directed by Chris Renaud
written by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio
From Illumination Studios, the people who brought us one highly entertaining, original film with Despicable Me and a string of cookie cutter follow-ups after that comes one of the biggest box-offices successes of 2016, The Secret Life of Pets a movie that purports to tell us viewers what our pets, be they dogs, cats, birds or fish, get up to when we leave them to go to work.
The "hero" pet of this film is Max (voiced by Louis CK) a Jack Russell terrier who adores and is adored by his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper), whose return from work he patiently awaits every day, until one day she brings home a new dog she rescued from the pound, the large, hairy mongrel, Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Max, whose happy little bubble is threatened, shows dislike towards Duke, who responds with aggression as he threatens Max point blank that he will get rid of him if he has to. Max responds by breaking various items belonging to Katie and threatening to frame Duke for it, which causes him, in turn to submit to Max. The conflict only escalates, however, and eventually the two dogs find themselves lost and surrounded by all manner of urban perils, including an army of stray cats, animal control hot on their tails, and later, an army of bitter, rejected pets led by a vengeful rabbit (Kevin Hart). Max's disappearance prompts his secret admirer Gidget (Jenny Slate) to lead a motley bunch of pets including three dogs, a cat, a hawk and a hamster, to find him. Ultimately, though two dogs who hate each other must learn to work together if they are to have any chance of getting home.
Basically, this movie is Pixar's Toy Story but with pets instead of toys. I'm surprised I didn't pick up on this from one of the later trailers, but sitting through the movie, I found the the similarities too glaring to ignore. The main character who is used to being the center of his beloved owner's attention, is displaced by a new object of affection, and this leads to conflict between them. The only difference is that here, Duke, the Buzz Lightyear analogue, is antagonistic to Max almost immediately, and does not harbor fanciful delusions of living a different life the way Buzz does. Basically Max and Duke are Woody and Buzz, but without any of the quirky charm of either of those characters. In fact, they're both downright unlikable.
None of the characters, in fact, is particularly memorable, save perhaps for Kevin Hart's Snowball, and maybe Albert Brooks' hawk Tiberius. Every other character is fairly disposable, and even worse, with few exceptions, none of the voice actors is even particularly funny.
In an era in which animated films can intelligently tackle such hot-button topics as racial intolerance, like Zootopia, or even child prostitution, like Spirited Away, a movie that rehashes a twenty-one year old animated film feels distinctly uninspired. This movie isn't even anywhere near as good as the first Despicable Me.
The good news, though, is that there's plenty of slapstick comedy, which I honestly enjoyed, the animation is topnotch, and the score by Alexandre Desplat is a snazzy, jazzy delight. I found it exceptional, in fact. It's been a while since I've heard a music score for an animated film this lively.
Overall, The Secret Life of Pets is a reasonably fun watch, especially for those with children, though, and it did get me to look forward to Illumination Studios' next offering, the musical Sing.
6.5/10
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Sitting Through a Two-Hour Commercial for a Video Game: A Review of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
directed by Takeshi Nozue
written by Hajime Tabata
In 2001, Sony Pictures released Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, an ambitious, purely motion-capture animated film that was intended to usher in a new era of animated films, riding on the popularity of the Final Fantasy video games, even though the film itself had nothing to do with the storyline of those games. The era never took off, though, as the film flopped at the international box office and was largely seen as the reason why the studio that made it, Square Pictures, went bankrupt.
Since then, rather than continue to venture into feature-length animated films designed for a wide audience, Square Enix, the video game developers who effectively absorbed Square Pictures, have used the feature film as a marketing platform for the aforementioned Final Fantasy video game. They did it in 2005 with the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and have done it yet again with Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.
Kingsglaive is set in the fictional world of Eos, in which the Kingdom of Niflheim has conquered just about every other nation or kingdom in the world save for the Kingdom of Lucis, with which it is currently at war. While the royal city of Insomnia remains under the protection of a magical force field, the remainder of the territories of Lucis are under constant attack. Among those fighting to protect Lucis are the king's loyal elite guard, the Kingsglaive. After a battle in one of Lucis' territories results in heavy losses for the kingdom, Niflheim sends its Chancellor Ardyn Izunia to offer a truce to Lucis' king, Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII (voiced Sean Bean, one of the three known actors in this production) under which Lucis will cede all of its territories beyond the city of Insomnia to Niflheim in exchange for peace. Then there's the bit about Lucis' prince Noctis, supposedly an important character but one never seen onscreen, marrying the princess Lunafreya (Lena Headey). In any case, the Kingsglaive, many of whom come from homes outside the city, feel betrayed by their king, with the exception of Nyx (Aaron Paul), who remains loyal and determined to protect the king as the day of signing the truce approaches. The problem, though, is that, as is usually the case, things are not what they seem.
After failing to appeal to broad audiences with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, I guess it makes some sense that Square Enix crafted this film exclusively for fans of the FF games, but watching this film it still irked me that its makers apparently couldn't be bothered to tell the story a little more effectively for the rest of us. There's a perfunctory bit of exposition at the beginning of the film for the uninitiated, but really, the filmmakers basically just drop the viewer into the thick of things without really demonstrating why one should really care what happens to any of these characters. There's a story here, but the writer didn't really feel obligated to tell it.
What was even more grating than the underdeveloped story, though, was the cringe-inducing dialogue and voice-acting. Basically, apart from Paul, Bean and Headey, just about every other performer in the film is either not an actor by profession (several of them appeared to be animators), or not a very good actor at all. Several of the scenes without the three leads were somewhat painful to listen to, and even the leads themselves seemed to be struggling with some of the leaden dialogue. One actor who particularly grated on me was the Chancellor of Niflheim, whose acting was easily the most overdone of all them.
There is no denying that this movie is utterly gorgeous to behold, but really, the filmmakers seemed to forget their first job was to tell a story. Not only that, but the action which was supposed to be a major selling point of this film had a distinctly muddled, chaotic look that makes the much-maligned quick-cut, shaky-cam action of many Hollywood blockbusters look as clear as day. Also, some of the rather silly character designs significantly diminished the otherwise striking photo-realism of the characters, like the utterly absurd design of the Chancellor, who looked like he had a plastic wing strapped to one arm, and the generic anime design of Lunafreya. For heaven's sake, they got the gorgeous Lena Headey to appear in their movie, one would think they could have gotten permission to incorporate at least some of her striking features into the character. Paul's and Bean's characters are less distracting, but for the mullet that Nyx sports, though personally I was struck by how much Nyx resembled former Walking Dead actor Jon Bernthal.
One writer said it quite well; this entire experience is basically one long "cutscene;" it never quite feels like an actual movie. I'd probably be kinder to it if I had seen it on television (where the resolution would no doubt have been better), secure in the knowledge that I had not paid to sit sit through it, but, well, I didn't.
3.5/10
written by Hajime Tabata
In 2001, Sony Pictures released Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, an ambitious, purely motion-capture animated film that was intended to usher in a new era of animated films, riding on the popularity of the Final Fantasy video games, even though the film itself had nothing to do with the storyline of those games. The era never took off, though, as the film flopped at the international box office and was largely seen as the reason why the studio that made it, Square Pictures, went bankrupt.
Since then, rather than continue to venture into feature-length animated films designed for a wide audience, Square Enix, the video game developers who effectively absorbed Square Pictures, have used the feature film as a marketing platform for the aforementioned Final Fantasy video game. They did it in 2005 with the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and have done it yet again with Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.
Kingsglaive is set in the fictional world of Eos, in which the Kingdom of Niflheim has conquered just about every other nation or kingdom in the world save for the Kingdom of Lucis, with which it is currently at war. While the royal city of Insomnia remains under the protection of a magical force field, the remainder of the territories of Lucis are under constant attack. Among those fighting to protect Lucis are the king's loyal elite guard, the Kingsglaive. After a battle in one of Lucis' territories results in heavy losses for the kingdom, Niflheim sends its Chancellor Ardyn Izunia to offer a truce to Lucis' king, Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII (voiced Sean Bean, one of the three known actors in this production) under which Lucis will cede all of its territories beyond the city of Insomnia to Niflheim in exchange for peace. Then there's the bit about Lucis' prince Noctis, supposedly an important character but one never seen onscreen, marrying the princess Lunafreya (Lena Headey). In any case, the Kingsglaive, many of whom come from homes outside the city, feel betrayed by their king, with the exception of Nyx (Aaron Paul), who remains loyal and determined to protect the king as the day of signing the truce approaches. The problem, though, is that, as is usually the case, things are not what they seem.
After failing to appeal to broad audiences with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, I guess it makes some sense that Square Enix crafted this film exclusively for fans of the FF games, but watching this film it still irked me that its makers apparently couldn't be bothered to tell the story a little more effectively for the rest of us. There's a perfunctory bit of exposition at the beginning of the film for the uninitiated, but really, the filmmakers basically just drop the viewer into the thick of things without really demonstrating why one should really care what happens to any of these characters. There's a story here, but the writer didn't really feel obligated to tell it.
What was even more grating than the underdeveloped story, though, was the cringe-inducing dialogue and voice-acting. Basically, apart from Paul, Bean and Headey, just about every other performer in the film is either not an actor by profession (several of them appeared to be animators), or not a very good actor at all. Several of the scenes without the three leads were somewhat painful to listen to, and even the leads themselves seemed to be struggling with some of the leaden dialogue. One actor who particularly grated on me was the Chancellor of Niflheim, whose acting was easily the most overdone of all them.
There is no denying that this movie is utterly gorgeous to behold, but really, the filmmakers seemed to forget their first job was to tell a story. Not only that, but the action which was supposed to be a major selling point of this film had a distinctly muddled, chaotic look that makes the much-maligned quick-cut, shaky-cam action of many Hollywood blockbusters look as clear as day. Also, some of the rather silly character designs significantly diminished the otherwise striking photo-realism of the characters, like the utterly absurd design of the Chancellor, who looked like he had a plastic wing strapped to one arm, and the generic anime design of Lunafreya. For heaven's sake, they got the gorgeous Lena Headey to appear in their movie, one would think they could have gotten permission to incorporate at least some of her striking features into the character. Paul's and Bean's characters are less distracting, but for the mullet that Nyx sports, though personally I was struck by how much Nyx resembled former Walking Dead actor Jon Bernthal.
One writer said it quite well; this entire experience is basically one long "cutscene;" it never quite feels like an actual movie. I'd probably be kinder to it if I had seen it on television (where the resolution would no doubt have been better), secure in the knowledge that I had not paid to sit sit through it, but, well, I didn't.
3.5/10
Sunday, August 14, 2016
With Charm to Spare: A Review of The BFG
directed by Steven Spielberg
written by Melissa Mathison
After sitting through a glut of sequels, reboots or remakes over the last few months, the quality of which has ranged from the fantastic (Civil War) to the distinctly uninspired (Jason Bourne), I fervently longed to watch a new film, meaning something that is neither a sequel or a remake, regardless of whether it was original material or adapted from another medium. I thought I'd found it in Warner Brothers' Suicide Squad, which presented the novel idea of a superhero film centered around supervillains, but while it was decent, that turned out to be a somewhat derivative action flick.
Truth be told, I hadn't even really planned on watching Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel The BFG; I had thought of just getting it on DVD or watching it on cable, but when my daughter asked me very nicely if we could see it, I really couldn't resist and so we went to see it, and boy, am I glad we did.
Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is an orphan who lives and a London orphanage and who can't sleep at night, as a result of which she walks around the orphanage in the wee hours. During one such nightly patrol, she sees a giant hand picking up a trash can, and as she gasps in fright she alerts the giant (Mark Rylance) who, fearing that she will betray his existence to the world, kidnaps her and brings her back to his land, giant country. There, after being understandably upset at being kidnapped, Sophie learns more about the "Big Friendly Giant" and comes to empathize with him. She also eventually discovers why he was wandering around London in the first place: he gives people their dreams, which he harvests from a magical tree. As wonderful as this is, she also discovers the BFG's unpleasant reality: he is regularly bullied by nine much bigger giants than he, led by the fearsome Fleshlumpeater (Jemaine Clement). Unlike the BFG, who only eats an awful vegetable that grows in his country, the giants eat flesh, and in fact ate the last human the BFG brought to his home. Sophie then hatches a plan to deal with the brutes once and for all.
The BFG marks Spielberg's return to live-action pop culture for the first time since he made the reviled 2008 sequel to the Indiana Jones franchise, and while this movie may not have had the built-in box-office strength of that sturdy franchise, it was head and shoulders its superior in terms of sheer storytelling. This movie has the kind of storytelling verve that made kid-oriented movies like E.T. so eminently watchable; the lead characters Sophie and the titular BFG, are eminently likable, which is really quite something considering that the latter is effectively a kidnapper. Credit must go to Rylance for a truly endearing performance; I missed his Oscar-winning turn in last year's Bridge of Spies, but after this film, I'm definitely a fan and will check out Spielberg's Cold War opus as soon as I am able. Newcomer Barnhill channels the charm of one-time child actress and fellow Dahl veteran Mara Wilson, who played the title character in the 1996 adaptation of Matilda.
But there's more to it than the performances; the visuals, the music and the overall storytelling evoke a wonderful sense of whimsy I haven't seen in a while. I'm a fan of Roald Dahl adaptations like Henry Selick's James and the Giant Peach and Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, both stop-motion animated films, more than the somewhat perfunctory live-action adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Tim Burton (which, incidentally, remains the most successful adaptation of a Roald Dahl novel to date), and The BFG feels a lot more like its stop-motion siblings than its live-action one. There's quite a lot of heart to it, as well. The scene in which the BFG shows Sophie his "dream catching ground" which can only be reached by jumping into an enchanted lake and coming out on the other side, is just pure magic. It also helps that the legendary John Williams is in top form here, doing so much more than the rehashing of Star Wars themes that kept him busy last year.
For some reason, Roald Dahl adaptations, with the exception of the aforementioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, do not fare particularly well at the box-office, despite several adaptations that date back to the 1990s. It saddens me that a storyteller whose work has been embraced by generations of readers, for some reason, is not similarly appreciated on the big screen. The Fantastic Mr. Fox did not even come out here in theaters in the Philippines. Maybe someday, someone will crack the secret to both winning box-office battles and crafting a film that captures the magic of his books, but until then I will be happy to patronize films like this one.
7.5/10
written by Melissa Mathison
After sitting through a glut of sequels, reboots or remakes over the last few months, the quality of which has ranged from the fantastic (Civil War) to the distinctly uninspired (Jason Bourne), I fervently longed to watch a new film, meaning something that is neither a sequel or a remake, regardless of whether it was original material or adapted from another medium. I thought I'd found it in Warner Brothers' Suicide Squad, which presented the novel idea of a superhero film centered around supervillains, but while it was decent, that turned out to be a somewhat derivative action flick.
Truth be told, I hadn't even really planned on watching Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel The BFG; I had thought of just getting it on DVD or watching it on cable, but when my daughter asked me very nicely if we could see it, I really couldn't resist and so we went to see it, and boy, am I glad we did.
Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) is an orphan who lives and a London orphanage and who can't sleep at night, as a result of which she walks around the orphanage in the wee hours. During one such nightly patrol, she sees a giant hand picking up a trash can, and as she gasps in fright she alerts the giant (Mark Rylance) who, fearing that she will betray his existence to the world, kidnaps her and brings her back to his land, giant country. There, after being understandably upset at being kidnapped, Sophie learns more about the "Big Friendly Giant" and comes to empathize with him. She also eventually discovers why he was wandering around London in the first place: he gives people their dreams, which he harvests from a magical tree. As wonderful as this is, she also discovers the BFG's unpleasant reality: he is regularly bullied by nine much bigger giants than he, led by the fearsome Fleshlumpeater (Jemaine Clement). Unlike the BFG, who only eats an awful vegetable that grows in his country, the giants eat flesh, and in fact ate the last human the BFG brought to his home. Sophie then hatches a plan to deal with the brutes once and for all.
The BFG marks Spielberg's return to live-action pop culture for the first time since he made the reviled 2008 sequel to the Indiana Jones franchise, and while this movie may not have had the built-in box-office strength of that sturdy franchise, it was head and shoulders its superior in terms of sheer storytelling. This movie has the kind of storytelling verve that made kid-oriented movies like E.T. so eminently watchable; the lead characters Sophie and the titular BFG, are eminently likable, which is really quite something considering that the latter is effectively a kidnapper. Credit must go to Rylance for a truly endearing performance; I missed his Oscar-winning turn in last year's Bridge of Spies, but after this film, I'm definitely a fan and will check out Spielberg's Cold War opus as soon as I am able. Newcomer Barnhill channels the charm of one-time child actress and fellow Dahl veteran Mara Wilson, who played the title character in the 1996 adaptation of Matilda.
But there's more to it than the performances; the visuals, the music and the overall storytelling evoke a wonderful sense of whimsy I haven't seen in a while. I'm a fan of Roald Dahl adaptations like Henry Selick's James and the Giant Peach and Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, both stop-motion animated films, more than the somewhat perfunctory live-action adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Tim Burton (which, incidentally, remains the most successful adaptation of a Roald Dahl novel to date), and The BFG feels a lot more like its stop-motion siblings than its live-action one. There's quite a lot of heart to it, as well. The scene in which the BFG shows Sophie his "dream catching ground" which can only be reached by jumping into an enchanted lake and coming out on the other side, is just pure magic. It also helps that the legendary John Williams is in top form here, doing so much more than the rehashing of Star Wars themes that kept him busy last year.
For some reason, Roald Dahl adaptations, with the exception of the aforementioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, do not fare particularly well at the box-office, despite several adaptations that date back to the 1990s. It saddens me that a storyteller whose work has been embraced by generations of readers, for some reason, is not similarly appreciated on the big screen. The Fantastic Mr. Fox did not even come out here in theaters in the Philippines. Maybe someday, someone will crack the secret to both winning box-office battles and crafting a film that captures the magic of his books, but until then I will be happy to patronize films like this one.
7.5/10
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Seen at Home: A Review of Risen (Um...spoilers?)
directed by Kevin Reynolds
written by Kevin Reynolds and Paul Aiello
Christian movies are a curious thing; they kind of exist outside of the mainstream of filmed entertainment. With few exceptions they are relatively small earners; their theatrical release is generally limited to the United States or other select countries, and in terms of critical reception they receive middling reviews at best. On average, Christian-themed movies tend to get poorly reviewed. I have a number of theories, one being that critics don't like religion mixed in with their entertainment, another being that people don't like being preached to (though the success of films like Schindler's List and any number of movies geared towards social justice would seem to indicate otherwise), and another still being that for the most part, Christianity-themed movies simply aren't very-well made.
The thing is, I can't be sure that the third theory holds any water, having seen the quite obviously Christianity-themed film Risen, which tells the story of Christ's resurrection from the point of view of a Roman Tribune named Clavius (played by Joseph Fiennes). He's not a person mentioned in the Biblical account of the crucifixion or resurrection, so this story can best be described the way my son described it, as "Bible fan fiction." We didn't get a theatrical release of this in the Philippines, so I had to content myself with a DVD viewing.
Anyway, Clavius is an ambitious young Tribune working in Judea during the time of Jesus, and the film opens just around the time of the Crucifixion, with him and his troops quashing a sudden uprising by Jewish Zealots and killing the ringleader, who happens to be the Biblical Barabbas. His mission a success, Clavius is then tasked by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) to ensure that the crucified Yeshua (Cliff Curtis) dies and the body properly disposed of, lest his disciples steal it and declare him resurrected. Fortunately, a wealthy philanthropist, Joseph of Arimathea (Antonio Gil) offers his family tomb for Christ's interment. The body is entombed, with a heavy stone rolled over the entrace which is in turn then sealed with wax, with guards posted to watch it, all done at the insistence of the Jewish Sanhedrin, led by Caiaphas (Stephen Greif). When Christ's body is gone three days later, Clavius, with his subordinate Lucius (Tom Felton), is on a frantic mission to find it before the body decomposes beyond recognition and the disciples are able to claim that their leader has truly risen from the dead. What the unbelieving Clavius finds is enough to change his life forever.
The production value of this film, which was shot on location in Malta and Spain, is really quite striking. Oddly enough, it's not the first time I've seen a movie like this; it bears some similarity to the 2006 film The Final Inquiry which I saw on television some years ago.
This film is a more interesting take on that kind of story because it plays out like a police procedural, with Clavius leaving no stone unturned in his search for Yeshua's body. The film being a Christian film, and not the kind that leaves ambiguity in order for the viewer's own beliefs to fill in the gap, the risen Christ does appear, and I have to say I am a really big fan of Cliff Curtis' performance, which he reportedly achieved through a curious bit of method acting. While casting a Maori to play a Middle Eastern man is still not ethnically accurate, I was glad that the producers at least went for a person of color for this role rather than going for the usual generic Caucasian. Curtis' portrayal, as brief as it may be, is still something special, with its gentleness, and with the love he shows his disciples, all of whom are racked with guilt at having abandoned him at the hour of his death. As a Catholic I have to give special mention to the shot in which Curtis depicts the dead Christ, with eyes open, and a look of profound sorrow and pain frozen on his face. It's the visage many of us Catholics see in church when we look up and see Jesus on the cross, and Curtis nailed it (pun intended).
Fiennes, as the lead actor, does a creditable job carrying a movie with a fairly thin premise. As the driven but cynical Clavius, he effectively depicts a man struggling with his own convictions, especially when they are shaken by things he cannot explain. Tom Felton pretty much played his role as he was expected to, having been typecast thanks to the Harry Potter films. Firth and the actors who play the apostles contribute to the overall atmosphere of tension and urgency.
It is a shame, though, that the film delivers its emotional payoff relatively early (though still quite late in the film), as this is clearly meant to be a film about a man struggling with great inner conflict and in search of peace, a fact the character himself states in one way or another more than once through the film. What works well for me, though is that even after Clavius has his epiphany, he remains cautious and skeptical, and at a loss as to what to do next. He does not drop everything to become an apostle, and in fact the film is framed by him sitting alone in a sort of tavern, trying to figure out what to do with himself following his life-changing discovery. This, I think, mirrors the struggle that the movie's intended audience faces.
I got the impression that, the "non-believer" protagonist notwithstanding, the movie isn't meant to convert anyone who doesn't already have some kind of religious upbringing, but rather has a very specific audience in mind: agnostics, or people who were raised with a belief in God, and who have every reason to believe in the presence of God in their lives but who, for one reason or another, have drifted away from their faith while in pursuit of other things. Clavius is young, driven and arguably quite career-oriented, but in the end what he really wants is to live in peace, which mirrors the situation of a lot of young Christians today. Clavius is challenged, as are the agnostics watching: the key to obtaining peace is right before you; all you have to do is take it. It definitely preaches, but shows surprising, and commendable restraint towards the end.
As message movies go, this movie was not a bad one at all.
7.7/10
written by Kevin Reynolds and Paul Aiello
Christian movies are a curious thing; they kind of exist outside of the mainstream of filmed entertainment. With few exceptions they are relatively small earners; their theatrical release is generally limited to the United States or other select countries, and in terms of critical reception they receive middling reviews at best. On average, Christian-themed movies tend to get poorly reviewed. I have a number of theories, one being that critics don't like religion mixed in with their entertainment, another being that people don't like being preached to (though the success of films like Schindler's List and any number of movies geared towards social justice would seem to indicate otherwise), and another still being that for the most part, Christianity-themed movies simply aren't very-well made.
The thing is, I can't be sure that the third theory holds any water, having seen the quite obviously Christianity-themed film Risen, which tells the story of Christ's resurrection from the point of view of a Roman Tribune named Clavius (played by Joseph Fiennes). He's not a person mentioned in the Biblical account of the crucifixion or resurrection, so this story can best be described the way my son described it, as "Bible fan fiction." We didn't get a theatrical release of this in the Philippines, so I had to content myself with a DVD viewing.
Anyway, Clavius is an ambitious young Tribune working in Judea during the time of Jesus, and the film opens just around the time of the Crucifixion, with him and his troops quashing a sudden uprising by Jewish Zealots and killing the ringleader, who happens to be the Biblical Barabbas. His mission a success, Clavius is then tasked by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) to ensure that the crucified Yeshua (Cliff Curtis) dies and the body properly disposed of, lest his disciples steal it and declare him resurrected. Fortunately, a wealthy philanthropist, Joseph of Arimathea (Antonio Gil) offers his family tomb for Christ's interment. The body is entombed, with a heavy stone rolled over the entrace which is in turn then sealed with wax, with guards posted to watch it, all done at the insistence of the Jewish Sanhedrin, led by Caiaphas (Stephen Greif). When Christ's body is gone three days later, Clavius, with his subordinate Lucius (Tom Felton), is on a frantic mission to find it before the body decomposes beyond recognition and the disciples are able to claim that their leader has truly risen from the dead. What the unbelieving Clavius finds is enough to change his life forever.
The production value of this film, which was shot on location in Malta and Spain, is really quite striking. Oddly enough, it's not the first time I've seen a movie like this; it bears some similarity to the 2006 film The Final Inquiry which I saw on television some years ago.
This film is a more interesting take on that kind of story because it plays out like a police procedural, with Clavius leaving no stone unturned in his search for Yeshua's body. The film being a Christian film, and not the kind that leaves ambiguity in order for the viewer's own beliefs to fill in the gap, the risen Christ does appear, and I have to say I am a really big fan of Cliff Curtis' performance, which he reportedly achieved through a curious bit of method acting. While casting a Maori to play a Middle Eastern man is still not ethnically accurate, I was glad that the producers at least went for a person of color for this role rather than going for the usual generic Caucasian. Curtis' portrayal, as brief as it may be, is still something special, with its gentleness, and with the love he shows his disciples, all of whom are racked with guilt at having abandoned him at the hour of his death. As a Catholic I have to give special mention to the shot in which Curtis depicts the dead Christ, with eyes open, and a look of profound sorrow and pain frozen on his face. It's the visage many of us Catholics see in church when we look up and see Jesus on the cross, and Curtis nailed it (pun intended).
Fiennes, as the lead actor, does a creditable job carrying a movie with a fairly thin premise. As the driven but cynical Clavius, he effectively depicts a man struggling with his own convictions, especially when they are shaken by things he cannot explain. Tom Felton pretty much played his role as he was expected to, having been typecast thanks to the Harry Potter films. Firth and the actors who play the apostles contribute to the overall atmosphere of tension and urgency.
It is a shame, though, that the film delivers its emotional payoff relatively early (though still quite late in the film), as this is clearly meant to be a film about a man struggling with great inner conflict and in search of peace, a fact the character himself states in one way or another more than once through the film. What works well for me, though is that even after Clavius has his epiphany, he remains cautious and skeptical, and at a loss as to what to do next. He does not drop everything to become an apostle, and in fact the film is framed by him sitting alone in a sort of tavern, trying to figure out what to do with himself following his life-changing discovery. This, I think, mirrors the struggle that the movie's intended audience faces.
I got the impression that, the "non-believer" protagonist notwithstanding, the movie isn't meant to convert anyone who doesn't already have some kind of religious upbringing, but rather has a very specific audience in mind: agnostics, or people who were raised with a belief in God, and who have every reason to believe in the presence of God in their lives but who, for one reason or another, have drifted away from their faith while in pursuit of other things. Clavius is young, driven and arguably quite career-oriented, but in the end what he really wants is to live in peace, which mirrors the situation of a lot of young Christians today. Clavius is challenged, as are the agnostics watching: the key to obtaining peace is right before you; all you have to do is take it. It definitely preaches, but shows surprising, and commendable restraint towards the end.
As message movies go, this movie was not a bad one at all.
7.7/10
Thursday, August 4, 2016
It Could Have Been Worse: A Review of Suicide Squad
written and directed by David Ayer
With Batman vs. Superman having left theaters a couple of months ago, it seems film critics were in need of a new whipping boy, and in Warner Brothers' new film Suicide Squad, they have found one. Inspired by the comics of the same name, as well as the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen, the film tells the story of a team of supervillains recruited by the United States government to fight superhuman threats.
Following the events of Batman vs. Superman, high-level government honcho Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) makes a pitch to the highest echelons of the United States government's security apparatus to put together a team of super-powered individuals (referred to here as "metahumans") to serve as a response to future Supermen who might not be as friendly. The twist is that each and every one of the proposed individuals is either a convicted felon or, in one case, a potentially-world ending threat that is extremely difficult to control. This roster includes assassin-for-hire Deadshot (Will Smith), who never misses a shot, psychiatrist-turned-psychotic-criminal Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the girlfriend of notorious criminal the Joker (Jared Leto), East-LA gangbanger Diablo (Jay Hernandez) who can manipulate fire but who, following personal tragedy, is reluctant to use his powers, sewer-dwelling, reptilian human Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnoye-Agbaje), who is super strong and feral, Australian bank robber Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) who is extremely proficient in the use of...well...you know...and finally, the super-powerful but highly unstable Enchantress, an entity thousands of years old that happens to have taken possession of archaeologist June Moone (Cara Delevingne). Enchantress is easily the most dangerous of the group, but Waller is confident she has her under control, because she has her heart in her briefcase. Waller convinces the government to sign off on her plan, and in short order, after a world-ending threat emerges, the team is activated, but under the close watch of Col. Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) a Navy SEAL who also happens to be Dr. Moone's boyfriend and the mysterious Katana (Karen Fukuhara) armed with a sword that steals people's souls. As an extra safety measure, the members of "Task Force X" ("Suicide Squad" is a name thought up by Deadshot) are fitted with explosive devices in their necks lest any of them get any ideas about escaping. Considering the magnitude of the threat, even Waller's motley crew may not be enough to save the day.
Now, does this film deserve the critical thrashing it's been getting over the last couple of days?
Well, no, not to the extent that it's been criticized, but it's far from a perfect movie.
The writing, for one thing, leaves quite a bit to be desired. Not only is Waller's grand plan to have a bunch of extremely dangerous people serve as some kind of deterrent against threats kind of inherently untenable, as the development of the story reveals, but her idea of a "failsafe" in the event her plan goes wrong is basically laughable. While her characterization as Machiavellian and utterly amoral is well-done and, to the best of my recollection, in keeping with the comics, her incompetence rather took me out of the story on more than one occasion. Not only that, but Rick Flagg, supposedly the lone "straight" man in the team as he is the mobile "warden" of the jailbirds, is a thoroughly unlikable character, and while Davis does her best with some really bad scripting, the failings of Flagg are equal parts Ayer (and his presumed ghost-writers) and Kinnaman. Also, the movie suffers some serious internal logic failure as the script cannot seem to decide exactly how fragile or tough the zombie minions against which the team face off are supposed to be. At some times they can take a hail of bullets but at others all it takes is a baseball bat to the head to take them down.
The editing is chaotic, and the sound editing or mixing even worse, as I had to strain to hear a lot of the dialogue over the pop music blaring while it was going on. I get the gripe about there being a "tonal shift" from one scene to another, but it wasn't that jarring for me, though far too often, the bad writing was.
For all that, this film is not the cinematic apocalypse some reviewers make it out to be. The lead performances, for one, are pretty solid, with Will Smith's Deadshot marking a return to action-movie form for him after the disastrous After Earth almost killed his career. Whether the rumors are true that there were re-shoots to make the film "funnier" I can be pretty sure that Smith brought the humor up front, as it has been a defining aspect of his career, really. Ayer wisely anchors the movie on his character, for the most part. Robbie is also a hoot as Quinn, though her somewhat exploitative outfit somewhat undermines the film's aspirations towards subversiveness (more on that later). The scene in which she is "reborn" by jumping into a vat of chemicals at the behest of her beloved Joker, with its mix of candy colors against the white goo, is haunting and quite honestly belongs in a different movie, which is something that, to be fair, can be said for quite a few of the visuals here. One wonders if Ayer's vision wasn't somehow adulterated by meddling suits.
As the fourth onscreen iteration of the Joker (including the one from the 1966 Batman movie), Leto does what he can to make the role his own, and succeeds for the most part, but his participation in the story is quite peripheral. It would be interesting to see him face off against Ben Affleck's Batman (who does show up in flashbacks, incidentally, but only opposite Deadshot and Harley Quinn). Hernandez's Diablo infuses the movie with a little bit of soul, though his arc is more than a little hackneyed. Incidentally, I was happy to see quite a bit of ethnic diversity among the lead actors (you HEAR that, Marvel? Black guys/cultural minorities can be more than SIDEKICKS!), though I will dock WB/DC points on the diversity score for the fact that Native American actor Adam Beach basically showed up just so that Amanda Waller could show the team she wasn't messing around about the neck explosives. That is not a spoiler in any meaningful way.
The action, while uneven and chaotic at some points (again, due to internal logic issues, among other things), is still pretty watchable, and pretty much every team member gets to showcase his or her signature talent once or twice.
I suppose what rankles critics is the notion being peddled by some that this movie is in any way subversive, because really, it's not. It falls quite readily on the "crooks with hearts of gold" story trope, as well as several others, and the fact that Harley Quinn's choice of wardrobe is designed to get male butts into the seats really debunks any notion that this movie is some groundbreaking statement on female empowerment as some people tried to suggest early in the film's marketing phase. It's basically one's average male-centric action movie that follows a fairly standard formula. It's hardly a storytelling maverick.
Fortunately, it's not the creative black hole it's made out to be by critics, and with better writing and editing, a sequel to this could actually be quite entertaining.
It's a decent way to kill time at the mall...but not much else.
6/10
With Batman vs. Superman having left theaters a couple of months ago, it seems film critics were in need of a new whipping boy, and in Warner Brothers' new film Suicide Squad, they have found one. Inspired by the comics of the same name, as well as the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen, the film tells the story of a team of supervillains recruited by the United States government to fight superhuman threats.
Following the events of Batman vs. Superman, high-level government honcho Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) makes a pitch to the highest echelons of the United States government's security apparatus to put together a team of super-powered individuals (referred to here as "metahumans") to serve as a response to future Supermen who might not be as friendly. The twist is that each and every one of the proposed individuals is either a convicted felon or, in one case, a potentially-world ending threat that is extremely difficult to control. This roster includes assassin-for-hire Deadshot (Will Smith), who never misses a shot, psychiatrist-turned-psychotic-criminal Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the girlfriend of notorious criminal the Joker (Jared Leto), East-LA gangbanger Diablo (Jay Hernandez) who can manipulate fire but who, following personal tragedy, is reluctant to use his powers, sewer-dwelling, reptilian human Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnoye-Agbaje), who is super strong and feral, Australian bank robber Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) who is extremely proficient in the use of...well...you know...and finally, the super-powerful but highly unstable Enchantress, an entity thousands of years old that happens to have taken possession of archaeologist June Moone (Cara Delevingne). Enchantress is easily the most dangerous of the group, but Waller is confident she has her under control, because she has her heart in her briefcase. Waller convinces the government to sign off on her plan, and in short order, after a world-ending threat emerges, the team is activated, but under the close watch of Col. Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) a Navy SEAL who also happens to be Dr. Moone's boyfriend and the mysterious Katana (Karen Fukuhara) armed with a sword that steals people's souls. As an extra safety measure, the members of "Task Force X" ("Suicide Squad" is a name thought up by Deadshot) are fitted with explosive devices in their necks lest any of them get any ideas about escaping. Considering the magnitude of the threat, even Waller's motley crew may not be enough to save the day.
Now, does this film deserve the critical thrashing it's been getting over the last couple of days?
Well, no, not to the extent that it's been criticized, but it's far from a perfect movie.
The writing, for one thing, leaves quite a bit to be desired. Not only is Waller's grand plan to have a bunch of extremely dangerous people serve as some kind of deterrent against threats kind of inherently untenable, as the development of the story reveals, but her idea of a "failsafe" in the event her plan goes wrong is basically laughable. While her characterization as Machiavellian and utterly amoral is well-done and, to the best of my recollection, in keeping with the comics, her incompetence rather took me out of the story on more than one occasion. Not only that, but Rick Flagg, supposedly the lone "straight" man in the team as he is the mobile "warden" of the jailbirds, is a thoroughly unlikable character, and while Davis does her best with some really bad scripting, the failings of Flagg are equal parts Ayer (and his presumed ghost-writers) and Kinnaman. Also, the movie suffers some serious internal logic failure as the script cannot seem to decide exactly how fragile or tough the zombie minions against which the team face off are supposed to be. At some times they can take a hail of bullets but at others all it takes is a baseball bat to the head to take them down.
The editing is chaotic, and the sound editing or mixing even worse, as I had to strain to hear a lot of the dialogue over the pop music blaring while it was going on. I get the gripe about there being a "tonal shift" from one scene to another, but it wasn't that jarring for me, though far too often, the bad writing was.
For all that, this film is not the cinematic apocalypse some reviewers make it out to be. The lead performances, for one, are pretty solid, with Will Smith's Deadshot marking a return to action-movie form for him after the disastrous After Earth almost killed his career. Whether the rumors are true that there were re-shoots to make the film "funnier" I can be pretty sure that Smith brought the humor up front, as it has been a defining aspect of his career, really. Ayer wisely anchors the movie on his character, for the most part. Robbie is also a hoot as Quinn, though her somewhat exploitative outfit somewhat undermines the film's aspirations towards subversiveness (more on that later). The scene in which she is "reborn" by jumping into a vat of chemicals at the behest of her beloved Joker, with its mix of candy colors against the white goo, is haunting and quite honestly belongs in a different movie, which is something that, to be fair, can be said for quite a few of the visuals here. One wonders if Ayer's vision wasn't somehow adulterated by meddling suits.
As the fourth onscreen iteration of the Joker (including the one from the 1966 Batman movie), Leto does what he can to make the role his own, and succeeds for the most part, but his participation in the story is quite peripheral. It would be interesting to see him face off against Ben Affleck's Batman (who does show up in flashbacks, incidentally, but only opposite Deadshot and Harley Quinn). Hernandez's Diablo infuses the movie with a little bit of soul, though his arc is more than a little hackneyed. Incidentally, I was happy to see quite a bit of ethnic diversity among the lead actors (you HEAR that, Marvel? Black guys/cultural minorities can be more than SIDEKICKS!), though I will dock WB/DC points on the diversity score for the fact that Native American actor Adam Beach basically showed up just so that Amanda Waller could show the team she wasn't messing around about the neck explosives. That is not a spoiler in any meaningful way.
The action, while uneven and chaotic at some points (again, due to internal logic issues, among other things), is still pretty watchable, and pretty much every team member gets to showcase his or her signature talent once or twice.
I suppose what rankles critics is the notion being peddled by some that this movie is in any way subversive, because really, it's not. It falls quite readily on the "crooks with hearts of gold" story trope, as well as several others, and the fact that Harley Quinn's choice of wardrobe is designed to get male butts into the seats really debunks any notion that this movie is some groundbreaking statement on female empowerment as some people tried to suggest early in the film's marketing phase. It's basically one's average male-centric action movie that follows a fairly standard formula. It's hardly a storytelling maverick.
Fortunately, it's not the creative black hole it's made out to be by critics, and with better writing and editing, a sequel to this could actually be quite entertaining.
It's a decent way to kill time at the mall...but not much else.
6/10
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