Review: Elysium

District 9 director Neill Blomkamp returns with yet another muddy, high tech vision of a dystopian future, maintaining a vigil on social equalities or lack thereof. It doesn't quite stand up to District's brutish reality or metaphor, but it is a decent ride.

The film follows Max and Frey, two kids who grew up on the diseased, slum filled streets of Earth, who dream (like everyone on Earth) to belong on the orbital utopia known as Elysium. Elysium however is only for the richest, brightest and most famous, and it has vast technological advancement so far as being able to cure cancer.

However, when an accident at work makes Max (Matt Damon) fatally ill, he joins a resistance movement and dons a powerful exo-skeleton to right the social wrongs. At the same time, Elysium's security chief (Jodie Foster) looks to overthrow the current President.

There's a lot of high sci-fi concepts going on here, from current social issues to the heady science fiction involved, Elysium had great potential to be a stand out experience. But... as the story goes on it becomes less compelling; the final act is more of a straight up shooter/brawl fest that abandons nearly all of its ingenuity.

Critically, Jodie Foster's character felt criminally underused as the morally ambiguous “villain”, the film instead focuses on the brutish Kruger (played by the chameleonic Sharlto Copley) whose accent is nearly impenetrable. There's also several glaring plot conveniences, that are a little too obvious.

So what is good about Elysium? The pacing is excellent, the opening two acts are sturdy and introduce this future and humanity's duality very well. Visually it is as excellent as District 9, from the grainy, bleak slums to the clever robot, ship and weapon designs (though not quite as humorously unsettling as D9's weapons.) Matt Damon is good as the everyman-turn-hero, and Foster and Copley are fully invested too as the antagonists.
As a fan of video games, I saw huge similarities with Mass Effect, specifically with the Elysium station itself.

I certainly enjoyed the film, it never bored me and had a lot of well implemented sci-fi concepts! It just lacked a completely satisfying conclusion, as if the makers wrote themselves into a corner and just improvised.

Additional Marshmallows: I really liked how one Elysium citizen had a space craft/hover car that was branded as a Bugatti. That was clever.

Review: Vexille

From the creators of Appleseed comes an anime movie that has a lot of squandered potential.

Ready for a strange way to find out about a movie? 
Some time ago, I discovered one of my favourite video games had a song by The Prodigy (one of my favourite bands), but I had trouble finding the song. Later I found it included in the soundtrack for Vexille, and having liked the soundtrack, I gave the film a go.

Unfortunately the film isn't that good.
Set in the heady year of 2077, we follow a young American military agent named Vexille as she investigates the mystery behind Japan's development of humanoid robotics, a science banned by the UN.
As you would expect from a country devoted to technological advancement, they left the UN and became a walled, impenetrable island. No one knows what is happening inside.

I watched Vexille with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles (because I have no problem with subs) which brought up an irritation of mine with anime; the film follows American agents, yet they speak Japanese. I know, I know, it is a Japanese animation so it is in Japanese, but wouldn't these things be more compelling if the Americans were American with Japanese subtitles? It happens in Ghost in the Shell too, which also weirds me out; they travel to England, where everyone speaks Japanese.

Anyway, that is neither here nor there!
Vexille has all the style of Appleseed, instead of traditional 2D animation the film is entirely 3D rendered. Sometimes there are moments of greatness, a certain shot will be animated perfection... but I really do prefer the artistry of Studio Ghibli (for example) over this. This looks like a video game cinematic.
What really bothers me in Vexille are the characters. The theme of the film is quite compelling, much like Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, it reflects on the future implications of robots and the affect they will have on humanity, as well as the possibility of our loss of identity with an abundance of technology. But, the characters here are hopelessly uninteresting. There are far too many of them; the film has a dozen characters that it does nothing with, killing them off liberally and we have little or no sympathy for them.
In a film about humanity and the loss of humanity, we don't sympathise with the humanity lost...

There's a very cool concept buried beneath monotonous tech-jargon and constructed plotholes. What the film does with Japan is very interesting thematically (I cannot spoil it; it is probably the only reason to watch it) but I hate to say it might not be worth the effort. The human element is missing here.

If you loved Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell, give it a go, but don't expect the latter's complexity or integrity.

Additional Marshmallows: Interested in what the song was? Here it is:

And how long did it actually last in the film?

About ten seconds...
  
 

 

Review: The Sweeney

Something about crime drama set in Britain just irks me.

Adapted from the 1970s television show of the same name, The Sweeney follows two of the more unconventional police officers in Britain, whose lack of regard for authority has them running out of allies while hunting down a devious criminal.

The film is a classic cops-and-robbers scenario but with a twist; our heroes are not the clean cut, law abiding officers. They use any means necessary to catch criminals, and their commanding officer Jack Regan (Ray Winstone) sees no problem in how his unit operates. But the higher ups look to undermine him at every turn, and his dogged nature means he won't quit.

Ultimately this is the meat of the show, but unfortunately the film doesn't provide any great sustenance for the characters. The villains are unremarkable and cardboard, while Ray Winstone... well... I imagine he is playing himself here! Certainly if you have a problem with Winstone's past performances I recommend you avoid The Sweeney; this is very much his film.
... I don't know who wanted to see him on the big screen in his boxers, not once but twice, but I know I didn't ask for it...

The gun battles that run consistently through the film aren't shabby, the music isn't bad either and the action is shot nicely so you can see what's happening, but it doesn't feel like it escalates. It feels as though the film has one setting; gruff and dogged, and it doesn't do anything else (a bit like Winstone himself really)

I don't know, it didn't grab my attention, and looking back at it I wish there was more backing to the characters and their personalities, especially with Ben "Plan B" Drew's character George. His character could have had an interesting arc but we don't get to see his origin; it is explained in rushed exposition instead.

Maybe if you knew the original television show there might be more comprehension, but as it stands The Sweeney isn't memorable and remains very average in my eyes.

Additional Marshmallows: Also, I cannot help but be reminded of UK television's Top Gear having a humorous episode shot around the filming of The Sweeney and thinking how that was better.
 

Review: Kick Ass 2

New York gets a second dose of teenage superhero carnage, this time boasting even more controversy and violence but also a wicked social commentary.

Set some years after the first film, Dave "Kick-Ass" Lizewski finds himself out of shape and out of the crime fighting limelight, while Mindy, aka Hit Girl, is trying to let go of her heroic persona and live a normal life. However an old, or rather young, nemesis seeks revenge on Kick-Ass and is forming a ruthless army to do it for him!

The sequel blows the original out of the water with a surprisingly layered narrative. While sure Dave's storyline isn't that unique in today's over-saturation of comic book movies, this is undeniably Hit Girl's movie. Even more so than the first film. Some of this film's funniest and bitchiest dialogue comes from Mindy's attempts to rejoin High School society. There might be cliches lurking in that concept, but I assure you, this film isn't retreading any ground; Mindy is up and face to face with some of the most deplorable female social issues and everyday evils. A great juxtaposition with the crime fighting action otherwise shown.
I don't want to go into Jim Carrey's denouncement of the film, though I can hardly see the reasoning for his decision (this film is no worse than the first) but I want to say that his performance is excellent although incredible short. It is a role that stands out from all his usual trappings and it is a crying shame it was so short, but for that short time it outshone the rest!

It probably has a lot of quotable dialogue, the film's writing is impressively witty and garishly vulgar at the same time. I've never liked Christopher Mintz-Plasse, but his villain is so pathetic and crude that he works perfectly in this film.
I think one line that sticks with me is his allocation of names to his henchmen, one mercenary was of particularly short stature: "So he's little and he kills people, call him... The Tumor."

It is a great, funny and ugly film, and while it does have the usual trappings of comic book films (some character arc similarities to The Dark Knight) and it does frequently say in the script: "This isn't a comicbook, this is real life!" as if to remind us of the unique slant it has. These are very minor gripes and if you enjoy Scott Pilgrim and the first Kick-Ass, you will surely love this.

     

Review: The Lone Ranger

It has been a long time since I've walked into a film with this much trepidation. But despite the film getting monumentally bad critical responses, so bad that showings here in the UK have been virtually deserted, I didn't find the film that bad.

Seen from the perspective of his Native American sidekick Tonto, the film shows the origin of The Lone Ranger and his transformation from zero to hero. The construction of a railroad brings unrest between the settlers and native Indian tribes, while a bloodthirsty outlaw becomes a vengeful obsession for our two heroes.

It is very easy to see why people dislike the film, and I must agree that there are some pretty strange decisions made here (not just casting Johnny Depp, as many critics argue). The film is far, far, far too long; an hour could have been cut clean out of it and more fun could have been had. The Lone Ranger began its life as short serials, I doubt it had any desire to become so bloated and overcomplicated.

In true Jerry Bruckheimer style, this film has a lot of needless padding and abundance of characters that plagued the Pirates sequels. Heck, one of William Fichtner's villain's lackeys is a replica of the glass-eye pirate from those films, parasol and all! Helena Bonham Carter's character was unnecessary too and could have been easily written out.
There are some pretty weird little things too... Tonto acting insane and feeding the dead bird on his head, flesh-eating rabbits (yes, you read that right) a horse standing in a tree, and a strangely unnecessary narrative framing device that has circus-performing Tonto as an old man telling the story to a little boy in 1933.
Add to all of this that the film has a lot of cliche Western visuals. It is almost every Western you have ever seen crunched into one film.

So wait, wait, wait. I told you I didn't find the film bad, but it sounds like I did? Well, I am explaining how it can easily be seen as bad, it is vulnerable to being beaten up.
There are some very good characters here, despite some of them being unnecessary. Depp as Tonto is NOT (I repeat, not) as bad as people are exclaiming. While we live in a very Politically Correct environment and I admit casting a lesser known but more fitting actor would have been more compelling, he isn't unbearable. In fact he very rarely goes full "Jack Sparrow".
The visuals are impressive, a lot of the comedic moments are genuinely funny, but what I loved most was the last 25 to 30 minutes. While it takes the film forever to get there the finale is amazing! Mostly because that all too familiar Lone Ranger "theme" comes booming heroically out at us, you cannot help but be swept up in it. Oh, and Silver the horse is great. But that's hardly surprising.

There are little silver nuggets of greatness in this rather tedious pile of obscurity. Unfortunately it is easier to focus on the things wrong with it as a film rather than the individual parts that make it unique, this is mostly because it spends way too long focusing on these unnecessary elements.

Too long, too complicated, too confused, this film is more like Prince of Persia than Pirates of the Caribbean from Disney. But it has its moments, and they are genuinely good moments! I just wish and wish the film was ninety minutes long rather than a mind numbing one-hundred and fifty.

Additional Marshmallows: It should be mentioned that this film has some surprisingly graphic scenes in it. People are shot through the head with arrows, a man has his heart cut out of his chest, people are liberally shot and maimed throughout! Even Disney is pushing the boundaries of what 12A can likely provide.  


 
 
 

Review: The Wolverine (2D)

Things are destined to go wrong when our western hero goes to Japan!

The Wolverine boldly follows on from the events of the critical flop X-Men: Last Stand (something yet to be committed to in seven years) as 20th Century Fox maintains the rights to the characters of Marvel's franchise.
We see Logan completely lost and alone after the tragic events seen in the earlier films, finding himself at odds with his nature and purposeless. However when a man from his past returns with an offer to end his brooding self-pity, Logan might rediscover himself.

The meat of this film is that Logan's contact, a Japanese genius in control of a super high-tech facility, is dying and wants Logan's mutant healing ability. Eventually Logan loses his powers and becomes mortal. He must fight to defend the man's grand daughter from Yakuza assassins without his powers.

At last we have a Wolverine spin-off film that is justified. I found the last installment, Wolverine: Origins, to be a dazing, absurd waste of time; it told me nothing I didn't already know about the character. Here at least we can see a vulnerable Logan, and how despite his weakness he still battles with ferocity! It probably makes the best of what The Last Stand gave the character.

This is mostly descriptive of the film's opening act. It is a surprisingly moody, dour beginning but not without Logan's signature aggressive humor and superiority. I enjoyed this, it proved the film wasn't solely reliant on bravado and ridiculous action scenes.
While I liked this and Wolverine's loss of powers, something goes wrong towards the end of the film... It certainly does not end as powerfully as it began and continued, and I can only attribute this with some pretty random plot devices and blatantly obvious "twists". (Logan is in a hurry to save someone so he.... gets off his motorbike and decides to walk the last two miles?)

Still, despite a few glaring wobbles in the plot and storytelling towards the end, and some "indescribable tech" that does what it does because it can, I enjoyed the movie. There isn't much to say, but it has good action and a refreshing look on a well established character.

It is certainly better than Origins.

Yes, they do find as many opportunities to get Hugh Jackman shirtless.

Plus there is a nice stinger mid-credit roll that links into next year's Days of Future Past!