Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

This film has the drive, the familiarity and it has just enough unique charm to make it a great family adventure set in the Star Trek universe. Jason Lin, its director, must have a very in-depth knowledge of the popcorn genre and how the same can be rehashed to seem new and exciting.

But, Lin is not a snake oil salesman and there are no cheap gimmicks in the film. Simon Pegg and Doug Jung wrote the film as if they made a very long episode of the original TV show, making the plot simple and self-contained. Star Trek Beyond begins when a lonely shuttle reaches the Federation’s newest and biggest space station Yorktown. Its single crew member pleads with the authorities to come to the rescue of the stranded ship and the captain and the crew of the Enterprise takes up this challenge.

When they arrive at their destination, a very cruel fate awaits them. Just like that, Lin takes Enterprise and does horrible things with it, making the process of the ship breaking apart a very visceral feeling. The Enterprise goes down and the crew scatters across the unknown planet. In a TV show, this would be one of those episodes where the crewmembers are left stranded on some strange and dangerous world, but here, there are no cheap locations here. Instead, the full force of AAA production is there to support the film and all of its glorious action scenes.

The casualty of this approach is the loss of the contemplative nature of Star Trek, but to be honest, J.J. Abrams is the surgeon who removed that part when the reboot began. The same is true when it comes to the ever-important (at least to Trekkies) lore. Now, there are just a couple of throwback moments referencing the original cast and practically nothing more.

The film ends as a satisfying blockbuster experience which went nowhere in terms of any intellectual or emotional ideas. At the completion of the story, the actors might have very well taken out bottles of Coca-Cola and revealed that the entire film is one giant commercial. But, Lin did the film in such a splendid manner that the lack of any substance really does not make a huge difference to the overall fun experience it provides.

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Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: Zootopia (2016)

Copyright: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Here’s the key selling point to the entire Zootopia shtick – let’s imagine all animals are anthropomorphic and that they live in a single location. Sure, why not, but many kids’ animated movies already did those assemble animal casts, for example, Madagascar.

But, Zootopia smartly spun the same concept and upgraded it with a simple idea of keeping the animals in their relatively accurate scales.  For example, mice use small doors; giraffes use doors many times larger, standing side by side.

This is the main thing working for the film and the generator of 70% of the jokes. The rest come from the notion of animal affiliation, which divides all members of Zootopia, a place where all animals live in harmony, to predators and everyone else. Here, the film and its director duo of Byron Howard and Rich Moore tried to play the tolerance&animosity card, but unlike the scales thing, it didn’t really stick well to the root plot.

In it, a young bunny from the countryside by the name of Judy becomes a police officer and sets about her work. She is driven by an eagerness to show everyone that a rabbit can be as good a cop as any other animal. This quickly leads her to a fox and a street hustler named Nick. Through a rocky start, Nick ends up being her partner while they try to solve the case of animals disappearing all over Zootopia.

In its very much appreciated run-time that is less than 120 minutes, the film desperately wants to tell the audience that being a jerk towards people who look differently is not the answer. While this is a noble cause, this rainbow-Kumbaya approach constantly feels strained and overexposed, as if the authors would gladly spend more time playing with the movie’s environment and what it could provide the plot than going over “why can’t everyone just get along” issue time and time again.

Zootopia is a very good film that managed to take flight even though it had some unnecessary weight attached to it. Without it, there is no doubt that it could have soared even higher. 

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Adventure, Animation,

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Film Review: Deadpool (2016)

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

Deadpool is a very talkative piece. From the first moment of the film right to the very end, the main character and the actor playing him continuous talk to everything, covering other characters in the film, inanimate objects, memories, and the audience. When it comes to A-production superhero movies, this is definitely not something you experience often. Even movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, which was exceedingly self-aware compared to the old standards seems like regular superhero stuff when it is placed next to Deadpool.

The same goes for the structure of the film, which is full of flashbacks and dialogue-based sequences, pretty uncommon for the genre. In general, all of them work as a comedy which happens to include a superhero-like character and some neat fight sequences. But these are only broth to the soup that is Deadpool.

The real essence of the film is the incessant comments made by Ryan Reynolds in the role of the main character and his observations about the superhero genre and the tropes which come with it. This is where the most of the energy of the cast when in, which is basically a series of comments.

The fact that the mainstream audience is so unused to seeing anything slightly out of the ordinary is a great homage to the grinding machine that is the Hollywood industry. Here, a film with a modest budget, posing as a superhero movie, made an incredible impact both when it comes to reviews and box office success by telling jokes where they are no usually found.

On a quick glance, some might conclude that similar to Kingsman: The Secret Service it had a seditious streak, but nothing can be further from the truth. Deadpool is like a jester in the medieval court: sometimes he might poke fun at the king, but deep down inside, it wants the king to live on forever.

Films like Kick-Ass, Defendor and Super brought a bigger punch to the comic-to-film movie industry, but no one cared too much about that. It seems that we all needed Deadpool to break the fourth wall and the new age of comic book adaptation can begin with truckloads of the same old.

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Film Review - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Copyright: Walt Disney Studios

George Lucas was the guy who invented the concept of the Force, and then 30 years later decided that the Force was actually produced by midi-chlorians, a type of microorganism in the blood of a person. After that, he apparently realized that he just doesn’t get these new kids, which is the reason why his last three films in the Star Wars franchise failed so miserably, even when it comes to selling a lot of merchandise (for some reason, not many people bought Hayden Christensen T-shirts).

At that moment, he did something unattainable for most despots through history and released the reins to someone else for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Lucas was done and many felt really happy that he was out of the picture.

The guy who filled his shoes was J.J. Abrams, a film industry veteran that must have been Cardinal Richelieu or someone like him in his past life because he continues to swim like a champion in the shark-infested waters of Hollywood. 

Now, the same person revitalized both Star Trek and Star Wars, which is for me a very fitting end to the age of the 1980’s when both franchises found their audience. Back then, these two had hardly anything in common, except the word Star in their title and the appearance of star ships in their plots.

But now, thanks to the Abrams’ brilliant but also somehow hellish brewing pot, these two are practically identical space opera stories set in a sci-fi type of setting. I wouldn’t be surprised if he even decided to do a crossover movie where some of the characters from the new Star Wars films end up on the Enterprise.

Is this something that is desirable? Well, no, but strictly from a cinematographic point of view. Abrams is a man devoid of any vision apart from being a craftsman who specializes in refurbishing stuff. A man like him picks up broken things from the past, paints them in a currently very popular color and sells them for a profit. But, this does not make the new Star Wars film an unpleasant viewing experience. In the adventure story that looks like a retelling of the first film (or the 4th one according to the new calendar), there is plenty of fun and excitement.

I didn’t have a problem with plot similarities, while the stars from the original trilogy strangely absent in the films from the early 2000’s now return, looking old, frail and disconnected, especially Harrison Ford, but they were brought in not to do or say anything especially important, but just to be there visually. They are a human equivalent of a light saber and have a similar purpose of popping up at the appropriate moment. I’m pretty sure that when CGI becomes a bit more advanced, the same people will only appear as computer simulations.

Everything else is adequate in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens. New actors are fine, but none of them are Ford in 1977 even by a long shot. The locations are exciting and the action unravels just like Abrams’ notebook of action films says it should. All in this film is average and above average, finely crafted and marketed perfectly like a high-quality action figure selection they are planning to sell across the world.

Like an action figure, this film is designed to be consumed and forgotten, while details from it will remain forever in the new apps, games, toys and T-Shirts. Because of this, the visual design of the mask that Kylo Ren wears will outlive the plot of the film or any of its cinematic moments, big or small. Here, the brilliance of Abrams’ ability to constantly upgrade the idea of the smart-looking blockbuster is seen in full force. But, for some reason, he forgot all about midi-chlorians which are never even hinted at in this film. I wonder if Lukas is disappointed about that, but at the same time, I also believe that no one bothered to ask him.

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action, Adventure, Fantasy,

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Film Review: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

The latest installment of Mission: Impossible franchise seems determined to impress right from the first minute. As the well-known images of Tom Cruise hanging from an ascending cargo plane appear on the screen, along with a visceral feeling of anxiety (the director Christopher McQuarrie knows his action sequences), the audience is left to witness a film flawlessly made for the 5-second attention span generation.

As the story progresses, there is no time to slow down the action or take a break. The thriller and action modules just come one after another, linked together by a vague plot about a terrorist organization wanting to change the world for the better by killing important people and blowing things up.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt runs around once more, looking fit and stylish, strangely untouched by over 20 years since the first Mission: Impossible films both in stature and the way he presents his character. In the subsequent 2 hours of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, several fantastic segments take place, covering everything from suicide bike chases to suicide breath-diving hacking intrusions.

It seems to me that McQuarrie deliberately targeted that physical sense of danger threatening Ethan Hunt, determined to make the same feeling the main connection line to the audience. During the film, we fear that Ethan will fall from an airplane, drown in an underwater database or crash while speeding on his bike. In this sense, the film is a lot like those YouTube clips where you see Russian teenagers climbing radio antennae with a mounted GoPro camera. It’s thrilling, but really shallow, which is in the case of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation a completely valid choice, along with the decision to provide an unimpressive conclusion to the story, because it obviously doesn’t matter what happens in the end, as long as the beginning and middle are fun and interesting.

Like McQuarrie and Cruise previous film Edge of Tomorrow, the action is great and the story is there only to provide the a setup for a string of thrill & mayhem sequences. It seems to me that the even emptier narrative of the Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, filled with usual, but pointless spy elements, works a lot better than an apocalyptic science fiction setting for this type of movie.

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action, Adventure, Thriller,

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Film Review: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

It's always great to see artist evolving, even if this process alienates some of their old fans. Guy Ritchie is definitely prone to evolution, but it’s obvious that the same process for him takes place in phases. His first phase started in 1998 with the cult classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, after which he developed his contemporary London crime phase. The same had some good films and some average ones, but it nonetheless ended with RocknRolla in 2008. 

After this, Ritchie moved the setting of his new phase backwards one century and developed two Sherlock Holmes films, which were both successful and impressive action flicks, having in mind the serious overuse of the original material in pop culture. Now, with The Man From U.N.C.L.E, the third phase of Guy Ritchie has begun and it brings style and substance on a completely new terrain for its director.

Sure, the film has nicely dressed, charming and witty main characters who are accustomed to guns, violence and far-fetched plans, but this time, it is all located in the 1960’s chic Europe, divided by the Cold War. In spite of their home agencies rivalry and feud, one US and one Soviet agent have to work together to stop a development of a diabolical plan that would place a nuclear weapon in hands of practically anyone.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is laden with style on all levels, from the costumes to the shots Guy Ritchie takes in a manner similar to 1960’s classics like the movie Point Blank. This can be seen in the way characters move both when it comes to their gestures and their positions in the frames. The film’s director was always willing to invest a lot of energy in the visual aesthetics of his works, but here, the idea is even more prominent and gripping. Yet, he manages to keep things unburdened by this, which is clearly shown in the quick and comic-like editing of the commando raid near the end of the movie, and the broken bike confrontation that quickly follows.

Here, Ritchie is ready to peel the onion of style and very effectively show the essence lying below it, where dangerous men are willing to kill for their mission, no questions asked. At the same time, like the ending segment of the boat sequence shows, the comedy essence is also never too far away. On a side note, with films like Spy and Kingsman: The Secret Service, it appears that the world is in a mini spy comedy Renaissance.

The cast of the film also works exceedingly well together. Henry Cavill looks like he was born to wear perfectly tailored suits and places inside of them a character that is the optimal combination of a slimeball and a kind of normal guy how was forced to work in the same area. Opposite of him, Armie Hammer as Illya continues to do his brand of characters (who are so serious that they are unintentionally funny) really well. The main female lead, Alicia Vikander, also does a nice job as Gaby, the East German car mechanics turned drafted spy.

As the movie glides through picturesque locations and the tension mounts, the audience is free to enjoy The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  as a new take on the classic James Bond film, minus the retro science fiction gadgets. It never bores and never meanders from its set goal of being a fun and stylish action comedy. Because of it, I’m really looking forward to seeing what Ritchie will do with his upcoming Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur.

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action, Adventure, comedy,

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Crowdfunding Push: Black Angel

Epic fantasy is something that is currently really popular in many formats, especially video games. But, at the same time, apart from Peter Jackson’s not so brilliant Hobbit trilogy and many fringe, sort of fantasy young adult adaptations of successful novels, there aren’t many movies that delve straight into this territory. Now, there is a crowdfunding campaign aimed at funding a film called Black Angler that is going for the full epic fantasy feel. The film’s Indiegogo page states:

Think Game of Thrones meets Valhalla Rising, Excalibur meets Lord of the Rings. A powerful tale of ancient Celtic magic and Nordic Paganism, it’ll be gritty, dirty and heroic – everything great fantasy should be. The story follows a knight as he journeys deep into the dark underworld with the daughter of a rival king, to meet the face of evil itself and fight the Black Angel in combat. Full of drama, action and heroism, pure light is pitted against eternal darkness and damnation.

The film will be created by Roger Christian, who worked on projects like the original Star Wars and Alien. With this experience, he plans to reimagine his short film by the same name made in 1980 into a full, feature-length epic adventure. The thing which I really like in Christian’s presentation is the vintage fantasy feel that many of its concept art pieces carry with them, but the project as a whole does not seem like a futile push to bring back the “good old times”. The recent Mad Max: Fury Road is a perfect example of how modern cinema definitely has a lot to learn from the semi-forgotten approaches of the previous decades, I’m certain that Black Angle can turn out to be a really good action adventure.

The film campaign started out really well and it’s currently close to 90% of its goal. Check out the film’s official Indiegogo page and see how you can help.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

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action, Adventure, Crowdfunding, Fantasy,

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Film Review - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

At one point in the Mad Max: Fury Road, a character calls bullets “anti-seeds” because you plant one and then watch something die. This is not a big part of the film, nor did its director George Miller put some special emphasis to this idea, which is delivered in less than 20 seconds and then never mentioned again.

But, as soon as I heard it, I thought to myself that this is a pretty interesting idea, but more importantly, one that I never heard before. It made sense instantly while, at the same time, it was very original and funny in a dark way. I had one of those “why didn’t I came up with that idea first?” moment. Its morbid, biting, and comical wisdom is like the entire film. In it, there is nothing spectacularly new or never seen before. But, as a whole, it’s an anti-thesis to the idea that big blockbuster films need to be stupid or made by Christopher Nolan.

Essentially, George Miller took the story of Mad Max 2 and made it into something perfectly crafted for the Millennials, but he did not cater to their short span of attention like AAA action films usually do. He also didn’t do what Nolan does and try to show them how shallow or self-centered they are by making even more shallow and self-centered films. Miller made a film that is relentless like a rabid dog and lost in oneself like an addict before an OD shot. In it, the action is not something that happens; it is the only thing that happens, but this does not rob the film of depth or meaning. Like the anti-seed idea, it’s cleverer that the audience, but the audience does not feel this in any negative way.

In fact, like Dredd 3D, it injects its sense of purpose through action, violence and machines breaking up and exploding. In an endless post-apocalyptic desert, a single man tries to run and escape a warrior society that captured him. On his path, he meets a woman called Imperator Furiosa driving a War Rig and looking to escape from the same society, carrying a precious cargo. The man does not care for her, but he will help her to make sure he stays alive. Film like The Rover show us how it can begin in the Australian outback. Films like this one shows us here it will end up.

In Mad Max: Fury Road there is no sugar coating and no attention grabbing. Like a face submerged in a bowl of water, there is only the now because the next breath might flood the lungs. In the desolate, savage and sand-covered space, the escape is not a plot device, but the plot itself. It does not want to stop and it can’t stop unless War Rigs occupants are victorious or dead. This film is like Transformers made by a person who does not care about the focus group feedback and producer cuts. It only needs to roll out and its tires have to dig deep into the ground because that is its only purpose. Stay moving, stay alive, and continue to watch. But it’s not serious about itself, or any of its characters. At the place and time where they exist, being alive is a transient category. All along, glorious cinematography and 3D effects paint the movie in every tone of the Ultraviolent specter. And then the film ends.

No one will fall asleep during this film. Some might leave it, but no one can ignore it. The same is true for the entire Hollywood industry, where a myth about the idea that blockbusters have to be only a certain type of film (I mentioned already the stupid vs. dark dichotomy). George Miller showed with Mad Max: Fury Road that gripping cinema only needs to grip you and its authors can choose among many ways it can do this. This film’s grip will leave on most people burn marks that will last for days.

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action, Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Coming Soon - Mad Max: Fury Road

The critics who managed to see the film love it and all the footage and trailers we saw pointed to the same conclusion - Mad Max: Fury Road will be one hell of a film - from the violence to the beautiful cinematography and crazy action choreography, it's all here. It is coming out in a matter of days, so be ready to start planning to go and see it once it hits the theaters on May, 15. 

To get into the mood (unless you want to stay pure until you see it on the big screen) here is Mad Max: Fury Road Official Retaliate Trailer.

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action, Adventure, coming soon, Thriller,

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Film Review - Kingsman: The Secret Service

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

This movie is best described as unexpected. This is true for several layers of it. On a global narrative level, it provides a plot about Eggsy, an ordinary yob from London, who one day gets drafted into Kingsman, a non-governmental, secret spy service. 

His mentor is Harry Hart, his complete opposite - he is a gentleman from a bygone era and an individual who is determined to get the job done, even if that means repaying a man who saved his life almost 20 years ago. While he tries to mold Eggsy into spy material,  Richmond Valentine, a hugely successful tech entrepreneur, dreams about saving the world in a way that seem to be leaving plenty of corpses in its wake. Soon enough, the Kingsman take notice.

Here, the regular elements of a fish-out-of-water and a tradition James Bond plot are mixed, but throughout the film, they are constantly reshuffled and dealt over and over again, which produces a really high level of engagement. The director of Kingsman: The Secret Service Matthew Vaughn guides the film as if he is influenced by both larger than life spy films and modern, edgy sitcoms (where things like fisting or anal sex jokes are not a big deal) which makes the plot development a process that just can’t be predicted. The comic elements of the film, especially their offbeat and adult nature, provide a lot of fun during the action scenes, but also when the action dies down.

But the thing about Kingsman: The Secret Service that really intrigues me is its embedded subversiveness. In it, heads of world leaders exploded in a beautiful, colorful explosions. The main villain works for humanity, even though his methods are horrific and he is exceedingly afraid of the sight of blood (and getting his hands bloody, all of which Samuel L. Jackson plays masterfully).

At one other moment, the same villain comments that the world does not even know the name of the Chinese secret spying agency, like it does with the USA or Russia, which is completely true in the real world as well - ask yourself what is the Chinese version of the CIA and what is it called? (a very weird but effective way of breaking the fourth wall).

Also, as Eggsy notices, he and other blue-collared individuals go into the Royal army so that they can act as cannon fodder for “posh bastards”. Here, the film makes quite a leap from the things that are expected from an action comedy and shows that super villains and the political elite actually have everything in common when it comes to ideology and global goals. The only difference is that politician in many countries (fortunately, in reality as well) simply can’t kill all those people they want to see dead.

While this idea is present, the film and Vaughn do not push it like some kind of an anarchist pamphlet. Continuing the great tradition of the British cinema, the subversiveness is not an element that is shown for a couple of minutes, when it gets its exposure and is then subsequently forgotten. Instead, it is interwoven in the very essence of the film, not as a clear motive that characters discus or are even aware of, but it is there constantly, blanketing the film like moss in a very ancient forest. It and other similar films that were made in the UK during the last half of the century are not created to tell us what to do, but to show us the hypocrisy and insanity of those who we elect to wield the biggest power over all of us. Think 22 Jump Street, but where the movie is not making fun of the contemporary pop culture, but is parodying the global decision makers and the horrific things which drive them deep down inside.

Creating a movie that combines these ideas with awesome and gruesome action scenes and jokes about a Scandinavian Princess who promises Eggsy to have anal sex with his (the finest moment of the entire Kingsman: Secret Service movie) is actually a very impressive feat.

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action, Adventure, comedy,

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Film Review: Last Knights (2015)

Copyright: Lionsgate

One of the things that really produced a whole lot of problems for Last Knights is everything about it apart from the film itself. First of all, it has a horrible title, which sounds really similar to First Knight, Last Samurai and anything else that is “last” and includes men wielding some kind of swords. Then, it poster features Clive Oven and Morgan Freeman looking all serious while riders do serious stuff behind (or in front) of them.

Finally, the film’s trailer and synopsis suggest a variation of the 47-Ronin story, which was all done before and never lead to stellar results. When I saw this, I immediately thought that the film is trying to imitate, at least on the surface, those much more famous films, like B-production movies often do.

So, there is no doubt that the casing of this product isn’t much. But, this film is no B-production ripoff. Thanks to the cinematic gods of irony, the movie Last Knights is actually really good. First of all, its dialogs are brilliantly written. The film carries a basic story about a discredited feudal lord whose knights, mainly their commander Raiden, get without a retainer, their jobs, and their honor. Of course, an evil and corrupt official is behind all of this and Raiden does not seem like a guy who lets go of stuff easily.

In spite of the cartoonish plot, Michael Konyves and Dove Sussman wrote the film like a Shakespearian play, minus the archaic language that I always loathed (I’m not a big on any Shakespeare cinematic retelling projects). In Last Knights, everything is deadly serious and larger than a small planet. The plots and schemes are deceptive and cruel while (some) knights are loyal to their grave. Best of all, the plot is placed in an undefined, mostly medieval setting, where names, accents and skin colors are totally mixed up, while the main weapon of choice is a redesigned Katana blade (with a Katan’s tip and a European style straight blade).

All this is used by films director Kazuaki Kiriya as a fantastic setup for an action film, which Last Knights basically is. With an awesome chassis, Kiriya aptly puts in an action fueled engine that runs the entire contraption. The second half of the film, where things really take off, provides an excellent medieval cinematic fun with is both rewarding and engaging. From the start to the finish, its diverse cast of known and slightly less known actors does a solid one for this timeless fantasy.

Like with the movie Chappie, in the case of the Last Knights film I also expected something which I ended up getting, but the packaging and the key ingredients (which I knew and recognized from the start) blended up so well that both films left me very impressed.

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action, Adventure,

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Film Review: Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

In many ways, this movie is similar to Kim Jong-un. Sure, he looks clumsy, fat and has a weird haircut that makes him look even fatter, so it’s really easy to make fun of him (unless you’re living in North Korea or working in Sony).

Jupiter Ascending, just like the chubby Kim, also practically begs to be ridiculed. It is also dumb and over the top in its decisions, probably thanks to a hugely inflated sense of self-worth which is most likely present in both entities.

But, unlike the petit dictator, Jupiter Ascending is not malicious. In the cinematic reference space, for me this means that it does not practice any form of false advertisement. It presents itself just like it truly is and does not use any tricks during its entire length that would show otherwise. In fact, it is a fairy tale, like the ones Lana and Andy Wachowski use to make when they forever changed the movie industry with the Matrix (the first movie, not the horrid series that followed, not counting Animatrix).

Here as well, the audience is introduced to an ordinary woman called Jupiter, who works as a cleaning lady in Chicago. But one day, she is swept away by a flying boots-wearing alien hunk that is there to save her from assassins and bounty hunters from outer space. This begins a huge adventure, sweeping the galaxy and covering many exotic and foreign places.

The Jupiter Ascending film is a space opera in its truest sense. Granted, it is not a masterfully crafted space opera like Guardians of the Galaxy, but it still provides beautiful images and action packed romance story. Sure, it’s characters are flat and the plot is silly, but who goes looking for deep-impacting drama in a film that features skating anti-gravity boots that make it “easy to go down, and hard to go up”? While many of its details could be improved, the main purpose of the film is crystal clear and readable from the first moment when Mila Kunis, who plays Jupiter, falls into the bulky arms of Channing Tatum.

Actually, I’m really glad to see that Lana and Andy Wachowski chose to continue to make films like this. While it might seem that they are going in the direction everyone else is taking by creating popcorn blockbusters (or at least trying to), the opposite is true. Films like Interstellar do not only bring with it absolutely no essence whatsoever (where they are exactly like Jupiter Ascending), but actually produce a strange, negative narrative dampening field, where a movie like that can be declared a masterpiece, although it would be more suitable as a Scientology instructional video on black holes and feeling good about dead parents. In works like the Interstellar I believe true stupidity lies, and that is the one that masks itself in higher knowledge and spiritual presence. I’m afraid that we’ll begin to see more and more films like that, which terrifies me.

Jupiter Ascending is not the smartest film in the world, but it does not hide anything about itself and honesty is always a great thing in art, even if it is soaked in science fiction pulp and undeveloped teenage fantasies.

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action, Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: Black Sea (2014)

Copyright: Universal International Pictures

If submarine movies taught us anything, it is that the bottom of a sea is a great place to die in many different and colorful ways. Starting with drowning, exploding and suffocating, there is no doubt that submarines in films usually present steel coffins in which people rarely experience anything nice.

Black Sea brings about a similar idea, but places it outside of a military context. In its plot, there is no World War II or even a Cold War. Instead, the film takes place in the present day, where a washed out (pun not intended) salvage submarine captain called Robinson loses his job and then accepts a shady offer of taking a boat to the bottom of the Black sea near the Georgian coast, where allegedly a German U-boat sub has lain since 1941, full of dead German submariners, but also 2 tons of gold bars.

Robinson agrees, takes a crew of Westerners and Russians and sails to the location, where he needs to get the gold, but also dodge the Russian Navy. In no time at all, the whole idea of how all subs are submariner’s coffins begins to take its familiar form.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald, the Black Sea movie brings about an interesting twist to this genre, while it also manages to create something of a sub-genre that can be called a civilian salvage underwater thriller. With a good cast lead by Jude Law, but also by the very impressive Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy, translating this script into a film was not a huge challenge. Like in his recent film How I Live Now, Macdonald is apt in presenting a simple plot in a fresh way.

Here as well, while the story does have many plot holes and adventure tropes (like the moment where Captain Robinson brings along a completely unskilled young man on the mission, mainly out of pity), the overall dynamic of the film leaves the viewer interested in the characters on a very basic level. Also, Macdonald steers clear of overplaying dramatic segments which could have easily sunk this film (it’s easy to make sea-related puns when writing about submarine films).

The best thing about the Black Sea movie is the fact that it brings a focused thriller full of hard-boiled submariner-type characters, free of any unnecessary cinematic noise. Like the narratively completely different Maps to the Stars, this film pulls the viewers in and keeps them near all the way to the end.

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Adventure, Thriller,

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Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Copyright: Walt Disney Studios

Guardians of the Galaxy movie is a merciless beast. It mainly targets the generation that fondly remembers the 80’s, but does this in a sort of haze. In this memory mist, things like cool cartoons and funky music are present, while things like chemical attacks of Iran-Iraq war are inconspicuously missing.

This comes from the fact that this nostalgia is being sold to people who were kids in that weird decade, or just leaving their true childhood. Those born in the early 70’s have nothing to do in this historical fantasy, mainly because they most likely didn’t play with spike-hair trolls or weren’t that amazed when they got their first Walkman in 1986.

In many other aspects, the film is coldly calculated to please its demographics. It plays on its own absurdity and lack of fame when it comes to popular culture (not many have heard about characters like Rocket before 2014) and its distance from much bigger franchise series made by Marvel. On the other hand, it dumps names, places and characters seemingly without any sense of tact, even to those viewers who are not familiar with the wider universe (who are the majority). But, with much cunning and no apparent strain, it is feeding every part of the demographics, like a great Pixar film, giving chunks to kids, teenagers and adults alike.

Guardians of the Galaxy is simply an unhateable film. Its director James Gunn is a much bigger scholar of Hollywood than anyone could imagine just a few years ago when he made art like Super, a movie that is both small and risky. He is so sly in this manner that he even opens the film with a kid losing his mother to cancer, following by an out-of-space dance routine to a catchy pop tune. This is seemingly strange, but under the surface, Gunn is obviously one of those people who can listen to corporate metrics about the audience and then cram some unexpected things in there to improve the test viewer scores.

On the other side of the lens, Guardians of the Galaxy cast was also predefined. Only one among them who was designed to stand out was Chris Pratt as Peter Quill or Star Lord. Everyone else is CGI constructed or wearing so much make up that they character could be interpreted by any actor in the world. This was a chance for Pratt and Gunn to take a huge chunk out of that blockbuster pie and they did it with a samurai sword.

Still, unlike the similar but god-afoul Interstellar, this corporate child is fun to watch. It doesn’t preach and it doesn’t bore, which is very nice to see. While it is definitely a merciless corporate product of market share expansion into new comic book asset waters, it’s still very enjoyable.

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action, Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: The Maze Runner (2014)

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

Wes Ball, who directed this movie, plays his first cards with a lot of style, and also some guts. He doesn’t go the way I expected him to, opening his film with some kind of an info dump. He stripped away almost everything, and opted for presenting a completely bare, almost raw experience.

A young man wakes up in a middle of a field called the Glade, surrounded by boys of different age. He lost all of his memories, but immediately recognizes that others are organized in Lord of the Flies kind of society, but only this one lives in relative harmony. 

The only problem is that they are surrounded by huge walls, and the only way out of this place is through the Maze, an incredible, constantly changing structure that is full of dangerous creatures.

With this minimal verbal setting, the film drives on, basing itself on experience, not knowledge. The audience gets to find out new things along with the main character Thomas, which feels very organic. This is how he gradually learns the power balance in the Glade, shared between a teenage version of hawks, doves and owls archetypes, which differ in their approach to social structure and governance. But at the same time, all strive for the exploration of the Maze and hope to find a way out.

Played by convincing young actors, primarily Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, but also Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter, The Maze Runner movies keeps its traction for almost its entire duration. Because of this, it manages to come off as a serious film, clear of many young adult tropes that saturate films like those in the Hunger Game series.

While The Maze Runner 2014 is basically built on the same teenage angst-leaden material, it strips it down to a much emptier space, where it’s easier to be drawn into the story, and where there are also fewer deterrents like shabby romance subplots. Instead, Ball chose to focus on camaraderie and friendship, which is very refreshing. In this aspect Maze Runner is even more successful than Ender's Game, a film that was supposed to be mostly about a boy's dedication to his friends. The only substantial flaw in this adventure film is its corporate designed ending, which jams a generic Sci-Fi explanation (using, ironically, an info dump method) into an emotional and violent outburst, resulting in an overflow of sappy feelings which Ball so successfully avoided up to that point.

This marketing-research powered mud pie of an ending is additionally enhanced with an idiotic order for the audience to come back to the movie theaters because there is a second part coming our way. In it, a character pronounces a line straight from early James Bond villain textbook, which was designed (I guess) to intrigue the audience and keep it guessing, but fails to do everything except seem silly. This extremely sour cherry on the top of that mud pie really spoiled my solid experience of the film, even more because it was a completely unnecessary move.

Without that crippling last 10 minutes, Maze Runner could have made the best young adult adaptation of 2014.

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Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Young Adult,

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