Review Roundup - Into incoherence

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (2013)

First things first, well this is certainly a fantastic looking film. The art department has created some amazing stuff, the opening on an alien world is eye popping, the set pieces are all pretty spectacular and the general look is full of great visuals and designs. There are a number of fun, kinetic sequences. Some of the characters are well done, and the cast works well together for the most part. Unfortunately the rest of it is kind of messy, and it comes off as a "too many cooks" effort with far too many ideas thrown in and everything on screen all at once becoming bigger than just the visual effects. There is misplaced fan service, unnecessarily overblown schemes, and not enough focus on character where matters.

The underlying problem is that whoever wrote this needs to be sent to Rura Penthe, and looking at the credits it's a mix of Transformers 2 and Prometheus - not a magic combination. They had three people working on this, and maybe that's the problem. It's kind of a shame to see them waste all of the budget like this when there is clearly talent on the production. While it's not an offensive Transformers type money burning disaster (headache inducing car crash cinema in more than one way) the material here is still mostly useless with some very odd story choices that add nothing to the overall plot while revisiting arcs we've already seen in the previous movie. It's a compelling series of scenes and action beats, and it never feels boring, but rather than building up from their rebooted universe with a strong script it's like they were trying to link each set piece together retrospectively or kept adding extra moments to an earlier, less cluttered plot.

The 2009 effort wasn't exactly a great movie from a writing perspective either (it falls over itself in the third act several times) but it was at least mostly coherent; it was simpler and worked way better as a character piece even when they seem to be very overdone and almost cartoon like at times. Some of the cast are good as I have said, but others seem to fall quickly into the "give them something to do" category rather than being written with more practical roles in mind to suit their rank or position. McCoy seems to be sidelined in particular. Others are still miscast as they were the first time (Chekov, Scotty - sorry fans) but I liked the villains even when certain elements have been thrown in without any real thought to them... I won't go into spoiler material here. The trailers are pretty misleading but none of the twists are very satisfying or ultimately effective in a meaningful way. Revenge stories are far to easy and get used way too often.

In the end the exciting battles, chases and shoot outs are pointless without anything underpinning them as a framework to tell the story. A recent poll voted this worst ever Star Trek film, and while I don't agree it's not a great entry and they need to put some real effort into the next one to give it some meat, some depth and some gravity. With another commercial success on their hands, it's hard to say if that will ever happen. I was entertained, but not much else.

2/5

Review roundup - getting old and growing up

THE LAST STAND (2013)

In a period where it seems as though all the heroes of old are coming back for another screen outing, it's not a big surprise that Arnold tries his hand at doing the one man army act one more time. The less than successful Expendables movies had a handful of incoherent cameos from the Austrian Oak, but overall felt like they were aiming for some modern demographic instead of delivering the oldschool action vibes I wanted. This had to be better, right? Unfortunately the mix of what should have been a fresh approach with 80s action moments ends up as muddled and inconsistent as the tone veers from serious crime drama where Forest Whitaker frowns and shouts orders, to complete schlock in which people are exploded and one liners are spewed.

The movie I wanted to see involved Arnie and Peter Stormare shouting incomprehensible dialogue at each other while faceless mooks get blown away, but despite the latter's best attempts (seriously what was the accent? Sweden or Texas? Does he know this is all terrible?) it barely has 10 minutes worth of that expected goofy action. The scenes of melodrama and FBI seriousness just take up too much time, and interchangeable agents and boring townsfolk get far too much to say. Director Kim Ji-woon's The Good the Bad the Weird had a similar problem to a lesser extent, deciding if it wanted to be wacky or straight faced, and this time the struggle and indecision of choosing genre have a bigger impact. This is the kind of movie where a sidekick character finds a morning star in a museum while loading up for the showdown, and never uses it. It's just the wrong kind of rule breaking.

2/5

LIFE OF PI (2012)

The plot hook of a kid in a lifeboat with zoo animals for company is what got me interested in seeing this, and the parts where that takes place - that middle section where the craziness and survival scenes play out - delivers that in spades, with plenty of amazing visuals and impressive effects work for good measure. The blend of staying alive drama, surreal travel scenes and dream like fantasy moments as the boy Pi (long story) and the tiger Richard Parker (yeah) cross the Atlantic are very well done. How would you live like this? Is this all imagined? How many times will he curse God until his beliefs reach breaking point? How many times has he shouted Richard Parker? These kind of questions are what drew me in. The rest of the journey is less effective which is a shame, but has it's moments - and the themes of faith and which parts of life should be taken at face value are fairly engaging for the most part despite a slow start.

My major issues here are due to the structure - getting interested in the struggle of the boat occupants is the strongest element, but the way it takes place comes along too slowly and having bookend narration with our protagonist explaining things to a journalist in the present day just kills the atmosphere. Particularly near the end as the voyage had become more absorbing. It pulled me out of the story and standard narration, if any at all, would have been simpler and more effective. Overall the trip is worth taking but I felt these disappointing elements are a bigger problem that I'd have expected from all the awards buzz this generated.

3/5

Review Roundup - Fun and games

DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012)

So after using all those Morricone tracks in his past movies, and declaring "The Good, The Bad..." the perfect movie (as top picks go, I admit it's a nice choice) - Quentin Tarantino finally gets around to making a Western of his own. It's a blood splattered, pseudo-history epic bordering on pastiche in some places (as you might have expected after his last venture into the 2nd World War) and is full of great performances and slick musical choices for the most part, again no shocks there. Surprisingly, the locations being used are also given their share of screen time too, making for some spectacular vista moments. I really like the film's look, a world apart from the grimy, almost one room theatre of Reservoir Dogs. The action is handled well with plenty of good practical effects, and it's an engrossing movie experience overall despite one or two things that stall the pacing during the final act.

The meat of the story is of course a revenge drama, as our protagonists team up for love and justice. They take down the bad guys (either bounty kills or simply irredeemably awful people) on their way to rescue the title characters wife. In an interesting contrast, the horrors of trading human lives as animal stock for entertainment or labour are played completely straight - against the almost ridiculous level of bullet impacts which start when the villains begin taking hits in the inevitable shoot outs you'd expect from the genre in question. Where the opening scenes of Inglourious Basterds ramped up the real word tension and harrowing consequences of an SS questioning, here the subject matter is laid bare in a great deal more scenes. While it's a relief they are handled with seriousness, at the same time is difficult to sit through. But rightly so.

This is not to say we're getting a humourless drama - much of the story is fine entertainment thanks to the characters and script. The cast is all very strong whether we are rooting for them as saviours or loathing them as grotesque slavers and wanted criminals. Some may be veering into caricature territory at times, but as antagonists they are still entirely unlikeable. The dinner table discussion of race inferiority might be memorable as a sequence and a great performance moment, but the points being offered are only ever vile. Of course the main focus driving the story is Django and Schultz who make for a great duo, the latter deserving the praise and awards which have been bestowed on him. Even so, I doubt it will be converting any new Tarantino fans thanks to the violence levels but it's still recommended as an engaging, well made piece of cinema.   

4/5

  
WRECK IT RALPH (2012)

Disney's interest in videogames over time hasn't exactly been high caliber, however many cult fans of TRON there might be (both new and old have their moments but never hooked me entirely) so it was with a raised eyebrow I approached their latest animated feature, particularly after seeing that easter egg packed trailer full of classic gaming icons. As animation goes, the unexceptional but eye pleasing style seen in Tangled seems to have been the thrust of things in the design department (outside of the existing work of game artists) which isn't a massive issue in itself. It's just a shame that while the intrigue of the opening hook lasts for the first act, I was hoping something fresh to follow it. Later into the adventure it turns out that the less interesting design work is complimented by a fairly typical family adventure plot, and the predictable elements that those usually include soon follow suit. 

The premise is simple enough, but this proves to be a strength and ultimately the weakest element of the story. Sitting atop a smashed apartment block, as a kind of Donkey-Kong or Rampage style villain, our titular residential menace is having a personal crisis after 30 years of being defeated by coin using gamers. Setting out to change his life and get the respect of a hero, the whole world and history of the videogame is set ahead of him - in a convenient tube station linking all the machines and their characters within the arcade that they are hooked into.

Ultimately though after a fun trip into a modern day sci-fi shooter (when did games get so violent?) things get bogged down way too much in the standard stuff - hero's journey to find his place, a cute unlikely romance sub plot and an outcast's chance at being part of the clique. This could have been worked around, but the problem is that the limitless possibilities offered by "game-hopping" are squandered by having all this take place in a single candy themed race track world, something that after a while feels like it could be part of any animated feature. Despite the Mario Kart vibe it suggests, most of it just comes across as a typical fantasy kingdom setting full of wacky minions and bright colours while anything Namco and Sega might have offered is sidelined. The idea of using all those years of game history, all those genres - it never materialises. Villains are revealed, tables are turned and character arcs are completed - it's just so by the numbers after such potential is built up at the start.

In the end it's a likeable, but forgettable trip that could have had so much variety considering who we meet in AA meeting style opener. Perhaps something Pixar might have handled with more finesse. Maybe it just wasn't possible with all those licenses and such a trim film length - but I guess it might just be the balance of audiences they were aiming at, a combination of arcade fans and younger film goers is probably a tricky balance and ultimately I couldn't love the resulting mix.

3/5

Review Roundup - Totally expected schlock

LOCKOUT (2012)

You know when you hear a premise, and what you think of is almost exactly the film you get? It's a strange kind of satisfaction but at the same time the lack of surprise drags you down a little. So when they say this is a movie where Guy Pearce is forced by Peter Stormare to go on a rescue mission in a space jail, it's no shocker when the result is a low grade adventure where the characters talk in sound bites at each other. Evil thugs, back stabbing corporate suits, a chain smoking anti-hero, it's all stock material. That's not to say the results aren't rather pleasing in some way or another. Some of the quips are pretty fun and our hero Snow (just Snow) does the whole mean trash talking and frowning act pretty well.

Short Film Safari - Minty is the Law