Fantastic Four

Fantastic For Insomnia

BACKGROUND

The history of the Fantastic Four movies is a long and complicated thing.  But I'll try to be brief...

The Cowlick hairdo was all the rage back then...

Back in 1986, the Constantin Film company bought the movie rights to adapt the comic book supergroup to the big screen.  

However with nothing happening in the eight years after, Roger Corman was hired in 1994 to produce a low-budget film so that the company could retain the rights and not have them revert back to Marvel.  

The Fantastic Four had a trailer and a promotional tour, and even the cast were excited for it's upcoming release, but nothing ever happened... With the film inexplicably shelved, the movie rights were bought by 20th Century Fox.

2005 comes around and the Jessica Alba/Chris Evans-version of Fantastic 4 is released to mediocre reviews but box-office success, resulting in the sequel Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer two years later.  

But since audiences weren't clamouring for a three-quel to this underwhelming super-hero franchise, things then went dark for a few years.

Slowly but surely, the rapidly-expiring movie rights came into contention again.

I can only imagine a shareholder meeting went something like this...

"If another Fantastic Four movie doesn't get made soon, the rights will revert back to Marvel!  You know, those guys who are killing the box-office with their massively impressive and coherent Cinematic Universe!  

We can't let them get their hands on some superheroes who could be included in the next Avengers film!  That'd be terrible for us!  Let's do what we did with those god-awful Amazing Spider-Man films and just throw one together!"

And here we find 2015's Fantastic Four, or FantFourStic as the poster would have you believe...

"PLOT"

When they're freaking ten years old, Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) manage to crack teleportation.  Seriously.  But no one believes them... despite the overwhelming evidence they can produce.

Cut to a few years later, and Dr Franklin Storm recruits Reed to work in his laboratory trying to crack inter-dimensional teleportation.  There he meet the reckless technician Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), his adopted scientist sister Sue Storm (Kate Mara) and the loner genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) who has a crush on Sue.

After figuring out how they can cross into another dimension within days of Reed's arrival, they are told they can't travel though (rightfully, since they're nerds, not astronauts).  So Reed and his team get drunk, behave like idiots and go through anyway!

Whilst there, they get touched by mysterious goop, blah blah blah, Victor gets covered in the stuff, blah blah blah, they come back and they have super-powers! What a shocker, you get the idea...

OPINIONS

Oh my God, this film.  Where to begin...?

This film made me legitimately angry.  Seriously.  At one point I got so frustrated with the confusing mess on screen, I shouted out "DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON?!" quite late on into the film.  

Thankfully I was sat with friends in an empty screening so it was answered with equally confused shakes of the head, and not in my removal from the screen.

The entire film feels like a 100 minute long trailer for another film that never happens.  There are hints at potential tension that never occurs, ruined friendships that just get fixed in an instant and romance triangles that spectacularly never get touched upon.

Remember when things were fun and light-hearted? *sigh*

The main problem stems from the fact the director Josh Trank (director of semi-superhero film Chronicle) wanted to take the film in a realistic and gritty direction, similar to The Dark Knight or Man of Steel, and treating the super-abilities like deformities or illnesses. 

Admittedly, that is an interesting approach to the subject of super-powers, especially in the scene where Reed is just getting used to his stretching ability and you can hear bones crack as they grow and shrink in size.

However, the Fantastic Four as a group have always been a light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek style of superhero.  The problem with FantFourStic is by taking out all the fun of the powers and portraying them as freaks or social outcasts, you drape a black cloud over all the action and drama. 

You feel like it's a chore to be in their company, something that is the complete opposite with any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially Ant-Man, released only a few weeks prior to FantFourStic.

Another issue the film suffers from is that none of the main four characters are interesting, or even likeable. 

Reed is a power-hungry narcissist who abandons his friends at the first sign of trouble.  

Ben is hardly in the damn film, and yet when he turns into The Thing, he just becomes a Hulk-For-Hire, sitting miserably in his room, unhappy with his mere existence.  

Sue is just boring and has no personality, other than Daddy's Girl.  

And I know the character of Johnny Storm is a 'hot-head' with a heart of gold, but damn I never realised how perfect Chris Evans was in the role before I saw someone else try to portray him. Nothing against Michael B. Jordan, but his cocky and arrogant Human Torch has no endearing qualities at all.

All of that is before we even touch on Victor Von Doom.

This is Doom by the way.
You'll see him for all of ten minutes,

Toby Kebbell is SUCH an amazing talent, and yet in FantFourStic, he is given nothing to work with.  

He starts off as a wayward protégé of Dr Storm's, hating the world and playing video games (which was a persona I was willing to go along with).  

When he is brought onto the team, he becomes a standard boring scientist, jealous of Reed and Sue's growing 'relationship'.  

A year after his abandonment on Planet Zero (or wherever they got sent to), he ultimately becomes a crazed and maniacal psychopath fused with a mysterious and unexplained green goo.

Dr. Doom is considered to be one of the greatest supervillains of all time, and he is given around 10-15 minutes of screen time!  And in those short few minutes, he manages to rack up an impressive and unnecessary kill-count for a 12A-rated film.  All killed by squeezing people's heads until they break using his, again unexplained, telekinetic abilities.  Yay!  Happy! Fun! Superheros for kids!

LET'S WRAP IT UP

God, I could carry on for a whole other article about what is wrong with FantFourStic, but you get the picture.  It's just such a mess.  All soulless and empty, with the main goal to just keep the movie rights in the greedy hands of 20th Century Fox.

The film disappoints on nearly every level, but coming from such a promising director and with the initial scenes having some degree of potential, it's just even more of a let-down.

Hopefully Marvel/Disney will see the damage that their child's guardian is doing to it and step in before another reboot is shoved down our throats in ten years time.  They've managed to successfully negotiate a deal for joint custody of Spider-Man, hopefully they can do the same with the Fantastic Four.

I would call this film the worst of the year so far, but I know a film that is worse... and that's getting reviewed next...

Rating - 2/10

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

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Ant-Man

SIZE DOESN'T MATTER

It seems ridiculous nowadays to label Marvel films as 'experimental'.  Guardians of the Galaxy earned $774 million last year, and that was thought to be an incredibly risky and 'experimental' venture.  

Seemingly any material given to Marvel can turn into a box-office and critical success.  

And here is where we find Ant-Man; originally planned as a Marvel First Phase film, alongside The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: the First Avenger, but instead pushed back until Marvel's Phase Three.  

The film's interesting possibilities gained the attention of the amazing director (and personal favourite) Edgar Wright. He and fellow Brit Joe Cornish (director of Attack The Block) worked on a story and script, and thankfully had completed a working script before leaving the production due to creative differences.

Anchorman writer/director Adam McKay joined the project and due to their collaborative effort, they gave Ant-Man a fantastic sense of humour, as well as an appropriately smaller scale and heartfelt personality not seen since Marvel's original Iron Man.

PLOT

In the midst of the Cold War, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), a brilliant scientist and one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D., discovers the ability to shrink the distance between atoms and therefore can change his size with Pym Particles, whilst increasing his strength and speed.  His amazingly unique abilities help out in warfare, with Pym essentially becoming a superhero named 'the Ant-Man', named due to his small size, as well as his ability to control ants with specially designed radio-waves.  

However there are shady people who aim to use his research for nefarious deeds, so Pym leaves S.H.I.E.L.D., hides his work and essentially becomes a recluse from the superhero world.

Skip to the present day, post-Age of Ultron, where Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is released from prison after serving time for breaking and entering.  He emerges determined to stay honest for his young daughter, giving up his talent of breaking into places and stealing stuff.  However he is the ideal candidate for Pym, as he needs a master thief to break into a place and steal some stuff.

OPINIONS

Whilst it may not be on the same scale as the over-the-top, city-dropping, skyscraper-destroying, global-threatening thrill-rides that were Avengers Assemble and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man does provide welcome relief from the grand epics that Marvel have been producing recently.

Instead of the film focussing on explosions every ten minutes, it takes the time to develop characters, especially the similarities between Scott and Hank.  They both strive for personal redemption and to fix the broken relationships with their daughters, Scott's daughter Cassie, and Hank's daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly).

Lilly breaths life into Hope, as she could have been quite a one-dimensional character, but instead is driven by wanting to achieve both her father's respect and his trust, as she feels that she can do the job even better than Scott.  Her struggle is an effective commentary on Marvel's apparent lack of faith in a female-led superhero franchise, with Hank constantly telling her that she doesn't have what it takes and that they need Scott to be the hero instead of her.

All the film's supporting characters provide their own personal boost, especially Scott's ex-con BFF, brilliantly played by Michael Peña.  His cheery lifeview, constant optimism and comically-complicated anecdotes give Scott's band of ex-con friends their own personality, which stops the film from being too overly Pym-pollinated.

However, like I always say, a film is only as good as it's villain.  Scott's nemesis is Hank's old protege, Darren Cross (House of Cards' Corey Stoll).  After learning from Pym, Cross was secluded once he became obsessed with recreating the Pym Particles.  However he has now successfully managed to create a rival shrinking armour suit, called The Yellowjacket.  

Similar to Jeff Bridges/Ironmonger villain of the original Iron Man, Cross is an understandable business rival with similar powers to our hero, but that is all the film needed for an origin story.  Cross seeks for Pym's approval and turns rogue when it never comes, and Stoll admirably conveys the neglect and hidden resentment that fuels Yellowjacket's rise to power, giving Scott a formidable opponent for their big/tiny final battle which hilariously takes place on a child's playset.

Speaking of the fight scenes, they clearly are able to utilise the new dimension of size-shrinking to great effect.  It's safe to say that the scenes of combat are like none you have seen in a Marvel film before.

THAT'S A WRAP

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by Ant-Man.  It delivered everything expected of a Marvel film, but in an appropriately smaller package, whilst effectively creating new groundwork for future films.  The writing and the acting is fantastic considering it was undoubtedly a complicated and rushed film production.

Also... there are several interesting inclusions into the larger Marvel Universe, especially the mid-credit and post-credit scene that will hopefully bear well for the future.

Things are definitely looking up... but that's not hard when you're an inch high...

Rating - 8/10

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Avengers: Age Of Ultron

PHASE THREE: BEGIN

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the blockbuster season of 2015!

And what a better way to start it, than with Marvel/Disney's newest instalment into their own cinematic universe, the sequel to the third highest-grossing film of all time, Avengers: Age of Ultron!

These days, it almost seems like there is no real point in writing a review about the newest Marvel film, since they continue to pull off this mind-blowing winning-streak.  They create such fantastic narratives, craft interesting and three-dimensional characters, and with the help of talented cinematographers and directors, keep the audience's attention glued to the screen and their butts firmly in their seats.

But does Age of Ultron manage to carry the heavy burden given to it by its predecessors?

The plot of Age of Ultron follows the team back together a few years after The Battle Of New York. They have become known throughout the world as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" and they are constantly fighting the re-emerged H.Y.D.R.A..  However when a chance falls to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to kick-start a long-dormant global peacekeeping program, he takes the opportunity. This unwittingly awakens Ultron, an artificial intelligence designed to protect the planet. In Ultron's opinion, the best way to save the planet is by killing those who damage it the most; humans.  With the help of two genetically-altered twins with long-held grudges against a certain Avenger, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen), Ultron begins his plot to save the Earth by destroying it.

The Avengers (titled Avengers Assemble in the UK) managed to successfully balance an entire film evenly between it's six main leads.  But now, not only do those six return, but now there is one main villain, two supporting-villains, dozens of supporting characters, the odd cameo from side-characters in different story-lines, hints at upcoming solo projects, shock twists, laugh out loud moments, heartbreaking romances, and even a mid-credits scene sure to make the fan-boys salivate. Director Joss Whedon manages to do ALL THIS without seemingly breaking a sweat, and no one comes across as underdeveloped or underused.  Everyone plays their part well and no one gets left behind.  It's remarkable.  There is even time to discover the much-needed backgrounds of Hawkeye and Black Widow, since the rest of the Avengers had their own movies to showcase theirs.

However a hero, or six of them, are only as good as the villain they face, and they meet an incredbily well-realised creation in Ultron (played by the magnificent James Spader).  He personifies and updates the very concept of a Frankenstein's Monster, (or should I say FrankenStark's Monster? Thank you very much!), hell-bent on destroying his creator.  His hypnotic voice oozes charisma, wit and intelligence but also demented psychological problems, making him eccentric enough to be likeable, but damaged enough to be imposing and terrifying.  In fact there are some scenes where little kids watching might be too scared of him, which isn't a bad thing.  Loki might have been mischievous and tyrannical, but he was human and never truly insane, instead now viewed as 'one of the hottest/coolest movie villains of all time'.  But Ultron is incredibly imposing and frightening from his very arrival into the film, giving The Avengers a true obstacle to overcome.

Despite its achievements, there are a few flaws to Joss Whedon's latest epic. A film such as this is mostly judged on its action scenes and whilst there are some fantastic car chases (similar to those of Captain America: The Winter Soldier), a few of the large-scale action scenes tend to endure for a little too long and the pace starts to suffer.  Similarly, whilst I understand the need to sow seeds into other side-projects and stand-alone Marvel films, some of the tangents the film goes on mildly disrupt the flow of the action and do it harm.

However, these are mere quibbles in the face of an overwhelmingly powerful juggernaut that is Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Watching a film as well-crafted as this, suitably darker in its tone than its predecessors with the correct amount of emotion mixed with action, just makes me worried for DCs attempt to bring The Justice League to the screen.  Can it match the level that has been set by these films?  Only time will tell.  Until then, it really is a golden-age for superhero movies and here's hoping Marvel can continue their golden run.

Rating - 9/10

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!

Guardians of the Galaxy

#7 - Guardians Of The Galaxy

I was so nervous when I saw the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy.  Nervous and excited.  How could Marvel, and especially Disney, bet so much money and reputation on this story of relatively-unknown alien mercenaries, battling in galaxies far, far away?  It was either insanity or genius.

Turns out both.

This was such a crazy and wild adventure, it just made me want to watch it again and again.  The story follows Peter Quill, AKA StarLord, a human abducted as a child and raised by a bunch of renegade alien pirate smugglers.  The self-titled StarLord (Chris Pratt) quickly finds himself enthralled in a struggle between powerful warlords over a mysterious orb.  He teams up with a green-skinned assassin (Zoe Saldana), a tattooed headcase (Dave Bautista), a giant humanoid walking tree (voiced by Vin Diesel) and a talking raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper).

See what I mean by possible insanity?  But it completely works.  The director James Gunn has history with the surreal, working on films such as Slither and Super, so he manages to create such a believable world that the crazy hijinx that follow feel possible.  The characters are truly three-dimensional, even if the walking tree-man can only say "I. Am. Groot." and every other character's middle name is 'The' (Korath The Pursuer/Drax The Destroyer etc.)  They have back-stories, aims, dreams, flaws, and therefore feel like real people.  The most surprising thing about this film is former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, who has the most impressive screen-presence of the central five and delivers a very unexpected, and fantastic performance.

Additionally, Lee Pace performing as the quasi-Marilyn Manson villain Ronan The Accuser is actually terrifying.  Full plaudits to the man as he could have hammed up the performance and delivered one akin to a pantomime villain, but he truly gets under your skin as a malevolent force and a formidable opponent to the titular Guardians.  This was definitely the blockbuster of the summer.

Two For Tuesday: Under The Skin / Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Next on my 12 Days of Christmas, my Number 11 and Number 10 favourite film this year, and wouldn't you know it, they both star Ms Scarlett Johansson!  No, this is not an excuse to get her beautiful face on my page... but I'm going to anyway...

Ahh that's better.

Whilst one film is a Hollywood blockbuster from the Marvel building-block franchise, the other is a small, independent art film about aliens killing Celtic supporters in Scotland.  Let's start with the former.

#11 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first Captain America film that was released back in 2011.  At all.  The First Avenger told the origins of Steve Rogers, a weedy, yet earnest young man who was deemed unsuitable for the American army during the Second World War.  He came across as a lovable loser-turned-superhero, but the film on a whole just rubbed me the wrong way.

Maybe because I'm a die-hard British patriot and I didn't care for the typical American view of the Second World War being all but fruitless without the saviour coming from across the pond.  Either way, when The Avengers (Avengers Assemble to us Brits) was released a year later, I was very excited to see how Iron Man, Thor and Hulk coped but was drastically less interested in the Captain.  Yeah, his shield reflects things, he's strong and fast... and ... he's a good war strategist... I guess?  But other than that, I had no idea why he was on this team of misfit heroes.  It was nothing against Chris Evans, the man portraying Steve Rogers.  He's a fantastic actor who played the role very earnestly and gives 110% in all of his roles (particularly Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).  Something was just lacking in this one Avengers prequel.

Three years later and it's sequel time!  Taking place after The Avengers' Battle of New York, Rogers is still working for Nick Fury and the S.H.I.E.L.D. spy agency, all whilst adjusting to contemporary society.  However after investigating into some shady operations, Rogers, Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are branded as enemies of the state and must fight their own colleagues to stay alive.

Shrouded in political mystery, The Winter Soldier manages to outdo nearly all of the previous Marvel films in it's quality by finally making the transition from simple comic-book fare to an all-out conspiracy thriller.  More impressively, for the first time, the film made me sympathise with Steve Rogers as a man-out-of-time who just wants to transfer the camaraderie of his army days into today's secular "Don't Trust Anyone" society.  The characters of Black Widow and Nick Fury are just as preposterous as ever, but their so-far secretive back stories are finally touched upon and partially revealed to finally give them a bit more fleshing out, rather than "They're just super-spies...".  The funny thing about this film is that the titular Winter Soldier barely features in the film, and yet you are more-than-adequately served a healthy dose of narrative, filled with suspense and intrigue throughout.  No one is truly what they seem and it gives the film a fantastic edge, similar to the Mandarin-twist of Iron Man 3.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things wrong with some of the plot contrivances, (Nick Fury cutting himself out of a car whilst it's upside-down is one such example) but you forgive the film for still being the disbelief-suspending film it is at heart.  Despite it's standard of ratcheting up the action, the action scenes are incredibly choreographed whilst the pacing is constant, yet not overwhelming. Whilst Fury, Black Widow and the new character of The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) are fleshed out appropriately, there are other characters that don't get their due, such as the undercover Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) and S.H.I.E.L.D. director Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford).  I imagine these roles will be increased in future Captain America films but it just gives a tiny feeling of dissatisfaction. However, this is a tiny gripe.

In any case, bravo Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  You managed to turn this Captain America doubter into a full supporter.  Now that the flag-waving, Nazi-puncher has been replaced with a genuinely interesting and troubled character (which still cannot be said of Henry Cavill's Superman), the only weak link in the Marvel chain has been fixed.  I highly recommend this film to those of you out there who aren't just looking for a superhero film, but an interesting commentary on today's paranoid society.  Also to those haters of The First Avenger.  It might just surprise you, as it did me.

#10 - Under The Skin

Similar to The Winter Soldier, I approached Under The Skin with some trepidation.  I had heard some details of the plot and it's filming style and I was a tad nervous.

The plot follows Scarlett Johansson as a nameless woman, who is actually an alien in human form.  We follow her travelling around Glasgow picking up lonely men for some alien reason.  However the nameless woman starts to begin to question her actions and the usefulness of her human body.  The film is wholly from the alien's perspective and is an outsider's view on the human species.

I normally hate films such as Under The Skin.  The phrase 'style over substance' usually gets thrown around with 'artistic' films like this.  However, the film just blew me away.  It is disturbing, and yet beautiful.  It is haunting, and yet poetic.  It is fantastic, and yet arty.

The main praise is laid definitely at Scarlett Johansson's feet.  Similarly to The Winter Soldier, her role in Under The Skin is openly intended as sexual appeal as she plays an alien intended on being attractive to the men of Glasgow, so that they can harvest their bodies.  What for?  We're never told, although their methods are as disturbing as they are mesmerising.  However as she starts to relate to the humans she is luring into traps, she begins to question her role and starts making mistakes in her kidnapping attempts.  She displays the innocence of a child, all in a eerily hollow and yet curious way.

The film interestingly delves into how we treat each other as people, from an outsider's perspective. Admittedly it does it at a slow pace, sometimes leaving me wondering where the plot was going. However that is not where the beauty lies.  Whilst style over substance may be argued, I believe that the style is the substance and the other-worldly aspects of the film bolster the film's atmosphere and alien point-of-view.  The beautiful shots of the Scottish countryside and the Highlands, as well as some of the most realistic and documentary-like shots of British culture add to the realism of the situation, as well as ground some of the lofty sci-fi aspects of the script.

I went into both films expecting the worst, and both films definitely managed to subvert my expectations.  The Winter Soldier provided social commentary as well as a action-packed conspiracy thriller, and whilst Under The Skin  featured no car chases or explosions, I was hooked throughout. However I'd say the former is better with a bucket of popcorn.

Tomorrow?  My 9th favourite film of 2014!  Be sure to check it out!

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!

Succinct Sunday: 2014 - A Small Summary (Part One)

I, Frankenstein

A pale imitation of the Underworld franchise, Aaron Eckhart plays Frankenstein's Monster, here named 'Adam' as he is caught between the fight between the righteous gargoyle empire and the demons of hell. Both want the seemingly immortal Adam to fight for their side, but since the CGI looks ropey at best, the action is boring and the central storyline wavers and runs out of steam towards the end, you really don't care on which side Adam ends up fighting. A waste of a potentially interesting and exciting concept.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Based on a children's stop-motion TV show about an inquisitive child and his talking dog/father-figure as they travel through time and space, learning about historical figures.  Admittedly this is more known to the Americans than us lowly British, but the voice performances are energetic, the animation is eye-catching and most importantly it doesn't talk down to the intended younger audience.  It uses humour to educate the kids as well as entertain.  More stuff like this is needed, Hollywood!

Anchorman 2 : The Legend Continues

Lightning unfortunately continues to not strike twice for Will Ferrell as Anchorman 2 follows in the footsteps of Land of the Lost, The Campaign and The Other Guys in creating a dumb guy-comedy that fails to live up to the unexpected hit that was the original Anchorman. Whilst the up-scaled news-crew battle is fun to watch with it's impressive cameo appearances, I still hope that this will prove to be the last of Ferrell's dumb-guy comedies. Anchorman was a fantastic fluke, and it should have been left like that.

Ride Along 

Newest American hot commodity, the comedian Kevin Hart plays a cowardly video-game nerd alongside tough cop future brother-in-law Ice Cube who takes him on the titular ride-along to show him some real-life GTA and make him prove himself worthy of his sister's hand in marriage. However, they get involved in corrupt police schemes, blah blah blah. The film is boring, repetitive and ludicrous. I honestly don't get the hype surrounding Kevin Hart but maybe I'm just out of the loop. I'd much rather recommend 22 Jump Street instead, but that's still to come...

The Borderlands

Found-footage film based around a supposedly haunted church in the Yorkshire dales. The film is obviously acted by unimpressive amateurs, but the scares and tension are well-constructed and developed as similarities to An American Werewolf in London and Poltergeist start appearing, all culminating in a finale that leaves most baffled.

An impressive attempt, but ultimately disappointing.

Muppets Most Wanted

Kermit and the crew are back, but there is treachery afoot! With the help of Ricky Gervais, a jewel-thief imposter has locked the frog away in a Russian gulag, and is impersonating him as head of the Muppet gang! There is a definite lack of Jason Segel and Amy Adams, instead replaced by Gervais, Tina Fey and the always amazing Ty Burrell, leading to a lack of emotional heart that the first film had in buckets. The resulting film is still warm, colourful and lovely, but a definite downgrade from the revival film a few years ago.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

This film annoyed me more than any other film this year.  It has all the components needed to outdo it's Tobey Maguire predecessor, but again, it fails to connect to the audience at any level and has a laughably weak, badly-written script.  Andrew Garfield is a fantastic Peter Parker, Emma Stone is great foil as Gwen Stacy, and Jamie Foxx gives a brilliant performance as the mumbling and shy Max before his turn into the boring villain Electro.  His origin scene and transformation is probably the best scene in the film, but the resulting super-charged smurf has no real believable motive for the rest of the film and comes across as wasted potential.


That combined with a shoe-horned Harry Osborn story, and the hardly-featured Rhino villain makes the film seem overblown and uninteresting.  A large criticism is that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 simply feels like one big preview for another film.  Similar to Iron Man 2, nothing truly important happens, but sly mentions are given to upcoming villains and story-lines.  It never feels like a film in it's own right and I could never start enjoying it. Too much ominous foreboding, too much nonsensical plot twists and definitely not enough care given to the script.

Stay tuned for more succinct reviews this time next week!  Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!

Top Five Friday: Best Films of 2014 so far...

Ahh September is here.  Before we know it, December will be upon us, and then 2015!  The summer blockbusters are being removed from the screens as we prepare for the kids to return to school.  And most importantly, since it's officially past the half-way point of the year, it's time for me to list my favourite films of the year so far!

Now admittedly, I haven't had chance to visit the cinema and see some films that I really wanted to see over the summer.  Films that have been critically acclaimed, such as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Frank and Boyhood have left screens before I found time.  Those that have been critically panned, such as Transformers: Age of Extinction, Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie and Step Up 5: All In, have stuck around a little longer than the rest, but I still haven't found time to watch those either.  So unfortunately, I'm going to rank those that I have seen, and not yet reviewed.

Starting with....

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Director: Wes Anderson

Released: March 7th

Wes Anderson continues his fantastic streak of memorable films, with another set of kooky and iconic characters, one-liners and mishaps.  In The Grand Budapest Hotel, we are told the story of how elderly hotel owner, Zero Moustafa, came to own the titular establishment and why he is so against the idea of shutting it down as it decays around him.  We follow the younger Zero as he teams up with the hotel's most prolific and dedicated concierge, Monsieur Gustave H. (played with fantastic glee by Ralph Fiennes) as he tries to prove himself innocent after being framed for a murder.  

Completely madcap and enjoyable, I couldn't take the smile off my face whilst watching this delightful old-fashioned adventure.  The music and cinematography are top notch (as is Anderson's standard) and leading man Fiennes is so dashing and charismatic, I can't imagine another actor taking the role.  He lives the role of Monsieur Gustave and truly brings him to life.  It was a real delight to enter another of Anderson's quirky and inventive alternative realities.

BAD NEIGHBOURS

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Released: May 3rd

Much like 21 Jump St. in 2012, I expected Bad Neighbours to be funny, but I didn't expect it to be this funny.  The story follows a new parent-couple Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, as they battle their new next door neighbours, a University fraternity, headed by jock idiot Zac Efron.  The film begins as most of Rogen's films do; crash sex scene followed by drug-taking scenes, inappropriate conversations taking place in front of babies, and lots of prat falls and slapstick.  But surprisingly, it felt pretty-much new.

Whilst the slapstick and the drug-references do their job, the true surprise came from the effort put into fully fleshing out these two sets of rivals.  The adults see the fraternity as a reminder that they are no longer cool and young anymore, whereas the fraternity see a 'Ghost of Christmas Future' in the boring, old couple next door.  This is especially true with Zac Efron, who gives a stellar comedy performance as Teddy, the frat's president.  He becomes obsessed with destroying the couple's happiness as he knows he has little academic future ahead of him and this is his only influence on the world around him.  Sounds malevolent and seedy, but it's all good fun as some of the pranks are incredibly funny.  Definitely worth a watch.

THE WIND RISES

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Released: May 9th

Released as Hayao Miyazaki's final film, The Wind Rises is a fictionalised biography of the aeroplane engineer Jiro Horikoshi before and during the Second World War.  It might not sound like an enthralling storyline, but yet again Studio Ghibli manage to turn the mundane into brilliance.

This was one of the most touching cinema experiences I have had in a long time.  The beauty of Studio Ghibli is evident in every frame and whilst the Jiro isn't as relatable as previous ones like Spirited Away's Chihiro or Howl's Moving Castle's Grandma Sophie, his story is always interesting, especially when he reluctantly begins helping the Nazis due to their friendship with Japan.

The entire film is based around airplanes, and as such, you can truly see the genius Miyazaki's hand in almost every moment.  This marks the end of an era in animation, and I highly recommend you searching out this film on DVD and all of his earlier work.  You will not be disappointed.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Director: James Gunn

Released: August 1st

I was so nervous when I saw the trailer for Guardians.  Nervous and excited.  How could Marvel, and especially Disney, bet so much money and reputation on this story of relatively-unknown alien mercenaries, battling in galaxies far, far away?  It was either insanity or genius.

Turns out both.

This was such a crazy and wild adventure, it just made me want to watch it again and again.  The story follows Peter Quill, AKA StarLord, a human abducted and raised by a bunch of renegade alien pirate smugglers.  The self-titled StarLord (played by Chris Pratt) quickly finds himself enthralled in a struggle between powerful warlords over a mysterious orb.  He teams up with a green-skinned assassin (Zoe Saldana), a tattooed headcase (Dave Bautista), a giant human-like walking tree (voiced by Vin Diesel) and a talking raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper).

See what I mean by possible insanity?  But it works.  The director James Gunn has history with the surreal, working on films such as Slither and Super, so he manages to create such a believable world that the crazy hijinx that follow feel possible.  The characters are truly three-dimensional, even if the walking tree-man can only say "I. Am. Groot." and every other character's middle name is 'The' (Korath The Pursuer/Drax The Destroyer etc.)  They have back-stories, aims, dreams, flaws, and therefore feel like real people.  The most surprising thing about this film is former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, who has the most impressive screen-presence and delivers a very unexpected, and yet fantastic performance.

Also, Lee Pace performing as the quasi-Marilyn Manson villain Ronan The Accuser is actually terrifying.  Full plaudits to the man as he could have hammed up the performance and delivered one akin to a pantomime villain, but he truly gets under your skin as a malevolent force and a formidable opponent to the titular Guardians.  Definitely the blockbuster of the summer.

HER

Director: Spike Jonze

Released: February 14th (awww...)

And finally, the film that has impressed me the most this year.  Spike Jonze's her really spoke to me and not because I especially related to Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore or his strife, but the film doesn't patronise or try to scare you.  Instead it almost cuddles up to you as a friend and shows you a warning of our collective future and our relationship with technology.  It just calmly offers advice and tells you it's going to be OK.

Theodore is a professional writer living in 2025 Los Angeles.  The newest upgrade to his phone's operating system contains an artificial intelligence, named Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).  Samantha is a technological breakthrough, having the ability to learn from experience, adapting and evolving in the process.  Through the course of the film, Theodore begins a relationship with the Samantha A.I., causing a rift within his circle of friends.

It's not your typical romantic comedy, and I feel that's why I loved this film so much.  You spend the film watching Theodore fail in real-life relationships, but succeed in his relationship with Samantha.  You desire for them to be together by the end of the film, and despite it's alternative nature, it never feels weird.  Phoenix plays the lovable loser so well that you can't help but want the best for him.  The supporting cast of Amy Adams and Chris Pratt provide essential commentary on the central relationship, speaking for the audience on several occasions, but Theodore and Samantha's partnership is the film's key message.

As well as impressive performances, the film's style of design blew me away in it's subtlety.  The fashion of the future is recognisable, and yet retro; the technology is advanced, and yet accessible.  I found it so intriguing and obviously cared for.  I just loved everything about it.  Especially it's views on our over-dependence and obsession with technology.

I have recommended her to friends and had very different reactions to it.  Some have appreciated it, some found it depressing, some have been impressed and some have hated it.  Whilst I feel like it is my favourite, I understand it isn't for everyone.  But I still think you should give it a go, because you never know, you might love it as much as I do.

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

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