kellym40 film review

‘Rogue One’ battles its way to the big screen

Rating 3.5/5

With an opening weekend total of more than $150 million and a worldwide total already of more than $290 million, it could be safe to say that Star Wars is still very popular. However, numbers can vary and may not necessarily tell the whole truth. Films could do very well at the box office but fail to grasp critic and fan approval to be labeled a true critical success. But I’m going to bet this stand alone film in the Star Wars storyline will achieve the feat of garnering that label.

Much like last year at this time, the anticipation was high with a new Star Wars film hitting the big screen. Some may criticize they would rather see the continuation of the Skywalker story and other new characters introduced in last year’s The Force Awakens. I personally am happy to see stories like Rogue One. I would even like to see some of the events between episodes before Empire and Jedi. Heck, it might even be a good story to see Obi-Wan on Tatooine as he watches over Luke as the Empire gains strength. But I digress. I was interested in seeing this story unfold and how it fit into the storyline. I would say it did not disappoint.

Right before the film began, I thought to myself “Will it have the normal musical fanfare and opening crawl that is signature in the rest of the saga?” My question was answered shortly thereafter. No.

The only thing it did have similar to the other films was the ten familiar words, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” and that was enough to bring me into this film.

The film had a somewhat slow start, but it did quickly establish the characters and the fact that the Empire has grown and has made its presence known across the galaxy. The opening events could have only taken place a relatively short time after Episode III, because then the film jumps forward 15 years later.

The opening has Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), an engineer and weapons builder, taken by the Empire, and the film’s main antagonist Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), to help complete their ultimate weapon in the universe, the Death Star. Stormtroopers kill his wife and his young daughter Jyn looks on. She goes into hiding to escape falling victim to the Empire and is soon discovered by a family friend, Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).

This is where the story flashes forward and Jyn (Felicity Jones) has a particular set of skills that the Rebellion is looking for. Additionally they know she is Galen’s daughter and there is a thought going around the Rebellion believes Galen can’t be trusted. The film has just enough action to keep the story going without going into great expository detail. After a brief discussion, the film picks up some speed and adventure and dives deeper into the first Act, where the action only goes up.

Jyn teams up with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) to infiltrate enemy territory to supposedly rescue Jyn’s father from the clutches of the Empire and ultimately steal the plans for the evil weapon and get them to the Rebellion in order to restore peace to the galaxy. The final battle in the film directly leads up to the events of A New Hope.

While the film has a noticeable absence of the Force and Jedi (and for good reason), it does not refrain from various fights and battles. Although the film may be similar to Empire or Jedi on some levels, they do hold their own within this Star Wars story. New characters and few familiar cameos lend a hand to this galactic space story. C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels) has an appearance as well as R2-D2, but sadly no Kenny Baker. Even Peter Cushing and a young Carrie Fisher make an appearance (through actor stand-ins and CGI). And Darth Vaver, perhaps one of the most menacing villains in all of movie history, makes an entrance and does not disappoint even in his limited screen time. James Earl Jones lent his voice once again as the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Jones’ Jyn Erso was not particularly memorable aside from the fact the story somewhat revolved around her. She was believable as a young fighter filled with hope. As was her male counterpart Cassian Andor. Diego Luna was not necessarily a standout portrayal either, but did present a determination to the cause with some humility thrown in. They weren’t necessarily strong characters, but they had just enough to keep me in the film. It seems there was some weak character development, but overall the film’s message that “rebellions are built on hope” and the final climactic battle where the plans are stolen, thus leading to the epic saga that follows, is what drives the film.

As in the other films in this saga, comedic relief is ever so present and it comes from a droid, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), an Imperial droid that has been reprogrammed for the Rebellion. Tudyk delivers his lines with precise comic timing and also lends a hand in commenting on story situations and developments. Despite having no real backstory, he seems to have an organic connection with the audience.

Mikkelsen, Whitaker, Mendelsohn and the rest of the cast give fine performances for what they were given. It seems what writers Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy failed to deliver on more character development, they presented a piece with just enough action, story, and spectacle to keep the scenes fresh and moving along at a nice pace without being bogged down with flashy or irrelevant dialogue.

Gareth Edwards has made an impact on his directorial entry to the Star Wars universe. He has blended all components into a satisfying film. He allowed the actors to contribute something to their characters while still maintaining a congruent story and spectacle. The individual fights and battles are a sight to watch, especially in the aerial combat sequences. The film explores new locations and imaginative set designs from the various planets to the various spaceships, thus making this a wonderful addition to the Star Wars saga.

Despite the sparing lack of some character development, the film does deliver. From its nostalgia to its familiar cameos to the new characters, Rogue One is a satisfying standalone film.

 

 

kellym40 film review

‘R. I. P. D.’ shows promise, but fails to deliver

Rating 2/5

The story surrounding the film may have looked good on paper, but did not seem to translate well to the finished product. The film had a somewhat interesting concept, but never seemed to build enough traction to really execute a great picture. The premise is we have Roy (Jeff Bridges), an old West law enforcement officer, and Nick (Ryan Reynolds), a member of the Boston Police Department, come back in different bodies and now are members of the Rest In Peace Department (R. I. P. D.). Their job is to capture people who have cheated their judgments and return them for their final judgment.

Robert Schwentke directed the screenplay by writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. And it doesn’t appear there is clear evidence as to why this film did not succeed more. It seemed to fail with a majority of critics and the general movie-going public. Some may have felt the film was unfunny and uninteresting. I tend to agree – to an extent. Perhaps the real problem with it was the direction. Through most of the film, I felt the pace of the film was slow. It was like watching a live theatre performance when the actors have low energy and the play just seems to drag.

I only enjoyed (if you can call it that) this film for the fairly decent concept. But there appeared to be several similarities with Men in Black. It almost succeeded in being a bad rip-off of Men in Black. Or, it did succeed in being a bad rip-off of the aforementioned film. It depends on how you look at it I guess. The climax of the R.I.P.D. just appeared uneventful as the heroes try to stop the “bad guys” from operating a device that is to open a gateway to unleash actual “hell on Earth.”

Although, the film did have some varying characters, they mostly appeared as weak, dull, two-dimensional characters. One might expect more from the likes of Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Bacon. That’s not to say the performances were necessarily bad, but they just didn’t seem to have much to work with in the script and direction. The seemingly sole character with any sort of redeeming qualities was Mary-Louise Parker’s Proctor, the “manager” of the Rest in Peace Department. She seemed to be a simple and straight forward, while still being a tough leader who runs a tight ship in the department. You might believe the actors had fun with the material (which appears to be what the film was meant to be – a fun, summer flick), but that just didn’t work for me completely.

R.I.P.D was released in the summer of 2013. It is evident the filmmakers were trying to make this a summer blockbuster with action, comedy, and a strong use of CGI. However, they lacked in story and character development, efficient use of comedy, and an apparent waste of time and talent with its lead actors. In R.I.P.D., we find a film that struggles with itself and leaves behind a skeleton of a potentially good film.

 

 

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

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.