By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Is it too early for a 2017 Academy Awards prediction? “Zootopia” will not only be nominated and, unless Pixar tops it in the next few months, the Mouse House will win Oscar gold for Best Animated Feature.
In this modern metropolis, anthropomorphic mammals have evolved beyond their primitive predator/prey status, each species living peacefully within its own appropriate habitat, like Sahara Square, Tundratown, Rain Forest and Little Rodentia.
Plucky Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) is an idealistic rabbit who is not content to work on her family’s carrot farm with her 225 siblings. When a bullying fox bothers her classmates, she shows an early aptitude for conflict management, becoming the first bunny to enroll in the Police Academy.
Despite graduating at the top of her class, Bogo (voiced by Idris Elba), her gruff Cape buffalo boss, makes tiny Judy a lowly meter-maid while larger, more experienced officers investigate an intriguing case involving 14 missing mammals.
Protesting, “I’m not just some token bunny,” rookie Judy becomes obsessively determined to write more parking-violation tickets than anyone ever before.
On-duty, she spies wily Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman), a hustling, fast-talking fox who becomes her frenemy as they become entangled in the missing mammal mystery.
Some of the funniest, most inventive sequences visit the Department of Motor Vehicles, staffed by slow-moving sloths, and the hideaway of a Godfather-like gangster, Mr. Big (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), plus a musical interval with pop star Gazelle (voiced by Shakira), warbling “Try Everything.”
Deftly directed by Bryon Howard (“Tangled”), Rich Moore (“Wreck-It Ralph”) and Jared Bush, who share scripting credit with several others, it’s an imaginatively amusing, subversively relevant, heartfelt parable/police procedural about tolerance and acceptance
Children will enjoy the action-packed comedy, while adults will find plenty of topics, like diversity, prejudice and stereotyping (“dumb bunny,” “sly fox”), to discuss on the way home.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Zootopia” is an intrepid 10, summed up by Judy’s appeal, “No matter what type of animal you are, change starts with you.”
Back in 2000, Ang Lee’s innovative martial-arts masterpiece, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” stunned film-goers, winning several Academy Awards and becoming the top-grossing foreign film of all time.
Unfortunately, its homogenized, English-speaking sequel “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Swords of Destiny” pales in comparison. Michelle Yeoh returns as Yu Shu Lien, the noble warrior who has chosen to live in seclusion, like a “forgotten ghost,” after the death of her beloved Li Mu Bai.
When she is paying her respects to Li Mu Bai’s family in the House of Te, the rival White Lotus clan, headed by the nefarious warlord Hades Dei (Jason Scott Lee), dispatches a stealthy thief, Wei Fang (Harry Shum, Jr.), to steal the sacred ancestral sword, known as the Green Destiny.
Yu Shu Lien captures him, aided by lithe, young Snow Vase (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), who yearns to become her apprentice when she’s not dallying with Wei Fang, who has been caged in the courtyard.
As the wise and wary heroine, 53 year-old Michelle Yeoh is magnificent, aided by an international cast, including Donnie Yen (“Ip Man”) and Harry Shum Jr. (TV’s “Glee), and abetted by characters with colorful names like Thunder Fist and Silver Dart.
Scripted by John Fusco from Wang Dulu’s five-book “Crane-Iron Series” and filmed in New Zealand, it’s burdened by scant character development and a solemn, pseudo-spiritual plot that grows increasingly boring between veteran director/choreographer Yuen Woo-ping’s balletic wire-work.
There are several battles, one in a rustic tavern and another atop the tiled roof of a temple, but they seem slickly familiar and repetitive – and the CGI is obvious. The most original – and memorable – takes place on a frozen lake with the combatants sliding and skating as they fight.
On the Granger Gauge, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny” is a high-flying 5, lacking the distinctive elegance of its predecessor.
One character verbalizes the dilemma of trying to evaluate the “Gods of Egypt” sword ‘n’ sandals fantasy with, “If I even attempted to explain it, your brain would liquefy and run out of your ears.”
But here goes…
Harking back to classic mythology, Osiris (Bryan Brown) decides to pass the Egyptian throne to his son Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), which infuriates his villainous brother Set (Gerard Butler), who kills Osiris, blinds Horus and plunges the once-peaceful kingdom into chaos and conflict.
Along comes mortal thief Bek (Brenton Thwaits), who not only retrieves Horus’ blue eyeballs but joins with Horus to reclaim the country with the help of Goddess of Love (Elodie Yung); campy God of Knowledge (Chadwick Boseman); and Almighty Ra (Geoffrey Rush), who rides on his celestial chariot through the glowing sky, shooting solar beams at a serpentine creature in pursuit.
Bek’s wants to be reunited with his lover (Courtney Eaton), who worked for Set’s obelisk architect (Rufus Sewall) who dispatched her jackal-headed Anubis’s Underworld, where, hopefully, she can be rescued before paying Set’s new afterlife toll tax. (I kid you not!)
Idiotically written and unsteadily directed, it’s vulgar and inane to the extreme, filled with cheesy special effects as the huge gods, who bleed gold, and inexplicably shape-shift into different creatures. Disregarding any attempt at diversity, the cast is primarily Caucasian.
On the Granger Gauge, “Gods of Egypt” is a demented 2, a total waste of time and talent – from start to finish.
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
