2022 CATCH-UP: PART THREE
The blockbuster is dead, long live the blockbuster. With the biggest hitters of the year all being sequels or nostalgia fuelled reboots it's hard to get excited about them any more. But for some reason when it's apparently too hard for anyone to write a good Star Wars movie or a good superhero adventure, the Mission: Impossible team is here to provide both. This shouldn't be rocket science but the latest big screen outings for those franchises have been a mess, to put it lightly. After showing the James Bond producers how it's done the same big names are back, providing both the dog fighting thrills absent from the Skywalker Saga and the kind of simple charm absent from something like a Marvel outing. Which I will get to soon enough.
There's nothing new under the sun. Or if you prefer another figure of speech, everything's a remix. So this is basically Top Gun again, a film which I have no real love for. It's also Star Wars again (or 'A New Hope' if you prefer the retroactive episode names). Which in itself borrowed heavily from 633 Squadron and The Dam Busters. It's simple and derivative, while providing a whole bunch of recruiting power to the United States Navy. So why is it so satisfying to watch this all come together? Maybe it's because basic things like origin stories and mismatched characters learning to work together are so often fumbled these days. Maybe it's because not having a visual effects induce migraine after the third act is refreshing.
Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell is back, and he's brought Harold Faltermeyer and Kenny Loggins with him. Characters with ridiculous nicknames like Hangman and Rooster are here to have macho disputes, before getting down to some inevitable beach sports. For those obsessed with the cornball original this will probably hit a lot harder, but as I say this is something most people can get behind. Even those who are rooting for the weirder low budget releases in 2022. The characters are paper thin but they have enough charisma and straightforward rivalries for it to work. There's bad blood (and friendship) following the previous movie, but it never gets bogged down in those sort of ties. It's still a cornball affair but it's never convoluted or contrived.
Of course of the character chemistry is a prelude to the real star of the movie, a bunch of fighter jet set pieces. Test flights, training courses, target practice, and the eventual suicide mission to attack an impossible to reach target. All of this is a proper thrill ride with quality editing and great aerial photography. Not everything is real but it feels tactile and exciting. When other big releases struggle to get any of this right, from the themes of a story to the big effects, it's a breath of fresh air to see it executed properly. Simplicity and thrill power seem to be a lost art these days, particularly in the world of legacy sequels and spin-offs. Appropriately this is all done with a mechanical laser focused approach and all the elements fit together nicely.
4/5
Speaking of things fitting together properly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't done that for a long time now. They're pushing new ideas and adding new ingredients, but why? Here's a kung-fu inspired adventure, here's one with supernatural horror elements. And yet they all look and feel exactly the same. The only thing that felt enjoyable lately was The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which was a one joke short film. But it hit that mark at least. Elsewhere Thor and Doctor Strange are back, so I'll talk about them both here. Considering these were the sequels with established director's behind the camera it's weird that they don't feel more polished. I guess when things are written and pre-visualised ahead of time it doesn't matter.
Thor: Love and Thunder is the biggest mystery of the two. A story that has some of the worst running gags mixed with some of the darkest plot developments. Is anyone supposed to care about the melancholy stakes when every five minutes a CGI goat screams or someone delivers a terrible quip? Forget tonal whiplash, this is more of a possessed head-spin. Is it a story about arrogant gods and supernatural beings, or is it just a bunch of leftover material from the last film? It feels like that latter, and sometimes it feels like the whole thing has been purposefully sabotaged. It's a mess, but not in a fun way. Christian Bale is totally wasted and should have stayed away from this kind of fare. The rest of it feels like a bizarre riff on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which I would rather watch instead.
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness on the other hand is initially better off. Although Sam Raimi seems to have just inserted a bunch of his old camera tricks and drive-in shock scenes, instead of doing anything new. After the Wizard of Oz prequel he did this feels more appropriate, but in some ways it's just as lacking. After a fun opening action scene the story starts to feel off, as do all the multiverse elements. Character motivations are all over the place, and beyond some brief montage scenes the big premise is wasted on two utterly dull alternate universes. There are a lot of things on screen in both of these releases, but they have nothing useful to say. Marvel Studios has more X-Men and more Fantastic Four to sell you, perhaps expecting anything less is the real madness.
2/5
Lastly let's take a look at some more stop-motion animation, which I always have time for. Netflix released sinister anthology The House earlier this year, which had its moments. It was frustrating and bleak for the most part, but it had its moments. For a three part portmanteau it was often a stressful horror experience in a variety of existential ways. But it's always worth looking into something that has been crafted this way despite the drab trappings of each tale. How this would have worked as the series which was originally planned is unclear, as the second and third tale feel underdeveloped - either unclear about their message or being too lightweight. Which is something that is also true in Wendell and Wild.
The story, a girl summons the demons to resurrect her dead parents, is sound enough. The eponymous duo however are concerned with a scheme to build a nightmare theme park, tired of maintaining the same for their diabolical father. But the hero is Kat, a juvenile delinquent given a second chance in her old home town. There's a lot of stuff going on here. Some of Kat's new schoolmates are linked to a shady corporation that is killing the town, and there's a lot elements involving private prisons and business monopolies. Elsewhere the school itself hides a secret pair of demon hunters with their own history, which is a fun idea. But these all feel like separate threads that could have been given their own movie, without any of it being fleshed out properly.
As a result this feels like yet another animated movie about the dead coming back to life in one way or another. If it was focused on demon hunters, demonic entrepreneurs, or mismatched school friends, then it would have more depth. But a lot of the inclusions are given pretty basic lip-service and it rushes to a very simple conclusion after raising some complicated questions. Perhaps this isn't the place to dig into ideas about amoral profit making, but it could be expanded on properly. It's another twisted Henry Selick film, which means it's often fun and looks great. I always want to see more of his work. But Coraline this is not, despite it toying with some of the same parental themes. It's worth a look, but at the end of the day it's a mixed bag of old tricks.
3/5
