Review: The Creator

The Creator
Cert: 12A / 133 mins / Dir. Gareth Edwards / Trailer

As much as Gareth Edwards' new film is trumpeted as being from the director*¹ of Rogue One and tackling the bête du jour of AI, The Creator is at its heart a callback to the 1970s era of thought-provoking science fiction, which didn't get bogged down in being the start of A Universe™*².

Excellent lead performances from John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles and Gemma Chan blend seamlessly with strong supporting roles from Allison Janney and Ralph Ineson, as the film leans back from 'the robots are going to kill us' and asks instead what qualifies as Artificial when the Intelligence becomes truly self-aware. Much like Alex Garland's superb Ex Machina, the real enemy here isn't the behaviour of the machines but that of the humans they're reacting against. Director and co-writer Gilroy evokes sympathy without being mawkish, and showcases a beautifully gritty world and jaw-dropping effects work without getting lost in the detail. While the film has a serious point to make yet never lectures its audience, this open-ended approach to morality may seem non-committal to some, and there's certainly the feeling that The Creator is merely extremely impressive, rather than surprisingly profound.

But above all else, it's just great to see a fiction-movie in this day and age which is familiar without seeming derivative and interesting for its entire run-time. Bravo.

*¹ It's a topic for a different post admittedly, but Tony 'Andor' Gilroy deserves at least an equal amount of credit for the direction (and indeed the direction) of Rogue One. It's not that Gareth Edwards didn't put in a hell of a lot of vital work, but ultimately Gilroy is responsible for the movie we saw. But much like the Solo debacle, we'll likely never hear the full, true story behind all that. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² And let's be entirely fair, Star Wars caused that. ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Captain Marvel (third-pass)

Captain Marvel (third-pass / 2D / SPOILERS)
Cert: 12A / 124 mins / Dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck / Trailer



Apologies for the lateness of this review, writing time is competing for top billing at Blackout Towers. First review way back here, second (micro) review here.

CAMEO

So, this was the third time of watching Captain Marvel, and the third time that the opening ident featuring Stan Lee brought me to tears. Ditto with his cameo in the train-scene. What I absolutely adore about this is that because the movie is set in 1995 and Kevin Smith's Mallrats was released in that same year, the Stan we see on the train is rehearsing the lines for his appearance in that film. It's the scene with Brody in which he plays himself after an appearance at a comic book store. So for this Marvel Cinematic Universe cameo, Stan Lee doesn't play Man At Window or Guy Opening Fridge; Stan Lee plays Stan Lee. An amazing tribute to a unique man which is fucking beautiful, frankly.

But I digress. What becomes clearer watching the movie after a break is that the amount of exposition mixed with call-forwards in the first act means that the viewer is bombarded with way too much information. Ironically, this isn't as noticeable on a first-pass when you're just gawping at everything anyway, but the more you understand what's going on, the more jumbled its beginning becomes. Anything before Vers lands in the Blockbuster feels needlessly cluttered.

GUN

On a more positive note (because I do love this, remember), the feeling grows that there's nothing in the actual story itself which dictates that Carol Danvers needs to be a female character. It could as well be Carl Danvers. That she's a woman is just a bonus (albeit a long overdue one). And whereas DC's Wonder Woman did a great job of ramping up its girl-power while retaining credibility, Captain Marvel is altogether less showy about it - although no less important. And that's either the mark of true narrative equality from Marvel, or a damning indictment of the homogenisation of superhero cinema. Definitely one of the two.

It's slightly odd to think that Danvers ends up being the one who inadvertently names The Avengers. As above, it's cool that there's a female touch to these proceedings, but way back in the supergroup's debut comic it was The Wasp who came up with the moniker. It's bad enough that she was recently reduced to being a sidekick in a movie where she should have co-headlined, but now this? I expect Hope Van Dyne to have her own kick-ass movie in short order by way of recompense.

It also occurred to me watching this again that Maria's daughter Monica is around 11 in 1995, which would put her in the mid-30s by the time of Endgame. Might we see the budding pilot teaming up with Carol Danvers in the future when she takes the fight to Thanos? Well, that movie's out by the time of posting this review, and that question has been answered…

Tonally, the other character-chapters in the MCU.



It is.



It is.



The jury's still out on that one.



That's possible.



Nope, I thought there was in the scene where Goose gets hungry for the first time, but I didn't hear it the next time round.



Level 1: Orson Krennic's in this.







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Captain Marvel (first-pass)

Captain Marvel (first-pass / 2D / SPOILER-FREE)
Cert: 12A / 124 mins / Dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck / Trailer



Okay, so you know the score. It's late (or early), I'm buzzing and I'm emptying my head after a first-pass viewing of Captain Marvel. There are no spoilers in here, but for best effect don't read this until you've watched the film. These are brief first reactions, they'll probably change as I get to know the movie better, and I've probably interpreted some of the moments incorrectly anyway. Right.

The film follows a mid-1990s Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) as she struggles to piece together fragments of memory and make sense of who she was, who she is, and who she's supposed to be. A human fighter-pilot from Earth? A Kree Starforce warrior from Hala? Both? Neither? The last thing she needs is to be thrown head-first into a Skrull invasion of Earth, although in that respect at least she's got good company in the shape of a particularly lithe Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)…

FOUNDATIONS

Building on the foundations of pan-galactic politics laid by Guardians Of The Galaxy and strengthened by Thor: Ragnarok, the movie jumps straight into an alien civilisation with relatively little exposition. Marvel are expecting you to be on-board for this already, although given it's the 21st movie in a series, that's perhaps not an unreasonable assumption. The Kree/Skrull dynamic takes an interesting path, considering what we've already learned of politics of the former. But this is is treated more of a supporting aspect, rather than the main focus.

This is mainly because Carol arrives on our screens fully-formed and ready to beat the shit out of alien invaders first, then ask questions later. Her backstory and subsequent character development comes in the form of flashbacks, reveals and the gentle unravelling of the knot that is Danvers' memory. Online rumblings that the film is 'slow' have been greatly exaggerated, although it tells its own story in its own time, teasing out just the right amount of details to keep things ticking over, but not holding enough back to seem smug or self-indulgent. While the twists in the tale aren't quite telegraphed, they follow the familiar structural beats of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

DRIFTERS

They key thing is that (despite the pre-emptive crying from the usual corners of the internet), Captain Marvel isn't trying to be an MCU movie for girls, just a great MCU movie. The fact that it largely succeeds at this should draw precisely the right reactions from both sides of the fence. Much like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, this isn't an attempt to re-invent the wheel - more to create a new cog which is integral to the existing machine*¹.

Larson is an absolute natural at this of course, an outstanding actress who's more than willing to commit to a role that's fun, energetic and sometimes outright silly - but still taking it no less seriously for all that. Both the performer and the character blend seamlessly into the MCU, thanks in no small part to the assistance of Jackson as the audience's long-time touchstone. Ben Mendelsohn puts in a solid turn which will be initially underrated by most, and Lashana Lynch's character of Maria is crying out for more screen-time. Annette Benning is under-used in the Marvel tradition of getting Robert Redford / Glenn Close / Michelle Pfeiffer to rock up and bring a bit of gravitas to the proceedings. Jude Law is also in this film.

TRIOS

It's not all plain-sailing, of course. The 1990s soundtrack is a little on-the-nose, and in playing some of the more iconic Grunge™ tracks, it's arguably used some of the era's least interesting music. That said, this is a major studio picture and not a hipster's mixtape, so that's understandable. I'd just be very surprised if this movie shifted albums in the way which Guardians did, because that's clearly the intention of such recognisable tracks.

Another problem could be that who Carol Danvers was seems far more interesting than who Captain Marvel is, and the film's climactic showdown has little to reveal as a result. There are plenty of big-stupid-grins to be enjoyed throughout, but the real goosebump moments come earlier rather than later. Captain Marvel is a very solid entry in the saga, but doesn't feel like anything more than that on a first-pass. And as Ant-Man & The Wasp was an unabashed palate-cleanser after the heavyweight Infinity War, the feeling remains that this should have a bit more clout as we hurtle toward the Endgame…

The business-end not spoilers, but highlight-to-read anyway):

• Is there a Wilhelm Scream? I think there is, a second-pass should clear this up.
• Is there a Stan Lee cameo? There is, and it's quietly magnificent. Awarding the film an extra point for this.
• Is there a mid-credits scene? There is
• Is there a post-credits scene? There is*²

It's very much on-par with the MCU standalone films.
Which is by no means a bad thing, but perhaps not a surprising one either.



It is.



It is.



Not really, but everyone involved is on reliably solid form.



Possibly. Discussions will be lengthy, at any rate.



Ask me again when I've watched it again.



Level 1: Mace Windu's in this.





*¹ And using those two examples particularly, Captain Marvel succeeds in being its own thing. As I've probably mentioned before, Ant-Man is a structural retooling of The First Avenger, while Doctor Strange is beat-for-beat Iron Man. Meanwhile, Carol Danvers is bringing her own booze to this particular party, and it's a more varied ride as a result. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Although a disturbing number of people stood up and left after the mid-credits scene. Who the hell loves Marvel enough to come to the midnight-screening of an MCU movie, but can't wait an extra six minutes once the names begin to roll at 2:20 in the morning? What the hell else are they going to use that time for? Amateurs. Anyway, the end-credits scene is fun as adding one more piece to a puzzle we thought had been previously completed... ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians
Cert: 12A / 121 mins / Dir. John M. Chu / Trailer



There are some movies where if the projector broke down 15 minutes before the end, you wouldn't be too bothered. It's not that you could figure out where everything was headed, more that the inevitable conclusion would mean as little as everything you'd already seen on the way there. You'd just pick up what's left of your popcorn and head out, safe in the knowledge that at least the extra quarter of an hour could be spent further dissecting the movie over a pint on the way home.

Anyway, I saw all of Crazy Rich Asians on Saturday night. And it didn't matter.

We follow Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), a young lecturing professor in New York as she discovers that her boyfriend of the last year, Nick Young (Henry Golding), is from an extremely wealthy family in the far East. As their relationship has grown, Nick wants to take Rachel home for his best friend's wedding, and to meet the family. But Nick's mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), while a strong-minded businesswoman, harbours a grudge of Americans and their gaucheness. To make matters worse, the younger element of Nick's extended family and friends in Singapore display even more louche decadence than their counterparts in the US.

Can Rachel win over Nick's traditionalist family and hedonistic contemporaries? Can Nick find the balance between independence and traditionalism? Do I even need to be asking these questions?

No, I don't. Imagine securing the production and mainstream distribution budgets for an Asian-led comedy which (to its credit) doesn't treat itself as a self-aware novelty, then turning out something as insipid as this. And sure, the Guardian-reader in me wants to give Crazy Rich Asians a pass because it's bearing the standard for a demographic shift the industry badly needs, but if this movie was a vehicle for Katherine Heigl, Anna Kendrick or Channing Tatum I'd be all over it like Jason Voorhees at a summer-camp all nighter. So no quarter I'm afraid…

A two-hour advertisement for the Singapore Tourist Board, Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim's screenplay is the dictionary definition of On The Nose, apparently comprising 30% plot-driving details and 70% autopilot platitudes. It's based on Kevin Kwan's 2013 novel, like that's some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card. Either way, the end result is thoroughly superficial and with no ambition other than the ancillary sales of a jukebox soundtrack.

To make matters worse, the movie feels like it's being directed by someone who's only ever watched romantic comedies from the 1990s. We're treated to a burgeoning romance between two impossibly attractive and morally flawless lead characters, followed by disapproving in-laws, bitchy/boorish contemporaries, a musical makeover montage and a third-act dash to the airport capped off with a round of applause from a bunch of strangers.

If the point of this is to show Western audiences that Eastern culture has become as bland and annoying as their own, then well done, I guess?

Credit where it's due though, the wedding-sequence is stunningly shot. It's just a shame that the rest of the movie hasn't earned that. I also loved the Mandarin-language cover of Yellow, by Katherine Ho. It's not lost on me that the best Coldplay song is no longer by Coldplay, and the world feels better that way.

Movie producers: As I was pressed to observe recently, the studio comedy system in its current form largely sucks. Sure, you can be part of that, it seems like easy money. That's because there's no artistic merit involved. Your work defines your reputation. Don't assimilate, innovate.

Because it's coming to something when one of the comedic highlights of your film is Ken Jeong, which puts Crazy Rich Asians officially on the same shelf as the third Transformers movie and the second Hangover…

Pretty much very rom-com between the mid 90s and the point a few years back where they started putting dick-jokes in them.



No.



No.



No.



That's likely.



No.



Level 2: Gemma Chan's in this, and she's in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie with Sam 'Windu' Jackson and Ben 'Krennic' Mendelsohn.







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Stratton

Stratton
Cert: 15 / 94 mins / Dir. Simon West / Trailer



Now. This was not a hate-watch. My star-rating sits above these words so the cat is already partially out of the bag at least, but I feel the need to emphasise at this early juncture that my inclusion of Stratton on a day's viewing in London was not undertaken with the intention of gleefully ripping it a new one. Okay, Simon West's film does not have a particularly wide release, but neither did A Ghost Story which I watched less than a month earlier in the self-same cinema*¹. It's got Connie Nielsen from out of Wonder Woman in it, Gemma Chan from Humans and Derek Jacobi from I, Claudius. Y'know, actual actors. And sure it stars Dominic Cooper from Mamma Mia, but he's also Iron Man's dad, remember. No, when I sat down at West India Quay in the heart of London's regenerated Docklands area (part of which features in an Act III boat-chase, no less) on Saturday evening, my expectations were by no means high, but I genuinely wanted to find the good in this movie and enjoy it on a throwaway, surface level at least.

I did not bring negativity into Screen 2. The film director Simon West did that...

Stratton raises the spectre of a European criminal mastermind with a new type of bio-weapon, to be dispersed via a drone which is to be launched from the top deck of a red London bus, hurtling through Hyde Park*². Only one man is up to the job of stopping the threat, Special Boat Service agent John Stratton, a gritty maverick who will complete a mission any damned way he sees fit just to get the result needed, before drinking whiskey alone on his houseboat and having occasional flashbacks to the fallen (and slightly less rugged) comrade he didn't manage to save*³.

I hear yer da's gone into the screenwriting business.

From the opening titles which feature animated text-kerning for no reason, to the cardboard-cutout characters and over-produced laptop readout screens, this movie has Supermarket Father's Day Gift Ideas Promo Display written all over it. In fact, at one point the villain (I'm not going to bother with character names, okay?) helpfully narrates the note which has been sent to his mole inside the SBS. We can see that the letter closes '…the penalty is death', but the accompanying monologue doesn't end with those words since the script has been tweaked in post-production. The makers have assumed their audience will be watching on a screen or resolution small enough for this to go unnoticed. Stratton is a £3 DVD on a portable TV, it can't even aspire to being a £5 Blu-ray in the living room.

Not quite sophisticated enough to be labelled mechanical, Duncan Falconer and Warren Davis' screenplay spends its 94 clock-punching minutes lumbering from one tedious set-piece to the next, the cast reading what appears to be placeholder dialogue, drafted in until plot details can be thought of. Nobody actually watches a film like this, they're just waiting for it to end. Dominic Cooper has neither the charm, gravitas nor grit to carry off the title-role, and by the time Derek Jacobi was wheeled back on to give our hero's childhood sob-story in the second act, I'd given up trying gain anything useful or entertaining.

Of course, when you're sitting trying to process Stratton, it's easy to think "the cast are better than this though, surely?". No. Connie Nielsen was in 3 Days To Kill, Gemma Chan lent her voice to the latest Transformers flick, Derek Jacobi sold his soul to Sony whilst pissing into the grave of Charles Dickens and, as I mentioned above, Dominic Cooper is at least partly to blame for the cinematic atrocity which is Mamma Mia!. No, everyone in Stratton knows exactly what they're doing, and they fully deserve to have it on their CV to remind people.

Much like Overdrive, you just know that Statham got the call for this. John Stratton isn't old enough to be pulling 'one last job' or coming out of self-exiled retirement, so Neeson is down at the first hurdle. There are probably more gunshots in this screenplay than words. That said, there are still far too many words. Over-directed to fuck like the action-thriller equivalent of an am-dram Gilbert & Sullivan production, Nielsen sounds constantly surprised at the low quality of her own dialogue.

But it's a 'Saturday night' thriller, right? Hmm. There wasn't a person under 40 or XX chromosome in the entire auditorium at West India Quay, and most of the occupants were alone*⁴. And even then, the target demographic for Stratton fucking hates Stratton. One guy in the same row as me ate popcorn for the first 25 minutes of the feature then walked out as soon as he'd finished. Another chap nearer the front left less than a minute after the final explosion, not even pretending to have the courtesy to see out the faux-reflective denouement tacked on to the back-end before the credits.

Typical dialogue exchange:

STRATTON: The charges are set. Why is there no-one here?
AGGY: This doesn't make any sense…
STRATTON: The intel on this mission is now officially bullshit!

Well I suppose it matches everything else, John...

Things that used to be on Bravo in the 00s, I imagine.



Hahahahahahahahaha.



It's based on a novel.
That means this shit has actually been written TWICE, now.



Well, when Tom Felton isn't the worst thing in a movie, he's probably found his niche..



Try me.



Not that I heard
Although it could have been drowned out by the voice in my head repeatedly asking "why are you still in this room?".



Level 2: I have neither the time nor patience to IMDB the cast of Stratton on an individual basis looking for lucky bit-part actors, so let's go for Dominic Cooper playing Iron Man's dad in The First Avenger alongside stars Sam 'Windu' Jackson and Richard 'Naboo Fighter Pilot' Armitage.





*¹ Although on that self-same day, I'd watched The Emoji Movie, again at that same cinema, and that was a hate-watch…
^{[ BACK ]}

*² In the most lacklustre cinematic climax you have ever seen. in. your. fucking. life. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ Question, though: if Stratton is to be believed, why do so many Special Boat Service / Navy Seal operatives have beards? Yeah I know, "rough manly character" and that, but in a job where you routinely get wet (and with river/sea water, which will be filthy), how practical is facial hair going to be? I wish that was the only illogical thing about this movie… ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ I also fall into all of those brackets of course, I'm not pretending I'm any better. I'd chosen to watch Stratton, remember...
^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.