2022 CATCH UP - PART ONE
How does the old expression go? Something old, something new, something borrowed... let's be real for a moment there's not much new out there. Most of what is being borrowed has been circulating for aeons which means when it's old, it's really old. Big superhero flicks and franchises are starting to become so stale that they're practically dessicated at this stage. Yet another Predator movie? Beavis and Butt-Head are back again? A film starring Chip 'n Dale? Good grief. Maybe there's something wrong with the universe and we've all become trapped in a cinematic hell of our own making. Though for the record those first two are worth seeing, the third not so much. Still, perhaps there's some human imagination at work out there somewhere...
It might come as a surprise that I don't personally believe in superhero fatigue. But movies from monolithic corporations like Marvel and Sony aren't exactly crackling with ingenuity these days. I wouldn't feel so tired if the films being produced were exciting. So when something like Spider-Man No Way Home comes out and I'm left wondering what the big deal is, that's their fault not mine. The storyline is weak, the visual effects budget has been stretched very thin across a dozen other projects, and the 'big surprise' cameos land like a wet thud. Apparently everyone is supposed to stand up and clap like a bunch of performing seals when this sort of thing happens?
If only there was a Doctor Strange in our own dimension to fix whatever's going on with people here. It might have been a neat trick to see Spider-man actors of the past show up, if it wasn't the only gimmick the film has going for it. Besides, they already did this with more finesse in Enter the Spider-Verse, so this feels like another re-heated meal. Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker was always miscast, and nothing changes that here. Tobey Maguire just comes across as confused, instead of being a seasoned version of the title character. But improvements would have to be made on the paper, to allow things like characterisation and chemistry.
The results are more a creepy exercise by a bunch of companies flexing their intellectual properties, instead of a third part of a real film trilogy. Since we own all this stuff, why not sell it to everyone again? The charm of Spider-man: Homecoming feels like a million years ago, while the likes of Sam Raimi's original efforts feel, appropriately, like something from another dimension entirely. Perhaps if this was written as an identity crisis, much like the animated multi-verse movie, things would be more engrossing. But while the script eventually throws in some lip service about self-sacrifice, the whole thing just comes across as hollow.
2/5
Elsewhere Batman is back, again, in The Batman. A three hour movie that has it's eye on being some kind of sprawling crime thriller, a dark and personal journey into the title character, and a hard boiled detective plot. The results are instead just a really long film without much going on under the hood. Sometimes less is more, particularly when the main focus is just making The Riddler of all people threatening. But while Paul Dano screeches and schemes through a plot to prove that Gotham City is run by crooks, it's never clear why anyone should care. When things are so murky at such a deep level, why does it matter if the likes of The Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Carmine Falcone (John Turtorro) are running amok?
Bruce Wayne himself (Robert Pattinson) certainly doesn't seem that invested. He doesn't have any obvious idealism and comes off as a watered down, mumbling version of Christian Bale's iteration. He certainly doesn't have the naive charm when the cowl is off, when he's talking to this film's Alfred (Andy Serkis). There's also no chemistry between Batman and Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) despite a forced romance. But with so much running time where's the focus? It's never romantic and it's never dramatic. It feels like it should be about the characters, but they're all far too thin. It feels like it's all working up to a point about social decay, but meanders aimlessly for so long and then fumbles the third act.
The only pieces of the picture that feels fully formed are the visuals and the score. But even the latter is a strange mixture if repetitive chords and repetitive licensed music. It's confusing that a Nirvana song plays over dialogue so loudly at one point, but it gets more confusing when the same song is used multiple times. The look of the film is interesting, if an endless night and a tonne of shallow depth of field effects are your thing. It's constantly wet and covered in a fine mist, which get frustrating after a while. The geography of certain set pieces are muddied because nothing is put into focus. This only gets worse during a strangely rushed finale that seems to be on a screen screen.
2/5
To escape all of this mainstream drudgery we must of course look elsewhere, even if the results are still related to superheroes and visual effects. However, there's a no more exhilarating three hours than RRR. Forget tepid car chases and visually tiring fights between computer generated characters. Forget even what pacing in a film of this length usually feels like. While my knowledge of Indian cinema is very limited, I did expect a certain kind of drawn out melodrama complete with musical numbers and bad special effects. Instead this tale of revolutionary forces in the 1920s has more charm and personality than any recent tentpole release combined. The contents are nothing fresh, but the way it's put together and the general tone are what makes it work.
You want men fighting alongside wild animals? Explosive rescue scenes? Prison breaks and battles against insurmountable odds? Dance-offs and songs during public floggings? This might all sound ridiculous, and it often is. But like the central bromance between soldier Raju (Ram Charan) and healer Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) it goes to show that when it's done with heart that's all that matters. During one climactic scene a song plays in which the lyrics compare their bloodlines to mythological characters. By that point in the story it's easy to just go along with it, since they've been through so much absurd stuff already.
It's hard to take their adventure seriously, particularly when the characters are supposed to be based on real people. Everyone is a caricature, particularly the British Empire villains who feel borrowed from somewhere like Ip Man 2. Which means that something is slightly off about the last sequence which involves a lot of other real life historical figures and national flags. But I'd have to let other experts in that department comment on this more specifically. It does feel more down to earth instead of being another Wolf Warrior, though seeing it such is probably a valid perspective. Purely as a fan of world cinema and action films it's a breathe of fresh air after so much exhausting Hollywood fare.
4/5
PART TWO>>
