Tuesday 27 February 2018

Annihilation Spoiler Free Review





Hey everybody, we are back and we are once again talking sci-fi! We are going to talk about a movie that as soon as it hit my radar, I was really excited for. I of course mean Annihilation, a movie based on a novel of the same name which was the first of a trilogy of books. So, without further ado, let’s have a look at the movie. As usual, no spoilers.

I’ll be honest, I had high hopes for this movie. After seeing the first trailer, I was totally on board and it was another one of my more anticipated movies for the year. It’s unfortunate that much of the world won’t get to see it the way I did. I’m lucky that I’m one of the countries in which this film was released in theaters, the others being the U.S and China. The rest of the world will get to see it on March 12th when it premieres on Netflix. Why is that? Because some financier thought the movie was ‘too intellectual’ and ‘too complicated’ and when director Alex Garland and producer Scott Rudin  refused to change it (and thankfully Rudin had final cut, aka final say), they apparently got cold feet. So, they shuffled it into fewer theaters than usual in three countries right between Black Panther and A Wrinkle in Time, ie, basically setting it up to fail. There's a good video explaining all of this HERE. To the rest of the world, I’m sorry studio interference means you won’t get to see Annihilation on the big screen. I really am, because it’s a damn shame. This was everything and more than I’d hoped for from The Cloverfield Paradox. This was the high-brow, smart, hard-sci-fi movie that I’ve wanted more of since Arrival.

Let’s start with the cast, because they are amazing. We have Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Benedict Wong… and that’s just a start. One of the changes I’d read they wanted to make to this movie was to make Natalie Portman’s character ‘more sympathetic’. Why? Heaven forbid a female character should be flawed. In fact, I’d rather see characters like this that are imperfect. I really loved the fact that the team we get to see go into this mysterious ‘shimmer’ is all women from STEM backgrounds. I love seeing us ladies get right in on the action in these kinds of films. And it isn’t just Portman’s Lena that gets to be flawed and human, all of the women get to have their own reasons and own reactions to going into the shimmer and what happens inside. It’s not overdone and we’re bogged down with exposition, but it’s enough to know who and where the character’s at and give them some, well… character

Just had to put this one in because my kid thought it made them look like Ghostbusters.
 
I want to leave story till last so I want to go over visuals and sound next. There is only one word for both: stunning. The music for the most part follows a theme or genre for much of the movie, and adds to the tone really well. In the climax of the film the music changes, and it really accentuates the story, and might even be a greater part of it than you first think, depending on your interpretation. When I say it changes, it keeps the underlying tone from earlier, and one-eighty’s everything on top of that into something completely different. It’s jarring, and it’s supposed to be, but it was also fascinating. I’m actually listening to the score right now as I write this, and it’s just as haunting and beautiful by itself. The visuals on the other hand, spectacular throughout. There’s no way to describe how beautiful this film is. Even when things are dark or violent or just plain macabre, it’s just visually astounding. Even watching the end credits is gorgeous. The camera work is fantastic, too. Just… the way it shots were framed, and the way light and shadow were used, the big, sweeping shots, and the up close, personal ones, it was all done so well. I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to spoil anything about it. 

So let’s do it, let’s talk about the story. Getting it out of the way, yes there are some horror elements in the story. Not enough to overtake the science fiction aspect, but enough to keep you on your toes in places. But it’s smart, it makes you think, it leaves you with questions and things you have to interpret for yourself. It doesn’t explain everything, and it doesn’t need to. That’s one of the great things that sci-fi does, leave ambiguities for the audience to draw their own conclusions. And I’m so glad they didn’t change the ending, because I can come up with some theories on how they would’ve done so to make it ‘less complicated’, and they all would’ve been awful or undermined the whole thing but making it too neatly wrapped up. There was a different ending originally written for the script, apparently, and I'm sorry, I don't like it at all. It does those things I just talked about above, plus one other thing that sounded really sequel-baity (warning, spoilers in the article). I really do want to talk about the story, but at the same time the less you know going in, the better. That way you can form you opinion as you go and not have anything preconceived going in. There are elements that remind you of other sci-fi properties, but not in a glaring or heavy handed way. Like, there’s one scene that just visually, is very Alien-esque, but doesn't feel derivative. My other half got a Predator vibe in places, while I leaned tended to lean towards more of a The War Against the Chtorr feeling. 

aka, some of my favorite books ever


If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen enough. Don’t spoil it for yourself. 

In conclusion? This was an excellent movie. I didn’t really have any problems with it and in fact I was totally on board with it all the way. If you live in one of the countries in which it has a theatrical run, I implore you to go see it. Don’t wait for Netflix. If you have to wait for Netflix, watch it as soon as you can. This movie deserves to be seen, and by as many people as possible. Whenever/If it gets a blu-ray release, I will be buying it, no questions asked. If there is any way to support this movie, do so. It really is worth it. I honestly didn’t expect this much contention for top spot of my movies of 2018 list so soon, but for now, Annihilation sits in that coveted place. I think that pretty much says it all.      

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Black Panther Spoiler-Free Review





Hey guys, back again and we’re talking about Black Panther. As this really needs no introduction, let’s get right to it. No spoilers ahead.

So where do we even start? This movie was amazing. And you don’t have to take my word for it, either. It’s already smashed expectations left, right, and center and just domestically has, in four days, outgrossed the total domestic hauls of other ‘heavy hitter’ movies of the genre (and outside it). 242 million dollars over the four day weekend. This is the kind of bank reserved for only a very few movies (mainly those with lightsabers in them). It is so awesome to see Black Panther get that kind of love from audiences, because it’s a really important movie. Black writers and director and an almost entirely black cast of incredible talent. I can’t speak to how it resonates with audiences in that sense, but I can tell you that I was hoping this movie would kill it at the box office and it went past my wildest expectations. I can tell you the Black Panther hashtag on Twitter was on fire this weekend with people sharing their experiences and their feelings on the movie. It was beautiful to watch.
Okay, is there really anything I need to say about this movie? Based on box office alone, chances are everyone’s seen it already. I’ll just outline the pertinent points because writing this as a proper review just isn’t working. 

-Now when I said this cast was stacked, I meant it. The caliber of talent here is just mind-blowing and everyone brings their A-game. The two standouts have got to be Letitia Wright as T’Challa’s awesome younger sister Shuri, and Michael B. Jordan as antagonist Erik Killmonger. I also loved seeing Daniel Kaluuya in a film again and I’ll say the same thing I said after Get Out: put him in more things.

-Wakandan women are powerful and I’m all about that. I’m especially a fan of the Dora Milaje and their General Okoye (Danai Gurira). And Shuri was just this super-adorable badass genius that was amazing.  



-Great music. The score is so good, and it really gets you into the feel of the movie. I’ve tried listening to some of the soundtrackalbum as well. It’s not really my style, but it’s pretty good, too.
-Stunning visuals. Wakanda looks gorgeous. All the costumes are gorgeous. It’s just gorgeous to look at. 

-One of the better Marvel villains. MCU films always seem to fall short in the bad guy department. Killmonger is one of the exceptions. You can understand him and where he comes from, you can sympathize with him, even if the way he’s going about things is terrible. Again, Michael B. Jordan’s performance really knocked it out of the park.

-It was a hero’s journey story, but one that was grounded in some serious issues of today. And it never backed away or down from those issues and putting them out there. 

-the two token white guys. I love Andy Serkis, full stop, and Martin Freeman is almost adorably grumpy by default.
 

- The only downside? There’s maybe one. Since you’re getting the ‘hero’s journey’, or at least ‘the hero’s rise to power and cementing who they are’, I didn’t really find any part of the story surprising. It more or less went the way I expected it would. But in this case, it’s more about how the story is told than what the story is. 

-And don’t leave when the credits start. Marvel movie, right? Don’t leave until the bitter end.
So, there you have it, my thoughts on Black Panther. It’s good, it’s really, really good. If you’re one of the few that haven’t seen it yet, you should.   

Friday 16 February 2018

The Cloverfield Paradox Spoiler Review







Hey everyone we are back again with another movie review. I was originally going to talk about Superbowl trailers but one of those trailers was for The Cloverfield Paradox, called The God Particle when it was on my list of anticipated movies for 2017. And not only that, we also got a release date, it was coming out on Netflix that night after the game. And I finally got a chance to see it. So let’s see what all that waiting is for. I have tried to write this as a non-spoiler review. I really have. That’s part of the reason this is later than anticipated. But unfortunately, this is one of those movies you can’t talk about without talking about the movie. So, out of the ordinary and spoilers ahead.  









I’m not really sure where to start with this one. I’ve been sitting on writing this because I felt like I needed some time to parse through my thoughts on this. So here we are, and hopefully I can make some sense of this. Since I will be talking about specific things that happen, hopefully we can come around to some kind of conclusion once we get to the end.  

We’ll get this out of the way; The Cloverfield Paradox isn’t a bad movie, if that’s where it seemed like I was going. I’m just not sure it was a good movie. Even that seems a little harsh. There was a lot I really liked about this movie, I just had some problems with it, too. Even writing this I’m still not sure how that will affect my final verdict. But let’s get into some details. 

Let’s accentuate the positive here, to begin with. This is a really good cast. Not only is it a really good cast but the performances are all really solid. None of the problems I had with this movie had to do with the actors. Having the film on a space station, it leads to a similar dynamic as on the International Space Station in which the people there come from a variety of different backgrounds and different countries. That leads to some really fun and interesting interactions between the cast, although as I’ll talk about later, it’s something I also wish they’d really gone deeper into because there’s some amazing potential that doesn’t really get utilized. But otherwise, that aspect was one of the high points, even if we made a few Zemo jokes and at one point went ‘That’s where that guy’s from! He was the one that Jane went on a date with in Thor: The Dark World!’. 

The face you make when you find out your dating competition is Thor



The second thing I really liked was the sci-fi aspect of it. For the most part. The whole idea with the Shepard accelerator (I only made one Mass Effect joke when they said that, I promise) was really interesting, and the fact that it was something that they had to work on and wasn’t successful right away. Sometimes that kind of thing is too easy and fires on the first go, and that would have robbed us of some of those character interactions that I liked. I liked the whole multiverse/temporal paradox angle a lot, too. The extra level of uncertainty in what to believe, what is true for our universe and what is from the other one, and that kind of thing. I thought the introduction of Jensen, a character who was part of the mission in the ‘alternate universe’ was actually pretty creepy. Like when she’s stuck in the wall and shrieking and then recognizes Hamilton and you’re like WTF is going on here? That was cool. I’m such a sucker for sci-fi, and this one had a lot of ‘my things’: both hard and speculative sci-fi, working off of actual science as a starting point, multiverses, ethical questions/how people deal with stuff. This should’ve been a slam-dunk, guys.   

Other things I liked: The effects in this film were overall well done. There wasn’t any point where I went ‘oooh, that looks bad’ like I have in other movies. Especially in sci-fi where you need the technology/space stuff/etc. to look convincing or else things get cheesy pretty quick. The score was good but a few days later here nothing particularly memorable stands out, so do with that what you will. There is a little bit of humor in and amongst everything that’s happening and that generally lands. I didn’t really care for the whole bit with Mundy’s arm at the time, but the arm as a character has kind of grown on me and I’m pretty okay with it now. I also liked how the Shepard was supposed to fix everything, ended up causing a huge mess in the process, and then in the end saved everybody and now everything will be hunky dory. That’s a meta thing though, and not to do with the movie.

 which in NO WAY represents how Allie Shepard defeated the Reapers, I swear.


Okay, let’s talk about the part that sucks: the flaws. I have two main issues with this movie that are sadly kind of big ones in the grand scheme of things. 

1.   The ‘Cloverfield’ part of The Cloverfield Paradox. This movie mercilessly beats you over the head with trying to tie this into the Cloverfield franchise, especially the first movie. But you can tell that this wasn’t originally part of the film and was shoehorned in later. And it was shoehorned in hard. The best parts of this movie are when they aren’t trying to connect this all together. What made the original film and 10 Cloverfield Lane so great? They were great movies, but also they weren’t trying to force a connection. In 10 Cloverfield Lane you don’t get a connection to the other film until right at the very end and so it didn’t muddle up the excellent and tense story. I personally disliked it every time they cut away from the station to go back to what was happening on Earth. That severely destroyed the tension of the peril of the crew. Maybe do it the once the first time when the station goes missing initially, but it was done way too many times. And the story with Hamilton’s husband and the little girl goes absolutely nowhere. Cutting that out completely would’ve tightened up the story a lot. What purpose did it serve other than to jam those Cloverfield references in our faces? Even the damn paradox that sends them into this mess is called The Cloverfield Paradox and even the station is called The Cloverfield. We get it guys, they’re related! You can dial it back a bit. You see and hear that word so many times through the runtime that it just sort of starts to lose its meaning.
 
Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me

As me and the other half were hashing this out, this was my solution: when the station disappears we go to Earth the first time when Michael finds out. We stay in space for the rest of the movie until the very end. Have Michael and Joe’s final phone conversation in voiceover as the pod comes back down to earth, ending as it cuts through the cloud. Keep the final shot of Clovie rearing up immediately after. End. Boom. I would also cut out most of the references and uses of the word Cloverfield except for maybe the conspiracy theorist on tv at the beginning (but I would have cut that off sooner. It went on too long and got too on the nose) and seeing it on the outside of the station as they depart for the final time. That’s it.        

      2.   Not setting out rules, and thus not following them, leading to zero logic. This is the other big issue for me that I couldn’t ignore. The best way for me to explain it is like this: I enjoy to both read and write, with my preferred genres being fantasy and science fiction (fitting for this discussion). Now whether it be magic, technology, or something else, your universe needs to have rules as how it works. And then you have to adhere to those rules. Without that, logic and suspension of disbelief go out the window. I found that probably by about the midpoint of the movie, where things start going wrong and getting weird, that they must have been making this up on the fly with no logical thought put into things. Stuff just happens with no rhyme or reason. And I know, they’ve created a massive disturbance of space and time and so maybe the effects are unpredictable, but there needs to be something for the audience to buy into what’s going on. It kind of seems like they backed themselves into a corner by killing Volkov off relatively quickly and without the really interesting interpersonal drama he was cultivating, especially with Schmidt, that they needed something to put in there to keep the story going so they didn’t have to tip off the reveal with Jensen too early. I liked the temporal/physicalWhy are things displaced? Even some speculation form the characters? A line about location of things in their universe vs. the alternate one? Nothing? 
displacements of things a lot, but they didn’t do a whole lot with it.
                Then when they start the mid-movie cast reduction, it just feels like they go to a point that could be logical and then just go that step further just because, or for extra shock value. I say this especially in regards to Tam and Mundy. Why did that chamber fill with water? Are we supposed to extrapolate that it was because the other Cloverfield Station crashed into the sea or because she was doing work regarding water condensation? Why is there no water anywhere else then? Why did it wait until that point to flood? Was the flash freeze necessary or just something for shock value? As far as Mundy goes, if the magnetic sealant was being pulled to the suddenly-magnetized (again, with no explanation) door, why in the next shot is against the opposite wall trying to engulf him like a Venom symbiote? 

not exaggerating

     When it was all set up to go right through him? The wall's obviously still magnetized or it wouldn’t have pulled that CO2 canister. It would’ve made more sense if the sealant and/or Mundy hitting the wall had somehow caused the explosion. And why did the other wall suck in and pull off his arm earlier on? There is even less logical reasoning for that other than to have the humorous disembodied arm bits later on. Did alternate Mundy have one only arm and this was a ‘course correction’? It’s never touched on, nor does the ability of the arm to move independently and intelligently, even after the rest of Mundy dies. I understand that it’s the whole idea of ‘we’ve ripped a hole in space and time and now weird stuff is happening and we have no idea what the hell is going on’, but there’s no logic behind it the way there was for the displacements. And no one ever says anything about it. If this was happening to you, wouldn’t you at least ask maybe once, if only to yourself, what is going on? I needed something here, guys. I don’t care if it’s a Star Trek-esque technobabble explanation, but you can’t just have stuff happen and gives us nothing on why. And I don’t want to hear that ‘mystery box’ garbage, that’s no excuse to be sloppy in world-building. 



Well, that’s off my chest now. So, final thoughts? This was an okay movie. If I hadn’t been anticipating this movie for this long would I have thought differently of it? Maybe, but given that my two big issues with it were story-driven, probably not. The original premise of the film, back when it was called The God Particle, was just so interesting that I was really looking forward to a good, hard sci-fi film and I didn’t quite get what I wanted. Would I recommend it? Well, the performances are good and you can watch it on Netflix literally anytime you want, so if you’re curious, give it a go. It’s only an hour and forty minutes, so even if you don’t like it, it’s not particularly long. I wish I could’ve given this the glowing review I’d been hoping for. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how Annihilation is when it opens next week. Although before that, and in fact tomorrow, we’ll be heading down to see Black Panther, so expect a review for that very soon.