Alpha and Omega (D-)

D-

Bad morals, poor storytelling, and an onslaught of vulgarities make this so-called "family film" suitable for no one.
Of the wolves in Jasper Park Canada, Kate (Hayden Penettiere) seems the best of the best. She is not only an Alpha--part of the upper caste in society--but she is athletic, skilled, smart, pretty, and determined to do everything she can for the community. Problem is her no good friend Humphrey (Justin Long). Part of the bottom caste of wolves (the Omegas), Humphrey is a constant slacker, spending more time joking around then doing any real work. Kate has promised to marry Garth, a buff Alpha wolf from another pack, in order to unite the two tribes so they can share hunting ground and stop the imminent war. However things go south (literally) when she and Humphrey are captured and brought to a US national park in order to repopulate. Will Humphrey’s feelings for Kate jeopardize her marriage with Garth? Will they even get back to Jasper Park in order to stop the bloodshed? Are you not interested in these questions and instead wondering how a movie about to animals being made to mate is translating into a kid’s film?

The film, which features Dennis Hopper in one of his final performances, is supposed to tell the heartwarming tale of how true love trumps all. Instead, it preaches that Kate should refuse to marry Garth and just live the carefree life of Humphrey (the situation will work itself out anyway). As uncomfortable as it may seem, in royal and tribal families marrying people off is often the only way to avoid a war. In many cases the princess refusing because she thinks she would be better off with someone else is the equivalent of telling the world to go to hell, since hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives would be lost. In a more direct sense to the average movie goers life, the idea that being a slacker and thinking about oneself for a change is good will have a negative effect if one at all. Of course, a story about a girl escaping from the prison where she is being forced to have sex in order to return to her nation and vow to serve and obey a guy she only met once all for the good of the country seems a little too, um, intense(?) for a kiddy flick. But why did Lionsgate think this would be a good scenario in the first place?

If these faults were not enough, the film is uninspired, plodding through the vague outline of a plot with a few 3-D shock-effects and a laundry list of potty jokes (with a few sexual and drug ones thrown in to boot). The ending, while maybe not the worst of the year, is probably the most lame; of all the children films I have seen this audience of small kids was the least interested.

The only good part of the film is the good music (the wolves’ anthropromorphised howls are quite lovely) and the hilarious Eve (Vicki Lewis), Kate’s aggressive mother.

One of the worst films of the year, and the least appropriate thing marketed for kids since Transformers 2, Alpha and Omega is a must-not-see whether you are six, sixteen, or 106.

The Warlords/Tou Ming Zhuang (C-)

Despite the fact that this movie is very well made, and that Jet Li gives an Oscar worthy performance, The Warlords is ultimately unrealistically despairing.
Released to critical acclaim in China in 2007, it took three years for Warlords to get a US release. The story tells of famous-in-China General Pang Qingyun, who went from suicidal warrior to powerful general after allying with poverty-stricken bandits Zhao Er-hu and Jiang Wuyang. Told by Er-hu (Chinese acting/singing star Andy Lau who played the villain in House of Flying Daggers), the plot is not a happy one—the three allies (aka the Warlords) are faced with horrible choices, and soon the more cautious Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro, the star of House of Flying Daggers) begins to clash with the radical Quingyun. The script, based on historical events, is written by a team of eight writers and directed by Peter Chan Ho-Sun (Waiting), who was a producer as well. Ho-Sun does a good job artistically—the movie is well crafted and in-depth—even though one can tell it is foreign by the cultural and budget differences from a major US film. The movie can be confusing and rarely pans back to show a larger location (either due to the small, $40 million budget or because such shots aren’t a prerequisite in China), but it has much more detail and a much more open and in depth view than most American films.
The acting is great all round, but best by far is Jet Li. As the conflicted anti-hero Quingyun, who is both a mass murderer and a defender of peace, he puts in vast amounts of depth without breaking his noble manner. Li has never gotten an Oscar nomination, but he certainly deserves one here—most actors would have gone the simple route as a scowling villain, but he makes viewers care about the character quite a lot.
Half-way through the film, I was hoping it could be one of the greatest this year. Sadly by the time the credits role I was thinking otherwise. Despite showing several sides in the conflict between Quingyun and Wuyang, and the fact that the film is not pounding one over the head with a message, it still gives the distinct message of a hopeless, futile life. Wuyang’s tactics seem ineffective, but the movie shows Quingyun as unsuccessful too. As for Er-Hu, he decides to adhere to the code he made with his brother and friend—but this is not getting him anywhere good either. As the final scene tells us that life is hard, I thought that however evil the world is, the film is unrealistically dark and, at the core, false. Yes, bad stuff does happen—but battling for the right thing usually works. I know at a time where people like to oversimplify war and violence it is easy to just badmouth the world’s fate—but this is wrong. There is hope, and it is worth fighting for.
The Warlords is well-made, but at heart it carries a message of despair. One that is worth disagreeing with.