Tag Archives: Fantasy

Nightbooks (2021)

12 Wednesday Apr 2023

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(For Day 12 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write a poem that addresses itself, so I drew a comparison between my own writing deadlines and the more life-threatening deadlines of this film’s protagonist, perhaps like a spell that might help him.)

Lines of mine, lines of mine,
Tell me why you take your time.
You know the deadline’s coming fast,
And they’re expecting something good.

Stubborn words, on my nerves,
Tell me what this poem deserves.
Can’t you feel the restless readers
Breathing down my livelihood?

I beseech the powers of speech;
Bring the verse within my reach.
Page and ink, don’t you think
I’d write less tritely if I could?

Rhymes of fire, climb, inspire,
Share the lyrics I require.
Don’t you care the curse will come
If we don’t feed them like we should?
______________________

MPA rating:  PG (due to some rather intense scares for a kids movie)

While I acknowledge the likes of Coraline, Gremlins, and Goosebumps, it does feel like kid-friendly horror movies are few and far between, so I appreciate when a new one comes along. Based on a J. A. White book, Nightbooks makes writer’s block more of a nightmare than it already is. After fleeing his home one night, young horror enthusiast Alex Mosher (Winslow Fegley) is lured inside a magical apartment building controlled by the heartless witch Natacha (Krysten Ritter), who insists he read her a new scary story every night. Trapped within this enchanted prison, Alex and his fellow hostage Yasmin (Lidya Jewett) must find a way to outsmart their captor and escape.

Nightbooks has a great Scheherazade-style setup, with a would-be horror writer being forced to come up with new stories or face dire consequences. Krysten Ritter as the witch is a perfect adversary for this kind of movie. She’s capricious and hammy with her persona but can quickly become sadistic and threatening if displeased, and her magical unpredictability adds a lot to the sense of dread even when she’s not on screen. Fegley and Jewett are further proof that child actors are no longer the stuff of automatic mockery, and Fegley’s Alex will especially appeal to kids who struggle to embrace their niche interests.

With its fairy tale qualities hearkening back to witch stories like Hansel and Gretel, Nightbooks has a good chance at becoming a Halloween staple for those who seek it out on Netflix. The individual creepy tales Alex reads to Natacha are the stuff of cheesy campfire frights, but the scares can actually get rather intense at times, like during a side quest with skull-faced, blade-wielding insects that attack Natacha’s garden. And it doesn’t hurt that the film and Alex have a fondness for The Lost Boys, even ending with a fantastic cover of “Cry Little Sister” by CHVRCHES. For aspiring young writers especially, Nightbooks is an ideal spooky watch.

Best line: (Yasmin) “Weird? Who called you that? Well, they’re right. You are weird. I mean, look at you. The thing that makes you weird makes them ordinary, and nobody likes to be ordinary because ordinary sucks. So ordinary people are going to try and take that away from you by calling you names like… try-hard or…”  (Alex) “Or creepshow.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2023 S.G. Liput
784 Followers and Counting

The Sea Beast (2022)

10 Monday Apr 2023

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(For Day 10 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a sea shanty, a form I’ve had fun with before. This film seemed like an ideal match, considering it features its own tavern shanty praising its legendary sea captain.)

When out on the waters, be wary, my lad.
Don’t rest on the other adventures you’ve had.
You’re only a squatter; you’re just a nomad,
Compared with the creatures who call the sea home.

Enjoy the wide ocean, her salty sweet kiss,
And balk at the notion there’s land that you miss,
But don’t let devotion declaw the abyss.
It’s waiting to claim all ye sailors who roam.

So empty your flagons, and I’ll empty mine.
Go board your sea wagons, your ships of the line.
You know there be dragons somewhere in the brine,
But that’s where the fun is, out there on the foam.
________________________

MPA rating: PG

I am all for more animation studios throwing their hats in the ring alongside Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Illumination, and luckily Netflix is willing to support such independent efforts. If the absence of more Pirates of the Caribbean has left you wanting for swashbuckling action, The Sea Beast aims to scratch that itch. Set in a world in which high-seas hunters pursue giant ocean monsters, the film follows brave hero Jacob Holland (Karl Urban) as he tries to help his vengeful Captain Crow (Jared Harris) to track down and kill the fabled Red Bluster, while also dealing with a precocious stowaway named Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator).

The first half of The Sea Beast is a thrilling joy. The battles against aquatic behemoths are stunningly animated, recalling the similar fight against the Kraken in Dead Man’s Chest, and their size and menace could effectively trigger some latent thalassophobia. The characterizations of Jacob and his adopted father figure Crow are well-written and engaging, while Maisie is a spunky addition to the crew and a perfect stand-in for kid viewers. It seemed to be a refreshingly fun adventure, and though I wouldn’t say it goes off the rails, the second half weighed the film down with a message far too similar to How to Train Your Dragon, revising the initial conflict to tell us most of the monsters are merely misunderstood. Though the film has some perceptive lessons about even heroes being in the wrong, as well as the danger of history being written with an agenda, I can’t help but wish that the plot had remained a straightforward man-vs-nature adventure.

The Sea Beast may have been overshadowed by the likes of Puss in Boots and Pinocchio, but it deserved its Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Despite the familiarity of many plot elements, it excels in seafaring derring-do and the charisma of its lead characters, so I look forward to what other adventures might await in a sequel.

Best line: (Jacob, of his fallen hunter predecessors) “Aye, they were heroes. But you can be a hero and still be wrong.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2023 S.G. Liput
784 Followers and Counting

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

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(For Day 3 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write opposite lines for a short poem, but I did the opposite and went off-prompt today. A little late, but I’m keeping up.)

In 1981, a nerd was playing with his friends
A tabletop role-playing game the nerd alone defends.
He said to them, while glowing after conquering a foe,
“It’s such a shame the other kids don’t care or want to know
How cool this game and world can be, the quests and fun campaigns.
It’s luck and skill and fantasy colliding in our brains.
They could make it a movie, and stories – they have plenty.”
“Yeah, that’ll be the day,” scoffed Matt, ere rolling a Nat 20.
But as the years went by, the province once reserved for nerds
Expanded to the everyman, I’d say a good two-thirds.
And as the world in comic books and wizards was immersed,
The nerds all wore a smile, knowing they had loved it first.
____________________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

I will just say up front that I have very little prior knowledge of the Dungeons & Dragons brand. Most of what I know comes from Stranger Things, Big Bang Theory, and random snippets of Critical Role, but while I’ve never played the game, I do love fantasy, as my passion for Lord of the Rings will attest. Based on the trailer, I had high hopes for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which is why I am thrilled that it both met and exceeded those expectations. This D&D movie is an absolute blast, an action-packed crowdpleaser that knows its world and how to use it effectively.

One thing I do know about D&D is that characters fall into certain archetypes and skills, which is the case for the winning ensemble in the movie. We have bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), who comes up with plans and backup plans; barbarian Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), Edgin’s right-hand muscle; two-bit sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith); shape-shifting druid Doric (Sophia Lillis); paladin Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page), and rogue Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant). The core members of the party are Edgin and Holga, who are betrayed during a heist gone wrong and are unable to return to Edgin’s teenage daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman). By the time they get out of prison, they find they must rescue her from a treasure-filled castle and an evil necromancer, leading them to recruit all the help they can get.

The common comparison for the film’s band of misfits becoming a found family is Guardians of the Galaxy, and it’s a valid one, considering its diverse cast, quippy humor, and penchant for heists and escapes. Yet I dare say D&D is even more fun, perhaps because its brand of comedy appealed to me more, like a hilarious sequence of asking questions with a series of reanimated corpses. The actors deserve a lot of credit as well. Pine is a reliably likable leader, and I liked his camaraderie with Rodriguez without any romantic tension needing to be interjected. Grant is amusingly unctuous as a conniving politician, while Page serves as a great foil for the others, stepping in for one side quest and playing the whole mythic hero role completely straight-faced.

Beyond that, I was giddy with the number of fantasy elements used in inventive ways, from a portal-gun staff to a gravity reversal spell to a menagerie of fantastical creatures, all brought to life with outstanding effects. One stand-out scene had Lillis’s shapeshifter repeatedly changing into various animals as she flees a castle in one long and thrilling tracking shot, while another involves an actual dragon in a dungeon with a set piece of jaw-dropping scale. A stadium sequence with the main party dodging creatures within a maze brought to mind the coliseum battle from Attack of the Clones, one of my favorite Star Wars scenes that is also marvelous here. It also boasts some amazing scenery reminiscent of Middle-earth, though this is apparently set in a campaign setting called the Forgotten Realms.

Of course, it’s not above criticism, the easiest being that the plot may seem overstuffed with characters and incidents, as if the filmmakers had trouble parting with their favorite scenes. But honestly, I wouldn’t cut anything either. One tangent seeking out an enchanted helmet ultimately adds little to the plot, but it serves an important role for Simon’s growth as a character and a magician. It’s actually shocking how smoothly the various settings and action scenes flow and all the characters are balanced, each getting a moment to shine, whether a joke or a cool scuffle or an emotional beat. And while the film is loaded with lore and exposition, the fantasy names it tosses around only give the indication that this world is larger than this one film shows and hardly bog down the fun and momentum of the story. A roll of the dice that certainly paid off, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves feels like the return of wildly entertaining fantasy epics, a la Pirates of the Caribbean, a light-hearted affair with good-hearted rogues and a world begging for a franchise. If subsequent chapters are anything like this one, I’m all in.

Best line: (Forge Fitzwilliam) “I don’t want to see you die. Which is why I’m gonna leave the room.”

Rank: Top 100-Worthy

© 2023 S.G. Liput
784 Followers and Counting

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

02 Sunday Apr 2023

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(For Day 2 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write surrealist answers/examples for various words and string them together into a poem. While my answers might be more flowery than surreal, I used the words thunder, mercurial, longing, ghost, miracle, and elusive for the lines below, while also including ties to this rather surreal film.)

A god that sobs when left behind.
A wedding ring in a drawer, unworn.
A king-size bed, half-cold at night.
A margin note for readers unborn.
An artifact forgotten yet found.
A smile in the eyes to match the mouth.
_____________________

MPA rating:  R (for violence, sex, and nudity, not constant but rather blatant)

When I saw the trailer for Three Thousand Years of Longing, it was bizarre and bombastic, seemingly in keeping with the director of Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller himself, and I thought that Everything Everywhere All at Once might have a worthy competitor for weirdest film of the year. Yet one must remember that Miller also wrote and produced Babe, so he’s clearly a filmmaker with range. Based on the short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” by A. S. Byatt, Three Thousand Years of Longing is indeed an odd film, spanning the millennia of a genie’s life, yet it’s far more pensive and wistful even than the trailer might indicate. Yes, there is a scene where a man’s head drips off his body and turns into a giant fly, but that’s more of the exception rather than the rule when it comes to this film’s brand of fantastical.

The framing story belongs to British scholar Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton), a lonely soul who sees only metaphor in the tales of ancient myth and magic and so is surprised when a huge, wispy figure emerges from a bottle she bought in a Turkish bazaar. It is a Djinn (Idris Elba), and while he desires to grant Alithea the expected three wishes, she is more cautious than most. Instead, she listens to the Djinn’s stories of what brought him to his present bottle, anecdotes of repeated tragic romance, cruel kings, twists of fate, and unwise wishes, all of it leading to the shared bond of their overlapping stories and a wish of her own.

It’s hard to say whether Three Thousand Years of Longing is my kind of movie. This kind of weaving of episodic threads together into universal themes of love and loneliness certainly appeals to me, and Swinton and Elba are a brilliant unlikely pair as they evoke their quiet mutual longing for what seems unreachable. Yet the film also relishes in short bursts of excess, which contrast more with the main plot than the Doof Warrior’s flaming guitar did in Fury Road, and they feel more unnecessary as the plot takes some uncomfortable turns, like a brief section dedicated to a prince’s fetish for an obese harem.

George Miller deserves his label from the trailer as a “mad genius.” The film looks amazing with its stylized flashbacks and lavish production, and yet below all the indulgence, it retains a genuinely emotional core, like the subtle comparison drawn between the Djinn’s centuries of self-soothing trapped in his bottle and Alithea trying to convince herself she’s content being alone. And I was admittedly impressed to learn how much actual Turkish history was incorporated into the narrative. Yes, even the prince with the fat harem (look up Ibrahim the Mad). From its fantastical mixing of history and mythology to its surprisingly tender denouement, Three Thousand Years of Longing may lack cohesion, but it has style and originality to spare, which is becoming increasingly rare these days.

Best line: (Alithea) “Love is a gift. It’s a gift of oneself given freely. It’s not something one can ever ask for.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2023 S.G. Liput
784 Followers and Counting

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

26 Sunday Mar 2023

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Why waste your youth on worry?
Why brood on doubt and death?
When in your prime,
You have the time
To not count every breath.

It’s normal to be stupid,
Or so the stupid say.
The less you heed,
The less you need
To care about each day.

But age, regret, or wisdom
Eventually take hold
To some degree.
Stupidity
Dies out before it’s old.

It’s up to each what value
Upon their life is placed.
But when the fun
And games are done,
Don’t let it be a waste.
_____________________________

MPA rating: PG

I would not have expected one of my favorite films from last year to be a sequel separated from its franchise by eleven years, from a studio I thought I had stopped caring about. In 2022, DreamWorks Animation delivered two of their strongest films in recent years, first with The Bad Guys and then with the long-neglected sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Both clearly took inspiration from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in their dynamic, painterly animation style merging 2D and 3D, but Puss in Boots also managed to integrate it with the existing style of Shrek, to masterly effect. You may have heard others singing this film’s praises in recent months, and yep, I’m one of them.

The first Puss in Boots film was a fun standalone adventure, a spin-off of the Shrek universe focusing on Antonio Banderas’ fan-favorite character Puss in Boots, the dashing outlaw/legend of the fairy tale world. Whereas that was an origin story, The Last Wish focuses on the latter days of Puss’s illustrious career, after he’s frittered away eight of his nine lives and has grown complacent laughing in the face of death. When a mysterious wolf proves to be too much for him, the feline swordsman feels he has no choice but to retire. Yet the promise of a wish sends him rushing to find a fallen star, alongside his old flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), an incessantly friendly dog (Harvey Guillén), and a collection of more cutthroat wish-seekers.

Puss in Boots can seem like the kind of character better suited for a sidekick role, his self-aggrandizing personality most appealing in small doses. Yet The Last Wish uses that to its advantage in making the preservation of that façade Puss’s driving goal while simultaneously poking holes in it through the other characters. Kitty is the only returning character from the prior film, and she represents what Puss has given up for the sake of his ego. And Guillén’s nameless mutt, nicknamed Perrito, is the kind of character that promises to be annoying yet is infectiously nice enough to win anyone over, even his begrudging feline comrades who aren’t used to unbridled sincerity.

The villains are a special highlight, an entertaining mix of characters and motivations, from Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney) as the straight evil mastermind to Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo) as a Cockney crime family with more sympathetic edges. And then there’s the Wolf (Wagner Moura), one of the best animated antagonists in recent memory, who has such an effectively chilling presence that it’s no wonder the ever fearless Puss in Boots quakes at his stark whistle. All these characters clashing periodically on the way to a shared goal may seem overly frenetic at times, but their distinct motives and the way they bounce off each other make for a highly enjoyable quest, kept unpredictable by genius creative touches like a map that changes the terrain depending on who holds it open.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a triumphant return for the long-dormant Shrek universe. It excels in that rare balance of light entertainment for kids and subtler serious themes for adults, such as the looming specter of mortality or the easily missed value of a found family. Banderas steps into the role with panache, like he never left it; Mulaney sounds like he’s having a blast hamming it up as a power-hungry villain; and Guillén brings a perfect adorability to Perrito, who is the true heart of the film. And the beautifully rendered action is top notch, using the Spider-Verse similarities to its own stylistic advantage rather than just being a copycat.

I distinctly remember watching Shrek 2 as a kid because my mom surprised me with a visit to the movies after school, and it just happened to be a great one. Somehow, I got the feeling that some kid today is going to look back on Puss in Boots: The Last Wish with the same fondness. As much as Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio deserved its accolades, I really wish that it hadn’t overshadowed DreamWorks’ best film in years. But, as this movie testifies, there are more important things than wishes anyway.

Best line (showing great comedic interactions):
(Goldilocks) “I thought you were on a spiritual retreat.”
(Kitty Softpaws) “Namaste.”
(Goldilocks) “And you’re supposed to be dead!”
(Puss) “I got better.”

Rank: List-Worthy

© 2023 S.G. Liput
784 Followers and Counting

2022 Blindspot Pick #10: The Frighteners (1996)

04 Saturday Feb 2023

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If ghosts are really dead and well
And haunting us instead of hell
Or heaven, then it’s fair to ponder
What they’re up to when they wander.

Could it be their lifeless heads
Are in our bathrooms, in our beds,
Next to us when we’re alone
To judge us and what’s on our phone?

Could it be they find their fun
In terrifying everyone?
Just float a chair or whisper “boo,”
And while you scream, they laugh at you.

Or maybe they just do their schtick
Because the dead resent the quick
And all the things they can’t enjoy
And so endeavor to annoy?

Or maybe phantoms leave a trail
Of fear to flout the coffin nail,
To prove to us as well as them
That they exist by their mayhem.

It must be hard to be a ghoul.
To be invisible is cruel.
So next time you are all alone,
Turn to the ghost you might have known
And dare to share a friendly word,
Perhaps their first since being interred.
And if they don’t scare you away,
Just know you might have made their day.
_______________________

MPA rating:  R (for violence, mostly PG-13-level except for one scene)

Yep, I’m still here catching up on my 2022 Blindspots, but I have officially seen them all! So now it’s just getting the reviews out. Though I had intended it for last Halloween, next up is a little horror film with some unlikely bedfellows in director Peter Jackson before he hit the big time with Lord of the Rings and Michael J. Fox in his last starring role, shortly before announcing his Parkinson’s diagnosis. Between Jackson’s penchant for horror comedy (much toned down here) and Fox’s natural charisma, the two proved to be a good mix, finding both humor and pathos in a tale of a con artist who can see dead people and must battle a murderous phantom only he can see.

Fox plays Frank Bannister, a self-proclaimed banisher of ghosts, who gets help in faking the hauntings in a small American town (actually Jackson’s native New Zealand) from his spectral collaborators (Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, and John Astin). He alone can see ghosts ever since a near-death experience, and after a run-in with a boorish jock (Peter Dobson) and his kinder wife (Trini Alvarado), Frank endeavors to stop a series of sudden random deaths that seem to be caused by the Grim Reaper.

After he’d earned a name through several strictly Kiwi projects of varying taste, The Frighteners was Jackson’s first Hollywood movie, and its mishmash of genres adds to it feeling like a turning-point film, the work of someone still perfecting their talent for mainstream audiences. Despite the twisty plot and colorful performances, it seemed to me that the real intended star was the special effects provided by Weta Digital (now Weta FX) to bring the ghosts to life, particularly the villain whose shape is often seen moving underneath solid surfaces like walls. By today’s standards, those all-CGI moments now have an inescapably dated and unreal look to them, but I can imagine they were a wonder in the mid-1990s.

While Fox’s natural likeability overshadows that of his character, he nails the dramatic moments and the interactions with characters that are not actually there, since all the ghost scenes were shot twice, with and without the ghosts present. As for the antagonists, while the shadowy reaper is a formidable threat, Jeffrey Combs is a scene-stealer as Miles Dammers, the intense FBI agent trying to tie Frank to the killings. Combs was clearly channeling a neurotic Jim Carrey and is a primary source of the film’s humor, which can be hit-and-miss.

Most of the film’s mixed reviews seem to consider it “tonally uneven,” which is true, never going for full-on belly laughs or deep-seated horror. The ending especially forgoes any of the light-hearted campiness in order to make events feel as hopeless as possible for the heroes while also overdoing explanatory flashbacks. Other issues include the rather shallow romance and the fact that the harrowing opening scene doesn’t make much sense in retrospect.

I don’t mean to sound overly negative; I very much enjoyed The Frighteners and actually watched it twice. It’s not high art nor an outright dud, so it’s hard to figure out in which bucket of appreciation to place it. But it’s an entertaining amalgam of influences that deserves its cult following, and I’m grateful that it served as a stepping stone for Jackson and Weta toward The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Besides, you can’t go wrong ending a movie with “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.”

Best line: (Frank) “You are SUCH an a**hole.”
(Dammers, unhinged) “Yes, I am. I’m an a**hole… with an Uzi.”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2023 S.G. Liput
784 Followers and Counting

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

09 Tuesday Aug 2022

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Most humans have the comfort of not knowing of too much,
Of doors we should not open and loose threads we ought not touch,
Of dogs we dare not waken and of lines we should not cross,
Lest brutal, futile knowledge should become our albatross.

The warning of “forbidden” has eroded over years,
Decided as the product of unreasonable fears.
For nothing is anathema, forbidden, or taboo,
And so we delve too deeply into things we can’t undo.

When doors not meant to open are instead extended wide,
And fears begin to slither in where had been only pride,
And darkness once attractive starts exacting its dread cost,
You’ll recognize what isn’t wise when certain lines are crossed.
__________________________________

MPA rating: PG-13 (honestly, some of the violence leans toward R)

I never used to wait this long before reviewing Marvel blockbusters, but my mind hasn’t been in movie review mode lately. Still, it’s about time I got to it. Anyway, I’m an MCU fanboy, so anything they release I am likely to enjoy to varying levels. Even some that gave me initial mixed reactions like Thor: The Dark World or Eternals, I’ve grown to appreciate more with time and reflection. It’s rare then that time and reflection ends up lowering my opinion of a Marvel film, but such is the case with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I still liked it overall, but there are elements I can’t help but view with disappointment.

This second Doctor Strange film marks a milestone for the MCU; it’s the first time that a Marvel film has continued a storyline from one of the Disney+ TV series, specifically WandaVision, released about a year before. I’ve decided to skip reviewing TV shows (for now) and won’t go into detail on WandaVision, but it essentially dealt with the messy grieving process of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) after losing her beloved Vision (Paul Bettany) in Infinity War. It was the first time Wanda was referred to by her comics name of Scarlet Witch and introduced the potential children she might have had with Vision, as well as a cursed book called the Darkhold, all of which play a role in this film.

As for Stephen Strange himself (Benedict Cumberbatch), he has settled into the self-sacrificing superhero life of losing his own love Christine (Rachel McAdams) yet trying to convince himself he’s happy anyway. When a multiverse-hopping girl named America Chavez (a bit one-note but likable Xochitl Gomez) arrives in New York, chased by otherworldly creatures, Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) take on the duty of protecting her across universes.

Between Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the multiverse has already been cracked open for most viewers, but Doctor Strange in the MoM goes beyond variations of one character. Many would argue that it still doesn’t do enough with the concept to warrant a name like Multiverse of Madness, but my VC actually liked that the number of universes involved were limited, finding it easier to follow. The use of the multiverse is where my complaints begin (and the spoilers). One of the biggest set pieces of the film involves a multiversal team getting slaughtered mercilessly, which felt like a jarring contrast to the way that even villains were treated in No Way Home, a spectacle mistaking cruel for cool. It gave me concern that the multiverse could be used to just provide an endless supply of fan service cannon fodder because if one character dies, hey, there’s plenty of others out there for next time, right?

Beyond that, the film’s treatment of Wanda is also a mixed bag. While Olsen delivers an outstanding performance stepping into the rare role of a hero-turned-villain and showing just how powerful she is, it ends up undermining the emotional progress she seemed to experience in WandaVision (and totally ignoring the fact that Vision in some form is out there somewhere). Her motivations are sympathetic, but it was shocking just how far she goes, her behavior easily blamed on the corrupting power of the Darkhold but hard to forgive nonetheless. And then there’s Strange’s diving into the dark art of necromancy in the climax, which is both a gleeful reminder of director Sam Raimi’s horror specialty and also a problematic strategy that calls into question whether Strange can just walk away from any supposedly forbidden behavior without consequence. We’ll see if the sequels shed any light on that.

And speaking of sequels, it also felt like there should have been a different Doctor Strange 2 between the original and this one. Despite the brief presence of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo in a different universe, his setup as a villain in the first film’s after-credits scene was essentially dropped, waved away in a single line indicating he and Strange had already clashed before. Am I the only one who would have liked to see that?

So yes, I have mixed feelings about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, right down to its abrupt ending, yet I can’t outright dislike it either. It still has all the ingredients for an entertaining Marvel adventure, mixed with the sometimes creepy, somewhat goofy, and more violent style of Sam Raimi, complete with a prime Bruce Campbell cameo. I liked the more human element of Strange’s character arc, and Olsen’s scenery-chewing wrath is both memorable and cleverly resolved by the end. It can’t be easy writing these Marvel films in a way that continues prior plotlines, delivers its own story, and sets up future possibilities, but they’ve been doing it splendidly for a decade now. While it has its good points, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the first stumble for me.

Best line: (Wanda, with a good point) “You break the rules and become a hero. I do it, and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
777 Followers and Counting

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

28 Thursday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a concrete poem, one that is written in the shape of its topic. These are always tricky for me, but I opted for the shape of a prominent letter befitting this film.)

What is                                                                                       a hero?
  Someone                                         who                                sees
    What needs                             doing and                      does,
        Who knows                    what    they’re             losing
               And loses            that             others,      even
                  Strangers,      may                     win,  maybe
                       Never knowing                        the name
                              Of their                                   hero.
______________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

Like many others, I was quite impressed with 2017’s Wonder Woman and thought it signaled an overdue increase in entertainment value for DC’s superhero lineup. Gal Gadot was perfectly cast as the idealistic Diana, her chemistry with Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor provided sacrificial pathos by the end, and the World War I setting was a unique contrast to all the modern superhero settings. So there was good reason to think that Wonder Woman 1984 would be a similar success, which only makes its failings more disappointing.

Set in 1984 (obviously), this second adventure sees Wonder Woman contending with less impressive threats than the Olympian god she took down in the first film. Pedro Pascal plays a desperate businessman Max Lord, who uses a wishing stone to gain the power to grant wishes himself, always with an unpleasant twist to them, while Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) is the recipient of one of those wishes, a clumsy geologist whose initial hero worship for Wonder Woman turns to resentment as she becomes the confident Cheetah. Of course, Diana gets a wish of her own as well, which enables the return of her long-lost love Steve, albeit in a way that is problematic for long-term happiness.

There was a good movie somewhere in the pitch for Wonder Woman 1984, but it got lost in the overload of themes and complete lack of subtlety. There are some decent action scenes, like during a truck chase in Egypt, while one set in a mall is laughably mediocre in tone and execution. Both Lord’s monkey-paw-style mania and Barbara’s descent into villainy have good moments as well, with Pascal’s smarmy façade especially fitting his character to a T, yet their final confrontations with Wonder Woman are too chaotic with obvious CGI to be taken seriously. The moral of the wish storyline especially falls flat, implying that everyone would only wish for evil things if given the chance (President Reagan is literally shown wishing he had more nukes as opposed to something like, I don’t know, world peace), and it’s bewildering how incoherent the finale is, with Barbara somehow getting a second wish and both Lord and Diana somehow speaking to everyone on Earth via a satellite.

I went into Wonder Woman 1984 wanting to like it and did enjoy seeing Steve reunited with Diana and introduced to the 1980s, but not even the same director and stars from the first film could save a plot this half-baked. It does have some silly-enough-to-be-entertaining appeal, though. Gadot is still an ideal Wonder Woman, so I hope she can still get a worthy sequel at some point. I’d wish for it, but now I know that can be risky.

Best line: (Max Lord, repeatedly) “Life is good! But it can be better.”

Rank: Honorable Mention (since I’d still probably watch it again.)

© 2022 S.G. Liput
771 Followers and Counting

Palm Springs (2020)

22 Friday Apr 2022

Posted by in Movies, NaPoWriMo, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem featuring repetition, so what better film to inspire me than one about a time loop?)

I woke up this morning
And jumped out of bed.
I woke up this morning
And lay there instead.

I woke up this morning
To paint the town red.
I woke up this morning
And ended up dead.

I woke up this morning,
My wild oats spread.
I woke up this morning
To tears and bloodshed.

I woke up this morning
And panicked and fled.
I woke up this morning
And just shook my head.

I woke up this morning,
To nothing but dread.
I woke up this morning
With nothing ahead.

I woke up this morning
Again, as I said.
I woke up this morning,
Tomorrow still gone.
So how many mornings
Will this hell go on?
______________________

MPA rating: R (mainly for language)

Time loop movies have gotten a sudden surge of interest recently, from the action of Boss Level to the teen romance of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (both of which I still need to see), but 2020’s Palm Springs was a pandemic-era hit that brought the subgenre to the fore. I don’t want to sound dismissive, but no time loop movie will ever top the fantastically original Groundhog Day, which every other such film will inevitably be compared to and found lacking. Still, Palm Springs proves there’s room for more than just one ‘90s classic.

Set in the titular California desert resort, Palm Springs mixes up the usual time loop scenario by throwing in two loopers (well, actually three) rather than a single sufferer. The two in question are wedding guest Nyles (Andy Samberg) and the sister of the bride Sarah (Cristin Milioti), both of whom stumble upon a mysterious energy source within a cave at different times and end up endlessly repeating the wedding day, “one of those infinite time loop situations you might have heard about,” as Nyles calls it. Like Bill Murray did before, the reactions of the pair range from hedonism to despair to eventual nihilism as they both decide that nothing matters when time itself won’t let you move forward or even die, though each of them are in the rare position of having someone else sharing the same predicament, someone who may offer them something worth caring about.

I can certainly appreciate an unconventional rom com, and Samberg and Milioti make a likable pair to root for… eventually. Truth be told, I didn’t much enjoy either of them at the beginning, owing to their casual promiscuity and growing cynicism, but they both reach a point where they realize their own failings and strive to be better. And while one finds their way to an actual solution to the time loop problem, the other grows confident enough to give a stirring confession of love reminiscent of the end of When Harry Met Sally…. Plus, there’s J.K. Simmons as a third time looper who naturally steals his few scenes with a different response to eternity than the other two.

I suppose my main complaint is one that few will share, just disappointment that this had to be R-rated when Groundhog Day remained clean enough to be watchable by all. Even so, Palm Springs caters to my fondness for time loop stories and becomes a far more satisfying and endearing rom com than I expected from its first half. Like its predecessor, it cleverly finds ways to keep its potential repetition from getting boring and has more original ideas than its borrowed concept might indicate, so I can give it some respect. But Groundhog Day was still better.

Best line: (Nyles) “You’re my favorite person that I’ve ever met, and, yes, I know that it’s crazy odds that the person I like the most in my entire life would be someone I met while I was stuck in a time loop, but you know what else is crazy odds, getting stuck in a time loop…”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
767 Followers and Counting

Her Blue Sky (2019)

21 Thursday Apr 2022

Posted by in Movies, NaPoWriMo, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was rather detailed, to “recall someone you used to know closely but are no longer in touch with, then a job you used to have but no longer do, and then a piece of art that you saw once and that has stuck with you over time. Finally, close the poem with an unanswerable question.” I decided to adapt the prompt to the viewpoint of a character from this film.)

He made me laugh until the day
He made me cry and went away.
Though where he’s gone I cannot say,
I like to think he rues that day.

My sister worked me to the bone
When she was young and trouble-prone,
But now that she is nearly grown,
I hate to think of her alone.

I still recall the song he played,
And when my sister can be swayed,
She plays and makes me wish he’d stayed.
Why can’t I let the memories fade?
_______________________________

MPA rating:  Not Rated (a tame PG-13)

While modern anime films are dominated by Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai (plus the plethora of films based on existing properties), there are some underrated original gems that don’t get as much attention as they should. Her Blue Sky is yet another example of the poignancy so easily captured by writer Mari Okada, known for emotion-heavy tearjerkers like The Anthem of the Heart and Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. This one doesn’t really aim for tears as those do, but it certainly appeals to one’s sense of nostalgia and the regret that comes with looking back at how much we change over the years.

Set in the mountainous Chichibu area (where Okada was born herself), the film focuses on a young bassist named Aoi and her older sister Akane, who has cared for Aoi alone for the last thirteen years, choosing this responsibility over running off to Tokyo with her musician boyfriend Shinno. As a music festival approaches, Aoi remembers her fondness for Shinno and is shocked when he appears in her shed, looking exactly as he did thirteen years ago. While she suspects he is a ghost, the arrival of a grown, still-living Shinno back to town catches them off-guard, and the difference between his optimistic younger self and jaded older self puts both sisters through the emotional ringer.

While some may be disappointed at the lack of explanation for the supernatural elements, especially during a climactic sequence that is both delightfully touching and a little silly-looking, Shinno’s younger self is supposedly an ikiryō, a Japanese spirit that can manifest from a living person, a bit of interesting folklore I didn’t know, much like the 1970s song “Gondhara,” which features prominently in the film. The animation is a treat, with particular detail afforded to the instrument-playing, which is so often obscured to avoid the effort of animating authentic performances, and I’ve always enjoyed the character designs of this creative team, who previously worked on shows like Toradora.

While Aoi’s moody teenager shell may seem pretentious at first, her relationship with her sister is strained but quite sweet, as are the interactions with Shinno as she questions her feelings toward her sister’s ex. Thankfully, it all wraps up in a satisfying end, which is surprising since much of that end is only suggested in still images during the end credits. Her Blue Sky isn’t very easy to find and doesn’t even have an English dub yet, but it’s a small and tender drama of music and sisterhood that is worth seeking out.

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
767 Followers and Counting