(5 / 5)
Kong: Skull Island was made in the same way Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim was. As a love letter to they’re influences and bringing enthusiasm and justice to the genre that the filmmakers loved when they were children and wanted to make the best movie they could. This works because they clearly know what it is and builds itself around that and never divulges from it. It knows that it’s tongue is very firmly placed in it’s cheek.
Our opening scene is a beach in 1944 where two pilots crash land. One is an American, the other Japanese, they waist no time in trying to kill each-other. Their fight becomes a chase that ends on a cliff top where they meet a giant creature that makes them and their conflict seem so puny by comparison. Then a news montage takes us to 1973, America has lost the Vietnam war and two people are seeking funding for a expedition to Skull Island.
Usually in these movies the monsters are the stars and the thing that everyone wants to see. That’s still true here only they’ve put effort into the human characters, they have fun personalities and quips that make you like them. They’re not deep, extremely troubled and complex Shakespearean characters, far from it, but they are engaging. First up is John Goodman as Randa, the one that gets the whole operation going, Tom Hiddleston is James Conrad (a play on Joseph Conrad perhaps?) a tracker that is brought in to survive the wilderness of the island. Samuel L. Jackson is a war vet from Vietnam that is carrying a grudge that America “abandoned” the war. Brei Larson is a photojournalist who’s more than up for a dangerous, interesting trek, once again adding plenty of fun and personality to the mix. There are other soldiers and characters but to name them and describe them all would take-up too much space, but they are memorable and have fun, quippy moments.
When the characters get to Skull Island in helicopters no time is wasted in dropping bombs to get the layout of the land. This quickly gets the attention of the king, Kong. This is the Kong that fights Godzilla, not the original that was the size of a house, this one’s the size a skyscraper. He quickly makes quick work of the helicopters so now it’s a case of survival for the people to make it out of the island alive.
Of course it is not just Kong on the island. It is inhabited with very large, very dangerous creatures. I wont spoil it buy adding descriptions of any of them, but they are quite imaginative and wildly designed.
If this movie has anything to thank beyond the original King Kong movie or the Kaiju genre it is Apocalypse Now. The filmmakers clearly drew inspiration for much of the tone and imagery used in it. Being that it’s the same time-period helps, so it’s not out-of-place or influence for the sake of it.
Like Apocalypse Now this comes with a very pleasing colour pallet. Rich primary colours like reds, blues, greens and yellow’s saturate the screen with shading of true blacks that add contrast and add that threatening tone to the whole thing. Another of the similar creative choices is the use of rock music of the time. Adding a fun vibe to the movie.
Adding once again to the Apocalypse Now channeling is John C. Riley as the solider from the opening. He is like Dennis Hopper’s photographer character who has become very deranged with his time spent in the jungle among the natives. He’s spent years on the island so he knows how it works so he provides helpful information to both the characters and the audience and more than a few rather funny moments.
What makes giant monsters fighting truly engaging is conveying the scale of these massive creatures going at it. All the truly big creatures move a little slower than a human would, adding gravity to what they do, also all their actions are big actions, a punch, footstep and splash is a seismic event from our perspective. Then it all has to be conveyed in big, biblical painting-like images, which these are. This movie does it’s monsters justice.
If I would have had this movie as a kid it would have been played constantly. Seeing it as an adult, it takes me back to that state of being giddy in my chair and owe for creatures unlike any that have ever existed. This movie is not the reinvention, but the perfection of the genre.
Tag Archives: Jonathan Evans
Review Trainspotting 2 by Jonathan Evans
(4 / 5)
Trainspotting 2, is something I never thought would be a reality, beyond simple theories and discussions. The first is a more than a complete story, also to others the idea of doing this is considered sacrilege. So why do it at all? Probably because that time has passed and the question of “Where are they now?” has been itching the filmmakers as much, or more than anyone.
For our crew it seems like they have everything right. Ewan McGregor as Mark has returned, Ewen Bremner as Spud, Johnny Lee Miller as Simon, Robert Carlyle as Franco and Danny Boyle once again taking the reins as director with John Hodge writing the screenplay.
Everything kicks off with Marks return. He is back after twenty years and not everyone is glad to see him. Would you be if he stole four grand from you? Spud did have his life on track, but when day light savings kicked in he was an hour late for everything which threw his stable life way off track and is now back on the heroine. Simon has a “business” of filming people have kinky sex with a prostitute friend and then blackmailing them, he also runs a pub that isn’t really worth opening and takes too much cocaine. And within the prison Franco is locked-up in prison, having twenty years for his rage to boil, it cannot hold him much longer.
Everyone has aged, of course, during the course of twenty years (some more gracefully than others). Most are different or in the same place as they were when Mark left them. But for some they have ignored time and it’s not them that’s changed but the world around them.
Danny Boyle is a director that, if anything, is known for his unique, sizzling visual flare. Something that was probably first established when he made the first Trainspotting. He brings it here as well, with careful and expressive lighting setups, razor sharp sounds, crazy setups an dynamic camera work. He is still very energetic with his passing and with Jon Harris as his editor they put together a very sharp movie. However there are moments of showing one thing and it leading to another which I wont dare spoil for you but are moments that remind you that Boyle is one of the top talents working today.
What would disappoint me about the movie would be if it was deliberately trying to recapture the exact same experience as the original. If they all just did the same thing, beat for beat, that would be a huge mistake. Luckily this is too wise to be so foolish. To be sure, for those that want warped visuals, crazy situations and colourful dialog (which is a staple of Trainspotting) you’ll get it, but they’re different and new. The familiar is revisited but not entirely the same.
Later in the movie Simon need’s a lawyer. So Mark goes to Diane, a person he had a fling with one time but has remained in-contact with. Like all the others Kelley McDonald return to reprise her role. In both movies Diane is what Mark wants to be but can never reach. In the original she was the new and exciting free spirit that found balance of fun while not being self destructive. Now she has formed into a mature and successful adult.
The movies main theme is nostalgia. These were once young men that lived their lives every day and for every second, but now all those times didn’t amount to anything. They’re not happy with how it all turned out and wish for a time when they could be happy-go-lucky again. But they cant.
Was this sequel necessary? Probably not, the ending to the first one is satisfactory enough. Though to the young people that have just discovered either the book of the film and see it as a way of life this will show them that there is still the rest of your life that you have to live. And for the youths that loved it when it came out may find some comfort in realising that they turned out better than the characters they once admired. And if there in the same place as the characters in the movie then this can be their wake-up call to change.
Review Ghost in the Shell by Jonathan Evans
(5 / 5)
Great Science-Fiction asks questions about what is going on in the time that they are made and gives us a vision of what all that will lead to. Now that it is over twenty years old, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell remains as a pinnacle of great science fiction by still being so relevant because it’s questions are still being asked now.
In the year 2029, the world’s international tensions are still high and the police still do their best to keep the world in as much order as they can. However technology has upped the game, now there is virtual hacking and information deliverance and speed is the name of the game. Just being human won’t cut it anymore so both sides now come with enhancements. They can now trade-in their organic parts and have them replaced with cybernetic upgrades. A brain that can have instant access to the police data logs or act as a radio, more powerful limbs etc. But there are some that are cybernetic from the ground-up. Enter The Major,a woman by appearance but everything from her hair, eyes to her brain has been manufactured. She even comes equipped camouflage capabilities that allows her to disappear.
Probably one of the biggest distinguishing aspects of the movie as well as whats played a part in making it so popular as well as recognizable is the choice to have it main character appear nude for a significant chunk of the movie. On one side, sex sells and there are undoubtedly many that simply come for the exposed breasts. However there are many intellectuals that still find merit in the movie beyond that choice. But lest focus on this part of it. Our opening sequence is the Major being built, the cybernetics, then the fake flesh, then finally the artificial skin. Early on we know that this is not a real woman before us, at least in body , you can observe at her sexualized proportions and say “That was definitely designed by a man” but here it literal on both sides, which adds to it.
Japanese animation operates at a different mentality than what the West will be used to with the Disney movies. First of all they make their movies at a lover frame rate, the West have twenty-four frames a second, while the East have sixteen, this means that they are allowed to have more moments quiet behavior rather than being in constant Ballet mode.They also don’t feel the need to have the characters in constant motion. Sometimes, or even many times they will land on a piece of framing and cinematography and have that be the shot throughout the scene, or for an extended time. It is a method of film-making that is primarily cost effective but can lead to moment of greater poignancy.
Much like Akira and Blade Runner the movie presents us with a city that is like the ones we have now, however elevated through the increase of technology. The building are more higher and technologically designed and advertisements are also everywhere however they are no longer flat projections, they have become three dimensional holograms and move around the building themselves (some even as bug as the buildings). In the slums every inch is used up to accommodate the mass population and is trash heavy and rustic.
We quickly learn that a terrorist is in Japan, one named The Puppet-Master. Who exactly he is nobody knows. They track down an inadvertent accomplice who’s a trash man trying to make money to help-out his daughter, however when they take him in it’s revealed that he has never been married and never had a daughter. This is a world where the enemy can manipulate civilians memories to make them do their tasks. It’s then quickly revealed that The Puppet-Master is actually an artificial intelligence, they simply call it him and he due to typical language conventions. What it really, or at least physically is, is electronic information.
The main theme, or at least the most prominent theme of the movie is what lies beneath. It is about pealing back the layers of what something seemingly is and getting to some sense of truth.
There is a sequence in this movie that consists of images, music and no dialog. It is shots of the city, the major moving through it, while passing she catches a glimpse of someone that resembles her at a restaurant. Nothing really comes of it and it’s not mentioned again but it plants the seeds for so many ideas. Was that a real person that the Major was based on? Is that another cyborg and her face is simply one of many identical ones? Was that even real or was that us getting a view into her imagination? I don’t know. I don’t need to know, because a crystal clear explanation would subtract from the interesting questions that I and/or someone else will come to through the watching and then we can discuss. It is the kind of scene where the robot part of your brain will tell you that it is inconsequential and should be cut, but the emotional, curious side needs it there.
With the heavy science fiction theme and images you would expect the musical score to be some kind of techno/synth style, but no. The score by Kenji Kawai is one of human chanting and traditional instruments. Nothing synthetic. A musical score can be considered the emotional layering on-top a movie, or its spirit.
The main theme, or at least the most prominent theme of the movie is what lies beneath. It is about pealing back the layers of what something seemingly is and getting to some sense of truth. Throughout the movie The Major keeps referring to “Twitch in my Ghost.” In context they are basically instincts, but it is what cannot be programed or truly logically explained in that machine way. They are those abstract feelings that have immense power over our decisions.
The Puppet-Master arranges for his body to be stolen out of the police headquarters. The team peruses and eventually, it’s just the two of them. Finally comes the encounter between The Major and The Puppet-master, taking place in some kind of old dance hall. He has gained control over a tank, which in this day and age is shaped more like a beetle. She dodges and shoots what she can but the armor is too tough, so she distracts it and then gets on-top if it in an attempt to rip off its panel. She pushes her artificial body to the limits and beyond, contorting her body to become incredibly butch in appearance, but even that is not enough, her circuits themselves rip out, leaving her limbless and only a torso.
It looks like the end but one of her colleague arrives to put the tank out of business. What is left is two beings that are no longer capable of psychical movement, only thought. In their time conversing The Puppet-Master proposes a merging to the Major, a merging of their minds.
With The Puppet-Master and The Major merged what we have now is something new. With her adult body destroyed in the fight the only replacement that could be found is a child’s one. Neither entirely him not her, their child? Where will she go now and what lies ahead of her? I don’t know. In the beginning the movie asks the question what makes us human, or what makes something living, at the end resolutions are made like any satisfying narrative but the really big one goes unanswered because it will never be answered.
In order for a ghost to be made something must first be living, right? Something must be there is whatever physical entity harbors it. Japan has a different relationship with technology than other countries. It’s more harmonious, encouraged and celebrated, they don’t fear or distrust the progress that’s been made, they’re quite proud of it. Ghost in the Shell is intricately detailed in many regards but it also operates so much in the blank spaces, leaving the audience to guess and fill in the blanks on their own steam. If you want something to flat out give you all the answered there are many other mediums that can give it to you like that. But a movie should have faith in it’s audience and that they can work things out for themselves. Besides, these questions can never be properly answered.
Review : La La Land by Jonathan Evans
(5 / 5)
La La Land is a movie that uses the same old tools from the classic musicals of old, like Singin in the Rain, Funny Face, My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins, but is used by a man from modern times and sensibilities.
Damien Chezelle has an obvious passion for jazz music and about perusing dreams despite all the obstacles. Here, like his last movie Whiplash, he crafts a similar story where two people live in L.A. where dreams can come true, but not easily.
Our characters are Mia (Emma Stone), a young actress that is working at a coffee shop at the Warner Bros. lot but wants to be an actor. She auditions for many things but nothing. Then there is Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a musician that loves Jazz more than just about anything, worshiping the greats and hating having to simply play the mediocre tunes he’s given for his job. He wants to open his own jazz club where the classics and his own music will be played, in the same venue that was once a legendary jazz bar. But they both must face the reality of compromising in the real world and the sadness that maybe their either not good enough or nobody cares about what they want. Stone and Gosling work together splendidly, from dialog scenes that are as dynamic as Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and the low-key but cute choreography. The characters are brilliant concepts and the actors make them realized.
The songs are composed in the same vein as the classic Hollywood/Broadway numbers but the singing never reaches that truly glass shattering volume. This is a more subdued musical style. Most of them aren’t meant for that, they’re more like little tunes you hum to yourself while walking home all alone. The most haunting of them all is the main song of the movie “City of Stars” the simple tune will hook itself deep in your mind and not let go.
https://soundcloud.com/ryangoslingofficial/city-of-stars-pier
Channeling the movies of old it uses lush, glowing colours for its environments and the characters costumes. This movie is expertly lit and colour coordinated to fit the characters and their character arcs. There is a scene (whether deliberate or not) that reminded me of another similar scene from Adolescence of Utena.
La la is a term for the sightly crazy or obscene. Which is certainly L.A. in a nutshell, it is these characters facing the world with what they want and it is this movie that channels the old classics but both sets it in modern times as well as selling it to the now young. But in order to pursue your goals you must put aside reality, even just the most little bit and delve into your dreams.
Review : Your Name by Jonathan Evans
(4 / 5)
Anime doesn’t tell stories the way Disney, Dreamworks or Sony Animation tell stories. They don’t make movies solely for children or the family, they can make any movie they want, sometimes a movie that can only be a anime. Your Name is a movie, where I cant point to another for an example, it is its own thing.
A meteor shoots through the sky and while souring across, two young people at different pints in Japan see it and think the same thing “It’s like a beautiful image from a dream.” One day we see that one has woken up and everywhere they go people act strangely around her telling her that yesterday it was as if they had amnesia, they didn’t know anything about their life, later we see that this was because every other day or so it turns out they switch minds. How is this happening? Doesn’t matter, well at least the filmmakers don’t concern themselves with the how. What they do concern themselves with is the what now? But lets just put a pin in this subject for now.
The boy is named Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) he is a bold, forward young man that lives in the big city of Tokyo and clearly dreams of being an architect. The girl is Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) whose timid and with skills in arts and crafts. You can tell you is occupying whose body at any point in the movie because the storyboard artist took the care and time to have their body language show it easily. Each of them have their own friends and family that are all equally important to the story and fun in their own right.
So now back to the body switching thing. They catch on quickly that it’s really happening and not a dream. They communicate through their smartphones and notes. What makes the back and forth so interesting is that one is more brash and able to finally make progress with the others problems while one is more gentle so their able to gently navigate the others obstacles.
From there on there are twist and turns in the story but I wont spoil them for you. But they are very cleaver and interesting that will have you increasingly engrossed as each revelation happens. Usually a movie like this would be satisfied with the body switching thing and use that for the entirety of the movie, but there is a lot in this movie that takes you to places where you will never be able to predict.
The drawing style is like that of Studio Ghibli, thick lines blobby lines and with simple but distinguishable character designs. The facial features are more like plastic dolls but lend themselves to be easily manipulated for a vast variety of clear expressions. Beyond the characters the environments also shine as a beautiful technical achievement. The environments are lusciously, detailed painted, with all of it in-focus so wee can absorb every detail of it that someone has taken the time to draw, but also there is the added layer of the atmosphere. The lighting changes for what time of the day it is, not just bright days and dark nights, but high contrast mid-day, golden hour morning or sun sets, and depending on when it is characters and objects cast light rays. As-well as all of this there’s also dust matter that hangs in the air in a few locations. Just some incredibly generous details that the filmmakers put in to produce the best product they can.
This movie has has so much beautiful, intricate workings to it that you will be able to look at it and be owed by what is on-screen. However what will stay with you is experiencing these two character and their worlds. I cant explain why it is this movie that seems to be doing such great business when anime has been such a niche market before. Maybe it’s been knocking so hard on the door to the West so hard that this is the one to finally break through? Doesn’t matter, this is still a film with everything you want in an enjoyable watch told in the off-beat way that anime does.
Review A Monster Calls by Jonathan Evans
(5 / 5)
“We need monsters to explain the world. Because without them, we cannot explain our place in the universe.”
Guillermo Del Toro
A Monster Calls is a fantasy realism movie, I don’t believe many or even any other movie can claim that it is simultaneously such opposing things. But this movie knows that children, adults and human beings are contradictory by their nature and they are never truly only one thing and all have their ways of coping with hardships.
Conner is a child that is smart, creative and unhappy with everything around him. In his house he draws in his room and his mother (Felicity Jones) is sick but promises she’ll get better. Staying with them now is his Grandmother (Sigourney Weaver). Her presence means that his mother will most likely go, so Conner rejects her and her fussy ways. Also coming back is his estranged father (Tony Kebbell) that is there for Connor, but only in small amounts, never able to fully commit. Lewis MacDougall is able to handle this extremely heavy, complex material and tackle it. He does not make it look easy, that is what makes the performance effective. He looks like he is at war within himself, every-time some adult tells him something he is completely dissatisfied with it. The ache, pain and frustration that MacDougall portrays gives this character weight and makes him real.
When the clock strikes 12:07 from over the hill and far away there is a rustling and an aching noise and what forms is a monster and makes its way to Connors house. It smashes through his bedroom wall, picks him up and tells him that he will tell him three stories, then Connor will tell him his nightmare, which is also a truth. The Monster (Liam Neeson) is a Yew tree that has come to life from over the hill next to a church. He is shaped like a human but giant sized and obviously made from a tree. With twisting branched doubling as muscles. The monsters and Connor’s interactions are like that of a strict adult or a teacher speaking to a child. It takes a rough tone in it’s voice, doesn’t tolerate any of his disrespect but also wants to nurture Connor, to explain important thing to him, so it doesn’t just get angry or revert to insulting him. It has a purpose.
All the stories seem like regular fables that we’ve heard in some way, however, when the ending comes it turn out that the characters are not what they originally appeared to be, others are more sympathetic than we would like. Connor doesn’t see the point in them. When it comes time for the Monster to tell it’s stories it becomes a shifting picture book animation.
There are visual choices that are made in this movie which you could simply label “cool” or “pretty” when seen initially. However through the entire watching of the movie you see that there is a reason why. These are the best kind of visually creative decisions, one that look great but also feed into the meaning of the world. It is as Guillermo Del Toro describes “Eye protein, not eye candy.”
Stories are escapes from reality, but they also help shape reality. We escape into stories when we need a break but to places and characters that help us understand out troubles, vices and tragedies.
Review Rogue One by Jonathan Evans
(3 / 5)
With the release of The Force Awakens Star Wars is currently experiencing one of it’s greatest resurgences in popularity. Now as we wait for episode eight we are given Rogue One which serves as the bridge between the prequels and the originals.
This movies main goal is to finally establish who it was that got the Death Star plans to Princess Leia and how. In many different video games and other mediums there have been multiple people that have done this so this whole movies purpose is to set it in stone.
I feel the same way about this movie as I do about Jurassic World and that is that on the asthetic level of being apart of a previously established franchise it succeeds greatly and it never really clicks except in the last ten minutes. The last ten minutes of this movie is where you really feel the impact and has it’s best moments. However this raises the question, does this make it worth it? As a simple piece of information to the franchise as a whole not really, did we need to know all these details, no we can live without them. As a movie, to have to sit through something that is just OK but never really resonating until the finale?
Everything about this production says that the people working on the visuals know their material and are passionate to be here. Star Wars is a world of technology far beyond what we have now but is worn and dusty from it’s time being used and environment. Very few things are clean or at least have a few scratches on them and there are details that tie it in with the original film, like when a giant screen changes there’s a half second of static, remember static?
Our characters to perform this task are Jyn (Felicity Jones) the daughter of a scientist, the one that designed the Death Star, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen). Also they have Orson Kennrick (Ben Mendelson) as their position that hunts them and opposes everything they stand for. They also have a converted Imperialist droid named K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk). My favourite character, wise cracking but in the way that is believable a robot would be, displeased with illogical course of action the humans are taking.
The writing for this movie is way too on-the-nose. The dialog is all about “hope” and “rebellion” and “fight” and “chance.” This is obvious writing that is easy to see through and too corny to get invested in. There are times when it settles down and has the characters talk more human-like but it’s these moments you’ll remember.
Being that the plot is set before A New Hope there are two faces that come back, literally! I wont spoil the second one but Peter Cushing is facially recreated and voiced by another actor. This is, frankly, creepy. I know that what I am seeing is a real person that is long since dead and has been facially re-created to deliver another performance. Recreating a young Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy is one thing, but this feels very disrespectful. There is an episode of The Critic where they have a millionaire say that using C.G.I. he can have old, long dead actors do what he wants. This was intended as a joke, now it’s a disturbing reality.
There are moments of fan-service in this movie that is the most detrimental to any movie. They are the types that come, non-subtly state themselves and then moves on. These are moments for the fans, others will just be slightly detoured by characters moving by or a lot of emphasis on a certain name. It’s not the worst I’ve seen but that doesn’t make this any better.
Star Wars fans are some of the most dedicated and obsessive fans ever (this can be either a good or bad thing). I imagine the hardcore fans will take this movie and really focus in on its prose and not care about its problems. For others, it will be a serviceable science fiction movie that has an ending that makes it all worth it
Review Moana by Jonathan Evans
(4 / 5)
Disney movies have been for the family since the companies beginning. But they have mostly been for a Caucasian audience. In recent years companies have realised that there are other types of people and have striven to represent more of the many different types of people inhabiting the world.
We get told that there is the god of islands Te Fiti that created the islands of the world, when one day the demi-god Maui steals her heart, this starts the spreading of a great evil that will devour all life on the planet eventually. Years later and the events have become legend and on an island a tribe lives in perfect happiness. However despite this the chiefs daughter, Moana, feels the ocean calling to her, for her whole life despite the fact that the island has everything anyone could want she is beckoned to leave for something else.
Eventually the corruption reaches her island, so she must leave and restore the goddess heart with the help of Maui. And so out hero’s quest begins.
Mona is our latest instalment for female Disney leads. Whether she is technically a princess or not is debatable (even in the film), but she will indefinitely join the brand in future. But she is like many of her predecessors, an energetic, spirited girl that has what would seem like a perfectly acceptable status quo but there is something about her nature where she yearns for more. The great technical achievement with her is her face, whatever inner emotion she is going through her expressions convey them perfectly clearly, so much so that her dialog is rather throw-away. However the person doing her voice is also a great treat. Auli’i Cravalho infuses Moana with the authentic energy we need to like this young woman, she is a genuine teenager so she has that unique quality to her voice that is nearly impossible to replicate by older actors and she is able to handle any emotional scenes she has to from distressed, the comedic to emotional.
Mawi the demigod is played by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The Rock is an extremely charismatic actor that is the perfect fit for this very larger than life character. He comes with a unique visual gimmick that whenever he accomplishes a great feat he gets a new tattoo on his body and one of the tattoos of him can move and express (possibly his subconscious, I don’t know).
Also along for the quest is Heihei, a rooster that is as intelligent as any other rooster. He serves as the animal comedic relief, because this is an animated Disney movie, there must be one.
Ron Clements and John Musker once again take the reigns as directors on a Disney movie. They kicked off the Disney renaissance with The Little Mermaid and went on to make Aladdin, Hercules, Princess & The Frog and now they’re back with their first C.G.I. movie. They understand how to handle a Disney property, they must be entertaining for the whole family so there needs to be something that all the age-groups will like and then must be tied together as the finished product. Something that’s taken over from when they did Hercules is the use of flat graphic animation.
For this project Disney recruited Lin-Manuel Miranda as one of the songwriters. For those of you (I am one) that are enjoying the phenomenon that is Hamilton this will be very exciting for you. Every song in the movie serves to either broadly convey emotion or compress story information at an extremely efficient level. There are no songs that are simply the character making breakfast, the songs mean something. He is a natural words-man, able to craft intricate lyrics that stay on point, rhyme and are funny. My two favourites are “You’re Welcome” Maui’s self-indulgent song about all his great feats, and “Shiny” also a self indulgent song by the villain (a giant treasure covered crab named Tamatoa) about how it only matters whats on the inside, plays like a 70’s pop song by Jermaine Clements.
This is Disney, I feel its pointless to sing its praise of how well this is animated, it has the best people in the world working for them and have a more than capable budget. It is beautiful, with lush colors and textures. But what I want to bring up is the delicate balance they strike in representing the ethnicity and culture of Hawaiians while not being offensive. This is a cartoon so they have to exaggerate but not so much that it becomes a warped and disrespectful.
Much like The Little Mermaid this marks Disney studio doing what they do best while at the same time trying something new with its asthetic. Songs, characters and brilliant animation for the whole family, this is a Disney movie.
Review ‘Arrival’ by Jonathan Evans
(4 / 5)
Arrival is a movie that asks the question “What is the first thing we ask an alien race?” It is actually an incredibly simple set-up, spaceships land and a linguist (Amy Adams) must now develop a dialog between them. Simple but also not so much when you think about all that goes into communicating, also with a completely different species.
During the first half an hour of the film the score is terribly obnoxious, every big thing that happens is accompanied with the orchestra going nuts on a single note as loud as they can. There’s musical effect to heighten the mood of a scene and put us in the shoes of our character but this was just blunt un-subtlety.
The ship itself is like a giant floating black pill, cut down the middle. From the bottom a rectangular tunnel opens, within it they provide gravity so the walls can be easily walked on, then that leads to a age rectangular room, where a glass (or whatever the alien equivalent of glass is) separates the two species.
Their exact details are obscured in the smoke but from what we can see they look like obsidian Octopus or hands. When we learn how they function reader of Slaughterhouse 5 will notice a channeling of ideas.
Eventually a back and forth is developed through writings. Louise writes things down in English and the aliens eventually respond with their own form of writings. They look like black coffee rings, always taking a circle form but with spikes, or plashes or thicker lines or gaps within them.
Amy Adams as Dr. Louise Banks gives an incredibly grounded performance as this truly human but also admirable character. She is driven in her believes and is clearly an expert in her field but she is also very shaken with her world being turned upside-down because of an alien arrival. She shakes and is intimidated by the momentous task she has to achieve but proceeds to do her very best.
Throughout this entire movie there are no action scenes, no moments when gunfire accrues on-screen.This is a good thing. So many science fiction movies either are just action movies but with crazy gun designs and flashier colours or don’t trust their audience enough to stick with them through their message. Arrival has something to say and keeps saying it, without having the throw-in some loud noises to make sure your awake.
One tricky element to this movie that might end-up being a detriment. That is the fact that it is in English and language is so key to the form of the movie. Usually I wouldn’t think about this but because the movie is so keenly focused on the words it chooses and how they can be interpreted, how well will this work with other countries? The translating process is more complicated than just writing-up a direct translation and putting it into subtitles that appear on-screen. Different languages come with different sensibilities so how well can this be translated? This may turn-out to be nothing but it was a question the movie raised within me.
Arrival is a movie that will make you truly think about, is nothing else, your choice of words. How you make decisions and the options you give to an outsider. Thinking is what a science fiction movie should do. This accomplishes its mission.
Review Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them
(2 / 5)
Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them is based on a fictional textbook about all the different creatures that inhabit the Harry Potter world. If you have seen the movie Adaptation you will know that taking a non-fiction book without a plot is very difficult. There’s not a lot to help shape the narrative.
I must confess that I am not a Harry Potter fan. I don’t hate the world but I have found that there are other, even more richer fantasy worlds to get involved in rather than this one. So this movie has a lot of work to do to appeal to me.
We open with a colourfully dressed character with a frizzy head-of-hair named Newt. He is getting off the boat and entering New York City in the Roaring Twenties. He carries a suitcase with him that (like Doctor Who’s TARDIS) is bigger on the inside. And inside this case is an entire zoo of Beasts, fantastical creatures. While walking the streets one of the Beasts, a money grabbing mole, gets out and enters a bank, while in pursuit his path crosses with Jacob Kowalski, a local New Yorker that’s trying to get a loan for his bakery. And from there-on we have our movies duo.
Eddie Redmayne as Newt (just like he was in The Theory of Everything) is the best part of the movie. He is a shy and awkward around people, but not the typical portrayal of these types of characters we usually see. He is a sensitive soul that is clearly most happy and truly at home interacting with all the beasts.
He and Dan Fogler as Kowalski are the only actors on the side of our protagonists that seem to be invested in the material. The others seem out-of-place and uninterested. But Newt and Kowalski make a good pair, Newt is inexperienced in New York and the non-magical world and is charmed by Kowalski’s simple mentality, while Kowalski knows nothing about the magical world and is fascinated by everything Newt has to offer. Each of them can provide exposition to the other so the audience is also well informed and the actors work together beautifully.
The other obvious really strong element to the movie is the Beasts themselves. We get a whole bunch of different Beasts that range from the the handheld to the size of a house, all are different shapes and need to be handled differently.
There are some clues that an audience member begins to pick-up on through general experience. You learn that one character may be saying one thing but means another etc. But as soon as we see Colin Ferrell as Percival Graves you will instantly think “Villain!” and you’ll be right.
Also included in the movie is a group of orphans that are abused and also know about the wizarding world. Among them is Ezra Miller as Credense Barebone, just as creepy as We Need to talk about Kevin but in different ways. More like a oily, sad creep, lurking in the darkness.
It is these elements, with Ferrel and Miller where the movie makes it’s biggest mistakes. They are so dark and unpleasant, when we just had some good colourful fun with Newt and Kowalski that they really seem like they are part of another movie.
The final climax comes in the form of a threat that is literally just a shapeless blob on-screen that destroys all in its way. It is almost as un-engaging as the final villain fight in Green Lantern.
This could have been a simple tale of a stranger in a strange land with a case full of trouble and they get loose, so now he and his newly acquired friends have to retrieve them. That’s all that was needed, but having a villain included as well as this political stuff is just unnecessary and muddies a simple tale.
The movies biggest fault comes in it’s ending. I wont spoil it but there is a reveal. And it makes absolutely no sense and comes out of nowhere. I had no idea what was going on until I had a brief talk with one of my friends that is a much greater lover of the Harry Potter lore than I am. This relies so heavily on the audience being fluent in the lore to make any sense, maybe for those people it will be a jaw-dropping moment but I was just bewildered.
There is an audience for this movie. Its not me. The people that will like it are obviously the Harry Potter fans that will take more of the world in any form. Others will simply be taken by the special effects that are happening on-screen and be happy with that. Others, like me, will be smiling at the great duo of Newt and Koalski. So I would recommend this to the Potter fans, but if my best friend asked if they should see it and they were not. They can probably live without it.