Being the Alien (The Martian, 2015)

For being a comedy, (thanks People’s Choice Awards) The Martian feels pretty serious.

That does not mean it is devoid of humor. Really, most any solid drama with have humor to break tension. And considering the situation Mark Watley (Matt Damon) finds himself in? Tension needs to break. After an accident leaved Watley left behind on Mars, (believed dead) he finds himself struggling to find a way to last until the next mission to Mars can pick him up…in about four years.

The Martian is a thrilling account of survival that manages to be filled with concern and joy. Ridley Scott likes his epics, but this is very low key in that regard. Instead, it is a focus on character and endurance. We get a window into Watley’s thoughts by way of his video recording everything he is doing as a journal. On the one hand, this could have felt like weighty exposition, and some might wonder why the filmmakers did not opt for the near silence of the first half of Castaway.

Damon’s delivery is light and accessible, rather than clunky, and it is easy to connect with the character. One of the film’s strengths is how it manages to give us insight to our characters very quickly, especially the crew. We meet them mere moments before the storm that separates Watley. And yet, you get a feel for the relationship of this crew and the dedication they have to each other in those few minutes.

The cast is very strong, everybody turning in enjoyable performances. The visuals are solid, considering it is a lot of reddish sand and rock. Scott really seems to like films set on barren planets.

The Martian is an engaging sci-fi drama well worth viewing.

January 26, 2016 0

The Forced Questions (Spoilers)

So, we are a few days into the release of the Force Awakens and those…less impressed…have gone out to offer their challenging questions. So, this is all spoilers. If you have not seen the film and are avoiding spoilers? Do not read this.

I have seen people talk about the major plot holes, but have not seen them presented. Most of what I see is people saying “This new mystery has come up, PLOT HOLE!” A new mystery in a franchise is not a plot hole. How does Maz Kanata have Luke’s Lightsaber?! That is a mystery, not a plot hole.

One of the busiest memes I have seen is Rey-centric. It can be summed up as “How does this scavenger know how to fly/fix ships/use the force? The film establishes that Rey has flown ships before. She states that she has flown ships before, but has never flown outside the atmosphere. So, we know she has flown. Which pretty much answers how she was able to fly the Millennium Falcon. This is not a magical thing. She has never flown it, but she was left in the care of Unkar Plutt, a junk dealer. It seems highly likely she spent plenty of time around the Falcon. She knew all the modifications Plutt made. As she and Finn are running to escape the First Order’s attack on Jakku, she says they should not take the Falcon, as it is a garbage ship. She is clearly, in fact, very familiar with the Falcon.

And it should be noted, we see proof of Rey’s flight skills far sooner than we ever see of Luke. In Episode IV, Luke tells Ben that they do not need Han Solo, he is a decent enough pilot. But we see no actual evidence of this until the final moments of the film where Luke flies and X-Wing.

Rey is very likely a skilled mechanic. I have known a few mechanics in my days, as well as people who fixed up cars with no formal education. There is literally no reason that “scavenger” equals “lacking Technical Knowledge”.

How does Rey know how to use the Force. Luke could barely use the Force without training. Except, he really had no training before Yoda, and he was using the Force. Ben really did not train Luke, he told him a few things. Rey appears familiar with Jedi lore, more than Luke did, he had to be told the basics. But Rey was experiencing the Force in ways Luke did not. What this suggests is Rey has a more raw connection. It is not out of line that between Han Solo’s comments about the reality of the Jedi and Luke Skywalker, her experience with Luke’s Lightsaber and finally Kylo Ren’s attempts to interrogate her, Rey had the confidence to at least try and use the Force in her escape. And there is no way she would have beat Kylo Ren if he were not severely wounded. And we know she was a skilled fighter with a staff, quickly picking up a lightsaber is hardly a stretch.

Finn is the black Storm Trooper that had some folks upset. Yes, we all know there are clones in the prequels, based on the talk of the Clone Wars from the original Trilogy. The film establishes they are no longer using clones. It is impossible to completely ignore the prequels, and the film only makes reference when it needs to. An interesting note is the reference by Lor San Tekka “balance to the Force”. As Peter Chattaway (who has a very different reaction to the film than I) has noted, the whole concept of “Balance” within the Force is a prequel thing. However, in the prequels, it was specifically in reference to Anikan Skywalker. Here, the comment is a reference to the Jedi. Lor is stating there need to be Jedi, and with Luke missing and no one to take his place…the Force is out of balance.

Weird criticism? Darth Vader’s helmet is in perfect condition. I think the person making that claim blinked. The Vader Helmet was a melted mess.

Finally, the dumbest complaint comes Brian Godowa… Rey has a “boys name”. His ass backwards mentality on women as heroic leads is the real problem. But he falls into a camp that sees Rey as “pandering”. Six Star Wars movies that focused on Male leads. One animated feature and two animated series focused on male leads as the central heroes. But one film where the heroic Force wielder is a woman, and the series is “pandering”. How ridiculous.

December 23, 2015 0

Rebirth (Star Wars: The Force Awakens,2015)

And so, here it it is. The fans started skeptical when new films were announced, yet as we grew closer, folks started to get more and more excited. And as long as they were better than the prequels, these new films would be loved. But now I have seen J.J. Abram’s film.

For me? This was an exhilarating rush. I felt a genuine joy watching the film. The characters we know are back, and much as we remember, though a bit more worn and heartbroken.

The new characters look poised to take over the main franchise, and they are quite likable. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Rey, Finn, Han and Chewbacca.

Rather than a clone of Darth Vader, Rylo Ken is more emotionally twisted by the pull of the dark side. There is a hint that the light side of the Force has it’s temptations to be fought.

The jokes land on target, the film has plenty of laughs. There are plenty of call backs and nice little homages to the original trilogy. The film also sets up mysteries to be answered in the future.

I truly enjoyed the film, and this has me excited for the next installment.

December 19, 2015 0

Cold Fear (Harbinger Down, 2015)

This film, in part, was a response to the 2011 Thing prequel.In early interviews, (Harbinger Down Director) Alec Gillis had emphasized that it was going to be a mostly practical film. Even the special features show an awful lot of practical work in the behind the scenes. The studio “had a change of heart” and decided the film should favor digital over practical.

There is a place for the tool of digital. But the avoidance of practical hurts film. Alec Gillis, coming from an award winning practical effects background, knows this well.

Harbinger Down was a film made in part to showcase practical effects. It is for lovers of monster movies.

It tells the tale of Sadie, a student studying climate change effects on Beluga Whales who brings her professor and fellow student on her grandfather’s crabbing boat the Harbinger. They discover an old soviet ship in the ice and once on board, horror based mayhem ensues.

Evoking memories of John Carpenter’s the Thing (right at the beginning there is an easter egg for those of us who love the Thing) and the films of the Alien franchise, Gillis clearly set out to make a classic monster movie. Using the familiar elements of people trapped in a remote location facing a scary unknown, Gillis charges forward.

The film has great practical effects driving the action and scares. The monster is lifelike and gruesome. but it is not enough to have cool effects. If the cast cannot hold up their end, a film will fall apart. Luckily, Gillis has a terrific cast. The characters feels defined and are entertaining. Especially likable is Winston James Francis as Big G. Star Lance Henrikson is great in the role of gruff but decent Graff (captain of the ship and Sadie’s grandfather).

The film has moments of humor that allow us to get to know the characters before it all falls apart on them. The cast makes the most of their roles, whether large or small.

Harbinger Down is a solid monster movie, one that pays tribute to the great monster movies of the early 80’s. It deserves a watch by lovers of monster movies and practical visual effects.

October 24, 2015 0

Prometheus Lost

So, Ridley Scott announced the title to the sequel to Prometheus. And I was a bit surprised they caved this early.

I was one of the few who at least generally liked Prometheus. It had some problems, such as the whole “what I choose to believe” thing was never grounded tightly enough to make sense as a solid philosophy and the final act is pretty crazy messy to the point of confusion. Adding to the confusion was the similarities that seem to set up Alien, but clearly at the same time could not be the same ship found in Alien…and the filmmakers emphasized that this is a different planet, different ship…this was set in the same universe as Alien, but is a separate story.

And I like that idea. The notion that there might be a film to line up more precisely with Alien, but that it would come after a divergent story in the same universe. Rapace and Fassbender are welcome performers for me and I am curious to see the next step in that story. But of course, the problem is…they are not just trying to appeal to me, who would have no problem getting interested in another Prometheus film.

I suspect the lukewarm reception has resulted in bringing the Prometheus story directly under the Alien name brand with the upcoming sequel being called Alien: Paradise Lost. I see some potential confusing, what with Neil Blomkamp’s possible Alien five. I presume that will get a re-title. And ever since Alien Resurrection, religious and mythical titles seem to be the go to.

But I suspect they realized continuing Prometheus 2 would not have the attention getting power of actually calling it “Alien”. This does beg one question…will we see the regular Xenomorphs this time around?

September 25, 2015 0

No Way This Will Go Wrong (Jurassic World, 2015)

It has been 14 years since we saw a Jurassic Park movie. And they opted to bring us one thing we had not seen. A fully operational space station. Wait, that is not it. I meant a fully functional theme park. Considering the last two film trod similar ground (small group of people stuck on the island running from dinosaurs) it makes sense that they went bigger this time around.

It is years later and the Dinosaur Theme Park has been running for at least a few years, successfully. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is preparing the most daring exhibit yet. A genetically modified dinosaur, a creature that has never walked the earth before. Nothing could go wrong, except that her nephews are visiting the park this weekend. So Mayhem will ensue.

The plot is not really the point here (there are some big plot points that just disappear from the film entirely), it is cool dinosaur scares. And the film delivers there. There is a lot of fan service to the previous films (One I really liked was the return of BD Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, given a much bigger presence than the original film).

The characters seem all over the place, early on Chris Pratt’s Owen comes off as the stereotype of the charming misogynist. I find this trope absurd. Never have known a charming misogynist in the real world. But this personality trait drops pretty early, and does not resurface the rest of the film. Claire is introduced as the “Woman Who Is Sacrificing a Family To Have a Career”, but it is pretty clear when she realizes her nephews are in danger she considers them important, risking her life to save them.

From the minute characters are introduced, I started trying to figure out who was going to get eaten, and it is not to hard to tell. Faceless guys with guns, random park attendees and a couple big names because they are over confident or greedy. You can play this game in most Jurassic Park films, but the first film still invested in all the dinosaur food. We knew a lot about those people who got chomped. Little to no depth is provided here.

It probably sounds like I hated this film. But I didn’t. I actually enjoyed it. It has a very likeable cast, solid effects, cool dinosaurs and plenty of adventure. It kept me into the story, even when Claire ran super fast in high heels. It is a fun adventure, but not a deep one.

July 12, 2015 0

Drive Mad (Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015)

The Mad Max franchise went quiet after 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. That film fell a bit short of the Road Warrior, the film that we tend to mostly recall when we think of the Mad Max franchise. Talk began as far back 2003, back then it was set to star original Max Mel Gibson.

The film struggled through development, eventually announcing Tom Hardy taking over the role. I was not all that interested, to be honest. It seems like it was a sequel nobody was interested in getting and that we were all happy to to see it be a remnant of 80’s franchises.

Turns out we were all wrong. This film is the shot in the arm action franchises needed. Fury Road is an adrenaline rush. Director George Miller intended the film to be a massive chase film. And he achieves that successfully. The film pushes down the pedal almost right away, and rarely takes a break.

The plot is simple, Max is being a loner and gets dragged into a battle against Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne who was Toe Cutter in the original Mad Max) who is pursuing Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron in a terrific performance). She has stolen precious cargo from him, and he wants it back. The cargo is his harem. These young women do not want to bear children to be fodder for his Warboy Army.

So much stands out, the editing (the film was edited by Miller’s wife Margaret Sixel, who has never edited an action movie before…this was a wise call, as she did a bang up job), the fact that there is almost no digital work with stunts, the grim humor…this is an adrenaline rush of a film.

As with the previous incarnation’s Max inhabits a dark world. Immortan Joe rules from the citidel, where he keeps all the best for himself, throwing scraps to the people below. He rules cruelly, while his Warboys live for nothing other than to die for his glory. He has used a weird viking style religion promising glory to those he smiles upon.

Furiosa wants to rescue the young women Joe keeps to bear him children from this oppressive life. Furiosa is tough and powerful. She is a striking character who stands up to the gruff Max, and in turn winning his respect and help.

While the heroes often rely on violence to achieve their ends of getting away from the forces of Immortan Joe, what stands out to me if there is also room for the power of mercy and gentleness to bring about change on an individual level.

Mad Max Fury Road is the best action film I saw all year. It spends little time on exposition (who are the ghosts that haunt Max? How long after Thunderdome is this taking place, etc). The visuals are insanely engaging…I mean…look at this:

You either think that is the dumbest thing ever, or you love it. The world is just…, well, bonkers. Characters have names like Nux, Toast the Knowing and the Splendid Angharad. I find myself excited for the blu-ray so I can watch it again. I am curious to see the next film that they give us in Max’s story (Hardy is on for three more films).

July 11, 2015 0

More Man Than Machine (Robocop, 1987)

Usually, to refer to a movie as a comic book movie is to suggest it was based on a specific comic book. There was not a Robocop comic when the film came out (although, Marvel quickly adapted it into an ongoing series). But Robocop had all the markings of a good super-hero comic. A noble lead who suffers tragedy and is reborn with great powers, forced to rediscover who they are, all while fight nefarious villains. It’s also Paul Verhoven’s one great film.

Spoilers are all over this…so if you have not seen RoboCop, but think you would like to someday? You might not want to read this.

Robocop is set in a near future that seems scarily possible. Crime is rampant in Old Detroit. Companies like OCP (Omni Consumer Products) now have contracts with the police dept effectively privatizing the police force. The villains of the film fall into two groups. There are the bottom level drug dealers, thieves, murderers and rapists…and then there are high rise occupying corporate men and women. The central villain is Dick Jones (Played with malice by Ronny Cox), the second in command at OCP. After his failure with his ED 209 Urban Pacification Unit, in swoops younger go getter Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer). Bob has been working on the Robocop plan, and has the opportunity to pitch it to “The Old Man” (Dan O’Herlihy).

Peter Weller is able to convince us in a few short scenes that Alex Murphy was a decent, generous father, husband and cop. He loved his family and was devoted to his job. He also seems to get respect quickly from his sergeant (Robert DoQui) and his partner, Officer Lewis (Nancy Allen). In just a few minutes of screen time, he manages to make Murphy matter enough that when his inevitable death occurs at the hands of low life sleaze Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang, it’s downright painful. Granted, part of the reason for that is that Verhoven is so graphic in the film’s violence. However, for the most part, the graphic violence feels justified within the context of the story.

So, by dying, Murphy “volunteers” for the Robocop Project. This leads to a nice series of shots all from Robocop’s perspective as he is being built. This lends a nice air of mystery as you wait anxiously to see the final look of Robocop. Even when he is finished, you don’t get a good look at him as he enters the police station. When he is revealed, the transformation is surprising. You barely see the man and Weller moves like a machine in an extremely convincing manner.

This all leads to a nice series of scenes where Robocop saves people. An interesting moment is after stopping an attempted rape, the victim hugs him and is thanking Robocop…but Robocop has no emotion about stopping the crime, it’s simply what he is programmed to do. He starts directing the victim to a local rape crisis center in a cold, uncaring tone.

But as OCP has tried to suppress the man, Murphy seems to fight to be free. Nightmares of Murphy’s death jar Robocop from his “sleep”. Lewis is the first to recognize the man. And it’s her questions that trigger Robocop to search his own history. In one scene, Robocop asks Lewis about “Murphy’s” family. Murphy is the other. He is not Murphy. After she explains to him what became of his family… Robocop quietly notes that he can “feel them, but I can’t remember them.” There is a tone of mechanical desperation in that line. He can process there is something there, but his programming cannot connect with what is missing.

Robocop runs into a member of Boddicker’s gang, which triggers a curiosity. Robocop needs to investigate who killed him. This film is focused on Robocop uncovering the mystery of how he died, but then who he is, and how to regain what he lost.

Robocop’s effectiveness is in its characters. The villains are despicable, the heroes noble (but flawed). One of my favorite characters is Sergeant Reed, a passionate leader in his precinct. He will not stand for talking of a strike, he is a police officer, and that is a noble profession that can’t just go on strike. He quickly seems to accept Robocop as an officer, not merely a machine. On the other end of the spectrum is Kurtwood Smith who plays Clarence Boddicker with such evil glee, you almost like (and totally hate the bastard). Nancy Allen plays Lewis as a confident, bright and headstrong officer. Ronny Cox is so calculated and heartless in his portrayal of the power hungry Bob Jones, you hope for a worthy demise (and yeah, it’s “worthy”).

And again, Peter Weller? The suffering he must have endured in that suit never shows. Instead, he moves in such a way that you can often forget there is a man beneath it, I can’t recall a moment where he slipped up. And yet, he manages to bring a warmth to Robocop as his self realization grows. His movements are machine, but he becomes a man at heart.

I had mentioned this as Verhoven’s best film, and I stand by that. Often, his desire to shock with copious amounts of violence and nudity result in a rather flat story. And often, the themes he says he wanted to explore are barely touched upon at all. But in Robocop, his social commentary and satire on our consumerist and corporate culture pretty much hits every mark with great accuracy.

Robocop has managed to remain relevant and be entertaining even 28 years later.

July 9, 2015 0

It Begins Again…And Again And Again… (Terminator Genisys)

My short reaction to the newest Terminator film is that I did enjoy it. It had some good jokes, Arnold’s aged Terminator was a fun take, while feeling familiar. I thought Emilia Clarke did pretty well taking over for Linda Hamilton. Plus J.K. Simmons!

The cast is fun to watch, the effects are good. And hey, that twist might have felt more crazy cool had it not been revealed in a trailer a few months ago.

I liked the numerous visuals clearly referencing the previous films. Little moments meant to evoke the emotional beats of previous films. I was surprised that Arnold Aside, they simply recast characters from the first film. I expected digital trickery on that front.

That said, do not try and figure out how it all fits. Trying to do so reveals that the film is a real mess. Truthfully, this franchise is a mess made worse with each film. It does not fit, even though they clearly intend it to. There are some pretty big questions raised. One is, if Sarah and Kyle have sex and make a baby in 2017, it would simply be unlikely that it would result in John Conner.

The film feels like it was simply built from a series of sessions of people sitting around saying, “Wouldn’t this just blow the audiences’ minds?!” In a fashion, a lot of the stuff will, but not in a good way. Attempting to put it all together nearly gave Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich an aneurysm.

July 3, 2015 0