2021 Archives - Screen Wolf

Censor (2021)

Posted on November 16, 2023November 16, 2023 by fenrisfil

Back in the 1980’s, every teenager and young adult in the UK knew the term “Video Nasty”. We were into a period of boom for the horror industry and specifically for low budget direct to video horror. Producers like Charles Band would be pumping out two horrors a year (One for theatres and one direct to video). Italians were actively making films for international audience and video stores paid very little attention to certifications (I know this first hand, I wasn’t 18 until 1994 and I watched it all in the 80’s). Unsurprisingly there was a moral backlash to this which got big media attention. As a result a number of movies got banned in the UK and even today those UK release VHS tapes are incredibly valuable. Because they were band obviously we deliberately sought them out. It became a point of pride to have watched a “Video Nasty”.

Anyway horror film Censorship became a big issue in the UK. Largely down to campaigner Mary Whitehouse and the MVLA. But there were those that realised this was a huge marketing boost for people peddling anything that pushes the boundaries. Whitehouse and friends became an unwitting marketing tool. The result was more such content got created and it fed back into the boom. So much for censorship huh? Anyway, the independent British movie “Censor” from 2021 plays off that entire scene. This is from upcoming writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond and appears to be based off a short film she made a few years earlier called “Nasty” (At least the synopsis sounds really similar). It stars Niamh Algar (Raised by Wolves).

The Mary Whitehouse Experience

Enid (Algar) is a film censor that takes her job very seriously. She wants to protect people, and this stems from some childhood trauma where her sister disappeared, presumably being abducted. No one ever solved the case. While her parents have taken the move to have her declared legally dead, Enid is unwilling to move on. After being shaken up by having one of the movies she approved accused of inspiring a real life murderer she is asked to look at a film from a particular notorious movie director. In the film one of the actresses looks really familiar to her and she starts to wonder if this is her missing sister.

This sets Enid off on a mission to find out about the director and see this woman for herself. She starts to believe her sister is in genuine peril from these people and it’s down to her to save her. But is everything what it appears to be? Has a career doing nothing but watching the most violent of movies for the greater good damaged her? Eventually she finds her way to the movie set where they are recording the sequel to the film she saw earlier. Mistaken for an actress she is thrust right into the center of the action.

Video Nasties

The biggest problem with Censor stems from it being a feature length extension of a 15 minute short. This is something I’ve noticed a lot in similar films. The truth is what it takes to come up with a cool 15 minute horror isn’t necessarily enough for a feature length movie. Despite not being especially long, Censor really feels like it doesn’t have much to say. We have the basic idea of the video nasties and a damaged mind unable to separate reality from fiction and… that’s it. That’s the movie. You can tell this is a story that could have just as effectively been told over 15 minutes. It’s a problem with a lot of modern horrors. Writer/Directors go in with one good idea and just try and stretch that out.

As far as the sort-of tribute to video nasties goes, it’s a little shallow. There were some aspects of it I appreciated, such as how Enid’s rampage is shown to us in a similar fashion to the movies she was watching earlier. But this isn’t a clever meta film like Scream was to slashers. It uses the British backlash and censorship of these movies as a backdrop but doesn’t really go much deeper. There are is a sort of minor plot thread involving a murder that is thought to have been inspired by a video nasty that Enid had cleared, but that is somewhat detached from the main plot. Eventually it transpires the killer never even saw the film. Of course Enid has seen all those films, so it’s left unclear where the film stands on the topic. Indeed, it feels like the film doesn’t really care to examine it that closely.

VHS Nostalgia

I do appreciate that they went to the effort to make the film itself look like it was filmed in the 80’s and that part of the production is well done. The flickering of what looks like bad VHS tapes done for atmospheric and stylistic reasons and work well in both regards. This isn’t the most original concept and 80’s nostalgia is the most cliched nostalgia, but for me it’s a positive. That aside the film doesn’t really provide much in the way of memorable visuals and perhaps it could have done with making some visual references to more famous 80’s horrors. The soundtrack is pretty forgettable too and feels like a missed opportunity. A “Goblin” or Fabio Frizzi style soundtrack could have really elevated this movie.

There are some things I liked about the movie, mostly in the final act. Although the twist is obvious in coming, I liked the way it is presented. Really this sequence is the highlight of the movie and remains good right up to the credits. I also liked the ending of the scene where Enid accidentally kills the horror producer. The scene itself was nothing special and missed a lot of opportunities to demonstrate Enid’s bad mental state, but her polite exit after the incident was a good way to show her shattered mind. That is basically the signal point for the final act which is in all very solid. The trouble is the first two acts to get there are not at all interesting or compelling. Niamh Algar however puts in a very impressive performance as Enid and that certainly helps elevate that finale act.

Eject

This is a conceptually good, but mostly below average horror with a strong final act that narrowly falls short of redeeming the movie. The trouble is while the concept is interesting, far too little is done with it. Ultimately the entire film is just designed to get us to the ending and little interesting or worthwhile is provided along the way. It would however have made a great Creepshow episode. It’s not a complete waste of time though and British fans of 80’s horror will likely enjoy the references to some extent. Censor falls just short of “Good” and levels off slightly above average at 5.5/10

2021 Year in Review – Part 3 : The Top Ten

Posted on December 31, 2021January 1, 2022 by fenrisfil

So as 2021 draws to a close I want to leave the year on a positive note by listing off my ten favourite films of the year. These are all personal favourites and as such this is an entirely subjective list. So let’s kick it off from ten to one:

10. Willy’s Wonderland

So let’s start with my favourite cult movie of the year. This is a fun, low budget horror staring Nicholas Cage in a roll that you would probably never think he would be right for… but the thing with Nick Cage is those often turn out to be his best roles. This is no exception as he brings a sort of overly calm autism to the silent, deadly protagonist. Not a word passes his lips for the entire movie as he turns the tables on his wood be executors, the possessed animatronic monstrosities at “Willy’s Wonderland”, a family entertainment centre. That base concept is not in itself original, basically being a “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie and also similar to the “Banana Splits” movie that came out 2019 that fused the Five Nights concept onto a previously non-horror franchise. What makes this movie unique though is Nicholas Cages character, who proves more dangerous than the evil that has possessed the place. I would love to see more of this mute drifter in a sequel. No need to bring back the animatronics though.

On a side note apparently a Five Nights at Freddy’s film is in the works. One wonders how many more rip offs it will have before they actually get the movie out.

9. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

If you have read my review this one you will know I consider it a long way from perfect and yet in it’s simplicity it does manage to entertain. Eddie Brock returns in this film and he and Venom are struggling to find equilibrium in their relationship. But they must learn to get on in a hurry to deal with the threat of the Carnage Symbiote that spawned from Venom and has bonded with serial killer Cletus Cassidy. The final conflict is a solid action spectacle, while the rest of the movie is effectively a buddy cop comedy. It is short and does little different to the original movie but the fact is if you enjoyed that one, you will likely enjoy this.

8. Wrath of Man

While this is very much as Jason Statham film, it is one of his better ones. It’s also classic Guy Ritchie, but it has to be said it isn’t the best for either star or director. It’s just a solid action/thriller that delivers pretty much everything you would expect from the pair. Statham plays “H”, a cold mysterious character that clearly has some kind of hidden agenda working at armoured cash truck company responsible for delivering hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week. In classic Guy Ritchie fashion the story intertwines criminal masterminds with each other to see who comes out on top. One of the things I always appreciate with Ritchie is his villains usually aren’t incompetent and so the protagonists need to be either very smart or very lucky to get the upper hand.

7. Pig

Yes it turns out Nicholas Cage made two of my favourite movies this yeah, who could guess? This is a really interesting story that never really goes where you would expect it. This is a story of one man’s attempt to find his prize truffle hunting pig after it is stolen by a pair of drug addicts on behalf of a mysterious third party. On it’s surface it looks like this will be a John Wick type story only with a Pig replacing John’s Dog. That’s not the case, or at least if it is it’s only true if John instead of being a highly skilled master assassin was instead a highly skilled master chef. While the movie presents a bit of action it is really a much more personal story and once again Cage presents one of the more interesting characters of the year. This is one of those films where an mysterious eccentric ends up teaching others life lessons, but it’s more than that as the eccentric himself has his own journey to go on. I highly recommend this unusual movie.

6. Free Guy

This was a movie that from the first trailer I could tell two things: It would be incredibly stupid and; It would be incredibly fun. The final product delivered exactly what the trailer promised. Not much in this movie makes sense when you think about it for more than five minutes, but it really doesn’t matter because the movie packs in so much pure unadulterated fun that you can forgive pretty much any other failing. Ryan Reynolds of course is someone that plays variations of the same character (himself) in every movie, but this is him at the maximum level of Ryan Reynolds you are likely to find him outside of a Deadpool movie. On top of that the movie itself provides a lot of fun for anyone that has ever played Grand Theft Auto or it’s sequels/rip-offs and a good number of other references in between, including some that clearly must have been added after a certain studio purchased another studio as those rights wouldn’t have been available before. Ultimately it great time for anyone that doesn’t exclusively watch Oscar nominated dramas.

5. The Suicide Squad

James Gunn provided one of the most heart felt and fun movies of the year. Yes the plot is complete nonsense, yes Harley Quinn was the weak link this time around, but the other characters were on point both in personality and interaction. Indeed this movie had some of the best character work of the entire year, which is pretty impressive for one of the silliest movies of the year. Then again that is exactly what Gunn does. Say what you like about the man personally, but as a director of comic book movies he is perhaps the perfect director combining the kind of character interaction and banter that Joss Whedon is known for with the knowledge, love and dedication to the source material of someone like Sam Raimi.

I think it always says something about a movie when a character you didn’t think you would like ends up your favourite and that is absolutely the case for me with The Suicide Squad and “Ratcatcher 2”. But she’s not alone, Idris Elba proved his “Bloodsport” to be far superior to Will Smith’s “Deadshot” while John Cena’s deadpan comedic delivery proved perfect for such a ludicrous character as Peacemaker and it seems was so impressive in the role he now has a spin off in the works. The humour won’t land for everyone but as I said it is also a movie full of heart and I think most people will appreciate the character work.

4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Of course if we are talking heart, there was no movie this year that displayed more of it than Ghostbusters: Afterlife and having already shared my full review I won’t go into too much detail here. This was a resurrection of a franchise that many people thought dead, a love letter to the original movie and perhaps most importantly an apology to all the fans that were insulted and belittled after the disastrous 2016 movie by the shill media, actors on that film and even the director himself. It made that apology though while not compromising their mission to make Ghostbusters as accessible a franchise as possible, providing a diverse cast and a female lead that everyone (except those still making excuses for “Answer the Call”) can actually get behind.

The story keeps itself simple and on the surface appears merely a rehash of the original movie, but underneath that it is actually a very personal story where the main character is Egon Spengler. Quite a feat considering that character dies early in the movie and Harold Ramis, his actor died years ago before this movie even began production. Eventually the movie provides the reunion of the original team that everyone was waiting for and gives them a final moment to shine and remind the fans why the original was so good in the first place. If you feel nothing after the end of this movie, I worry for you.

3. Dune

I had a lot of doubts going in as to whether Denis Villeneuve and 2021 could deliver a good Dune movie. I knew it would look fantastic, but after seeing “Blade Runner 2049” I had my doubts on the rest o fit. That movie failed to do justice to the characters, story or themes of the original movie, though it did certainly look the part. I did recognise however that unlike with 2049, Villeneuve would be grounded here by the quality and extent of the source material. Fans of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction series have been waiting a long time for someone to do justice to that series on screen, The first attempt was David Lynch’s 1984 movie that proved heavily divisive amongst Dune fans and the audience in general. For my part I quite liked it, though it was also my first introduction to the franchise having not read the novels. This was followed in the 90’s by a couple of low budget TV shows on Sci-Fi that were actually pretty good too, but suffered from bad 90’s CGI and have dated horrendously.

This new take on the story finds itself in a approach that takes the best from the previous two. Like the TV series, it doesn’t rush to tell the story and of course this is why the movie barely covers a third of that first book, but like the previous movie the acting is top notch and the movie looks and sounds great. I will provide a full review of this in the new year but for now the important thing to note is the movie is epic and compelling, despite the slow pace and long running time. It doesn’t feel like a movie that has taken two and a half hours to tell a third of a story, and while the movies sudden end (and cheesy closing line) leave you fully aware of how little of the story has been told, it also leaves you eagerly anticipating the stories continuation. Definitely a job well done.

2. Spider-Man: No Way Home

If you’ve read my review of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” probably the only thing that shocks you here is that it is not at number one. Yes I absolutely loved this movie, but it’s not perfect and it is ultimately yet another franchise movie, indeed it is two franchise movies the MCU and Spider-Man, the two biggest franchises in the superhero business. It’s success was always guaranteed, though few predicted it would be as successful as it has been. It’s also not a movie free from flaws, but let’s not focus on the negatives here. The truth is this is another redemption story and not just the story of one redemption but multiple ones. It redeems villains, it redeems heroes and redeems entire sub-franchises. By the end of the movie Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is closer to the comic book version than he has ever been and through this I came to realise that this entire trilogy of movies has actually been an origin story. I’m still not sure if that is good or bad, but it certainly leaves a sense of satisfaction.

Like the Infinity Saga before it, this is more than just a movie, it is a huge cinematic event and the culmination of 8 movies and three separate franchises. It does something that has never been done before in the history of cinema and it does it in a way that will leave most people very happy indeed. The only problem is this is something that only really works once. It may have breathed life into a flagging MCU but now they need to course correct with the rest of the franchise.

1. Nobody

What do you get if you take the writers of the best current action franchise, “John Wick”, pair him with the director of breakout cult classic and first person action movie “Hardcore Henry” and ask them to provide an action movie debut to Bob Odenkirk (Of Breaking Bad fame)? Well, what you get is my movie of the year and one of the best action movies I’ve seen for years. Throw in a touch of RZA and Christopher Lloyd as a bonus and you have a real classic on your hands. This is a masterpiece of an action movie, hiding it’s explosive nature under the surface much as it’s protagonist hides his own past and capabilities under the guise of a family man with a boring job. The action sets off from a chain of events beginning with a badly planned home invasion of Odenkirk’s house, which leads to a confrontation with strangers on the subway and the wrath of a local mob boss.

The movie achieves a rare thing and works both on the level of a tense thriller and when it fully ramps up the action outperforms some of the most outrageous over the top action films of recent years. The pacing of the story is perfect easing you in to the gradual increases in intensity and unlike many modern action films you can actually follow every bit of action clearly. It is like the best 80’s action hero meets the best 90’s action stunts and applies the polish of the best 2000’s action CGI fest. If you’ve not seen this one yet you owe it to yourself to check it out and unlike most of the top picks this year, this is an original movie and not part of any pre-established franchise. Top marks all round.

So that is my top movies of this year. I hope you enjoyed my choices, feel free to agree, disagree or share your own in the comments. Happy New Year to you all and see you in 2022.

2021 Year in Review – Part 2 : The Big Breakdown

Posted on December 30, 2021December 30, 2021 by fenrisfil

2021 has been an erratic year in the theatres with a number of movies bombing hard, delayed releases having too much ground to make up to break even and a few movies completely bucking the trend and making us all wonder if the box office failures were due to Covid at all. After all movies have bombed in the past, maybe there were marketing failures, maybe the trailers were bad, maybe there just wasn’t any demand for what was being put out, maybe the movies were just not very good! Let’s take a look!

Dramatic Failure.

It seems one of the biggest hit movie genres of the year is the Drama. These movies tend to have lower budgets (hovering around the 20-30 million dollars), but this year they have struggled to draw much at the box office. Many of these movies have been sent simultaneously to streaming, others attempted stay exclusive to theatres. Neither approach really turned out a winner. For example Clint Eastwood’s Neo-Western Drama “Cry Macho” released to streaming and in theatres and only pulled in $14.7m in global gross against it’s $33m production budget. That already looks bad but when you take into account P&A (Prints and Advertising) costs and the fact that they only get a portion of that gross the movie ends up as quite a bomb, at least on paper.

Another release, the long anticipated Soprano’s prequel “The Many Saints of Newark” went simultaneously to HBO Max and theatres and clawed in a mere $12.7m global gross against it’s hefty $50m budget. It seems the movie wasn’t as anticipated as perhaps the studios thought. Reaction to the movie has been mixed too between Soprano fans, but this hasn’t stopped rumour of a spin off series set between this movie and the original show.

Theatrical Exclusivity.

It is hard to determine how much of that is offset by benefit of the movie being on streaming. What we can do is make a comparison to other drama movies that did not hit streaming simultaneously. For example Ben Affleck’s crime drama “Stillwater” was exclusive to theatres and drew in $17.3m against it’s $20m budget. On the surface that looks better, but it is still a bomb and one with no benefit to streaming partners. Similarly, historical drama “Spencer” also had an exclusive theatrical release and that drew only $12.2m global gross against its $18m budget making for yet another flop.

Things didn’t go so well for Ridley Scott this year either with two movies released exclusively to theatres. His second, “House of Gucci” actually did well drawing in $111.5m but with a production budget of $75m it is still currently sitting at a loss. Scott’s first movie of the year however “The Last Duel” only brought in $30m worldwide on a whopping $100m production budget making it one of the bigger bombs of the year. That one I largely blame on poor marketing, but it is also worth noting that putting a blockbuster size budget on what was effectively a modern day version of experimental Japanese movie “Rashomon” (1950) was probably not that wise in the first place. Not that most people even knew this is what the movie was going in thanks to that marketing.

The Horror! The Horror!

One of the genres that seems perfectly suited to 2021 is the Horror movie, after all when the audience is afraid just going to the cinema, the horror movies job is done before the projector even starts. Which may explain why so many mediocre to bad horrors managed to make themselves some cash at the box office this year. Even the dreadful “Candyman” remake managed to claw itself into marginal profit. Not all horrors made a killing this year though.

One notable exception is “Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City”. This new reboot to the Resident Evil franchise attempted to tell the story of the first two games in compressed forms but hasn’t impressed most fans with comments complaining about changes to the characters and CGI that is little better than the graphics of those original games. The movie achieved a mere $31m global gross against it’s $25m budget. Those numbers seem pretty close but when you factor in P&A, the movie likely needed to reach $60m to draw even, leaving this another of 2021’s bombs.

Another of this years box office failures in the horror field is Edgar Wrights “Last Night in Soho”, which was one of my personal disappointments of this years cinema. The movie landed $23m worldwide gross against $43m budget marking it down as a real clanger. It’s worth noting that while “The Last Duel” was effectively (and confusingly) marketed as “Me Too – The Movie”, that would have been a fairer assessment of this movie. Both films failed, so perhaps cinemagoers are just tired of these kinds of themes in their movies. Like Racoon City though this was not a traditional horror film. So how well have they faired?

Fear Markets Itself.

The big winner of the horror box office this year was “The Quiet Place: Part II”, sequel to the breakout hit of 2018. After the success of the low budget original the sequel was guaranteed a larger budget and ended up around the $55m mark. The movie was also likely to have a lower box office than it’s predecessor, further reducing the profit. However, despite that the movie drew in $296.7m globally meaning this movie is well in profit and unsurprisingly a third movie has already been announced.

Also well into profit is the long awaited third part of the Conjuring Franchise. Many fans, including myself wondered if they would ever get back to the main series after making so many spin offs, but they did and the result was… mediocre. However the box office was not, landing $200m globally against it’s modest $39m budget. Another very healthy profit and it seems even though the Conjuring shared universe has more misses than hits as far as quality is concerned, as a franchise it is as strong as ever.

The last big winner was also one of the most disappointing movies of the year and that is “Halloween: Kills”. Where the movie did not disappoint was it’s box office scoring $130m against a $40m production budget. With a heavy sway towards domestic over international that has allowed for around about $40-50m in net profit. That is pretty healthy but it should be noted it is significantly short of the heavily hyped franchises return in 2018 which landed about double. Perhaps that is due to covid, perhaps it is because the previous instalment proved divisive amongst the fanbase or it could be because word of mouth on this one was frankly dreadful. Still, with about $70m net profit I doubt the producers are crying themselves to sleep. Halloween Ends is out next year and we will see if they can stick the landing on this trilogy.

But what about the Blockbusters?

Ultimately outside of “The Last Duel” none of the movies we’ve mentioned so far were that big of a gamble. Even the flops may yet justify their existence through streaming, physical media release and studio prestige. The Blockbusters however are a different matter. These movies often cost over $300m (including P&A) and can have break even points well above $500m. The most extreme example of this in 2021 being “No Time to Die” which had a reported break even point of $900m. It’s impossible to say if it was truly that high, but with multiple aborted releases wasting advertising money, the need to reshoot due to outdated product placement and the interest charges on the funds borrowed to make the movie those costs just kept going up, until we reached the point where the movie was looking like it may actually bankrupt Eon Productions.

That didn’t happen though because by a minor miracle the movie managed to score 770.9m global box office. Turns out despite the long delay, people still really like James Bond (Which makes the movies ending somewhat unfortunate). Perhaps unsurprisingly, $128m of that box office was from the UK. It’s worth noting though that if the report was true, the movie is still losing $130m. That’s bad, but Eon Productions lives to fight another day. Distribution company MGM however did end up selling to Amazon. We will have to see how this impacts Bond in the future. Word is though that Eon and Amazon are already at loggerheads.

A Woman Scorned.

For many blockbusters this year the story wasn’t about disaster but just underperformance and the various excuses for that disappointing box office. Many of these films found their way on to streaming alongside their theatrical release and much like with the drama’s it is difficult to judge just how much of an impact this had on the box office.

Black Widow was out early in the year and brought in $375m. For a lot of movies that would be a win, but for a $200m Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that was only two movies removed from the two billion box office of “Avengers: End Game”. It’s also worth noting that this is another movie that had aborted release dates rapidly raising the break even point. Measured on theatrical performances alone this movie is a bomb, losing Disney about $100-150m. However Disney claim the movie also made $125m on Disney+ through it’s premium access (meaning subscribers had to pay an additional fee to watch). That drags the movie to around it’s break even point, most likely still making a loss. We may never know the real story, but what we do know is that Scarlett Johansen was unhappy enough to sue Disney over the result. The case was settled out of court and ScarJo is down to work with Disney again for their movie adaptation of their “Tower of Terror” ride (Yes, that is a thing that is happening), so it seems there were no hard feelings.

The Grey Area.

Also released early in the year Ryan Reynolds vehicle “Free Guy”, was predicted to be a bomb but actually proved to have incredibly strong legs through word of mouth and just about managed to draw even. Bringing in $323.6m global against $100-125m budget. The movie was sent to streaming 45 days after it’s theatrical release, which proved to be a winning tactic (and something Warner Brothers are implementing for all movies next year). As an early release the movie was likely more impacted by Covid and it seems the IP’s new owners at Disney (The movie started production prior to the Fox deal) are very happy with it. Expect a sequel.

Another big budget question mark this year is “Godzilla Vs Kong”, which released simultaneously to streaming and managed to bring in $467.7m in worldwide gross. The budget is estimated at between $155m and $200m which means the movie likely made money, but it’s worth noting if that budget is at the maximum of that range then it probably has a small loss instead. However I’d still call this a win considering it was also on streaming and came in ahead of three MCU movies (Two of which were theatrical exclusives). Meanwhile Disney’s villain turned anti-hero movie “Cruella” landed a $228.6m box office against it’s $100m production budget. Not a bomb, but definitely a disappointment for Disney.

The Triumph Of Mediocracy.

Perhaps the most hotly debated win or loss of the year was “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” which clocked up 417.9m globally against it’s $150m-$200m budget. That left it’s end result somewhere from a $5m loss to a $70m profit and without the excuse of being on streaming simultaneously. On the domestic side it landed in between “Ant Man and the Wasp” and “Doctor Strange” with not much in it (Though Shang Chi opened in more theatres than either), but globally it fell quite a way short of either of those landing even below the original “Ant Man” movie’s draw of $518.9m. Reaction to the movie has at least been mostly positive from the public, the media proclaimed it as a triumph and Disney have already greenlit a sequel, but it is clear that Shang-Chi is not going to be a major draw for the MCU moving forward.

Speaking of worse, it is time to mention “The Eternals”. Undoubtedly the most ill advised movie the MCU has put out so far. Taking a team of drama writers with no genre experience, pairing them with an indie movie director obsessed with scenery and giving them $200m to turn a virtually unknown Jack Kirby creation into a blockbuster superhero movie may have seemed like a good idea in a boardroom at one point, probably only if a large quantity of white powder was involved or possibly some LSD. To make matters worse they marketed the movie by simultaneously calling it a “Love letter to Kirby” while also celebrating the many, many changes they made to the characters and general look of the film. Kirby was of course an artist, so taking his work and totally changing the look of it is more like hate mail than a love letter. Of course most MCU fans don’t even know who Jack Kirby was, so this isn’t the reason for the movies failure.

Epic Fail!

It’s worth noting that “Eternals” was put into production just after Warner/DC announced “The New Gods”, which was basically the better known DC version of the same thing. This led to many to speculate that the movie only existed as a counter to the moves by DC. It is perhaps amusing to note then that Warner eventually scrapped “The New Gods”. The Eternals ended up with just under $400m domestic against it’s huge $200m budget and hefty marketing costs and is looking to be the MCU’s first confirmed bomb. There is still a possibility of it drawing even but with fans and critics both turning their nose up at this one it seems unlikely and we’ll probably not see much more of this team in the future.

This was far from Disney’s worst performing movie of the year though. Competing for that title are the theme park ride turned movie “Jungle Cruise” and animated feature “Encanto”. The latter drew in $194.3m against a $120m-150m production budget and looks to lose the studio from $50m-100m. Jungle Cruise though wins the prize as the Dwayne Johnson vehicle crawled to a $210.4m global against it’s $200m budget and looking set to lose the studio a whopping $150m. You would be forgiven for thinking that was the biggest bomb of the year, but from the looks of things, that prize is instead going to go to the Matrix 4, a sequel no one asked for by a director/writer that it seems didn’t want to make it (At least going by the self referential lines in the movie). That is currently sitting at a $66m box office against it’s $175m production budget and looks like it may lose the studio around $200m. Of course the movie may have legs and surprise people but as it is available on streaming and generally considered a terrible movie that seems unlikely.

Actual Triumph!

By this point you may be starting to wonder if the age of the blockbuster is over and if studios can rake in the kind of profits that they have in the past. Well wonder no more because here comes Sony with what may be their most successful year in decades, even in the face of pandemic. It’s worth noting that Sony do not have a streaming service and so did not send any of their movies simultaneously to streaming. First up for Sony was Venom sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”, which not only did well in a period where people were making constant excuses for underperformance but actually matched the domestic take of the previous non-pandemic era movie in the franchise. Racking up $501m against it’s $110m production budget it is looking set to make a net profit of around $200m for Sony. The movie itself was entertaining but not spectacular, but clearly Venom is still a popular character and frankly anything that is a part of the Spider-Brand is a safe bet these days.

A closer run thing for Sony was their attempt to repair the Ghostbusters franchise from the damaged done by the disastrous “Ghostbusters; Answer the Call” film of 2016. Keeping things simple, returning to it’s roots and offering up very well done fan service turned out to be a winning formula but fans would need a lot of convincing to give the movie a chance. Sadly every franchise movie is deeply impacted by the one before it, which mean this movie was always really going to be about fixing things than profit, so a win here is basically not losing money and getting a positive reception and the movie achieved both. Bringing in $177.5m may not sound that great but with $121.2m of that domestic and a production budget of only $75m that is enough to push the movie in to the black and make around $18m in profit. Whether the next movie in the franchise can draw serious money now that the fans are happy again remains to be seen, but overall I’d mark this down as a win.

The Other Half Of The Story

A similar win comes in the form of “Dune”, a movie that was always a big question mark. While Frank Herbert’s epic series of novels are well known to hardcore science fiction fans, to the general audience it probably seemed like a drier, less exciting rip off of Star Wars (Ironically the Star Wars was heavily inspired by Dune, but most theatre goers don’t know this). To make things more challenging the movie is only part of the story of the first book and the studio were not willing to commit to filming part two simultaneously, which meant they had to convince the audience to go and watch half a movie, without an guarantee to ever complete the story. On top of this, the movie was pushed out to streaming simultaneously with the theatrical release. Odds were against the movie and many people, including myself felt the production was doomed. It doesn’t help that director Denis Villeneuve is pretty divisive as a director with as many people hating his previous movie, “Blade Runner 2049” as loving it and that movie failing to draw even at the box office.

However despite all that, positive word of mouth and some solid trailers stirred up the audience and the movie ended up bringing in a respectable $394.6m globally against it’s $165m production budget. That pushed the movie over the finishing line and fortunately it has now been greenlit for the second part. It’s hard to say at this stage whether the franchise will expand as much as was originally intended (With multiple movies and TV shows pencilled in) but at the very least we should see the completion of the first novel and I will be eagerly looking forward to it’s 2023 release date.

Another success story of the year was “F9: The Fast Saga”, despite being openly mocked for how ridiculous the movie was it did draw in a very strong box office of $721.3m and though most of that was international (meaning a smaller cut for the studio) it still generated a healthy profit against the movies $200m-$225m budget. The overall negative reaction though may leave the next movie in a difficult situation. Not that there are really any more sharks for this franchise to jump, but maybe they’ll introduce time travel and have the team race dinosaurs or something.

And the Winner Is…

While Sony did well with Venom and Ghostbusters this year, we can’t really talk about the company without mentioning the complete obliteration of the box office this year that happened at the hands of our friendly neighbourhood web crawler. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” delivered on all it promised and more and absolutely smashed the box office with a run that may yet see it hit the $2 billion mark or at least fall not too short of it. Currently sitting at $1.2b globally after only two weeks and with many global markets still to open the sky is the limit for Peter Parker and Sony. Disney get a big chunk of this profit too thanks to their deal with Sony (and more importantly for them they get 100% of the merchandise sales), but both companies have no doubt noted that this movie has outperformed the previous three MCU movies combined box office and done it just as the new Covid variant is tearing through the world. Indeed some global markets are completely shut down right now and yet this movie is making “End Game” numbers.

While financially that is great for Sony and Disney it must leave Marvel questioning just why the rest of this years output performed so weakly by comparison. The truth to that is most likely just that Black Widow was too little too late, finally giving a movie to one of the original Avengers after that character has been killed on screen. That Shang-Chi, despite the film itself is a D List character that people that don’t read the comics likely never heard of before and the Eternals are obscure characters even for those that do regularly read comics and simply had the wrong people writing and directing it. With characters that obscure you really need someone like James Gunn that can bring out the personalities and make the relatable. It’s pretty clear moving forward that Marvel needs to get some big guns out to make up for the loss of so many of the original team. That means getting The Fantastic Four out and figuring out what to do with the X-Men. They also need to cling on to Spidey like their lives depend on it! Sony meanwhile are laughing all the way to the bank.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Posted on November 19, 2021November 21, 2021 by fenrisfil

Tonight I finally got to see the long anticipated “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (2021). This is the official Ghostbusters 3, perhaps far too late to be a legitimate sequel, so instead it’s effectively a torch passing which is what they should have done last time out when they made that ill advised remake. Unfortunately a lot of critics that supported that movie have been extra salty about this new one, while the average movie goer probably just remember the last movie was terrible and as such are likely cautious about going to see this. My theatre was not even half full for the 8pm showing on it’s opening Thursday. But I’m not here to talk box office, I’m here to talk quality so lets dig in!

In with the New.

So the first thing to note here is there are basically four new Ghostbusters to presumably be the long term replacements for the original. It’s pretty clear that unlike the 2016 movie that basically just gender swapped the original team of four guys they set up to be as diverse as possible here. The team has two boys and two girls and includes one Black and one Asian character. Unfortunately those two seem to be modern Hollywood stereotypes because they are painfully similar to Michelle and Ned from the MCU Spider-Man films. They are more endearing than those characters at least and “Podcast”, the Asian boy is actually one of the highlights of the film.

Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard play Egon Spenglers grandkids, Phoebe and Trevor and Pheobe is basically the movies protagonist. She is a young female Egon, but they tried to give her a bit of uniqueness by having her make really bad jokes, which does mostly work. McKenna is actually brilliant here but I think the film spends a bit too much time focused on her because the truth is Egon is not the Ghostbuster you want as your lead, but perhaps more importantly it leaves Trevor feeling undeveloped and as a knock on effect from that his love interest “Lucky” (Celeste O’Connor), gets the short straw on screen time and development, which is ironic consider she is basically the Black Ghostbuster.

Out with the Old.

The movie feels a lot smaller scale than the original Ghostbusters or even it’s sequel, but while this change in tone does make the movie feel more like a reboot than a sequel it does work for the movie itself. This is ultimately a more emotional movie and isn’t really about the ghost story but about the characters and the legacy of the original. As such the plot is very thin on the ground and basically “Gozer came back somehow”, the movie also feels a bit too long if you watch it right after the original movies (as I did) and slows down a lot in the middle. The first very long act of the movie basically involves the kids discovering their grandfathers legacy. The second act is basically where the plot resides along with a bit of ghost action. There’s a completely pointless appearance by Ivo Shandor (architect of the building from the first film), which I would say was a spoiler except he does literally nothing. This leads us to our big finale and this is where the movie finally reaches it’s potential.

I don’t want to drop too much about the final act and just how the original team become involved but suffice to say I found the ending very satisfactory and emotional. The original team are respected and every character basically gets their moment. My only real criticism is this act is by far the shortest, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality.

A love letter to the original.

There are many call backs to the original movie, but unlike when these appeared in the 2016 disaster, this time around they fit smoothly into the story, don’t mess with the pacing and each one landed well with me and everyone else in the theatre. When the original crew appear they are all respected and despite their short time on the screen every one of them gets some character development and at least a good line or reference. It is safe to say what their appearances lack in quantity they make up for in quality. They also get to be the focus of the mid/post credits scenes that you really have to stay for. It’s worth noting that Ernie Hudson has somehow managed to avoid aging. The guy almost looks like he did in Ghostbusters 2. Speaking of the original sequel, it’s interesting to note that the movie makes no references (that I noticed) to that movie specifically, which is a shame but I guess it’s understandable given a lot of people seem to dislike that movie.

The biggest surprise of the movie is just how much character development Egon gets, despite both the actor and the character being dead. This really is his story and the movie is focused on his legacy both from his life’s work and his family. It is ultimately a very moving tribute to a well loved character and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few tears are shed by the end. Ultimately this movie while not the near perfection of the original, achieved everything the 2016 movie failed at. It is a very respectful and entertaining return for the franchise.