kellym40 film review

20 years later, ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ fails to surge

Rating 2/5

Earlier this summer, a sequel hit theaters supposedly 20 years in the making. Independence Day: Resurgence appeared, on the surface, to be a near carbon copy of the 1996 original with a few new characters and plot points. Roland Emmerich, the “master” of disaster films, took the script from writers Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods (and others) and made a two hour, sci-fi, special effects extravaganza – and not in a good way.

I think I liked this film better when it was just called Independence Day. Of course, that’s not saying much. This time around, some returning cast members play out their characters in much of the same fashion as the original. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and Judd Hirsch return as David Levinson, ex-President Whitmore, and Julius Levinson, respectively. Another returning character Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) received a few laughs from his minor part, but overall it wasn’t noteworthy. Newcomers Maika Monroe, Jessie T. Usher and Liam Hemsworth offer up decent performances as the former president’s daughter Patricia Whitmore, Dylan Hiller (the son of Will Smith’s deceased character, and Jake Morrison (a hotshot pilot), respectively.

The problem with this film is that there are similarities with the events in the first film. The dialogue is one of those problems. While it may suit your average summer popcorn flick, it does little to tell a new engaging story to capture audiences. I suppose that is why Emmerich relies on special effects and CGI. I would say if his intention was to deliver a film with a heavy dose of special effects, explosions, and spaceship battles – with very little substance otherwise – then I would say a job well done. But shouldn’t there be more than that? I read in an article, shortly after this film was released, that Emmerich had a problem with the superhero movies these days. He claimed they “stole” his “ideas” and uses of world destruction in those films. Really? I wasn’t aware you could claim property on the concept of world destruction. Besides, the Marvel films do it so much better than Emmerich,because he doesn’t seem to bother about things like plot, story, and character in his disaster films.

There appears to be a notion that the bigger something is, the better it is. That is not the case in everything. It is certainly not the case with Roland Emmerich. It seems when he makes these big blockbusters, these disaster films, he fails on telling a story with substance and depends greatly on special effects, explosions, and anything else he can find to go boom as in films like 2012 (2009), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), and 1998’s failed Godzilla. However, in films like The Patriot (2000) and White House Down (2013), Emmerich does bring substance and story to the screen. Those films are few and far between from Emmerich. And he has stated he wants to make a third Independence Day film. Only time will tell if that will happen. If it does, it just better not be another 20 years.

 

 

kellym40 film review

Special effects prevalent in ‘Independence Day’

Rating 2.5/5

Every summer there is at least one “blockbuster” filled with action, special effects, explosions, and the quintessential disaster dialogue while everyone is running and screaming to and from the camera. This film pretty much fits the bill. Roland Emmerich directed Independence Day, who also co-wrote the script with Dean Devlin, and he brought us a typical special effect heavy film designed to entertain audiences. This film was entertaining but it did rely on special effects to awe audiences, which were mostly effective but not overly impressive. Most of the dialogue is trite and designed to stir emotions in the scene and for us (the audience).

The characters appear to be “copies” of other alien invasion disaster films of the 1950’s. We are introduced to Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith), David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), Julius Levinson (Judd Hirsch), and President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman). At the beginning, the alien crafts come and hover over various cities all over the world – and wait. What are they waiting for? They are waiting for the exact moment for a coordinated attack, because apparently the aliens use the same time we do. When the time comes, the invasion begins, the main characters, and an assortment of supporting characters, discuss the necessary actions to take against their unwanted guests.

The President, David and his dad Julius, and a few others are taken to Area 51 (the famous secret area where the government is supposedly harboring aliens and alien spacecrafts. This secret lab is run by Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner), probably the most comical character in the film. Here David gets the idea on how to destroy the alien ships by using one of the ships the government has “captured.”

During the attack, the White House (of course) and the Empire State Building are destroyed. If the aliens can wipe out buildings in a flash, then why don’t they attack everything with their mighty force at once? Well, if they did that there obviously wouldn’t be a movie. It’s kind of like watching a film with a fight scene involving martial arts. The hero will take out several opponents one by one as the others dance around in a threatening manner. The action moves around quickly in Independence Day without giving much time for the characters to fully react to what is going on around them. The Air Force launches their fighter jets for their attack in hopes of destroying the alien visitors, only to be engaged by them in aerial dogfights reminiscent of the old war movies.

Emmerich planned this film around the special effects, while negating other important elements like character development and story. Independence Day is one of those movies designed for summer fun. I suppose it was somewhat entertaining on that level.

 

 

 

kellym40 film review

Action takes a flight in ‘Non-Stop’

Rating 3/5

What makes a good action film is of course action. Then of course there are also those other pesky elements such as story, character, dialogue, and so on. If you put all those elements together and fine-tune them, you can have a good film. Non-Stop may not be your typical thrill a minute, action story, but somehow, on some level it delivers.

Once we get through the ordinary introduction of characters, we board the flight in which the action will take place for most of the film. Liam Neeson plays air marshall Bill Marks who is aboard a transatlantic flight and soon discovers a terrorist plot unfold. He receives a text message asking Bill to persuade the airline to wire $150 million to a bank account. And if he is unable to do so in the next 20 minutes, someone on the plane will die. He believes it is one of the passengers, but as he tries to unravel the plot of this mysterious terrorist, he more and more becomes a suspect by the other passengers due to his erratic behavior.

Bill is probably the most complex character on the plane. He still suffers from a personal tragedy, he’s tired and suffers from alcoholism. But on the surface, he seems tough, determined and headstrong. The other supporting actors were decent, but they didn’t seem to have much depth to their character. And that’s not necessarily their fault. The material provided by writers John W. Richardson and Christopher Roach didn’t provide the characters a rich background. However, this did work to some advantage for the story. Since Bill is unsure who the terrorist is, he suspects one of the passengers. So the other characters have a mystery surrounding them, which keeps Bill (and the audience) guessing. Julianne Moore plays Jen Summers, one of the passengers who befriends Bill while boarding the plane. Corey Stoll is New York cop Austin Reilly, Scoot McNairy is a tech geek named Tom Bowen, Michelle Dockery is flight attendant Nancy, Lupita Nyong’o is another flight attendant Gwen, Anson Mount is Bill’s fellow marshall Jack Hammond.

Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan, Unknown, and this summer’s The Shallows) directed the film and made it his own. It may not have the making of an elaborate masterpiece of action, thrills and suspense, but it does provide a well-paced film with enough moments of character and story to keep me in. The film runs one hour and 46 minutes and was released February 28, 2014.

kellym40 film review

On the hunt with ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

Rating 2/5

Taking another spin on history is plausible I suppose, if it is done right. It’s like updating Shakespeare to contemporary times. If it’s done right, it can be a wonderful production. But not updating the language or incorrectly updating the language can be disastrous. In 2012, a film came along, based upon a book by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also penned the screenplay for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He took some historical facts and placed the undead around those facts. It made Lincoln look like some sort of 19th century superhero.

In the film, the story begins when, as a young boy, Abraham Lincoln witnesses his mother’s murder by a vampire. This of course instills a slight fear and a tremendous hatred towards the bloodsuckers. Along the way, in his young adulthood, Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) befriends Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper) who is a hunter himself. He takes on Lincoln as an apprentice to learn the ways of killing vampires. So, that’s the basic plot. Oh yes, also along the way he befriends Will Johnson (Anthony Mackie) who then joins Lincoln at times to battle the blood thirsty creatures, and of course his future wife, Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

Timur Bekmambetov took Grahame-Smith’s script and stylized the action using effects used in The Matrix. I suppose it is visually appealing. But that is only one element. The film would have the audience believe the North was losing because the South was being overrun by vampires, who were also soldiers, and that Mary Todd Lincoln was bitten by a vampire, became ill, and ultimately resulted in her death. The climax results in a bit of a lengthy sequence involving a train, explosions, and killing vampires. It might make for a visually stunning action sequence, but somehow just looks out of place for the moment and characters. If follows the sentiment that Bekmambetov and Grahame-Smith treated the title character as some sort of action-adventurer or superhero.

Grahame-Smith also wrote a short novel – Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – which also became a film earlier this year. He may have been attempting to capitalize on the huge following that occurred brought on by the Twilight series and The Walking Dead. I suppose the mash up of vampires in the 19th century and young Abraham Lincoln might be considered a fantastic idea. But it all just becomes fantasy. And I suppose that might be what the filmmakers were attempting to do here. Play out some sort of fantasy with The Matrix-type special effects and action having little to do with what history books taught us. It might make for a fun, summer escape, popcorn flick, but just seems to become a far-fetched piece of fiction.

 

 

kellym40 film review

Sci-Fi dives into a world of ‘Surrogates’

Rating 3/5

The world of science fiction has brought many ideas and inventions through the years. In 2009, Surrogates hit theaters and presented a futuristic world where people stay at home and live their lives through mechanical puppets and can virtually be anyone and do most anything. They control these “surrogates” through a type of virtual reality system where direct human interaction is nearly non-existent, as is most violent crime and any other dangers of daily life. Jonathan Mostow, whose most recent sci-fi directing venture was the third installment in the Terminator series, Terminator: Rise of the Machines, directed this film and seemed to do a better job with this material he was provided with by writers Michael Ferris and John Brancato than the Terminator film.

The script’s story had a somewhat interesting premise that might appear to be similar in other stories in the genre and poignant to today’s world where many people “live” their life with Smartphones. Here’s a look at the trailer below:

Surrogates Trailer

On the surface the film looked and felt like a piece of science fiction with a little mystery added to the story. Bruce Willis plays Greer, an FBI agent who, along with his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) investigate a double homicide in the beginning of the film, an incident in which sets the story in motion. The homicide is of the destruction of two surrogates that have also killed their users. This is something that is not supposed to happen, and therefore the mystery and investigation unfold and develop. An interesting part is during the course of the investigation, Greer’s surrogate is destroyed and he ultimately opts to not get another one. And so, he spends the rest of the film without a surrogate. He is an actual human interacting in a world full of robots. During the run of the film, Greer begins to realize how much he misses actual physical touching and human contact. This is an underlying theme in the film and I think an important aspect to look at in today’s world with our dependence upon technology.

Surrogates is not a blockbuster but does have interesting overtones and themes in connection with technology, because in many cases today it seems our use of technology isolates us from others, just as Greer felt as he was venturing into the world in real life as others were still virtually living. Many people today are fascinated with technology and social media and become so engrossed in being “social” on their phone, they miss being social in “real life.”

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The Terminator: A Technologically Advanced story for its Time

It has been just over 27 years since James Cameron released his Sci-Fi action film, “The Terminator.” But it seems now that the film is more than just a thrilling action film. The technological science that was introduced in the film in 1984 appears to be more of a reality in today’s world.

Cameron’s use of visuals and action sequences to comprise a well-crafted and compelling technologically advanced story seemed far fetched, but audiences appeared to have accepted it. Audiences seemed to enjoy the older, but classic, great action film surrounding a great science fiction story. And with the advancement in technology and computers today, this film has an even more substantially compelling story of how technology is ultimately humankind’s downfall.

I’ll come back to that. First and foremost what made this film great was not only the story and the seemingly relevance it has today, but the visuals that were used to tell this story. It’s interesting to note that watching the film with the sound muted, I could still follow the story. I only applied this technique for the first half hour or so in one viewing one time, but that shows how effective the visuals were in the film. This film used action visuals to tell the story and there are many in the film such as police chases, chases on foot, flashbacks, or flash forwards, of a futuristic war, and a dance club shootout. The majority of the action takes place at night, which was an effective design decision because it adds to the danger and excitement of the story.

The opening sequence was a futuristic war with visual narration that explained what was about to happen. It set up the premise of the story. The next sequence, after the teaser and opening credits, showed a garbage man in a sanitation truck at night collecting a garbage container. Then, the power goes off as the wind begins to blow. There is lightening and a flash of light. This illustrates that something is about to happen. The next shot is of a large, muscular naked man, the Terminator. Choosing Arnold Schwarzenegger to play the Terminator added to the dark, dangerous feel to the character and film. Originally, this character was written as a normal, average guy that could fit into any crowd. And another interesting note, while watching some of the special features on the DVD, is that O.J. Simpson was originally slated to play the Terminator. Obviously it worked much better with Schwarzenegger in the role. The viewer can tell by looking at the Terminator that there is something not good about him. We notice this again when he comes upon a group of punks and punches a hole in one of the punks’ chest and one of them gives his clothes to the Terminator.

The same visual is used for Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) when he arrives. In a dark alley, near a homeless man, Reese arrives in the same fashion as the Terminator. Reese is shaking for a bit after he appears and he doesn’t kill anyone to get clothes. There’s the difference between the two men. Reese finally escapes from the police and gets to a phone booth. He looks up the name Sarah Connor, as does the Terminator the next morning so audiences know they are both looking for Sarah Connor.

When the audience first sees Connor (Linda Hammilton), she appears as a young, happy, care-fee woman. Over the course of the film, she develops into a stronger woman who is a little weary of the future. The character she continued in the second film.

The main action of the film takes place in present day Los Angeles in 1984. This allows the audience to become familiar with a time and place, and therefore can settle into the world of the film. There are glimpses of the futuristic war that add to the dark visual aesthetics of the film, which is visually contrasting to the modern, everyday world that the heroes and the audience know.

The film is basically comprised of three major chases with the remaining time used for character and backstory information with a few other smaller action sequences thrown in. The first major chase begins after the dance club shootout as Reese and Connor try to escape from the Terminator; another one is their escape from the hotel, and then this leads to the final chase and showdown as they enter the factory. The chases lead to a discovery of information about the story, as well as Cameron’s use of dialogue incorporated with the action sequences and visuals to gain information and not slow down the action of the film.

All of these visuals and action sequences drive the story. And that compelling story is focused on technology. Looking back at some of the technological achievements that have been made after first being introduced to them in movies, one can see that the technology of the Terminator films may not be too far off. We see this in a silent 1902 film by Georges Melies, “A Trip to the Moon,” where flying to the moon was thought of as a distant, crazy notion, but we all know became reality. Other films followed suit, introducing robots such as in “Forbidden Planet” and “I, Robot.” The Terminator introduced this idea of an all-powerful computer becoming intelligent and wiping out mankind. And it seems that technology is not far behind. For example, there exists a robot called the Rubot that is programmed to solve the Rubik’s Cube. When its done, it puts down the cube. Bruce Simmons says in his article, The Technology Of Science Fiction Is Here Now, “It’s pretty simple but is that the start of self awareness, when he knows he’s done? … just a subroutine designed to recognize that all sides of the cube are now the same color.” But whose to say it won’t become self-aware? Then there’s the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) that held a contest between a human and robot-operated vehicle to see which can get through a simulated course, much like I saw on an episode of CBS’ hit show NCIS a few years ago.

In the mid-80’s, Honda had created a robot called ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). From simply teaching the unit to walk simple steps to actually walking up stairs or sloped surfaces, to today being programmed to “work with other ASIMO units” and to “serve people autonomously,” according to Simmons in his article, technology has made great leaps forward. So, now the science of The Terminator may not be too far fetched.

If you haven’t seen “The Terminator,” or haven’t seen it in while, it is worthwhile to check out. It’s a great action film with a gripping science fiction story that echoes the advances of technology today.

RESOURCES:

Lucey, Paul. Story Sense: Writing Story and Script for Feature Films and Television.  McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1996.

http://screenrant.com/tech-terminator-iron-man-is-here-brusimm-7985/all/1/. Accessed on Nov. 11, 2011.

Cameron, James. The Terminator. Produced by Gale Anne Hurd and directed by James Cameron. 107 minutes. Orion Pictures, 1984. DVD.