ANNE HATHAWAY: QUEEN OF THE MONSTERS
“Godzilla meets Lost in Translation” is not a film description you anticipate. “Godzilla meets King Kong” maybe, or even “Godzilla vs Abbott and Costello: Dawn of Justice” but alas those are not films we are getting in the near future. What we are getting, from reports from the Hollywood Reporter, is Colossal, a film in which Godzilla will have a connection from someone similarly misunderstood as a thoughtless monster, Anne Hathaway.
Colossal will be written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, the director behind Timecrimes and last year’s Open Window. Hathaway will star as Gloria, a woman who decides to move back to her home town from New York after losing her fiancé and her job in quick succession. BUT THEN, TRADITIONAL GODZILLA VIOLENCE STRIKES.
Gloria realises that she in connected via the mind to a giant lizard that is reeking havoc in Tokyo so she endeavours to prevent further destruction and oh what am I even typing right now? This premise is either going to be a thoughtful, poignant and interesting film or a beautiful disaster but either way it sounds fascinating and at the mere announcement of its premise I have made up my mind to see it.
JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS TRAILER IS TRULY….SOMETHING
Jem and the Holograms are Truly Outrageous. That’s kind of their thing. Combine the fashion sense of the 1980s, the toyetic formula that followed the likes of GI Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the ludicrous plotting of an 80s kid’s cartoon (how often did the Misfits try to KILL people?) and it’s hard to get more TRULY OUTRAGEOUS than Jem and the Holograms, a ludicrous cartoon that many still have a fond nostalgia for. Since all the boys’ stuff of the 80s has been mined for nostalgia gold, it’s only fair that the girls are allowed get in on that too, hence the announcement of a Jem and the Holograms movie, directed by Jon M. Chu (who also directed G.I. Joes Retaliation). This is the trailer for the new Jem and the Holograms movie. This is not Truly Outrageous.
It just looks so generic. Taking an over-the-top cartoon and smoothing it out into a standard “rags-to-riches, be true to yourself” might make this more palatable to young people who don’t know what a ‘Jerrica’ is but have heard of Youtube, but probably not by much. The Josie and the Pussycats film told the same story and similarly used its source material as a loose base but coated it in enough irony and satire to help it stand out. For something about a person with two identities this film looks to have none, and while the casting of Brat Pack member Molly Ringwald and lady rocker Juliette Lewis might have suggested some shared sensibility with the original series there is little evidence of that here. Far be it from me to get worked up over a teen adaptation of a girl’s cartoon that ended before I was even born, but there aren’t even any holograms! Come on, people!