Jurassic World Dominion (2022) Review

Jurassic World Dominion (there really is no colon in the title) is the third installment in the Jurassic World franchise, or sixth in the Jurassic franchise, however you want to look at it. Does anyone really care? Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard remain as the leads, with Jurassic World (2015) director Colin Trevorrow returning to the franchise after J. A. Bayona took over for 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, with Sam Neill and Laura Dern reprising their roles after a long hiatus.

Four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed, dinosaurs now live- and hunt- alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.

There’s really not much point in me comparing this to Jurassic Park (1993), one of my favourite films of all time, as at this point the Jurassic World films are so far removed from what the original Jurassic Park was about. There’s no themes about humans playing God or life finding a way, no great characters who you care about, and no memorable dinosaur set pieces, and Jurassic World Dominion is no different. I can’t really believe they’ve largely kept the same writers for these films, as the screenwriting is the main problem. Dominion has likeable actors, especially now that there’s Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern, but none of the characters are written to be fleshed out people, especially Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard). They are just generic pawns to move the story from one location to the next, allowing a new opportunity to throw meaningless special effects at the wall. There’s so many dinosaurs in these films at this point that none of them feel special, they are just empty pieces of CGI that burst onto the screen to make as big a noise as possible, without any value or motive. Amazingly though, despite there being so many dinosaurs, they actually aren’t an integral part of this movie. The main plot is about genetically modified locusts destroying crops. I’m not sure who thought the crux of the story of this supposed finale should be giant locusts eating the world’s crops, or more importantly who heard this idea and thought it was good, but here we are.

In terms of minor positives, I enjoyed seeing the original cast and their chemistry, and they manage to rise above the paper thin script in the scenes they have with each other. Also, I did think this was better than the previous film, Fallen Kingdom. Where that was almost aggressively bad, this was more just completely forgettable, so that’s a marginal improvement I guess?

So yeah, the writing of the characters in Dominion is terrible, the logic behind pretty much everything is non existent, the dinosaur action is messy, boring and meaningless, and the story is just about as paint by numbers as it gets, with of course some stupid locusts thrown in. Basically, If you’re wanting to go to the cinema this weekend, just go and see Top Gun: Maverick again.

4/10

Men (2022) Review

Alex Garland’s latest directorial feature stars Jessie Buckley as a young woman who goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside following the death of her ex-husband, and Rory Kinnear as the all various townsfolk that she meets, as strange things begin to occur.

Both Garland’s previous films, Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018), I am a fan of, especially the latter which I only watched recently for the first time, and Men definitely leans closer to that. Where Ex Machina was quite a straightforward sci fi flick, Annihilation delves a lot more into horror/ thriller elements, as does Men.

For about two thirds of the film, I thought Men was very good. Garland does a great job at slowly building the creepy atmosphere, added to by Rob Hardy’s beautiful cinematography, and it works really well as a slow burning folk horror. The shots of lush green forests or darkened train tunnels were striking visually in and of themselves, but then when you spot a figure in the distance of these shots, the beauty turns very ominous, and this gradual build really worked for me.

Jessie Buckley also does a great job as Harper, anchoring the film with someone to root for, as she is just an abused and troubled woman looking for peace in the countryside. Juxtaposed to her, Rory Kinnear exhibits all signs of eerie as the various men in the village, who are all unsettling and untrustworthy in different ways, from a nude stalker to a priest.

Sadly, where I have trouble is the overall arc of the film and its’ characters. I knew the building creepiness had to come to a head at some point, but for me it just didn’t stick the landing. To be honest, it missed the landing quite comfortably. It becomes very interpretive and ambiguous, and where I really enjoyed this about Annihilation, Men just took it too far for me. The repeated births (it’ll make sense when you see it) definitely held the unsettling nature, but added in a lot more confusion than before, leaving the final scenes feeling a bit undercooked. I’m certainly not at all claiming to fully understand the ending, but I’m not sure the attempted allegory is as profound as it seems to think it is, and the final act has a lot of symbolism for something that felt a bit puddle-deep to me.

Overall, Men is really intriguing for the most part, but what was a very solid horror/ thriller comes apart at the seams come the end. Definite points for originality though. Some people are going to love it, probably more are going to hate it, but if nothing else it’ll create good discussion.

6/10

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Review

36 years after the original, a sequel to Top Gun (1986) is finally here, with Oblivion (2013) director Joseph Kosinski taking over from the great Tony Scott, who always wanted to make a sequel, but just never managed to get it off the ground before his tragic death in 2012. Tom Cruise of course reprises his role as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, who, after over 30 years of service has purposely dodged an advancement in rank to continue being a test pilot. One day, Maverick is put in charge of training a group of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission under the orders of his friend and former rival, Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet. Among the graduates is Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late best friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.

I’m a massive fan of the original film, its a cheesy 80’s classic like no other, and I would have been more than satisfied if the second one was just a big fun cheese fest or even a worthy progression of the original, but this film goes far beyond anything I could have imagined. I’ve always been of the belief that sequels are so rarely better than the original film, in fact I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I believe its happened, but Top Gun: Maverick can certainly be added to that list. It is the perfect blend of everything a blockbuster is meant to be.

The practical effects are just incredible. Through every training session, every dogfight, and especially the final mission, you are made to feel like you are in the cockpit, creating a visceral thrill ride from start to finish, and one of the most pulse pounding finales I’ve seen in a long long time. However, all this wouldn’t have hit if this film didn’t have any heart, but it has it in abundance. Tom Cruise turns in possibly the most vulnerable performance of his illustrious career, and Maverick’s relationship with Rooster, Goose’s son, is where the film truly soars. A fairly predictable arc perhaps, but these two characters in particular are written so well that that doesn’t matter in the slightest. What a performance Miles Teller gives as Rooster, alongside Cruise, and the drama between them had me tearing up on more than one occasion. In a day and age where so many big budget sequels now are just soulless, empty spectacle, this couldn’t be more different. The entire supporting cast are great too, John Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, they all play their parts more than well. Yes, it still has cheese, it still has people playing beach sports in jeans, it still has Maverick on his motorbike and it still has Danger Zone. But, perhaps my favourite element of this film was that nods to the original aren’t there to trick us into thinking what we are watching is better than it really is, or as cheap fan service, but to support the thematic centre of THIS film. A truly perfect balance of understanding that you need call-backs, without using them as a crutch.

Top Gun: Maverick really is firing on all cylinders, from the writing and cinematography, to the score and the acting, everything combined creates a true cinematic experience, one that I’d implore you to see on the big screen. An incredible achievement by everyone involved, especially director Joseph Kosinski, in just his 4th feature film. He had big shoes to fill, making a sequel nearly 4 decades later, but what he has made far surpassed anything I hoped for. Tony Scott would have been proud.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) Review

The second film directed by Joe Gormican stars Nicolas Cage as a fictionalised version of himself, who must accept an offer to attend the birthday party of crazed super fan Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). But, when the CIA get involved and reveal Javi is part of a dangerous drug cartel, Cage must channel his most iconic characters in order to save himself and his loved ones.

This is certainly a film where the more familiar you are with/ more you like Cage’s filmography, the more you’ll get from it. There are countless references throughout to his most iconic roles and films, (with Con Air, Face/ Off, The Rock and National Treasure just to name a few that I was most happy were in there). While not all the jokes land, the majority do, and it was so refreshing to see Cage play with some of the choices made in his career, both good and bad, in a self aware, self deprecating way.

Despite being an homage to some of Cage’s zaniest characters, I was really glad to see this movie work in and of itself as an action/buddy comedy. Given it is a self proclaimed “character driven adult drama”, it is heavily reliant on the chemistry between the leads, but Cage and Pascal delivered in spades, with their dynamic being comfortably the best element of the film. Despite some of the CIA/ cartel subplots around them feeling a bit generic and convoluted, a really well written, meta script gives the two leads free reign to create an instantly memorable duo.

Also, even though I found the CIA/ cartel related subplot a bit messy at times, I thought the family element with Nick, his daughter and his ex wife was very engaging and genuinely affecting, and the self aware way it was approached was legitimately moving. For a film that could have just coasted on its bizarre premise, it doesn’t just play it safe and puts more care into its characters and themes than expected, which can only be commended.

Overall, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a charming breath of fresh air, a nostalgic throwback to Cage’s 90’s heyday and most of all is a fun and fitting tribute to the whacky brilliance of an often misunderstood actor.

Choose or Die (2022) Review

Choose or Die is a new Netflix horror film, starring Iola Evans, Asa Butterfield Robert Englund and Eddie Marsan, with a feature directorial debut for Toby Meakins. The plot concerns a broke college dropout, who finds and plays an obscure 80’s computer game in hope of claiming the unclaimed prize money, but the game curses her and she is faced with a series of terrifying challenges.

Not that I was shocked given Netflix’s overall track record with original horror films, but this film was an utter mess. While conceptually it sounds interesting, the execution is tedious and nonsensical, and it runs out of steam alarmingly quick. It feels a bit like an extended Black Mirror episode, but without any of the intelligent writing of characters and stories that Black Mirror has. The game and its curse make absolutely no sense as to how it interacts and affects the real world, which would have been forgivable if the wackiness had a consistency, but it tries to be so grounded that the lore of this game becomes a big turn off, with the plot just trundling from one set piece to the next, seemingly completely unconcerned with any story in between.

The acting is not particularly poor, certainly passable, but the writing of the characters is so paper thin that it can’t stay afloat. We know so little about them, thus meaning we don’t care much about them to begin with, but the script makes makes them take some very strange choices as it progresses, which sours you more, as often can be the case in these quirky concept horror films. Completely dumb decisions that nobody else would ever make render this more and more frustrating as it goes along. Horrific things will happen to the protagonist or their loved ones, and then a scene later they’ll be going about their day unaffected.

Finally, I’m not sure why it is how it is but the soundtrack didn’t work at all for me, very jarring. High tempo rap songs thrown in almost completely at random, as if the director is trying to cover up the fact he can’t make a scene tense or gripping, and making the tone more uneven than the storyline itself had managed.

So overall, this is a nonsensical plot headed by paper thin characters, intertwined with lazy human drama subplots that we’ve seen time and time again, with an incompatible soundtrack. Instead of Choose or Die, just choose not to watch this film.

Morbius (2022) Review

Morbius stars Jared Leto as biochemist Michael Morbius, who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but instead inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism. Adria Arjona and Matt Smith also star, with the screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, and is directed by Swedish director Daniel Espinosa. It is the third film in Sony’s Spiderman Universe (SSU), after Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), both of which I thought were pretty mediocre overall. Despite this though, I was hoping this would be an improvement, and I’m always at least a little bit excited to see a member of Spiderman’s rogues gallery on screen, especially for the first time in live action.

Sadly, there wasn’t any improvement on the SSU’s previous two instalments. In fact, it is probably worse than both. Morbius is a by the numbers, cookie cutter origin story, and ultimately just feels like a superhero film from a bygone era, especially in terms of the action sequences. There is far too much reliance on CGI and slow motion in all these scenes, resulting in a bland and cluttered muddle with no grittiness or coherence.

My biggest flaw with the film though is the pacing. It just feels so rushed, which in turn leads thin motivations given and therefore not caring about the characters. If they’d allowed us to get to know the biochemist human side to Leto’s Morbius character a bit more there could have been something good, but the film has such a fixation on rushing those moments so that they can get to him being the big computerised vampire. Coupled to this is the bizarre editing. Scenes just seem to abruptly end in favour of getting to the next lacklustre action sequence, especially a couple of ones with Jared Hess that had the potential to add some more impact to the story and humanise the characters.

Jared Leto and Matt Smith do their best with what material they are given, especially Smith, whose performance as the villain is deliciously cunning and charismatic, but the constant rushing of the script lets them down so much. Neither character is fleshed out with any deep motivation, especially Smith’s villain, who takes the serum and is just suddenly completely evil? And then the very ending, to me felt like it was partway through a scene, and then the credits abruptly rolled.

Overall, despite the lead actors fighting to keep the film afloat, Morbius ultimately sinks due to very overhasty pacing, editing and writing, and a poor handle on the clarity of the action. While there are some good concepts of plot points and characters at moments, the film is never allowed to breathe and develop those concepts, thus resulting in a forgettable, toothless mess.

My thoughts on Fences (2016)

I only recently got round to watching Fences. Its been on my watchlist for a while, with Denzel Washington being comfortably one of my favourite actors, but now that I know just how brilliant this film is, I can’t believe its taken me 6 years to make time for. The plot concerns a working class American father (Denzel) trying to raise his family in the 1950s, while fighting racism, money struggles and his own inner demons. Viola Davis stars as his wife, with Denzel also stepping into the director’s chair, and screenplay by August Wilson.

Not that I know what 1950s Pittsburgh was like, but everything about this film felt so genuine and lived in, from the clothing design of the characters to the visuals of the handful of streets you see throughout. A truly beautiful aesthetic experience, and a world I really believed was real. Also, despite being set in a specific time period, Fences is a story that has a timeless feel, with themes of race, economic hardships and familial love and responsibility that will be topical forever, making it all the more emotional.

The main element that holds this film though is undoubtedly the performances. Firstly, Denzel gives perhaps the greatest performance of his illustrious career as Troy Maxson, a flawed and tormented man, who doesn’t know where to direct his frustrations except at those he loves. The film doesn’t excuse his actions, merely telling us why these actions happened, and despite making error after error, Denzel makes it very difficult to not at least empathize with Troy. He makes you resent him, love him, can make you laugh, and can make you scared. It is a fully fleshed out character, that Denzel injects so much power and energy into with every second he’s on screen. Viola Davis as Rose Maxson is simply incredible as well, and fully deserving of her Oscar win. She feeds off the energy that Denzel provides, even outshining him at times, especially during her monologue about her hopes and dreams. It could be argued Rose is the real heart of the film, since she is the much less flawed of the two main characters, but either way the chemistry between the two is electric, and Denzel and Viola seem as if they have lived in the skins of Troy and Rose for a long time. Finally in terms of performances, I feel I need to give a mention to the supporting cast. Stephen Henderson as Jim Bono, Jovan Adepo as Cory Maxson, Russel Hornsby as Lyons Maxson and Mykelti Williamson as Gabriel Maxson all do great jobs. They have small roles but are all very different types of characters, allowing you to see all sides of Troy and Rose, and acting as very effective foils for the powerhouse performances of the two leads.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on 2016’s Fences, a gem of a film. A dialogue driven piece of cinema that requires your patience, but if you give it that, it develops into beautifully raw human drama with themes and characters that will resonate for years to come, brought to life by a true acting clinic from the whole cast.

Fresh (2022) Review

Fresh is a 2022 comedy/ romance/ thriller starring Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones, written by Lauren Kahn and directed by Mimi Cave, in what is her feature directorial debut. The plot follows Noa, a young woman who is having no luck on the dating scene, but after a charming meet up in a supermarket, gives her number to Steve. From there on, she faces a battle to survive her new boyfriend’s unusual appetites.

For lack of a better word, Fresh is exactly that, by name and by nature. From the very start it has a vibrancy and a polished look to it, which was very impressive for a first time feature director. These visuals combined with the witty, zippy dialogue makes for a very enjoyable ride. It bounces back and forth between black comedy and horror/ thriller throughout, but the tonal shifts don’t come across as messy, they are balanced really well. I got the sense Cave was very aware of what the film was throughout, and it never goes too much into one genre, creating a fun blend.

Cave gives us just enough time with the characters, to figure out who they are, what they are like etc, so that when the twists and turns occur, they do make a genuine impact. Daisy Edgar-Jones is excellent, providing a real relatability and humanness to anchor the story, while Sebastian Stan seems like he’s having so much fun in his role, and while I don’t want to say much about it as to avoid spoilers, their chemistry works brilliantly throughout.

I would definitely recommend going into Fresh knowing as little as possible, as there are audacious twists and turns throughout what I found to be a demented but delightful experience, and I’m certainly excited for whatever may be Mimi Cave’s second feature.

Also- the opening credits don’t come in for 33 minutes, no idea why but I really liked that bold choice, and the title drop was very cool.

Turning Red (2022) Review

Turning Red is Pixar’s 25th and latest film, with a feature directorial debut for Domee Shi, after helming one of Pixar’s best ever shorts in 2018, Bao. It centres on 13 year old Mei, who is experiencing the awkwardness of her teenage years with an added struggle- whenever she gets too excited, she turns into a giant red panda.

It’s no secret that Pixar of recent years aren’t hitting the heights they did in the earlier days, where the quality and originality of ideas was just off the scale, with the likes of the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles just to name a few. In the recent years though, I was also a big fan of Toy Story 4 and Onward, but the misses are definitely becoming more regular in my view. Cars 3, Soul, and Luca were all pretty lacklustre to me, and I was hoping Turning Red would be a return to form, but sadly it wasn’t the case for me.

Fundamentally, while there are some classic Pixar themes at play, specifically the idea of change and coming of age, they just didn’t really connect with me. That’s not to say that there aren’t relatable elements, there definitely are, such as Mei working hard to please her overprotective mother, Ming, while simultaneously hiding her crushes for boys and her desire to sneak out to see her favourite band, which so much of the movie is focused on. Turning Red definitely does effectively nail down the idea that some childhood things, which seem minor when you look back as an adult, are everything to you at the time. But beside this relatable aspect, I did think the film played it very safe. It dips its toe into the coming of age theme, getting some parts right but ultimately taking very few risks, seemingly very content with just being a pretty by the numbers fluffy creature feature. The conflict with between Mei and her mother Ming started off really well and had potential, but then about half an hour in just gets abandoned almost completely, shying away from any meaningful relationship between the two and relieving a lot of possible tension and consequence. Linking to this, there was never any contrast or character arc with Mei’s group of friends either, the same beats were just repeated over and over. While they started off as quite fun and quirky, as the runtime went on they just became quite annoying and obnoxious. While I liked that they were a very supportive friend group, there really wasn’t much to them other than being loud and shouting, and as far as side characters go I thought they were pretty bland, forgettable and one dimensional.

One obvious positive I do want to quickly mention though is the animation, which shouldn’t be overlooked just because we’ve gotten used to Pixar’s very high standards aesthetically. As always its a beautifully vibrant film, with a great blend of realistic details even in some of the fantastical settings.

Despite the obvious style though, Turning Red just didn’t have enough substance for me overall. While Pixar obviously aren’t in their prime anymore, I still can’t help but get excited for each new film they do, since they made some of my favourite films of all time, animated or otherwise, when in their heyday, but unfortunately this one was a definite disappointment for me. A very paint by numbers and low stakes plot, and ultimately the characters just aren’t endearing or interesting enough to carry a largely mundane narrative. While its heart is definitely in the right place, and I’m glad its getting it positive reviews as I can see it being relatable to younger audiences, it was just a bit too messy and underdeveloped for me. Not one of Pixar’s worst, but not one of their best either.

My thoughts on Petite Maman (2021)

French director Céline Sciamma’s latest film is about eight-year old Nelly, who has just lost her grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. She explores the surrounding woods and the treehouse where her mother used to play, and meets a girl of her own age in the woods, building a treehouse.

I realise I’m a bit late to the party with this one, given it came out in France almost a year ago, but I recently watched it and just wanted to give my thoughts. Admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of Céline Sciamma’s previous film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire (which is blasphemous I know), but I do really love 2007’s Water Lilies. Petite Maman though is on a whole new level in my book. In just 72 minutes, with just a handful of actors and a couple of locations, Sciamma creates an incredible meditation on the everlasting themes of love, loss, grief and familial bonds. It is a truly moving tale, that moves at a beautiful pace. The shortness of it could trick you into thinking that it may get rushed in parts, but each plot point unfolds perfectly, with its sweetness lasting the whole runtime.

The tender, soft storytelling is welded together by the incredibly delicate performances of Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz, some of the best child acting I am likely to ever see I’m sure. Neither performance is big or loud, they are very quiet, but portray the innocence of youth, especially surrounding death and growing up, in a beautifully authentic manner.

The film hits the perfect notes throughout tonally, and the performances help so much in achieving what Sciamma wants thematically. She never shies away from the deeply sad things, but also presents such a kind and positive outlook on the acceptance of these things, with the idea that the memories we have will last forever. Sometimes when films are stripped down to the fundamentals you remember just how powerful cinema can be, and that’s exactly what Sciamma’s latest film did for me. A simple and very human take on such complex issues of life, with an amazing poignance and lasting message of everything will be okay.

Those are my thoughts and feelings on Petite Maman anyway. I wanted to be quite vague throughout this as to not give away any spoilers, as I’d implore you to watch this knowing as little as possible about the story. If you haven’t seen it, I couldn’t recommend it enough.