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Thursday, May 10, 2018

"Armstrong" - A Movie so Mediocre it Made me Want a Sequel

"Armstrong" is an indie "super hero" movie.  I put super hero in quotes, because the description refers to it as a super hero movie and in some ways it is, but it is lacking certain super hero movie qualities that don't ever seem to spring up.  But keep watching.  Like all the way through, to get to the super hero movie pay off.

What we have for the most of the film is a "buddy movie" with rotating buddies.  A woman rookie EMT and the two men who will teach her to be the hero she needs to be. Or is it three men?  In the end, does it really matter? Why did she need men to guide her?  Maybe I'm not being fair.  She's a rookie.  Someone had to guide her through new territory and to be honest, she is written as a flawed, but strong character.

I think the real missing link in the movie is the presence of an interesting and strong villain.  There is a criminal organization, but unless I missed it while getting a glass of water, the head of this organization never makes an appearance or talks to our characters.  What's Batman without the Joker or Superman without Lex Luthor? Aren't most super her movies defined by the super villain since the guy in the cape rarely changes?  Perhaps I'm nitpicking, but I think this movie would have benefited greatly from a stronger presence coming from the Fifth Sun side of things. Oh, The Fifth Sun is the name of the secret organization chasing Armstrong.

Don't get me wrong.  The baddies are out to destroy the world and that's a serious problem, but they are completely humorless about it.  Their plan has no style and the foot soldiers have no flair. They do have really cool body armor though.

The production values of this movie leave nothing to be desired.  The picture quality and lighting are gorgeous throughout.  The audio is nearly 100%. ( I had trouble hearing one or two lines.)  The film score...actually left no impression on me at all, so it was probably just fine.  The special F/X were not amazing, but they weren't cartoonish either.  The costuming was spot on.  Armstrong's titular mechanical arm could have been a bit less plastic looking, but I suspect this is the direction tech is going in.



Finally, let's discuss the acting.  I read some reviews (as I often do before I write my own in order to see what people are interested in discussing) that came down hard on the acting in this movie.  It's just not true.  The real flaw, I think, was in the dialogue.  Some of it was just unnatural and that can make it very hard to deliver believably.  The hero and the baddies were a bit wooden at times, but that was actually true to their characters, not the result of bad acting.  Vickie Juedy of "Orange is the New Black" has already proven her acting chops in that show and she does a fine job carrying the story here.  And I'll be honest, and I apologize if he ever reads this and takes it the wrong way, but everything I have seen Jason Antoon in, I have found him from a bit annoying to downright unlikeable.  I didn't like him much in this movie.  But, let's consider this, I saw him as a guest star in a couple of Law and Orders and this film.  He often is asked to play a foil to the heroes of the show he is guesting on.  My finding him a bit annoying in those cases is him doing his job, very well.  At the beginning of this movie his character gives his rookie partner a hard time.  Again, his job is to be pretty unlikeable during those times.  So, is it good acting to be a unlikeable as an unlikeable character? Yes!  (The answer to that is "yes", gang.)  So, solid to good acting all around in this movie.




I called a  movie with good production values, good acting and a pretty cool concept "mediocre".  That seems unfair, but the truth is, by the end of the movie I wasn't disappointed in any single aspect, but I did feel like the concept could have been served better.  I think like many "origin story" super hero movies, this one was more about getting things like the explanation of our hero out of the way and the adventure was treated like a side story.  Now I would like to see the movie where our hero and a really cool super villain take center stage.  I'd also like to see Kevin Pollack's character play a larger role in the next film.  Also, I would like to there to be a next film.

For as much as I like Super Hero Movies, I've never really made one.
I did make an origin story though.
ONYX ORIGINS is available on Amazon Prime.

2 comments:

  1. I wanted to thank you for this fantastic read!!
    I certainly enjoyed every bit of it. I have got you book marked to look at new stuff you post?

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  2. Thanks for reading.
    I usually post links to new reviews on our FaceBook page "Indie Streams". We also try to share where to see free movies online without resorting to pirating them.
    https://www.facebook.com/IndieStreams/

    ReplyDelete