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Summer Movie Series

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Rated PG-13

edge-of-tomorrow

Warner Bros./Village Roadshow

I have a thing for time-travel movies. When protagonists scramble backward or forward in time attempting to correct wrongs or save the day or recapture love, for me, it hits a sweet spot. Based upon the trailers, I went into Edge of Tomorrow eager to see how the time-jumping theme would be put to use. It didn’t disappoint.

In the BloghouseGiven that the film takes place in the near future and that the time-traveling mechanism is actually created by aliens and not built by humans provides a fresh approach. Based on a Japanese light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Edge is Groundhog Day (1993) crossed with Source Code (2011).

We follow Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a brash public relations officer in the military, who’s also cowardly on the actually soldiering side of things. Through a bit of plot contrivance, Cage is forced into frontline combat against a seemingly unbeatable alien force.

Cruise imbues his character with enough forced confidence, which crumbles in the face of real danger, that I connected with his terror as he is literally shoved into a heavy, weaponized bodysuit and airdropped onto a field of battle no less horrific than Normandy on D-Day.

The aliens, Mimics, are fiercely conceived as octopus-like monsters that burrow through the earth like caffeinated groundhogs, then emerge to tear through adversaries with multiple buzz-saw appendages.

Cage’s mission goes horribly wrong for every soldier involved, but not before he takes sight of legendary soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt).

Instead of waking up in the afterlife, Cage is reborn into the same day and at the same spot where his mission began. Yes, the same commanding officer (Bill Paxton) will berate him, the same elite squad will mock his recruitment into its ranks, the same doomed mission plans will be laid out. After things go badly again, and he’s reborn again, he and we get the drift of things. After a few rounds of being horrified by his circumstances, Cage begins to use the knowledge at hand not only to mold himself into a better soldier, but to get to know his enemy and to construct something of a survivable battle plan.

Director Doug Liman (The Borne Identity, Go) has fun with Cage’s learning curve, finding creative ways to repeatedly kill our hero. I won’t spoil how or why Cage faces this dilemma, but it holds the key to possibly winning the war.

Cage eventually connects with Rita, who knows more than expected about his plight. She’s a hardened soldier—not completely convincingly played by Blunt; Michelle Rodriguez would have been typecasting but also perfect—who’s all about the mission.

The plot isn’t as complex as it could have been, which will ease confusion for those who struggle with gimmicky scenarios like time travel. I think Edge starts strong, builds up quite a bit of steam with its “live, die, repeat” format, but ultimately runs its course before its endgame arrives. But I’m still a softie for time-travel movies.

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Summer Movie Series

Godzilla (2014)

Rated PG-13

godzilla

Warner Bros.

Godzilla takes his time showing up in his new movie. At first I’m thinking great, less is more. After awhile, I’m really getting eager to see the big guy. Finally, I’m wondering if Godzilla’s going to make a cameo in his own movie. He does eventual make his entrance. It’s a good one, the mighty creature rising up out of the ocean, water cascading off his mountainous frame like waterfalls, towering over birds and helicopters, blotting out the sun, opening his mouth to stop the show with his roar. Humans and giant monsters alike pause to take notice.

In the BloghouseThe whole movie is like that: setup, delayed gratification, big scene. Repeat.

There’s a prologue 15 years ago that mainly functions to give the protagonists a tragic backstory. In present day, a scientist played by Bryan Cranston has basically gone insane after his years of dire global warnings go unheeded. His estranged son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Avengers: Age of Ultron) reluctantly arrives to talk some sense to his dad. Before long the son discovers, lo and behold, the old man’s not bonkers. Thus Ford is pulled into his dad’s mission while trying to get home to wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen, Oldboy, Very Good Girls) and his own son. Olsen’s wasted in this, while Cranston brings gravitas this movie doesn’t need. Japanese legend Ken Watanabe is also wasted as a scientist whose function I still haven’t figured out.

When technology goes awry—Cranston told us so!—it produces a giant insect parasite that tears across the globe, eagerly off on some unknown mission. Once military intervention fails, it’s up to our scaly hero to save the day. With his awesome tail and fire breath, Godzilla’s formidable in battle, even when being double-teamed by giant monsters.

There’s lots of destruction of large-scale architecture, but nothing we haven’t already seen in big-budget action flicks. Honestly, I had more fun watching Pacific Rim (2013), itself a tribute to classic Japanese Kaiju films like Godzilla.

Make no mistake, this Godzilla is leaps and bounds ahead of the 1998 American reboot. My issues with the film resides in the screenplay, not in its execution. Director Gareth Edwards has a knack for amazing images and the execution of a scene. When this film’s on, it’s on. A scene of an elite military team parachuting into the monster warzone borders on iconic. The men jump from a plane then seem to fall endlessly with red flares streaming from their boots, through cloud holes, into dark sky, into glowing thunderclouds, back into dark sky, and downward. It’s a beautiful sight, visual poetry. Another scene of beautiful destruction involves a burning train roaring through the night and off a destroyed bridge. There’s a memorable visual of soldiers moving through lush jungle, and of a suspension bridge swaying and crumbling as it holds busloads of people.

Can I also note that actor Sally Hawkins, who plays a scientist, has absolutely nothing to do in this movie? Why even include this character?

If you’re a Godzilla fan, or into big-budget summer action—albeit doled out at deliberate junctures—check this out, otherwise: Skip it.

 

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Summer Movie Series

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Rated PG-13

captain-winter-soldier

Marvel Studio

For me Captain America stands in contrast to the other superfolks in the Marvel film universe. For sure, Marvel’s cash cow franchise has enough to brag about. I enjoyed much of the Iron Man series and the impressive culminating effort, The Avengers (2012). The franchise has its clunkers too: Hulk (2003) and the Thor films, for my money. The Captain America movies have neither the brilliant, hedonistic, wink-wink hubris of the Iron Man series, nor the over-the-top demigod, Viking-esque, parallel universe hodge-podge structure of the Thor films. This is probably why Captain America stands out from the pack.

In the BloghouseStarting with 2011’s first film, I liked the throwback setting (World War II), the simple plot (defeat the Nazis), the quick origin-story setup and the delicate love story. Before things got intertwined with all the other superhero motives and movies, there’s earnest Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) trying to set the world right, one patriotic punch, one patriotic speech at a time.

It’s a testament to Evans’ performance and the writers that we continue to admire Steve Rogers/Captain America’s earnestness instead of mocking it.

In Winter Soldier, I liked the instant chemistry between Cap and fellow veteran Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) aka The Falcon. I also like the chaste chemistry between Cap and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Even when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and all the Hydra-S.H.E.I.L.D.-Avenger’s stuff starts weighing down the plot, the film finds nice touches of do-or-die matter-of-factness that lightens things up again.

The Winter Soldier himself is intriguing and coolly brutal, sprung from the Bucky Barnes character from the first film (is that a spoiler?), but I think more investment of that character in Part One would have really paid off in the pathos they attempt to wring out of this film. I didn’t remember enough of Bucky to make his sad, brain-scrambled existence very impactful this go-round.

Here’s hoping that as Marvel gears up its next round of superhero films—independent and team efforts—it keeps Cap simple and refreshing.

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Quik Flix Hit — Summer Round-up

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Monsters University (2013)

Rated G

monstersu

Disney/Pixar Animation

I’m growing disappointed in Pixar’s (Disney’s?) recent case of sequelitis. With an impressive run of original work—admirable not only for storytelling prowess, but for dedication to characters and CGI craft–it’s sad to see a recent spate of do-agains.

Bloghouse Still, I enjoyed Monsters University, a prequel to one of my favorite Pixar features. The latest film takes us back to the land of the monsters, at a time when Sully and Mike W. were rival college students.

I like the breeziness of the plot—a fraternity competition to determine the most fearsome frat on campus. The stakes are higher for young Sully and Mike, since their continued enrollment at the university depends upon a victory. Some old favorites are back—Randall!—albeit in younger form, and a new crop of scary-funny characters make the rounds.

It’s not as good as the original, lacking the freshness of the concept of a monster society and infinite doors that connect it to the human world, but it doesn’t embarrass itself and, like the original, finds space for warm touches of humanity (monsterity?).

While I’m not going to beef on the Toy Story movies (together they work as one great film), with Cars 2, it’s offshoot Planes, and a Finding Nemo sequel on the way, I’m longing for Pixar to get back to original work.

 

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Pacific Rim (2013)

Rated PG-13

pacificrim

Warner Bros.

Through an interdimensional fissure deep within the Pacific Ocean emerge the Kaiju, massive monsters that lay waste to cities around the globe. And by massive, I mean these suckers can cradle the Statue of Liberty. By way of response, the world’s governments create Jaegers, equally massive robots to combat the Kaiju. And by massive, I mean these suckers can use a naval battleship as a baseball bat.

OK, right there: if that premise triggers eye-rolling, this isn’t the movie for you. If you’re in, though, this is a rockem-sockem giant monster feature that evokes the best of classic Japanese Kaiju movies (Godzilla, Mothra), while not taking itself too seriously.

Jaegers are operated by two human pilots who link minds to share the daunting burden of being mentally and physically jacked in to the machines. The linked minds allow shared personal experiences between the pilots, thus some level of character development. Our heroes are Raleigh and Mako, respective American and Japanese partners who quickly overcome differences and fears to effectively operate their Jaeger. Props to the screenwriters for allowing the Raleigh character (Charlie Hunnam) to sidestep the cliché of him being a bad boy with a bad attitude who needs to learn to be a team player. Too bad it doesn’t sidestep the cliché of the emotionally wounded heartthrob who must overcome his trauma to be the hero he is meant to be.

Edris Elba has a couple of strong scenes of dialogue as the leader of the Jaeger resistance (“Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!”), and great character actor Ron Pearlman (Hellboy), as usual, makes the most of his limited screen time as a black market dealer. Everything about this movie is big, and it’s big fun.

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The Wolverine (2013)

Rated PG-13

the-wolverine

Twentieth Century Fox

I like Hugh Jackman. I like the X-Men movie series, despite the fact that I’m having trouble these days seeing daylight between them. But the mutant-trying-to-cope-in-society trope is starting to show its gray hairs. Aside from the locale change (mostly in modern Japan), nothing seems particularly fresh here, but it’s dumb fun. I struggled to place this film within the proper timeframe of the ongoing series, but it doesn’t really matter. This was made to be a standalone picture featuring of one of the most popular X-Men characters.

Jackman’s great, whether he’s brooding over lost love, struggling with something close to immortality, or springing into action with those adamantium claws. A hand-to-claw fight atop a bullet train is the best sequence in the film.

If you’re a series fan, or will watch anything starring Jackman: See it.

Other summer movie reviews:

After Earth

Man of Steel

Upstream Color

Star Trek into Darkness

Iron Man 3

 

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After Earth (2013)

Rated PG-13

This film publicity image released by Sony - Columbia Pictures shows Jaden Smith in a scene from "After Earth." (AP Photo/Sony, Columbia Pictures) ORG XMIT: NYET842

Sony – Columbia Pictures

Yes, it’s a project of hubris (Will Smith turned down Django Unchained for this?), and yes, director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Happening, The Last Airbender) is in a rut. Even so, After Earth isn’t all that bad. I wouldn’t measure it against the current crop of summer movies, but it’s one of those watchable flicks you stumble into while flipping through one of your hundreds of cable TV channels.

BloghouseIn the distant future, man has long ago departed earth for more hospitable climes. Nova Prime is our new home and Smith’s Cypher Raige is the leader of our peacekeeping Rangers. Rangers take on the S’krell, alien beings bent on our destruction. The S’krells hope to vanquish us with their vicious Ursa creatures which, though blind, can hunt by sensing fear. Cypher discovers how to defeat the Ursas by “ghosting,” which is a method of controlling one’s fears, thus becoming invisible to the creatures. He is legend. Now if only he could connect with his distant son Kitai (Jaden Smith), who strives to prove himself to himself and his doubting father.

Father and son each carry the burden of guilt over the loss of daughter/sister Senshi, who died defending young Kitai from an Ursa. So with the pieces in place, father and son are goaded by wife/mom Faia into using a Ranger training exercise as a bonding getaway. Things get bad when their spacecraft encounters an asteroid shower, worse when it crashes on quarantined earth, worse still when the captured Ursa brought along for training purposes escapes the wreaked vessel.

With the ship’s distress beacon flung miles from the scattered ship, and Cypher critically injured, it’s up to Kitai to traverse the hostile environment, with the Ursa on his tail, to retrieve the beacon. Can the son overcome his fears? Prove himself to dad? Avenge his sister?

Will Smith’s role in this is limited. This is a showpiece for his son. Jaden is serviceable, though he lacks his dad’s effortless charm and needs a few more laps around the acting track. To be fair, he’s younger than his dad was when Will got his start, and Jaden carries the burdens as well as benefits of nepotism. But he doesn’t embarrass himself and involved me in his plight. It’s a decent time-waster, but you can waste that time once it comes to TV.

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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Rated PG-13

star-trek-into-darkness

Paramount Pictures

As the end credits rolled for Star Trek Into Darkness, an obviously old-school Star Trek diehard (I’m not using the ‘T’ word) came up to me and my wife in dire straits over his belief of the new film’s disrespect of the space drama’s canon.

Bloghouse“The finale, shot-for-shot, matched the finale of (1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan),” he shouted at us in the dark.

“Well, they did swap the main characters’ fates this time around,” I antagonized, to my wife’s chagrin. This guy has singlehandedly assured that I won’t be watching anymore of these films in the theater with my wife. Thanks, pal.

OK, this isn’t your father’s Star Trek, or even your older brother’s. But it does manage to hit the sweet spot between Roddenberry devotees, Next Generation Gen X’ers and millennials, who have no intention of looking back as they head warp speed into J.J. Abrams’ universe. But that was the plan all along, wasn’t it?

Am I mistaken in my understanding that the franchise reboot established that this was a different approach to the Trek of yore? Wasn’t the 2009 film’s debut the time to rail against this new Star Trek, or just bow out altogether? That film was a smash, though, drawing in hardcores and newbies alike. My wife, no fan of sci-fi, thought it was fantastic. So if you came back for more, Mr. Shot-by-Shot, why complain? The new franchise is firing on all its Abrams cylinders, which is to say it holds respect for the original series, but doesn’t feel bound to be a slave to it.

Quick summary: Young Capt. Kirk, still the rogue, against-the-regulations leader of the USS Enterprise, is fuel by revenge after the Federation is attacked by an unknown terrorist. Shades of 9/11 abound, as a shaken Federation looks to harsh, secret strategies in the wake of the devastation. This includes the machinations of Dick Cheney, I mean, Peter Weller’s Federation muckety-muck Marcus, whose sneaky efforts could precipitate all-out intergalactic war.

Spock’s cool logical Vulcan mind collides with Kirk’s burning ideas of revenge, but as always, the two level each other out. A quick lovers’ quarrel between Spock and Uhura, Bone’s dalliance with Tribbles and Scotty’s silly/brilliant hijinks fill in the gaps between story proper, which is largely told in bold swaths of action.

Benedict Cumberbatch is wonderfully powerful as Khan. I don’t know how we get from this to Ricardo Montalban, but, hey, this guy was a fierce and daunting opponent who, at turns, outwits and/or outfights the Federation, Kirk, Spock, Marcus and special guest, the Klingons. By the hour-and-a-half mark I was about to put a big “S” on this guy’s chest and call it a day.

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Iron Man 3 (2013)

Rated PG-13

Iron Man 3 Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) Film Frame ©Marvel Studios 2013

Marvel Studios

We already knew Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark is a mad, snarky genius when he’s surrounded by his dazzling technology, ridiculous wealth and groupies, but darn-it-all if he’s not just as brilliant and snarky when everything’s been taken from him—money, power suit, tech toys, reputation, loved ones.

brown-blogartIn this fourth iteration of the Iron Man saga (including his appearance in last year’s Avengers), Downey and the creators of the franchise have tacked backward to move forward.

By taking away his technology and limiting the use of his supersuit, IM3 recalls the desperate, resilient Tony Stark of the first film (2008) who fashioned his prototype Iron Man suit from spare weapons parts while being held captive in a cave.

I didn’t like this go-round as much as the first film (which surprised me with Downey’s impromptu wit, breezy action and clean through-line plot), but it beats Iron Man 2 (2010) and finds different riffs on what should be getting stale by now.

Stretches of this film rely not on action and special effects, but on the emotional and physical plight of Stark. Downey’s just great at this stuff: Serious and commanding enough to sell Stark as someone not to be trifled with, but never letting things get too heavy with his lethal, endless quips and his wink-wink genius-playboy persona.

I think the small stuff works better than the big moments: When he puts together battle gear from parts he buys from a small-town hardware store; wearing a Dora the Explorer digital watch he bums off the kid sister of a boy he befriends; the panic attacks that come out of nowhere and leave Stark a quivering mess.

I’ll leave The Mandarin stuff for the fanboys to hash out, but I’ll just say I loved Ben Kingsley as both The Mandarin and the man behind The Mandarin.

Sure, this is a summer special effects action flick. That stuff’s here too: a robot army zigzagging across the sky; deadly super soldiers who burn not just with malevolence, but seemly of lava from within; the show-stopping set piece in which Iron Man must rescue 13 people as they plummet from a destroyed Air Force One; a very cool scene where he redirects his iron suit to assemble around his girlfriend to protect her as she hurls through the air after a missile attack on Stark’s Malibu mansion.

It took some level of guts to have Stark grow up and reflect that he and his suits (and the lifesaving reactor in the middle of his chest) have become codependents and it’s time to end the relationship and fully embrace the real one he has with his love Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

I don’t know where they go from here (Avengers 2, maybe), but if they’re done with this Downey/Stark version, this was a nice sendoff.

See it | Skip it

 

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Cloud Atlas (2012)

Rated R

 

It’s hard to write something short about a movie so long. Three hours of mind-bending, audacious, off-the-map filmmaking.

Here’s the lowdown on the basics: The movie was codirected by the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix trilogy) and German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Perfume). It was adapted from an equally complex, enigmatic novel by David Mitchell. The film details six interlocking, yet time-spanning, stories. Ten of the main actors—including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent—play multiple roles (as few as three each, as many as six), which cast them as different races, genders, even synthetic creatures.

A theme of connectedness and reincarnation binds the stories—lovers who face tragedy in one life, might find happiness together in another; sins and hopes of the past ripple through time and sometimes switch places, depending on the era.

While I didn’t follow all of it (no one’s walking out of this with a clear understanding of everything—at least not in a first viewing) I did follow enough to keep me engaged in each of the stories and their characters. For a film with so much going on, I was surprised by how much it cares for its characters. I was left with questions, of course, but felt I got the overall plot and ideas behind each story, even with the constant cutting between them.

I think people who love time-jumping puzzle-plot movies will see this repeatedly, and likely catch something new each time. I think people who don’t like to work too hard in the theater will still say they walked away with favorite scenes vividly recalled because of the beautiful human moments or the striking visuals.

Something’s going on with this film. The directors are reaching to redefine filmmaking, I think. Do they succeed? Time will tell. This movie will be studied and talk about, dismissed and touted as groundbreaking. It’s as if the filmmakers were trying—within theses six mini-films—to encapsulate the whole of human existence, purpose and emotion. It’s trying to document the histories of how we love and create with passion, how we are as cruel as we are forgiving, how we move through time and space while changing those things and ourselves as we go.

This ambitious film might not do well out of the gate (it demands attention and thought), but my guess is, over time, it’s going to be regarded as something of a milestone.

See it | Skip it

Side note: Several Asian characters are portrayed by non-Asians actors, which is in keeping with the film’s reincarnation theme that involves actors in multiple roles, but I wonder if it won’t be seen as offensive, particularly since some of the makeup effects could be seen as playing to stereotypes. 

 

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The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Rated PG-13

darkknightrises

Warner Bros.

Epic, complex, overdone, grim, redemptive and rewarding. The final film in the ambitious comic book-to-neo noir series brings it all. At darn-near three hours it needs to.

Eight years after events in part two (The Dark Knight, 2008), Gotham’s nearly crimeless thanks to sacrifices of Commissioner Gordon and The Batman, who’s now broken down and in retirement. Not for long. A three-tiered enemy looms, including those operating boldly in the spotlight, like the merciless Bane, and the double-crossers waiting in the shadows.

Anne Hathaway makes impact as Catwoman, as do Michael Caine as loyal servant Alfred, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a steadfast cop. All of Bane’s sparse dialogue is epic—when you can clearly hear it.

The film’s strength is its sustained tone of impending doom, which puts viewers and Gotham citizens in a simpatico state of victimization and hopelessness. We and they are hyped for some serious payback by the finale.

Give Batman Begins (2005)—the first in the series—a rewatch. The Dark Knight Rises draws heavily upon that film to wrap up its themes.

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