'Wrath of the Titans' goes up against 'The Hunger Games'

2010's Clash of the Titans became synonymous with bad 3D. The war-fantasy's sequel, Wrath of the Titans (3,545 theatres), will also release in 3D and IMAX, but this time around, "Strong 3D effects help make this worth seeing," according to FJI critic Daniel Eagan. He has generally positive things to say about the sequel, noting that "streamlined screenplay, tight editing and focused directing" help make the movie a good ride. However, even through Clash of the Titans earned half a billion dollars, Americans didn't like the movie: It has a 5/10 rating on IMDB and a 48% viewer approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, both lower than what one would expect. Everyone's expecting Wrath to be an international hit, but audiences at home may be less forgiving. A number shy of $40 million is expected for the action fantasy epic. The Hunger Games would have to drop more than 70% in order to come under $40 million, so it will likely retain its spot at the top of the box office.

One of two Snow White movies releasing this year, Mirror Mirror (3,603 theatres) is a family-friendly, PG-rated comedy. Unfortunately, the filmmakers' ideas are "so devoid of wit, fantasy and cinematic magic, [they] don’t even rise to a perfunctory sitcom level of entertainment," according to our David Noh, who detested the "sloppiness" of the direction. Former Pretty Woman Julia Roberts plays the evil, less-fair queen, but she lacks the "high style or comic technique to be truly fun." Despite these problems, family audiences could give this movie around $20 million this weekend--though its future may be more tepid.

After churning up outrage over Bully's R-rating, the Weinstein Co. will release the anti-bullying doc in five theatres as "unrated." AMC has announced it will let under-17s see the movie with a permission slip, which led the Parents Television Council to warn that this will undermine the whole rating system. It's true that this decision circumvents the MPAA, but I also feel there are so few films that fall in the category of Bully, it's unlikely this type of decision will happen more than once every several years. The doc "triumphs in driving home the problem and the attendant suffering," according to FJI critic Doris Toumarkine. Given how bullying has become such a hot topic, it's a worthy watch for parents, educators, and school-age kids.

Yet another hot-topic doc, The Island President, opened on Wednesday. The film profiles Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed's attempts to influence international policy on global warming. Nasheed has since been deposed, a threat to the country's democracy.

Two indies will expand this week. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen will move into 483 theatres. Mumblecore spawn Jeff Who Lives at Home will expand into 513 theatres. Both films are expected to earn in the $1 million range.

On Monday, we'll see how The Hunger Games fared, if audiences gave the Titans sequel a second chance, and if Mirror Mirror brought in Julia Roberts-loving mothers and their children.

 

'The Island President' comes to DOC NYC

By Sarah Sluis

This year's DOC NYC lineup includes The Island President, which won the People's Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Audiences were undoubtedly charmed into casting their vote not just because of the film itself, but the charisma of the documentary's subject, the president of the Maldives.

President Mohamed Nasheed was imprisoned and tortured multiple times by the previous, dictatorial regime before being elected in the first fair election in thirty years. When he assumed office, he focused on the island nation's most pressing issue: Staying above water. The Maldives, which has a population of just under a million and takes a few hours to reach--by plane!--from India, has over 2,000 islands, many just above sea level. The citizens' constant struggle with erosion became a pressing political issue after the 2004 tsunami devastated entire islands in the archipelago, which had to be abandoned. Then the former president misappropriated over $100 million in aid in the aftermath of the natural disaster. The islands' erosion problems signify global warming. If carbon dioxide levels in the air continue to rise, the Maldives will be underwater in less than a century, a sort of canary-in-the-coal-mine for the problems that will be unleashed by global warming.

Director Jon Shenk (Lost Boys of Sudan) has remarkable access to the inner workings of the president's regime. The audience is privy to the kind of compromises, drudgery, and deal-making required of a politician, and its close trail of its subject hearkens back to 1960's documentary classic Primary. President Nasheed shows he's game to unusual PR tactics like holding a conference underwater in SCUBA gear in order to bring attention to his country's plight, so it's easy to understand why he would welcome a filmmaker's cameras.

Shenk chooses the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit as the movie's climax. Nasheed ends up being a bridge between the developed and developing countries. The biggest carbon emitters, such as the U.S. and Europe, want everyone to reduce carbon emissions, while developing nations such as India and China argue they use just a fraction of the carbon of these rich nations and need to increase carbon emissions as their nation grows. The Maldives, as a small developing nation, offers a compelling argument for developing nations to help their own. Being on the inside reveals interesting insights. "I think India wanted to be like Canada [is to the U.S.], hiding behind China," President Nasheed observes, since India is rather reluctant to make the kind of stand at the summit that China is. I can't imagine many leaders are willing to let a documentarian sit at their meetings with aides and occasionally showing the kind of political and PR legerdemain that must be used in these situations. The Island President may be aiming to be an environmental documentary, but it's actually one of the most fascinating political documentaries in recent years.