Edge of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat) (2014) [PG-13] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on June 5, 2014.

As improbable a concoction as it might seem, Edge of Tomorrow is a curious mix of ingredients from the 1993 Harold Ramis / Bill Murray comedy, Groundhog Day, and James Cameron's 1986 sequel to Alien. An Earth-versus-aliens tale set in the near future, Edge of Tomorrow offers a time-travel twist to its proceedings. Unlike many movies that toy with journeys through the fourth dimension, this one doesn't dwell on paradoxes and, at least until a tacked-on epilogue, plays by its own rules. Like last year's Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow gives Tom Cruise an opportunity to play an action/hero role in a science fiction playground. Because the script is smarter (based on a Japanese graphic novel called All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka), Edge of Tomorrow offers a more satisfying cinematic experience than Oblivion.

Edge of Tomorrow uses the popular faux news footage montage to set up the story. Earth has been invaded by extraterrestrials dubbed the mimics and all of Europe is in enemy hands. After losing battle after battle, the United Defense Forces have finally scored a victory at Verdun. Emboldened by the army's success, General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) has decided on an all-out assault led by war hero and media darling, Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt). To sell the attack to the planet, Brigham enlists the talents of army publicist Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), who he intends to send to the front line with a camera crew. Cage, unwilling to put his life on the line, refuses the direct order and ends up being busted in rank on trumped up charges, thrown into an infantry unit, and sent into the thick of the fighting.

When set upon by a member of a special mimic subspecies, Cage uses an explosive to destroy the creature. In the process, he kills himself, then awakens back at the beginning of his ordeal and has to endure the entire day another time. He dies again, is reborn again, and the cycle persists. It's déjà vu without end. Each time, Cage is able to use his memories of the battle to survive longer, until he eventually contacts Rita and learns that she knows something about his situation. Come find me when you wake up, she tells him before they are both killed.

Few things in a movie can get older faster than repetition. No one wants to watch the same scene, even with variations, over and over and over. To overcome this hurdle, director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) borrows some of the tricks employed by Ramis in Groundhog Day - showing just enough of a scene to make it clear we're in another iteration of the loop, then skipping ahead to the point when things start to change. This keeps everything flowing and discourages a flagging of the momentum. It also allows for moments of gallows humor. Those who don't care for Tom Cruise may derive some satisfaction from this aspect of the screenplay: Cage is killed several hundred times during the course of Edge of Tomorrow. Visually, the film, which transpires in London, has its share of impressive moments, although the special effects don't completely dominate. The 3-D makes good use of spatial relationships but unfortunately degrades the darker scenes.

The main thrust of Edge of Tomorrow focuses on Cage's use of his immortality/time reset ability to locate the aliens' brain and find a way to win the war. That's straightforward; what's more subtle and potentially more interesting is how the relationship between Cage and Rita develops. Each time they meet, Rita's interaction with Cage is reset from her perspective. She doesn't know him. For him, however, it's the continuation of a growing relationship. He becomes familiar with her to the point where he develops deep feelings. For her, however, he's always a stranger. The growing disparity between how they view each other fuels their interplay later in the story. Reticence conflicts with intimacy.

The part of Cage is in Cruise's wheelhouse; he could probably do this kind of role in his sleep. The one out on a limb is Emily Blunt, whose kick-ass interpretation of Rita recalls a couple of strong James Cameron heroines: Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor. Blunt, who often does softer roles, is credible as the Hero of Verdun. Brendan Gleeson, as the general in charge of the war, and Bill Paxton, as Cage's commanding officer, are both excellent in supporting roles.

Movies that employ time travel as a plot device often become exercises in mental agility. That's not the case with Edge of Tomorrow, which uses a straightforward approach. The explanation for Cage's ability is explained in a clear, uncluttered fashion and the manner in which his days unfold are no more confusing than those in Groundhog Day. There's plenty of action and, despite the fact that much of it is repeated, it never becomes repetitive. Edge of Tomorrow is clever enough that the viewer doesn't have to feel embarrassed sitting in the audience but not so clever that there's no fun to be had. [Berardinelli’s rating: 3 out of 4 stars]

Labels: action, adventure, alien-invasion, Emily Blunt, sci-fi, space-time, thriller

Internet Movie Database 7.9/10 

Metacritic 71/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=75, viewers=84) 

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Pacific Rim (2013) [PG-13] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli, for ReelViews.net, July 11, 2013.

Call it Godzilla (Toho version) on steroids, or perhaps Transformers with a heart. Either way, there's no mystery about what Pacific Rim is and, more importantly, what it delivers. It's the perfect summer spectacle, with giant robots pounding on monsters, monsters stomping on cities, and the kind of mayhem that only big theaters with big screens and big sound systems can truly convey. There's not a single original moment to be found in Pacific Rim's 130-minute running time, but that doesn't much matter because the familiar beats are conveyed with maximum expertise intended to provide a visceral experience.

The movie begins with a concise recap of what has gone before. Alien creatures called kaiju [Japanese for strange beast or monster] by the world media have arisen from a rift deep in the Pacific Ocean to wreak havoc on humanity. To counter this threat, the world governments band together to fund the jaeger [German for hunter] program - giant robots piloted by two mind-linked humans that can go toe-to-toe with the kaiju. For a while, the jaeger gain superiority and the pilots achieve rock star popularity. Then things start getting tough. The kaiju become bigger and more dangerous and the frequency of their appearances increase. The jaeger are systematically destroyed until there are only four left. The program is de-funded and, led by Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), forced to go underground and work as a resistance.

At the height of the war, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) is an elite jaeger pilot but, after his brother is killed and his robot severely damaged, he disappears into obscurity. Now, with the world on the brink, Pentecost locates him and pulls him back into active duty. His robot has been reconstructed and upgraded. All he needs is a new co-pilot - something he finds in Pentecost's ward, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). Their first trial run is a disaster but, when a pair of kaiju attack Hong Kong and disable the other three jaeger, there's no option but to send Raleigh and Mako into action.

This Hong Kong battle, which occurs about two-thirds of the way through the movie, is without a doubt Pacific Rim's highlight. It's an adrenaline-and-testosterone cocktail that fans of monster movies, robot movies, and high octane action films will swallow in a single gulp. This is bravura filmmaking that only top-notch, special effects-comfortable directors can choreograph. The thing that really makes this work, however, is the human element. There are people inside the robots and Pacific Rim never forgets that. In fact, it goes out of its way to develop and amplify the friendship/romance between Raleigh and Mako. Both are damaged souls searching for redemption and the chemistry between Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi is effective enough to make us believe in these two as friends and future lovers.

The primary difference between Pacific Rim and Transformers is easy to identify. For Michael Bay, Transformers is all about the wow factor. It's about explosions, robot-on-robot smackdowns, and cutting edge special effects. Everything else is an annoying detail, sometimes marginalized and often ignored. For Guillermo del Toro, the wow factor is paramount as well, but del Toro also cares about the other things: character development, relationships, narrative progression, and so forth. Transformers is an extended highlight reel; Pacific Rim is a complete film.

Pacific Rim is all about visuals so a comment or two is warranted about the presentation. The 3-D is, for the most part, used effectively but, as is often the case with this technology, there's an issue. About 75% of Pacific Rim transpires at night or deep under the ocean, where light is at a premium. 3-D by its nature diminishes the amount of light that reaches the viewer's eyes, and this becomes an issue. There are times when it's difficult to see what's happening in 3-D. Take off the glasses, however, and the action becomes clearer even as the image turns fuzzy. The trade-off isn't necessary in 2-D.

There are some pacing issues. The comic relief featuring Charlie Day and Burn Gorman as rival scientists is lame and distracting and has a smaller payoff than one might reasonably expect. The two actors play their roles broadly, aiming for laughs by being spastic and off-the-wall; it's not an asset. This subplot also gives a chance for the great Ron Perlman to make an appearance and, although Perlman is always welcome, the role is unnecessary. This is del Toro's solution to avoid things becoming too serious and it doesn't really work. Because as soon as the movie cuts away from Day and Gorman, it's back to citywide devastation and thousands of people dying. A throwaway shot of Newton's Cradle is more chuckle-worthy than fifteen minutes of the antics of these two.

Pacific Rim could be accused of an anticlimactic finale, but that's because the Hong Kong battle is so good that it can't be topped by what happens in the final fifteen minutes. So, in a strange way, it's more of a strength than a weakness. There are also some nice moments that have nothing to do with big-time special effects. One of the most memorable, human scenes features Raleigh and Mako squaring off in hand-to-hand combat to determine if she's worthy of being his partner. And just about everything with Idris Elba is solid… but that's only to be expected.

Pacific Rim shows what del Toro can do when given a big budget and free rein. It's not as thoughtful a piece as Pan's Labyrinth but it's every bit kick-ass as the two Hellboy movies. And, although it's a genre film with lots of pyrotechnics, it's not so stupid that it requires disclaimers to go along with a positive review. It's big, loud, and fun but doesn't leave the viewer feeling vaguely insulted about the filmmaker's opinion of who's watching. Del Toro's nearly fanboy-ish joy for the genre shines through but it's also apparent that understands how to make a good movie, and that's a differentiator between this and many seemingly similar tent pole productions. [Berardinelli's rating: 3 out of 4]

Labels: action, adventure, alien-invasion, sci-fi

Internet Movie Database 

Metacritic 64/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=67, viewers=78) 

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Blu-ray 3D 

Man of Steel (2013) [PG-13] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on June 13, 2013.

Man of Steel represents the latest attempt by Warner Brothers to revive a Superman franchise that, since its stunning 1878 revival, has been abominably treated for about 30 years (ever since Richard Donner was unceremoniously fired from Superman II). This movie certainly looks and feels a lot different than any of its predecessors, and that's not just because of the crappy 3-D. It's more of a science fiction/fantasy adventure than a superhero movie. In a way that's good, because it doesn't come across like a tired retread of every origin story we've ever seen. On the other hand, it's not good, because the sci-fi feel has been overly influenced by the likes of Independence Day and Transformers. That's right: blow everything up, real good! Pyrotechnics! Special Effects! CGI up the wazoo! For those who crave cinematic mayhem, Man of Steel is right up your alley (and it will make a ton of money). But something important has been lost along the way: heart. This is a cold, sterile motion picture. The characters are so thinly drawn that it's tough to get much feel for them. And one senses that director Zack Snyder is less interested in Superman than he is in the orgy of destruction he gets to rain down on Metropolis. Somewhere, Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay are smiling.

Man of Steel opens with the obligatory introductory Krypton sequence. It's some of the best material the movie has to offer; the dying planet is visually impressive and the acting by Russell Crowe as Jor-El is some of the best work the actor has provided in a long time. Gone is the flat, stilted interpretation offered by Marlon Brando sleepwalking his way through the role on the way to a fat paycheck. Crowe's Jor-El is heroic and charismatic. With Krypton nearing its end, he places his little boy into a spacecraft and sends him to Earth. Meanwhile, the hard-ass General Zod (Michael Shannon in full scenery-chewing mode) attempts a coup, fails, and is sentenced to spend some time in The Phantom Zone for his troubles.

The first time we meet Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), he's trying out for The Deadliest Catch. After saving some men on a doomed oil rig, Clark floats around in the water experiencing convenient flashbacks to his childhood living in Kansas with Ma and Pa Kent (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner). Once these are done, he heads north and, after paying homage to the diner scene in Superman II, reaches the Fortress of Solitude, which is actually a spaceship buried under arctic ice. In that frozen wasteland, he also meets intrepid reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) who immediately falls for the big hunk after he saves her life. In the spaceship, Clark meets an avatar of his dad and gets his costume. It's around this time that Zod and his followers, freed from The Phantom Zone, reach Earth and Superman must choose between continuing to live anonymously or taking a front seat as the planet's defender. Unlike Zod in Superman II, who came to conquer, this Zod comes to destroy.

Man of Steel is, first and foremost, a great spectacle. The effects work is first rate and the action sequences, of which there are many, are delivered with a kinetic punch. The tone is dour - humor is at a premium and, on those rare occasions when it's there, the delivery is decidedly low-key. The movie wants desperately to be taken seriously and viewed as something more than a comic book film. Perhaps, in the end, that's one reason why Man of Steel rarely feels heroic and never truly soars. Sure, Superman eventually wins but at the cost of thousands of lives (we're not given a specific body count but it has to be very high).

Christopher Nolan's influence will be hotly debated, especially since the producer has been coy about the full extent of his involvement in the final product, stating only that it's Zack Synder's film. Indeed, Man of Steel is closer to Watchmen than to Batman Begins in terms of its look and feel. It's a style over substance thing, spectacle over heart. Snyder never ceases to amaze visually but one could make a compelling case that he misses what defines Superman's uniqueness. It makes sense for Batman to live in the dark but Superman has always been a figure of light and truth. That's one reason he's a difficult movie subject because there's no ambiguity about who he is and what he represents, and there's something about the darkness that pervades Man of Steel that feels wrong for the character.

The choice of Henry Cavill to don the cape is inspired; Cavill is easily the most accomplished actor thus far to fill the role and, while no one will ever fully eclipse what Christopher Reeve brought to the screen, Cavill uses Man of Steel as an opportunity to lay the foundation for what could be a long and memorable run. He combines the matinee appeal of Reeve and Brandon Routh with a stronger resume although, truth be told, the screenplay under uses his range. The main requirement for Cavill is to look the part.

As a cookie-cutter super-villain, Michael Shannon does a good job overacting. He snarls and yells and exudes menace. He rants and does all sorts of nasty things. In the end, however, it's the name Zod that puts Shannon at a disadvantage because it forces him to exist in the long shadow of Terence Stamp. Stamp's Zod is arguably one of the twenty most memorable movie bad guys and Shannon doesn't touch him. The other casting miscalculation is Amy Adams as Lois Lane; the part doesn't fit. [Blogger’s comment… I disagree. Amy Adams is excellent.]  On the other hand, there are some great choices, although most of them are sadly underused. Laurence Fishburne makes a terrific Perry White, although he has very little screen time. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are great as Clark's Earth parents although Costner in particular deserves more screen time.

Man of Steel delivers forcefully on its promise to take Superman in a different direction. Perhaps that's a good idea; after all, Richard Donner (with an assist from Richard Lester) has done the traditional Superman as well as it can be done. But a lot is missing, and the most telling absence is the element that makes Superman more the hero of his own story rather than the pawn of special effects. This is a less promising opening act than Batman Begins because it mines so little new territory. Remakes like Man of Steel are about intangibles like tone and style and how well the soul of the central conceit has been maintained. Snyder succeeds in making this movie sufficiently different to justify its existence. The open question is whether this Superman can spearhead a franchise that aspires to greatness or whether this new dark vision is merely window dressing. [Berardinelli's rating: *** out of 4]

Labels: action, adventure, alien-invasion, Diane Lane, fantasy, sci-fi

Internet Movie Database 

Metacritic 55/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=62, viewers=78)

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Blu-ray 3D 

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Oblivion (2013) [PG-13] ****

A film review by Richard Corliss, April 19, 2013.

Earth, 2077. Sixty years earlier, alien invaders had blown up our moon, and an intergalactic battle ensued. We won the war but lost the planet, says Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), a kind of grease-monkey pilot whose job is to repair the drones that monitor desolate Earth while the rest of humanity lives in a remote space station. His coworker and assigned girlfriend Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) directs Jack’s flying sorties over the wreckage of Manhattan, which may literally be a no-man’s land. Yet as he lies in bed with Victoria, Jack has visions of another, mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko), from his fantasies or his past. I know you, but we’ve never met. I’m with you and I don’t know your name. I know I’m dreaming, but it feels like more that. It feels like a memory. How can that be?

And how is it that science-fiction films imagine the worst for our future while steeped in love-loss for our past? Perhaps because the genre blossomed, as literature and then cinema, in the late 1940s — the time of the Cold War and the first nuclear age — when our world’s two great powers played a deadly game of mutually assured destruction, and when fearing the prospect of human extinction was not paranoia, just common sense. It’s no wonder that any time before the Bomb seemed Edenic to sci-fi writers, readers and moviegoers; any time after might spell The End.

The same warm ache of nostalgia envelops the Jack of 2077, the hero of Joseph Kosinski’s oh-so-serious Oblivion, for the pre-invasion Earth of 2017. He stands at the top of the Empire State Building, most of it covered in sand and rubble, wanders through the caverns of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street (only eight blocks away from King Kong’s final perch but miraculously not buried) and patrols Yankee Stadium, scene of the very last World Series. He saves old books, a catcher’s mitt and baseball and some LPs from the 1960s and ’70s; Procol Harum keeps playing on his internal iTunes. Fixating on the 1948 Andrew Wyeth painting Christina’s World, and on his dream girl, Jack finds a verdant interior life in this wasteland by mixing memory and desire. His poetic guide, though, is not Eliot but Macaulay, whose famous couplet in The Lays of Ancient Rome — And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, / For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods… — haunts Jack like a long-ago pop tune or a distant battle cry.

Oblivion must be the only science-fiction film that borrows substantially from I Am Legend, WALL-E and Sleepless in Seattle — itself a remake of 1957′s An Affair to Remember, which was a remake of 1939′s Love Affair. In fact, everything in this movie keeps looking backward. Victoria warns Jack that Our job is to not remember. Remember? That’s the cue for this company man with a rebellious streak to find his future in the past, to decide if he’s fishing for memory or waking up inside of a dream. Jack must attend to the dual meaning of oblivion: nothing and forgetfulness. If we’ve misplaced our memories, we’ve lost ourselves.

The movie’s trailer and poster have alerted viewers that Jack and Victoria are not alone on Earth. Morgan Freeman briefly emerges from the underworld as a Zeus-Hades insurgent, sporting sunglasses and chomping on a cigar. (Where’d he find that — in a subterranean smoke shop?) Melissa Leo, with a fake-syrupy Southern accent, is seen on Riseborough’s screen as a mid-level operative back at Mission Control. And Kurylenko, also in theaters now as Ben Affleck’s whirling wife in Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, eventually shows up in person when Jack rescues her from a shot-down spaceship on which she had taken a long cryogenic nap. (No surprise: she looks great.) But Oblivion is still so under-populated that. when Jack requires a suitable rival for a bare-knuckles fight, it’s a clone of himself.

Kosinski, the 3-D graphics whiz who has a Master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University, made his feature-film debut with the 2010 Tron: Legacy (a sequel-remake that also hop-scotches through time). Oblivion shows that Kosinski certainly has an eye for spiffy shapes — the sleek watchtower, the collapsible metallic grandeur of Jack’s aircraft, the platoon of drones with one glowering red eye and the frowning face of a Pac-man goblin— amid a ravishingly barren landscape. Indeed, the juggling of opposites is this director’s game: to make an artistic statement while indulging his star’s need to be a Top Gun aerial ace, a moto-bike demon and an old-fashioned romantic swain.

Cruise nearly carries it off. At 50, with a few becoming facial creases but also looking cryogenically preserved, he is still the boyish action star, a perpetual-motion machine who’s been told No so many times he’s stopped listening and leaped into the enthralling unknown. The extreme close-ups that find only generic worry in Riseborough’s face are kind to Cruise; he instinctively knows how to communicate to an audience through a possibly thoughtful stare. (We haven’t seen the old-young smiling Tom on the big screen for ages; he’s taken Will Smith’s lead and traded in his trademark grin for a world-weary grimace.) After playing the desiccated Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages, and the hobo sleuth in Jack Reacher, Cruise completes his Jack trilogy as Harper, spelunking inside the crevices of his memory or fantasy.

The exigencies of Cruise’s participation demand fights and flights. We get one pretty cool space dogfight, as Jack plays bumper cars with a flotilla of enemy aircraft, and one lame one that’s way too reminiscent of, and less thrilling than, the climactic chase in the original Star Wars. Rule for sci-fi directors: No more aerial Indy 500-style battles in narrow canyons.

But the biggest collision in Oblivion — one Kosinski may not have intended — is between the feverish action scenes and the slowness, we might say torpor, of the rest of the film. For all the shouting and swooning, characters don’t connect; and by the end, when all the clones and drones are accounted for, science-fiction entropy has given way to audience ennui. Six minutes or 60 years after seeing the movie, viewers are unlikely to remember it.

In space, Jack hopes, someone may hear you dream. But in a movie theater, no one will see you yawn.

Labels: action, adventure, AI, alien-invasion, mystery, sci-fi

Internet Movie Database 

Metacritic 54/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=59, viewers=70) 

Blu-ray  
Olga Kurylenko talks Oblivion

Battleship (2012) [PG-13] ***

A film review by Roger Ebert, May 16, 2012.

This could be like Columbus and the Indians, a nerdy radio astronomer worries… except we're the Indians. From a powerful transmission facility in Hawaii, he's supervised the transmission of a signal to the Earth-like Planet G in another galaxy, and in no time at all, aliens come calling. Considering that they arrive in weeks, they must have discovered faster-than-light speeds, so it's a little strange that when they arrive they're strictly analog. Their vast warships splash down in the Pacific (except for fragments that devastate Hong Kong in one of those toppling skyscraper scenes so beloved in disaster movies). But these alien crafts are only armed at a level that makes their battle with U.S. warships more or less a standoff.

Why would the U.S. fleet conveniently already be near the splashdown point? It's involved in war games with allies such as Japan, which provides an excuse for a Japanese officer to take temporary command of one of our ships and thus boost the grosses of Battleship in Asia. It's also handy that the aliens create a force field that forms an impenetrable barrier around their craft, which seals in three U.S. ships, locks out all other ships and explains why our jets don't simply nuke the SOB. 

Of course, in the old B-movie tradition, our response to the alien visit is immediately military. There's not one word of discussion about the aliens possibly just making a social call. We invite them, they come and we open fire. This, despite the fact that they're remarkably humanoid. When we finally remove the helmet from one alien's spacesuit, he turns out to look alarmingly like James Carville.

In the set-up, we meet a shiftless beach bum named Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), whose brother Stone (Alexander Skarsgard) is a naval officer. In a bar, Alex hits on the lithesome Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker), who wouldn't you know is the daughter of the admiral of the fleet (Liam Neeson). Breaking into a convenience store to get her a burrito, Alex is arrested and his brother delivers an ultimatum: Join the Navy or else.

Meanwhile, the nerdy Cal (Hamish Linklater) supervises transmission of the signal to Planet G, and in no more time than it takes to get Alex into uniform and on board a U.S. destroyer, five alien spacecraft enter our solar system in tight formation. One alien craft then levitates from the ocean depths, as large as a skyscraper and bristling with ominous protrusions. You gotta say it takes real nerve for a communications officer (Rihanna) and two seamen to speed over to it in a rubber boat armed with just a machine gun.

In a parallel story, we learn Samantha is a physical therapist working with the Army vet Mick Canales (real-life Iraq hero Gregory D. Gadson). She takes him on a hike up the mountainside where the big NASA radio dishes are located, they meet the nerd, and much depends on preventing the aliens from phoning home. In the Pentagon situation room, officials fret. There's the obligatory montage of cable news reports on the alien invasion, and the U.S. destroyers exchange fire with the aliens. Two ships are destroyed, including the one commanded by Stone, and after several officers on Alex's ship die, he turns out to be next in command and becomes the captain of the surviving U.S. destroyer. So that's convenient. The characters we met at the beginning all become the key players.

Battleship is based on the Hasbro board game of the same name, never played by me. You get a sense of that when radar doesn't work, and Japanese Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano) figures out a way to deduce the underwater movements of the alien craft by tracking wave patterns on a grid using NOAA tsunami wave buoys. The film eventually comes down to lots of scenes in which things get blown up real good. One alien weapon is especially fearsome: a large metal ball with spikes, which rolls through things and flattens them. Were less sophisticated versions of this used in medieval times, maybe made of flaming tar balls?

The film is in the tradition of the Transformers movies, also based on Hasbro games, and you get the feeling that Hasbro showed director Peter Berg some Michael Bay movies and told him to go and do likewise. To his credit, Battleship is a more entertaining film than the Transformers titles, because it has slightly more fully fleshed characters, a better plot and a lot of naval combat strategy. The work of Gregory D. Gadson, as the disabled vet, is especially effective; he has a fierce screen presence. Rihanna is as convincing as the character allows, and Taylor Kitsch makes a sturdy if predictable hero.

But the nicest touch is that Battleship has an honest-to-God third act, instead of just settling for nonstop fireballs and explosions, as Bay likes to do. I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's say the Greatest Generation still has the right stuff and leave it at that.

Labels: action, adventure, alien-invasion, sci-fi, thriller, war
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 41/100

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=46, viewers=68)

Blu-ray

Star Trek (2009) [PG-13] *****

In this prequel we meet all of the original characters of the TV series and films in their formative, fuzzy-cheeked years. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Dr. Leonard Bones McCoy (Karl Urban), Montgomery Scotty Scott (Simon Pegg), Hiraku Sulu (John Cho), Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin), and Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are all present, in body if not in spirit.

There's a genocidal, planet-destroying Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana), there's time-traveling and black holes. Spock comes face-to-face with Spock Prime, an older version of himself played by Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played the original Spock. Kirk and Spock fight, Uhura falls in love with Spock, Bones hates outer space, and Scotty saves the day... again.

The production values, sets and special effects are all reasonably good, as one would expect. Sadly, however, the pedestrian, rather derivative screenplay by Roberto Orsi and Alex Kurtzman (who co-wrote Transformers, Mission: Impossible III and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) fails to deliver. The uninspired direction by J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III) leads us to conclude that the writers and director believe that action and special effects can replace drama depth and character development. As a result, the actors have no clue about their roles; either they misinterpret the character, as Winona Ryder does when she plays Spock's mother and flirts with her son, or they simply phone in their performances. The chemistry between the crew members that was so good in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is missing; the multi-generational dynamics of Star Trek: Generations are sadly absent, and the passion, conviction and purpose of Star Trek: Insurrection is lacking. Trekkies and viewers who are entertained by the Michael Bay style of filmmaking (Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) will fully appreciate Star Trek. Viewers who demand some subtlety and finesse in movie-making will not be impressed. 

Labels: action, adventure, alien-invasion, sci-fi   
Internet Movie Database    
Metacritic 83/100    
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=82, viewers=82)    
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The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) [PG-13] ***

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net

By all accounts, both the director (Scott Derrickson) and star (Keanu Reeves) of this 2008 film are fans of its 1951 precursor. So what went wrong? At what point did this initially promising remake lose its way? After all, Robert Wise's science fiction classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, is far from a perfect motion picture. Parts of the movie are contrived and there are gaps in logic and common sense. That being said, it's a powerful and compelling motion picture with something specific to say about the human condition. The new version, while admittedly addressing aspects of the first that date it, opens new holes, some of which are more problematic. Worse, it lacks the simple elegance and intelligence of the earlier film, and employs special effects and pointless action scenes to replace passages of dialogue.

A successful remake has a difficult path to traverse. It must honor the original while at the same time bringing something new, interesting, and intelligent to the project. The Day the Earth Stood Still fails a little in both categories. Too often, the need to be a spectacle trumps the desire to be smart and thought-provoking, and this works to the film's detriment. The original The Day the Earth Stood Still was like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. This movie feels too much like a '90s/'00s generic disaster feature. Okay, The Empire State Building remains intact and the Statue of Liberty is still hoisting her torch, but let's just say that the Giants and Jets are going to need new homes.

Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) arrives on Earth with the giant robot Gort in tow. His vehicle of choice is a giant, pulsating sphere which parks in New York's Central Park. Before Klaatu can intone, Take Me to Your Leader to the greeting party headed by Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), he has been shot and is on his way to an undercover medical lab for surgery. The operation reveals that, under a protective layer of placenta-like material, is Keanu Reeves. He has a job to do, which includes making a speech to all the leaders of the world, and no one - especially not Secretary of Defense Jackson (Kathy Bates) - is going to stop him.

In 1951, Klaatu came to Earth to offer a grim prognostication for the human race if we continued pursuing the insane strategy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). In 2008, Klaatu's beef is global warming. He succinctly states his case for genocide: The planet is too valuable to allow its indigenous human population to destroy it. Better that they be eliminated so it can survive rather than allowing them to destroy it and themselves with it. Either way, after all, mankind is dead.

The Day the Earth Stood Still opens strongly, with a credible enactment of how such a first contact might occur and a vivid introduction of Klaatu and Gort. Some of the ideas surrounding Klaatu's stay in the medical facility are also interesting. The film veers off course during its second half with clichéd character building sequences, pointless pyrotechnics, and a lot of running around in the backwoods of a New Jersey that looks suspiciously like British Columbia. The ending is a bit of an anti-climax and lacks the ominous and downbeat warning of its predecessor.

There's a kid in this movie, just as there was in the first one. Here, he's the step-son of Dr. Benson and is played by Will and Jada's son, 10-year old Jaden Smith. My complaints are about the character, Jacob, not Smith's portrayal of him. This child is a source of frequent irritation. It's as if he was written with a checklist in mind of all the annoying things 10-year old kids do in movies. He's not just a stereotype; he's an infuriating stereotype. His arc is equally predictable - he starts out the film as the stepson of the woman he calls Helen but, by the end, they have bonded and she is Mom. Along the way, he's on hand to do things like phone the military and tell them Klaatu's location.

Keanu Reeves is a good choice to play the implacable world-killer. The low-key, largely emotionless actor imbues Klaatu with an alien quality. Mr. Spock would appreciate the character's cold logic as he discusses why the human race's time is up. Jennifer Connelly has the thankless role of the sidekick (at least she's a scientist, not a secretary). Hopefully, she got a nice paycheck. John Cleese makes the film's biggest impression in what amounts to a one-scene cameo. He presents an impassioned case for why the human race should be given a second chance, then suggests Helen use something other than logic to persuade Klaatu. This opens up a lot of interesting possibilities about where the movie could have gone but elects not to go.

Mention must be made of Klaatu barada nicto, which has become a cult science fiction phrase over the years. Remaking The Day the Earth Stood Still without it would be like remaking Star Wars without May the Force Be with You or Star Trek without Live Long and Prosper. According to the filmmakers, Klaatu barada nicto is in The Day the Earth Stood Still, [Blogger: Klaatu says it when Gort comes to rescue him after he’s been shot] but it is drowned out by the overactive soundtrack. Regardless, it's inaudible and so might just as well have been left out of the movie. The film does a little better with other nods to the original, such as scenes involving a sea of tombstones and a blackboard equation, and the re-use of some of Bernard Herrmann's music.

If one ignores the fact that The Day the Earth Stood Still is a remake, it still falls short of expectations. There's too little drama and tension and Gort's eventual transformation into a lethal cloud makes for a less-than-thrilling climax. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the production is that there would appear to be considerable room to update the story and, while some of that is done, it is largely a wasted opportunity. Remaking a movie is easy. Engineering a good remake is difficult. One key quality that separates the two is inspiration, and that's a characteristic not to be found in 2008's The Day the Earth Stood Still. [Berardinelli’s rating: ** out of 4 stars]

Labels: alien-invasion, drama, sci-fi, thriller

Internet Movie Database 

Metacritic 40/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=41, viewers=56)

Blu-ray 

Blogger's comment: There's a chilling message in this film. Natural systems exist in balance, but humans stress to the limit every natural system we touch, due to the business profit motive. Unless we change, and that's unlikely, we will end up destroying our natural environment.

Transformers (2007) [PG-13] ****

A film review by Roger Ebert.

Now I have fans who say, We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck but we love you. That's what the director of Transformers told Simon Ang during an interview in Seoul. He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Bad Boys II) but I find it possible to love him for a movie like Transformers. It's goofy fun with a lot of stuff that blows up real good, and it has the grace not only to realize how preposterous it is, but to make that into an asset.

The movie is inspired by the Transformer toys that twist and fold and double in upon themselves, like a Rubik's Cube crossed with a contortionist. A yellow Camaro unfolds into a hulking robot, helicopters become walking death monsters, and an enemy named Megatron rumbles onto the screen and, in a voice that resembles the sound effects in Earthquake, introduces himself: I--AM--MEGATRON!!!

I think that's the first time I've used three exclamation points. But Megatron is a three-exclamation-point kinda robot. He is the most fearsome warrior of the evil Decepticons, enemies of the benevolent Transformers. Both races (or maybe they're brands) of robots fled the doomed planet Cybertron and have been drawn to Earth because Megatron crash-landed near the North Pole a century ago and possesses the Allspark, which is the key to something, I'm not sure what, but since it's basically an alien MacGuffin it doesn't much matter. (Note to fanboys about to send me an e-mail explaining the Allspark: Look up MacGuffin in Wikipedia.)

The movie opens like one of those teen comedies where the likable hero is picked on by bullies at school, partly because he didn't make the football team, and mostly because he doesn't have a keen car. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) talks his dad into buying him one, and he ends up with an old beater, a yellow Camaro that is actually the Transformer named Bumblebee and gets so mad when his paint job is insulted that it transforms itself into a shiny new Camaro.

This is more than a hot car. It plays the soundtrack to Sam's life. It helps Sam become visible to his sexy classmate Mikaela (Megan Fox), who says, Do I know you? Sam mentions casually that they take four classes together and have been in the same school since first grade. The high school stuff, which could be a teenage comedy on its own, segues into the battling robot stuff, and there is some low-key political satire in which the secretary of defense (Jon Voight) runs the country, while the president (not even credited) limits himself to a request for a Ding-Dong.

Voight sends the armed services into action, and we see a lot of Sgt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Tech Sgt. Epps (Tyrese Gibson). They and their men labor during much of the movie under the optimistic impression that a metal robot the size of a 10-story building can be defeated by, or even brought to notice, automatic weapons fire. Sam and Bumblebee are crucial to the struggle, although a secret ops guy (John Turturro) asks the defense secretary, You gonna lay the fate of the world on a kid's Camaro?

Everything comes down to an epic battle between the Transformers and the Decepticons, and that's when my attention began to wander, and the movie lost a potential fourth star. First let me say that the robots, created by Industrial Light and Magic, are indeed delightful creatures; you can look hard and see the truck windshields, hubcaps and junkyard stuff they're made of. And their movements are ingenious, especially a scorpion-like robot in the desert. (Little spider robots owe something to the similar creatures in Spielberg's Minority Report, and we note he is a producer of this movie.) How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible.

All the same, the mechanical battle goes on and on and on and on, with robots banging into each other and crashing into buildings, and buildings falling into the street, and the military firing, and jets sweeping overhead, and Megatron and the good hero, Optimus Prime, duking it out, and the soundtrack sawing away at thrilling music, and enough is enough. Just because CGI makes such endless sequences possible doesn't make them necessary. They should be choreographed to reflect a strategy and not simply reflect shapeless, random violence. Here the robots are like TV wrestlers who are down but usually not out.

I saw the movie on the largest screen in our nearest multiplex. It was standing room only, and hundreds were turned away. Even the name of Hasbro, maker of the Transformers toys, was cheered during the titles, and the audience laughed and applauded and loved all the human parts and the opening comedy. But when the battle of the titans began, a curious thing happened. The theater fell dead silent. No cheers. No reaction whether Optimus Prime or Megatron was on top. No nothing. I looked around and saw only passive faces looking at the screen.

My guess is we're getting to the point where CGI should be used as a topping and not the whole pizza. The movie runs 144 minutes. You could bring it in at two hours by cutting CGI shots, and have a better movie.

Labels: action, AI, alien-invasion, sci-fi, thriller   
Internet Movie Database   
Metacritic 61/100  

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=58, viewers=82)   
Blu-ray1   
Blu-ray2