Tag Archives: Horror

Annihilation (2018)

13 Saturday Apr 2019

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a spooky and mysterious poem. Of course, I could have used either of the movies from the last two days, but this one works too, with its theme of unchecked change hopefully providing the chill factor I was going for.)

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The world is changing before my eyes,
And what a surprise
To notice mutations that God never tried
That eons would normally cover and hide.

That tree over there was not always a tree.
Nor was that creature that lurks in its shade.
Should I be afraid?
For I know what they are,
But what kind of people did they use to be?

Betrayed by their cells, too minute to resist,
They changed and exchanged what had made them exist.
What monsters are born from a change so extreme,
A mutable dream
Where men were not always the beasts that they seem?

Are questions of sanity signs that you’re sane?
Just being here mixes unease in my brain.
For I’m not immune;
My own skin’s a cocoon.
When it hatches, how much of myself will remain?
____________________

MPAA Rating: R (for some language and gruesome violence)

From the trailers, Annihilation looked like the kind of movie to follow in the footsteps of Arrival with its slow-burn, high-concept science fiction. Or maybe that’s just what I wished it was. It’s actually closer in spirit to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and while most critics considered that a point in Annihilation’s favor, it’s not for me.

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Natalie Portman plays a cellular biologist and ex-soldier named Lena, who recounts her story to a hazmat-suit-wearing Benedict Wong. After her soldier husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) disappears on a mission, he returns a year later changed and distant, and Lena soon learns where he has been: a forested region of Florida, where a shimmering, expanding wall has puzzled scientists and swallowed any team sent to investigate it. Along with a head psychologist (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a paramedic (Gina Rodriguez), a physicist (Tessa Thompson), and a geomorphologist (Tuva Novotny), Lena enters “the Shimmer” in an effort to unravel its mysteries.

I’ll admit writer-director Alex Garland’s Annihilation has the high acting and production standards that modern sci-fi deserves, and it’s a home run at least on a visual level. The set-up is superbly intriguing, and Lena’s journey into the Shimmer is buoyed by the allure of the unknown. Signals and light are unexplainably altered. Monsters and strange species lurk out of sight. The evidence they find of Kane’s mission challenges their sanity.

It’s Alien-level tension and uncertainty (or at least Prometheus-level), but all this mystery has to lead somewhere for it to be worthwhile, and Annihilation’s ending is just too ambiguous for its own good. That’s where the comparisons to 2001 ring true, with the largely wordless climax playing out like a fever dream of compelling but nebulous menace. In the end, though, its unanswered questions just left me puzzled by its enigmatic lack of resolution.

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It’s odd that this would be my gripe when I commended the ambiguity of The Endless just a couple days ago. I guess The Endless was open to interpretation in a way that suggested a complexity that was justifiably out of reach (and at least the main plot got some resolution), whereas Annihilation seemed more intentionally esoteric, like a puzzle where the writer was hiding pieces from you and chuckling at his own shrewdness. Maybe that makes no sense, and maybe others will enjoy the film’s mind-twisting, but Annihilation left me unsatisfied, just as my VC was left unsatisfied by the novel on which it was based (and by all the changes made by the filmmakers). I enjoyed the set-up, but not where it led. With its middling box office returns, they may or may not adapt the other books in the series, but either way, I’m not sure the resolution is worth caring about.

Best line: (Dr. Ventress) “Then, as a psychologist, I think you’re confusing suicide with self-destruction. Almost none of us commit suicide, and almost all of us self-destruct. In some way, in some part of our lives. We drink, or we smoke, we destabilize the good job… and a happy marriage. But these aren’t decisions, they’re… they’re impulses. In fact, you’re probably better equipped to explain this than I am.”
(Lena) “What does that mean?”
(Ventress) “You’re a biologist. Isn’t the self-destruction coded into us? Programmed into each cell?”

 

Rank: Dishonorable Mention

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
625 Followers and Counting

 

Psycho 2 (1983)

12 Friday Apr 2019

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem about loving something dull, so I gave it a bit of a deranged spin, courtesy of Norman Bates.)

See the source imageIt’s just a wig, a ratty thing,
Gray from age and gray from dust,
And yet I cannot help but cling
To something I distrust.

It was my mother’s once, you know;
A hoary halo round her head,
And now no matter where I go,
I see it even though she’s dead.

To keep it still makes her feel close.
Morbid maybe? Yes, it’s true.
But I’m a quite obliging host,
And when I don it out of view…

Hello, Mother, how are you?
______________________________

MPAA rating: R (stronger language and violence than the original, plus brief nudity)

For those who may think that Hollywood’s resurrection of decades-old franchises for the sake of a sequel no one asked for was a recent trend, I will simply point to Psycho II, released 23 years after Hitchcock’s original (not to mention Psycho III three years later and Psycho IV four years after that). I think that the ’80s really kicked off the horror course of endless sequels, and Psycho was just one of many to get that treatment. While this long-delayed follow-up doesn’t compare with Hitchcock’s masterpiece, it’s a tight little slasher mystery in its own right.

Twenty-two years after the events of Psycho, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins reprising the role) is supposedly rehabilitated and released from an insane asylum, much to the chagrin of Lila Loomis (Vera Drake), who still despises Bates for the murder of her sister Marion Crane. Getting a job at a nearby diner, Norman returns to his motel and the house from the first film, but after befriending a beautiful young coworker (Meg Tilly), he finds himself struggling with his sanity, especially as the body count mysteriously rises.

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Psycho II really tries to humanize Norman, making him sympathetic as he wonders whether he can trust his own mind, and Anthony Perkins manages it better than any actor taking his place could have. The mystery of Psycho has become too ingrained in pop culture for it to have much shock value anymore, but Psycho II keeps the characters and audience guessing what’s real and what’s psychosis. I’m rather disappointed in how one character is changed for the sake of the plot, right down to the gruesome way they’re dispatched. Otherwise, though, the mystery has decent twists and performances and even a little dark humor, making Psycho II better than I would expect from a film cashing in on Hitchcock’s legacy.

Best line: (Norman) “Well, I’ll tell you. When I was little, I had a fight with my mother, so I put some poison in her tea, you know. But I’m all right now.”
(Mary) “You sure?”
(Norman) “Sure! Otherwise, they wouldn’t give me a job at a diner, would they?”
(Mary) “I don’t know; it takes a nut to work there.”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
624 Followers and Counting

 

The Endless (2018)

11 Thursday Apr 2019

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem of origin, so, inspired by the time loops in this film, I focused on how where we’re going might mirror where we’ve been.)

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Is darkness our friend?
They say we came from darkness.

We’ve grown up searching for the light
From friends both fickle and contrite,
From dogs that lick and dogs that bite,
And lies that distance and unite.

It feels as though our life’s a loop,
A track so many have run before,
From more to less and less to more,
And ere our ship returns to shore,
Our time is short, but we explore.

The light’s the loop,
The dark’s the end,
They say we’re headed for darkness.
Is darkness still our friend?
____________________

MPAA rating:  Not Rated (R for the language and some violence, though there’s much worse out there)

Not being a huge fan of horror, I’ll admit I’m not very familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, a name I’ve noticed becoming more and more popular lately. What constitutes Lovecraftian horror is new to me, but from what I understand, it deals with terrifying cosmic powers beyond the scope of human understanding, or basically fear of the unknowable. If that’s right, The Endless might be the best example I’ve seen, a fascinating and slow-burning mystery with an undercurrent of paranoia and weirdness.

Two brothers Justin and Aaron (played by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who also directed and split work on writing, editing, and cinematography) are struggling with normal life some years after escaping from a so-called “UFO death cult” out in the desert. Aaron remembers their time there as one of stability and plenty and wishes to return, and, though Justin is dead-set against it, he agrees to briefly visit their former home after a mysterious video arrives. Strangely, very little seems to have changed, but the longer the brothers stay, the more uncanny events seem to happen, portending a great danger that might be inescapable.

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I won’t pretend to claim that I completely understood the film’s plot, but The Endless is well-acted and has intrigue to spare, with mysteries and fear piling on top of each other and most of the questions left largely unanswered by the end. Yet it’s very much a case of what you don’t see being scarier than what you do; there’s not really any nightmarish imagery, more foreboding and unease. A prime example is when the brothers are invited to pull on a rope as one of the community’s confidence exercises. The rope stretches off into the darkness as each person plays tug-of-war with something, with the chill factor coming from the lack of knowing what that something is.

As the film goes on, it enters a wilder side of science fiction, with time loops and fractured dimensions that challenge the mind and don’t provide easy answers, if any, but through it all, the brotherly bond between Justin and Aaron proves to be a strong human element to ground the craziness. I’m curious now to check out one of Benson and Moorhead’s previous films called Resolution, which apparently expands on one of the subplots from this movie, or vice versa. (Fans of theirs were no doubt happy to spot the connection.)

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Like Chronesthesia, The Endless is an example of multitasking filmmakers making the most of a limited budget and delivering a surprisingly solid product; the special effects are especially well-done for an independent film. It’s also one of those movies worth rewatching and discussing with others, if only to understand it better, though perhaps that lack of full comprehension is both the point and the appeal.

Best line: (an anonymous quote displayed at the beginning) “Friends tell each other how they feel with relative frequency. Siblings wait for a more convenient time, like their deathbeds.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
622 Followers and Counting

 

2018 Blindspot Pick #9: Hush (2016)

31 Wednesday Oct 2018

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I can see you through the window.
I can see you through the door.
I could speak and mark my presence
As I’ve often done before,
Yet you’d heedlessly ignore.

I could detail all the lurid
Games I plan to play with you,
But my words would all be wasted
While you never had a clue,
While I linger out of view.

I could hover right behind you,
So amused you cannot hear,
But if I proceed too quickly,
It would be a waste of fear.
Never do I waste, my dear.

So enjoy your ignorance,
The bliss of danger still concealed.
Soon I’ll get to see it shatter
When my secret is revealed.
Then you’ll know your fate is sealed.
_________________________

MPAA rating:  R (for violence and brief language)

I haven’t been able to watch many movies specifically for Halloween this year, but I always intended this Blindspot for October. Among my Blindspots, Hush represents not only the horror genre but a subgenre I’ve intentionally avoided for the most part: the slasher. I’m honestly not sure if I’ve ever seen a true slasher film. (I’m not counting something like Alien or The Terminator, which might technically fit some of the requirements but have additional science fiction elements that set them apart). Actually, I might take that back, since I just thought of Psycho and Audrey Hepburn’s Wait Until Dark, though I’m not sure those fully qualify. Yet, just as Wait Until Dark was unique in pitting its killers against a blind woman, Hush does the same in making the target a deaf woman and using that important detail to its advantage.

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Hush has a brilliance of economy to it, with a minimum of dialogue and only five speaking roles. Kate Siegel (the wife of the director Mike Flanagan) plays Maddie Young, a reclusive novelist in true Stephen King fashion (one of King’s books can be spotted early on), and her attempts at cooking provide a brief glimpse into what it’s like in a world with no sound. While it feels odd to not hear a frying pan sizzling, it’s much more alarming to not hear a masked psycho outside your window. Before this killer (John Gallagher, Jr.) makes his presence known, his stalking is utterly creepy considering how oblivious Maddie is, but the tension still remains high even after she becomes aware of the threat.

Hush is very much a game of cat and mouse, with Maddie testing how best to escape while the killer cuts off every chance with only his sadism keeping him from simply breaking into the house. He intentionally toys with her, boasting every advantage, including sound, and it was a genuine thrill to see how she turns the tables on him while never veering into unrealistic territory. What I most appreciated was how well the plot played out visually. Since Maddie is deaf and mute, most of her confrontations with the killer are wordless, made more intense by the absence of screaming you’d expect from a horror movie.

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Unfortunately, Hush was rather bloodier than I typically like, with one little twisty shock and several bloody injuries being exchanged, but it was an enjoyable horror-thriller, even if it may adhere to some typical slasher conventions, as far as I know them. There were no hateful characters (aside from the killer) or annoyingly dumb decisions, and the acting was strong and entirely believable. Though he doesn’t wear it that long, even the killer’s mask is effective, resembling Michael Myers’ visage but with a slight smile that reflects the playful malevolence of the psycho behind it.

Since I’m not counting Psycho, it probably doesn’t mean much to say this is the best true slasher film I’ve seen (#1 of 1!), but it’s a good Halloween find all the same. Aside from disliking the gruesomeness, I suppose I’ve avoided the genre due to how many bad movies it seems to churn out, but I’m glad my first sampling was a high-quality breath-catcher like Hush. Now, if you’ll excuse me, some of us have to stay silent and hide from those trick-or-treaters lurking outside.

Best line:  (Maddie) “….”

(I love how that’s actually listed as a quote on iMDB!)

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
592 Followers and Counting

 

A Quiet Place (2018)

29 Friday Jun 2018

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Stop, do you hear that? I do, but do they?
The runaway rhythm of hearts in dismay,
It pounds ever harder and makes the rib cage
A tight echo chamber, a tremulous gauge
Of the worry of war that no man wished to wage.

Hide each hollow creak and conceal every crunch
From our foolhardy feet or an indiscreet lunch.
Outlasting this long is no right to survive
When one simple slip-up that fate can contrive
Might cut your luck short when the sentries arrive.

Each whisper so slight from beneath our caught breath
Resounds with regret as it promises death.
Escaping means nothing, nor hiding from view,
When stubbing your toe puts a target on you.
Stop, do you hear that? I fear that they do.
_______________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Faithful readers may know that I have very particular tastes when it comes to horror movies. Generally, the more blood there is, the less likely I’ll enjoy it, because I’d much rather be creeped out by atmosphere and implication than by ever more nauseating murders. That’s why A Quiet Place caught my interest, and indeed it is exactly the kind of scary movie for me, the kind that plays with your nerves rather than your stomach and even gets you to care about the characters in danger.

The film begins several months into an apocalyptic proliferation of monsters who detect their prey by sound and who have effectively ended civilization as we know it, leaving the unnamed Abbott family to scavenge supplies and survive in silence. Over a year later, they’ve built a fairly stable and silent life in their monster-prepared country home, complete with warning lights and trails of sand to soften their footsteps. The father Lee (director John Krasinski) does his best to prepare both his deaf daughter (Millicent Simmonds of Wonderstruck) with hearing aids and his son (Noah Jupe) with survival experience, while mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt, Krasinski’s real wife) tries to make their precarious existence as livable as possible. Yet in films of this type, half the tension is waiting for something to go wrong, and even if those with little patience may be a tad bored by the wordless beginning, they only need wait for the shoe to drop…noisily.

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As far as the plot itself, it’s honestly nothing I haven’t seen before. That’s because it is literally a combination of 2002’s Signs (mysterious creatures with a hidden weakness, two kids in danger, a cornfield) and 2015’s Hidden (a genuinely lovable and caring family living in fear of being discovered if they’re too loud). Luckily, I love both Signs and Hidden, and even if I could write a whole post on how similar A Quiet Place is to them, its combination is different enough to be worthwhile and adeptly made enough to make it far scarier than either earlier film.

Krasinski certainly has an eye for tension, and the sound design heightens the threat of even everyday items. Sometimes, you see the potential scream a mile away (one scene is particularly painful to watch), while others sneak up on you. Yes, there are plenty of effective jump scares, and keeping the creatures out of sight until late in the film adds to their mystery and threat. The fact that Evelyn is pregnant also contributes to the inevitability of sound, and with so much of the film lacking dialogue, the sounds that do attract the creatures are potently jarring for the audience as well.

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Every performance is outstanding in its fear, grief, and familial love, with Krasinski and Simmonds (who is actually deaf) being the stand-outs. Even relying on sign language, they’re entirely believable as a close family, the kind that says grace together before meals, albeit haunted by the trauma of their situation, and their resourcefulness proves quite clever when dangerous situations arise. I kept wondering why they wouldn’t close doors to keep the creatures out, but then I remembered that a closing door would only cause more noise. Some may wonder how they could have built some of their safety measures without making sound (they’re shown to have canned much of their food, and the electricity must run off a noise-making generator), but if you can ignore those niggling critiques, A Quiet Place is the latest proof that an intensely scary movie depends more on the craft behind it than the body count.

Best line (out of not many): (Evelyn, to Lee) “Who are we if we can’t protect them? We have to protect them.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (tied with Hidden)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting

 

2018 Blindspot Pick #5: Sunshine (2007)

18 Monday Jun 2018

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Some say because mankind began,
Someday we’ll meet our end.
It’s borrowed time we spend.

Now centuries or more before
That fateful day arrives,
We fear for future lives.

We doubt if such is simply fate.
Should we rage if we could
If that good night be good?

Inevitable it may be,
Yet life is valued right
By how its owners fight.

Is saving life postponing death?
Then may death hesitate,
However short the wait.
___________________

MPAA rating: R (for language and some violence)

I’m a little embarrassed to have fallen behind on my Blindspot series this year, only now getting to May’s pick. Though, in my defense, I have been busy graduating and looking for a new job in web design, so I think that’s a reasonable excuse. Oh, and I discovered a funny little show called Parks and Recreation, which has kind of distracted me from my typical movie-watching schedule. Even so, I’m trying to catch up this month, and Sunshine made for a welcome return to my Blindspot picks.

I was familiar with Sunshine’s music long before I had any intention of watching it, even placing it at #49 on my list of Top 50 Movie Scores. Much of the electronica from composer John Murphy and the band Underworld is complementary for a sci-fi film but unmemorable, yet “Adagio in D Minor” is an immortal cinematic track as far as I’m concerned, serving to heighten the emotion of two visually striking scenes.

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There’s more than the score, though, to make Sunshine worth watching, not least of which is the diverse and recognizable cast, all astronauts aboard the Icarus II on a mission to save mankind by reigniting the sun with a giant bomb.  Cillian Murphy seems to be the lead as Robert Capa, a physicist in charge of the actual payload, while the rest of the crew include Michelle Yeoh, Benedict Wong, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada (Lost alert!), and Chris Evans, who was between superhero roles at the time. Actually, it’s telling that five of those actors have made their way into superhero movies, and wait(!) Hiroyuki Sanada is supposedly cast in the next Avengers movie so it’s probably only a matter of time before Garity and Curtis make the leap too. The characters aren’t much more developed than the crew of the Nostromo in Alien (which wasn’t much when you think about it), but the actors do well in giving them distinct personalities and methods, though it was odd to learn that a lot of background information on each one was thought up yet intentionally left out.

I tend to enjoy the science fiction genre in general, and Sunshine had many of the ingredients I like, from intelligent problem solving in the face of disaster to a foreboding, often claustrophobic setting, plus a few creative subtleties, as when pictures of dead crewmen are momentarily glimpsed in the glare of flashlights. The script was also thought-provoking as it repeatedly put the characters in life-and-death positions in which the death option meant the death of mankind. As for the plot, it reminded me of a cross between the Firefly episode “Bushwhacked” (searching a derelict ship with a crazed danger on board) and  Alien: Covenant (picking up a distress signal that jeopardizes the mission, though Sunshine had a better reason for their following of said signal). I know some have criticized Sunshine for how the last third suddenly veers into slasher-style horror, but it didn’t seem incompatible with what came before and, if anything, strengthened the parallels to an Alien movie.

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Directed by Danny Boyle, Sunshine has a lot in its favor, which makes its fate as a box-office failure even sadder, but it’s also far from perfect. It’s hard for me to fault the grand spacefaring visuals, but there were multiple scenes where I just wasn’t sure what I was looking at, whether because of the unique design of the ship or because the scene was drowned in sunlight or shielded in darkness. This is the only Blindspot I’ve watched twice, the second time with my VC, who had the same trouble but still enjoyed it, and I did find it easier to understand on the second go once I knew what was happening. Coupled with that objection is how the “monster” of the film was kept semi-concealed, not through shadowy editing but through camera distortions that just became overused.

In addition, for a film about the potential end of humanity, there’s very little spiritual dimension to it, only reminders of man being “stardust” and some religious ramblings of a madman. I always find it weird when disaster or apocalyptic movies seem to intentionally avoid or demonize religion, since that’s where many a mind goes when death draws near, and the fact that Cillian Murphy reportedly “converted” to atheism due to this film reveals how coldly unspiritual its underpinnings are.

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Despite these qualms, Sunshine was still a sci-fi journey worth taking, buoyed by strong casting, effects, and music. You could almost say it’s a better Alien movie than most of the Alien sequels, and that’s without any aliens. While its fatalism can get heavy and its visuals require some thought to decipher, this is one more corner of science fiction I’m glad to check off the ol’ to-watch list.

Best line (showing writer Alex Garland knew his influences): (Mace) “We should split up.”   (Harvey) “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea….”   (Mace) “You’re probably right. We might get picked off one at a time by aliens.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting

 

Alien 3 (1993)

23 Wednesday May 2018

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If I were on a transport ship
And had my own space-faring trip
Disturbed by some malignant beast
That turned my friends into a feast,

And then I managed to survive
And make it back to Earth alive
And then agreed to travel back
To probe a possible attack
And once again encountered those
Same creatures and their embryos,
Again surviving (barely though),
Escaping with some friends in tow,

And suddenly awakening
To find they’re dead but still that thing,
That alien won’t leave me be
And still is on its killing spree…
I think I’d think the universe
Was out to get me with a curse,
Or since my troubles will not halt,
Perhaps it’s those darn writers’ fault.
__________________

MPAA rating: R

With few exceptions, it’s usually around the third film that a franchise starts going awry. Case in point: Alien 3. It could have been good. Based on the success of its two acclaimed predecessors, it should have been good, but even director David Fincher has disavowed this largely unpleasant installment in the ongoing xenomorph saga.

It’s not that Alien 3 is of poor quality. It’s actually a well-made film, or rather the best the filmmakers could build around a host of poor creative decisions, which require spoilers to fully criticize, so be warned. One such poor decision is obvious within the first few minutes before a single word is spoken. Thanks to an alien stowaway, both Michael Biehn’s Hicks and young Carrie Henn’s Newt are summarily killed off, despite surviving the events of Aliens with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. As a fan of Aliens, this immediately left a bad taste in my mouth, and it doesn’t get much better. (It’s funny that Biehn was paid almost the same amount for this film as Aliens, just for his image being briefly shown.) Ripley herself does survive her crash landing on a desolate prison planet, where fanatically religious prisoners and a skeleton crew of guards become the new prey of an alien creature.

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With Alien 3, or Alien3 as it is stylized, it’s as if the writers missed what made the first two films so good. Sure, they seem to understand the tension of a hidden alien picking off unsuspecting humans, but they also break what is typically a cardinal rule of horror movies: killing both a child and a dog (or ox depending on the version seen). Instead of the generally likable casts of the prior films, we get a host of interchangeable British-accented skinheads, with only Charles S. Dutton standing out as remotely worthwhile. Oh, there’s one sympathetic character in Charles Dance’s doctor, but the writers had to nix him as soon as his tragic backstory was revealed. When you then also consider that Sigourney Weaver specifically wanted Ripley to die, you get an idea of just how depressing this film is by the end and wonder why she bothered to then come back for Alien: Resurrection five years later.

In addition, Alien 3 just feels harsher than its predecessors, with more cursing and in-your-face violence than the other two, not unlike how Alien: Covenant compares with Prometheus. The setting is certainly promising, and the fact that the prison planet lacks weapons of any kind makes the survivors’ plight even more dire. Their plan for trapping the alien is actually quite clever and intense, but it also becomes one long, hard-to-follow scene of the alien chasing and killing characters I couldn’t tell apart. Plus, a few scenes of the full-body alien are very clearly CGI, which was no doubt a leap forward for the effects team but looks hokey by today’s standards.

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So, yeah, Alien 3 stinks. It’s not unwatchable and boasts some great sets and tense moments, particularly an iconic scene of Ripley and the alien coming face to face. But nearly every creative decision just feels wrong, which is a far cry from the first two classics. It’s the Alien franchise’s first dud and one I don’t think I’ll be revisiting any time soon.

Best line: (Golic) “In an insane world, a sane man must appear insane.”

 

Rank: Dishonorable Mention

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
573 Followers and Counting

 

Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015)

27 Friday Apr 2018

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem inspired by our choice of tarot cards, whether the image on it or the symbolism behind it. I went with the Moon, which has some personification and mentions imagination, light, and the unknown.)

 

Where we’ve wandered, none can trace,
For none now live who knew this place.
The darkness creeps from stone to stone
And makes us feel we’re not alone.
Then, from above, the moon appears,
Perhaps to soothe our growing fears.

She peers below through open cave
At we who thought ourselves so brave
And lends us light to glance about
In search of some departure route.
Yet what she shows us haunts our dreams,
And only she can hear our screams.
____________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (PG-13 content, though the profanity in the subtitles can get strong)

At least one good thing came out of my watching the utter waste of time that was The Assassin: I saw a trailer for Mojin: The Lost Legend and was intrigued enough to seek out this rather fun Chinese adventure movie. Apparently based on a Chinese book series, this tale of three grave robbers may have its weaknesses, but it’s also evidence of the blockbuster action and visual merit that Chinese cinema has to offer.

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Hu Bayi (Chen Kun), his temperamental girlfriend Shirley (Shu Qi), and his reckless longtime friend Wang (Huang Bo) were all once Mojin, official treasure seekers and tomb raiders (Lara wasn’t available), but have since fallen into disgrace. Fed up with their washed-up lives in America, Wang is approached by a wealthy patron to locate an ancient Mongolian tomb. Compelled by a personal connection from his past, Wang accepts, dragging Hu Bayi and Shirley back into the dangerous business of booby traps, double-crossing villains, and supernatural(?) threats.

While the acting is all serviceable and sometimes quite good (the heroes are better than the villains), Mojin: The Lost Legend is most interesting as an example of how the Chinese do an Indiana Jones-style adventure. It takes a little while to get into tomb-raiding mode, but once it does, the pace stays brisk, and the set designs are impressive and elaborate, like the Moria of the Orient mixed with the Temple of Doom.  Anyone who enjoyed The Mummy or National Treasure should also find much to enjoy, from the playful banter to the horror elements of a particularly thrilling flashback to the way Chinese history and myth are used as clues and solutions along the way, not that I understood all of it.

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While it does mix a lot of aspects of adventure films I love, it is hard not to view those ingredients as copied or borrowed, even if there’s originality in how they are combined. Likewise, the special effects are one of the film’s strengths, yet there are moments that overuse slow motion and CGI to the point of being overblown and almost laughable, especially during the climax. Plus, the whole thing is a little too long for its own good. Yet it’s still a highly visual treasure hunt that even manages to work in some deeper emotions and themes of letting go of past tragedy. Flawed but fun, Mojin: The Lost Legend is an entertaining ride for those curious to see China’s take on their own National Treasure.

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
565 Followers and Counting

 

The Darkest Hour (2011)

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

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

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem in reverse based on another, but, going out of town today, I’m afraid I don’t have enough time to do that idea justice, so here’s an off-prompt one.)

 

We hope we’re alone in the universe,
We hope that, in case we are wrong,
The aliens out there are friendly
And might want to just get along.

But if it turns out we’re mistaken
And they have designs on the earth,
The way we respond may determine
How much we believe it is worth.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Were you expecting last year’s Oscar-winning biopic about Winston Churchill? Psych! That would be Darkest Hour, while this post is for The Darkest Hour. Big difference. The Darkest Hour is instead an alien invasion flick from 2011, the kind of reasonably decent sci-fi you might find in the bargain bin of the supermarket, which is where I found it.

At its core, The Darkest Hour isn’t much different from War of the Worlds, but the trappings and circumstances are different enough that it doesn’t feel like a total copy. Instead of the usual American setting, we see the worldwide invasion from Moscow, where two American software developers (Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella) are stranded when aliens float down from the sky, wipe out all electronics, and start disintegrating every human in sight. Accompanied by another pair of American tourists (Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor) and a Swedish jerk (Joel Kinnaman), they make their way through the city in search of a way out and a way to fight back.

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There’s really no depth whatsoever to the characters; they’re all simply thrown together during this apocalypse, trying to find the balance between survival and panic. Except for Kinnaman, though, the actors are all likable enough, even if the aliens are the real reason to watch. Owing to its limited budget, the aliens are invisible most of the time, which usually adds to the tension and allows for some clever hints to their presence, since they activate nearby light bulbs and electronics. Their effects for dispatching humans are also striking (though reminiscent of Jean Grey’s Phoenix powers in X-Men: The Last Stand), and the way they shred their victims is both shocking and bloodless for that PG-13 rating.

I don’t know: The Darkest Hour isn’t an especially good or unique film, yet I find it oddly watchable, like the kind of movie you can just leave on in the background and let your attention wander back and forth from it. It also managed to surprise me with who makes it and who doesn’t, since I guess I assumed all four of the main characters would make it. Maybe I just wasn’t thinking the first time, since it actually is a little obvious in retrospect. Either way, The Darkest Hour isn’t a complete waste of time and has some strong moments for those who love the alien invasion genre.

Best line: (Sean, in a bar) “No civilization is without religion or alcohol.”   (Ben) “That’s why I drink religiously.”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
559 Followers and Counting

 

Trollhunter (2010)

03 Tuesday Apr 2018

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

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a list poem based in made-up names, so I invented a few species of troll to populate this bit of creepy nonsense.)

 

When trees are swimming deep in fog
And stars are dull as old eggnog,
The trolls come out to hunt and roam
Where humans dare not make their home.

The stankenlops and flicklepines
Emerge from their abandoned mines
And greet the trarterstumps and groyts
Embarking on their own exploits.

The nibblelungers beat their chests,
And grindlefangers make conquests,
And no one knows what skleeblers do
Since even trolls think it taboo.

No sheep or goat or man is safe
When hunted by a narberwafe,
And blattercrones’ deep moans are known
To chill a grown man to the bone.

The night is theirs but does not last,
And soon each lerpt and pincherclast
Will shrink back to their darkened pits
To wait till when the night permits.
____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

The found-footage style gets a bad rap because of its gimmicky nature and its overuse in often poor quality horror movies since The Blair Witch Project. Yet it does have its bright spots, like the mind-bending “documentary” Lunopolis and the 2010 Norwegian import Trollhunter. Of all the monsters to chase with a camera, trolls don’t seem like an obvious choice, but Trollhunter strikes a unique blend of giant monster thrills and occasional dark comedy that gives the big-nosed brutes an outlet other than Middle-Earth.

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The “filmmakers” in this case are three students from Volda University College, who think they’re investigating a bear poacher only to stumble upon the rough-hewn Hans (Otto Jespersen, who’s apparently a comedian) and his secret government-sanctioned job of hunting trolls. Tired of toiling in obscurity, Hans lets the trio follow him around on his troll control missions and explains the details purposely kept from the public, like the various species of troll, how power lines are really electric fences to keep them in, or the fact that trolls can smell the blood of a Christian man. (In that case, remind me not to move to Norway because I wouldn’t last long.)

The found-footage aspect is fairly standard as far as the shaky camera and often insufficient lighting, though there are some stand-out moments, such as the use of night vision to get a glimpse of the dangerous creatures. The biggest asset is Jespersen as Hans, who goes about his dirty fantasy job with weary competence, seemingly unfazed by the fact he gets paid to flash lights at three-headed giants. The special effects are also quite effective. While the trolls are often clearly CGI, their grotesque appearance somehow makes it look realistic too, and the finale with a mountain-sized troll is an awesome edge-of-your-seat sequence.

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Trollhunter follows a lot of the usual found-footage tropes, but it does them well, managing to find a balance between absurdity and realism, like how a veterinarian explains the “scientific” reason that trolls turn to stone or explode when exposed to sunlight. Already something of a cult classic, the abundance of Norwegian culture and impressive scenery makes it an entertaining option for exploring Scandinavian cinema, though I doubt the prospect of trolls has helped tourism.

Best line: (the Norwegian Prime Minister, with a slip of the tongue at a press conference) “Few people find power grids attractive. I certainly don’t. Norwegians are pro-electricity, but against power lines. That won’t work in the long run. Norway has trolls, so more power lines are needed. That’s just the way it is.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
549 Followers and Counting