia, is terribly underplayed, and Paul doesn't even have any reaction to the fact that his sister is born "a child of the Spice," so to speak.
Many of these problems were not Lynch's fault. It was folly to attempt reducing the pageantry of Herbert's mammoth work to a movie a little longer than two hours. Maybe Lynch would have been able to pull off a substantial adaptation of DUNE had he been able to do two films, like Villeneuve. At least Lynch, unlike Villeneuve, seems to have understood the deep mythic waters into which Herbert had delved. One of the earliest scenes-- following a draggy "Future History lesson" delivered at the outset-- involves the aforementioned Emperor plotting with a member of the Spacing Guild to get total control of the Spice resources on Arrakis by favoring the Harkonnens and undermining the Atreides family, since Duke Leto's popularity threatens the Emperor. This scene is not in Herbert, but it's a masterful bit of cinema, using the physical repulsiveness of the Spacer (who resembles a titanic flatworm in a water-tank) to make a talking-heads scene intriguing. DUNE '84 is not a classic of SF-cinema as is its proximate inspiration STAR WARS. But DUNE '84 at least is on the same mythopoeic page as George Lucas, unlike Villeneuve and his proximate inspiration, the Peter Jackson version of THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* MYTHICITY: *fair* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological* If I did not know from interviews that the writers of this project, Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo, were both stone SF-fans, I might think that ARENA had been written as a mundane boxing yarn, in which the characters' urban environment was taken for granted and needed no explanation. That's how little Bilson and DeMeo tell audiences about the background of the space-station on which all of the film's action takes place. I've seen or read hundreds of sketchy space-opera stories in which Earthpeople of some far-future era gambol about a space-opera cosmos, interacting with a plethora of other, usually-intelligent ETs. But I'm not sure I've encountered any space-opera as sketchy as ARENA.
All the viewer knows about protagonist Steve Armstrong (Paul Satterfield) is that though he has formidable boxing-skills, he's ended up working as a short order cook on the space station with his buddy Shorty (Hamilton Camp), an ET with four (not very believable) arms. A rowdy alien gets in Steve's face, possibly because humans of this era have low status, and Steve punches the alien out, which gets him and Shorty fired. However, the defeated ET was the prize fighter in the very limited stable of fight-manager Quinn (Claudia Christian). Two of her buddies show up at Shorty's domicile to attack Steve, and after a grueling fight, he beats them both. It's not clear that Quinn expressly told her employees to go beat up Steve to find out how good a fighter he was, but after he wins, Quinn just happens to be on hand to offer Steve a contract. He initially refuses but Shorty gets Steve in financial trouble with local fight-fixer Rogor (Marc Alaimo), so inevitably Steve joins Quinn's retinue.
As in every other formulaic boxing-film, Steve starts moving up in the ranks, beating every other fighter he encounters. There's a marginal subplot about how no human has won in the arena-fights for some really long time, which may have something to do with Rogor fixing all the fights. Since Rogor can't bring Steve under his control, he sends his sexy accomplice Jade (Shari Shattuck) to seduce and then poison Steve, so that Steve can't win the match against the ugly ET champion. For no clear reason, Steve just throws off the poisoning, shows up at the match, and promptly trounces his opponent, making the universe safe-- for human boxers, I guess.
Considering how undercooked the ARENA script is, the movie's production values are pretty good, and director Peter Manooghian (who directed two other films that are, like one, connected to the Charles Band-iverse) keeps things lively. Satterfield carries most of the movie with his fight-scenes, though I don't know how much he was doubled. But no one watches this sort of thing for good dramatic acting. Curiously, the script is so laser-focused on giving Steve his big triumph that there's no romantic subplot between the fighter and his manager. Usually, in these sorts of films, the hero's "true love," the female professional, is good-looking but not as captivating as the evil temptress. But this time, actresses Christian and Shattuck look equally glamorous. There's only a sidelong glance or two to suggest that Quinn might be jealous of Jade's incursions, until the end-scene, where the former punches out the latter-- which is my only reason for giving this movie a "fighting femme" tag.
PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* MYTHICITY: (1) *poor* (2) *fair* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological* I'd never seen either of these TV-specials before, despite their being separated by over thirty years of Scooby-history. HOLLYWOOD, timing out at 50 minutes, feels like Hanna-Barbera reaching into their bag of very outdated tricks to celebrate the Great Dane's tenth anniversary. This may be the only story in the franchise not to deal with the amateur sleuths investigating some sort of crime/mystery, and is more like an episode of YOGI BEAR or something where the main character gets a taste of moviemaking. In this world, Mystery Inc has become so famous for solving crimes that they've been given their own Saturday-morning TV show, in which they have adventures like in the actual show. But Shaggy gets the idea that his doggie buddy ought to expand his horizons. To that end he makes a bunch of amateur films showing Scooby acting out various roles from other familiar movies and tv shows-- HAPPY DAYS, SUPERMAN, SOUND OF MUSIC, CHARLIE'S ANGELS-- all to comic effect, though apparently Shaggy's not aware of the humor. He pitches these terrible flicks to his studio boss (rather than to the producer of the TV show that Scooby and his gang star in) and if this repetitive humor wasn't bad enough, the script throws in three or four mediocre songs. Fred, Daphne and Velma have nothing to do in the story but to try convincing their goony buddies not to ruin their sweet deal. Some of the jokes might work for grade-school viewers who don't realize how moldy the humor is. However, someone working on the script may have dropped an indirect comment on the Hanna-Barbera idea of contemporary humor. In a scene where Scooby visits the famous "concrete handprints" exhibit in front of Graumann's Chinese Theater in L.A., most of the names one can make out are extremely obscure actors from the thirties, like "Sally Eilers" and "Nat Pendleton." Since neither of the credited writers was much past thirty, I can only assume this was a concealed jape at the expense of Hanna and Barbera, who actually started making cartoon shorts in the 1930s.
As a complete contrast, SCOOBY DOO AND THE BEACH BEASTIE is a nicely plotted trifle that, at about half an hour, does nothing to overstay its welcome. The Scoobies take a trip to the beach to help Daphne's weird uncle Sandy (the always welcome Adam West), whose beachfront resort has been attacked by a variety of weird water-monsters. The mystery part of the story, and its inevitable "rational" conclusion, is de rigeur by this point. But the writers won points from me because they confined themselves to two quickie subplots. The lesser one involves the Great Dane giving all his attention to a girl-type dog and making Shaggy jealous for not palling around as usual. The better one plays off a conceit offered (I think) by one of the TV shows: that Fred had become obsessed with setting traps and now had to undergo "net withdrawal." Except everything at the beach reminds him of nets. I actually laughed at that one, something I can hardly ever say of a Scooby-show from any era.
PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* MYTHICITY: *fair* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological* Aside from introducing a major subplot about the provenance of Hawkgirl upon Planet Earth-- something Season One didn't address adequately-- Season Two is much like its predecessor in structure, 14 stories, usually consisting of two episodes, though occasionally single or three-parters provided some narrative variety. I have the general recollection that the 3-season run of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED provided better stories overall, but that remains to be seen. Again, mythicity-ratings for individual episodes signify good, fair or poor.
TWILIGHT (P)-- In my general review of SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, which brought the Kirby-Kreations of Apokolips and New Genesis, I wrote: "Many of the plots, particularly in the third season, emphasize the hero's encounters with the forces of Darkseid. Darkseid, unlike the rest of this Superman's fight-and-flee rogues' gallery, is a figure of Satanic majesty. Even when Superman defeats this villain physically, Darkseid remains in a sense unbeaten, living on as the virtual incarnation of evil. Yet this struggle too lacks the deeper resonance found in the "Fourth World" comics of Jack Kirby, from whence Darkseid springs. In contrast to Kirby, the producers of the Superman series apparently view evil as inhering mostly in mindless violence. Villains are never very clever in this world." The JUSTICE LEAGUE treatment of The New Gods cosmos is just more of the same, with the added touch that Superman, the only Leaguer who had previous contact with the Lord of Apokolips, bears the villain a sizable grudge. But when Darkseid tells the League that Brainiac is about to wipe out his world, the heroes have to respond like heroes-- and so they get trapped by the connivance of both villains. A few character moments for Orion and Highfather don't disguise the weaknesses of this tale. The title is a simplistic Wagner reference.
TABULA RASA (F) -- Luthor finds Amazo, an android left behind by the late Professor Ivo and manipulates the innocent artificial man into attacking the League with his limitless ability to imitate super-powers. It's mostly a big battle-story, with a few Frankensteinian touches.
ONLY A DREAM (F) -- The writers should have included a tip of the slouch hat to Wes Craven, as evil Doctor Destiny telepathically takes control of the heroes' dreams. Only two members remain awake to save their allies, and they're running on fumes.
MAID OF HONOR (F)-- This is one of the better Diana-centric episodes. Wonder Woman befriends an engaged young princess who's trying to live up her last days of pre-marital freedom. Then Wonder Woman and the rest of the Leaguers learn that the princess is supposed to marry Vandal Savage, who of course has the usual supervillain scheme in mind.
HEARTS AND MINDS (F)-- John Stewart gets center stage this time, and we learn that he had a fling with his Green Lantern trainer Katma Tui. This allows the writers to show some mild jealousy on the part of Hawkgirl, foregrounding the romantic relationship that she and the Lantern will enjoy later this season. Despero, a routine comic-book alien evildoer who happened to have three eyes, is revised into a cult-leader who's persuaded his entire world that he is the Second Coming of their sacred deity, partly because he was born with that third eye. The script contains the usual bromides about the excesses of cultish religions but says nothing new.
A BETTER WORLD (F)-- And here, as if by collaboration with Mark Waid, we have an alternate universe where things went to hell because Superman broke his code against killing. The result is that the Justice League of that world became The Authority-- I mean, the Justice Lords. Despite the Lords having brought their world under draconian control, they aren't happy with their accomplishments. Upon learning of the League's world, the six corrupted heroes (Flash having been slain by Luthor, whom Superman then killed) journey to League-world, imprison the real heroes, and begin a new campaign of conquest. There are some good character moments here for Superman, Batman, and the non-deceased Flash, an appearance by Doomsday (who talks this time out), and Regular Luthor redeeming himself-- temporarily.
ECLIPSED (P)-- Explorers accidentally release the demonic Eclipso, who proceeds to take control of most of the Leaguers with his power over their dark sides. Twenty years later, STARGIRL did the same story better.
THE TERROR WITHIN (F)-- Yes, I'll give this one a fair rating just for working in a salute to Marvel's Defenders, consisting of Doctor Fate (for Doc Strange), Solomon Grundy (for Hulk), and Aquaman (for Sub-Mariner). The main plot is a disposable "Lovecraftian-demon-getting-unleashed" plot, and it's not improved by shoehorning in the assertion that Hawkgirl's people once worshipped the demon.
SECRET SOCIETY (F)-- Luthor's Injustice Gang is remodeled as Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society, but the only thing "secret" about this assemblage of career super-villains is that Grodd is a lot sneakier about undermining the heroes with psychological techniques. The anthropoid antagonist uses his mind-control talents to aggravate many of the petty resentments the Leaguers harbor toward one another, making it tough for them to work together-- not unlike the ten or twelve times this sort of thing happened to the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. Surprisingly the pongid predator does not pick up on the concealed romantic feelings of Hawkgirl and Green Lantern, though I can guess why the writers did not go there. They did put some quasi-Nietzschean ideas in Grodd's mouth, which is a nice touch for what's still just three big battles between heroes and villains-- though "Society" does boast one of the best multi-character fights in both live-action and animation history.
HEREAFTER (G)-- I'm surprised that an episode featuring one of the many "Fake Deaths of Superman" proved to have such strong mythicity. Part of the credit lies in the writers' riffing on a famous Silver Age comics-story, "Superman Under a Red Sun," in which the hero is flung into a far-future Earth whose sun is now red, depriving the Kryptonian of his super-powers. In HEREAFTER, a battle with a cadre of villains brings about the Man of Steel's transposition into a similar future-world, while everyone back in 2003 thinks that their greatest hero is dead. But after wandering about the ruined world for a time, Superman is found by "the Last Immortal on Earth," the ever-persistent Vandal Savage. It seems one of Savage's world-conquering plans went awry and killed everyone else on the planet, so that he can only pass his time with pointless hobbies-- until he gets the idea to change history with the help of the Last Son of Krypton. This is one of the better time-travel stories in animation history, largely because of the byplay between the compassionate hero and the vaguely remorseful evildoer. And before the Leaguers learn that their friend is still alive, they have to endure the attempt of the raucous Lobo to take Superman's place in the hero-group. It doesn't really work to imagine Lobo hanging out with a bunch of do-gooders, but his presence does provide a few touches of needed humor.
WILD CARDS (F)-- Just because the Joker worked pretty well in the Injustice Gang, that doesn't mean he makes a good main opponent, not even when he's buttressed with a new version of those "wild cards" the Royal Flush Gang and with the even wilder Harley Quinn. Joker invades Las Vegas and challenges the League to uncover a series of bombs that will decimate the city, even though a lot of residents manage to flee. Of course, Batman gets the honor of taking down the Clown Prince, as well as manipulating Harley against him, while the others occupy themselves with the cannon fodder. Good basic action sequences and greater development of the Hawkgirl-GL romance make it all go down easily.
COMFORT AND JOY (F)-- The writers push themselves to do a sentimental Christmas episode, and though not everything works, it could have turned out much worse. The Hawkgirl-GL romance ramps up, in preparation for having John Stewart get the rug ripped out from under him.
STARCROSSED (F)-- And just like that, the writers drop the other shoe. Hawkgirl didn't just happen to land on Earth by accident as she maintained; she was sent to spy on Earth, and on the League, by her superiors in the Thanagarian military. The winged heroine went along with this plot in the false belief that her people merely planned to briefly control Earth in order to establish a beachhead against the Thanagarians' spacefaring enemies, the Gordanians. But when Hawkgirl learns that her people plan to destroy Earth for their own military advantage, she has to switch loyalties, even though her former friends deem her a traitor as well. There's lots of strong melodrama in this three-part season finale, but not that much myth beyond the standard "don't trust aliens bearing gifts" trope. The romance, not surprisingly, does endure into the run of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED.
PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny* MYTHICITY: *fair* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological* The Wiki-article on this film mentioned that its producers originally intended, for whatever reason, not to credit Steve Moore, author of the graphic novel on which the movie was based. I've read none of Moore's works on the subject of the Greek hero, but since this Dwayne Johnson project spawned two imitations, THE LEGEND OF HERCULES and HERCULES REBORN, one might credit Moore with having brought these into being as well.
I didn't remember anything about my previous screening of this flick, but now I see why: the only thing HERCULES has going for it is a restrained performance by Johnson, in which he bulked up more than his usual weight and, more importantly, avoided any of his signature winks to the audience. This Hercules grew up as an orphan who became a great warrior due to his uncanny strength and his fighting-skills, and over time people began telling stories about his divine parentage and his slaying of giant monsters. Only one event in the myths strongly resembles the traditional narratives: while Hercules lived in Thebes with his wife and children under the rule of King Eurystheus, his family was slaughtered. He was accused of having slain them when he went mad, but all Hercules remembers is witnessing a spectre akin to the death-hound Cereberus. After that, Hercules became a full-time mercenary, leading an assortment of soldiers, some of whom are also based on legendary figures (Atalanta, Autolycus, Tydeus). Hercules comes to the defense of King Cotys (John Hurt), ruler of Thrace, against an invading force. But wait-- could it be that Cotys hasn't told the whole truth about the situation? Just like Hercules' memories of his family's slaughter may not be entirely correct?
Basically, 2014 HERCULES is constructed like a two-part mystery story, and neither mystery is interesting. The script tries to sell the idea that Hercules, after having been a mercenary who for years killed for whoever paid him the best, suddenly gets the Religion of Altruism and turns against Cotys and his secret ally. The secondary characters are no better, supplying nothing more than the marking of time. The battles are OK, but the most I can say is that they aren't as terrible as those in LEGEND. If I had to choose between the three, HERCULES REBORN seems the best just by virtue of having less pretension than the other two-- though I'd probably choose to view a half dozen Herc-flicks from the 1960s over any of these 2014 losers.
PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* MYTHICITY: *good* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological* Despite BROTHERS' coming out at the end of the sixties peplum cycle, it's a decent little flick of its kind. Director/co-writer Roberto Mauri-- best known, perhaps unjustly, for the lively bad movie KONG ISLAND-- possibly took some elements from the 1961 MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, such as an underground civilization, visually dominated by a gigantic mill and politically dominated by an immortal queen. However, Mauri didn't just copy from the next student but took his creation in some interesting mythic directions.
In a loosely Greek-seeming domain, Prince Akim (Anthony Steffen) and his fiancee Diana (Ursula Davis) attempt to consecrate their impending nuptials by building a temple to "the gods" near a mountainside, not far from the famed "Waterfall of the Gods." In this endeavor the royal couple are aided by two local strongmen, the titular Brothers Maciste, Elder Maciste (Richard Lloyd) and Younger Maciste (Tony Freeman). The script offers no clue as to why the name Maciste, usually applied to a mysterious hero able to appear in any era he pleases to dispense justice, is used by both of these men. Perhaps both brothers are by-blows of that time-traveling hero, after he made a romantic conquest in that era. However, the attempt to lay the foundations of the new temple-- an activity that archaic peoples often considered a perilous endeavor-- the side of the mountain caves in. This damages the temple and seems to be a bad omen. While the menfolk investigate what look like ancient ruins within the mountain, Akim sends Diana back to her father's palace. (It's a little obscure, but I think the region is within the scope of Diana's kingly father, while Akim is marrying into the family to unite his realm and hers).
However, as Diana drives her chariot back in the company of two guards, all of them are ambushed by men wearing leopard costumes. The attackers kill the guards and drag Diana into the mountain, going in through some different access point. Inside the mountain Diana sees a huge mill being pushed by slaves, more leopard men, and the ruling queen of the domain, Thaliade (Claudie Lange). After some minor chat, Thaliade offers Diana some liquid refreshment. Diana is then drugged into submission, and she's sent back to her father's palace to work Thalaide's will. The brothers follow Diana's trail to the waterfall, and Elder Maciste tells his younger sibling to inform Akim of their progress while he the Elder One enters the mountain through the waterfall. Leopard men attack Maciste and he beats them down, but he's caught in a metal cage whose bars he can't break. A ceiling studded with spikes descends to perforate Elder Maciste's deltoids, but just when the hero's about to collapse from holding off the death-trap, Thalaide turns it off remotely and he simply collapses from the strain. Slightly later Thalaide drugs him and makes Elder Maciste her new consort, which displeases her previous consort, formerly one of the leopard-men.
The mesmerized Diana appears at her dad's palace and uses a drug given her by the queen on Younger Maciste, sending him into a deep sleep. With that hero out of the way, Diana talks her fiancee into holding a parley with the ruler of the underground world, whom she claims speaks for the gods. She sells him a line about building the consecrating temple elsewhere, but this is apparently just a deception to get Akim to enter the queen's underground domain. Meanwhile back in the hidden world, Thaliade sets Elder Maciste to work turning the giant wheel, whose purpose, we later learn, generates a stream of water that confers immortality upon everyone in the hidden world. One of Thaliade's maidservants, Nila, takes a shine to Elder Maciste, gets him alone and makes love to him while expressing her desire to escape this twilight existence and enter the human world once more.
As it happens, this is also what Thaliade wants, though on her own terms. When Prince Akim ventures into her court as instructed by Diana, Thalaide relates her origins. She was once a mortal princess like Diana, but one of the gods spirited her away. She enjoyed her existence in the gods' world for a time, but Venus became jealous of Thaliade's beauty. The gods' solution to this conflict was to create the underground realm for Thaliade to dwell in, along with a huge retinue of maidservants and leopard-costumed guards, all made immortal by the streams of "immortality water" dispensed by the mill. However, for some unspecified reason, Thaliade can escape her velvet prison if she marries Akim-- which she proceeds to bring about, with the mind-controlled Diana coolly observing.
However, back at Diana's palace her father engages a sorceress to bring Younger Maciste out of his sleep-spell. The young hero rides to the waterfall, enters the hidden world and begins thrashing every leopard man he can find. Thaliade must interrupt her wedding, sending the elder brother to fight the younger one. Elder defeats Younger and binds him to the wheel for punishment. However, while Thaliade becomes preoccupied with the wedding once more, Nila steals an antidote, uses it on Elder Maciste and brings him out of his obedient stupor. The two brothers then join in wrecking the kingdom of Thaliade, she dies in one of her own traps, and apparently most of the queen's retinue, evil or not, perishes except for Nila. At the end Akim is reunited with Diana, Elder Maciste gets Nila, and Younger Maciste gets no nookie no how.
INVINCIBLE has some minor story flaws, such as the question of where Thalaide's retinue comes from, and why the guards dress like leopards. But there are some good mythic tropes here, arguably stronger than the ones in MOLE MEN. The emphasis upon the flowing water may remind one of the river Styx in the Greek underworld, though the Styx could confer healing, not immortality. The underground world should remind anyone of the underworld itself, though the denizens have simply put off death rather than actually having died. Most impressively, Thalaide's attempt to take Diana's place by usurping Diana's groom bears some resemblance to the Sumerian myth of Ishtar's descent to the underworld, wherein the goddess of sexual bounty loses her powers when she enters the domain of her sister Ereshkigal. The two narratives are not identical, since Ereshkigal does not have any means or intent to escape her death-realm. But there is a substitution motif in most versions of the Sumerian myth, where Ishtar can only escape her imprisonment if another entity takes her place. In addition, there's a suggestion that Thaliade's from another mortal generation than that of Akim and Diana, so she, more than a goddess might be, signifies a transgression of clan-boundaries; i.e., a "clansgression." Thus, even though INVINCIBLE seems to have fallen through the cracks in the annals of favored peplums, it deserves some serious reconsideration.
PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* MYTHICITY: *poor* FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure* CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological* I'd never heard of the popular nineties video game "Wing Commander" before hearing about this feature-film adaptation in 1999. I never caught the movie in any venue before streaming, and only completism justified seeing this box-office bomb at all.
Headliner Freddie Prinz Jr, playing COMMANDER's main hero Chris Blair, went on record as stating that when he signed on to the project, he really liked the script he was given-- but that the actual shooting script was "shit." There's surely more truth than poetry in that assertion. Even if I had not had Wikipedia at my disposal, I feel sure I would have noticed how the script for the theatrical release tosses out plot-threads and then summarily drops them like hot coals. One of the most obvious occurs in the first half hour. New pilots Blair and Marshall (Matthew Lillard), fresh from their training-school, show up at their space-station barracks to introduce themselves to their new crewmates. Immediately before this scene, Blair makes the mistake of sitting in a plane designated for another pilot, thus getting on the bad side of one of his superior officers, Commander Devereaux (Saffron Burrows). Then. when Blair and Marshall mention the incident to the other pilots, one of them, Forbes (Ginny Holder), claims that the designated pilot no longer exists and should not be spoken of. It's a nice scene of its kind-- and the existing script never follows up on the subject.
The main plotline is no better. We see nothing of this era's futuristic Earth-culture except the spacefaring military, and the entire film concerns the space-militia's attempt to beat back the hostile forces of the Kilrathi (catlike aliens only seen a couple of times in the movie). However, we hear a little bit about a group of early Earth explorers called "Pilgrims," but only because Blair is half-Pilgrim on his mother's side. The current human culture has some sort of bias against Pilgrims, for what reasons the viewer never knows, but a lot of people in Blair's new crew are prejudiced against him for his heritage-- though the script handles even this basic melodrama clumsily. The main purpose for the script to mention the heritage at all is because being half-Pilgrim has imbued Blair with mad piloting skills, enabling him to navigate through black holes and stuff like that.
There was also apparently a subplot about someone in the Earth-forces being a secret ally to the Kilrathi, but all of it was edited out. A lot of this crappy plotting might be bearable if at least the space-combat scenes were exciting, but director/co-writer may hold the record for Worst Space-Fights Ever. The only slight recompense for watching this turd was that the four principal actors did pretty well polishing it. Prinze, Burrows and Holder are as good as is possible, but Lillard makes the most of his second-banana character. Since he's probably going to forever known for playing and/or voicing Shaggy Rogers in the SCOOBY DOO franchise, it's refreshing to see him playing a largely straight role for once.
