Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Tags

Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-fi, Superhero, Thriller

Most humans have the comfort of not knowing of too much,
Of doors we should not open and loose threads we ought not touch,
Of dogs we dare not waken and of lines we should not cross,
Lest brutal, futile knowledge should become our albatross.

The warning of “forbidden” has eroded over years,
Decided as the product of unreasonable fears.
For nothing is anathema, forbidden, or taboo,
And so we delve too deeply into things we can’t undo.

When doors not meant to open are instead extended wide,
And fears begin to slither in where had been only pride,
And darkness once attractive starts exacting its dread cost,
You’ll recognize what isn’t wise when certain lines are crossed.
__________________________________

MPA rating: PG-13 (honestly, some of the violence leans toward R)

I never used to wait this long before reviewing Marvel blockbusters, but my mind hasn’t been in movie review mode lately. Still, it’s about time I got to it. Anyway, I’m an MCU fanboy, so anything they release I am likely to enjoy to varying levels. Even some that gave me initial mixed reactions like Thor: The Dark World or Eternals, I’ve grown to appreciate more with time and reflection. It’s rare then that time and reflection ends up lowering my opinion of a Marvel film, but such is the case with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I still liked it overall, but there are elements I can’t help but view with disappointment.

This second Doctor Strange film marks a milestone for the MCU; it’s the first time that a Marvel film has continued a storyline from one of the Disney+ TV series, specifically WandaVision, released about a year before. I’ve decided to skip reviewing TV shows (for now) and won’t go into detail on WandaVision, but it essentially dealt with the messy grieving process of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) after losing her beloved Vision (Paul Bettany) in Infinity War. It was the first time Wanda was referred to by her comics name of Scarlet Witch and introduced the potential children she might have had with Vision, as well as a cursed book called the Darkhold, all of which play a role in this film.

As for Stephen Strange himself (Benedict Cumberbatch), he has settled into the self-sacrificing superhero life of losing his own love Christine (Rachel McAdams) yet trying to convince himself he’s happy anyway. When a multiverse-hopping girl named America Chavez (a bit one-note but likable Xochitl Gomez) arrives in New York, chased by otherworldly creatures, Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) take on the duty of protecting her across universes.

Between Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the multiverse has already been cracked open for most viewers, but Doctor Strange in the MoM goes beyond variations of one character. Many would argue that it still doesn’t do enough with the concept to warrant a name like Multiverse of Madness, but my VC actually liked that the number of universes involved were limited, finding it easier to follow. The use of the multiverse is where my complaints begin (and the spoilers). One of the biggest set pieces of the film involves a multiversal team getting slaughtered mercilessly, which felt like a jarring contrast to the way that even villains were treated in No Way Home, a spectacle mistaking cruel for cool. It gave me concern that the multiverse could be used to just provide an endless supply of fan service cannon fodder because if one character dies, hey, there’s plenty of others out there for next time, right?

Beyond that, the film’s treatment of Wanda is also a mixed bag. While Olsen delivers an outstanding performance stepping into the rare role of a hero-turned-villain and showing just how powerful she is, it ends up undermining the emotional progress she seemed to experience in WandaVision (and totally ignoring the fact that Vision in some form is out there somewhere). Her motivations are sympathetic, but it was shocking just how far she goes, her behavior easily blamed on the corrupting power of the Darkhold but hard to forgive nonetheless. And then there’s Strange’s diving into the dark art of necromancy in the climax, which is both a gleeful reminder of director Sam Raimi’s horror specialty and also a problematic strategy that calls into question whether Strange can just walk away from any supposedly forbidden behavior without consequence. We’ll see if the sequels shed any light on that.

And speaking of sequels, it also felt like there should have been a different Doctor Strange 2 between the original and this one. Despite the brief presence of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo in a different universe, his setup as a villain in the first film’s after-credits scene was essentially dropped, waved away in a single line indicating he and Strange had already clashed before. Am I the only one who would have liked to see that?

So yes, I have mixed feelings about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, right down to its abrupt ending, yet I can’t outright dislike it either. It still has all the ingredients for an entertaining Marvel adventure, mixed with the sometimes creepy, somewhat goofy, and more violent style of Sam Raimi, complete with a prime Bruce Campbell cameo. I liked the more human element of Strange’s character arc, and Olsen’s scenery-chewing wrath is both memorable and cleverly resolved by the end. It can’t be easy writing these Marvel films in a way that continues prior plotlines, delivers its own story, and sets up future possibilities, but they’ve been doing it splendidly for a decade now. While it has its good points, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the first stumble for me.

Best line: (Wanda, with a good point) “You break the rules and become a hero. I do it, and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
777 Followers and Counting

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Tags

Action, Drama, Thriller, War

Expectations are the weight
That drags us to a win or loss.
And either way, we learn to hate
The expectation albatross.

For whether it is you alone
Or one you’re trying to impress,
The chance of failure’s one millstone
That only comes off with success.

A flaw offends, a stumble spreads,
And those who saw it coming quit,
Shaking their collective heads.
They knew you couldn’t handle it.

But then, you might have full support
Yet build up such a stress within,
That nothing but the highest court
Could name you worthy of a win.

Still yet, we live for moments grand
When fear is met by answered prayer,
When what occurs is what was planned,
Even if that may feel rare.

These expectations doom or drive
Our efforts to achieve our best.
Just know as long as you’re alive
That nothing is a futile quest.
________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I don’t know if anyone remembers, but I rewatched the original Top Gun back in 2020 so I could review it before the sequel came out later that year. Of course, a certain pandemic got in the way of that, repeatedly pushing the release of Top Gun: Maverick to a point where it would have the best chance of thriving in theaters rather than settling for a limited or streaming release. And thrived it has, racking up over a billion dollars and outperforming what I think most people expected from yet another resurrected 1980s franchise. I appreciate the first Top Gun on a purely superficial level but would never consider it a favorite movie, so I was genuinely surprised that Maverick actually managed to deliver on the hype that had grown around it.

Set over thirty years after the original, Top Gun: Maverick sees the return of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), whose penchant for risks and disobeying orders has kept him from rising above the rank of captain. With his career near its end, he is called by his old rival and friend Iceman (Val Kilmer, whose inclusion was a nice treat considering his health struggles) to return to Top Gun (a.k.a. the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program) and train the most skilled graduates for a daring mission to destroy a uranium enrichment plant. Among them is “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s deceased partner Goose, and the two must work through their shared history to make the mission a success.

I can absolutely see a version of this movie with the same description I gave above that feels like a zombie retread of the first film, resurrected for the sake of cashing in on audience nostalgia. While that’s likely how the film’s development started, a laudable amount of effort and care went into making this a worthy successor that honestly surpasses the first film in every way. Knowing that the real actors and planes were involved in the aerial action adds much to the experience as a sharp contrast to the overabundance of CGI, and the high-flying direction feels brisk and immediate while not losing track of which plane is which. Plus, the soundtrack is a knockout, featuring not just the return of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” but also welcome additions from The Who, OneRepublic, and Lady Gaga.

It’s rather amazing that Maverick has all of the same ingredients as the first film – hot shot pilots, including a cocky rival (Glen Powell); surly superiors (Jon Hamm, Ed Harris); a simmering romance centered in a bar (now with Jennifer Connolly in place of Kelly McGillis); a shirtless volleyball game; and a climactic face-off with an unnamed enemy – and yet it deepens them and makes them mean more than in the original Top Gun. The writing and story are clearly improved and give the performances of Cruise and Teller especially much more dramatic weight as the loss of Goose continues to weigh on them both. And the whole climax set among snowy mountains is a tense thrill ride, not a sudden “crisis” that pops up like in the first film, but an extended mission that the whole film builds up to, with high stakes and an ever-present chance that someone might not make it home.

The distinction may only make sense to me, but I consider Top Gun an entertaining movie, while Top Gun: Maverick is an entertaining film. Both may be summer blockbusters, but the sequel lives in another category of quality, and I really would like to see it perhaps snag a Best Picture nod at the Oscars. Even with my half-hearted appreciation of the first film, the second was moving, patriotic, and immensely satisfying in its own right while also building on the nostalgia. It sets a new standard for these long-delayed ‘80s sequels, one that will be hard for any other to top.

Best line: (Admiral “Cyclone” Simpson) “Your reputation precedes you.”   (Maverick) “Thank you, Sir.”  (Adm. Simpson) “It wasn’t a compliment.”

Rank: List-Worthy

© 2022 S.G. Liput
775 Followers and Counting

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Tags

Action, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi, Superhero, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem balancing the gifts you were born with and some kind of curse. I started out with that goal, but I’m not sure the result quite matches the prompt today. Still, in going more general, I think I tapped into why I’m an optimist.)

It’s tempting to wish for a different life,
To notice how easy another’s would be.
If I were not stuck
With such miserable luck…
As if the potential were some guarantee.

Yet when I feel like that, beguiled by grief,
Envisioning tragedy somehow undone,
I catch such a muse,
So intent to abuse,
And show it each smile from trials I’ve won.

The good that I’ve seen and at least tried to do
Could likewise be gone, both the sorrow and gifts.
Life’s not simplified
Looking on the bright side,
But I’ll take what’s true over trading in ifs.
______________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I can’t seem to find much agreement on whether The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is better or worse than its predecessor. I’ve read reviews that acclaim Andrew Garfield’s charisma when wearing his Spidey suit, and it certainly does have more personality than the somewhat bland first film. Yet I’ve also seen certain scenes mercilessly mocked, like the unresolved ending with Paul Giamatti as a hammy Russian Rhino. Personally, I think the second film does improve on the first, at least in answering some of the lingering questions, and it certainly took guts to put to film one of the most famous and gut-wrenching twists from the comics.

Garfield may still be the third best Peter Parker (sorry!), but he’s still quite a good one, especially alongside Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy. Haunted by the dying words of Gwen’s father (Denis Leary), he still fears for her safety, and with good reason as numerous supervillains threaten the city. Like many other nerds-turned-villains, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) starts out idolizing Spider-Man before an accident and a misunderstanding turn him into the vengeful Electro, while Peter’s old pal Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan as a pale stand-in for James Franco) is spurred by a terminal illness into Green Goblin-hood.

There’s much to enjoy in Garfield’s second outing, from several outstanding action set pieces to the continued winsome chemistry between Peter and Gwen. While the backstory about Peter’s father isn’t the most interesting aspect, it does supply a logical answer to an unspoken question. I like to say that the freak accidents in these movies, like a radioactive spider bite or falling into a tank of electric eels, either kill you or give you superpowers, and there’s a pretty good reason why it was the latter for Peter specifically. The plot is rather long and busy with all the villains and laying the groundwork for future sequels that never materialized (Felicity Jones never gets to do much as Felicia Hardy), but I can appreciate how much this film tries since the first seemed content to be underwhelming.

It’s notable how both Garfield’s series and Tobey Maguire’s run as Spider-Man both ended on rather dour notes. Neither Spider-Man 3 nor Amazing Spider-Man 2 end very happily, so it’s all the better that No Way Home managed to provide some much-needed closure for some of its predecessors’ loose or less-than-satisfying ends. I’m still hoping for more, though, and with the renewed appreciation that No Way Home inspired for Spider-Men past, perhaps we’ll see even more of Garfield’s Peter Parker.

Best line: (Gwen Stacy’s valedictorian speech) “It’s easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us too. There will be days where you feel all alone, and that’s when hope is needed most. No matter how buried it gets, or how lost you feel, you must promise me that you will hold on to hope. Keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer. My wish for you is to become hope; people need that. And even if we fail, what better way is there to live? As we look around here today, at all of the people who helped make us who we are, I know it feels like we’re saying goodbye, but we will carry a piece of each other into everything that we do next, to remind us of who we are, and of who we’re meant to be.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
772 Followers and Counting

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Tags

Action, Fantasy, Romance, Superhero

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a concrete poem, one that is written in the shape of its topic. These are always tricky for me, but I opted for the shape of a prominent letter befitting this film.)

What is                                                                                       a hero?
  Someone                                         who                                sees
    What needs                             doing and                      does,
        Who knows                    what    they’re             losing
               And loses            that             others,      even
                  Strangers,      may                     win,  maybe
                       Never knowing                        the name
                              Of their                                   hero.
______________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

Like many others, I was quite impressed with 2017’s Wonder Woman and thought it signaled an overdue increase in entertainment value for DC’s superhero lineup. Gal Gadot was perfectly cast as the idealistic Diana, her chemistry with Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor provided sacrificial pathos by the end, and the World War I setting was a unique contrast to all the modern superhero settings. So there was good reason to think that Wonder Woman 1984 would be a similar success, which only makes its failings more disappointing.

Set in 1984 (obviously), this second adventure sees Wonder Woman contending with less impressive threats than the Olympian god she took down in the first film. Pedro Pascal plays a desperate businessman Max Lord, who uses a wishing stone to gain the power to grant wishes himself, always with an unpleasant twist to them, while Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) is the recipient of one of those wishes, a clumsy geologist whose initial hero worship for Wonder Woman turns to resentment as she becomes the confident Cheetah. Of course, Diana gets a wish of her own as well, which enables the return of her long-lost love Steve, albeit in a way that is problematic for long-term happiness.

There was a good movie somewhere in the pitch for Wonder Woman 1984, but it got lost in the overload of themes and complete lack of subtlety. There are some decent action scenes, like during a truck chase in Egypt, while one set in a mall is laughably mediocre in tone and execution. Both Lord’s monkey-paw-style mania and Barbara’s descent into villainy have good moments as well, with Pascal’s smarmy façade especially fitting his character to a T, yet their final confrontations with Wonder Woman are too chaotic with obvious CGI to be taken seriously. The moral of the wish storyline especially falls flat, implying that everyone would only wish for evil things if given the chance (President Reagan is literally shown wishing he had more nukes as opposed to something like, I don’t know, world peace), and it’s bewildering how incoherent the finale is, with Barbara somehow getting a second wish and both Lord and Diana somehow speaking to everyone on Earth via a satellite.

I went into Wonder Woman 1984 wanting to like it and did enjoy seeing Steve reunited with Diana and introduced to the 1980s, but not even the same director and stars from the first film could save a plot this half-baked. It does have some silly-enough-to-be-entertaining appeal, though. Gadot is still an ideal Wonder Woman, so I hope she can still get a worthy sequel at some point. I’d wish for it, but now I know that can be risky.

Best line: (Max Lord, repeatedly) “Life is good! But it can be better.”

Rank: Honorable Mention (since I’d still probably watch it again.)

© 2022 S.G. Liput
771 Followers and Counting

Belle (2021)

Tags

Action, Animation, Anime, Drama, Family, Musical, Romance, Sci-fi

(Good Friday and work obligations sadly made me miss yesterday, but I’m back on the wagon. Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a curtal sonnet, an 11-line sonnet variant from Gerard Manley Hopkins.)

In the realm of cyberspace I hide,
Comforted by anonymity.
My flesh-self is content behind its smokescreen.
Robed in pixels, I can roam with pride,
Finding other introverts to agree,
Minorities like ghosts in the machine.

Life from womb to here has left me wincing;
Life since logging on is fancy-free,
Far easier to spurn the cruel and mean.
I’m someone else, and boy, am I convincing,
As you’ve seen.
________________________

MPA rating:  PG

In anime circles, a new film from Mamoru Hosoda is an event. From Summer Wars to Wolf Children to the Oscar-nominated Mirai, he’s proven to be one of the most skilled anime directors around, and Belle promised to be yet another win. A modern riff on Beauty and the Beast fusing music and social media, the film garnered a fourteen-minute standing ovation at Cannes, making me wonder if it was just a case of no one wanting to be the first to stop clapping. Belle is another strong film in Hosoda’s oeuvre, but, like Encanto, it’s also proof that a film can be good while also being deeply flawed.

In the near-future of Belle, a digital world called U has become the most popular metaverse for people across the globe to interact with avatars somehow extrapolated from their own biometrics, resulting in an array of bizarre appearances ranging from babies to superheroes to literal hands with a face on it, which no one seems to object to. Suzu is a self-conscious high school student still haunted by her mother’s death, but when she logs into U as the beautiful Bell (which is what Suzu means), she finds that the anonymity allows her to sing again and, much to her surprise, become a celebrity. As she deals with the flurry of differing opinions that come with fame, she grows curious about the aggressive avatar known as the Beast, whose unknown identity is hunted by U’s authorities.

Hosoda is no stranger to virtual worlds, having previously worked with the concept in Digimon and Summer Wars, so it’s no surprise that the world of U is dazzling, an eye-popping blend of 3D and 2D animation, thanks in part to backgrounds from Cartoon Saloon. It’s easily Hosoda’s most visually resplendent and imaginative film that still carries his calling cards (he must have a thing for flying whales). The bad thing about U is that so much of it is left unexplained. While OZ in Summer Wars had several clear real-world applications, the avatars in U are never shown doing much more than floating around and commenting, though there are concerts and fighting tournaments, I suppose. Plus, it’s never clear how the real-world users are interacting with the virtual world; at some points, it’s as if their avatars are mirroring their real body’s movements, but is it like Ready Player One-style mechanics? There’s mention of sharing the senses of their avatars, so how can they see both U and the real world when logged in? Questions like that just require a suspension of disbelief that divorces the virtual and real worlds for the sake of the story.

The virtual world is ostensibly the main fantastical draw of the film, but I honestly enjoyed the parts in the real world more. The high school romance drama is nothing unusual for the genre, but the relatable supporting characters are an endearing bunch, particularly during a laughably awkward love confession. It was also a nice subversion to reveal the usually unsympathetic popular girl as a genuinely caring friend. However, the real world is also where the story falters toward the end. The revelation of the Beast’s identity is a powerful moment that speaks to the trauma of hidden abuse, yet it’s a reality for which the film doesn’t really have an answer. One culminating sacrifice hits an emotional high, but Suzu’s efforts afterward are unrealistic and absent of any long-term solution.

Belle has a lot of impressive elements in service to a somewhat half-baked plot, and the Beauty and the Beast parallels are rather incidental to the main story. Its vision of social media feeding frenzies and the online experience are timely and well-executed, while Suzu’s journey to understand the meaning of selflessness is suitably moving as well. And though the songs sometimes feel shoehorned in, I must give props to their quality, including the English recordings for the dub, and I think that the climactic “A Million Miles Away” would have been a worthy nominee for a Best Song Oscar if the Academy would look around more. Belle may not match the likes of Wolf Children, but it lives up to Summer Wars and exceeds Mirai, in my opinion. The visual splendor on display largely overshadows the plot issues, just as long as you don’t think about it too much.

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
765 Followers and Counting

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Tags

Action, Comedy, Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for an optimistic pep-talk of a poem, and what better way to cheer up than to imagine all the possibilities of the future?)

Are you dwelling on your present and its causes in the past,
Believing that your current station cannot be surpassed
And thinking that what got you here’s so permanent and vast
That every future holds more of the same?

I tell you it’s a lie, for there are futures far and wide,
A you that is a lawyer with a master’s on the side,
An architect, an astronaut, or business never tried,
A plaque or medal waiting with your name.

Another you’s achieving in another universe,
And nothing but your mindset makes your version any worse.
A choice alone can breed a set of futures so diverse
That only you will see what you became.
_______________________

MPA rating:  R

With positive word of mouth still spreading this movie’s praises, I will affirm that Everything Everywhere All at Once is the genre-defying, expectation-blowing multiversal fever dream that no one knew they wanted. Born from the unorthodox imaginations of music video directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known as Daniels, whose last film Swiss Army Man had a description weird enough to turn me off from seeing it at all), this new film is a head-trip, a drug trip, and a reality-spanning hero’s journey/familial drama all wrapped up in a Chinese-American cultural milieu and the distinctive anything-goes visual style of a pair of auteurs. Basically, it’s the ultimate indie film.

Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, who owns a laundromat with her meek husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan of Goonies and Temple of Doom fame) and is being audited by a no-nonsense IRS inspector named Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis). While attending a tax meeting, Evelyn is suddenly whisked into a multiverse-spanning struggle when an alternate version of Waymond informs her of a cosmic threat and the possibility of accessing the skills of other versions of Evelyn in different universes. She is understandably skeptical of such revelations but is soon forced to battle other multiverse-hoppers, not to mention the struggles of parenthood and the meaning of existence.

So much happens in Everything Everywhere All at Once that it’s hard to focus on what makes it so engaging, but I’ll say it’s probably the most wildly original film I’ve ever seen. With that originality, it must also be said that it embraces the surreal and outright bizarre with abandon, making it also a film whose sense of humor is not necessarily for all tastes. Quite a few scenes earned big laughs in the theater just from how unexpected and weird they were, like when a small dog on a leash is suddenly used in combat as a swinging weapon. This is a movie that alternates between relatable scenes of grappling with one’s disappointing life choices and Yeoh sparring with a pair of martial artists with trophies stuck up their butts (for a plot-sensible reason, strangely enough). It’s nuts, and yet, for the most part, it works.

Yeoh is at her best here, portraying Evelyn in a wide range of states from domestic despair to a glamorous lifestyle mirroring that of Yeoh herself. Evelyn is told that her potential “chosen one” status is because she is basically the worst version of herself, allowing all that unfulfilled potential to draw abilities from other universes instead. Between her regretful cynicism and burgeoning omnipotence, one sequence leads her on the path to nihilism and cruelty because “nothing matters” when you see how insignificant our lives are. A less satisfying film might have embraced that theme to its worst end, but that’s where Quan shines as the true heart of the film. In a triumphant return to acting, he provides a brilliant summation of kindness as the best alternative, which is basically what I consider my own worldview. He does much more than that, serving as the main deliverer of exposition and nailing a finely choreographed fight armed with only a fanny pack, but he grounds the film in a way that wouldn’t be possible without him.

I realize I’ve gone this far without even mentioning Stephanie Hsu as Evelyn’s estranged daughter or James Hong as her judgmental, wheelchair-bound father. I haven’t gotten to the reality-ending bagel or the zany reimagining of Pixar’s Ratatouille. The number of components to appreciate and discuss in this film can’t be crammed into this one review, but let’s just say there are plenty of them. I suppose the closest thing to which I can compare the wide breadth of this film is Cloud Atlas, but on crack. In both cases, neither film’s premise is really compatible with my own Christian worldview, never acknowledging any God but the “universe” and choosing to find meaning elsewhere, yet I can still admire the far-reaching search for that meaning, which touches on universal truth (like Waymond’s endorsement of kindness) and is inspiring in its own way.

Honestly, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a small miracle of a film, one that goes bat-crap crazy with its creativity yet never loses sight of the human story at its core, the one where everyone wants to be valued and loved. Even in its sillier alternative universes, it plays the emotions within them straight, so that they earn a chuckle for their absurdity while not detracting from the tear of the moment. I could have done without a few sexual elements of the weirdness that clinch the R rating, but there’s so much else to admire that I can overlook certain excesses.

In many ways, it feels like a game-changing milestone type of film, like Star Wars or The Matrix, one that others will no doubt try to imitate but never quite match. I bet Marvel thought the second Dr. Strange movie would monopolize the theme of an infinite multiverse, so who would have guessed that “Shang-Chi’s Aunt in the Multiverse of Madness” would come along to disrupt the conversation only a month before? From brilliant fight choreography to madcap editing and effects work, Everything Everywhere All at Once dares more than any film in recent memory and wins because of it.

Best line: (Waymond, to Evelyn) “You think because l’m kind that it means I’m naive, and maybe I am. It’s strategic and necessary. This is how I fight.”

Rank: List-Worthy

© 2022 S.G. Liput
765 Followers and Counting

Love and Monsters (2020)

Tags

Action, Comedy, Romance, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Day 10 of NaPoWriMo provided a straightforward prompt asking for a love poem. With this film in mind, I couldn’t help a little tongue in cheek regarding the boasts made by the lovestruck.)

Dear love, I know we’ve been apart too many days to count,
But I can still remember every contour of your face.
If it meant seeing you again, I’d climb the highest mount
Or cross the deepest river or such similar clichés.

But mounts and rivers had their day; new dangers have emerged,
And I would brave them all as well to be back by your side.
I’d vanquish vicious Spuzzards by the dozens if you urged,
And butcher every Chumbler that attempts humanicide.

Sand gobblers are nothing, whether colony or queen,
For I could take on hundreds with the thought of where you are.
One day I’ll make the trek and brave these threats that stand between;
Till then, within my bunker, I will love you from afar.
______________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

A good film doesn’t always have to revolutionize its genre or blow away expectations; sometimes it’s enough to just be entertaining and live up to its name, which Love and Monsters certainly does. Set in a near future where an attempt to destroy an asteroid (perhaps some alternate plot for Don’t Look Up) resulted in all coldblooded creatures mutating into giant monsters, the film follows Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien) on his journey to reunite with his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick). After seven years living in separate survivor colonies, connecting only via radio conversations, Joel decides to brave the 85-mile, monster-ridden hike to his love, despite his clear lack of survival experience.

Love and Monsters fits snugly beside other post-apocalyptic survival films while keeping the horrific monster-vs-human action at bay with a largely fun tone and (thankfully) PG-13-level violence. While the monsters are obvious, thanks to Oscar-nominated visual effects, O’Brien provides the love in the title, his memories of Aimee fueling his drive to reunite. His relatable voiceover makes him a likable guide to this dangerous new world, joined at times by a dog named Boy and some other survivors like the pair of Michael Rooker and Ariana Greenblatt, who give him a crash course on how to get by in a world where nearly everything wants to eat you.

The film does somewhat step out of its expected mold by the end, subverting Joel’s expectations about love and found family. Despite its familiar elements, it’s nice to see an original adventure film that delivers exactly what it means to and that managed to win over critics and audiences despite the pandemic forcing it from theaters to a digital on-demand release. No matter how hard life might have gotten in the last few years, this film proves it could be much, much worse, and even that can be survived.

Best line:  (Joel, addressing other survivors) “If I can survive out here, anybody can. It’s like a good friend once told me:  Good instincts are earned by making mistakes. If you’re lucky enough to survive a few mistakes, you’re gonna do all right out here.”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Daredevil (2003)

Tags

Action, Drama, Superhero, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem detailing an alter ego, so a superhero seemed like a prime subject.)

My alter ego you may know;
His fame surpasses mine,
And yet for all our differences,
Our points of view align.
Where I avoid hostility,
My shadow boasts a spine.

Where I will yield at pressure’s grip,
He clings to his ideals.
The fear that dogs me in the day,
The night for him conceals.
And those who propagate that fear,
He follows on their heels.

The scars that scare the rest away,
My counterpart will earn.
And what he does for you and me
It’s best that we don’t learn.
Since bad for bad is good for good,
A blind eye I will turn.
_________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13 (though R for the director’s cut I saw)

I went into Daredevil fully expecting it to be bad since it has gained a reputation as one of the several lame Marvel adaptations that floundered before the MCU found its stride. I wasn’t aware that the director’s cut had a better reputation than the original, so it was just luck that I opted to see the more complete version of the story, before thirty minutes were unwisely cut for theaters. And I was pleasantly surprised by a comic book tale that may be imperfect but not nearly as dismal as I’d heard.

None of the actors are at the top of their game, but it’s still an impressive cast, including a pre-Batman Ben Affleck as “the man without fear” Matt Murdock, a pre-Happy Jon Favreau as his lawyer friend, and a pre-Penguin Colin Farrell as the ruthless assassin Bullseye. Jennifer Garner is decent as love interest and fellow fighter Elektra, while Michael Clarke Duncan steals every scene as the hulking Kingpin, putting his massive height and strength to good use as the imposing criminal mastermind. There are clear echoes of Daredevil’s comic book origins, such as the opening scene of the blind vigilante clinging to a church’s rooftop cross, and even though it plays itself straight with a dark and brooding tone to rival Batman (and minus the aversion to killing), there’s also definite cheesiness on display, with Farrell the worst offender, taking every opportunity to show how irredeemably evil he is.

With its obvious CGI moments and choppy fight editing, Daredevil doesn’t have the special effects polish we’ve come to expect of modern superhero films, so it’s a product of its time, when the first Spider-Man was the best template for a comic book film but was hard to replicate right. I was also surprised to hear the Grammy-winning “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, which was part of the soundtrack before the song had even been released. There are genuinely good elements in the mix, from Murdock’s movingly tragic childhood to the Catholic subtext to the brutal face-off between Daredevil and Kingpin. So Daredevil may have been a misfire at the time, but it simply paved the way for other Marvel films to be better. (I really ought to see the Netflix series now that the character seems to be entering the MCU in earnest.)

Best line: (Father Everett, to Matt as Daredevil) “Look, a man without fear is a man without hope. May God have mercy on you for your sins and grant you Everlasting Life, Amen. …I’m not too crazy about the outfit, either.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Free Guy (2021)

Tags

Action, Comedy, Romance, Sci-fi

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to depict a mythical or fictional person/creature doing something unusual, so I took a cue from the watered-down depictions in video games.)

We are the fierce and mighty ones, the villains and the threats,
Who thrive on crime and murder with no sorrow or regrets.
We’ve kept you up at night and made our way into your dreams,
And broken laws with teeth and claws, with swords and laser beams.
We feed our greed and hunger as our few defining truths,
Our sanity is doubtful, and we haven’t any ruths.
We are the Terminator and the Alien and Joker
(The versions that are threatening and not the mediocre),
The Predator and Dracula and all the heroes’ foes,
Who’d burn the world to ashes if we’d no one to oppose.
Designed to be disturbing and created to be hated,
We nonetheless admit to being thoroughly frustrated.
What do we have in common, we the kings of scourge and glutton?
We’re forced to pose and dance around when gamers hit a button.
______________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I’ll just start out by acknowledging that I am not a gamer in any way. I fell away from my Game Boy Advance over a decade ago, and while I wouldn’t mind playing games, I just can’t seem to find the time for it. So I am not exactly the target demographic for Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds’ good-natured riff on open-world games like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto, complete with cameos from real Twitch streamers I barely recognize. Still, there’s great fun to be had in what is essentially a digital reimagining of The Truman Show.

Reynolds plays the optimistic Guy, a bank teller in Free City whose status as a non-player character (NPC) ensures he obliviously enjoys day after day of violence as players wreak havoc around him. When he notices an avatar called Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), he achieves unexpected sentience as he falls in love, unaware that she is controlled in the real world by a game designer named Millie (also Comer). Millie is searching Free City for evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the game studio’s CEO Antwan (Taika Waititi, acting oddly like a jerkier version of Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation), and soon she and Guy must risk it all to save his digital world.

My VC has a hang-up with video game-themed films like this or Wreck-It Ralph, simply finding it hard to care at all about characters in a game. I can understand that view to a point, but Free Guy does well in balancing the stakes in both the real world and Guy’s computer-generated sphere. Guy himself questions his own meaning when he learns the truth of his existence, and his buddy… um, Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) provides an answer that puts their purpose on an individual level that is hard to argue with. Of course, Free Guy is full-on comedy action, but I liked little moments like that, as well as an underlying theme challenging the wanton violence in games like GTA in favor of decency.

Not every joke lands among Ryan Reynolds’ mountain of quips, but enough do to still make Free Guy a fun watch. I also liked seeing Joe Keery from Stranger Things as Millie’s programmer friend who works for Antwan, not to mention the loads of cameos, ranging from another Stranger Things alum to a Marvel nod that easily earned the biggest laugh. I especially loved a brief clip of the late great Alex Trebek giving a mock Jeopardy clue, which reflected how long Free Guy had been delayed by the pandemic. Buoyed by impressive effects and an infectious spirit of optimism, Free Guy may be a new skin on familiar ingredients, but it certainly knows how to entertain.

Best line: (Guy) “Life doesn’t have to be something that just happens to us.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Tags

Action, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi, Superhero, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem inspired by a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account that posts obscure English vocabulary. I liked this post on déjà vu and its variants, like déjà entendu (“the feeling you’ve heard something before”), so I used it for Hollywood’s incessant habit of churning out remakes and reboots.)

An alien far out in space was lounging in his ship,
Content to intercept the many signals from the earth.
He loved the so-called “movies” on his decades-spanning trip,
And though the words were Greek to him, he theorized their worth.

The stories held his fancy, stoking joy and shock and awe,
For nothing from his planet was original like these.
But gradually he noticed creativity withdraw,
With déjà vu and entendu in cyclical reprise.

“Now wait a zeptosecond,” he protested to his screen.
“The earthlings may be different, but I’ve seen this tale before.
That killer in the mask is one I’ve definitely seen.
That RoboCop got two at least; that star who’s born got four.

“That ship that’s flipped and upside down, that planet full of apes,
That ‘alien’ that made me laugh at how wrong humans are,
And all these superheroes with their uniforms and capes;
That spider guy especially must be quite popular.

“I fear that human beings must have reached their mental limit
If they’ve taken to recycling what dazzled in the past.
For any globe, there’s only so much innovation in it.
Perhaps I’ll find some younger planet’s budding telecast.”
______________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

It’s difficult to appraise Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man films in retrospect the same as when they first came out. Five years after Spider-Man 3 seemed too soon for a reboot (never mind that Tom Holland’s Spidey would come just two years after Andrew Garfield’s second film), and Andrew Garfield was a largely unknown actor inevitably compared with the beloved Tobey Maguire. (All three Maguire films are beloved in my house anyway.) Now that No Way Home has been able to play on our short-term nostalgia for Garfield’s films, it’s hard to look at them the same way, but I’ll try to appraise them fairly since I did rewatch them in preparation for No Way Home.

The first Amazing Spider-Man is not a bad film, just a largely forgettable one that treads some of the same ground that the original Spider-Man did better. (It’s no wonder Holland’s films decided to forgo the origin setup entirely.) Garfield’s Peter Parker is a loner geek who still displays a backbone, pining for high school overachiever Gwen Stacy (the always lovely Emma Stone) and bristling at the guidance of his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). I still wish that a fourth Maguire Spider-Man film could have turned the old Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) into the villainous Lizard since there would have been more history with his character, but Rhys Ifans is serviceable in the role here, sort of a generic alpha predator bent on “curing” humanity.

The Amazing Spider-Man feels like a film that’s desperately trying to set itself apart from its predecessor, including a more realistic tone and lots of peripheral subplots around the all-too-familiar ingredients of the Spider-Man origin story. What happened with Peter’s disappearing parents? What’s up with the unseen Norman Osborne supposedly on his deathbed? Who’s that man in the shadows? It all feels like it should be more interesting, but it comes off as rather prosaic and extraneous. In lieu of an MJ, perhaps the best new addition is Peter and Gwen’s budding romance in the shadow of her stern policeman father (Denis Leary), who proves to Peter how dangerous the hero gig is for those around him. The couple’s awkward banter feels realistic for a pair of high-school students, though it also highlights that the script is generally rather weak on dialogue.

As I said before, The Amazing Spider-Man is a decent superhero film with good performances, an excellent James Horner score, an instantly classic Stan Lee cameo, and the expected impressive, high-flying visuals; it simply pales in comparison with Sam Raimi’s films, as well as the MCU ones. I hate to label Garfield as third-best Spider-Man when his future outings have improved his character and I’ve come to really like him as an actor. This first film simply shows that he and Emma Stone had a bright career ahead of them, considering they were both nominated for Oscars just a few years later. Every Spidey has to start somewhere.

Best line: (Uncle Ben’s voicemail) “If anyone’s destined for greatness, it’s you, son. You owe the world your gifts. You just have to figure out how to use them and know that wherever they take you, we’ll always be here. So, come on home, Peter. You’re my hero… and I love you!”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting