Dune - misunderstood classic or incoherent mess.

Dune

(minor Spoiler review)

An hour ago I stepped out of the Astor theatre where I watched Dune on the big screen for the first time since I was a kid. I had recently revisited the film on Netflix but to be honest I treated it more as a background film rather than giving it my full attention. I've never read the books though I have seen the made for TV mini series.  I'm not exactly what you would consider a fan of the Dune universe though I've always heard people tell me how great it is.

My initial thoughts this time through was that visually Dune is not only up there with the original Star Wars trilogy but is in some aspects superior to it. The sets are lavish and feel lived in, the costumes look amazing and there are numerous weird and trippy sequences which helped keep me engaged. Underneath that though is a script that is tough going and the reason for this is that its exposition heavy. Several conversations feel like dry exposition dumps that aren't particularly engaging. Its a problem that often plagues good sci-fi. Writers want to get us up to speed on the universe so that they can get going with the plot but with a limited time frame, they need to give us a lot of information and half the time the audience ends up zoning out.  I'm willing to wager that if I had read the novels prior to watching this, then a lot of the sequences would feel far less disjointed but since I hadn't read them and didn't have wikipedia on standby,  there were several sequences that left me scratching my head. Why is the emperor of the universe taking orders from a giant space slug which navigates through space? What exactly is the water of life and how does its properties differ from the Spice that they're mining amd why does the Barron keep giving himself boils and diseases?  The answers to these questions and more eluded me.

Now having an exposition heavy film isn't necessarily the kiss of death, however, when the characters giving this dialogue feel dry and unengaging then we have a big problem. Kyle McLauchlan gives a reasonable performance as Muad Dib, the messianic hero of the film. Though none of the other cast members get a chance to really shine. Its a pity given the talent involved in the production, Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif and Sting to name just a few of the strong actors involved in smaller roles. I've always felt that one of the signatures of David Lynch films is that his characters have this weird disconnect from the films they inhabit. This works well within dream sequences and especially in films like Mulholland Drive. In Dune however, it results in the characters becoming much harder to engage or identify with.

So to conclude, whilst Dune is a lavish film to look at with some interesting ideas, it's also difficult for non-fans to engage with in part because its trying to give us too much story in one hit and in part because of the style of acting. I really have no idea how to rate this film. I didn't hate it and it was certainly a great experience to see it on the big screen. That said, I feel that the problems which bog the film down, have prevented it from ever being seen as a true classic.

Rampage - Best movie based on a video game???

Rampage

(Non Spoiler review)

Back in 1986, the company Bally Midway released the arcade game Rampage. This was a game that allowed the user to play as one of three giant rampaging monsters. The object was simple destroy the buildings to progress to the next level and in the process eat humans and smash the army standing in your way. It was a lot of fun back in the day, especially for those of us who loved giant monster movies such as Godzilla 1985. The game has since had numerous ports and sequels though these days its not really the most memorable game. I imagine that outside of those of us in our 30s or 40s, very few gamers would be familiar with the franchise. Fast forward to 2018 and this beloved video game series has been turned into a movie.   

Video game movies have somewhat of a poor reputation. In my opinion this is because the majority of video games have poorly written lead characters who are blank slates for the player to become. There are certainly exceptions to this but even in modern day games with rich storylines, the player will typically guide their character and choose the sorts of decisions that they will make in order to shape the plot. Arguably the strongest video game based movie series to date is Resident Evil which created a brand new lead character in order to side step this issue. Rampage follows this example by giving us the character of Davis Okoye played by Dwayne Johnson. Davis is a muscle bound animal loving, poacher fighting hero at least as far the film is concerned, in reality its just the Rock doing his thing and carrying the film.

It would be easy to tear this film apart and point out the awful acting or the one dimensional characters but that would do the film a massive disservice. Rampage was never trying to get bums on seats because of its clever plot or because of its well planned out character arcs. This is a monster movie and its proud of its heritage. The pace rarely slows down, the effects work is just about as good as it needs to be to get the job done. 10 years ago it would have looked incredible now its just run of the mill. Remember how I said earlier that the characters are 1 dimensional? Well truth be told there's an odd sort of charm to the cast and how they ham it up. Especially Jeffrey Dean Morgan who is having a ball of a time. Much like Pacific Rim 2 this film is more fun then it has any right to be but if I was to judge it at a critical level it would get a 4 or a 3 out of 10 instead of a 7.5 out of 10 that it gets for entertainment value. Its hard to think of a better video game based movie The juvenile humour will be either something you roll with or it'll have you running out of the cinema faster than if a giant ape had started smashing the wall down.

Ready Player one

Ready Player one

(Spoiler review)

Before I start this review, I feel that I should lay down some credentials. I was born in 1979 and grew up on 80s cartoons reruns of stuff from the 60s and 70s, I've owned a nintendo, super nintendo, N64 and every Playstation released excluding the hand helds. I've continued my love of sci-fi and cult cinema well through into adulthood. I get nostalgia in fact I'm two seasons into a rewatch of Deep Space Nine. I have however never read the book Ready Player One. As much as I love nostolgia and have a stormtrooper helmet next to my TV and a fiberglass Iron Man suit in my living room, I went into this film with the expectation that Nostolgia needed to be the dressing on top of a solid script.

Directed by Steven Spielberg Ready player one tells the story of Wade plauyed by Tye Sheridan, he's your generic point of view guy. He's geeky but not too geeky in the real world he lives in the slums like eveyrone else. He also escapes by reality by strapping on a VR headset and escaping into the Oasis a virtual world filled with nostolgia. When the creator of the Oasis died, he hid away three keys that would grant the first person to find them millions of dollars and control over the virtual world. After teaming up with his fellow guild members, love interest Art3mis, best friend Aech and a couple of others, Wade or Parzival as he's also known go in search of the hidden keys whilst competing against an evil corporation. Along the way they learn how the clues relate to the personal life of Oasis creator Halliday played by Mark Rylance.

So first I'm going to point out the stuff that I loved about the film. Try and deny it as much as you like this film is visually stunning the effects work is very solid though I do have a concern that with the rate at which video games tech advances, this film is probably going to look very dated in the near future. Among the best sequences in the movie is a homage to the Shinning with some impressive recreations albeit with some careful editing to cover up some nudity. Its hard to resist grinning when you see a character like Mecha Godzilla show up or the 1960s batmobile. The pacing of the film is also pretty impressive and you're not likely to feel bored. The big question becomes what do we have here beyond nostalgia. Is there substance underneath or is this a strange experiment in brand marketing?

As I've said before I've never read the book but by all accounts there is a lot more characterisation contained within including a character death, and the reveal that Aech who is depicted as a tough guy, is actually a lesbian in real life. Aech on her own feels like a character who was short changed so that the focus could be placed squarely on the two leads. I'm not sure if there's a love triangle situation in the book but I imagine that would have been interesting. The film plays with the idea that the people online might not be what you expect in the real world but it never does much with the concept . Art3mis in real life has a birthmark that has led to her feeling insecure about her appearance, This is regrettably resolved when Wade tells her that he loves her anyway and doesn't care about the mark as opposed to her accepting herself.

The other aspect which I had difficulty with was that by the halfway mark it seemed like the Oasis was more than just escapism, it was an obstacle preventing people from fixing the real world. Nobody wanted to get the Earth back on track, the Oasis needed to go and at a certain point it felt like maybe just maybe that would happen, sadly though this was not the ending we got.

In my view Spielberg typically has two type of movies, his family fun genre films with aliens, Indiana Jones etc and his more serious character focused films like War Horse. What I would love to see is for him to blend the best of both. For me the best sci-fi stories have characters that are well developed, interesting and multi layered. This one's not quite at that level, its well worth watching and it is enjoyable but it lacks the substance to make it a genuine classic. A special mention goes out to Simon Pegg whom I didn't recognise until the credits. 7/10

Pacific Rim 2

Pacific Rim 2 Uprising

(Contains some spoilers)

When the original Pacific Rim hit cinemas, audiences were divided right down the middle. There were those like myself who loved every second of its giant robot smashing Kaiju action, and there were those who saw it as a dumb stupid blockbuster. For me it was a project that succeeded primarily because of the care and love that director Guillermo del toro took in the production of the film. That was five years ago and with del toro gone, it was anybody's guess as to how the sequel would fare.

Pacific Rim Uprising is perhaps best described as being both one of the dumbest but also one of the most entnertaining blockbusters I've seen in a long time. The plot can best be described by the elements it fuses together from other films. Much like Independence Day 2 we start our story with the world having rebuilt from the events of the previous instalment. A new team of young pilots or rangers as they're called are being trained to pilot the Jaegars with John Boyegar aka Jake Pentecost mentoring the new team. For those of who remember the old 80s Transformers movie, Jake Pentecost is Hot Rod, a hot headed punk who has wasted a lot of his potential, then suddenly gets thrust into the mantle of leader as he tries to live up to the mantle of his predecessor in this case his father. From here the plot changes to Iron Man 2 with Charlie Day aka Newt aka Tony Stark, heading up a design team that's building a new pilot less drone system. Charlie day is brilliant in this as is his friend Burn Goreman aka Dr Hermann Gottlieb.

At this point it' worth noting that in 2016, China's Dalian Wanda Group bought Legendary for $3.5 billion. Legendary who owns the rights to Pacific Rim was swift to ramp up the Asian focus bringing in a Chinese company for the Drone plot headed up by Tian Jing who plays corporate buisness tycoon Liwen Shao. Liwen Shao is introduced side by side with Mako Mori, the character who she's there to replace. 

 From here it would be pointless to carry on pointing out the plot beats but suffice to say there's more than a hint of Evangelion, power rangers and Transformers among the influences.  I really can't fault the film visually; whilst I think Del Toro created a more nuanced film achieving more with less, Director Steven S DeKnight has created a stunning film that always feels like its slightly missing its mark. A lot of the time it feels like you're watching a really well made knock off rather than a sequel. For every joke that falls flat there's about a dozen unintentionally funny scenes and plenty of set pieces to keep you engaged. All of this makes for an incredibly difficult film to score. But I'm giving it 7.5/10. There's just not enough substance to give it anything higher but too much fun to score it any less. Also for those who are curious there are no post credit scenes and avoid the 3D.