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Reviews
Trolls World Tour (2020)
A complete mess
This film is just a colourful incoherent mess.
We were big fans of the first film in our house and have watched it numerous times. So when we heard there was going to be a sequel we knew we'd be heading to the cinema. Alas that was not to be, so when it was announced the film would be avaliable to rent via streaming we decided to rent it on Easter Sunday. I'm thankful that I didn't have to trek to the cinema to watch it but annoyed that I paid over £16 to watch it in the comfort of my own house.
The first film had character and charm, catchy songs, and a decent story that conveyed an important message. This film has none of the above. The storyboard consisted of nothing more than someone throwing an obscene amount of glitter at it and then craming as many songs as possible into it. And none of the songs were 'Get Back Up Again' standout.
Clearly the scriptwriters couldn't agree on whether Poppy was right all along or wrong all along as both are confirmed to be true. They then decided to tack a 'music comes from within' message to the end as an afterthought copying the 'happiness comes from within' one of the first film.
Obviously I don't expect an Oscar worthy movie from a Trolls film and there's always an element of copy and pasting the formula of the first film with sequels. But this film just missed the beat everytime. For example they reused the character pooping confectionary from the first film but completely omit the Bergen which is criminal.
If I could give a minus score I would.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Everything's not awesome but that doesn't mean it's hopeless and bleak
The first movie was original in every aspect. The painstaking attention to detail in animation to make the film look more stop motion than cgi, the perfect categorising of people who build Lego into those who build sets as they were meant to be built and those who let their imagination run wild and finding a balance between the two, the brilliant (though slightly obvious) twist of the man upstairs, and finally that song that I was humming for weeks afterwards. Every element was original and perfectly executed in a time where people bemoan the lack of originality in movies. I remember coming out of the cinema with a feel good factor that wasn't replicated until The Greatest Showman hit the screens.
The Lego Movie 2 was never going to be able to duplicate the surprise hit they had the first time round. Not least because we know from the off this time that the events take place both in Bricksburg and the real world. But despite the formula now being well worn when you take the spin off films into account it still manages to click together pretty well here.
Following on directly from the events of the first film before jumping ahead 5 years Bricksburg has been anhilated by those pesky visitors from the planet Duplo and is now known as Apocalypseburg. But as said we know this time that this is due to the intervention of the boys sister from the first film. However rather than trying to rehash what went before the film embraces that the audience are now clued up about what universe the events happen in and we are treated to flashes of the basement from the first film from the off and glimpses of the sibling rivalry between the brother and sister.
So the message is the same but different. The son this time takes the role of the father who has a vision of how things should be built and it's his sister who builds the creations that in his eyes are not how things should be and just sees the destruction to his masterpieces that these cause. This hit close to home for me as I remember too well the arguments that sibling differences in building Lego can cause. The incident of my brother demolishing my masterpiece that I spent hours on to build... (Well I'm still not sure to this day what it was meant to be) which promptly resulted in his build being thrown at him is still a talking point between us.
Despite not being able to recapture the magic of the first outing this film still has a message of positivity winning the day that fits perfectly into the narrative.
That said though there were a few things missing for me which is why I've given 8 stars. The absences of Liam Neeson's gravely tones and Morgan Freeman's voice of an angel are startlingly obvious. The animation is not as spot on and there's one scene in particular where it's obvious it's cgi and not stop motion. Both of Will Ferell's parts being reduced to cameos. The songs are just not as catchy this time around despite one of them literally being titled the Catchy Song. And the jokes were just a little too meta for my liking this time.
However one of the songs seems to acknowledge that this film was never going to be able to reach the highs of the original when it states everything's not awesome but that doesn't mean it's hopeless and bleak. In all it's a thoroughly enjoyable movie but I'm not convinced it has the rewatchability factor of the first one in the long term.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Answers all the questions you never asked
Ever wondered why the nose of the Millennium Falcon is forked instead of pointed? No! Me neither, but wonder no more.
This is basically the essence of Solo. It takes every little throw away line and hint of a past from previous SW stories and adds a back story. Rogue One took the opening crawl of ANH and added depth to what was already known, for example getting an in universe explanation for why there was no blue squadron in ANH when the actual reasons were due to limitations of tech at the time, worked well. And the prequel trilogy, whilst flawed, was answering the questions that had at least been asked.
But where these approaches worked for those films they fall flat for a character like Han Solo because he's a person whose back story is best left a mystery. He's basically the guy you'll find sat at the end of any bar in the country retelling tales of adventures past and whilst you know the stories are littered with bs they're no less entertaining. I for one am happy to accept that Han (with the exception of Chewie) only cares about himself and money. It's what makes the loveable rogue so appealing. It's only when he meets Luke, Leia and Co that his character develops into someone who considers the greater good.
In Solo we start to see the making of the Han we meet in ANH but, as said, he's a character whose back story is best left either to the imagination or simply just believing he's always been like that. The Kessel run for example is only referenced in 2 films and whilst acknowledging there's probably a cool back story the only one we need is that it happened in less than 12 parsecs, the rest of the mystery is in keeping with the character. But now we know exactly how this went down including the issue of a parsec being a measure of distance and not time.
Other burning issues we didn't need answering include: how he came by his surname (because obviously being given it at birth is not cool enough) and how his blaster came to be.
The dice was particularly irksome. When you first glimpse them hanging in Han's speeder you're thinking it's a cool little easter egg and obviously he'll grab them and later hang them in the cockpit. But no, apparently they deserve elevation above easter egg status and require their own character arc. Which BTW completely undermines Luke handing his sister a keepsake from her late husbands beloved ship in TLJ, because now it turns out they were a reminder to Han that those he loves most will ultimately betray him.
OK, it was obvious we were going to see Han acquiring the Falcon from Lando, but it was just something I had no desire to see. We already knew it was won in a card game and didn't really need to see how this went down.
Likewise it was equally obvious that we'd see the first meeting between Han and Chewie. And whilst this was an intriguing premise it was executed poorly. We really didn't need to see a worse Wookie impression than my own (which is saying something) when it's already established these characters can speak in their respective languages and understand each other perfectly well, and certainly didn't need an explanation into Han shortening Chewbacca's name.
Getting away from the needless back stories now. I've given this film 4 stars because actually hidden somewhere deep in this movie as actually a good heist story. The train heist is the stand out sequence of the movie and the heist that follows this (despite focusing so much on the Kessel run) is a decent story too. The code of honour that these characters live by is believable. They basically finish the job or die trying because the consequences from those they work for are a fate worse than death if they fail. And I particularly like the assume everyone will betray you and you won't be disappointed ethos.
But this starts to come undone in the bloated final act (which is why I haven't rated higher than 4) when the story switches from old fashioned heist movie to old fashioned western. Han starts to develop a conscience (and I know I've bleated on about this enough already) when it would be in keeping with the character to believe he doesn't develop one until the Battle of Yavin in ANH.
As for the acting. Donald Glover, Paul Bettany, Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton and Woody Harrelson as always turn in great performances but are hampered by the material they had to work with. Donald Glover particularly nails the part of Lando though the part with him wailing over his dead droid is completely out of character. Again this is more an issue with the script than his acting chops. Alden Ehrenreich though whilst acting decently enough does not come across as the Han we know and love. Where believing Glover will one day become Billy Dee Williams I cannot vision this character one day being Harrison Ford.
And as for the twist ending the appearance of Darth Maul is there for no other reason than to provide a "squee" moment. Even my 9 year old son said WTF is he doing there? (OK he didn't use the F) surely it would make more sense for Jabba or the Emperor to be the master mind. I'm not bigging up my son or anything but when he understands the story more than a respected film maker like Ron Howard you do have a moment of pride. That said I am intrigued to see what comes next from the characters of Maul and Qi'ra, which is ironic considering this is meant to be a film all about Han Solo.
To summarise this is a film that has great potential but ultimately does not equal the sum of its parts. Which I can only deduce is down to the extensive reshoots as this summers The Predator (another film with highly publicised reshoots) was much the same, in respect that the all the puzzle pieces were there but in the end did not fit.
The Predator (2018)
Better than expected but fails to meet its full potential
Here Be Dragons - Spoilers ahead.
I loved the first 2 Pred films but their depiction on screen since has been somewhat disappointing . AvP has its flaws but I actually think is a very clever film that's very underrated (I mean it can't be that bad considering Ridley Scott basically xeroxed the first half of the script for Prometheus). AvP:r though was just an insult to two franchises. Predators was OK but just that, I have very little memory of it other than it starting to go down hill when Laurence Fishburne turns up half way through (a feat he replicated in Passengers).
So with all this in mind I went into The Predator with very low expectations and from the off was pleasantly surprised. The pacing wasn't the greatest and the acting was something I'd expect from a teen slasher movie. But there were actually elements that were very good hidden within this film.
Unfortunately though these moments were very quickly undone. The idea of the government capturing a Predator to study its biology and reverse engineering its tech are believable arcs and would have been an interesting story we'd not seen before in a Pred film. Unfortunately though this was soon disposed of with the line "you wanna know if someone slept with an alien?"
The casting of Gary Busey's son as Gary Busey's son was a stroke of genius that again was dispatched with way too soon.
The Punisher and Theon Greyjoy hunting a Predator sounds like it could be fun but falls flat.
The protagonist hiding alien tech from the government is believable but loses its credibility when he's able to use the tech straight away.
The character who's on the autistic spectrum being able to use the tech wasn't any more believable but it worked in terms of plot progression. Only for them to take it too far with the explanation that being on the spectrum is the next step in human evolution and that's why the predator wants him.
As expected with a Pred film we got to see some new tech and weaponry which was very good. But at the expense of already established tech. The lack of (or in some cases complete omission) of the shoulder canon, triangular laser, and thermal vision is just something that is not acceptable in a Predator film. Though I commend the omission of the self destruct device as this plot device was a little stale having been used in every film prior.
Little quotes tweaked from the first film seem fun on the surface but just serve to hammer home that this film's not on a par with the original.
Despite the film so far not reaching its potential it was still an enjoyable watch that, whilst not reaching the heights of the first 2 films, was surpassing what had come since. But then we reached the 3rd act and the film started to nosedive.
The cgi Superpred (whilst not being as abysmal as the PredAlien from AvP:r) looked too Orcish compared to the practical effects Pred that had been on screen so far. This is the third consecutive film we've had some form of Predator hybrid and we just don't need it.
I disliked the Predhounds in Predators and hated their design even more here.
A major character is killed in the final act yet happens so fleetingly that if you blink you miss it. And I did. I kept expecting him to turn up and when he didn't my mate had to point out he'd already died.
The final act starts to undermine the first act. We're now told that the rogue Predator was trying to pass some tech onto us which is why it's being hunted by the SuperPred. OK fine, but why then did the first thing the Predator do after landing was take out the rest of the protagonists black ops team if all it wanted to do was help?
Basically the whole climax was a mess that was obviously effected by the reported reshoots and edits. And the final scene to set up the next film was just idiotic. Just when I thought we were getting a suprise Adrian Brody cameo we instead get something ripped straight from a Marvel film.
In all this film was better than it had any right to be but despite exceeding expectations it doesn't quite reach its potential. I really want to rate this higher as the elements were all there, but in the end they just didn't come together.
Life (2017)
Alien meets Gravity with a dash of Evolution
Spoilers ahead
Reading some of the other reviews there seems to be a concensus that "Calvin" was piloting the pod at the end so I want to address this first. It wasn't. Jordan (Jake Gyllenhal) spelled out what his plan was: the escape pod is auto-piloted to return to earth and he was going to override this to steer the tragectory away from the planet. He literally said if he takes his hand away from the controls too soon the autopilot would take over again. It's this that we see, Calvin gripping his arms so he couldn't reach the controls. Whether this was intentional (not in the sense that Calvin knew doing so would kick the autopilot in but more likely it knew whatever Jordan was doing would be a threat to it's life) or it was just attacking him and doing so was a fortunate move from Calvin's pov I don't know.
As for the rest of the film. Yes it's clear that the plot is heavily influenced by Alien and obviously fails to reach the bar set by that classic. But I think setting the story closer to home, in present day and on a craft that actually exists adds a sense of "what if?" that Alien doesn't have.
The acting was superb, though Ryan Reynolds was playing Ryan Reynolds a little too much for my liking. Yes the decisions the crew make during the film are questionable (and that's being polite), but I can let that go in order to move the plot along. If they had applied logic the movie would have finished an hour earlier. And the logic at least was not as bad as that seen in Prometheus or Alien: Covenant.
I only really have two criticisms of the film.
1 was that Calvin growing from a single celled organism to the cgi squid that seems to be the favoured depiction of alien lifeforms by Hollywood these days in so little time was too reminiscent of the single celled organism in Evolution. But at least there was an attempt at explanation. Alien is one of my all time favourite films but one thing I've always disliked is that the chestburster grows into the Xenomorph we all know and love in very little time without seemingly consuming anything to accelerate its growth. Here at least we're told it's consuming things like coolant to make it grow.
2 is that early on in the film Calvin survives outside in space for approx 10 mins and the crew assume it's storing oxygen. Later the crew try to kill it by trapping it in sections of ISS and starving those compartments of oxygen. Sorry but if it can survive the vacuum of space an oxygen free room ain't gonna do diddly.
Overall I doubt this film has much rewatchability but it was a decent effort with some great 'made you jump' moments that happily filled a couple of hours. The twist was obvious from the moment the lifeboats undocked but did not lose its suspense despite this. It's set up nicely for a sequel that I doubt we'll ever get. Which is probably a good thing, if this film was Alien closer to home a sequel would undoubtedly be Aliens closer to home.