Pacific Rim was one of those films that should've been a smash. But it wasn't in the States. It owed much of its success to the international box-office. It now has a sequel thanks to that international success. Pacific Rim Uprising is that sequel and it is surprisingly fine.
The first film ended with the Kaiju and their Creators defeated. Ten years later, the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps and their Jaegers keep the Pacific Rim safe from trouble. Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of the first film's Stacker Pentecost and a former Jaeger pilot, sells Jaeger parts on the black market. Jake fights over a part with street urchin Amara (Cailee Spaeny) and they're both arrested. They're drafted into the PPDC.
Jake is reunited with his rival co-pilot Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood). Amara has to deal with being the greenhorn. There's also a rogue Jaeger, Obsidian Fury, on the loose. The Shao Corporation threatens to render Jaegers obsolete with its drones. CEO Liwen Shao (Jing Tian) is unaware that her drones are part of a conspiracy to bring back the Kaiju. A surprise attack leaves Jake, Lambert and the Cadets to fight the Kaiju. They'll have to work together to stop them from igniting Mt. Fuji.
It's the directorial debut of Spartacus showrunner Steven S. DeKnight. He's one of four writers credited with the screenstory and screenplay. The film elaborates on its predecessor's plot points in acceptable ways. The mastermind's identity is one case. It's disappointing since he was likable, but it made sense considering what happened to him in the first film. A few plot points go by so fast and may confound a few viewers.
The human cast is OK. They make the best of this screenplay. Jake and Amara make for good co-leads. Lambert was a decent rival, though the center of his and Jake's rivalry, Jules, is barely there. Amara's co-cadets get some development, but not enough. It's a pity because one of them bites it during the final battle. The returning cast had a few highlights, though Ron Perlman's presence was sorely missed.
The film's visual style deeply contrasts the first film. The two follow different principles, but they still work. The Kaiju and Jaegers are both wonderfully designed and realized. Their designs are unique even if their names go by too fast. One of the best was Amara's personal diminutive Jaeger, Scrapper. The environments they inhabit, both real and CGI, are great feats of production design. The sound design was good as was Dan Mindel's cinematography.
Pacific Rim Uprising is a nice depiction of fighting robots and monsters. Its 111 minutes are paced well and make for an easy matinee. Its human cast is likable and the giants are still impressive. I thought the first film ended conclusively and it didn't necessarily need a sequel. But it was worth the wait. My screening was seventeen minutes late; hope yours is on time.
About Me
- Jethrotcat
- This is the blog where I talk about the latest movies I've seen. These are my two Schnauzers, Rufus (left) and Marley (right, RIP). As of now, the Double Hollywood Strikes are officially over. May the next strikes not last as long as these ones did.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Saturday, March 17, 2018
The Hurricane Heist
Now what do we have here? The Hurricane Heist? The title says it all. It's not a groundbreaking film but it's a fine movie for an easy distraction.
They say that when a hurricane's a-comin, you best get out of dodge. But if you're Perkins (Ralph Ineson), a Treasury agent, you use that storm to cover your tracks for a heist. The place is a Treasury Facility in Gulfport, Alabama, where the storm of the century, Hurricane Tammy, is a-comin'. There's $600 million in discontinued money waitin' for retirement. Perkins and his crew decide to make do with the cash. But mechanical failures wait to block 'em right away.
Agent Casey (Maggie Grace) decides she doesn't want part of it. So when Perkins tells her to get a mechanic, she uses the opportunity to rally some help. Breeze (Ryan Kwanten), said mechanic, and his storm-chaser brother Will (Toby Keebel), are the help. They saw their father crushed to death during a similar storm years back. They have to help her outwit the bad guys and keep the money safe. At least until they get to the shredder.
This film premise was realized by four writers and realized by director Rob Cohen. There's plenty of wild weather action but also plenty of flat characters. They're cliche character types you might've seen better in other movies. Perkins gets the honor of being flat and inconsistent. He prides himself in his plan to take the money without killing anybody. But he gets bloodlust when something goes awry. Hypocrite? Maybe. But there's little transition between the moods. It also gets needlessly complicated when the sheriff (Ben Cross) turns out to be in on the heist. He quickly gets discarded soon after without a fuss.
The characters are second-fiddle to the visual effects and they're pretty good. The demon face in the clouds was creepy, even if it was questionable. The weather provided opportunity for many wild stunts. The biggest of these is the climactic chase to outwit the worst of the storm and thwart Perkins. The sound design perfectly voiced the monster storm and kept it from overshadowing the characters.
The Hurricane Heist is big and dumb. But it's serviceable for an easy afternoon matinee. Don't raise your expectations too high or else you'll be disappointed. I wasn't. I thought it was decent. It'll probably build an easy audience if SyFy gets a hold of it. It'll fit right in with Sharknado.
They say that when a hurricane's a-comin, you best get out of dodge. But if you're Perkins (Ralph Ineson), a Treasury agent, you use that storm to cover your tracks for a heist. The place is a Treasury Facility in Gulfport, Alabama, where the storm of the century, Hurricane Tammy, is a-comin'. There's $600 million in discontinued money waitin' for retirement. Perkins and his crew decide to make do with the cash. But mechanical failures wait to block 'em right away.
Agent Casey (Maggie Grace) decides she doesn't want part of it. So when Perkins tells her to get a mechanic, she uses the opportunity to rally some help. Breeze (Ryan Kwanten), said mechanic, and his storm-chaser brother Will (Toby Keebel), are the help. They saw their father crushed to death during a similar storm years back. They have to help her outwit the bad guys and keep the money safe. At least until they get to the shredder.
This film premise was realized by four writers and realized by director Rob Cohen. There's plenty of wild weather action but also plenty of flat characters. They're cliche character types you might've seen better in other movies. Perkins gets the honor of being flat and inconsistent. He prides himself in his plan to take the money without killing anybody. But he gets bloodlust when something goes awry. Hypocrite? Maybe. But there's little transition between the moods. It also gets needlessly complicated when the sheriff (Ben Cross) turns out to be in on the heist. He quickly gets discarded soon after without a fuss.
The characters are second-fiddle to the visual effects and they're pretty good. The demon face in the clouds was creepy, even if it was questionable. The weather provided opportunity for many wild stunts. The biggest of these is the climactic chase to outwit the worst of the storm and thwart Perkins. The sound design perfectly voiced the monster storm and kept it from overshadowing the characters.
The Hurricane Heist is big and dumb. But it's serviceable for an easy afternoon matinee. Don't raise your expectations too high or else you'll be disappointed. I wasn't. I thought it was decent. It'll probably build an easy audience if SyFy gets a hold of it. It'll fit right in with Sharknado.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
A Wrinkle in Time
2003: Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Wrinkle in Time debuts as a TV movie in Canada and in the States the following year. It was instantly forgotten by all.
Present day. The iconic story is ready for its cinematic life. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie is visually delightful but it has some logical issues.
It was a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry (Storm Reid) can't stop thinking about her scientist father, Alex (Chris Pine). It's been four years since he vanished while studying instantaneous interstellar travel via Tesseract. Her adopted brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), is unnaturally smart and prone to befriending strange people. One of them is Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), who tells the kids that their father is out there. Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe (Levi Miller) visits them just as they meet Mrs. Who (Mindy Kalling) and Mrs Which (Oprah Winfrey). The three Mrs. are astral travelers who fold space and take the kids to another planet.
Yes, Dr. Murry discovered the ability to "tesser" through space. But he was seized by "IT," not the clown, but an evil black mass. IT is located on the planet Camazotz. The kids have to go there to extract Dr. Murry. But IT won't give up without a fight and the kids will have to do it alone.
Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell's screenplay does its best to realize the deeply philosophical book. While its basic story is understandable, there's a few logical issues here. A big one is that Charles Wallace turns evil because he saw through an illusion. How does that work? Apparently, he was hypnotized by IT's servant Red (Michael Pena), but it should've been clearer. The nature of Camazotz, and that name itself, were also bewildering. Calvin's issues with his abusive father is never resolved after it appears once in an exposition vision. It also takes a while to get going and is over somewhat quickly.
The kids have definite screen presence. McCabe is especially good at playing Charles Wallace's unnatural smartness and his brainwashed snide self. Reid makes for a good heroine who finds her confidence. Miller made for a good, loyal friend as Calvin. Rowan Blanchard makes the most of her limited screentime as Meg's mean girl arch-nemesis, Veronica. The three Mrs. were perfectly eccentric characters.
There's much to admire with the visuals. There's an eclectic display of colorful alien worlds, creatures and costumes on screen. Tobias A. Schliessler's cinematography displays them perfectly. It almost felt like a live-action Ghibli film; in fact, a Ghibli film of this might be a good fit. Spencer Averick's editing had one glaring flaw early on: when the kids go to meet Mrs. Who, they're walking a dog. When they enter her house, the dog is absent (but turns up later). Ramin Djawadi's score is good, but you'll likely remember the songs more than the score.
A Wrinkle in Time is not a perfect family film but it's watchable. You might have to fill in a few logical gaps yourself but it's worth the astro trip. At least on a matinee budget on flatscreen. Perhaps someone can figure out what to do for the next film version by watching this. It's certainly more memorable than the TV movie.
Present day. The iconic story is ready for its cinematic life. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie is visually delightful but it has some logical issues.
It was a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry (Storm Reid) can't stop thinking about her scientist father, Alex (Chris Pine). It's been four years since he vanished while studying instantaneous interstellar travel via Tesseract. Her adopted brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), is unnaturally smart and prone to befriending strange people. One of them is Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), who tells the kids that their father is out there. Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe (Levi Miller) visits them just as they meet Mrs. Who (Mindy Kalling) and Mrs Which (Oprah Winfrey). The three Mrs. are astral travelers who fold space and take the kids to another planet.
Yes, Dr. Murry discovered the ability to "tesser" through space. But he was seized by "IT," not the clown, but an evil black mass. IT is located on the planet Camazotz. The kids have to go there to extract Dr. Murry. But IT won't give up without a fight and the kids will have to do it alone.
Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell's screenplay does its best to realize the deeply philosophical book. While its basic story is understandable, there's a few logical issues here. A big one is that Charles Wallace turns evil because he saw through an illusion. How does that work? Apparently, he was hypnotized by IT's servant Red (Michael Pena), but it should've been clearer. The nature of Camazotz, and that name itself, were also bewildering. Calvin's issues with his abusive father is never resolved after it appears once in an exposition vision. It also takes a while to get going and is over somewhat quickly.
The kids have definite screen presence. McCabe is especially good at playing Charles Wallace's unnatural smartness and his brainwashed snide self. Reid makes for a good heroine who finds her confidence. Miller made for a good, loyal friend as Calvin. Rowan Blanchard makes the most of her limited screentime as Meg's mean girl arch-nemesis, Veronica. The three Mrs. were perfectly eccentric characters.
There's much to admire with the visuals. There's an eclectic display of colorful alien worlds, creatures and costumes on screen. Tobias A. Schliessler's cinematography displays them perfectly. It almost felt like a live-action Ghibli film; in fact, a Ghibli film of this might be a good fit. Spencer Averick's editing had one glaring flaw early on: when the kids go to meet Mrs. Who, they're walking a dog. When they enter her house, the dog is absent (but turns up later). Ramin Djawadi's score is good, but you'll likely remember the songs more than the score.
A Wrinkle in Time is not a perfect family film but it's watchable. You might have to fill in a few logical gaps yourself but it's worth the astro trip. At least on a matinee budget on flatscreen. Perhaps someone can figure out what to do for the next film version by watching this. It's certainly more memorable than the TV movie.
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