I love a good thriller; however I'm struggling to watch them now because they just feel too much like real life. Also waiting for new films, especially the new Bond, to hit the big screen... What to do in the interim? I've headed to the website and all round delivery service that shall not be named, and found some enjoyable cheese!
Olympus Has Fallen is proving problematic cos it feels very racist. Happily there are other movies...
The Wolfman was the right side of Gothic for me. Gore is hidden in the shadows or OTT viz An American Werewolf in London style; violence is stylised and it's all about the mood. Though I wish the budget had extended to more hairpins for Emily Blunt's epic horse ride. Plus Anthony Hopkins is the villain, and he plays the piano!
In the background, so many fantastic actors - Hugo Weaving as the policeman on the hunt; Antony Sher; Art Malik; Clive Russell; Geraldine Chaplain; David Schofield - a veritable chocolate box of really good acting. Emily Blunt is fantastically moving, whilst Benicio del Toro makes us pity him as he tries to escape his fate.
As radioactive monsters haven't returned yet to plague the Earth, Gozilla King of the Monsters is ok. Not quite as in it's world as Pacific Rim was, it still looks and feels wonderful. Some great diverse casting; fabulously starry actors and nice touches of heroism from men and women. Sadly some unnecessary swearing and Pacific Rim had better score and humour, but Charles Dance is the ultimate rewilding ecowarrior villain. Clearly I am ok with Brits with RP accents being evil... Hmmmm..... It's a lot of fun as America and the world are menaced and destroyed (and saved) by radioactive beasts.
The Legend of Tarzan takes a potentially interesting twist on the colonialism, racism, sexism and paternalistic imperialism plaguing Edgar Rice Burroughs works and sets it in historical reality. Potentially interesting story of how the King of the Belgians, Leopold II, apparently offered beneficence to the Congo (in a colony that wasn't a colony) and yet turned it into an appalling people trafficking, enslaving and resource looting money maker, with horrific genocide among the many local civilisations and the use of private armies and enforced labour and conscription. It also includes the real life characters of George Washington Williams (Baptist minister and one of the many exposers of what was really going on in the Congo region), and Leon Rom, who was as greedy and strange as portrayed. However truth is stranger than fiction - see Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost and really a lot more could have been done with this setting.
The movie takes an unusual twist, instead of Tarzan being uncivilised, Lord Greystoke is very happy in imperial civilisation, thank you very much, drinking tea and speaking full sentences in correct clothing, and not keen to return at all. Margot Robbie gets a ramped up scientific and feisty, independent Jane to play, which is wonderful - she's the one who wants to go back to 'Africa'.
There are flaws tho - once again, the unidentified 'African tribes' are unable to save themselves, only Westerners and specifically Tarzan can do this. Given the DRC history of hidden forest armies who fought the Belgians in the depths against being forced into rubber production and enslavement, much more could have been done here. It also feels part Lion King and part Black Panther at points! This is also a very secularised view of history - though there may be heaps of pith helmeted Europeans and Americans floating around, the movie erases the explorers, scientists, biologists, adventurers, merchants and missionaries scouring the area and setting up trading and religious/medical posts (for both good and bad purposes).
Another major flaw is Margo Robbie's entire styling - any attempt at historic styling is ditched in favour of shabby hippy chic and no attempt at hair styling at all, cos she's a social-cultural rebel! But if you look at women in this era, they were climbing mountains, ski-ing and doing all kinds of sports in adapted fashionable costumes rather than letting their hair fly loose in the wind and wearing really odd clothes. Fashion and social conformity played a much bigger part than movies suggest today.
Ignoring the entire deficit of hair pins, the steam boat and Maxim machine gun make up for it, as does the villain's death by mating crocodile, and the escape from marauding Hippos. The flash backs are nice touch (leaving us a lot of 'what if' gaps to fill in); there are pith helmets a plenty; lots of token British treasures die horribly in foreign climes; Jim Broadbent cameo! all the sideburns, beards and moustaches you could ever want (clearly this is where they blew the style budget!) and some seriously thoughtful acting from Alexander Skarsgard, Christopher Waltz and Simon Russell Beale raise the script above the cheese it could have been. Samuel L Jackson and Margo Robbie again add to the class and go for it, full throttle, with the epicness and action, and it is fun, essentially seeing the Lion King cast fight back against the imperialist aggressors.
Given the setting they chose, they really could have done a lot more with it and invested the 'tribes' with specific identities and characters; but it redeems itself with a Bond exploding set fight off - Alexander Skarsgard for next Bond!!!! But do read Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost book for a sense of what this movie could have been and the horrific history only hinted at here.
Jupiter Ascending
It's been rubbished, but if you think Flash Gordon meets the Matrix, then it works well. Given that it's by the Wachowskis, I had no idea what was happening with the plot and had to look it up - but it's by the Matrix makers, so say no more... It looks astounding. Mila Kunis is actually given something to do! She has a character with heart, ethics and guts, and a nice sense of the practical, and who goes back to where she started having learnt something. I like the sci-fi Wizard of Oz back story. It has lots of token Brits being amazing and some great diverse casting without screaming about. Channing Tatum gets a really interesting hero - think Mr Tumnus with wings and there you have him. But his hero is really interesting, he also gets something to do - he truly loves his lady and Queen, sacrificially, even when he realises status might separate them and never has a go at her or is nasty or belittling towards her as so many leading love interest men can be - he is truly prepared to lay down his life for her because he wants her to live, because he loves her for who she is, not what he wants her to be. This hero provides a lot of 'is he going to make it?' moments... Proper romance in action - love this self-sacrificing and giving element without guilt tripping, and they play it well. He also really wants her to be safe from terrible mistakes, like giving over your Earthly empire to evil yet impossibly beautiful Douglas Booth.
Mila Kunis is a cleaner, Jupiter Jones, who can see aliens, and was quirkily named by her father who loved space and all things astronomical before he was murdered (not by aliens or for being an alien, but possibly by the Russian Mafia). I was convinced that her father was an alien aka Superman, and possibly Mila Kunis and evil Eddie Redmayne are half-siblings, but not so - didn't see any of the following plot coming at all.
Sean Bean lives! (all the way to end!) and gets to use his Northern accent; and is a good guy alive, for a change. He's also half-human, half-bee or something; but you'd never know it! Eddie Redmayne and Douglas Booth play the most fantastically smooth looking yet slimey villains - Eddie Redmayne all quietly threatening and has a fantastically epic 'villain won't die and then falls dramatically to his doom' ending...All because Mila Kunis reminds him of his mother...because her Dad was his father and alien (but no.....)
The scenery and costumes are literally out of this world and dazzling; but many of the side characters have good parts too. There's Mila Kunis's extended family who get kidnapped and have to be rescued from a collapsing burning building in cryogenically frozen states...That's a lot of capsules to shift to safety quickly. There are winged lizard henchmen clearly left over from the Dark Crystal - their presence is never explained, but they were wonderful! Ariyon Bakare has the best part here as one of these! I thought they might be what Eddie Redmayne might turn into without the harvested human elixir or whatever, but no...Or mutations of experiments Eddie Redmanyne carried out on harvested humans (but also no)... See when the plot is so difficult to understand that you start making your own over-complex back stories instead!!!! Forget the plot...think of the surroundings...
Not to mention the burning collapsing set which Mila Kunis and Eddie Redmayne scramble over and round in a desperate fight off - so much creativity going on here as the two famous actors are seemingly put into peril; falling and hanging off things and being flamed every two seconds, and lots of bits breaking away as they're teetering on them! Tuppence Middleston is a bit cliched - all beauty and then naked bathing scene to achieve eternal youth from harvested humans and secretly seeking power - Mila Kunis is Queen of the Earth - they all want her crown (or tattoo of ownership). But she has the best sparkly of sparkling dresses ever, fabulously sparkly earrings and an awful lots of candles. However this Emerald City is founded on something rotten - this Borgia like clan are mining beauty treatments derived from harvesting trafficked earthlings (or something). I don't understand....There's a really funny battling bureaucracy scene with a increasingly frustrated droid.
Fight scenes are interesting as rather than the typical Marvel endless fights and pulping each other; brains and strategy are used - it's mostly defensive rather than fighting for the sake of fighting. Mila Kunis does the best falling off of tall things fall ever! And I haven't even mentioned Douglas Booth's sidekick or PA with prosthetic ears....
Gosh even Terry Gilliam and Tim Piggot-Smith are in there somewhere, Vanessa Kirby and the receptionist from Casino Royale/less hag like witch alien from Doctor Who as a droid! Nikki Amuka-Bird has a great part as the very measured captain of the ship who goes in to rescue when everyone else is fleeing the collapsing, exploding city. And very little green screening and CGI used - they did it themselves! So if you don't try to compare with the Shakespearean high hitters of Star Wars or Star Trek and instead think Flash Gordon - just enjoy the lush visuals and the characters and forget about trying to understand the plot! Have fun! and watch out for Channing Tatum's wings at the end! And the score! I always love to watch the end credits - but the music at the end is worth staying for by itself.
Soldier of God
SO MUCH POTENTIAL, so much cliche. Lots of medievally, knights and Vikings all channelling the Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones for all they're worth on the viewing platform that shall not be named (A_____).... Unlike many of them, this one had potential. Knight goes beserker in battle, knight gets captured, knight escapes capture, knight is rescued by kind Samaritan Saracen, knight rescues wounded Saracen in return, knight and wounded Saracen meet enigmatic physician and married woman in the desert and knight has ongoing crisis of faith, plus some other Saracens or perhaps Mamluks after them, I'm not sure why.
It could have been a change from the norm - it allows itself time, space and reflection in its cinematography - it could have done the same with the characters; the clash of opposing faiths, environments, outlooks, cultures could have been done in the same reflective way; it could have been a beautifully shot meditative reflection on an update of the good Samaritan or what faith really means when you're confronted with your enemy doing a good thing for you.
But it isn't - it's cliched. I don't know why the Mamluks, Saracens or whoever they are chasing them nor why they cut down everyone in a surprise attack at the end - rejected suitor/husband? I'm baffled. Given how much time the knight spends praying and seeking God, he does a rubbish job of resisting temptation, having a jolly good look, making up his own eleventh commandment (but a rubbish one) and rolling around in a blanket. Also, movie directors/producers please note, women just don't wash themselves in a completely gratuitous way ala Timoetei ads in the middle of the desert (when they are a loan woman, especially!) Please see Monet/Manet paintings for how real women really take a wash and apply. Preferably cut this cliched scene altogether cos what was the point apart from to throw in some female nudity? Given how hard a worker the Saracen woman is (she physicians, she launders, she rebuilds fences, she nurses a baby, she keeps a clean tent and surroundings (without any servants or help!) the knight should more have appreciated her Protestant work ethic in the making (a few centuries too early) and her Proverbs 31 potential and started some Bible classes with her to share Jesus. But his faith is a cliche and so are they. He doesn't stay, he goes and then it all ends badly and he beats himself up and repents and rolls around in the desert some more...but it's all too late. And cliched!
The Saracen good Samaritan who sadly dies before the end was a much more interesting character and deserves his own adventure movie. This movie could have really gone full throttle into the devoted Crusader/medieval faith mindset, looked at what happens when your faith is challenged by people of other faiths/cultures behaving out of stereotype and whether you change or whether you resist that, and given all the desert, the Desert Fathers and meditations of faith in the wilderness could have been used more. Great to see struggles in faith and prayer portrayed on screen, but too much rolling around in the desert to make it anything more than a beautifully shot cliche! But appreciated the lack of gratuitous sex to follow up on the washing or violence against women stopped just in time - atleast it wasn't that cliched (really not liking how rape and threat of assault is used in so many of these films as a thing without any real thought or consideration of what is being shown or how women and men who've been assaulted might feel about it). So thankfully not that cliched, but more Saracen, less knight (unless he gets his act together more and rolls around less - he can do it - at one point he was...repairing fences!)
Potential to be a much deeper and more interesting story - not only of Crusader mindset, (especially of the devotion of the Knights Templars to reclaim and defend Jerusalem to the death or Christ's return), but Saracen culture, without the modernisms. Knight is definitely a post-modern; Saracen under the impression that they're in one land (errrr).... Worth watching for the end credits - Virgin Mary pops up somewhere in this (where?!!!!) and all those extra fighters (ha ha) listed at the end! I do like the fact that the knight is still working through everything he's seen and heard, and prays and is silent and very reflective, unless spoken to. You have to work harder to work out his motivation and thinking. Yet I am genuinely annoyed cos the performances are good - just more and better material please!
Some interesting things to say here - https://www.medievalists.net/2016/03/friendship-betrayal-war-soldier-of-god-movie-review/
Daredevil
Very late to the party on this one - but who cannot love all those hip defying kick flare jeans, big buckle belts and spahgetti strap tops? Oh and a big grungey rock soundtrack; angsty but weirdly happier days. As an action comic book movie I really enjoyed it (apart from the knives in hands - implausible and squelchy - urgh); a genuinely morally conflicted hero, but done in a more real time. He seeks justice after the loss of his sight and his father - but is it infact revenge and making him just as criminal as the criminals he seeks to bring to justice (i.e. carnage and brutal ends)?
A nice backdrop is faith alongside the action and stunts - the hero seeks forgiveness, but can't forgive. Apart from the risible Daredevil suit, our hero also meets his match in Electra, a rich streetfighting heroine - the see-saw fight is something to behold and just plain fun. As it is the '90s, the hero and heroine fall into OTT bed before love, but then disaster looms as the Daredevil appears to have murdered Electra's father and she is now out to get him. Colin Farrell's villain is something too.
But I spoiler no more - a nice slice of '90s action, but with charm and fun, and truly moral questions, making the hero more thoughtful and questioning than usual. Plus gargoyles.
Crimson Peak
Total guilty pleasure on this one - along with Fast and Furious movies, I really enjoy a good gothicky blood soaked gore fest (in a historical and unreal setting) - Company of Wolves, An American Werewolf in London, Crimson Peak, Ripper Street, M R James or Lovecraft as read by Nunkie. Like an M R James story, it was chills and shocks rather than modern grim horror (although some of the corpses and ghosts are a bit too much for me). But it looks beautiful - the costumes are stupendous and in this Bryonised version of Bluebeard and his wives, unfortunate wealthy women are being duped, conned and murdered by a duplicitous sister and her brother.
Unexpectedly there are also Cumbrian mines and steam power! In this anthesis to Downton Abbey, the crumbling stately home is literally crumbling, if not rotting, as snow and leaves fall down from the roof, the water leaks red (clay?) and the very close brother and sister live without any servants or retainers. Didn't expect the ending - very Sweeney Todd (and a bit too much of Tom Hiddelston's bum), but it is a very gothic shocker ala Castle of Otranto or The Monk and wholly satisfying in its revelations as our duped heroine discovers a mysterious dog with a rubber ball, a key with a name on not her's and a locked trunk, and then wax cylinder recordings....
The unsung hero of this work is the faithful doctor on the sidelines who (similar to Phantom of the Opera or Sweeney Todd) faithfully pursues and cares for the heroine to protect her from an untimely end (poisoning or Victorian consumptive chic).... Cast all act wonderfully and very seriously, and everyone gets to act to the full rather than look decorative; heroine of this work is very clever, inquisitive and scientific. Not all gore though, there is waltzing impeccably too! and until half way through, hats!!
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