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Wednesday, 6 June 2018

'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' - Review

toby jones 6/06/2018 10:42:00 pm 0

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

The park has gone and so has all direction and imagination in this interminable continuation of the Jurassic Park franchise. With neither the depth of Spielberg’s first adventure, the scare factor of his under-appreciated sequel, nor the nostalgic charm of 2015’s Jurassic World (the less said of Jurassic Park III, the better), this entry settles for retreading old ground. With the facility at Isla Nublar in ruins (again), a shady businessman plans to airlift the dinosaurs back to the mainland (again) in order that they may be exploited for military purposes (again), and also to spite his more aged and more peace-loving mentor (again).

As for our heroes, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is now a stringent dinosaur-rights activist, and she begrudgingly recruits Owen (Chris Pratt) to assist in saving the remaining dinosaurs from Isla Nublar’s suddenly active volcano. That is, before the doomed creatures are plucked from deliverance by Rafe Spall as the aforementioned suit, armed with a smile as untrustworthy as your average social media privacy policy.

Director J.A. Byona and cinematographer Óscar Faura do their best to bring some semblance of awe to proceedings, but returning screenwriters Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s script suffocates the Spanish duo’s usual flair for likeable characters and haunting imagery. There are some glimpses of the young Richard Dreyfuss in Pratt’s portrayal of Owen, but not enough to prevent him slipping into Star Lord-lite. Howard goes all in on the running (appropriately booted this time around) and screaming, and is easily the most watchable human presence. A new sidekick played by Justice Smith is immediately annoying, and his disappearance from the middle act would be a relief, were it not another indicator of the feckless screenplay losing track of who’s where and why.

“Why?” is a question I found myself asking a lot during this film. Mostly “Why aren’t I just at home watching Jurassic Park?”. The re-heated narrative structure, knock-off set pieces (we’re treated to re-runs of the museum showdown and The Lost World’s downtown dinos), plus a perfunctory appearance from Jeff Goldblum continuously serve to remind us of movies we’d rather be watching. And it’s never scary. Not once. My entire generation can attest to the nightmares of poor Eddie being bisected by the T-Rex pair in The Lost World, and the most this softened rehash can muster is ‘occasional bloody moments’. A largely dialogue-free prologue featuring some truly stunning imagery of monsters in the moonlight is the closest we come to genuine thrills, which is more than can be said for the genetically-enhanced ‘Indoraptor’, introduced by Toby Jones doing his best Donald Trump impression.

This creature is another of the screenplay’s walking clunkers: it’s sold to us as the fusion between Jurassic World’s Indominus Rex and a Velociraptor. A key plot point of the previous film was that the multi-breed Indominus was part-Raptor, and could therefore weaponise Owen’s pack against him. Did they just add more? Extra raptor with your half-raptor, sir? The Indominus - while not particularly chilling - served as a neat analogy for Hollywood’s misunderstanding that bigger equals better. The Indoraptor’s purpose seems to be to remind us that...er...rich people can be greedy and stupid? I don’t need the film to tell me that: that it exists at all is proof enough.

Wednesday, 4 January 2017

'Passengers' - Review

thriller 1/04/2017 12:44:00 pm

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

‘Infinite space, infinite terror’ screamed the poster for Paul W.S. Anderson’s cult sci-fi horror, Event Horizon. Whilst the endless void has supplied many a horrifying antagonist, Morten Tyldum’s new film offers neither acid-bleeding monsters nor iron-fisted galactic empires, but the simple passage of time. Chris Pratt stars as engineer Jim Preston, one of five-thousand passengers (roll credits) of the starship Avalon, your bog-standard ark-in-space vessel designed somewhere between a wind turbine and the Endurance ship from Interstellar, with the constant malfunctions of the TARDIS. One of these glitches raises Jim too early from a hypersleep to which he cannot return, leaving him with 90 years alone, and long dead before the Avalon reaches its destination.

After a year spent luxuriating in the more premium areas of the ship and pondering his plight with Michael Sheen’s legless robo-barman (see what they did there?), Jim forcibly awakens fellow passenger Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) for company, knowing full well that he is denying her a future. The question soon becomes a matter of what will shatter the couple’s serene sham of a relationship first: Jim’s conscience or the multitude of problems plaguing the ship?

That all sounds very complex, but, essentially, it’s two very attractive people on a very attractive spaceship living a very attractive lifestyle surrounded by very attractive production design, backed by a very attractive score. Any intriguing or (god forbid) challenging ideas raised by the undeniably creepy premise are soon buried beneath the super-shiny surface. It’s a shame, because Tyldum’s dealt with somewhat subversive material before (the outright nastiness of Headhunters and the more morally difficult areas of The Imitation Game) and come out on top, but Jon Spaiht’s (The Darkest Hour, Prometheus, Doctor Strange) script is far more interested in warping the continuum into a linear, goes-down-well-with-popcorn narrative.

Now, I'm as happy as anybody to watch Pratt and Lawrence swanning around ludicrously pretty sets, going on space walks and going on dates to see Michael Sheen and his best smile, but, let’s be honest, both of them could have done this in their sleep: he’s very good at looking a bit smug and cuddly, she’s very good at crying in despair. By the film's very nature as multiplex fodder, there's no need for either to do much besides 'be themselves, but in space'.

And yet, I still feel a little let down by both, Pratt in particular. I’d really love to see what he could do with something outside his recently acquired comfort zone (heaven knows he's talented enough), but once again I’ve been left wanting. The first third of the movie is Jim by himself doing a fairly agreeable impression of Bruce Dern in Silent Running, and just when things are looking suitably grim, Passengers wimps out (much like the saccharine direction Trumbull’s film took, minus much of the grace), and Jim’s obsession with Aurora is played for an ‘aww’, not an ‘eww’. Just when you think a discussion on male entitlement or the definition of murder is rearing up, it cowers instead. I suppose the fact I’m even considering such topics with regard to ultimately fluffy popcorn fare shows there is more to it, but (as a friend I saw it with pointed out), that’s more to do with my own reading of the text than the film’s attempt to display those issues.

So, if it’s no good as a moral treatise, does it work as a cheerful holiday sci-fi? Well, the special effect set pieces are nicely exciting and the climax survives with minimal eye-rolling sentimentality, but a top-notch Thomas Newman score aside, there’s nothing that original going on, with many sequences feeling like half-hearted impressions of better movies. In a serious error of judgement, Tyldum attempts to evoke both Interstellar (time as the enemy, the psychological effects of being alone in space for years on end) and Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (the transit of a spaceship across the sun, only here it’s less reflective pause, more date night). It’s a collection of sci-fi bits n’ bobs slotted together into a uniformly attractive whole that trades darkness and debate for smiles and CGI.

Friday, 30 September 2016

'The Magnificent Seven' - Review

vincent donofrio 9/30/2016 02:02:00 pm

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

As a self-professed film-lover, it’s probably not wise to admit that I’ve never actually seen Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai before attempting to review the latest remake, which takes its name from John Sturgess’ The Magnificent Seven, but credits the Japanese original as its primary source. I was, however, made to watch a scene or two from Sturgess’ film as part of an American West module during GCSE history, so I was aware of the essential setup: a settlement in the West is terrorized by a corrupt industrialist (Bartholomew Bogue, played here by Peter Sarsgaard). To help rid them of their occupiers, the townspeople, led by the brave Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), seek the skills of seven warriors.

Help arrives in the form of warrant officer Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington, re-teaming with director Antoine Fuqua once again), who hires gambler Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), seemingly the only man in town unafraid of him. This chalk-and-cheese duo is soon joined by Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), tracker Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio, with the face of a bear and the voice of a chipmunk), veteran sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and his assassin counterpart Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), plus Mexican outlaw Vasquez (Mauel Garcia-Rulfo).

Such a diverse cast lends itself well to contemporary readings, but it is still worth nothing that the Chinese, Mexican and Native American characters are given minimal dialogue and development in comparison to their fellow leads. Washington’s uncompromisingly calm and collected Chisolm is a massively watchable character, and Chris Pratt’s swaggering, staggering and very Starlord-ish gunslinger is often called upon to lighten the tone. Oddly, it’s Ethan Hawke as Goodnight who has the most to do, battling constantly between his calling to defend the innocent and his civil war-earned PTSD.

The time not used developing everyone else is instead wasted in the climactic shootout, as we’re gifted endless cutaways to Bogue’s goons falling from their horses. Much like Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen, it’s not enough for someone to just be shot: no, we have to see them yell, clutch at their wound and collapse onto the floor, multiplied by however many hundreds our septet has to face. The sight of a second wave approaching the town is more likely to be met with exasperated fidgeting than a fearful gasp for our heroes.

If there is a saving grace of the overblown climax, it’s the score by the late James Horner, also his final work. co-composer Simon Franglen has ensured that every one of Horner's trademarks is in there (including a four-note horn cue that film music nerds will instantly spot), and it strikes a great balance between new compositions and an intermingling of various elements from Elmer Bernstein’s much-loved theme, which makes a stirring re-appearance during the credits.

The visuals could have done with taking more inspiration from Sturgess’ film, too: as with the recent big-screen Lone Ranger, the West is reduced to muted greys and beige, all grit and no grin. It pains me to write this as much as it’ll doubtless pain you to read it, but Seth MacFarlane’s abysmal A Million Ways to Die in The West had a visual splendour more evocative of a genuinely sweeping Western than Fuqua’s film.

There’s some connective tissue here with another 2016 remake; Ben-Hur. Luckily, this is the only point of comparison. If you’re going to pay money for one of the many rehashes clogging up your multiplex, best spend it on something that actually has a little reverence for the source material(s), and is, at the very least, a fun way to spend a couple of hours. It’s too long and most of the characters are thumbnail sketches at best, but the final product lands closer to magnificent than malignant.

Friday, 12 June 2015

'Jurassic World' - Review

vincent donofrio 6/12/2015 11:42:00 am

Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur extravaganza returns to the big screen in Jurassic World: Ian Malcom’s prescient tirade about re-incarnating the most extraordinary creatures ever to have roamed the Earth only to ‘slap them on a plastic lunchbox and sell them’ has been fully realised. Jurassic World has spent the last decade as a fully-functional pre-historic theme park, but dwindling customer satisfaction leads overseer Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) to engage in genetic hybridisation, creating the terrifying Indominus Rex. Whilst raptor-handler Owen Brady (Chris Pratt) attempts to explain why this is probably not a good idea, the newly-minted Indominus breaks free, and once again we’re back to Malcom’s ‘running and screaming!’

With a new director and an entirely new cast in play, it’s remarkable how familiar Jurassic World feels to Spielberg’s original: obviously, it’s the same old formula (corporate big-wigs create larger-than-life attractions, attractions break loose and attack people), but the new characters also seem to slot right into the gaps left by the original cast. For example, John Hammond is replaced by Irrfan Khan as eccentric park-owner Masrani, Alan Grant has been switched out for Pratt’s respectful raptor expert, plus Tim and Lex now appear in the form of Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson as two fresh-faced children taking a vacation from their somewhat broken family.

This is not to say that the performances are only placeholder, as the cast in general is remarkable fun to be around and rises to the challenge admirably (even if their development is somewhat predictably linear). Howard and Pratt get a lot of laughs from their boardroom stiff versus muscle-bound man’s man shtick, whilst Vincent D’Onofrio is in fine, ever-smirking form as an In-Gen supervisor with his own suspicious motives.

But let’s face it, what you really want to know is: are the dinosaurs any good? The short answer is a hastily nodded, wide-eyed ‘yes’, but to explain properly we have to consider that the first Jurassic Park was at the cutting-edge of the CGI revolution way back in 1993, whilst this film comes at a time when almost any decently-budgeted movie can have its computer-generated cake and eat it. In Jurassic World’s case, the CGI dinos are certainly exciting, but their integration with their human opponents is the more impressive feat, and director Colin Trevorrow and his team have even opted for the occasional use of old-fashioned animatronics to help seal the believability (and provide a loving call-back to the original)

What is also invigorating about the monsters in Trevorrow’s film is that they are really, genuinely frightening; the moments in which the Indominus steps out of the shadows and into the fear-fuelled limelight are particularly striking. Amongst it’s somewhat tamer 12a bed-fellows, Jurassic World opts for the bloodier approach to monster violence, which not only allows it to feel in-sync with its predecessors, but also reminds us why the certificate was invented in the first place: to provide a bridge between kid-friendly action flicks and more violent adult fare.

This is everything you want in a popcorn-munching summer blockbuster: big effects, a good sense of humour, enjoyable characters and thrills to spare. Children who’ll flock to see this won’t care about flimsy dialogue or linear character progression, they’ll be far too busy gaping in awe at the vastness of the landscape or hiding behind their hands from the blood-curdling roar of titanic monsters: and that is exactly what a Jurassic Park film is for.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Saturday, 9 August 2014

'Guardians of the Galaxy' - Review

zoe saldana 8/09/2014 10:22:00 am

Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest instalment in the Marvel cinematic universe, starring Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, a galactic outlaw who was abducted from Earth as a child. Whilst on the hunt for a mysterious orb, Quill (referring to himself as ‘Star Lord’) is caught up in the midst of several other interested parties, notably assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who is sent to retrieve the orb for Ronan the Accuser, a tyrant who plans to use its secrets to destroy the planet Xandar.

Based on one of the oldest Marvel properties, featuring a talking raccoon and from the director of the live-action Scooby-Doo movies, there is an awful lot that could make Guardians of the Galaxy a whimpering cinematic disaster. But somehow, James Gunn has managed to rope everything together almost perfectly, and the key has to be the tone of the movie. Unlike an awful lot of the super-hero movies of late, it doesn’t feel the need to play everything with a straight face. Sure, it has its emotional moments, but the fast-paced and often very funny script prevents it from being too serious.

Our ragtag collection of leads – as well as the aforementioned outlaw and assassin – contains Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, a walking tree serving as bodyguard to Rocket, a raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper, and Dave Bautista as walking muscle Drax ‘The Destroyer’. The combination of leads are the greatest strength the film has to offer, bouncing off each other eclectically and likeably, their personalities never sacrificed for (but rather enhanced by) the script. Vin Diesel as Groot manages to be the beating heart of the film, despite only ever having one line of dialogue to speak, and Dave Bautista is a revelation in comedic timing. The five guardians combined create what is fast becoming one of my favourite on-screen ensembles, that I actually think will have more re-watch value than Marvel’s runaway success Avengers Assemble.

The film is handsomely shot, the frame oozing colours in every shot, the palette keeping a cheerful aesthetic to match the sensibility of the script but restrained with a slight filter to prevent it from slipping into cartoon territory. The cinematography pack a real punch, and often comes to the rescue during the non-comedic highlights, including one visually astounding and quite emotionally powerful set-piece set in the vacuum of space. The soundtrack is a cracking collection of 70’s/80’s hits, including everything from the Jackson 5, Blue Swede and David Bowie. Established very early as a key part of Star Lord’s character, it isn’t just a selection of songs thrown in for want of a better soundtrack, and if you don’t find your feet tapping along at any point then frankly there’s no hope for you.

Whilst the film carries itself with vigour, and doesn’t waste time devolving into a romantic subplot, the ending drags on for about five minutes too long, and there are a select few elements in the final action sequence that are flat-out ridiculous even by the standards of a movie that features a talking raccoon. The talented Karen Gillan as villainous Nebula feels very over-shadowed in the finale which is a real shame, and Benicio Del Toro is criminally underused save for spouting some exposition here or there.

Guardians of the Galaxy is the result of placing the A-Team at the controls of the Millennium Falcon. It’s a much-needed injection of fun into the drab, gritty landscape of summer blockbuster season and – despite stumbling a little along the way – knows that the key to saving the future lies in the past. So wind up your best mix-tape, don your battered old Sony headphones and dance to its tune like the fate of the world depends on it.

4 stars

Saturday, 8 February 2014

'The LEGO Movie' - Review

will arnett 2/08/2014 10:31:00 pm

The hardest thing any reviewer, critic, or film fan has to do is talk critically about something they love, something that has a very special meaning for them. I have this problem with two things: Star Wars and LEGO (having spent most of my childhood combining the two). So when I sat down in an almost empty screen to see The LEGO Movie, a 3D animation from the makers of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, based on the indescribably popular children’s’ toy, I had a terrible moment where I worried that one of two things might happen:

1. I might become overly critical and miss the point of the film

2. I might be too enamoured with my own experience of the original toy to properly review the film

I needn’t have worried. The LEGO Movie is this decades’ Toy Story. It just works on every level, managing to draw in children, teenagers and adults alike. The animation is absolutely beautiful, the CGI replicating perfectly the look and texture of LEGO, not just clean, freshly made bricks but minutely detailed pieces that range from a character’s body carrying a smudged fingerprint, a snapped chin piece on astronaut Benny’s helmet (something which some of my own space mini-figures experienced numerous times), and even the small imprinted logo on every single tile. And everything, I mean everything, buildings, laser bolts, the sun, you name it, is actually made of LEGO. The world isn’t stylised to look cleaner or smoother, it just has that classic aesthetic that everyone recognises, whether you’re forty years old or four.

The story of the film concerns Emmet (Chris Pratt), an ordinary construction worker who blissfully goes about his instruction-oriented life, until the mysterious Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) reveals to him a prophecy, believing him to be ‘The Special’, a master-builder who can save the various LEGO universes (Knights Kingdom, Old West, 1980’s Space etc.) from the evil plans of Lord Business (given a spectacularly over-the-top persona by Will Ferrel) who plans to glue the world together to form one perfect display piece. The cast of voice actors give it their absolute all, from Liam Neeson's alternatively grimacing/grinning Bad Cop/Good Cop, to Morgan Freeman's wise and eccentric Vitruvius (whose final scene in the movie is stomach-achingly funny).

The gags, LEGO-related or not, come thick and fast, a great deal of them revolving around the inclusion of Batman, including jokes that reference his standing in popular culture, his past interpretations and even the Nolan trilogy. The plot rollicks along at an incredible pace, meaning that each new character and location have to make themselves just as memorable as the last before the story whisks Emmet away to discover more, and believe me, you won’t forget any of them (one particular set of cameo appearances causing me to gasp and cheer, along with everyone else in the screening).

But it wouldn’t be enough to just comment on the gorgeous visuals, the talented voice cast and the humour that comes at you at a hundred miles an hour, it would be wrong to finish this review without mentioning the most important aspect. I’m treading very carefully to avoid potential plot spoilers, but there comes a moment where Emmet comes face to face with something that flies in the face of the thing that LEGO – and childhood – is all about: imagination. The turmoil faced by someone so convinced that things need to be ordered and pristine when they discover a whole new world of creativity and imagination is particularly poignant, to the point where the adult members of the audience (myself included) pretended that ‘Oh, I’ve just got something in my eye’.

The LEGO Movie is an unbridled, inoffensive, joyous and sometimes startling story that will capture the imagination and bring laughter to anyone, regardless if they have a love of the toy or not. I can’t imagine anyone with a beating heart could not be utterly charmed by it.

Oh, and the theme song will be in your head forever.

5 Stars

Chris At The Pictures