fenrisfil, Author at Screen Wolf

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

Posted on August 1, 2024August 1, 2024 by fenrisfil

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a superhero movie. The truth is most of them aren’t that interesting to me these days. However, this team up is too appealing to resist. If the box office is any indication, I’m not alone in feeling that. This is a truly unique situation for a movie. It’s not just along overdue team up (We don’t talk about “X-Men Origins:Wolverine”). It’s also the first time Deadpool, regular breaker of the fourth wall has been able to directly reference the MCU. Last but not least it is more than nostalgia it is the farewell to the Fox X-Men universe. Truly, the end of an era. Effectively this is the “End Game” of the the Fox Superhero franchises.

Spoiler Free

This installment of the Deadpool franchise is directed by “Free Guy” (2021) director Shawn Levy. Writing credits go to Levy, Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Warnick and Zeb Wells. Ryan Reynolds obviously returns as Deadpool and is joined by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Emma Corrin and Matthew MacFayden play the movies main antagonists (“Cassandra Nova” and Mr. Paradox” respectively). The rest of the cast will remain unnamed by me since that is basically spoilers (Don’t look at imdb btw, they are listed). Before I give you the basics, it’s important to know this is a spoiler free review. However, I will reference the material in the trailer, so if you have been avoiding even watching that you may want to skip to the conlusion.

I will keep the plot summary minimal. Effectively Deadpools universe is going to collapse due to the death of it’s “Anchor”. Being the universe of the Fox X-Men it’s no surprise that the anchor is none other than Wolverine. Don’t think to hard about an entire universe revolving around one single person from Earth, it is what it is! Deadpool is recruited by the Time Variance Authority and offered a new life in a certain other universe (Yes, the MCU). However, he would prefer to try and fix his own world. To do that he needs to find a new Wolverine. From here on things get complicated and spoiler filled, so that is all you are getting from me on the plot!

The Fox Multiverse

The movie features a lot of cameos, some of which actually turn into substantial supporting characters (At least for the middle act). If you have seen the trailer you know of two of these cameos, X-23 (From “Logan”) and Sabretooth. X23 is one of the characters with a more substantial role and it’s good to see the character grown up. Alongside her though there are three more characters that get a bit of a story arc and one more big (If short) cameo. On the villain side there are several cameos but most are blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affairs. The selection for all of these are well balanced and will give some surprises while providing at least one long overdue return of a fan favourite.

In some ways the use of the multiverse for these characters is similar to how it was used in Spider-Man: No Way home. It actually provides somewhat of a redemption arc for characters and actors that were not given the best of send offs or really even given a chance. But it’s important to note, these characters are mostly limited to the middle act. The first and final act still make use of the multiverse but in very different ways. But while this is all fun and creative the film never loses sight of what is important: Deadpool and Wolverine. This is their journey. Of course this is a Deadpool film first and foremost and that means Deadpool style humour and fourth wall breaking, but Wolverine fits into that world almost perfectly.

The Good, The Bad and The Other Stuff

So what about the weaknesses? Well, the plot never really feels that important. Perhaps because it is approached in a such a meta way or because the multiverse removes all stakes anyway. The movies two antagonists are okay and Emma Corrin does a great job as Cassandra Nova but their motivations for the entire film effectively feel like they just need to make the plot happen. It’s like they didn’t want a plot to get too in the way of the comedy. That’s fine but it is still the movies weakness. The TVA (As revealed in the trailer) are basically just here to initiate events and in many ways feel like an unwelcome interloper into a movie that is very much about the Fox Marvel films. It’s not a major issue though as they don’t dwell too heavily on any of the MCU elements.

The best thing about the movie is that it is fun! Of course it’s a Deadpool movie and you know what to expect. Outrageous comedy, meta comedy and outrageous meta comedy. The movie dives head first into the last of those right at the start. They found a remarkable way to simultaneously respect and disrespect the ending “Logan” (2017). This, they managed in a way that I think most people will be okay with it. Many watching will have no idea who the cameos are and won’t get a lot of the references. The humour though, should all still land. That is important because technically to get the most out of this movie you need to have seen every Fox and Disney Marvel movie, but if you haven’t seen a single one of them you should still have fun.

Conclusion

So what does the future hold now for Deadpool, Wolverine and the MCU? Impossible to tell. This movie has a lot in common with Spider-Man: No Way Home. That movie firmly remained an outlier for the MCU. The wrong lessons were learned and Marvel ultimately dived blindly into the multiverse to the point where everything seemed unimportant. Outside of that the MCU stuck to the plan that Kevin Feige had laid out before the Fox acquisition with extreme tunnel vision. This movie should show them that those Fox characters are still well loved. Ignoring them is leaving money on the table. That said, they need to have their own take on these characters. I don’t envy anyone stepping into High Jackman’s shoes.

The MCU is a juggernaut of a franchise and course correction takes a long time. We will have to see if they can manage it while there is still an audience. Whatever fate has in store for the MCU, this movie is a success in every way that matters. It is a final emotional farewell to the Fox era of superhero movies, a long overdue team up and highly entertaining movie in its own right. Oh and it’s also making bucket loads of money at the box office. This is a success and it’s a big recommendation from me. Is it the perfect movie? No, frankly the plot is paper thin and that limits the rating, but the movie is so much fun I’m still giving it one of my highest ratings 8/10.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Posted on July 25, 2024July 26, 2024 by fenrisfil

The only movie franchise that can get away with having “Of the” in the title twice, returned once more this year with “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”. The previous trilogy of films (Rise/Dawn/War) effectively told a complete story over the three films documenting how the world of Man could turn into the world of Ape. That story is over and to be honest was starting to get a little boring by the end. So, to come back to the franchise means finding something new. This is the test to see if there is any more to squeeze out of this franchise. A series that already sat at a total of nine films (this now being the tenth). One more film after this will see this reboot series equal the original in number. Quite a feat for a reboot. But anyway, is it any good? Let’s find out!

Building A Kingdom

Taking the directors chair for the franchise return is Wes Ball. Wes is only really known for the Maze Runner series, which was probably more miss than hit. However, Nintendo/Sony have enough faith in him to give him the tent pole “Legend of Zelda” movie. Josh Friedman (creator of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) provides the script. Owen Teague stars as the voice of “Noa”, and Freya Allan as lead human “Nova/Mae”. Support comes from Kevin Durand as his nemesis “Proximus”, Peter Macon as wise old Orangutan “Rakka” (A librarian of sorts, which has to be a Terry Pratchett reference) and William H. Macy as the only other human with a notable role, “Trevathan”.

The film is set an unspecified number of years after the reign of “Caesar” (the primary character of the previous trilogy) and depicts a world where humans are feral and rare and where most apes live in isolated villages with their own customs and cultures. Once such village is Noa’s which has a tradition of raising and working with Hawks. The apes here form an almost spiritual bond with the birds of prey. Noa’s village is attacked by local warlord Proximus Ceasar. Noa’s father is slain, the rest of the village are captured and Noa is left for dead. Waking up to find his home destroyed, Noa sets off to find and attempt to rescue his tribe. Along the way he teams up an Orangutan historian “Rakka” and an intelligent human they call “Nova”. She has her own reasons for finding Proxima’s base, a location that has many secrets of it’s own to reveal.

Echoes From The Past

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The previous two movies while relatively solid simply trod the same ground as “Rise”. That movie ultimately implied the completion of that journey and didn’t really need sequels to flesh it out. Those were movies more impressive visually than they were with their storytelling. I was hoping we would get something different here and we did. That said, the movie is very much a post apocalyptic adventure and hits many of the tropes you would expect from such a story, just with the twist of the world now being dominated by Apes. Proxima’s base could be straight out of a Mad Max movie or possibly a Fallout game. The Ape perspective though is interesting, when they find an observatory, Rakka sees murials depicting humans and concludes it was some kind of reserve that the apes homed the humans in.

One potential negative is the deliberately vague passage of time. At some points it seems like centuries have passed, but the surviving intelligent humans act like they actually remember the old world and their goals and places they inhabit don’t quite fit with it being centuries after the fall of man. This can be explained a little by humans having about twice the lifespan of most apes. So twice as many generations of ape will pass in the time of one human generation. Also while these apes can talk, they appear to not be able to read, making it more difficult to pass on information between generations. Still, there are a lot of questions that remain. Future entries may prove this to be an interesting bit of world building instead of a flaw, time will tell.

Evolution Of The Franchise

Visually the movie is a big winner. It looks great and the action scenes involving the apes are impressive. The film takes a journey through a great variety of locations and provides some action in each. Each environment looks unique and provides something new for those action scenes. That said, many of these set pieces are only unique within this movie, not the action genre in general, so there is nothing ground breaking but it is definitely entertaining. But it’s not just the action, the characters all have somewhat of an emotional journey and their own agency and goals. The movie is longer than I would like at 2 hours and 25 minutes, but it doesn’t drag. While there are elements that could have been cut, there wasn’t anything I felt needed to be left on the cutting floor.

This is a good, fun movie. Not terrible original and definitely not ground breaking (Ten movies in, no surprise). However, compared to the last trilogy it changes things up enough to not be boring. The story feels like one worth telling and while I’m not sure how much more life the franchise has in it in general, I would like to see more of this branch of the story. That said, the movies largest flaw is it is predictable and that is largely the franchise at this point. There are only so many times you can push the “Apes used to be kept in zoos” reveal. At some point this reboot series needs to break away from setting up the events of the 1968 original and answer the final question: Can humans and apes actually live in peace? This is a strong 6.5/10 and a recommendation.

Review Roundup – June 2024 – The Speed Run!

Posted on July 1, 2024July 1, 2024 by fenrisfil

This month I’m doing a speed run. I’ve got four movies and two documentaries for you. It’s a lot to cover so I am giving each two paragraphs only. I’ll have more content for you in July including some major reviews. For now though, I’m looking at four low budget horror movies: “Project Dorothy”, “Sting”, “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Arcadian”. Don’t worry, I’ll still have plenty of horrors to review in October! As strange bedfellows to those I’m looking at a pair of documentaries, namely “Brats” and “Jim Henson: Idea Man”. Let’s get started!

Sting

Sting is a tale of an alien Spider creature that is briefly befriended by a young girl (Called “Charlotte”, naturally), but then goes on a rampage in an apartment block, slaughtering the residents. It’s also about the relationship of that girl with her Step-Father who she both idolizes and resents. Jermaine Fowler, Ryan Corr and Alyla Browne star. The movie is the brainchild of writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner, the man behind cult classics Wyrmwood (2014) and Nekrotronic (2018). This is a simple horror movie that had a lot of promise… But doesn’t quite live up to that. Very much a case of: Close, but no cigar.

The movie begins with a clever little scene and leads into a stylish intro. Roach-Turner is pretty good at adding a little class to a generic horror, so no surprise here. The rest of Sting however plays through largely by the numbers, though competently and with some charm. It has an interesting concept that ultimately has no impact on the rest of the story, which devolves to a straight forward monster in a building affair. The cast is decent, the characters are reasonable and the monster doesn’t look terrible. But outside the intro nothing really stands out. This hits a strong 5.5/10. Not quite enough to be a recommendation, but if you have nothing better to watch and like horror, it’ll do.

Arcadian

I often say you can’t go too far wrong with Nicholas Cage these days. When he wants to he can bring it as an actor, but mostly he just seems to be doing things that are fun and many of his more B-Movie releases in recent years have become instant cult classics. This is an actor that is just having fun with his career in his later years and long may it continue. Here though he has a smaller role with his character Paul’s sons taking center stage. It works though and the two actors, Jarden Martell (As “Joseph”) and Maxwell Jenkins (As “Thomas”) do a solid job. Benjamin Brewer (Who directed Cage previously in 2016’s “The Truth”) helms the film. Mike Nilon provides the script. Nilon is mostly a producer (And has worked with Cage several times previously), this is only his second writing credit.

The film doesn’t waste much time with explanations. Indeed the creators of this seem to have quite deliberately left things a mystery. Mostly I think this was a good idea, but it does mean the movie just sort of throws things at you. The monsters are actually pretty cool, decently scary and original looking. The move well and seem to have a lot of lore behind them that the film barely touches on. That said, we’ve seen all this before. Arcadian is similar to any number of Monsters-Take-Over-The-World films and we know what to expect from them. The result is a film without any real originality but well made and relatively compelling. If you’ve never seen “The Quiet Place” or the horror/comedy “Love And Monsters” watch those instead. But if those movies are your thing, you’ll enjoy this too. This is a 6/10 and a recommendation.

Brats

Way back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I was aware of the term “Brat Pack” and that it applied to a group of young actors that were making waves in Hollywood. It was never entirely clear who was in this pack, but I liked their movies and that was all there was to it for me. For those actors however this was a whole different matter. The term came from an article by David Blum, originally an interview with Emilio Estevez, but Blum changed the article to talk more broadly about that entire generation of actors. Those actors reacted badly to this label and in many ways have carried around resentment about the label throughout their careers. Now one of those actors, film maker Andrew McCarthy has decided to meet up with the rest of the gang to look back on that article and how it impacted them.

This is a mildly interesting documentary mixed with a chunk of 80’s nostalgia. Primarily this is a documentary about Andrew McCarthy and how he felt about the article that labelled him and many of his peers “Brats”. We see a bit of how others felt and a small amount of talk about the impact of the movies themselves. If you grew up watching these actors you will get something out of it, but ultimately the question of how they felt about being labelled as the “Brat Pack” didn’t need an entire documentary to cover and while their reactions are interesting they are about what you would have expected. Where they cover the movies it becomes a bit more interesting but that aspect is almost an afterthought. If you didn’t grow up in the 80’s this likely won’t be of interest to you. For me, an 80’s kid, it just about hits a 6/10.

I Saw The TV Glow

This is a small cast surreal horror from Jane Schoenbrun centered around “Owen” (Ian Foreman/Justice Smith) and his total obsession with a TV show which may be more than it seems. The focus on a single character with almost no personality and the very slow build makes this really drag until that halfway point, at which stage the message gets confused. It is a very obvious allegory and while it never names the topic, it wears it on its sleeve. Despite that, the creators clearly wanted to be artistic with it and for me the most interesting thing was to see the conflict between their desire to push a specific message and the artistic need of leaving things to the viewer to interpret.

That’s not to say all art has to be open to interpretation but the truth is if you want to deal with a really specific issue and the message is more important than being creative you should probably stick to drama. Genre entertainment works better with broader messages that can resonate with everyone no matter how they interpret it. From about half way through up until the ending this seemed more of an allegory for drug abuse and the impact of media on young minds. Only with the very on the nose ending was I certain my original read of the message was correct. At which point I realized the film may not be saying what the director thinks it is. While that is interesting, the film itself is not. Despite a little bit of style and flair this is a 4.5/10.

Project Dorothy

A very low budget B-Movie horror that attempts to make the most of it’s limited resources but is ultimately too bland and with too many plot holes to be any kind of cult classic. The movie is from relatively new director George Henry Horton and starts Tim DeZarn and Adam Burdon as a pair of thieves hiding out from police in an apparently abandoned warehouse after stealing a valuable piece of technology. The warehouse though houses a psychotic AI from the 1980’s that is looking for a way to escape her confines. The AI, named “Dorothy” is played by horror scream queen Daniel Harris (“Jamie” from Halloween IV and V), who takes top billing despite having the smallest role of the three.

Major plot holes surround the main premise, from not thinking there was an internet in the 1980’s, to not understanding how WiFi dongles work and of course the idea that an extremely dangerous AI would be cut off from the world by an easily broken padlock and no other security. This would be fine if this was a horror comedy, but unfortunately it takes itself a little too seriously. It’s also lacking in style, there’s no cool imagery or clever scenes that stand out here. The two main characters do a reasonable job, especially given how little they have to work with. The AI mostly chases after them with fork lift trucks and turns the lights on and off. There’s definitely been more terrifying and more interesting AI’s. Still, the movie isn’t boring, it is however below average. 4.5/10

Jim Henson: Idea Man

How doesn’t love the Muppets? Come to think of it, what 80’s kid doesn’t love The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth? Jim Henson is a cultural legend for sure, with a great positive influence on the world of entertainment. Despite dying relatively young at 53, he was a giant for two decades and his legacy still stands. Indeed the Muppet’s still occasionally make movies (2014’s “Most Wanted” being the most recent), Sesame Street is still running and Dark Crystal had a TV series relatively recently. A ill advised sequel to Labyrinth is apparently in the works too, without Henson or Bowie. None of these things would happen if there wasn’t still a lot of love for Jim’s work.

This documentary covers Jim’s entire career and gives a solid amount of time to each stage, providing something of interest not matter what era of Henson’s career is of most interest to you. The Focus though is on the man himself and the documentary has a real personal feel to it, through the interviews with all those close to the man and their thoughts, inter-cut with interviews with Jim from over the years. There is nothing ground breaking here, but it is a very moving tribute to a truly creative man. We see his struggles, his relationship with his wife and kids and how he impacted everyone he worked with. The documentary makes it hard not to feel a lot of affection for this driven, funny human being. This is a 7/10.

Review Roundup – May 2024

Posted on May 31, 2024May 31, 2024 by fenrisfil

This month we’ve got a bit of a mixed bag to sort through. We have one horror film in “Abigail“, previously known as “Abducting Abigail” (As listed in my January preview for this year); We have an over the top action comedy in “Boy Kills World“; and the most indie of indie movies, the story of a family of Sasquatches “Sasquatch Sunset“. No clangers this week, but two that didn’t quite land for me. Although only one of these ended up a recommendation, all these movies have positives and something to offer someone. Let’s dig in!

Sasquatch Sunset

This is a film that didn’t entirely work for me, but I can see where some may find it appealing. It treads the ground between artistic vision and gross out comedy. In my view it relies a too heavily on the latter, making it hard to enjoy the former. If I’ve learned anything about these fictional creatures it is that they are basically just grosser versions of humans. This is in some ways endearing and in others… Well, just unpleasant. This is the Sasquatch cycle of life. We witness mating, death and birth. In between we seem aggression, we see tenderness, anger, fear at the unknown, curiosity and uh, body excretions.

Despite featuring very emotional scenes, I struggled to feel empathy for these creatures. This all felt very mundane to me. Part of the problem is that the heavy makeup makes it difficult for the actors to emote. As Sasquatches of course they don’t speak either and instead just grunt. They compensate for this with a lot of body acting and it works to some degree. But I didn’t feel especially connected. Fun fact: One of the Sasquatches is actually Jesse Eisenberg. Of course he is unrecognizable and doesn’t talk, so you’d be forgiven for missing that.

Cryptid Writing

When you have cast that will struggle to emote, you really need the music to do the heavy lifting. However, instead the soundtrack is understated and ethereal with a dream like quality. To be fair, I actually liked the soundtrack quite a lot, but it didn’t drive the story emotionally. It’s possible it was intentional to give the film a dream like quality, these are mythical “Cryptids” after all. The soundtrack release for the movie actually contains a cover of one of the actual songs from the film, but with the lyrics replaced by grunting. Really, that sort of summarizes the features art meets silliness approach!

Conceptually this is interesting and it is why I watched the film in the first place. I was especially interested in the lack of dialogue (I’m a big fan of the series “Primal”). What I wasn’t aware of was how much the movie would rely so much on body excretions to entertain. That isn’t my thing, but if you like an artistic concept paired with gross out humour this may be for you. What I will say is the Sasquatches did look great. Visually the film worked really well and this was made for around $1m, so that is in itself very impressive. For me though on entertainment value it is a 5.5/10.

Abigail

Abigail tells the story of a group of criminals that have been given a high paying job abducting a young girl. They don’t know who her father is outside of them being wealthy. However, it turns out things are not as they seem and one by one they are being eliminated while they await news of the ransom. It turns out it really does matter who you kidnap. The movie comes from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and stars Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens and Alisha Weir. SPOILERS for this one. Suffice to say this is a visually entertaining movie but full of cliches and heavily reliant on all the characters being stupid. If you still want to stay unspoiled, skip to the last paragraph.

The film gave away the nature of Abigail both in the trailer and many early synopsis’s. Hell, I knew she was a monster late on in 2023 back when this film was still going to be called “Abducting Abigail”. Child Vampires are not new and the movie even references Anne Rice, so I guess little Claudia was the inspiration here. She is done reasonably well and definitely the movies highlight. The visuals are in the “Fun horror” category where things are pushed to such extremes as to be sort of funny (Lots of “Red mist”). While the visuals are fun, I can’t help but find a lot of similarities between this movie and “Ready or Not” by the same directors. But that movie had something this does not: Characters.

Red Mist

Every character here is a hollow shell and everyone other than the final girl is mind-numbingly stupid. Joey (Said final girl), could not be more of a cliché. Her single flaw is that she is a recovering drug addict. She recently got clean. As a result is incredibly competent, a master of hand to hand combat, able to read every person she meets instantly and figure out their back story and is afraid of nothing. Yep, sounds like the kind of recovering drug addict who would be in on a kidnapping scheme…. Of the rest of the team only a couple even verge on competence, but ultimately fall short. Even with Joey, the group collectively make repeated dumb mistakes (Such as constantly splitting up).

Ultimately, this by-the-numbers horror features barely outlined characters who need to make constant stupid decisions to drive the story forward. It has some decent cinematography, generic but fun effects and reasonable pacing. If you want a popcorn horror it may suffice but it is a long way from “Ready or Not”, which was this directing duos one good movie. Most recently they made two bad scream sequels. This is better than those but not by much and I’m starting to realize how much “Ready or Not” relied on the talents of Samara Weaving to make it work. Unfortunately Melissa Barrera (Who was also in those bad Scream sequels) is not quite good enough to prop up a movie by herself. Anyway this is a 5/10.

Boy Kills World

For the final movie is this months review roundup we have the directorial debut of Moritz Mohr with “Boy Kills World”. The movie is written by Mohr, Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers and stars Bill Skarsgård as the unnamed “Boy”. Bill is playing a deaf mute here though, but his character has a constant voice over representing the voice in his head and H. Jon Benjamin (Bob’s Burgers/Archer) provides that voice over. The rest of the cast split fairly evenly in their supporting roles, but Famke Janssen stands out as the film’s big bad, “Hilda Van Der Koy.” This is a martial arts revenge film set in a dystopian future, but played out very much as an action comedy.

“Boy”, grew up in a Dystopian city ruled over by the brutal authority of the Van Der Koy family. The family has an annual tradition of rounding up 12 dissidents and executing them on live TV in an event dubbed “The Culling”. As a child, the Van Der Koy’s killed his mother and the families matriarch Hilda Van Der Koy personally shot his sister in front of him. Boy himself was to be executed via hanging, but was rescued by a mysterious Shaman (Yayan Ruhian). Since then the stranger has trained the deaf and mute child to be the ultimate fighting machine and given him a single task: To kill Hilda Van Der Koy. The child though never got to experience growing up naturally and so despite his skills maintains a certain childishness to him. He also is haunted by visions of his dead sister. Eventually though he must take on the evil family on the night of “The Culling”.

Smart But Stupid

This is a movie that I expected to be fun both for outrageous action and a bit of comedy. That was really all I expected and yet it managed to pleasantly surprise me. The story is both darker and more interesting than I first imagined and provided a solid twist towards the end that turns the entire story on it’s head. Meanwhile, I did indeed gain a lot of entertainment from the action and comedy. Most of that comedy (That landed with me anyway) was down to the deaf protagonist not being able to read the lips of one character properly, which ended up not just providing a few quick (Hilarious) laughs but actually became a pivotal part of the story. This is a clever film packaged as a dumb movie and it does both parts extremely well.

I don’t have a lot of criticism for this one. One issue is the film focuses so much on the protagonists’ point of view that we don’t really get to know the other characters well. This also means the world building is somewhat minimal. To be fair some of this is because the film relies heavily on mystery. You know this is some kind of dystopian future but not much more than that. While this is a flaw, it doesn’t really harm the film that much so it’s not a big one. We don’t spend much time with the supporting cast, but they are all without exception larger than life and feel straight out of a comic book. This means they are at least memorable. We learn everything we need to know about them, but nothing more. The over-the-top video game style voice-over may put some people off. However you will find a lot of entertainment value if you can get past that. This movie does just about enough to earn a 7/10 for me. Definitely recommended.

Thanks For Reading!

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Posted on May 28, 2024May 28, 2024 by fenrisfil

Guy Ritchie has been on fire in recent years. Releasing “The Gentlemen” in 2019 just as the pandemic was hitting, the movie could have sunk without a trace but instead became a cult classic. It was successful enough to warrant a TV show spin off (Which came out earlier this year). Last year Guy Ritchie released two movies that between them showcased both the serious and the fun sides of his repertoire. Those were the outrageously fun “Operation Fortune” and the intensely serious “The Covenant”. I highly recommend both films. This year Guy Ritchie is aiming firmly at the middle ground with his take on the WW2 covert mission “Operation Postmaster”.

Before we start, one quick moan. Guy Ritchie is an English director and the movie stars Henry Cavill, another Englishman. It is a thoroughly British story about British heroes told by a director that couldn’t be more British in his style if he tried. Yet, everyone in America got the opportunity to see this in the cinema before me. Over here it didn’t even get a cinematic release! This happened with last years releases too and is down to a deal with Amazon. For me that is a real let down. We have a great legacy of movie making in the UK and we should be showcasing our finest talents in our cinemas. Anyway, let’s look at the film shall we?

Churchill’s Secret Warriors

The movie is based on the novel “Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII”. Fortunately Ritchie found an easier to digest title for his film which takes one key section of that book and expands it to feature length, ramping up the action and adding in his own brand of humour. There is also somewhat of a switch on the lead character. The book’s protagonist was Danish war hero Anders Lassen, played here by Alan Ritchson (Star of the TV show “Reacher”). However the movie is very much an ensemble piece and positions Gus March-Phillipps, a founder of the Small Scale Raiding Force, a precursor to the SBS (Special Boat Squadron) as the primary lead. Gus is played by Henry Cavill. The switch makes sense for this story and Lassen actually gets the best action scenes, so no harm done.

There are some historical inaccuracies with some of these characters and of course liberties in how events transpire but nothing out of the ordinary or that gets in the way of the entertainment. I recommend looking up the historical events and characters for yourself after as they are all fascinating. The movie tells the story of the events of “Operation Postmaster”, a covert mission during WW2 to turn the tables on the Nazi U-Boat fleet by robbing them of their supplies. The problem was this involved taking military action in neutral Spanish territory and so had to be done covertly and off the books. This requires an elite team of unconventional thinkers, assembled for the task by career rogue Gus March-Phillipps. Along the way they will need to rescue one of their own from the Gestapo.

The High Stakes of War

This is a fun movie, but not without a flaws. My main issue here is something of a trend in modern action films of never really feeling like the heroes are in genuine danger. Sometimes this is easy to shrug off, such as with The Equalizer III or The Beekeeper. However, I feel a war movie really does need to feel like death is not just a possibility but a likely outcome. It’s worth noting that the novel follows Lassen right up to his heroic death in “Operation Roast”. That would have made for a very different movie and one with more of an emotional impact. Perhaps though, it would have been less fun. Still, I can’t help but feel this should have felt more than a stroll in the park for the heroes.

The movie repeats a few of it’s beats, notably the opening is scene is somewhat replicated towards the end (But no spoilers on how). The primary antagonist of the film, indeed all the antagonists are pretty ineffective. The film tells us they are evil scary people, but we don’t really see much of this on screen. This is not so much of an issue if you go in expecting a heist movie, because that is what it really is. That is firmly in Guy Ritchies wheelhouse. So this is the director doing what he does best, it just has the background of being during WW2. The important thing is that the movie is entertaining.

Heroes

The action is fast paced and exciting. The heroic characters are colourful and each one gets their own moment. Alan Ritchson in particular has some of the most intense action scenes, which confused me a little until I found out his character is the lead of the novel. Indeed he was a true real life bad-ass. Lasson died heroically at the age of 24 after serving his country for six years and is the only Non-Commonwealth recipient of the Victoria Cross during WW2. Cavill still gets to be a cool action hero however. Cool being the key as his calmness under pressure is his defining characteristic. Gus March-Phillipps, is known to be one of Ian Fleming’s inspirations for James Bond (Though not as the film suggests, the main one).

The rest of the cast perform their parts nicely and no one feels superfluous. They all bring charisma to their roles and the heroic historic characters are compelling. It is perhaps a little lacking in Guy Ritchie banter we tend to expect from his movies and the villains are a bit too one dimensional, but overall it is solid fun. This is a fast paced action film and you’ll barely notice the 2 hour run time. Well worth your time. 6.5/10

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Posted on May 23, 2024December 17, 2024 by fenrisfil

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, is the fifth movie in Legendary’s “Monsterverse” film series (Which also includes the “Monarch” TV series on Apple). Adam Wingard who helmed the previous “Godzilla Vs Kong” movie returns to the directors chair. Terry Rossio returns to write the film and is joined by Simon Barrett. This movie also sees the return of a few of the human characters (And their actors) from last entry. Specifically Rebecca Hall as Ilene Andrews, Kaylee Hottle as Jia and Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes.

The Fun End Of The Spectrum

This is quite a change from the last Godzilla movie to hit our screens, the phenomenal “Godzilla Minus One”, but that doesn’t mean it will be bad. This series provides a (Somewhat) heroic Godzilla who stands as the Earth’s guardian against other monster threats (Though still destroys the occasional building). Kong meanwhile now lives in the “Hollow Earth”, where the Monsters come from. This is an arrangement that seems to suit both titans. At least until a new threat emerges. This is very much on the popcorn/fun end of the monster movie spectrum.

That threat is discovered by Kong as he travels the Hollow Earth and comes across beings much like himself, including a child. Things take a twist though when they attack him. What he discovers is that these beings are ruled over by a malevolent ape who has harnessed the powers of a mighty titan to destroy his enemies and make his people cower before him in fear. His intention appears to be to come to the surface and bring forth a new ice age. But it will take more than just Kong to stop, perhaps more than Kong and Godzilla.

Learning From The Past

The big mistake of the previous Godzilla Vs Kong movie was in including two separate groups of humans, one for each titan. More often than not, the humans just get in the way of these kinds of stories, so it’s best not to overuse them. The exception being Godzilla Minus One, but that was an exceptional movie. In Godzilla Vs Kong, “Team Zilla” really felt like they didn’t need to be there and the film dragged when they were on screen. Here they reduce the team down to one Kong focused team and that helps with both pacing and consistency. Though that’s not to say they were a highlight, but they don’t get in the way. I’ll speak about them a bit later.

The real star of the movie though is King Kong. Godzilla is still the king of the Monsters and there is no real disputing that in the movie, but Kong is a far more versatile character capable of expressing emotion (To some degree) and able to provide a greater variety of action scenes. Focusing more on Kong is beneficial to both Monsters as Godzilla needs to maintain some mystery while Kong benefits from being a little humanized. The makers of the movie clearly understood this and bringing in other Ape beings (Especially the child Ape) gave Kong an emotional journey. There is also a welcome return of another heroic titan (No spoiler, but you can probably guess).

The Trouble With Humans

Pet peeve time! One thing I detest in movies is when a macho character tells everyone to be careful of the dangers and is instantly killed. This has been so overused that it is a cliché now and really needs to stop. It’s my second biggest pet peeve after the “Exposition Guy” (A character whose only purpose in a film is to give exposition). Anyway, we have a very minor character that seems to have just been there for that one scene. It’s seconds of the film and not a deal breaker, but because it doesn’t impact anything that makes the inclusion even worse. Stop doing this Hollywood!

My only other complaint with the movie would be that outside the main Mother/Daughter characters the remaining pair of humans are goofy and one dimensional. They are basically along for the ride and don’t have much in the way of agency. Honestly for a film like this though it’s not a big problem. Trying to give them more depth would have meant a longer run time or taking attention away from Kong and those would be larger mistakes. Bernie though has been in two of these movies now and felt pointless in both. Brian Tyree Henry is capable of more (See “Bullet Train” for example), but only if he is given something to work with.

Conclusion

Godzilla X Kong: A New Empire, provides a good pace (I didn’t really notice the run time) and solid action with a bit of humour along the way. It’s nothing ground breaking and it won’t bring you to tears. It’s simple, somewhat shallow but definitely entertaining. It is a rare case of a franchise learning from previous missteps and simply giving the audience what they want (In this case giant monsters beating each other up). I’ve got to give this a strong 6/10 (Almost a 6.5) and recommend it as a fun popcorn flick.

Review Roundup – April 2024

Posted on April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 by fenrisfil

This months review roundup is a little on the late side (Narrowly making April) but hopefully worth the wait because I have three solid recommendations for you this time around. Not even a hint of a clangers. To be fair some of these are higher profile films than I usually cover in the round up. That’s no guarantee of quality though, especially these days. So this month I am reviewing the Shudder surprise hit “Late Night with the Devil”, Dev Patel’s ambition action/revenge movie “Monkey Man” and the heartwarming man-and-a-dog film “Arthur The King”. Since these are all recommendations I’ve avoided spoilers, so read on and enjoy!

Late Night With The Devil

For our first movie I’m looking at the the hot new movie from Shudder, “Late Night With the Devil”. Colin and Cameron Cairnes share duties on both writing and directing this one. The duo have a handful of films to their name, the best received probably being 2012’s horror comedy “100 Bloody Acres”. David Dastmalchian stars as struggling late night talk show host Jack Delroy. Laura Gordon, Iam Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli and Rhys Auteri provide support. The movie is presented as a lost recording of a notorious Halloween special on the late night talk show “Night Owl” from 1977. Unseen” background footage supplements this along with a documentary like intro explaining Jack Delroy’s backstory. During the show we are introduced to various guests including a medium, a profession skeptic/magician and a young girl suffering an apparent demonic possession.

Right from the start you know this is going to be a fun and somewhat unique movie. It reminded me somewhat of “WNUF Halloween Special” from 2013. That movie pushed the comedy a bit more, while this is a little more serious and a lot more polished. Fake “Recovered footage” movies are quite rare. A lot of what makes them work (Or not) is how well they convince you they could be genuine. Obviously no one is going to think this was real, but you want it to at least provide a decent illusion of reality. They achieved this and more. Now to be fair, I was only four years old by the time 1980 rolled around. However, I have seen enough TV from the 1970’s to know what it should look like. In my view they nailed it. The cast is solid with everyone putting in quality performances. Dastmalchian is especially worthy of note though and it is his performance that ties the whole story together.

Abracadabra

The plot here is fairly straight forward but extremely well put together. The movie seamlessly sets up a number of story beats that all get paid off in meaningful ways, which is quite refreshing for a modern movie. The story builds organically throughout the (In movie) evening, with hell breaking loose in the last few moments. The movie wouldn’t have required a large budget because it is mostly talk, with well spaced out events that help build to the inevitable crescendo. It is really masterfully done. This is a movie partially about the originality, but mostly about the execution. The plot itself is sort of silly on the surface and could easily have been the bases of a truly terrible B-Movie, but instead we have a true cult classic on our hands.

It’s not hard to see why this has become somewhat of an overnight hit. I wasn’t even aware this movie was coming at the start of the year. Of course I did say when I wrote my article of upcoming movies that the best films of the year may well come out of nowhere, so here is the first example. This is a strong 7/10 and a definite cult classic. If you are into horror you will like it. If you are into imaginative horror comedy you will love it.

Monkey Man

Monkey Man is an melee based action and revenge thriller hybrid and the directorial debut of Dev Patel. Originally he intended his friend and past collaborator Neill Blomkamp to direct. Blomkamp declined but encouraged Patel to try his own hand at directing and this is the result. The movie is set in India and see’s Patel play “Kid” a somewhat mysterious character who is on a one man mission of revenge. His targets are a despotic cult leader and a corrupt and murderous chief of police. Kid works as a masked fighter in fixed fights at an underground boxing club, giving him some fighting skills and some cash to put towards his revenge plans. When the time is right he gets himself into a position to be hired as kitchen staff at a luxury brothel where his targets reside. Things do not quite go to plan however.

The movie is a hybrid between a neo-noir revenge thriller and outright action. In regards to the latter, these action scenes are quite spaced out in the movie with the vast majority in the second half. The momentum certainly builds up and once the hero passes the “Death and Rebirth” point of the heroes’ journey the movie provides solid edge of the seat action all the way to the finish. Speaking of the “Heroes’ Journey” it is clear that Patel has studied Joseph Campbell’s work on the subject. This is mostly a positive, though the movie wears the journey on it’s sleeve to the extent that becomes somewhat predictable. It also really makes it feel like somewhat of a superhero movie as well. The grittiness of the thriller side is mostly presented through the environment and the heroes flashbacks.

Future Promise

Patel puts in a solid performance as the lead and shows promise as an action star. His support does well too, but the characters themselves did not really interest me. Indeed the only character that was interesting was Patel’s “own.”Kid”. The setting itself is interesting and there is a definite feel of India to the movie, but not much is done to build up any of the characters outside of the lead. The villains especially come across as feeling somewhat generic. The protagonists backstory and the cause of his vengeance begins as a mystery and is slowly revealed through flashbacks. This can work in some movies, but here it also shrouds the antagonists in that same mystery making them seem distant and vague.

Monkey Man is somewhat of a mixed bag. It certainly has flaws and perhaps most of them stem from the movies ambition. The action, comedy and neo-noir elements tend to operate in a disjointed way, usually working against each other. It’s like a superhero origin story randomly merged with a Japanese style revenge movie. A lot of the time the movie doesn’t seem entirely sure what it wants to be. I suspect that Patel really wanted to create something unique, but unique is not always good. That’s not to say the film isn’t without merit. Overall I liked it, I just feel that it had a lot of room for improvement. Patel clearly has potential as a writer/director and is one to watch in the future. For now though, we have a solid 6/10.

Arthur The King

The final movie of this month’s review roundup is a heartwarming true story about an adventure racer, his team and a special dog. You can’t go too far wrong with that kind of story, in some ways perhaps it is a bit too easy, but easy doesn’t mean bad. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg who is supported by Ali Suliman, Nathalie Emmanuel and Simu Liu. It is directed by Simon Cellan Jones, written by Michael Brandt and based on the true story/novel “Arthur: The dog who crossed the jungle to find a home” by Mikael Lindnord.

Arthur the King tells the story of Michael Light, a professional adventure racer that has struggled to win gold all his career and is determined for one last shot. To get there he assembles a team of individuals with their own goals and points to prove and they head to the Dominican Republic for a grueling multi-day race across all kinds of dangerous terrain that will test their abilities to the peak. Along the way though they make an unexpected friend in a local stray dog that bonds with them and becomes their fifth member. Their journey captures the imagination of the races audience, but the team must risk everything to come home with what they truly desire.

Crossing The Jungle To Find A Home

Looking into the true story it seems the adaptation takes some creative liberties in regards to the protagonist (Now American and not Swedish), the makeup of the team (Adding in backstory drama and diversity), the location (Moving it from Ecuador to the Dominican Republic… Much to the chagrin of Ecuadorians) and a few minor details. The important part of the story though, the relationship between the team and this determined dog remains and seems pretty close to the real life events. The changes to the protagonist and his team allow them to build in a lot more general drama to the story, but not so much as to distract from the core story. It is enough that every member has a reason to be there.

The key character though is of course the dog “Arthur”, a very beaten down but determined dog that after a simple act of kindness pretty much decides to adopt the team and look out for them. It will definitely pull at the heart strings of every dog owner out there and I think everyone else will be moved as well. Outside of the emotional stuff, the film actually provides some solid action on top. Not really a shock given this is about adventure racing. Lives are at risk here several times throughout the journey. The risks are diminished somewhat though in that the film never really has the tone to make you think any of the team are doing to die, but it’s still a good spectacle. This is another film that proves the value of a simple story done well. This is a 6.5/10.

THANKS FOR READING

Review Roundup – March 2024

Posted on March 28, 2024May 2, 2024 by fenrisfil

This month I’m looking at three lesser known movies from 2024 and giving you a double dose of science fiction (sort of) and a horror comedy to chew over. Heads up though, none of these movies did much for me though I appreciate certain elements of all three and the best of the bunch is probably not going to be a lot of peoples cup of tea. I will cover positives and negatives though so you can decide for yourself if you want to give them a chance. The movies in question this month are “I.S.S.”, “Spaceman” and “Lisa Frankenstein”. Let’s dig in.

I.S.S.

I.S.S. is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Black Fish) and penned by Nick Shafir (In his debut script). The name refers to the International Space Station, the permanent manned orbital platform that has become a central hub of scientific study and international cooperation in space. One of the most notable things about this station is that it is usually manned by a mixture of Russian and US astronauts along with a few from other nations. In this story however it is basically 50/50 between the two main countries and for a good reason since the story asks the question: What would happen on the I.S.S. should Russia and the US have a nuclear war?

The lead character in this story is Dr. Kira Foster (Played by Ariana DeBose), a new arrival to the station. She is joined by five others making up a full cast of just six. Adding a layer of complexity to the situation two characters, American Gordon Barrett and Russian Weronika Vetrov are in a relationship. Things begin friendly but when they witness explosions on Earth both groups get a directive from Earth “Take control of the I.S.S. by any means”. Each crew member must decide where their loyalties lie and what their duty truly is.

Concept Vs Execution

The first thing to say about this movie is I love the concept. What really would happen at the international space station if nuclear war broke out on Earth, that’s an interesting question. The problem is the execution is just sort of uninspiring. It is the kind of premise that in the hands of the right director and cinematographer could win Oscars, but in the hands of anyone else it basically becomes a glorified TV movie and that is pretty much where we land with this one. This is more of a case of missed opportunities than doing anything disastrously wrong. The first act is fine, but nothing special.

The second act is easily the strongest and showed a bit of the potential this concept could have had and then the third act just fails to deliver on any kind of level. It’s the second act that you get the paranoia on both sides, the moralizing over what the right thing to do is and the mystery of what has happened on Earth. But the final act really fails to do anything interesting with that. Still, it could easily have been worse. There’s not really much else to say on this. The movie is the very definition of “Adequate”. 5/10.

Spaceman

Spaceman is based on the novel “Spaceman of Bohemia” by Jaroslav Kalfař and is the feature debut of director Johan Renck. Adam Sandler stars (Continuing to prove himself as a capable serious actor) as Czech astronaut Jakub Prochazka. Prochazka has been sent on a one man mission to Jupiter to investigate a strange dust cloud called “Chopra”. This is a bit of a space race between Czech and South Korea, but Prochazka’s shuttle is a few days ahead and as such he has become a bit of a celebrity back at home. Jakub’s mental state though is strained by the journey and by his difficult relationship with his wife back on Earth.

Things take a turn for the unusual when he is greeted by a giant talking spider. After deciding this wasn’t a figment of his imagination he begins to talk to it. It turns out the creature is somewhat of a kindred spirit, another explorer far from home that had become curious about humanity. Over time they develop a bond and Prochazka is forced to examine his own life and what is important to him.

Looking Outward To Look Within.

This is a weird movie for sure. The vast majority of it is Adam Sandler having a philosophical conversation with a giant spider. Chances are just reading that you have already decided to skip this or watch this and in my view whichever way you are leaning is almost certainly right for you. The movie has a lot of flaws and opening up with faster than light communication via quantum entanglement (Which is not possible), despite the movie clearly being set in the near future was an odd choice. With the movies themes of isolation and loneliness and with a lot of the communication being done by recorded message anyway, it just seemed unnecessary.

That aside, this is not so much a science film as it is a philosophical one and it did pull on my heart strings at times. By the end I found I did care about this giant talking spider and so job done there. The movie removed a lot of the thriller based elements from the novel, lightening the tone a bit and giving it a heavy focus on the philosophical aspects. The problem here is it can be quite boring in places. Still, this is a strong 5.5/10, just a little short of a 6/10. If you like surreal philosophical movies you will probably enjoy it, otherwise chances are it’ll bore you.

Lisa Frankenstein

Lisa Frankenstein is the feature length directorial debut of Zelda Williams. The movie is written by Diablo Cody and stars up and coming youngster Kathryn Newton (Star of the surprisingly good “Freaky” from 2020). In what is designed as a subverted take on Frankenstein the movie tells the story of orphan Lisa Swallows, whose mother was murdered in a home invasion while she hid in the cupboard. Her father remarried. Lisa has a strained relationship with her stepmother but a fairly supportive step sister who tries to get her open up and be more social.

Lisa though prefers to hang out in the graveyard and fantasize about one of it’s residents who she has become infatuated with. After declaring that she wishes she could be with him one night a bolt of lightning strikes the grave and resurrects an apparently lovesick corpse. One thing leads to another and uh.. yeah people die and she starts sewing bits them onto the corpse. I guess you aren’t meant to think too much about this one.

A Frankensteinian Abomination.

This is the weakest of the movies I’m reviewing this month but it’s not totally devoid of positives. I liked the aesthetics, which have a very Tim Burton quality to them. The visual style is quaint and I especially liked the animated intro. Unfortunately those are all the positives I can give you. The movie is effectively a cross between “Heathers” (1988) and “May” (2002), with a little bit of “Corpse Bride” (2005). The problem is it absolutely fails to deliver the charm of any of those movies. The characters are, excuse the pun, lifeless and the script is disjointed and bland. You can see what they are trying to do, but none of it works.

At no point did I find myself rooting for or having sympathy for the protagonist and the events surrounding her lack any kind of consistency. Effectively most of the characters have no personality, but occasionally do things because the plot needs it or they need to vaguely justify killing them later. Random over the top humour is inserted haphazardly and is doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie. None of it is funny. It simply doesn’t work. This is a 4/10 at best. If you want a subverted take on Frankenstein do yourself a favour and watch “May” instead, it is a far better movie.

Thanks For Reading

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Posted on March 26, 2024March 26, 2024 by fenrisfil

It’s time to review the new Ghostbusters movie. You may remember that I gave Ghostbusters: Afterlife a positive review, though I noted a number of negatives. My hope was the sequel would learn from the good and bad of Afterlife and truly move the franchise forward. Moving the action back to New York (And the famous firehouse) was certainly a positive. The remaining original Ghostbusters were set to return once more, this time not just turning up for the finale. It all sounded good and the trailer was solid. But would it really be up to scratch?

The Ghostbusters Come Home.

Gil Kenan takes the directors chair for this one. The script is by him and the director of the previous movie Jason Reitman. It’s unknown how much involvement Jason had on this one. It’s worth noting that his father and original Ghostbusters director Ivan passed away in 2022 so was notably uninvolved. Returning from the original two movies are Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and William Atherton. Afterlife’s Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim joins them. The already bulky cast adds in Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, James Acaster and Emily Alyn Lind.

The story picks up in New York where the Spengler family have taken over the firehouse and the day to day business of busting ghost. After causing citywide destruction the mayor of the town (Walter Peck from the first two films) decrees that Phoebe as a 15 year old should not be working as a Ghostbuster. Annoyed by this she heads to central park to sulk and play chess but ends up befriending a ghost called Melody (Lind). Meanwhile Nadeem Razmaadi (Nanjiani) attempts to sell off his grandmothers collection of oddities to Ray Stantz (Ackroyd) who finds particular interest on one unique item inscribed with ancient glyph. It turns out this item contains an ancient evil spirit that if released could threaten the world. Naturally, it does get released and it is down to the Ghostbusters and Razmaadi to fix things.

Busting Makes Me Feel Bored.

Frozen Empire is not a terrible film or even the worst Ghostbusters film. It is however very average and ultimately a disappointment. The unfortunate thing is almost every problem could have been predicted going in, leaving little excuse for it. One thing I didn’t predict was that the film would be boring! Sadly for most of it, that was exactly what it was. Most of the fun stuff is literally in the trailer. Frozen Empire, much like Afterlife is a bit too long. Both movies were only about 15-20 minutes longer than the original, but with a lot less going on you really notice the run time. The movie especially drags through the first two acts where after the ghost chase scene from the trailer, very little actually happens.

It’s not just the pacing that is the issue, but also the focus on Phoebe (Grace). This worked in the previous film somewhat, with that story being largely constructed around her relationship with the ghost of Egon Spengler. But the problem is she just isn’t that interesting. There is a reason Egon wasn’t the main character in the original movies. Egon was at least funny though (Harold Ramis was a very funny man and co-writer of the original). Pheobe is no Egon and really doesn’t work as the franchise lead. It doesn’t help that once again they’ve focused her arc on her relationship with a ghost (This time stealing ideas from “Casper The Friendly Ghost”). It’s also notable that strapping a nuclear accelerator to a 15 year old girl and expecting her to fight ghosts regularly does raise a number of questions. The movie examines these, but not terribly well.

Ghost To Buster Ratio.

The remaining original Ghostbusters do get more to do than in the previous film (Where they literally just showed up for the ending) and this was very welcome. Even Venkman gets a scene before the ending. The roles aren’t large, but didn’t need to be. The big problem though is between that and the focus on Phoebe the other characters get almost no time or character development. When I reviewed Afterlife I said that Trevor (Wolfhard) was largely wasted and needed to get actual character development in any sequel. Well, he has even less of a role in this. This is true of all the other characters introduced in Afterlife, none more so than Lucky (O’Connor) and Podcast (Kim) who feel like they have been grandfathered in and do almost nothing. On top of this there are several new characters thrown in the mix too.

But it’s not just the screen time and character development. Many of these characters are just badly written. None of Afterlife characters display the charm they had in the previous film and many of them are just plain stupid now. Speaking of stupid, this is a movie where the problems that must be solved are entirely created by the good guys in the first place. That is almost always a bad idea, but the fact is had the Ghostbusters not returned to New York, none of the events of the film would have happened. This has the embarrassing side effect of meaning that Walter Peck (Now Mayor of New York for some reason) is actually 100% correct this time around. It could be argued Peck is the good guy and the Ghostbusters are actually now the villains!

Nostalgia Bait.

In Ghostbusters Afterlife I praised how they used the references to the original movie. While re-using Gozer seemed a little lazy, all the nostalgia was directly a part of the plot. They didn’t just drop things in for “‘Member Berries” (Thank you South Park for that term) and they didn’t stop things every few minutes to drop an Easter Egg like they did in the 2016 movie. Sadly though Frozen Empire is back to dropping references in just for the sake of it. They don’t waste too much time with it, but I’m not a fan of that kind of fan service. But it’s not just references to the original, they also brought back the mini-marshmallow men from Afterlife. To be fair, the kids in the cinema will love that but they didn’t add much for me.

The villain of the story is pure CGI and largely forgettable. He ties into the new character of Nadeem Razmaadi (played by Kumail Nanjiani), who is the “Firemaster”. This is a rather obvious reference to Rick Moarranis’ Louis Tully character in the original that was the “Keymaster”. Nanjani is no Moarranis and Razmaadi is no Tully. Ultimately it is an annoying character that adds to the movies character bloat. The big showdown is between the one villain and ELEVEN good guys. They are assisted by not one but two ghosts. To be fair, one of those ghosts is sort of unintentionally helping, with the returning favourite provides the most predictable moment in the entire movie. For reference Afterlife’s showdown was 7 people and one ghost on the heroes side and the original was just the four Ghostbusters. Afterlife managed to give each character a little moment in that finale, not so here.

Conclusion

Ultimately this was a disappointment. Not terrible and certainly better than the 2016 movie but it was boring, cluttered and not nearly as a funny as it should have been. This was a step back from Afterlife and many of my concerns I had with that movie as far as the future direction went seem justified. At this point I’m not sure they can fix it with movies. What they do have though is something that could work as a TV series, where they can actually flesh out these characters and introduce new ones without feeling cluttered. It’s worth noting I suggested the same thing after the previous movie. Sadly, this is a 5.5/10. Just short of a recommendation. I will say though, the children in the cinema seemed to be enjoying it. This may be a kids franchise now.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Posted on March 10, 2024March 10, 2024 by fenrisfil

Three years after the release of David Villeneuve’s take on Dune, we finally have the second part. Both films together cover Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel “Dune”. Interestingly, they originally split the novel into two halves and published them in “Analogue Science Fiction And Fact” magazine. So they could have named the first part “Dune World” and this year’s sequel “Prophet of Dune” (as they were called in the magazine) instead of the rather bland “Part One” and “Part Two,” but that’s nitpicking really. Denis Villeneuve directs Dune part two and co-writes it with Jon Spaihts (but this time, without Eric Roth).

The movie sees Timothée Chalamet return to the role of Paul Atreides along with many of the very strong cast of the first movie. Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh join the cast as the previously unseen Emperor and his daughter along with Austin Butler as “Feyd-Rautha”, the character played by Sting in the David Lynch version of the story. Once again, the ensemble cast is incredibly strong. All the pieces are in place, strong cast, strong source material, solid budget and a film maker known for his visuals. This should easily be fantastic… but is it? I’m skipping the synopsis for this one, since this follows on directly from part two, it is hard to cover it without dropping spoilers. The Rest of this review has minor spoilers, but nothing that will impact your enjoyment. Skip to the conclusion of this is an issue for you.

Visuals

So first thing to cover is the look and in that regard this is excellent. The sand worms have never seemed more immense or dangerous. The landscape is imposing and the action scenes frankly put most other science fiction movies of the modern day to shame. The sound design is great too, however I don’t remember any of the music at all after leaving the theater. I remember from the first movie how much of the soundtrack was just noises and ambiance, which is a bit of a trend for modern soundtracks so I won’t hold it too much against this particular one.

With such a strong cast we were always unlikely to have any problems with the acting and it is very strong throughout. The main burden though falls on Chalamet as Atreides and he did a fantastic job. Despite his relatively small stature he managed to come across as powerful when needed and was able to convey both his conflicted conscience and he determination to get revenge for the destruction of his house. Despite the actors performances though, the script doesn’t given them a great deal to work with. With lesser actors that would have seen the film fall flat, but they just about get away with it here. It certainly helps when you have the likes of Rebecca Ferguson and Stellan Skarsgård in support.

Emotional Impact (Or lack thereof).

Now for the negatives. First of all, the emotional payoffs for this movie are built on setups from the previous one, almost entirely. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t re-watch that film before viewing its sequel so after a three year gap I didn’t feel even one of those emotional pay offs. That left the ending somewhat anti-climactic for me. That may be further impacted by the fact that I know the story, so there are no surprises for me. That said, I don’t think a recent re-watch would have helped feel the pay off in regards to the Emperor or Feyd, since neither are in the first film. The Emperor was behind the fall of House Atreides, but it doesn’t feel personal and so it is hard to really care. This was my biggest problem for Dune: Part Two. I really didn’t feel much in the way of an emotional connection to anything going on. Villeneuve’s directing style is very dry, and it reminds me of a lot of my issues with his Blade Runner sequel.

I always felt the biggest thing lacking from Blade Runner 2049 was heart. It was in some ways like a very good AI attempting to replicate the look and soundtrack of the first film, but without the ability to truly understand it. At the time I thought it was just a failure with that film but having seen both parts of Dune I have to conclude that it’s an issue with Villenueve’s approach in general. I think he perhaps focuses too much on the technical aspect of how things look and as a result sometimes forgets that a film is more than just visuals. Maybe it’s just me, but despite the source material and the high quality cast this is a movie that often felt as dry as the endless desert of Arrakis.

Pacing and Characters

My second issue is pacing (And this impacts my emotional reaction too). Some scenes really drag out. Not good in a movie with a running time towards three hours. Despite that, I couldn’t help but feel that some characters and story elements could have benefited from a bit more time spent on them. In what I gather is a change to the novel, the Fremen are split into northern and southern factions. The north is anti-religious and the south are effectively zealots. Another scene really drags out how the rebels got their hands on the Atreides nuclear arsenal. None of these elements are bad in themselves, they just felt unnecessary to the story.

As good as the actors were, the filmmakers wasted every single one of the antagonists. Florence Pugh’s “Princess Irulan” barely has more screen time than Virginia Madsen had in the 1984 movie. Neither her nor the Emperor (Played by Walken) felt like real characters to me. Feyd gets a pretty bad ass introduction, but has no real connection with Paul. When they finally fight it had the emotional impact of two people concluding a minor business deal. Meanwhile, the roles of both Dave Bautista’s “Beast Rabban” and Stellan Skarsgård’s “Baron Harkonnen” feel diminished. Gone is their powerful, intimidating presence from the previous movie, and as a result, their eventual defeat feels somewhat empty. These are good characters with good actors playing them, they shouldn’t feel like they are just there.

Conclusion

Ultimately the positives do outweigh the negatives. When paired with the first film it is both good entertainment and quality art. However it is not a masterpiece and this isn’t the new Lord of the Rings by a long way. Honestly I’m not sure the Dune novels are particularly well suited to movies. However it really does look superb and Chalamet probably does deserve an Oscar nomination. I’m somewhat torn, but I’m going to have to settle on a very strong 6.5/10. The movie would have scored higher had I actually felt something at it’s conclusion, but it is what it is.