Oscars 2011 and Superman

As most of you will know, the Oscars were last night, and there were very few surprises. The King's Speech took home Best Picture, Actor, Original Screenplay, and Director. I think everyone saw the first two coming; it's a bit of a surprise that Director didn't go to David Fincher for The Social Network, but it should have been Christoher Nolan's award anyway, so who cares. Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature, because, let's be honest, it's not called the Pixar Award for nothing. Inception, happily, did rather well, winning as many awards as Speech, albeit in the technical categories: Cinematography, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. I suppose science fiction has to be happy with what it can get, which tends to be the technical awards. Sigh.

In light of there being almost nothing interesting to talk about with regards to the Oscars, let's talk about a rumour that I desperately want to be true. Apparently, Zack Snyder wants Viggo Mortensen to be General Zod in the upcoming Superman reboot, working title The Man of Steel. That's right. Aragorn could be Zod. Granted, this is very much a rumour at this stage, with nothing whatsoever to suggest it'll actually happen, not least that, in the past, it has been denied that Zod would be the villain. However, Snyder supposedly wants Mortensen for the role, and I think he'd be very good in it. While he tends not play out-and-out villains, he was excellent when playing morally grey, at best, characters in A History of Violence (which was also a comic book adaptation) and Eastern Promises. Obviously, the fact that they've said Zod won't be the villain is a problem, but I'm not sure who else it could be. Other than Zod, the only obvious choice is Lex Luthor, but he was the villain in three of the last five Superman films, four if you count Superman II. As I said, this is pure rumour at this stage, but it's still interesting to talk about.

Come on, Aragorn could be General Zod! Who doesn't want that?

Paul

This was one of the films I was most looking forward to this year. I really liked both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and I was curious to see how Pegg and Frost would manage without the fantastic direction of Edgar Wright, who I assume was busy making Scott Pilgrim instead. I'm not a particular fan of Greg Mottola's previous directing work (I hated Superbad), but this is Pegg and Frost's movie, not his. So, how do they hold up?

Pretty damn well, fortunately. Paul is a very good film. Ok, it's not the type that's going to win awards, but it's clever, the cast are excellent, and it's very, very funny. For those who don't know, it's about Graeme and Clive, a pair of geeks who go on holiday to Comic-Con, and subsequently on a road trip of the USA's UFO hotspots. En route, they meet an alien called Paul, who enlists them to help him escape the government. Hijinks ensue. While a lot of the jokes are accessible to anyone, your enjoyment of this film will be a whole lot greater if you have at least a working knowledge of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the films of Steven Spielberg. There are references to geek culture all over the place, with Star Wars unsurprisingly getting the greatest number. There are plenty of jokes relating to it that are funny in their own right, but become much funnier if you realise where that particular line is from. Fans of Spielberg will find plenty to engage them here, with a joke involving Paul's involvement with E.T. being one of the film's best. In a similar fashion, a famous line from Aliens gets quoted at one point, and given the context it appears in here, it's much funnier if you know where it's originally from.

The start of the film is, unfortunately, the weakest bit. The sequence at Comic-Con is nice, but the majority of the jokes are about whether Graeme and Clive are gay or not. There are jokes about this subject throughout the film, but they're particularly numerous at the beginning, and get old fast. Fortunately, once Paul shows up, the film becomes a blast. There are chase scenes aplenty, interspersed with sequences of simply Graeme and Clive getting to know Paul. It says a lot that the latter are just as engaging as the former. This is largely because the character of Paul, so central to the film, is, fortunately, wonderful; the CG is convincing, and Seth Rogen does a fantastic job with the voice work. Not what you typically expect from a screen alien, he's been on Earth a long time, and enjoys the simple things in life: swearing, smoking, barbecues, and more swearing. It's a testament to how well the character is written that you end up really liking him very quickly, when he could easily have ended up feeling like a bit of a jerk.

Pegg and Frost are on predictably good form, essentially playing themselves as they often do. The rest of the cast are on fine form as well, with the standouts being Jason Bateman as the FBI agent in pursuit of Paul (to whom is given, in my opinion, the funniest Star Wars reference), and Sigourney Weaver. To give away her exact role in the plot would be spoilerish, but suffice it to say that she's as good as she always is, and unsurprisingly, it's in the context of her that Aliens gets quoted.

It may start off slow, but Paul quickly ends up becoming a very fun, if very silly, time at the cinema. It proves that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost don't need Edgar Wright helping them out to deliver quality comedy; this is particularly nice considering that it's the first time Frost has written something for the screen. I hope he continues to do so. They may essentially be playing themselves, but it's worked so far, and it continues to work here. There's something in Paul for everyone, but it's fitting that, since it begins at Comic-Con, the people who will probably enjoy it the most are the type of people who would actually go to Comic-Con.