Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Tags

Action, Comedy, Sci-fi, Superhero

When deadly traps and finger snaps can bring the universe to dust,
And most heroics boil down to saving life itself or bust,
It’s effortless becoming numb to world-annihilating threats
And yawning while you wait until the pall of doom and gloom resets.

And that is why you sometimes want some slightly more light-hearted fun,
Reminding you not every story has to be a cosmic one.
A chase, a smile, a smaller trial, when carried out with proper style,
Has enough unique appeal to satisfy this cinephile.
____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It’s simply a coincidence that I planned to review a Marvel movie the day after the great Stan Lee’s death. While I’m still deeply saddened at the loss of a comic book icon, I’m also grateful for his cultural contributions, which have not only taken over the 21^st-century box office but have provided countless hours of entertainment, a prime example of which is Ant-Man and the Wasp.  The first Ant-Man was an unlikely success that surprised more than a few skeptical viewers, and I’m just as surprised that its follow-up is even better.

A light-hearted caper like Ant-Man and the Wasp was bound to leave one of two impressions, coming on the heels of a huge, stuffed, sobering juggernaut like Avengers: Infinity War. Either it would be seen as fluff filler that felt out of place after Infinity War’s cliffhanger, or it would be a refreshingly light change of pace from the end-of-the-world exploits we’ve come to expect from the MCU, not unlike the first Ant-Man. Though some critics have voiced the former view, I favor the latter. While Marvel excels at balancing its doom and gloom with humor, sometimes you need a superhero movie where the stakes stay relatably small, and what better vehicle for those “small” stakes than Ant-Man himself?

Of course, the key to ensuring that such a small-stakes story still matters is letting the stakes matter to the characters. After the public debacle in Captain America: Civil War, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is nearing the end of his house arrest and remains a lovably earnest father to his daughter Cassie. Meanwhile, original Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) are on the run from the government while seeking Hank’s long-lost wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) somewhere in the infinitesimal Quantum Realm. Chasing both clues and tech to make that possible, they recruit Scott into their risky size-altering mission.

Ant-Man was a heist film at its core, and while Ant-Man and the Wasp retains a lot of its predecessor’s style, it transmogrifies it into a twisty nonstop chase, freewheeling from one fight or set piece to the next with gleeful abandon. It’s essentially a MacGuffin hunt, with the MacGuffin usually being Pym’s tech-filled lab shrunk to the size of a breadbox. (The way it’s tossed around, he must have everything in the building bolted down!) Of course, Pym and Hope need it to save the original Wasp, but it’s also desired by a greedy small-time gangster (Walton Goggins) and by the semi-intangible Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose intentions are more sympathetic than most Marvel antagonists.

Rudd and Lilly continue to strengthen their tag team chemistry, and while it’s significant that Lilly’s Wasp is the first title superheroine of the MCU (and the last of the original Avengers roster from the comics to join), she owns the role in a way that makes a kick-butt female with wings seem only natural as Ant-Man’s partner. (By the way, can she use the wings when she’s normal-sized or just when shrunk? I know I’d be using them all the time.) Also returning is Michael Peña’s Luis, who is still possibly the best comic relief sidekick of the MCU, and Randall Park makes a fun appearance as Scott’s parole officer trying to catch him in the act of breaking his house arrest.

Ant-Man and the Wasp may not have the star power or all-around epicness of Infinity War, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it just as much for different reasons (and minus the soul-crushing deaths). It’s a smaller affair than others of its MCU brethren, but it’s purely fun entertainment with no shortage of thrills and laughs. Plus, it’s probably the most family-friendly Marvel film yet and feels nicely self-contained, with a conclusion that’s more heartwarming than usual while leaving enough room for future stories. One of my older coworkers saw it with her grandkids and loved it, even though she’d never even seen the first Ant-Man. You’d think that Marvel would be showing signs of fatigue after twenty films, but I certainly can’t tell based on #20.

Best line: (Hank, speaking of his wife Janet and Scott’s brief time in the quantum realm) “We think when you went down there, you may have entangled with her.”   (Scott) “Hank, I would never do that. I respect you too much.”   (Hank) “Quantum entanglement, Scott.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining Ant-Man)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
594 Followers and Counting

 

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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Tags

Action, Drama, Thriller

There once was a spy on the front
Who could save the whole world with a stunt.
He often was hunted
But did as he wanted,
For no one could match Ethan Hunt.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

At this point, I’m not surprised that Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is yet another great addition to this series. What distinguishes it, though, is how it finally recognizes the value of continuity, something I put great value on in both TV show and film franchise. From the very first scene, we get Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) bantering with Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) in three different locations, only for all three to be dumbfounded at Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt’s latest death-defying stunt to save the day. It’s a perfect combination of this series’ strengths, and for once, the audience already knows everyone involved, like catching up with old friends.

That only continues when Brandt is called by the FBI director (Alec Baldwin) to answer for the IMF’s riskier plays in Ghost Protocol, followed by Ethan being ambushed by the mysterious organization known as the Syndicate (namedropped at the end of the previous movie). Beyond the refreshing continuity, it’s also nice to make new friends, and the film quickly charts its own course with the introduction of Rebecca Ferguson as a mysterious agent undercover in the Syndicate. With Ethan wanted by both the Syndicate and the FBI, he must rely on his usual daring and teamwork to outsmart the Syndicate’s Moriarty-like mastermind (Sean Harris).

Rogue Nation really shines through its stars. Cruise is as cleverly fearless as ever, while Ferguson maintains an arm’s-length chemistry with him as her allegiances constantly seem to shift. Meanwhile, Pegg, Rhames, and Renner are ideal companions for Cruise, particularly Renner’s second guessing of one of Cruise’s risky decisions (which seemed ripped right out of the second National Treasure, by the way). When they cite their loyalty and friendship, it means something since we’ve gotten to see it develop over two-plus movies, and Christopher McQuarrie’s script and direction highlight how well they all work together.

My VC liked Rogue Nation better than Ghost Protocol, placing it just shy of the third film, while I tend to view the last three movies as tied, just for different reasons. The third film had the best villain and the most emotional stakes, the fourth film had the best plot and some of the coolest action scenes, and Rogue Nation has the best mixture of everything this series does well and possibly the best script, including some outstanding “gotcha” moments that felt so good.

That being said, I do feel that this one is just a little more generic than the others. The best and most original action scene is Tom Cruise’s minutes-long foray into an underwater data tank, but much of the rest consists of foot chases, car chases, motorcycle chases, and fistfights, which are all executed masterfully but can’t quite escape that feeling of déjà vu. Likewise, a tense scene in an opera kept me guessing all the way through, but also reminded me of a similar scene in Quantum of Solace.  Writing this review a couple weeks after watching it, I already feel like this will be the entry that remains in my memory the least.

I hate to sound so negative, because Rogue Nation is still a great movie. It’s just that, with three great entries in a row now, I’m starting to have to nitpick to figure out where they rank in this series. I’m happy to group it in with its two predecessors, and I’m more excited than ever to finally see Fallout, now that I’ve completed my catch-up marathon of prior films. I’m especially glad to see that the villain’s open ending in Rogue Nation will get a continuation in Fallout, but I’m also rather disappointed that Jeremy Renner is nowhere to be found in the cast list. Based on its glowing reviews, though, I still hope that Fallout will be the finale to this marathon for which I’ve been hoping.

Best line: (Benji, sarcastically) “Join the IMF! See the world! On a monitor. In a closet.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining the previous two)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
591 Followers and Counting

 

Next Gen (2018)

Tags

Action, Animation, Comedy, Family, Sci-fi

 

The world’s an easy place to hate,
For it hates all too frequently.
And anger tends to escalate
The more it’s met with enmity.

One pain of heart
Can sow and start
A seed of hate
To germinate
And grow until
There’s no goodwill
For world or friend.
They all offend!
Life’s all about
The lashing out,
For no one cares
Or answers prayers;
Of that, they do not have a doubt.

But wait…
And hesitate to hate,
Just long enough to listen clear.
The world itself is quite the weight,
But others bearing it stand near
To show you how to persevere.
___________________

MPAA rating:  PG

It might be easy to write off a film that borrows plot elements from other stories as freely as Next Gen does, but this Chinese-American cartoon based on a graphic novel and delivered by Netflix manages to be more than the sum of its parts. Set in a futuristic world where personable robots are a ubiquitous household accessory, young robot-hating loner Mai (Charlyne Yi) becomes unlikely friends with an experimental droid called 7723 (John Krasinski) that might be able to save both her from herself and the world from a robot takeover. That description alone will probably conjure memories of The Iron Giant, Big Hero 6, and I, Robot, and Next Gen wears those similarities on its sleeve. Yet there’s more to appreciate beyond the familiar “boy and his robot” storyline (or “girl and her robot,” in this case).

As I said, Next Gen’s biggest touchstone would have to be Big Hero 6, not only with its big friendly robot mascot but also its urban setting of Asian-Western fusion, with Chinese characters instead of Japanese. But this Netflix film has some intriguing differences as well. One of them is the extent of robot normalization, which goes beyond that of I, Robot. Almost every device in this world is semi-sentient, and while a lot of potential questions surrounding that aren’t even broached, it’s an intriguing setup. Mai’s mother (Constance Wu) is obsessed with her Q-Bot companions and their developer, the Steve Jobs-esque Justin Pin (Jason Sudeikis), and it’s not a coincidence that the robot fascination mirrors the distraction of smartphone use. It’s also worth noting that Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics apparently don’t apply, specifically the one about robots not harming humans, since a group of bullies order their robots to beat up on Mai for them.

Beyond the setting, there are some deeper than normal themes at play as well. Mai is resentful of her father’s abandonment of her and the way her mother uses robots to cope, and when she meets 7723, it’s only his weapons and the destruction they create that catch her interest. She’s quite angry and cynical for a cartoon protagonist, and interestingly, it’s 7723 that has to remind her to not lose her humanity when lashing out at the world.  7723 also has a struggle of his own; he values every minute spent with Mai, yet his memory cache is limited, forcing him to choose which memory files and systems to delete and make room for more. It’s not every cartoon that tackles existential questions reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so Next Gen’s themes are definitely a step above the usual “follow your heart” storyline we’ve seen all too often.

On top of that, it’s a quality production, with fluid animation and some pretty awesome action sequences. One explosive scene in particular is one continuous tracking shot with no cuts. I already love those kinds of scenes in live-action, and, although it probably doesn’t require quite as much effort to pull off, I like that the technique is being used more and more in animation. (I could also cite the opening scene of The Secret Life of Pets or Diamond’s big fight scene in the anime Land of the Lustrous.)

As self-aware as it often is, it’s a shame that Next Gen feels obligated to conform to a few clichés, like the bully inevitably deciding “Hey, sorry I beat you up. Let’s be friends.” Likewise, Mai’s mother is pushed into a “you were right, I was wrong” confession that is so fast, it felt like the screenwriter checking off a plot requirement.

I will also say that Next Gen is probably better for older kids, and not just because of its deeper themes or a sudden death scene. There’s a funny running joke where 7723 can translate the barks of Mai’s excitable dog (Michael Pena), bleeping out his more profane words. I guess it’s on the level of any number of reality shows these days, but I don’t exactly welcome it when a kids’ cartoon features even the mouthing of the F-bomb.

Next Gen isn’t perfect, but it comes closer to Big Hero 6 than I would have thought possible from a Chinese production company I’d never heard of. There’s a lot to love about it and how it addresses moving beyond tragedy and anger while remaining a fun and sweet adventure, and I certainly hope that this and other animation houses outside the mainstream can continue the high quality displayed here.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
590 Followers and Counting

 

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Tags

Action, Drama, Thriller

Doing the impossible
(Repeatedly, if possible)
Is so much easier to pull
When backs are braced and funds are full,
For then a hero dutiful
Can fight for right as usual
And put up with a villain’s bull.

It’s harder when support is gone,
Blindsided, chased, and set upon,
A dangerous phenomenon,
For then the evildoers spawn
While tempting good to stay withdrawn.
It’s then that heroes’ brains and brawn
Are specially depended on.
_______________________

MPAA rating:  PG-13

I’m so glad I finally decided to catch up on this series. The Mission: Impossible films may have gotten off to a rocky start, but J.J. Abrams’ third installment breathed new life into the franchise, which Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol builds on even further. Every review I’ve seen has proclaimed Ghost Protocol the best installment of the series, but I think it’s more of a tie with its predecessor, though for different reasons (and of course I withhold judgment until I see the next two as well).

Ghost Protocol may have seemed like an odd choice for Brad Bird’s first foray into live-action, but he did nail the super-spy vibe in The Incredibles and does the same here. Delivering a similar brilliant eye for action, he puts Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force through the ringer as they endeavor to stop a Russian madman (Michael Nyqvist) from initiating a nuclear war. From infiltrations gone wrong to the extended foot chases from which Tom Cruise must get most of his exercise, the fast-paced thrills are as good as they’ve ever been, with the crown jewel being that famous high-hanging sequence with Cruise actually clinging to the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper. The whole caper surrounding that scene is the film’s “high” point (see what I did there?), but other sequences also impress, like the spies employing some fascinating new toys or the high-stakes struggle for a briefcase in one of the coolest parking garages I’ve ever seen.

My VC thought Ghost Protocol had more lulls than its immediate predecessor, and perhaps that’s true, especially with some early undercover scenes and elements that require patience to be explained, but that’s minor quibble. What Ghost Protocol has over any of its brethren is the team it assembled. Ving Rhames may be sadly missing for most of the runtime, but never has Ethan had such strong supporting players.  As a new field agent promoted from his tech job in M:i:III, Simon Pegg is more than welcome in a larger comic relief role, while Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner deliver actual motivation and personality as circumstances fling them onto Ethan’s team, offering more than just the competence of the interchangeable teammates in the past (Maggie Q, John Polson, etc.; you might be asking “Who were they again?”). It was nice seeing Josh Holloway as well (Lost alert!), even if it was a disappointingly brief appearance.

So, while I’m not raving as much as some critics, I still found Ghost Protocol to be a darn entertaining entry in the series. (And it came out in 2011? How am I just now getting to this?) The villain wasn’t as memorable as Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it didn’t quite nail the satisfying conclusion of the third film, its ever-increasing stakes being not as personal as Ethan’s struggle for his wife, but Ghost Protocol matched or exceeded it in just about every other respect. The plot had plenty of the twists I’ve come to expect from these films, and the way gadgets repeatedly malfunctioned or were unavailable kept the IMF team guessing and the suspense high. It’s not often that the fourth film in a series can still leave viewers eager for the next installment, but now I’m looking forward to Rogue Nation even more.

Best line: (Benji Dunn, complaining about their code names) “Why am I Pluto? It’s not even a planet anymore!”   (William Brandt) “Well, Uranus is still available.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining Mission: Impossible III)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
589 Followers and Counting

 

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Tags

Action, Drama, Thriller

The thrill of a life that is lived on the edge
Lasts only as long as one’s love for the ledge.
Eventually, danger
Is no more a stranger,
And those once so thrilled
Can be left unfulfilled.

And yet who can blame them for normalcy’s dream,
For craving some quiet when life’s been a scream?
While risk has its place
In its white-knuckle pace,
Who wouldn’t wish for
Just a little bit more?
______________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Now that I’ve gotten around to watching the third Mission: Impossible film, I finally see the unlikely trend that this series seems to have pulled off. Unlike most franchises, its sequels are getting better. Perhaps it was too early to tell that when J.J. Abrams’ third entry hit theaters in 2006, but Mission: Impossible III is easily the best MI so far.

Having shed his long-hair phase and Thandie Newton as his girlfriend-of-the-week, the Ethan Hunt in this threequel is far from the confident flirt in M:i-2; he’s now happily engaged to Julia (Michelle Monaghan) and content to train new agents rather than risk his life in the field, all while keeping Julia and her friends in the dark as to his top-secret career. However, he is soon drawn back to the field to rescue his captured protégé (Keri Russell) and stop a highly dangerous arms dealer (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Leave it to J.J. Abrams to once again reignite a series’ potential, and I bet it was this franchise stint that made him desirable to direct the Star Trek reboot three years later, aided by his frequent co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. From the very first intense scene, he sets the stakes high before flashing back to show how events led there, which isn’t the only Abrams trademark you may notice. (Who else revives characters by pounding on their chest?) Eschewing the over-emphasized slow-motion of its predecessor, this feels like the Mission: Impossible movie I’ve been waiting for. The first two had their defining moments, but M:i:III  has all the twists and turns you’d expect from a spy thriller while building to a surprisingly satisfying conclusion.

Ethan’s desire for a normal relationship and life makes him far more personable than his past appearances, and you can feel his desperation when that life is threatened. Likewise, the villain makes more of an impression, with Hoffman relishing and making the most of his coldly murderous role as black marketeer Owen Davian. One detail I especially liked was the revelation of how those famous face masks are made, including the spy trickery of copying someone’s voice, which is revealed to not be as fast and easy as the second film made it seem.

As I said, this is a Mission: Impossible film done right. Despite the overly-complex plot and the occasional line of hackneyed dialogue, the twists and fast-paced action kept me entertained from start to finish. My VC even pronounced it as (probably) her favorite Tom Cruise movie. If the other films in the series are supposed to be better than this one, I can’t wait for more. Ghost Protocol, here I come!

Best line: (IMF leader Brassel) “Mr. Musgrave, please don’t interrupt me when I’m asking rhetorical questions.” (Although Ethan’s “I’m gonna die unless you kill me” comes close too.)

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
589 Followers and Counting

 

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Tags

Action, Thriller

The job of the IMF agent
Before he or she needs a coffin
Is mounting impossible missions
For heroes no danger can soften,
Yet lately the best of the bravest
Have been going rogue far too often.

I can’t speak to why these trained agents
Are letting their loyalty lapse,
More focused on garnering riches
Than keeping the world from collapse,
But IMF might try improving
Their benefits package perhaps.
_________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Now for the second Mission: Impossible film, the one that seems to be widely considered the most inferior of the bunch. I can see why. Mission: Impossible II isn’t necessarily awful, but it’s highly inconsistent, only sometimes feeling like an actual M: I installment as opposed to a rip-off of ‘90s James Bond.

In this entry, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise in his thankfully brief long-haired phase) must vie against a rogue IMF agent (Dougray Scott) who aims to steal a deadly bio-engineered virus called Chimera.  I could tell early that this entry would have problems. We first see Ethan free-climbing a high rock formation in the Utah desert, and while it shows off Cruise’s impressive strength for stunts, it also inadvertently echoes that other worst-movie-in-its-series, Star Trek V, which also features Kirk free-climbing in Yosemite. After that, Ethan recruits a thief named Nyah (Thandie Newton) for his team and engages in some awkward scenes of innuendo and seduction that strengthen the James Bond comparison I made earlier and just don’t feel like Mission: Impossible.

It’s not these faults that drag down M:I 2 the most; that can be summed up in two words: slow motion. I don’t know if this is a trademark of director John Woo or what, but the slow-mo scenes are distractingly frequent, from the long sultry looks exchanged when Ethan first sees Nyah to the mid-action interludes that are thrown in as if to say to the audience, “Look at this! Isn’t it cool?” Sometimes it is admittedly very cool, but there are plenty of other movies that have used slow-mo more judiciously. Except for The Matrix, it’s best when such scenes don’t draw attention to themselves.

I don’t mean to sound like I hated it. Around the midpoint, it does hit its stride with another spy heist that is even more like the one in National Treasure than the first M:I film. And the slow motion aside, the action scenes are still thrilling, while the face mask tactics are even more entertainingly clever, though I’m starting to wonder how those convincing face masks can be applied so quickly.

There’s extra epicness to the music this time around, and the cast is strong as well, especially the returning uber-competence of Cruise and Ving Rhames and a surprising uncredited role for Anthony Hopkins; plus, I must mention a Lost alert for William Mapother (whose island role was named Ethan, oddly enough) as one of the villain’s henchmen. Despite the world-threatening perils, though, the plot feels strangely shallow, thanks mainly to the short-term chemistry of Thandie Newton, who I don’t believe is in the rest of the sequels. M:I 2 is a good effort, but it ultimately takes the series in a less interesting direction that I sincerely hope the other films will rectify.

Best line: (Mission Commander Swanbeck) “Mr. Hunt, this isn’t mission difficult, it’s mission impossible. ‘Difficult’ should be a walk in the park for you.”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
588 Followers and Counting

 

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Tags

Action, Thriller

 

Missions preventing or triggering wars
Are shrouded in subterfuge no one explores,
And those who enact them
Are quick to redact them
With names only spoken behind their closed doors.

Missions accomplished with such secrecy
Are kept as discreet as we need them to be.
And though you and I
Never know how or why,
Such missions are part of what keeps us all free.
__________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It seems that any franchise I didn’t watch growing up simply has to work up enough buzz for me to finally catch up on it. I’d heard that the first three Mission: Impossible movies had mixed reviews, but with three critically acclaimed entries in more recent years, I think it’s finally time for me to see if Tom Cruise’s spy thrillers are all they’re cracked up to be. I was pleasantly surprised last year when I watched the latest Planet of the Apes trilogy, so I’m hoping for good things. My mission, if I choose to accept it, is to watch all six of the M:I films in the coming weeks and review each one before seeing the next, so that I don’t get confused on which explosion or double cross happened in which sequel. But you have to start with the beginning, and that means the 1996 original.

Having never seen the 1960s-70s TV series on which it is based, I didn’t have any major expectations, aside from the famous theme music and the self-destructing tape that details a mission, if they choose to accept it. (On a side note, I always thought the tape would cause some big explosion, not just go poof with a little smoke. Isn’t it fun to learn how wrong you are sometimes?) The man listening to that tape is Jim Phelps, played by Jon Voight, but despite the presence of Voight and other stars like Emilio Estevez and Kristin Scott Thomas, we all know Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt is the star, which becomes even clearer after the mission backfires and shaves down the team considerably. Now suspected as a mole behind the sabotage, Hunt goes on the run to figure out who the real criminal mastermind is.

I suppose I’ll just come out and say it: I liked it. The British have James Bond, and Ethan Hunt is sort of his American counterpart, just with less womanizing and more disguises and hacking. As a product of the ‘90s, the technology in this first Mission: Impossible is unavoidably dated, with spies fighting over floppy disks and a hidden video early on that seemed almost like the quality of a parody. But it also has a twisty plot and the same kind of heist-style infiltration by which my beloved National Treasure was clearly inspired. Though most of the film lacks the daring stunts that the series has become known for, the climax boasts some especially thrilling (albeit CGI) action with a bullet train and a helicopter.

I do see why my parents never got me into the series early on because this first one apparently trampled all over the original they remembered, particularly the character of Jim Phelps. Those with nostalgia for the original series will likely take offense, but I as a newcomer found a lot to enjoy. I’m still not convinced whether this qualifies as List-Worthy in my book, but I’m excited to continue the series and do think that it has the potential to join my favorites. Now for the supposedly bad one, Mission: Impossible II….

Best line: (tech guy Jack Harmon, describing a gum-like explosive) “Hasta lasagna, don’t get any on ya.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up (for now)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
588 Followers and Counting

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Tags

Action, Drama, Sci-fi

The final frontier’s waiting.
It waits for those who dare.
For each frontier
That man draws near,
A new one grows elsewhere.

We often think that warnings
Were made to be ignored,
Yet some frontiers
Deserve their fears
And should be unexplored.

But human beings being
What human beings are,
We will not see
Our fallacy
Until we’ve dared too far.
_____________________

MPAA rating: PG

Before recently, I could say that I’d seen all the Star Trek films, from the original series cast to Next Gen to the J.J. Abrams reboots…all of them except Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Why? Well, I suppose I just assumed it wasn’t worth seeing. My parents always said it was one of the bad ones and never had any desire to see it more than once, so I never did while growing up. But then I thought, “Why should I take their word for it? I ought to find out for myself how to view a Star Trek film!” So I watched The Final Frontier, and you know what? They were RIGHT!

There’s a commonly held notion that all the even-numbered Trek films are good and the odd-numbered ones are bad. I personally don’t think that holds true for later films, since I didn’t much like Insurrection or Nemesis but love all three reboots, yet it’s films like The Final Frontier that give that kind of theory credence. It’s not unwatchable; it’s not utterly boring like Star Trek: The Motion Picture was, but like that first movie, its story is both ill-advised and far more fitting a small-screen episode rather than a feature-length film. It’s the only Trek film written and directed by William Shatner, and no offense to him, but that’s likely for the best.

After an introduction to the film’s unusually empathetic Vulcan antagonist Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), we catch up with Kirk, Spock, and Bones on shore leave in Yosemite National Park, which very quickly reveals the problems that will plague this film. The banter is far more forced than in other films, relying more heavily on the proven chemistry of the actors rather than actual wit or humor. A scene with Kirk falling off a cliff and Spock rescuing him features some atrociously obvious green screen and hints that the effects won’t be nearly as polished as in prior films. (ILM was busy with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Ghostbusters II, so a less prestigious effects house was commissioned instead, and it shows.) Plus, a scene with the three amigos sitting around a campfire just felt rather pathetic, Kirk and McCoy trying to teach “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to Spock. I think my mom once said it was a reminder of how old these actors/characters had gotten, keeping each other company for lack of any families of their own.

The middle of the film does bounce back a bit, as the malfunction-ridden Enterprise is sent to Sybok’s desert planet to rescue some consuls he has taken captive, only for him to seize Kirk and his ship. It allows for some decent action and even a glimpse into a private trauma in McCoy’s past, thanks to Sybok’s patented form of therapeutic brainwashing. Yet there’s always a sense of this being a second-rate production, from bewildering creative choices (a three-boobed cat woman? Uhura doing a fan dance to distract some guards?) to unavoidable plot holes. Here’s a prime example: Starfleet sends Kirk on this mission, despite his ship’s handicaps, solely due to his experience because hopefully he won’t have to resort to violence to rescue the hostages. However, he opts for an infiltration plan that immediately turns to violence because his transporter wasn’t working. If Starfleet had sent another fully functional ship, they could have just beamed up the hostages, and Kirk’s unparalleled leadership wouldn’t have even been necessary!

By the end, the film nearly falls apart as the Sybok-led Enterprise navigates to a planet at the center of the galaxy where Eden and God supposedly await them. The “dangerous” barrier surrounding it is nothing but a bunch of swirly colors, and when they beam down to the planet, they wander yet another desert landscape while the music swells like we’re supposed to be awestruck by its grandeur. The god they encounter is visualized as a big glowing face that shoots lasers out of its eyes, and…now that I’m describing it, I realize how stupid that sounds. Yeah, it is, and even with the attempt at deep religious questions that might have made a worthwhile episode, the end product just isn’t a very worthwhile film.

Although I’d easily consider it the second-worst film in the series, Star Trek V has moments where you can see why the filmmakers and actors kept running with it rather than throwing their hands up and starting over. Luckinbill has a great screen presence as the villain, if only he had a better film to antagonize, and it’s hard to hate Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley in these iconic roles. The film was reportedly plagued by multiple budget problems during filming and post-production, and while some movies can hide such issues, here the end result suffers. The plot is unfocused (a potential romance is teased between Uhura and Scotty but goes nowhere); the humor is largely unfunny; certain elements are introduced, never to be seen again in the franchise, as far as I remember (Spock’s rocket boots, an observation deck with a literal ship’s wheel); and I found it unfortunately easy to mock while watching it, MST3K-style. The plot of Star Trek IV can also sound stupid when you describe it, but it’s all in the execution. There, it worked; with The Final Frontier, it didn’t.

Best line: (McCoy, to Spock) “I liked you better before you died.”

 

Rank: Dishonorable Mention

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
586 Followers and Counting

 

The Incredibles 2 (2018)

Tags

Action, Animation, Comedy, Family, Pixar, Sci-fi, Superhero

Incredible is a subjective term,
As critics and colleges can confirm.
One man’s amazing and top-of-the-class
Is another’s mundane because people, alas,
See things either clearly or through rosy glass.

Incredible is a desirable word,
So rarely deserved yet so commonly heard.
At times, there’s consensus for some shining star,
But mostly we just must agree on the bar
And how we compare them decides what they are.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG

Of all the studios churning out long-awaited sequels, Pixar has arguably the best track record. Whether it’s Monsters University, Finding Dory, or Toy Story 3 (I mean 4), the decade-waiting sequelization of their canon is well underway and, with the exception of Cars 2, has turned out surprisingly well. (They’re all weaker than the originals, but they’re by no means bad, except Cars 2.) Yet strangely, Pixar has made fans wait longest for the follow-up to the one film in their oeuvre that was actively crying out for a sequel, namely The Incredibles. Perhaps due to the influx of superhero franchises since 2003, director Brad Bird finally delivered, and I’d say the fourteen-year wait was worth it.

Picking up immediately where the first film left off, The Incredibles 2 reminds us that, even after saving the world from Syndrome, the Parr family still have to deal with the fact that superheroing is illegal. After their battle with the Underminer goes south, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter) and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are approached by millionaire entrepreneurs Winston (Bob Odenkirk) and Evelyn Deavor (Catherine Keener), a brother and sister team who are actively trying to bring supers back into the spotlight. Due to her less destructive abilities, Elastigirl is the new face of their law-bending campaign, and while Bob deals with the headaches of parenting at home, Helen faces off with a mind-controlling villain called the Screenslaver.

There are certain elements borrowed from the previous film, such as the family disagreements on how to handle hiding their powers, and if you suspect their new benefactors aren’t entirely on the up-and-up, you’d be somewhat right. Yet The Incredibles 2 does an excellent job at differentiating itself from the first and from other superhero films in general. Chief among the differences is the inclusion of other supers joining the crusade for superhero legality, and their presence allows for added creativity in the battles and actual super-vs.-super fights rather than the repeated super-vs.-robot fight of the first. Anyone who wanted more Elastigirl and Frozone shouldn’t be disappointed, and while Bob seemed sidelined by suppressed egotism and Mr. Mom franticness, it wasn’t as bad as the trailers implied. Ultimately, even with some mature themes being broached, this is still a film for and about families, with Bob’s first-hand struggles with superpowered child-rearing offering a nice counterpoint to the more action-packed beats with his wife.

One thing that seemed like a retroactive change is that the Parrs apparently didn’t see baby Jack-Jack use his powers at the end of the first film, allowing for all of them to be surprised again by his multifaceted abilities. Jack-Jack even steals the show at times, whether he’s paired with an ornery raccoon or fashionista Edna Mode (Brad Bird). Likewise, Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Huck Milner, seamlessly replacing Spencer Fox) get their fair share of screen time, especially after the villain is revealed. Speaking of which, the Screenslaver may not have as compelling a backstory as Syndrome, but the philosophy spouted by the shadowy figure has a point in denouncing people’s reliance on computer/TV screens and lack of responsibility. It’s the kind of motivation that works well for a supervillain, bearing a kernel of truth but taken to a malevolent extreme, which actually offers a legitimate threat against the supers.

I’ll be honest: I intentionally had very low expectations for The Incredibles 2. Others I know have said they had enormous hopes for it, but when you’re dealing with a film as awesome as the first Incredibles, it’s going to be hard to match. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it so much compared with one of my disappointed coworkers, who likely had too many preconceived notions of what the perfect sequel should be, not unlike Star Wars fans of late. Yes, The Incredibles 2 doesn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor: It lacks the meaningful character arcs of the first film, its villain mystery is semi-predictable, and it raises more thematic questions about right, wrong, and responsibility than it even tries to answer. Yet it was so enjoyable to spend time with these characters again that I didn’t mind, and it still stands head-and-shoulders above the majority of animated films nowadays.

I think I’d go so far as to call it the best Pixar sequel since Toy Story 2, at least in recapturing the spirit of the original. The action scenes are as cool and polished as anything in the MCU, and Michael Giacchino’s bombastic score is still the perfect complement to its comic book world. It’s not above some complaints, but if you compare The Incredibles 2 to Cars 2 rather than the first Incredibles, I think you’ll agree it’s an “incredible” sequel. Pixar does it again!

Best line: (Edna) “Done properly, parenting is a heroic act. [Glares at Bob’s exhaustion] “Done properly.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining the first film)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
585 Followers and Counting

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Tags

Action, Sci-fi, Thriller

There once was a rogue on the run
Who liked to shoot first with his gun.
He’d often cheat death
Without catching his breath
And make every danger seem fun.

The hand of a princess he won.
Have you heard of the famed Kessel Run?
You may know he’s tough,
But you don’t know enough
Till you see how his tale had begun.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Of all the opinions swirling around Solo: A Star Wars Story, there’s one thing everyone seems to agree on: It’s not a bad movie. That’s more generous than a lot of films get, but that seems to be the basis around which many are building their views. They may embrace it as a prequel done right or poke every imaginable hole in its plot and execution, but one thing’s for sure: It’s not a bad movie. I’ll go a bit farther than that, though. Solo: A Star Wars Story is a good movie.

Solo had the unenviable task of recasting one of the most iconic roles in cinematic history, and no matter who they picked for Han Solo, there’s only one Harrison Ford. That being said, Alden Ehrenreich holds his own as a younger and scrappier Han, not quite looking the part, not quite nailing Ford’s mannerisms as well as I’d like, but he still works as a believable version of the beloved rogue. Likewise, Donald Glover slips smoothly into Billy Dee Williams’ debonair shoes, and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca is, well, the same Chewbacca we’ve always known, one of the perks of playing an alien in a full-body suit. The recasting isn’t quite a slam dunk like J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek cast, which was arguably a harder sell, but it comes close enough

Joining these familiar faces/characters are a host of other rogues, from Paul Bettany’s scarred crime lord, to Woody Harrelson’s smuggler and grudging mentor, to a group of Cloud Riders led by a masked pirate dressed suspiciously like Hiccup’s mother in How to Train Your Dragon 2. The title of best addition, though, goes to the always beautiful Emilia Clarke as Han’s childhood friend and love interest Qi’ra, whose three-year separation from him among villains leaves you constantly questioning what exactly her role and intentions are. Many of the characters don’t stick around long enough to leave much of an impression, often just to put more focus on Han, but they do their parts admirably. Oh, and I suppose some mention is deserved by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s irascible droid L3-37, whose strident calls for droid equality shed a different light on the sentience and rights of robots in the Star Wars universe (and an odd, though unconfirmed implication of Lando’s romantic tastes). It’s funny how “sarcastic” describes most of the named droids of Star Wars, and she’s no exception, though I preferred K-2SO in Rogue One.

I’ll admit that Solo didn’t have the same hype for me that past Star Wars films had, perhaps because it’s been only six months since The Last Jedi, perhaps because the marketing made it seem like the least Star Wars-y movie yet, perhaps because of the publicized difficulties behind the scenes that replaced directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller with the ever-reliable Ron Howard. Yet anyone going in with low expectations is bound to have a good time, whether you want a series of well-fashioned heist scenarios and action set pieces or a geeky exploration of Han’s origins, complete with the Millennium Falcon, the Kessel Run, those golden dice I never knew about till Last Jedi, and how he first met Chewie and Lando. I do wonder what Lord and Miller’s version would have looked like, but my VC and I agreed that, even with its changes in casting and a poorly lit visual tone, this still felt like Star Wars, which is the least we fans can hope for as Disney continues to churn out sequels, prequels, and in-betweenquels.

I’m still not entirely sure whether I consider Solo and Rogue One to be 100% canon, even if they may be “officially.” With no George Lucas, Jedi, or Skywalkers involved, they’re more like big-budget fan fiction, and I’m okay with that. To my mind, there has still not been a bad Star Wars movie, and I like how new directors and storytellers have added their own distinctive style to the most recent installments while preserving what made this world so compelling from the start. These Star Wars Stories have managed to surprise me both in quality and narrative. (Solo has a late revelation that I’m surprised isn’t getting more buzz, though maybe that’s because I haven’t seen Star Wars: Rebels. I don’t think this film will be the one-off that Rogue One was, though its box office performance leaves some doubt on a sequel.) Whether it’s real Star Wars or just someone else’s version of it, it’s still darn entertaining and decidedly not bad.

Best line: (Lando, to Han) “I hate you.”   (Han) “I know.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining Rogue One)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting