Tag Archives: Sci-fi

Deep Impact (1998)

12 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

See the source image

One day the world will end, they say,
In ice and dark or fiery doom,
And there’s been many a prior day
When men believed such tales of gloom
Would make a certain day their tomb.

If true, then what’s the point of life
If it should be cut short so soon?
The universe with readied knife
Will strike when most inopportune,
And in its wake, our deaths are strewn.

If such you think, make peace with fact,
For die you will someday indeed.
But till I feel my death’s impact,
Such prophecies I will not heed,
For life’s too precious to concede.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It’s been almost two years since I reviewed Armageddon, so it’s about time I watched the other catastrophic asteroid movie from the summer of 1998. I’ve heard varying opinions on whether Deep Impact or Armageddon is the better film, and I see why now. They’re both great for end-of-the-world spectacle, but they approach the disaster in different ways that make the question of “which is better” simply a matter of preference. Do you want Michael Bay-style cheesiness and frenetic action, or a somewhat more serious take on how the world might react in an apocalyptic scenario (dark cheese, you might say)? The latter is Deep Impact.

See the source image

Technically, Deep Impact features a world-ending comet rather than an asteroid, a comet discovered by high school student Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood). Once a nosy reporter (Téa Leoni) stumbles upon this government secret, the President (Morgan Freeman) announces a space mission to divert it, as well as some extreme evacuation and protection measures should the worst happen. Like Armageddon, there’s a game all-star cast to elevate the disaster flick, including Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, James Cromwell, Jon Favreau, Kurtwood Smith, Denise Crosby, and Robert Duvall as the most experienced astronaut on the earth-saving mission. Together, they provide varied views of the incoming cataclysm, from reporters to politicians to would-be heroes to everyday folks, but the best has to be Freeman as the President we’d all want in such a situation: calm, honest, and willing to invoke God and prayer in encouraging people.

Despite the life-and-death stakes, Armageddon had that Michael Bay action movie quality with strong doses of humor from the rough-and-ready drillers, but Deep Impact has much more weight to it and isn’t afraid to embrace the tragedy of the disaster. I’d heard it was darker, which led me to believe the characters’ efforts would wind up being hopeless and futile. The fact that I was proven wrong was a pleasant surprise and helped me enjoy the movie far more than I expected going in.

See the source image

It still can’t quite escape shades of the cheesy and impractical. For example, my VC found it totally unrealistic for Leoni’s reporter to get on TV covering the astronaut’s mission and just leave dead air as she stares at the screen with everyone else. Still, it’s easier to take seriously than Armageddon, with good effects and the benefit of being easier on the eyes than Michael Bay’s editing. It also affirms heroism and hope in the face of apparent doom, and on retrospect, I liked how some characters’ seemingly foolish clinging to that hope actually paid off compared with others’ resignation to death. They both have their strengths, but as far as which of the two “asteroid” disaster movies is objectively better, I think Deep Impact gets my vote.

Best line: (President Tom Beck) “Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, with every child we comfort and then teach to rejoice in what we have been re-given: our planet, our home. So now, let us begin.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
527 Followers and Counting

 

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

30 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

See the source image

As long as wars and battles rage,
The world will yearn for peace;
So says the pacifist with sage
Detachment and release.

Yet when the battles come too close
And reap their ruthless wound,
How quick is he made bellicose,
His former faith impugned!

Yes, grief can make the wholesome hate,
The peaceful prime for war.
Sometimes their conscience wakes too late,
With much to answer for.
_________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Perhaps the most surprising thing about these new Planet of the Apes movies is how good they are compared with how bad they could have been. Think about it: apes using sign language, sparse and simple dialogue, “monkeys riding horses,” as Everybody Loves Raymond once put it, concepts that could so easily become laughable. And yet both Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes raised the bar for what this science fiction series could be, and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes continued the high quality and stuck the landing, so to speak.

Picking up two years after Dawn, this end to the trilogy sees Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his band of intelligent apes embattled with a military garrison led by the fanatical Colonel (Woody Harrelson, in grand villainous mode). There is plenty of wreckage still from Koba’s uprising in Dawn, from defecting gorillas siding with the humans against Caesar to the emotional baggage of Koba’s and Caesar’s actions. When the Colonel exacts a personal toll on Caesar’s family, the ape leader starts to share in Koba’s hatred and soon sets out with his most loyal friends on a quest for revenge. The story morphs several times as it goes, from western-like journeying through snowy mountains to brutal incarceration to a thrilling prison escape tale, all while following Caesar’s emotional rollercoaster and completing the allegorical Moses narrative begun in Rise.

See the source image

With each film in this trilogy, the visual effects have gotten more and more polished. The previous two still had moments when I could tell the apes weren’t real, but War makes them as realistic as any effect I’ve seen. Even if motion-capture technology  is perhaps not entirely perfected, it’s jaw-droppingly convincing at this point, which allows the apes’ emotions to be as clearly conveyed as any of the human characters’. The characters behind that effects façade are also better defined here than in prior films. The chimp Rocket and orangutan Maurice have been with Caesar since the first film, and while they barely registered in Dawn, the fact that they join Caesar on his trek allows them to stand out better from the rest of the apes. Also joining them is the eccentric Bad Ape (Steve Zahn), a zoo escapee who adds some much-needed humor to an otherwise bleak tale.

My VC has had a more restrained appreciation for these movies, admiring the visual skill but finding the execution a bit plodding and slow-paced. Even so, she found the story of War to be the strongest of the three, and although I prefer Dawn, War had the clearest character arc of the three, continued the subtle references to past movies, and worked in some evidence of how the world becomes as Charlton Heston found it in the original.

See the source image

I agree with her that the pacing could be tighter, particularly during the grueling prison scenes, but these films aren’t content to be mere action spectacles. They instead tackle deeper moral questions and universal themes of humanity, enlivened by moments of refreshing sweetness and stunning action. They’re a rare breed of blockbuster, and if their example overran Hollywood, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Best line: (Caesar) “If we strive but fail, and the world remains armed against itself, then we’ve been divided, because the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining the previous two)

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
524 Followers and Counting

 

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

29 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

See the source image

If there is money to be milked,
Hollywood is there!
If there are empires to be built,
Hollywood will dare!
If there are purists they can jilt,
If there are wishes they can wilt,
Hollywood won’t care!

If franchises refuse to die,
Some revel at the sight,
While others weakly question why
And still tune in despite.
But if you silence your outcry,
Hollywood might satisfy.
They sometimes get it right.
_________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

I was among the most skeptical when yet another Spider-Man was announced, and as amazing as Tom Holland’s debut in Captain America: Civil War was, I still wasn’t sold on Homecoming’s potential. I’m one of those people who grew up loving Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, and I’m firmly convinced that no other Spider-Man will replace him as my favorite or Spider-Man 2 as the best in the series. All that said, I loved Spider-Man: Homecoming far more than I was expecting and certainly more than the Andrew Garfield films (which I didn’t exactly hate either).

The trick that this new Disney/Sony partnership pulls off successfully is making this version of Spider-Man sufficiently different that it doesn’t feel like a rehash of what we’ve already seen. For example, Peter Parker’s origin story is completely skipped, assuming the audience already knows the basics about a radioactive spider and the death of his Uncle Ben. Instead, it focuses much more on Peter’s high school life, with fawning crushes, scholastic decathlon training, and his geeky friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and more nonchalant friend Michelle (Zendaya). The typical Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, and Harry Osborne aren’t here (mostly), and instead we have some fantastic continuity with the MCU, embodied in Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) as Peter’s detached mentor/benefactor.

See the source image

In avoiding past Spider-Man movies, we also get a new villain in Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes, who becomes the Vulture using alien tech left over from the Chitauri battle in The Avengers. Aside from the priceless in-joke of casting Birdman himself as the Vulture, Keaton makes his embittered contractor-turned-weapons dealer one of the best and smartest Marvel villains in a while, one who’s not evil for evil’s sake but who is still ruthless in doing what he thinks is necessary and justifying it as a family man. His battles with Spider-Man are far more thrilling than I expected from a second-rate villain like Vulture, and the fact that his motivations don’t involve world domination or destruction is actually refreshing at this point in the MCU.

Of course, the biggest challenge goes to Holland, who embraces Peter Parker’s inexperience and high school geeky side with appealing charm and an amusing tendency of being awestruck by all the coolness he encounters. What’s missing is his reason for helping people, which is unavoidable if you leave out Uncle Ben, but the filmmakers managed to create a decent replacement inspiration. With the high-tech suit provided by Stark, there’s a lot of fun to be had as Peter learns the bells and whistles available to him, including his own A.I. he names Karen (Jennifer Connelly), but he also begins thinking that the suit is what makes him a hero. How he comes to terms with that is quite well-handled, even if “With great power comes great responsibility” is still better.

See the source image

Surprisingly, Spider-Man: Homecoming exceeded my expectations (especially an awesome action scene at the Washington Monument), which is always welcome. There are still things I would have changed, from an off-hand porn joke to a few politically correct jabs. Plus, I’m not a fan of Marisa Tomei as the new “hot” Aunt May, who is no longer the wise and pious counselor of past versions and made me miss Rosemary Harris from the first three films. Even so, the plentiful humor and overall entertainment value of the whole made up for these lesser elements, though my VC was less pleased with the constantly joking tone.  So, although it doesn’t exceed Tobey Maguire’s movies for me, I’m largely satisfied with a new generation growing up with this Spider-Man (especially since they’ll likely still watch the original to get the full origin story).

Best line: (Peter) “I’m nothing without the suit!”  (Tony) “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
524 Followers and Counting

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

27 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

See the source image

In a galaxy far, far away, I’ve been told,
There are stories that fit in an orthodox mold
Of Death Stars and daring
And Jedi preparing
To free all from some evil emperor’s hold.

There are stories as well that are harder to tell,
That leave our hopes answered or dashed where they fell.
The many may mourn
With rebuttals of scorn,
For isn’t it always correct to rebel?

But stories in galaxies distant and near
Can hold fans and fault-finders equally dear.
Some waver and jeer;
Some stand up and cheer.
Does it matter who’s right when we’re both so sincere?
____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. Despite desperately avoiding spoilers, I quickly realized that The Last Jedi was to be a divisive entry in the Star Wars canon. Everything I did hear has been the critics lauding it and my fellow movie bloggers and “regular people” coming away with mixed feelings, thinking it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack and certainly below The Force Awakens. There’s even a petition to have it struck from the Star Wars canon. Now that I’ve seen it, I just don’t get the backlash because I LOVED IT! That’s right; for every divisive movie, you’re bound to get the full spectrum of audience reactions, and to balance out all the half-hearted ones, I’m here for a fully positive, non-spoiler review. My tastes probably differ from the majority. After all, I’m the guy who still loves La La Land, but personally I think The Last Jedi is head-and-shoulders above Force Awakens.

See the source image

Let me explain that perhaps shocking claim. I liked The Force Awakens and liked it even better upon a rewatch, but I’ll always consider it “the one where they killed Han Solo.” I remember walking out of the theater with my whole family shell-shocked, not high from a rousing film as it sounds like most people did. Not to mention, it’s too similar to the original movies. I now joke that, if it was a drinking game to take a swig every time there’s some parallel to the originals, you’d be drunk by the halfway point. Thus, I’ve come to value originality, which might be why I enjoyed Rogue One more than most as well. And The Last Jedi has originality to spare. There are still clear echoes of its forerunners (Jedi training in solitude, escaping from a besieged base), but those are broad strokes in a film that is far from a retread of what came before.

Last Jedi follows several plotlines that converge by the end: the Resistance trying to escape the overwhelming attacks of the First Order, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) taking matters into his own hands for the sake of their survival, Finn (John Boyega) and newcomer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) endeavoring to shut down an enemy tracking device, and of course Rey (Daisy Ridley) training and trying to convince Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to return to the fight while also finding a connection with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). I didn’t find any of these plotlines to be boring, though it’s true that Finn’s role is fairly inconsequential by the end, and the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been in a Star Wars movie. In fact, one of my concerns is the sheer number of casualties on both sides. Still, hope is one of the key themes, as it has been since the beginning of the franchise, and despite how dark things get, it never failed to be entertaining, helped by a good dose of humor. (Again, I welcomed the levity that others have criticized. My mom still talks about how the entire theater was erupting with laughter during Episode IV’s theatrical run, so I don’t see what’s wrong with the humor here or how it’s not Star Wars-y enough. Again, maybe I’m just different, considering I’ve never hated the Ewoks or even Jar Jar Binks.)

See the source image

The originality I mentioned is explicitly acknowledged by Luke’s warning that “This is not going to go the way you think.” Whenever you think you know how something will play out, it veers in another direction. Granted, that sometimes makes certain actions meaningless, but it also keeps things continually fresh and unpredictable, spicing up what could easily have been a paint-by-numbers sequel. A key thematic struggle is what the best course of action is, not in a morally gray sense, but as far as whether to fight or flee and whether to obey orders, sort of tapping into the same fearful desperation as Dunkirk.

The new cast continues to be engaging, with the advancement of Rey, Kylo, and Poe’s characters especially, and unexpected callbacks to the original trilogy deepen the emotion of several scenes. There were new characters I liked, like Rose, and new characters I didn’t hate, like Benicio Del Toro’s codebreaker named DJ, but all the performances were excellent. Luke and Leia have plenty to do as well, and each has their standout scenes. (Unfortunately, one of Leia’s is also the most eye-rolling moment of the film.)

See the source image

Yes, there are disappointments, particularly for the much-theorized questions about Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and Rey’s origins, but those didn’t detract too much for me, especially because I’m not convinced they’re entirely settled. Remember that Luke and Leia being siblings wasn’t revealed until the third film. Plus, the vacuum of space doesn’t seem to be as deadly as it is in real life, something I’ve also noticed in Guardians of the Galaxy, for example. Perhaps the biggest disappointment that none of these more recent films can escape is the fact that Luke and Leia and Han didn’t get the happy ending we assumed after Return of the Jedi. That’s inherent to any continuation, but given the story established in Force Awakens of Luke becoming discouraged by yet another rebellious apprentice, The Last Jedi builds the plot admirably and respectfully, just perhaps not as die-hard fans might wish. One potentially problematic flashback is made more understandable when viewed as a moment of weakness and a misunderstanding, and I found the ending open enough to expect great things from Episode IX. And I’m sorry, there’s nothing here nearly as traumatic as Han Solo’s death at the hands of his own son. Why weren’t people rallying petitions to undo that?!

One aspect the prequel trilogy always excelled at was the action sequences, and The Last Jedi did not disappoint, especially since the whole movie is practically one long space battle. Laura Dern’s Admiral Holdo gets one of the film’s most epic sequences, while Mark Hamill gets the scene of the year, in my opinion. Even Rose and Finn’s jaunt on a casino planet was a fun diversion from the life-and-death struggle of the main plot. John Williams’ still-iconic score, the visual effects, and the odd creatures (don’t hate on the Porgs) were every bit as Star Wars-y as Force Awakens, in my opinion, and the light saber duels are as awesome as we’ve come to expect from this series.

See the source image

I guess I do understand some of the gripes people have had, such as the out-of-left-field new aspects of the Force or how wasted Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma is, but for the larger uncertainty, I’d like to cite The Empire Strikes Back. Everyone hails it as the best of the franchise (I disagree), but think of how many questions were left at the end of that film. Was Lando Calrissian any better developed at that point than some of the new characters here? I mention this because my mom remembers how disheartened she was back in 1980 and how she would poke holes of her own, complaining that she couldn’t understand Yoda and the whole training part was boring and it was disappointing that the hyperdrive kept failing. Middle movies are often trickier than beginnings and finales, and based on my own initial enjoyment and how much happens in The Last Jedi, I do think that people will come to appreciate it more with time. So don’t overreact.

Unlike The Force Awakens, I did walk out of The Last Jedi beaming at the thrill of a great movie, and I compliment Rian Johnson’s divisive direction. In fact, it might be my favorite film of the year. My one big complaint is how long it is and how desperate I was for a bathroom by the end. I have no idea where Episode IX will take this tale, and that’s a good thing, to my mind, though I do hope it ends on a high note. While I was nervous going in, The Last Jedi had me guessing, laughing, sweating, and silently cheering from start to finish, and while I’m sorry for those who had less positive experiences, the controversies didn’t diminish my enjoyment one bit.

See the source image

Best line: (Rose) “We’re going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”

 

Rank: Top 100-Worthy

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
523 Followers and Counting

 

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010)

18 Monday Dec 2017

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

See the source image

The world can vex,
Annoy, perplex,
Explicitly and in subtext,
Till one objects
“Life’s too complex!
Just pain in our collective necks.”

Yet when life’s skewed
And comes unglued
And changes unforeseen intrude,
One’s sour mood
And attitude
Can be renewed by gratitude.
___________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (should be PG-13)

Setting aside the multitude of stand-alone anime films, like those from Studio Ghibli, there are just as many movies based on anime series, which tend to fall into certain categories. There are those that essentially provide a recap for the series, such as the first two films based on Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Then there are those that tie into a series but can stand apart and be enjoyed with or without prior knowledge of the franchise, such as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. But more often than not, a film designed to follow up the events of a TV series relies on previous knowledge of said series, which is hard to get just right. Sometimes it’s difficult to capture the same magic the show had or the spin-off just falls flat; as much as I loved the time travel story of Steins;Gate, for example, its reasonably good film continuation didn’t feel necessary. (By the way, I highly recommend all these shows I’m namedropping.) Yet if any movie proves that it’s possible to revive a series and deepen everything that came before, it’s The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

See the source image

For those who don’t know, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a 2006 anime adaptation of a light novel series, which quickly grew in popularity, and its title character is one of the more recognizable anime icons. The main character, though, is Kyon (in the middle above), a high school student who falls into the orbit of the lovely, pushy, and highly capricious Haruhi (with the headband), involuntarily becoming a member of her new fun-seeking club dubbed the SOS Brigade. The other three club members Haruhi recruits turn out to be less-than-normal students and inform Kyon that Haruhi has godlike powers to reshape reality, which she doesn’t and mustn’t know about. Thus, the 2-season series follows their everyday adventures with the robot-like alien observer Yuki Nagato (the girl with purple hair), the time-traveling pushover Mikuru Asahina (girl with orange hair), and the good-natured but mysterious esper/psychic and king of exposition Itsuki Koizumi (the boy on the far left).

All of that information is much easier to digest in the series, which is light-hearted and charming for the most part. Haruhi tends to be obnoxiously bossy, such as exploiting poor Miss Asahina for sex appeal, but her craziness is nicely contrasted by Kyon’s straight man, who always complains and offers some perfectly amusing deadpan commentary. It’s a series that periodically incorporates science fiction into its prosaic high school setting and can be both fantastically complex and aggressively mundane, such as one episode with a four-minute stretch of nothing but Nagato silently reading or the infamous Endless Eight, in which eight consecutive episodes replayed the same events because the characters were stuck in a time loop. (The show gets a lot of heat and accusations of laziness for the Endless Eight, but it’s actually pretty impressive that the animators found eight different ways to present the same events and redrew each one.)

See the source image

If you’re not sure if all this sounds worth watching, it is, and not just because there’s a murder mystery and a talking cat and a giant alien cricket. It’s not because Melancholy itself is particularly amazing or great, though it is pretty entertaining. It’s because the show allows you to fully enjoy The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the 2010 movie that supposedly drew plot from season 2 and forced the showrunners to fill time with the Endless Eight. It’s quite a feat that the movie makes the show worth watching, rather than the other way around. I honestly can’t think of another series-based movie that can say the same.

I’ve heard all kinds of praise for Disappearance, with fans naming it their favorite anime movie or claiming it ought to place in iMDB’s Top 250 (it’s currently #42 on iMDB’s animation list). And now that I’ve seen it, I can’t say I disagree. It’s an outstanding piece of animation that surpassed my expectations in every way. As the title indicates, Haruhi suddenly vanishes on December 18 (yes, I waited till today to post this review), the world apparently rewritten so that no one remembers her, except for Kyon, who is understandably perplexed at this inexplicable change. All the supernatural characters seem to be ordinary people now, and Kyon must figure out how to return the world to “normal” and perhaps even question which world is better.

See the source image

One of the more notable aspects of Disappearance is that it’s 163 minutes long, making it the second longest animated film of all time. It’s basically the equivalent of eight episodes of the series, yet despite its length, I was never bored. It’s hard to explain how unusual that is because the film is by no means action-packed. In contrast to the humor of the series, its tone is slow, serious, and melancholy. Unlike most anime films, there are no sweeping vistas or high-flying adventure; instead, it’s mostly winter cityscapes and interior scenes. How is it then that it held my attention from start to finish?

Well, aside from the fact that I’ve grown very fond of these characters, the plot manages to maintain interest in both the story and characters with some truly incredible pacing. Even with such a long runtime, there’s a lot of plot to cover, and the increased time allows characters’ motivations and the significance of their actions to sink in and add so much to their development. I don’t usually like to watch long movies, but this is one case where its length is carried largely by narrative and dialogue alone, and I’m glad nothing was cut, though I suppose Kyon’s awkward disorientation over his changed life could have been shortened.

See the source image

Whenever the pace threatens to lag, something significant is revealed and the moving orchestral score kicks in, making for some memorable scenes that feel like momentous turning points (the kind of scenes that would probably end an episode if this were broken up as part of the series). For example, the reappearance of one murderous character who should be dead is filled with the same looming menace as the coming of Jaws. In addition, despite the restraint compared with more fantastical anime, the animation is exceptional and quite detailed, with special attention paid to very expressive faces and the clouds of smoke that are breathed out in the cold Christmastime weather.

As much as I wish I could say to everyone “go watch this movie” with no strings attached, I must admit that the series is a prerequisite for understanding who everyone is. Even though seventeen minutes are spent establishing the status quo before Haruhi’s disappearance, almost every episode of the show is referenced at some point, which is great for those who’ve seen it, less so for those who haven’t. To cut some corners, I’d say you’d only really have to watch the first six episodes of season 1, the first episode of season 2, and the last entry in the Endless Eight. The rest aren’t as necessary, though you may not understand little things like Kyon trying to talk to a cat. I especially loved when time travel entered the equation of the film, and we got to revisit past scenes with a Back to the Future-style altered perspective, again something new viewers could just roll with but nostalgic viewers will understand better.

See the source image

Despite its potentially burdensome length, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is a brilliant conclusion to a good series, transforming the show’s bright charm into subtle emotion and atmosphere. Hyperactive Haruhi herself can be irritating in large doses, so her absence for part of the film actually helps it and allows for some strong development for Kyon and especially Nagato, whose typically robotic face and voice finally get to reveal emotion in this alternate world. I also must point out, as others have before, that the English dub is one of the best out there. As the most significant voice actor, Crispin Freeman as Kyon provides some extensive and superb dialogue, such as an 8-minute soliloquy justifying a fateful decision, one which manages to engender both sympathy for him and regret for how it impacts another character. I’ve seen people refer to this speech as one of the greatest interior monologues of all time and with good reason, as it’s a key validation of his character.

I can usually tell how I feel about an animated film by whether I want to immediately watch it again after it’s over, and yes, all 163 minutes of Disappearance did just that. No, it’s not my new favorite anime film, but to those hesitant to watch a series just to see an overlong movie, I’ll just say you’re missing out.

See the source image

Best line: (Haruhi, to Kyon about Christmas) “You have to believe in a dream if you want to have one in the first place. If you don’t believe, even the dreams that can come true won’t.”

 

Rank: List-worthy

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
519 Followers and Counting

 

 

Congo (1995)

16 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

See the source image

The boldest and most daring men
Have braved the jungle’s many threats:
Conquerors with no regrets,
Explorers seeking new assets,
Missionaries and cadets,
Who often stormed the devil’s den
And rarely came back out again.
Ha! What chance do you have then?
__________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Sometimes you can just tell how hard a film is trying to be good, desperately striving to exceed its own mediocrity, and usually it doesn’t get there. I wouldn’t say Congo does either, but it sort of works its way around to so-bad-it’s-good status, which is more than some movies can say.

See the source image

As an adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel, I admire what Congo tries to be, an adventure story in the classic mold of King Solomon’s Mines or the Indiana Jones movies.  A research team for communications corporation Travicom goes missing in the jungles of Africa, and a collection of colorful characters converge to investigate the dangerous area for different reasons. Laura Linney’s Karen goes in search of the team; Tim Curry’s brilliantly smarmy Herkermer Homolka has shady designs on an ancient diamond legend; and Dylan Walsh’s Dr. Peter Elliot wants to return to the wild a gorilla he taught to speak with sign language and a robotic translator. Best of all is Ernie Hudson as their mercenary guide, whose cultured expertise proves invaluable, giving Hudson a role he clearly enjoyed.

There’s some great potential for this adventure as the team deal with unfriendly militias and a mystery jungle creature. To be honest, recalling it so soon after Kong: Skull Island, I couldn’t help but see a few similarities as the unsuspecting explorers are picked off in the jungle, though the killers are far smaller here. One scene with automatic sentry guns also brought to mind Aliens and Predator as the trespassers are besieged by simian beasts. By the time we get a lost city, a random volcano explosion, and an anti-ape laser, it’s obvious that this is more escapist silliness than anything.See the source imageWhile its adventure elements keep trying to spice up the absurd clichés, the growing daftness of the plot is hard to escape. It wouldn’t be so bad if one of the key characters wasn’t an animatronic gorilla with a hand-controlled robotic voice. I can’t say no movie can get away with signing apes since Rise of the Planet of the Apes did, but at least Caesar didn’t have a computerized translator. The rest almost works, but it’s hard to get past the talking, martini-drinking gorilla. Thus, despite its multiple Razzie nominations, Congo may not be an objectively “good” movie, but it’s not altogether bad either. Roger Ebert liked it; it’s a favorite of one of my coworkers; and I too found its cheesiness strangely watchable and entertaining.

Best line (or at least the most ridiculous): (Dr. Elliot) “Oh, no! The bad apes have the crystal lasers!”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
519 Followers and Counting

 

 

Déjà Vu (2006)

15 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

See the source image

It’s hard to run from déjà vu.
It always straggles up on you,
And when you least expect to feel
This creeping sense of the surreal,
It seems you’ve done this all before,
Now back for some half-known encore.

You tell yourself it’s nothing, but
Deep down you have to wonder what
This inkling is: mere happenstance
Or time’s stab at a second chance?
It’s hard to run from déjà vu.
Didn’t I just say that too?
_______________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Now that I’m finally done with this semester’s finals, I can now get back into review mode. Last year, I did a review a day throughout December, and while that may not be feasible, I’m planning to post a little more often through the end of the year.

See the source image

I guess all I need to do to discover a new favorite is to find a sci-fi movie that received middling reviews, and chances are that I’ll enjoy it far more than the critics did. I’ve noticed that trend with the likes of Surrogates, In Time, and Cloud Atlas, and now Déjà Vu joins the list. I’ve always been partial to time travel stories, and this one played to everything I love about the genre—intricate plotting, cool gadgetry, twists both expected and unexpected—making me wonder why the critics found it so lackluster.

Denzel Washington is good as always as ATF agent Douglas Carlin (pronounced car-LIN), who proves his experience and investigative talent after a crowded New Orleans ferry is destroyed by a terrorist’s bomb. Recruited by an FBI agent (Val Kilmer), Carlin is pulled into a secret government program with access to a temporal window into the past, allowing investigators a comprehensive look at the scene four days prior. However, time flows at the same speed through this window, so they have one go-round to figure out the bomber’s identity and his connection to a separate murder victim (Paula Patton). But let’s just say things are less than transparent, and there’s more to this technology than meets the eye, as Carlin discovers firsthand.

See the source image

I wasn’t sure how much I’d like Déjà Vu based on Tony Scott’s directing style: bright, kinetic, and reminiscent of his later film Unstoppable, though with less zooming of the camera. Yet it kind of works in the film’s favor, particularly for the time window that allows the FBI to buzz around from any angle in the past. The fast pacing also adds to the thrill of the action scenes, like a just plain cool car chase in which Carlin pursues the killer (Jim Caviezel) in the past, trying to drive through past and present-day traffic.  There’s plenty of technobabble from the FBI scientists, including that pencil-through-paper wormhole explanation also used in Event Horizon and Interstellar, but Carlin’s grounded approach keeps the device’s practical uses from getting too confusing.

Time travel movies are often judged on how well they avoid the pitfalls of the genre.  Plot holes can often spoil such films for some people, from Kate and Leopold to The Lake House to About Time (though I still loved that one), while careful attention to the paradoxes involved can elevate a story to classic status. Déjà Vu falls somewhere in between. I believe it does follow the proper mechanics of time travel but simply doesn’t explain it as clearly as it could, mainly at the end. There’s a lot of careful setup, as when Carlin investigates crime scenes only for us to later see how everything got that way, and watching such attention to continuity always gives me an odd satisfaction as the full story is revealed. One idea mentioned is parallel timelines being created by significant enough changes to the past, a concept that reminded me a lot of the anime Steins;Gate, and this is the key to explaining what appears to be the most glaring plot hole of the climax. Now that I think about it, though, there’s one character who shouldn’t remember…. Oh, I don’t care; the rest of the movie is good enough that a little plot hole at the end can be easily forgiven.

See the source image

Déjà Vu has all the right ingredients for a great time travel thriller, and while I can recognize what others would consider drawbacks (minor plot holes, slightly disappointing villain, a victim who can’t seem to stay fully clothed in her own apartment), the whole package was still splendidly entertaining. I like my mind teased every now and then, so finding this unexplored member of the time travel genre made my day.

Best line: (Carlin) “For all of my career, I’ve been trying to catch people after they do something horrible. For once in my life, I’d like to catch somebody before they do something horrible, all right? Can you understand that?”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
519 Followers and Counting

 

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

See the source image

When terrorized by Ragnarok,
(The end of the world? What a shock!),
Mighty Thor will not shrink.
With a boom and a wink,
He’ll prevail while the rest of us gawk.
_______________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It’s safe to say that the Thor movies are probably the least loved of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (except maybe The Incredible Hulk, but with Mark Ruffalo’s recast, that one’s barely even connected). Thor and Thor: The Dark World aren’t bad films and are still perfectly entertaining fusions of Shakespearean drama and alien hammer battles, but compared with the rest of the MCU, they’re just not that memorable, despite being the source of Marvel’s best villain thus far, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Hiddleston’s trickery and Chris Hemsworth’s muscular appeal helped the Thor movies not drag down their more acclaimed cousins, but it seems that Thor has finally found his hit, not with earth-threatening gravitas but tongue-in-cheek comedy, courtesy of New Zealand director Taika Waititi.

Those paying attention during Captain America: Civil War might have noticed that two of the Avengers were absent from the whole schism. So what were Thor and the Hulk up to in the meantime? Quite a lot actually. The post-credits scene of Doctor Strange hinted that Thor would be looking for his father Odin, but aside from a neat little cameo for the Sorcerer Supreme, the search for Odin isn’t a main plot point. Instead, there’s the arrival of Thor’s long-banished sister Hela (Cate Blanchett), the goddess of death, whose power overwhelms Thor and his hammer and sends him hurtling onto a distant planet of garbage and gladiators. There he encounters both the sadistic Grandmaster (ever-colorful Jeff Goldblum) and the long lost Hulk, whose two-year leave has widened his vocabulary and made the big green guy more of an actual character than merely a secret weapon, borrowing from the Planet Hulk storyline of the comics.

See the source image

While most of the buzz for Ragnarok has been positive, there is a minority who find that the lighter tone cheapens the proceedings, especially considering how dark Hela’s takeover gets. I can definitely see that; the body count is high, including characters from past Thor movies, yet only one gets even some brief token grief, while the others are sloughed off without a passing glance. This might seem callous in a film so filled with gags that it clearly doesn’t want you to dwell on anything but the entertainment. But entertaining it is.

Fans of Guardians of the Galaxy should be quite pleased with how Ragnarok emulates its quirky alien diversity, but Waititi adds his own Kiwi sense of humor, in person actually playing a soft-spoken rock-covered gladiator named Korg. He also brings along Rachel House (as the Grandmaster’s assistant) and a briefly seen Sam Neill (as an Odin actor) from his previous film Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I was also shocked to learn that Matt Damon has a cameo I totally missed. The jokes are many, often droll and sometimes at the expense of past Marvel films, stepping back from the expected superheroics to chuckle before doing them anyway. It’s a fun mix, particularly the rivalry/rapport between Thor and Loki, and although Ragnarok also follows Guardians of the Galaxy in thinking it’s funnier than it actually is, there’s enough varied humor here to please anyone, especially when the whole cast seems to have had so much fun making it.

The action, though, is where Thor: Ragnarok really ups the ante. From the big Thor vs. Hulk fight to a Guardians-ish spaceship chase, the effects are an epic thrill to behold, augmented by the presence of Hemsworth’s more cheeky Thor and likely fan favorite Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). Karl Urban also has a nice little character arc as a would-be lackey of Hela’s, along with one of the many awesome scenes of the finale. But there’s no beating Thor’s big battle toward the end, made brilliantly epic by Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.”

See the source image

So yes, Thor: Ragnarok is far more memorable than its predecessors, attracting every conceivable synonym of “fun,” “epic,” and “awesome.” While it has its dramatic moments, the constant jokery keeps things so light that the gravity of certain situations only sinks in later. Despite the fact that Ragnarok leaves several lasting impacts on the MCU, it still feels oddly disposable, like really amusing filler meant to set the stage for next year’s Infinity War. (Can’t wait!) It may or may not go down as one of Marvel’s best, but even if it doesn’t, it’s still Thor-oughly entertaining.

Best line: (Bruce Banner, to Loki) “Last time we saw you, you were trying to kill everyone. What are you up to these days?”   (Loki) “It varies from moment to moment.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

21 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

See the source image

How primitive we’ll likely seem
To generations yet unborn.
They’ll look at microchips and deem
Them obsolete, as we do steam.
Our present will be like a dream
Before the future’s morn.

I wish that I could see such things,
As interplanetary trips,
And alien discoverings
And cars that fly with plasma wings.
I’d rather see what that dream brings
Than some apocalypse.
__________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It boggles my mind that people complain about no originality in Hollywood anymore, and then the fifth Transformers film makes millions while Valerian flops. Luc Besson’s French import based on a classic French comic immediately sparked my interest based on the trailer alone, and I knew I had to catch it on the big screen. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is easily one of the most visually imaginative films I’ve seen, resplendent in its CGI-heavy universe that resembles Star Wars, Star Trek, and Avatar on steroids.

See the source image

It starts out with one of the rosiest visualizations of first contact ever, a brief but brilliant montage of mankind’s collaborative camaraderie expanding to include thousands of alien races. Centuries in the future, the diverse species of the galaxy will converge aboard the space metropolis of Alpha, and human government agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are tasked with protecting it when a mysterious danger arises. That’s about as general a description I can give, because the plot is fairly simple at its core but so surrounded by frenetic action and less-than-necessary tangents that it seems more complicated than it is. Yes, it probably didn’t need a memory-eating jellyfish or a shape-shifting pole dance, but Luc Besson’s exuberance for his material is obvious and fun in this all-over-the-place approach.

Most of the criticisms aimed at Valerian focus on the casting, and I’ll admit Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne would not have been my first choices to play the two leads. Neither imbues their character with anything very unique, and their personalities are rather flat as a result. Yet I wouldn’t say they were bad but rather passable. There’s nothing overtly mockable in their relationship like Anakin and Padme, and their chemistry and interactions are enough to maintain our interest in everything that happens around them. While Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, and Rutger Hauer show up to lend some brief recognizable star power, the more interesting characters are the CGI alien creations, like the three gremlin-bird-things that wander around trading information like money-grubbing Ferengi. Rihanna as a shapeshifter offers an especially enjoyable addition to the lead duo, though I wish she had had more screen time.

See the source image

More than anything else, I enjoyed Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets because it showed me things I’d never even imagined before:  pristine alien beaches for harvesting energy pearls, glowing butterflies you do not want to touch, extra-dimensional shopping malls located in the middle of a desert. For an independent film, the Oscar-worthy visual effects rival anything that Hollywood has put out. The action scenes were spectacularly thrilling, and I didn’t stop to care about the film’s flaws when I was watching Valerian escape from a crime boss through a multi-level alien bazaar while his arm is trapped in another dimension. It was just a fun ride, particularly an extended shot of Valerian bashing through wall after wall of Alpha’s various alien habitats.

I will gladly defend Valerian based on how much it entertained me, and I wouldn’t doubt that it will become a cult classic, not unlike Besson’s other quirky, polarizing sci-fi The Fifth Element. Nevertheless, I’m torn on how to personally rank it because the closer I get to the end of the year, the more I realize I’ll have to remove genuinely good films from my Top 365 list to make room for this year’s additions. At this point, I’m not sure that Valerian warrants that, since I must acknowledge the relative weakness of the characters and plot, including an extended glimpse of life on one alien planet that goes on for too long. Even so, it’s a film I greatly enjoyed and plan to see again soon, so perhaps it will rise further in my estimation after another awesome visit to the future.

See the source image

 

Best line:  (Doghan-Dagui, the three information traders) “We know how humans work. They are all so predictable.”   (Laureline) “Clearly, you have never met a woman.”

 

Rank:  List Runner-Up

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

A Happy Thanksgiving to all!

2017 Blindspot Pick #10: Donnie Darko (2001)

14 Tuesday Nov 2017

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

See the source image

I’m crazy, they say,
Since I see things that they
Cannot see, know, or even believe.
I’m crazy, although
I know which domino
Will destroy all that we now perceive.

I’m crazy, of course,
There’s no spirit or force
That could show me the things I have seen.
I’m crazy, perhaps,
But when things do collapse,
Maybe then they’ll all know what I mean.
_________________

MPAA rating: R (for language throughout and brief violence)

Well, it’s about time I got to see this movie. Considering its cult popularity, I’m surprised how hard it was to find a copy through my usual sources, a search that delayed this review as my intended October Blindspot. So now that I’ve watched Donnie Darko, what do I think of it? I’m honestly not sure! I can’t pin down exactly how I feel about this independent favorite. Not since Cloud Atlas has a film left me so befuddled, but at least that movie impressed me enough to know I liked it.

See the source image

Along with October Sky, Donnie Darko helped establish Jake Gyllenhaal as a rising star of the early 2000s, and they certainly proved his range.  While his Homer Hickam in October Sky was all starry-eyed inspiration, Donnie Darko is a rebellious and mentally troubled teen who is told the world will end by a man in a demonic bunny costume. You can’t get much more different than that! Although I much prefer October Sky, Donnie Darko is consistently, um…I guess the word is interesting. I found myself engrossed in what would happen next simply because I wanted to know what the heck was going on with this teenage malcontent and his delusions of a bunny man named Frank.

There are a lot of disparate elements and compelling side characters in Donnie Darko, and I’m not convinced they all come together as they should. There’s Donnie’s budding romance with the new girl in class (Jena Malone). There’s a local motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze) whose positivity methods are derided. There’s a committed English teacher (Drew Barrymore) whose literature choices are denounced by the self-righteous gym teacher (Beth Grant). There are a bullied oriental girl who Donnie sympathizes with and a senile old woman (Patience Cleveland) who keeps checking her mailbox and once wrote a book on time travel. And in the midst of all this is Donnie, antisocial, prone to cynical outbursts, and a regular with his hypnotherapist (Katharine Ross). A special mention too for Jake’s sister Maggie Gyllenhaal as his sister in the movie as well. It may seem like I just listed all the characters for no reason, but that’s kind of how I felt watching the movie, as if each of these characters only mattered when they interacted with Donnie and didn’t go anywhere without him.

See the source image

Surrounded by a general sense of gloom, Donnie’s visions are intriguing as we wonder whether they’re real or just a product of paranoid schizophrenia, and there are plenty of memorable scenes, whether from Donnie’s sardonic barbs, the dreamy moments of destruction, or the well-utilized soundtrack with songs from Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, and Echo and the Bunnymen. (Get it, Bunnymen? It is set in 1988, after all.) I had a vague idea of how it would end, but I’ll admit that one scene totally shocked me and the final scenes were unexpectedly poignant, even as I wasn’t sure how much I really understood.

Donnie Darko is a lot of things at once: an angsty teen drama, a sci-fi thriller version of Harvey with psychological underpinnings and brilliant foreshadowing, a critique on holier-than-thou hypocrites, a black comedy with some weirdly funny dialogue. That bizarre Smurf conversation could only come from an independent movie. As I came to terms with my belief that the plot only makes sense if it’s all a delusional premonition in Donnie’s head, I did some research and found that there’s a much more complicated backstory with tangent universes and manipulated dead that isn’t really touched on in the film (at least the theatrical version I saw) but offers plenty of food for thought in trying to justify this overly complicated version of events. I guess it all comes down to the fact that what ends up happening had to happen, but I think the real “why” to this convoluted tale is only really known to writer-director Richard Kelly.

See the source image

I’m not decided on how much I actually liked Donnie Darko, but it certainly got me thinking, which is always welcome. I can see why it earned a cult following, at least among those who enjoy the effort of trying for it all to make sense.

Best line (or at least the one I got a kick out of): (Emily, to her sister Susie) “Beth’s mom said the boys’ locker room was flooded and they found feces everywhere.”   (Susie) “What are feces?”   (Emily) “Baby mice.”   (Susie) “Aww.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up?

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting