Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire

★★★1/2

Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten

Eons past, in a distant star system, the Motherworld Empire, ruled by the evil Regent Balisarius (Francis Martin Fee) waged a destructive war against rebel forces. One of his military leaders, Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) arrives at the farming planet colony of Veldt with his army in tow, seeking to plunder its resources, only to discover that a wanted fugitive named Kora (Sofia Boutella) was hiding amongst its inhabitants. Determined to protect her newfound home, Kora embarks on a mission to recruit fighters to help her ward off the Admiral's impending attack on Veldt.

Let's get to the bad first. This is nowhere close to the best that Zack Snyder has ever done. I've not seen Army of the Dead or the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, but this is easily at the bottom-most of all his films I've seen. Putting aside whatever grievances you'd have with Snyder in terms of his treatment of story and characters, you have to admit that the man has a strong sense for visuals. However, I was surprised to find that quality lacking here, with a messy aesthetic that seems to randomly blend styles and genres without a clear direction. I understand that it wants to do a Western-samurai-World-War-II-medieval sci-fi hybrid like Star Wars, but the difference between the two is that Star Wars merged the best visual elements from those genres, whereas Rebel Moon felt like it was picking from the leftovers. I've already felt this when I saw glimpses of its teaser trailer, that unease you feel as an artist or designer when you can tell that it's an early draft being submitted as the final work. Also very uncharacteristic of Snyder was how drab the camera work and compositions were, as if he shot the film without any storyboards to refer to, in contrast to his past works where every shot felt precisely crafted. I was really surprised to see so many basic static medium shots of dialogue scenes. In a typical Snyder flick, a character's hair, cape or trench coat would be billowing through wind and rain while hyper-masculine lines are being spewed out of bristled jaws. I know some of you hate that crap, but I don't know why you'd want realism in everything - it's so overrated, sorry Nolan fans. I wonder if it was a very tight budget that gave it a TV movie-like feel. After all this was funded by Netflix, so Snyder may not have the same resources at his disposal like he did with the other major studios.

Anyway, despite all those complaints above, I still enjoyed it. It's just your regular sci-fi fantasy actioner, and I don't think it ever pretended it was anything more than that. There are space ships and strange planets and weird aliens and people getting killed with frickin' laser beams. The action is somewhat decent, and doesn't use shaky cam. The best thing about it are the actors, who are generally good. Snyder went the super-serious route with this one, so the actors were on full-on dramatic mode. Many critics have praised Boutella for handling both acting and action duties, and rightly so. Ed Skrein always does a highly despicable villain so effortlessly, and I like that they didn't make his character a buffoon. His Admiral Noble is terrifying. This movie has a better villain than a lot of the Marvel flicks if you ask me. Surprised to find out that Ray Fisher (Cyborg from the Justice League movies), Anthony Hopkins, Cary Elwes, Jena Malone and Corey Stoll were in this movie. Great to see acclaimed Korean actor Doona Bae in a badass role. Charlie Hunnam does another bad accent here - he was ok, didn't bother me. I like how the Imperium soldiers act like absolutely detestable Nazi-esque bad guys, so it was really satisfying when they finally get their comeuppances.

I also think there are some strong moments here. The one with the robot (Anthony Hopkins), Kora confronting the soldiers on Veldt, when Noble negotiates his terms with the village head (pretty intense), Tarak riding the giant bird, and the VFX for the spider-lady was surprisingly good. Anyway, these are just my own thoughts. Overall, it's a fun, one-time watch for me.

The Marvels

★★★1/2

Mild Spoilers

Directed by Nia DaCosta
Written by Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik

I’m not going to do a synopsis for this one, but instead I will just point out that there will be two “new” key characters that you wouldn’t know about if you haven’t seen Wandavision or Ms. Marvel on Disney+. Three, if you also haven’t seen Captain Marvel, which should obviously be mandatory viewing since this is kind of a direct sequel to that one. You don’t really have to watch the other two shows since it’s pretty common for superhero movies to introduce new superheroes anyway. But Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) is such a lovable, charming character even in this one that I’d recommend checking out Ms. Marvel as well.

Now, the movie. People are going to go to town on this one, because unfortunately it has issues. The whole movie felt choppy and rushed, like it had been edited to hell. It makes for a breezy, undemanding watch, but I thought it undermined some dramatic moments that could have been great scenes if given enough screen time to permeate. There are also some cosmic pseudo-science nonsenses that glossed over some plot resolutions. In comic books, this is par for the course, but with cynical audiences nowadays, prepare to hear a lot of b****ing and moaning about why it didn’t “make sense”. I was already hearing it from the bros sitting behind me after the movie had ended, who said that the answer was because “they were women.” I mean, bro, why are you here, watching it then? I pity the sole girl in their group who had to pretend-laugh at their mockings. I might as well also mentioned that these idiots were also talking through the first half hour of the movie, which was something I never thought I’d ever come across again after I started going to first-day screenings. Apparently, the morons have finally spilled into my safe space.

I digress. Despite the issues, I thought this was a fun watch. The three leads did a good job, but Vellani was effortlessly the scene stealer. I really enjoyed the cosmic-space stuff - it’s similar to the Guardians of the Galaxy flicks but having to explore new planets makes the MC-Universe feels big. There’s nothing really too serious about The Marvels, which is really about three different but special women bonding during a silly space adventure. Their power sets are also a joy to watch even if they don’t make a lick of sense. It is also a pretty funny movie, especially one major gag of a set piece that everyone is certainly going to talk about a lot and spoil it in no time. (They are two; let’s see if you can guess which one I was actually referring to.) I would recommend it, especially for ardent MCU fans, but also warn that this is truly fluff and not a Marvel entry with huge consequences in the grand scheme of things.

Well, except for the end credits scene, of course.

P.S. Just wanted to point out my surprise of seeing Mohan Kapoor here, who plays Ms Marvel’s father, because he was publicly accused of sexually harassing a minor last December, but I’ve not heard or am able to Google any development on that story. It’s possible that they’ve already finished filming The Marvels and were in post-production when that news broke. I can see how it was difficult to cut him out of the movie if they ever had the intention to, because he was an integral familial figure in Ms Marvel’s life and appears in every scene that featured her family. It’s really odd that things like this kept happening to Marvel of late.

Invaders from Mars

★★★1/2

Directed by William Cameron Menzies
Written by Richard Blake and John Tucker Battle

I haven’t existed yet when this movie was released in 1953 - come to think of it, my dad was only 3 years old then! It has never played on television as far as I remember, so no childhood nostalgia for this film. I do love the idea of these 1950s alien invasion movies, and I thought War of the Worlds (also from 1953!) was surprisingly more sophisticated than it looked, and I thoroughly enjoyed that one, so my interest was piqued when I first heard of its release.

To be frank, War of the Worlds is the better movie by far. Invader from Mars has a much smaller budget, and it painfully shows at times, unfortunately. I thought the first half held up pretty well, and its two key strengths were its story, which created a strong sense of paranoia as people started to fall under the influence of a higher power, and the captivatingly off-kilter set designs that belie the film’s budget. The acting performances were very adequate, and I actually thought the actors were better than the ones from War of the Worlds, especially Jimmy Hunt as the child protagonist. But once the “invaders” are finally revealed - it’d be a challenge to hold in your chuckle when you see the costume designs. The use of stock footages were also way overused and wear out its welcome pretty quickly.

I would recommend this if you enjoy exploring the fringes of cinema history like I do.

The Mandalorian, Season 3 (Disney+ Series)

★★★★★

Massive Spoilers

Directors: Rick Famuyiwa, Rachel Morrison, Lee Isaac Chung, Carl Weathers, Peter Ramsey, Bryce Dallas Howard

Writers: Jon Favreau, Noah Kloor, Dave Filoni, George Lucas

Reading how people are complaining about The Mandalorian Season 3’s final episode, their hearts must be frozen cold to be able to idly dismiss one of the greatest Star Wars battles ever put onscreen involving Mandalorians and Stormtroopers with jetpacks, or that they felt nothing when Bo Katan charges forward with the Darksaber in hand alongside the Armorer and dozens of Mandalorians behind them. Their souls must be made of rock if it mattered not to them that the three deadly Praetorians who dispatched Paz Vizsla last episode were hewing down IG12 with Grogu in it while the blast doors closed behind a wounded Din Djarin who could only watch in horror.

But my favorite moment of the episode wasn’t even any of these, or Bo Katan fighting a Beskar-ed Moff Gideon, or Din going full John Wick on a bunch of Stormtroopers with just a f***ing dagger, or even when Grogu saved Din and Bo with the Force while his emotionally soaring theme played in the background. No, the scene I loved the most, that got me all welled up, was during the initiation scene at the Living Waters of Mandalore, when Din finally, officially adopts Grogu as his son. The orphan who lost his family now becomes the father of another. It didn’t happen in this episode, but I’m looking forward to the upcoming one where he no longer calls Grogu “kid”, but “son”.

Stay bitter and aloof all you want. Feel proud of your refined cinematic palate that The Mandalorian somehow failed to appease. Pick the series apart for its plot holes, lack of logic, and cameos of people you detest to your heart’s content. But I will continue to enjoy the heck out of the 24 glorious episodes of the best, most faithful, exciting and heartwarming Star Wars show since the original trilogy, and more if we’re lucky. This IS Star Wars. This IS the way.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

★★★1/2

Mild spoilers

Directed by Peyton Reed

Written by Jeff Loveness

Quantumania is frustrating. Ant-Man has always been about the little guy (even the movie mentioned that repeatedly), but like the big boys he now has to handle a universe-ending threat of his own. (It even tries to ape Aquaman’s gonzo visual aesthetics, likely in an attempt to also achieve a similar box-office result.) But that makes Quantumania feel just like a formulaic Marvel entry instead of the fun “palate cleanser” (a term used by Paul Rudd himself) that many of us are reluctant to admit we needed, even as we griped about how inconsequential the Ant-flicks were.

Other problems:

Too many characters, a very smart villain that started doing stupid things near the end, the sorely-felt absence of Luis and his compadres of X-Con Securities Consultants, and the jettisoning of that wonderfully snappy editing style from the earlier films.

However, all is not lost.

The cast is fantastic. Jonathan Majors is the standout here, and his performance alone is worth the price of admission. Kang is absolutely menacing but also interestingly complex. I was fascinated by the level of gratitude expressed by the supposedly ruthless multiversal conqueror towards his savior, when he had absolutely nothing to gain from doing so, except a tiny sliver of what’s left of his humanity. Pfeiffer was given more to do this time, and her scenes with Majors were electric and made you forget you’re watching a superhero flick. Rudd, Douglas, and Lily are reliably good in spite of the limited material they had to work with.

I also liked that they pitted the main supervillain of the entire Multiversal saga against the most bottom-ranked Avenger, lower than even Hawkeye. This created a palpable sense of danger, where for the first time in the series of Ant-films you don’t feel that any of the characters are safe, by simply having the villain being way out of the heroes’ league by a million fold. There were a few times I thought, “they might actually be doing it.” A major cull to set the path for future Ant-Girl/ Stature/ Stinger Cassie Lang. The stakes in Quantumania certainly felt a lot higher this time round.

I know it should have been obvious just from the title alone, but I didn’t know the movie was set almost entirely in the quantum realm. I don’t watch trailers, so this was a genuine surprise for me, which worked in favour of the film. The other thing I wasn’t expecting wasn’t the identity of the big star cameo of the film, but that they made the person do something a little more sinister than just the usual jokey schtick cameos are expected to do.

Speaking of cameos, there is another one that seems to be getting mixed opinions, but I thought it was really funny, and the one where the aforementioned has a scene with Cassie Lang got the biggest laugh from me.

All an Ant-Man flick needed to do (for me) was to be entertaining. Despite some story directions that didn’t work and some other quality issues, I think it did the job, and there are a few but enough of the good stuff here to at least warrant a watch. Some of you might disagree, but I think Quantumania has a slight edge over most of the Phase 4 films but not as good as No Way Home or Shang-Chi.

My thoughts on the mid and end credit scenes (SPOILERS):

I thought the Kang variants (army?) were quite goofy. The Empire Spoiler Podcast gang joked that it reminded them of the Eddie Murphy’s films where he played multiple characters. The one with a clip from Loki Season 2 was just a very short teaser that featured Loki, Mobius and Kang in a scene, but doesn’t seem like anything of consequence, or even exciting, other than the fact that it’s coming.

M3GAN

★★★★

Directed by Gerard Johnstone

Written by Akela Cooper and James Wan

Box up your toys and delete your AI apps, boys and girls, because if you’ve always been creeped out by life-like dolls and super-smart AI, this latest amalgamation of the two isn’t going to make things better! Allison Williams of Get Out fame plays Gemma, the creator of a sophisticated robot doll called M.3.G.A.N., whom she uses as a surrogate parent to her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) while she works overtime to keep her demanding boss David (Malaysian comedian Ronny Chieng!) from firing her. Stupidly, she forgot to put Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics into M3GAN’s programming, and the android begins to test its boundaries, and eventually crosses them.

Predictably, with robots-gone-berserk movies like this one, the robot does go berserk. And no, there are no Shyamalan-worthy twists here, sorry. But what’s not predictable though is the execution, which was way better than expected in terms of how it beautifully set up its premise and the relationships between the core characters, and that includes the robot itself. I respect that they took the effort to do this when everyone was just pre-judging this to be another shoddily put-together horror cash grab that is only all about the violent pay-offs. It’s really something that the movie could make me feel relieved when certain peripheral characters survived till the end of the film, because it made me care. They even managed to squeeze in a commentary about the use of devices and gadgets to babysit our children.

This certainly isn’t a reinvention of the wheel, but it gave it new treads and a sleek, shiny new hubcap, and I have to give credit where credit’s due. Williams, McGraw and Chieng were all great here, especially McGraw.

A lot of people would compare this with the Chucky/ Child’s Play films, but I think M3GAN has more similarities with the Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell. You’ll know it when you see it.

Avatar: The Way of Water

★★★★★

I don’t know if it will have longevity in the physical media format, or that its breathtaking spectacles would translate well on the small screen, but Avatar: The Way of Water is a sight to behold on IMAX 3D. James Cameron may be asking us to pay a little more than twice the ticket price to see it, but boy did he make every cent count! The 3D effects were fantastic, but what’s more impressive is how the CG has gotten so advanced that my eyes just surrendered and accepted that Pandora and every living thing on it is real. The attention to detail is also just insane (wait till you get to the underwater bits), and is integral in selling the realism. The visuals are truly a huge part of what made this movie amazing, thus it is imperative that you see it on an IMAX 3D theatre.

But all is for naught if the storytelling wasn’t good. I have to admit, the story here is pretty standard affair, but a very well executed one. The reason the film was three hours long was because Cameron actually took the time to establish all of his characters, and gave each one a distinct and likable personality, so that when things got real serious, you’d actually care. Once you’re emotionally invested with the characters, it doesn’t really matter if the same plot device from the first act was recycled for the finale. I was impressed that they even created some shades of grey to some of the characters on both sides of the fight that added an interesting dynamic to their relationships. This actually made me want to watch the sequels now because I’m dying to know how this is all going to turn out in the end. So, yes, generic story, lazy even, but done better than any crowdpleasing affair like this ever deserved to be.

Overall, Avatar: The Way of Water is visually stunning, emotionally engaging, and one heck of a thrill ride! A true blockbuster film in every sense.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

★★★1/2

Before I proceed with my assessment, there are two things that need to be mentioned.

One, with the passing of Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther 2 team, led by returning director Ryan Coogler, has an unenviable task of continuing the franchise without their star lead. Should they recast, and if not, how are they going to explain the absence of such a popular character as King T’Challa, the Black Panther? For that, I’m truly grateful of the work and effort they have done here, to honour Boseman in a movie that also needed to be popcorn entertainment.

Two, that many of us are still mourning two years after. Boseman’s friends and colleagues were probably already working on the sequel when it happened. They needed an outlet for their grief, and the film needed to reflect that in some ways, and it did. The tone of the film was more sombre and darker than the first. Grieving fans would also be expecting and appreciative of an acknowledgement of his loss in the film. The film was successful on this part.

These two components should be enough to make a great Black Panther sequel, taking into consideration the circumstances, and it has been for many people. I was saddened by what has happened, and I do feel with the rest of you. The movie is a great tribute to the star, and I am glad that everyone is loving it immensely.

So it might be irksome to hear any criticisms about the film. And I do have a few, despite my admiration and appreciation of what they have attempted to do. Apart from the great craftsmanship and work done by the crew behind the camera, the actors have all done exceptionally in front of it. Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Kasumba and many others did amazing work here. It seemed unfair that Letitia Wright had to shoulder the burden of the lead role and all the expectations and responsibilities that come with it. She is a real champ for pushing herself the way she did in this film.

But I wished Marvel would have given the team more time to come up with a tighter and more coherent story, because the end product felt like a patchwork of mismatching tones and intentions. It started off promisingly; it looked like we were getting a character exploration on Shuri, that we get to understand her as a character of her own, what makes her tick and what drives her. But then Marvel has to Marvel, so several new characters needed to be introduced and set up for future use, including comic book favorite Namor, who even got a lengthy flashback while Shuri only had brief wordless cutscenes from earlier films. Then we have Riri Williams here to promote her upcoming Ironheart series, and the return of (or a dropped-in-out-of-nowhere character if you’ve never seen The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series) CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine because they needed people to remember who she was when the Thunderbolts movie rolls out. There are some character moments for Shuri during the Talokan scenes, but it wasn’t enough. She has always been a peripheral character in all the films she has appeared in. Wright and Boseman did a great job establishing their relationships, but it was still surface-level stuff. Shuri desperately needed a Wandavision-like backstory, or like a flashback to her childhood with T’Challa to flesh out her relationship with her brother a little more, so that her grief would be a little more understandable, relatable and impactful when it culminated close to the finale. I find it puzzling that her arc was painted in quick and broad strokes, while the fish guy got more time for nuances.

I could be wrong about this. I was wrong about films like The Batman, The Dark Knight, and a few others, where my feelings changed for the better upon second viewing. But as it stands right now, and as much as I appreciate the work of these wonderful people who poured their hearts into this film, the movie still felt bloated and uneven at least to me, and I wished they had tightened the story a little more, and find a more coherent way to inject in all the future project tie-ins, if that is even possible.

But of course, the real burning question on everybody’s mind is:

Is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever better than Thor: Love and Thunder?

Yes.

And thus ends Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Nope

★★★★1/2

Some spoilers; come back later if you wish to watch this film cold.

Sorry for being late to the party. For whatever reason, they decided to show Nope two weeks after the major film markets of the world had already seen it. So, this is going to be very old news to you, but Nope… is dope.

Horse trainer O.J. (Daniel Kaaluya) discovers some of his horses are missing, and suspects that UFOs are involved. O.J.’s sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) suggests that they try to capitalize on their problem by capturing high-quality footages of the UFO. Little did they know of the danger that they’re putting themselves on until the true nature of the UFO is revealed. Directed by Jordan Peele, who made the Oscar-winning film “Get Out” and also “Us”.

This is a very entertaining movie, in the way horror movies are. There are several scenes where bad things are about to happen to a large number of people. There’s also this one scene involving the lights in O.J.’s barn that was nail-bitingly creepy. The movie is also pretty funny, like how they made good use of its title in some tense situations. The first half was a little slow and quiet, but that’s just the filmmakers lulling you and bringing your defenses down so that the shocks land harder later on.

The UFOs: I thought I was going to see yet another generic UFO in a Hollywood flick, but Nope actually has an original take on that topic. It was very eerie to see the UFO darting across the sky, even in the daytime. I like how it also has unique interactions with everything on the ground that you may not have seen in other alien encounters films before.

Initially, I didn’t understand the point of Steven Yeun’s character’s subplot, but that’s because I didn’t realize that Yeun’s character already knew about the alien long before O.J. did. It did feel like they dispensed very crucial plot information a bit too quickly, resulting in me and a few other people literally missing the plot. Perhaps it’d no longer be a problem after a second viewing. Yeun’s story is also one of the few places Peele sprinkled some social commentary on, which has become his trademark.

Overall, “Nope” is a great retooling of the alien encounters genre, has quite a few tense and horrific moments, and is one of the more original films you can find out there. One of my favourites of the year.

Originally published on my Facebook Page, here.

Hardcore Henry

★★★★

Presented entirely from the literal point-of-view of an amnesiac man named Henry, the movie begins with Henry waking up to find his wife Estelle (Haley Bennett) attaching a robotic leg onto his stump. They are in a high-tech lab, and a bad guy named Akan and his mercenaries are on their way to kill them both. Action ensues, Henry and his wife gets separated, and a mysterious person named Jimmy (Sharlto Copley, the star of District 9) appears out of nowhere to help Henry rescue his wife.

I know Hardcore Henry resembles very much like a first-person-shooter computer game (think Doom, Half-Life, Call of Duty, etc.) but I’ve got a feeling this was pitched to the studios with the popularity of found footage horror films in mind, but now it’s for the action genre. Unlike the movie adaptation of “Doom” starring Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban, Hardcore Henry fully commits to the game’s first-person-perspective from start till finish, and I find it fascinating that they were able to roll with that for 96 minutes and still manages to keep the story compelling. They were smart not to make the entire film one continuous take like Sam Mendes’ 1917, so there are cuts to make scenes move quicker, although I don’t remember there were any significant time jumps in any of the cuts. Hardcore Henry’s story is still, at its core, moving in real-time. Even though Copley’s Jimmy is Henry’s sidekick of sorts, Copley is actually the true lead actor of the film and has the most screen time. We never really see Henry’s face or even hear him speak. Copley also got to play multiple characters with a variety of accents, which adds a lot of fun and humour to the proceedings.

The POV approach helped make the generic action sequences looked fresh and exhilarating. We’ve seen action heroes jump off buildings, but when was the last time you saw it happening through their eyes pre-, mid- and post-jump in one single take? There are many sequences like this throughout the movie, but the best one for me was the one with Henry climbing the side of a building, and continuing to an incredible rooftop chase later.

The downside to the POV gimmick is that some of the action got repetitive really quick, especially in the finale. There are only so many imaginative kills you can create for a horde of henchmen, so there will be some repeated deaths for each henchman, but because you can’t cut away from Henry’s point of view, you will have to sit through every one of them. Also, if you get motion sickness easily, you’re going to have problems with this one as you would with movies that use handheld cameras extensively. There have been reports of audiences almost falling over balconies or throwing up during a show. Lastly, the main villain is also rather generic and uninteresting, save for an out-of-nowhere but cool power set that is never explained. And because Henry is without a face, or a voice, or even any character traits, the only compelling character(s) left are Copley’s.

Overall, this is still a fun and unique twist to the action genre, if you have the stomach for it. I’d also say that this is easily one of the best video game adaptations that is not based on any actual game. And I’d recommend this over the Doom adaptation any day.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.

Prey

★★★★1/2

Since the plot is pretty straightforward, I will not mention too much except that it’s no secret this is a new Predator movie set in 1719 America centering on a Comanche girl.

As a connoisseur of action badassery, this one has my big seal of approval. My initial worry that this might be a cheap exploit of a long established franchise is highly unfounded. Although nothing groundbreaking or surprising in the overall plot, but the setting and the story of the Comanche girl makes it fresh, and it feels like someone in Hollywood finally realised that they have been writing way better Predator stories in comic books for decades and adapted one of those stories. Prey isn’t an adapted property, but it sure reminds me of those comic books and that’s a good thing. The action, the tension, the body count and the gore, it delivered on every one of them. The original Predator was more horror than action, and Prey understands that’s what make it special, and adheres to the formula perfectly. The finale doesn’t feel as epic as Dutch’s showdown with the ugly mofo, but it need not be. Prey’s ending is absolutely satisfying in its own way, and is more fitting for its clever heroine. I will watch this again. Anytime.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.

Overlord

★★★★

No spoilers, but the movie doesn’t really have any twists

During World War II, a group of paratroopers are on a mission behind enemy lines to blow up a German radio tower, unbeknownst that the Nazis are conducting strange experiments in a secret lab below it.

Overlord is a good war movie. It takes itself pretty seriously on that front. If this had been based on true accounts of the experiences of paratroopers during the war, this would have been a very decent one. But since this was marketed as a horror movie, it’s no spoiler that our heroes will face off a few monstrosities conjured up by the aforementioned laboratory. The problem with this movie is that there were too little of the horror elements. This isn’t the Wolfenstein movie adaptation you were waiting for. If you removed that element entirely from the film, it still works perfectly as a war film. According to IMDb, the original script actually had more horror action, but they toned it down in the script rewrite.

Don’t get me wrong, the film is really well put together, even the horror parts. Nice VFX and practical effects. It is relentlessly thrilling and nerve-wrecking. There are a few really cool long takes that predates Sam Mendes’ 1917. The acting performances were pretty good, and you can tell that director Julius Avery knows what he’s doing. My big gripe was that the pay-off in the end wasn’t satisfying enough and felt too small-scale.

After the movie ended, I was wondering who the “overlord” was because he never appears or was mentioned about. Thanks to IMDb trivia, it’s actually the real-life code name for the Battle of Normandy. Sorry, spoilers if you haven’t seen world history.

Some familiar faces here. Wyatt Russell plays the co-lead and leader of the squad. You’ve seen him as John Walker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Bokeem Woodbine is a character actor that you’ve seen in a lot of movies like The Rock and Spider-Man: Homecoming and he has a small role here. I was surprised to see Joseph “Eddie Munson” Quinn from Stranger Things 4, but don’t too excited as he only has a few lines. Pilou Asbæk, who is Batou in the live action Ghost in the Shell, is the big baddie. The protagonist is actually played by Jovan Adepo, who has been in Denzel Washington’s Fences, the Watchmen series and the recent mini series adaptation of The Stand. I read that there were other actors from Game of Thrones, but I haven’t seen that show, so I don’t know who they are.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.

Minions: The Rise of Gru

★★★

Picking up where we left off with the Minions and their newfound master Gru at the end of the last movie, The Rise of Gru shifts the focus back on the protagonist of the Despicable Me movies. Set in 1970s San Francisco, an 11-year-old Gru aspires to join the villainous Vicious 6 gang, but will his disaster-prone Minions help or hinder his goal?

I never thought that I would have anything interesting to say about this one, but this latest installment of the Despicable Me/ Minions films managed to surprise me on a couple of things. There are the many Chinese references, for example the Chinese zodiac, San Francisco Chinatown and the Chinese New Year parade held there, Michelle Yeoh’s brief appearance, and the iconic Bruce Lee yellow jumpsuit. There was also a joke on Kungfu Panda’s “inner peace”, and another one stolen from Shrek 2. Even a googly eyed rock made an appearance, very likely a nod to Yeoh’s most recent film. They should have opened this during the Chinese New Year celebration. It would have been on-theme and could have done particularly well in the Southeast Asian region.

The problem I have with this movie and its predecessor is that they both have this constant barrage of slapstick gags that became really tiresome to watch. There are no build-ups and pay-offs, just Minions punching each other, and yelling and shrieking throughout the entire runtime. The Rise of Gru is slightly better than its predecessor because at least the A-story is about him. The Minions have always worked better as comic reliefs in the Despicable Me movies, but what do I know? The first Minions movie made a billion freakin’ dollars in 2015!

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

★★★★1/2

No spoilers

Laundromat owner Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) must grapple with a multitude of issues, including potential eviction from her premises, being emotionally estranged from her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), feeling disappointed with husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and being a disappointment to her father Gong Gong (James Hong). But things are about to get worse when another Waymond from another multiverse (also Ke) appears to recruit Evelyn to fight in a multiversal war and save the world.

It’s interesting that there are two separate movies about the multiverse (the other one being Dr Strange 2) playing at the same time right now that couldn’t be more different in feel and approach. But they both have protagonists with a third eye on their foreheads. It’s like they’re each their own multiversal branch-offs. I’m a Sam Raimi fan, but even I have to admit that the title Multiverse of Madness would have been better suited to this far more bonkers Michelle Yeoh flick. The multiversal concept is more creatively utilized here whereas Raimi’s film only conservatively toys with it.

Fret not, this isn’t a stuffy arthouse treatment, but a surprisingly fast-paced, genre-leaning, effects-laden sci-fi actioner with a strong dose of family drama at its core. So, not only do you get to see Yeoh bringing her action chops, but flex her acting ones too. I still think her best performance was in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but she gets to do more here, and it’s a blast to see that.

Another great highlight is the “return” of Ke Huy Quan playing a lead role as Yeoh’s husband Waymond, most well-known for his role as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It’s hard to believe that he has done very little acting in almost 40 years, because he so effortlessly juggled a myriad of alternate Waymond characters like a pro, including one that could have been a Tony Leung role in a Wong Kar Wai flick. His character struck close to home for me, but that’s a discussion for another time.

It’s no secret that 93-year-old legend James Hong is in this film also, and no, it isn’t just a fleeting cameo, but there was one other casting that was a genuine surprise for me, and she was terrifically funny and was completely relishing her role. I won’t spoil it here for those who don’t watch trailers and follow entertainment news. Stephanie Hsu also did a decent job here having to go toe-to-toe with so many acting legends during the dramatic moments.

The only very minor gripe is that the Daniels (directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert of Swiss Army Man fame) piled on the silly or gross-out humour a little too much, that they sometimes took the wind out of a few dramatic moments.

Nevertheless, this is still a very heartfelt, adult story about family, nestled within a visually frenetic and funny film where sex toys can be used to access the multiverse. For people who griped about the lack of originality in blockbuster films, it’s time to walk the talk and watch this film instead. Highly recommended!

Originally published on my Facebook Page, here.