Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all the other Holiday stuff for other faiths, lifestyles, and all such and sundry. I've been super busy with side projects, playing Santa Claus, and overcoming the usual set of obstacles. I'm trying to play "Catch up" on some of the films I've missed, but there were also some new releases that I really wanted to look at for the blog.
At the beginning of the year, I
had a shortlist of films I was looking forward to and a shortlist of
films that I didn’t expect much out of. With the Justice League having
fallen mostly flat and with expectations low, I placed Aquaman on the
list with barely a shrug. Despite the fact that James Wan was at the
helm, I didn’t think there was much the acclaimed horror director could
do with such a one note hero in a film universe that had largely fallen
flat. And, ironically scheduled to be released the same weekend,
Bumblebee would be the first in a Transformers spin-off film to support
that franchise. There was no WAY that film could manage to overcome five
previously horrendous movies and manage to support it’s own premise to
support a character incapable of speech itself.
But I also had a chance to see one of my most anticipated films of the year, so keep on reading to see my review of "Anna and the Apocalypse"....
BUMBLEBEE
So my plans to watch any film this
past weekend were being thwarted at nearly every turn. The family
wasn’t in the mood, I didn’t want to really go by myself, and the list
kept on compiling until a frustrating Sunday afternoon found me
purchasing tickets for Aquaman the following day and a whimsical
purchase of Bumblebee that night. My wife, unlike myself, actually
enjoyed some of the previous Transformer’s films. She also heard it was
more of a “Girl and her Horse”-style narrative, so she was interested in
seeing how such a feet would be accomplished and if it could remain
true to the high octane action of giant robots fighting and
transforming.
It took the film less than two
minutes to cement itself as THE best live-action Transformers film in
the entire series, which saw the movie opening up on the Cybertron of my
distant childhood. Live action versions of the Transformers were doing
battle on a big screen, including a discernible Shockwave, Soundwave,
Prowl, Arcee, Ratchet, and Optimus Prime when Bumblebee came roaring
onto the scene with a ferociousness that belied his size. Lasers,
combat, and a powerful delivery on the nature of Bee’s mission set the
tone of real stakes and challenge before the film shifts toward earth
and the combat training of John Cena’s character, Agent Burner. He and
his squad are caught in the middle of a brutal fight between Bee and one
of his pursuers, Blitzwing. Indifferent to the humans around them,
Blitzwing is a brutal machine intent on ripping the secrets of the
Autobots plans from the Bee’s chest. In the struggle, Bee loses his
voicebox, his power is dangerously low, and he is barely able to
transform into an innocent car and avoid detection.
Fast forward some time later and
we find a young girl, Charlee (Hailee Steinfeld), a young girl coping
with the loss of her father and the new family unit of her mother, a new
boyfriend, and a pubescent pest of a brother. She’s not popular, she’s
not conventional, and she isn’t going to get the chip off her shoulder
with a power of positivity lecture from the people in her life. In her
struggle to find a sense of individuality and personal freedom, she
winds up getting a broken down VW Bug that turns out to be our titular
character.
Biff! Bam! Boom! We’re off to the races!
I mean, we get a couple of great
performances and a bit of 80’s nostalgia (maybe a touch too much) and
the film just hammers down on the relationship between Bee and Charlee,
with Bee learning about the people of earth and their potential and
fragility as a race. We get Charlee learning to care about more than
just her grief. Both are set to overcome personal obstacles, including a
dogged pursuer in the form of Cena’s Agent Burner. What could have been
a typical “Mr. McGhee”-like performance from the ex-wrestler is nuanced
with levity and a certain attention to detail that exposes him as a
truly honorable man.
8 out of 10.
Which brings us to the next morning….
AQUAMAN
How do I put this one into words?
There are only so many times you
can hit the same point repeatedly about a film, and I think my low
expectations were well document when I started this week’s blog. So let
me cut to the quick of it- I was wrong.
Aquaman may be the best of the
DCEU films to date, surpassing even Wonderwoman with its bombastic
titular character and the entire premise which takes us to a whole new
alien world located far beneath our own world’s ocean depths. Atlantis
isn’t just a singular city, either. We quickly learn that the kingdom,
technologically advanced and arrogant in their consumption of power, has
sunk below the sea due to its own hubris and the people have been
forever changed by it. Many are now incapable of breathing the air
above, some of the people have evolved beyond their human form, and
others devolved. And all of the story is foreshadowed in a brief glimpse
of HP Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” as it sits upon the table.
A child born of two worlds, Arthur
Curry (Jason Mamoa) is the half-blood elder Prince to the crown of
Atlantis. Distrusted by both the surface and the deep, his only purpose
is to do what he feels is “right” by people. An early exchange shows us
the heart of a man willing to stand despite the odds, but who is quickly
able to soften when the situation changes. He has a lot of love in his
heart and a lot of courage, but he is far from perfect and he is haunted
by the choices of others.
When his younger half brother
decides to unite the undersea kingdom to declare war on the surface,
Arthur is approached to take his “rightful” place by people who do not
truly believe in him. He has his own doubts, but the war and the lives
at risk are enough to lure Aquaman to the deep where he must finally
face his brother and find out what kind of man he will really be.
Jason Mamoa sets the perfect tone
for the film, envisioning Aquaman as a blue-collar “everyman” who
happens to have great powers and ferocious skills. But, while often
joked about in pop culture, Aquaman’s greatest power is the one least
considered when examining the cinematic adventures of a superhero.
Arthur Curry can talk with fish- a skill we originally believe is
probably the most common amongst Atlanteans, but which we find is
actually an extremely rare gift.
And that’s what Aquaman is- an
extremely rare gift from the production studio that previously brought
us Batman Vs. Superman and The Justice League.
9 out of 10.
Anna and the Apocalypse
So we take this High School senior
on the cusp of graduation. She wants to see the world, but her janitor
father wants her to go to University. She wants to travel Australia, but
her artistic best friend harbors romantic interests. She wants to leave
her home town, but she’s also recovering from a poor romantic moment
with the school bully. Anna is the prototypical “John Hughes”-style lead
in a small town high school populated with the average teens who
populate those classic films.
The world of Anna is filled with
Disney Channel-influenced musical numbers, teens lamenting or
celebrating their self-induced technological separations, romantic
entanglements, energetic declarations of “change” or “making a
difference” and so on, so forth, and all of it coming to a crashing halt
when the dead rise through a zombie virus that spreads like a plague.
Everything the characters were declaring, avoiding, or confronting
becomes almost meaningless when the blood starts to splatter and heads
begin to (literally) roll.
Anna (Ella Hunt) and her best
friend John (Malcomb Cumming) are just turning over new leaves,
kickstarting their lives through a jaunty song as they fail to see the
carnage in the world around them. Bodies literally drop just behind
them, unseen and unheard, before the two are finally confronted by one
of the undead and are forced to take action. They soon join erstwhile
school reporter and American transplant, Steph (Sarah Swire) and
videographer Chris (Christopher Leveaux), who are hiding in the local
bowling alley. Meanwhile, the many of the teens friends and families are
trapped at the local High School with Anna’s father(Mark Benton) and
the school’s recently promoted Headmaster Savage (Paul Kaye).
As civilization falls apart, Anna
must take control of her life and rely on her friends to survive. As the
film continues, the music adjusts to the tonal shift and retains a
darker edge without sacrificing it’s pop-rock roots. Songs reminiscent
of anthemic hard rock themes and morose electronic new wave echo through
the characters journey. A symbolic journey of growth and change where
some will survive and some will remain trapped in the town forever. It’s
not often easy to wed horror and musical without sacrificing the latter
to a camp comedy, but Anna steps into the occasional comedic dip only
to reveal deeper horrors and real emotional depth.
9 out of ten.
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