Supergirl

 Over forty years since she made her big-screen debut, Supergirl made her cinematic comeback in the closing minutes of last year’s Superman. She now headlines the second film in the new DC Universe, which also shares her name. Let’s fly to it.

Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock), and her superdog Krypto are out pub-crawling across the universe for her 23rd birthday. They specifically travel to planets with red suns, where her Kryptonian powers—and thus her alcohol tolerance—won’t work. On one planet, she meets young Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), who is looking for someone to help her find Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), the brigand who killed her family. Kara’s not interested until Krem steals her ship and shoots Krypto with a poisoned dart. Krem carries the antidote.

With three days to save Krypto, Kara & Ruthye head off to space. They are eventually joined by the bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa), who has his own score with the brigands. The rest of the movie has them pursue Krem and dismantle his human trafficking operation. Kara also embraces super heroics, a bit like her cousin, Superman (David Corenswet). I think that’s pretty much it.

The Tom King miniseries, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which Ana Nogueira’s screenplay specifically adapts, was pitched as basically True Grit in Space. While the plots are identical, LaBoeuf & Cogburn’s roles are switched between Kara & Lobo. Krem, obviously the Tom Chaney analogue, is a scumbag, and that’s it. He’s too flat to be memorably detestable. Kara pleads generic platitudes with Ruthye about how killing Krem won’t make it better for her. Is there something I missed?

Throughout the film, we see flashbacks to Kara’s life on Argo City, which temporarily survived the destruction of Krypton. They’re scattered around, but they’re compelling enough as they explain Kara’s cynicism. The best ones show us how she met Krypto during her mother Alura’s (Emily Beecham) funeral. Beecham & David Krumholtz, as Kara’s father Zor-El, are pretty good as the story’s big goods. Their screentime is brief, but they share a few great scenes with Kara. It’s easy to feel bad for Zor-El when he realizes how he accidentally doomed Argo to death by Kryptonite.

Although Kara doesn’t immediately jump in to fight evil, you’ll be glad when she does. That much is obvious when she battles the Skalarians, a trio of space pirates, in an extremely long plot detour topped by a cool fight scene. You’ll easily believe in her goodness when she fights a jerk who steals Ruthye’s treasured sword. Her devastation is palpable when she inadvertently gets a civilian family killed. In the finale, she’s incapacitated by Kryptonite twice (the first time in the form of a green sun!), which is just excessive. Her screentime with Krypto and Superman, while brief, is still enjoyable enough. Overall, Alcock is a good Supergirl with an average script.

Ruthye exposits how Krem murdered “her innocent family” so much that it’s practically her catchphrase. It even annoys Kara at one point, so points on that. Ruthye is mostly fine, but she shines when she breaks herself and Lobo out of a brigand cell. Speaking of Lobo, Momoa looks and acts like the comic character made flesh. In his backstory, according to Kara, he massacred his own planet, but he’s not that dangerous in person. He’s still fun enough. The funniest supporting characters are the driver (Paul Hunter) of the Space Bus the Skalarians hijack, and his miniature assistant (Seth Rogen). 

The most memorable thing about Krem is his space punk aesthetic. He's not alone, as the makeup work is spectacular, whether it's for the eclectic aliens, Lobo himself, or even Kara dying from Kryptonite. Production Designer Neil Lamont and costume designers Michael Mooney & Anna B. Shepherd show off their best work on Argo City. The visual effects are pretty nifty, especially when the planet Barenton is bathed in green sunlight! While I prefer some of Jerry Goldsmith's opulent work for the 1984 film, Claudia Sarne's score is not too bad. The main theme, in particular, is appropriately moody. I didn't object too much to a few needle drops; I'm bringing this up because I've read a few reviews that have.

This take on Supergirl is just fine. It's got some good stuff, including a strong lead, that needed better execution. Hopefully, this is just a minor stumble for DC's new world of Gods & Monsters (that's what they're calling this phase of their new cinematic universe). I'm still waiting for this fall's Clayface, and next year's Man of Tomorrow, so there's that. Perhaps time will be kinder to Supergirl; as of now, it's just a decent afternoon matinee. I think I said enough.

Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise

 I promised a SAGA last week, and here it is…

Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise debuted in Japanese theaters last October, four years after it was announced. It played last January for one night only, but thankfully, Crunchyroll didn’t drag out the streaming premiere. I finally made time for it last Friday, and you’ll read about it now.

Just over a minute into its first episode, Sakura Minamoto, a plucky high schooler with dreams of being a pop singer, accidentally ran into the path of a speeding truck. A decade later, she and six other young ladies are brought back as zombies to form a pop idol group! Her fellow undeads include biker Saki Nikaido; pop stars Junko Konno & Ai Mizuno; child star Lily Hoshikawa; 19th-century courtesan Yugiri; and Tae Yamada, the only one who is still a mindless zombie. Together, they are Franchouchou, and their mission is to save Japan’s Saga Prefecture from obscurity.

In the movie itself, Franchouchou headlines the 2025 Saga Expo to celebrate the prefecture’s space program. Speaking of space, aliens show up and launch an all-out invasion of the Earth! Tae accidentally gets her human personality back when they abduct her. The other girls are introduced to their now no-nonsense bandmate when she escapes. Tae doesn’t see how a bunch of zombies can help her save the world, but they’ll show her how. Yeah, it’s that type of movie.

The film trusts that its audience has read the show’s prequel manga, Zombie Land Saga Gaiden: The First Zombie, so they’ll fully understand Tae’s vague allusions to her past adventures. Unless, of course, the manga hasn’t been licensed outside of Japan, or if they haven’t imported the volumes (which I did). There’s not even a flashback to her past life! On a related note, the film mentions that the invaders can’t pick up zombies on infrared, but it takes quite a while before the resistance acts on it. 

In Sakura’s motorized recap, she mentions that it’s been four years since their second season. It’s not just in real-life, but in-universe too, but the characters have barely aged a day. Franchouchou has an excuse but supporting character Maria Amabuki & her two friends don’t. How old are they supposed to be? I should also mention that while it has a great soundtrack, the English dub switches to the Japanese vocals for the songs. It’s kind of disappointing, considering the first season’s songs were dubbed, rather well, for its physical release. Oh well, moving on …

Our seven zombie heroines are as fun now as they were when they debuted in 2018. They’ve all got great personalities - that includes Tae’s two - and it’s delightful watching their chemistry on and off the stage. Tae aside, you won’t be lost if you don’t know how they previously lived and died. Tae probably has the best line in the dub, “No more space guns for you,” thanks to her deadpan delivery. There’s some drama when they, sans Tae, are exposed as zombies. Their witnesses, including Maria, get over it, but there’s more pressing drama that I’ll hint with three words - Flowers for Algernon. Before that, they’re involved in a glorious gag with a burning globe, and a spectacular final battle with the invaders.

Amongst the massive supporting cast, which includes practically everyone who’s ever been on the show, the biggest standout is Kotaro Tatsumi, Franchouchou’s manager. He’s bombastic, obnoxious and a bit of a jerk, but he’s still a good guy. You’ll actually feel bad for him when he breaks down after Sakura and Tae seemingly die for real. The suspense doesn’t last, but it’s still moving. Romero, his zombie poodle, is a lot of fun, as are Franchouchou’s Metalhead fanboys (credited in the dub as Bulk and Skull), and Saga’s Only Cop (“Dirty Harry”). Let’s not forget Reiko and Naomasa, Maria’s parents, who are probably the most serious members of the cast. I can go on, but I’d be here all day.

Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise has much of the same heart and humor from its source show in its veins. Those are enough to help me overlook its biggest quibbles. If this had a longer theatrical release, then this would have been the most fun I had at the movies all year. It’s still a lot of fun on Crunchyroll, and if you’re skeptical how this can all work, I invite you to check it out for yourself. I’ve said enough.

Toy Story 5

 How many final installments does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

It should take one, while the others just show off by messing with it.

Just when you thought Toy Story 4 was it for Pixar's toys, along comes Toy Story 5. This time, they're not fooling anyone with promises of narrative closure (mostly), as it's kind of obvious this was made for money. Fortunately, it's still a pretty good installment, even if it's not a perfect one.

With Woody (Tom Hanks) off helping abandoned toys, Sheriff Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) are now in charge of Bonnie’s toys. Bonnie is the only kid on her block still playing with toys, while everyone else has upgraded to tech. Bonnie joins in when her parents get her a “Lilypad” tablet. Lily (Greta Lee) lords over the toys, especially after she helps Bonnie make “real” friends. 

While trying to spy on Bonnie and her new friends, Jessie and Bullseye accidentally end up at the farmhouse of Jessie's former owner, Emily, now home to the Manoukian family. Blaze Manoukian (Mykal-Michelle Harris), who’s slightly older than Bonnie, has both horse toys and tech toys. In the latter category, we have Smarty Pants the toilet trainer (Conan O’Brien), Snappy the Camera (Shelby Rabara) and Atlas the GPS (Craig Robinson). Jessie enlists them to get her & Bullseye home.

What else do we have? Throughout the film, there’s an army of updated Buzz Lightyears marching around for reasons. They’ll become relevant later. Woody visits his old gang and teams up with Buzz to try to save Jessie. Bonnie’s new friends aren’t nice, so the toys decide to help her meet Blaze. Lily tries to stop them, for a while.

Unlike some other toon sequels, this one tries a bit harder to tell a meaningful story. Andrew Stanton, the longtime series co-writer and now also-director, and Kenna Harris, his co-writer and co-director, focus much of it on Bonnie. You’ll spend most of her plotline feeling bad for her as she gets cyber-bullied - and lightly teased in person - by her three false friends. She’s so dejected by them that she declines Blaze’s friendship until the very end. Well, better late than never, for Blaze is a delightful character. 

Oh yeah, there are toys in this story, too. Jessie, much like Woody in the last film, struggles with feelings of obsolescence. Anyone who’s seen Toy Story 2, or knows of it, will know exactly what I’m referring to. She gets some much-needed closure when she finds a certain time capsule. Buzz spends most of the film crushing on Jessie, which gets a nice payoff in the climax. Woody and the veteran toys are here probably because it wouldn’t be Toy Story without them. Woody rallying the updated Buzzes probably could’ve been handled by classic Buzz himself. The others provide some good quips here and there, but that’s it.

The new tech characters are pretty good. Lily, our advertised main villain, spends most of her time looking down on the toys. Her ego’s pretty entertaining, but it gets creepy when she starts texting as Bonnie. She starts to redeem herself when she realizes that she indirectly hurt Bonnie and later gives the Buzzes their biggest relevance. Smarty is surprisingly not that gross, considering what he is. He and his pals are fun, even if their introduction sidelines the looming plot of tech replacing toys for “the tech and the toys can be friends.” It's a bit of a letdown, though it's admittedly a topic with no easy answer. 

Oh, and while not tech, extra funny points must be rewarded for naming Blaze’s pet pig Jimmy Dean. Even Jessie gets the reference.

It’s a Pixar movie, so of course the animation’s good. The climax is pretty thrilling, thanks to the Buzzes’ big surprise, but the best animated work is with the sequences that visualize the girls’ playtimes. The vivid colors and surprisingly elaborate plots go great together. While Randy Newman provides another fun score for the series, he let Taylor Swift & Jack Antonoff compose the central song. I Knew It, I Knew You plays in the end credits, and it’s another fine addition to the series’ song catalog. I wouldn’t be surprised if, following Newman’s nominations for each of the previous films, Swift gets her first Oscar nomination here.

Toy Story 5's main draws are, theoretically, the toys, but I found myself more interested in the humans this time. It's such a relatable story, especially for those who were shy kids growing up. If it does win the Animated Feature Oscar, much like its predecessors, then that would be why. But like any old toy, its main characters are still fun to be around even if they're showing their age. Have fun; I sure did.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

 Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: A Lonely Dragon Wants to Be Loved, premiered in Japanese theatres this time last year. It ran stateside for one night only last October, and although it allegedly premiered on Netflix not long after, I never found it. So, when it suddenly showed up on Crunchyroll this past weekend, I made plans for it. 

And off we go …

As told in Cool-Kyou Shinsha’s manga, Kobayashi (no first name given), was a programmer who went on a drunken hike in the mountains. She ends up pulling a sword out of a dragon, who shows up at her apartment in human form. Her name is Tohru, and she’s now Kobayashi’s maid. A few other dragons, also in human form, show up, and some of them move in with Kobayashi and Tohru. That’s kind of it.

The titular Lonely Dragon isn’t Tohru, but her youngest flatmate, Kanna Kamui. One day, her absentee father, General Kimun Kamui, shows up looking for her. Rather than catch up on lost time, Kimun wants Kanna for the “Dragon Orb” she absorbed into her person. It’s a powerful MacGuffin, with which he can help his Chaos Dragons win the war against their rivals, the Harmony Dragons.

Kobayashi can tell a lousy parent, at least by Earth standards, when she sees one, and refuses to give up Kanna. Kanna, however, acquiesces for her daddy’s approval. Kobayashi and the others go after Kanna when they find out that Kimun’s advisor, Azad, is up to no good. Did I also mention that Kobayashi is adept at magic? She is. And how will Kanna's new smartphone play into the plot?

You probably know what to expect if you’ve seen Kyoto Animation’s TV anime. Technically, it’s not much different than the show, which you’ll notice during flashbacks. Between both mediums, the character designs are cuddly, the color palette is pretty, and the music is nice to listen to. The show’s staff is retained for this production, which includes first season director Yasuhiro Takemoto’s - a casualty of the 2019 arson - honorary credit as “Series Director” (Tatsuya Ishihara is the main director here). About the only thing I disliked was the pitch of Tohru’s energy blasts, which sounds like someone mashing a high-pitched keyboard. It was a bit unbearable, but thankfully short.

This is Kanna’s movie, so let’s discuss her. She barely emotes, not even when she plays with her bestie, Riko Saikawa, which is weirdly amusing. Less amusing, however, is her relationship with her dad, which gets her beyond dull surprise. You’ll feel bad for her when she tries to reach out to Kimun, who sees her as an ally, not a daughter. Kimun’s personality, which I’ll touch upon soon, complicates this relationship, especially when Kobayashi knocks him and Azad out with a Spirit Bomb (long story). You don’t need to know the manga’s story - which the movie adapts one volume of - to be moved by the finale, though. 

Try as I might, I couldn’t necessarily bring myself to hate Kimun. Granted, Kobayashi and the others have a point when they criticize his parental skills. But at his worse, he’s more of a naive dolt than a callous monster. He’s also surprisingly friendly, allowing Kanna and Kobayashi to write to him regularly (even if he fails to grasp their points). He starts to redeem himself when he saves Kanna from Azad after the latter’s scheme is exposed. And then, there is the finale. Maybe I’m reading him wrong, but that’s what I thought about him.

Amongst its large cast, a few discernable dragons include Lucoa (a gender-flipped Quetzalcoatl); Fafnir (a game obsessed butler dragon); and Ilullu (one of Kobayashi's other flat mates). They're all quirky, but you will need a character guide to fully grasp them and their human companions. You'll have little trouble understanding Miss Kobayashi and her Dragon Maid, even if they aren't truly the main characters. They're quite likable together, and especially with the other dragon girls. Kobayashi cleverly exposes Azad to the warring dragons by putting Kanna on speaker, while Tohru gets a fine post-climax battle with Azad. It's quite amazing to watch them throw down against evil.

Oh, and what about Azad? It doesn't take much to peg him as the villain, even before we see how he is. He's got a sad backstory, but a bit of an underwhelming defeat. I'm not annoyed, as he shows up later in the manga, and might get some more time to shine. When's the third season coming?

I'm kind of late reviewing it for this Father's Day, but I'm sure it'll be there for the next one. You won't need a crash course in lore to understand its central family story. Just some understanding. In any case, why don't you check out this movie, and its associated anime? There's a lot to love about them, aesthetically and narratively. I'll let you decide the order you watch them.

Oh yeah, and before the month is out, you'll get a review for another Crunchyroll anime movie that dropped last weekend. It's quite a SAGA ...

Disclosure Day

 It’s time for the other D-Day.

That’s right, it’s time to disclose what I thought about Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated sci-fi movie. What’s going to stop me from revealing the truth? It’s not like I’m going to step on any government conspiracy. Let’s go and  …

Did I walk into Street Fighter?

Those were my actual thoughts. Why so? Well, it’s because we’re opening with a cage match, where Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is in the audience. Daniel, a cybersecurity guy, has stolen top-secret files from the shadowy Wardex Corporation, and he’s here to exchange them for his nabbed girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson). They instead flee with the files, with Wardex CEO Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) and his goons in pursuit.

It turns out that Daniel has evidence of alien life on Earth, dating back to the Roswell crash of 1947. He plans to make it all public, which would hopefully avert an increasingly likely World War III. When Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a Kansas City weatherwoman and emergent psychic, suddenly speaks in alien tongues on the air, he's the only one who can understand it. They eventually find each other, and together with Wardex defector Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), they set out to make Disclosure Day a reality.

David Koepp’s screenplay, working from Spielberg’s own screenstory, slowly unfolds Daniel’s mission like it were a mystery. Granted, we already know what it is, considering that’s the premise, but there’s a nice level of intrigue as we wait for him to reveal it. A close comparison is Jurassic Park, which Koepp also wrote, and which slowly built up the dinosaur park as a reveal. What I’m trying to say is that the pacing, particularly in the first act, is pretty good. It’s nearly a half-hour longer than Jurassic Park, though, and you’ll gradually start to feel it.

The screenplay also indulges in some flying leaps in logic. Take Hugo’s part in the story, for example, as he spends most of his plot replicating Margaret’s childhood home as a film set. It’s part of an elaborate plan to help jog her childhood memories, but he doesn’t know she’s the one until her viral newscast. Keep in mind the plot spans about two days, and the set building probably would’ve started much earlier. There is a possible answer, who shows up at the literal last minute, so it’s not much help. A few re-watches, though, might help one understand it all.

Between the leads, I found Margaret to be the more compelling one. Sure, Daniel is an upstanding guy and a bit of an optimist (considering the premise), but Margaret’s uneasy discovery of her powers makes her relatable. Blunt gets a really well-acted scene when she panics in a train car filled with pianos. Yes, really, and this is after Scanlon’s top henchman Boyd (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), tried to ram them into that train. It's quite remarkable to watch her assert herself, as an anchorwoman and as a person, during the film. On the subject of anchoring, real life reporter-turned-actress Courtney Grace has the film’s best performance as an NBC Anchor who tries to hold it together when she reports on the Disclosure.

Throughout the film, Scanlon and Daniel have access to alien devices that seemingly let them do whatever the plot needs them to do. Scanlon uses it to talk to Jane via astral projection and drive her to try to kill Daniel. It’s a neat prop, even if we have to infer how they work, while the cast just knows right away. It gets contrived when Margaret figures out the backup generator function in the finale. Though, it does lead to some great comedy when Margaret cloaks the set, just as Wardex breaks in, and the agents stumble around it. 

Scanlon, meanwhile, is an interesting enough villain. He's determined to maintain the big secret, not just for the government, but to assuage his own fears. Basically, "What if Disclosure makes it all worse?" Hugo is basically the counterpoint, which he argues with Scanlon in their one scene together. We see him overwhelmed at one point during his interrogating Jane. When his last-ditch efforts to sabotage the broadcast fail, he just sits down as if to say, "what's the point?" It’s another great performance from Firth, and I do have a quibble about his character that I’ll have to bring up in the next paragraph.

Margaret, as part of her powerset, can appear to anyone as someone special. In Scanlon's case, it's his late wife Jocelyn (Lucy Taylor), whom the film barely explores. That's my quibble about Scanlon, but Margaret's seamless psychic shapeshifting represents the best of Sarah Broshar's (succeeding the now retired Michael Kahn) editing skills. She further shines during the action scenes, as well as the Disclosure Day broadcast. The sound designers, visual effects team, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and John Williams (who needs little elaboration), deliver their usual greatness. I think I said enough.

Disclosure Day, for whatever flaws it has, is an earnest film. Improbable? Yes. Abruptly ends? Yes. But the climax is assuredly optimistic. You can't accuse it of faltering, or faking, its beliefs. Overall, it's an interesting companion piece - or a spiritual sequel - to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I'd rather let it disclose a few more secrets to you personally. It's worth the trip.

The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act

 Step right up, step right up, and come witness the grand finale of the indie animation sensation! Sure, you can pay nothing to watch it for free in about a week, but you can pay more to see it on the big …

[Annoying Narrator Program Off]

In layman’s terms, The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act pieces together the eighth episode of the YouTube series, which premiered in March, along with the ninth and final episode, which premieres independently next week. Now, how about we explain the premise?

Think of it as a cutesy take on I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Basically, a few humans are trapped as cartoony CGI avatars in the titular game and are forced to participate in whatever crazy adventure their AI ringmaster, Caine (Alex Rochon), has in mind. They can’t leave and they can’t die, but they can “abstract” into glitches if they mentally break. This unfortunate ensemble consists of Gangle (Marissa Lenti), the timid artist; Zooble (Ashley Nichols), the jaded cynic; Kinger (Sean Chiplock), the eccentric genius; Ragatha (Amanda Hufford), the cheerful one; Jax (Michael Kovach), the sarcastic jerk; and Pomni (Lizzie Freeman), the newcomer.

When Episode 8, hjsakldfhl, opens, they’ve about reached their breaking point. Caine, however, has completely cracked and takes it out on the cast. Kinger is actually one of Caine’s programmers, so he tries to quell his creation’s digital wrath. He accidentally deletes Caine, which actually makes things worse. Oops.

During the main event, which is currently untitled, the cast tries to carry on without Caine. When Jax finally cracks, Pomni tries to help him. This involves exploring Jax’s tragic backstory within and without the digital circus. The troupe gets help from an unexpected source and discover some big secrets. I think that’s it.

Caine provides a handy “Amazing Digital Recap” for those going in blind. That way, you’ll understand just about everything except the creepy talking fish in the pre-film intro. That fish featured in the seventh episode, which I only found out just now. It was intentionally designed to look crummy, but it especially looks unnerving up-close - I was in the second-to-front row. The upside is that it’s kind of funny, especially as it gives the uninitiated thirty seconds to catch up on the show. Just thought you should know.

The fish also said not to spoil anything, but I kind of already did. It’s hard not to, considering that the main event revolves around Jax. His ultimate fate has been met with a divisive reaction online, and if I have any issue with it, it’s how he cracks off-screen. It’s kind of an abrupt fate for one of the show’s most popular characters. The subsequent journey into his psyche is where we learn his full story. It’s not hard to pity him even at his most reprehensible.

Amongst his castmates, Gangle and Ragatha get the least focus, but their personalities shine enough. Zooble, meanwhile, gets some story relevance as we see how their friendship with Jax deteriorated. Kinger, as the main character of episode 8, is pretty compelling as he regains his bearings (even if it goes wrong). Finally, it’s easy to gravitate to Pomni due to her empathy. It’s saved her castmates multiple times across the show, which makes it rewarding when they save her. There's an impressive amount of work to visualize their cuddly designs. Ragatha's fabric, for example, looks realistic. Just keep in mind the cartoony body horror ... some of which is funny.

Surprisingly, however, I found Caine to be the most compelling character. Instead of being monstrously cruel, ala I Have No Mouth’s AM or even Terminator’s Skynet, he’s just as neurotic as the others. He legitimately doesn’t understand why his cast resents being stuck with him. About the only one who tolerates him is his assistant, Bubble (voiced by series creator Gooseworx), but he’s an AI too. Before long, he goes from despair, to anger, and even self-reflection (I think I spoiled again). It’s fascinating to watch an “evil AI” humanized like this. On a lighter note, his default personality is as fun to watch as it probably was for the animators to animate.

What else do we have? Gooseworx, amongst her many hats, also composed the music with Evan Alderete. They both helped compose Hazbin Hotel, another YouTube cartoon success, which has a pretty dynamic soundtrack (especially helpful for a musical show). No surprise that the music here is just as good. Caine's musical number, with lyrics by Hazbin alumnus Dave Capdevielle, is visually impressive, but my theatre's speakers overwhelmed the singing. When Episode Nine opens with a reprise of the Pilot's opening, the lack of Caine's narration is so unnerving it's kind of funny. 

The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act might not be to everyone's liking. I've already mentioned the issues with Jax's ending, but then we have the reveal of just who everyone is. That one, I think, makes pretty good sense, but you'll have to see it for yourself. All in all, I was invested enough in the cast to stay through the (relatively short) credits. I think you might be too.

Masters of the Universe

 By the Power of Grayskull, I have the Review!

He-Man, that gloriously cheesy 80s superhero, made his live-action debut in Masters of the Universe. Nearly forty-years after Dolph Lundgren wielded those fabulous secret powers, it's now Nicholas Galitzine's turn to do so in … Masters of the Universe.

Our hero, Adam, is the prince of the magitek world of Eternia. He practically lives next door to Castle Grayskull, where its Sorceress (Morrena Baccarin) keeps custody of the all-mighty Sword of Power. One night, Skeletor (Jared Leto) and his Evil Warriors take over the planet. Adam reluctantly flees to Earth with the sword, but he loses it in transit.

Years later, Adam (Galitzine) works a soul-crushing job at an HR firm. He finds the sword at a comic shop, along with some trouble. Fortunately, his childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes), the adoptive daughter of Duncan (Idris Elba), the royal Man-at-Arms, whisks him away back to Eternia. There, he has to persuade his band of Heroic Warriors to join him in battle. It gets slightly easier when he figures out how to use the sword to morph into He-Man. But even the most powerful man in the universe can lose…

Director Travis Knight and his multiple writers relish how silly the property is. Characters like Ram Man (John Xue Zhang), Mekanek (James Wilkinson) and Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) receive their questionable nicknames from a ten-year-old Adam. Nobody besides Adam tries to question the obviously evil Skeletor’s reason for being. There’s even a jab at the Sword of Power’s basic name. The film wants us to laugh with stuff like this, not at it. In fact, when they’re accentuated by Daniel Pemberton’s score, these aspects swing back to awesome. His theme for Adam’s first morph, in particular, is truly awe-inspiring.

Let’s get one cast member out of the way - Jared Leto. In House of Gucci, his cartoonish Paulo was too much for that film. As Skeletor, an actual cartoon bad guy, he fits right in. It’s glorious to watch him go all out as the biggest, baddest guy of this universe. He’s petty, sadistic, and delightfully macabre all the same. He’s even kind of pitiable when he confesses his inadequacies to Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), his right-hand woman. One of the film’s best jokes comes when he psychically tortures Adam near the third act. You might not think it’s funny after you read that sentence, but it is. You need to see how.

Of course, a great villain needs a good hero, and Galitzine is it. His Prince Adam is quite likable, both as a normal man and as a He-Man. It’s not hard to feel bad for him as he tries, in vain, to explain his heritage to his elementary school class and a blind date. When Teela gets him, he’s all enthused to prove the naysayers right (even if the crowd lacks said naysayers). We’re right with him when he finally becomes the embodiment of positive masculinity. Lundgren, in his cameo as a gym “Macho Man,” symbolically passes the torch to Galitzine with his every line. His final battle with Skeletor validates the endorsement.

Let’s talk about some of Adam’s allies. As Teela, Mendes has good chemistry with Galitizine, while Elba’s bombastic performance as Duncan is a sight to behold. Adam’s actual father, King Randor (James Purefoy), barely shares any screentime with young Adam - it ain’t heartwarming - before Skeletor shows up. This kind of dampens the gut punch of his eventual death - thought not by much.  The film could have also used a bit more of Cringer (Tom Wilton/Fletcher Glenn), Adam’s green tiger, especially his first morph into He-Man’s steed, Battle Cat. The Sorceress is surprisingly funny, while Kristin Wiig is a surprising choice as the voice of Roboto the battle droid.

Now, let’s behold the Power behind the scenes. We’ve got some great action scenes to let the Heroic Warriors cut loose. The makeup designs for both evil and heroic Eternians are pretty creative ones. They were so good, in fact, that I mistook Skeletor and Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson) as fully CGI creations. Their CGI augmentations, like Skeletor’s head, were all seamless. Production Designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, and the visual effects team, give us a fabulous rendition of Eternia. Costume Designer Andrew Sales does a pretty good job translating the toyetic characters into live-action form. And finally, Brian May augments Pemberton’s score with some unforgettable riffs.

I think it's best if you check out Masters of the Universe for itself. It's a live-action cartoon, and if that's all you want, you'll bask in its Power to entertain.  It's quite long, at 140-minutes, but the time mostly flies by pretty fast. The other issues I've mentioned are minor gripes, at most. All in all, it's best Power is the ability to appeal to one's inner child, even those who didn't fully grow up with the franchise. See it soon to see what I mean.

Oh, and if you want a thinking cartoon, I've got one next.

Pressure

 Pressure came out over a week ago, but because it was about D-Day, I held off watching it until last Saturday, the anniversary of D-Day. Sure, I could have had it watched and reviewed by last Saturday, but I wasn’t under that much pressure.

….

Let’s dive right in.

It’s 72-hours before the Allies start storming the beaches. Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) is summoned by General Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) to help man his weather team. He and Col. Irving Krick (Chris Messina) - Eisenhower’s favorite meteorologist - are tasked with monitoring the English Channel. They need to confirm sunny skies - or close enough - before Eisenhower declares D-Day on June 5th …

Yes, June 5th, as that was when D-Day was supposed to be. Krick is certain it’ll be sunny by then due to historical weather patterns. Stagg, who prefers to observe in real-time, sees a major storm brewing. Ike, meanwhile, needs a clear answer sooner rather than later. His secretary, Captain Kay Summersby (Kerry Condon), is mostly there to help cool heads prevail. You can probably guess how it’ll turn out, and which weatherman is correct.

Its historical angle is perhaps its most interesting aspect. I mean, how many of us thought about the meteorological planning that went into D-Day? Or that it was delayed by a day? Or the contributions of James Stagg? It was just a subplot in The Longest Day, which I admittedly haven’t seen before, but it’s now the main plot here. I probably have forgotten studying that aspect in school, if at all. I probably won’t anymore.

So, how does it go from a subplot in one movie to the main plot in another? Well, the cast argues a lot, that’s how. Krick boasts about forecasting clear weather during the shoot of Gone with the Wind. Stagg is so annoyed that he doesn’t bring up the Battle of Mount Sorrel until a late reveal. It’s kind of easy to lose focus during all this repetitive arguing. At some point, I wondered how it would translate into a stage play, only to discover during the credits that, yes, this was a stage play (by David Haig, who adapted it with director Anthony Maras). Thankfully, it’s only 100-minutes long, so it’s not too stretched out. Plus, there were a few good lines.

Now, for a few issues. The film opens up with the aftermath of Exercise Tiger, a D-Day rehearsal that went horribly wrong. That's all we know about it, but Ike is haunted by it just the same. While this lets Fraser humanize Ike rather well, I wish the film elaborated on it. I couldn't bring myself to dislike Krick, despite him being the antagonist. For one thing, you kind of feel for him when it starts raining on the 4th. His involvement with Gone with the Wind is a neat anecdote, even if it bugged me when he said the Burning of Atlanta scene was in July 1939 (it was actually in December 1938!). Stagg worrying about his wife, Liz's (Tamsin Topolski) fate is more compelling than the weather arguing. I think that's about it.

There's some good location filming at Mentmore Towers, which stand in for the Allies' HQ at Southwick House. Its depiction of Exercise Tiger's aftermath is appropriately horrific and unforgettable. Its visual effects work, whether they involve a weather balloon popping in orbit or D-Day itself, is splendid. Some of the sound team's best work is featured in the D-Day's climactic kick-off; not far behind is the storm on June 4th. Also noteworthy are its colorized restoration of World War II stock clips, and another perfectly intense score by Volker Bertelmann. 

Pressure is more of a history lesson than a thriller. Its conclusion is foregone, but its central anecdote is interesting, as are a few names that the story left out (like Svere Petterssen). All that talking pays off once you see D-Day in action. If anything, it might be a good prompt to learn about D-Day for yourself. Of course, it might not be long before it gets crowded out of theatres. So, see it soon if you want to see it big.

No Pressure...

Backrooms

And now, we get to Backrooms, the film version of the Internet urban legend that Kane Parsons made famous with his YouTube videos. At twenty-years-old, Parsons is now the youngest filmmaker to top the box-office. Want to know more?

What are the Backrooms?

I'll let this anonymous post, from the notorious message board 4Chan, explain what we're dealing with here. It's got a vivid way with words:

If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old, moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in

God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you

And the Technicals?

While the YouTube Backrooms were visualized with Blender, the cinematic ones were visualized on actual sets by production designer Danny Vermette. As the cast walks through them, you’ll share their dread as they anticipate whatever may lurk around the corner. And yet, you’ll be oddly fascinated by this seminal liminal space. The otherworldly images captured by cinematographer Jeremy Cox, even in the real world, will be etched into your mind. An excellent sound team amps up the off-screen violence and electrical ambience rather well. There’s also a perfectly eerie score by Parsons and Edo Van Breemen to set the mood. I’ll talk about the visual effects later …

What about the plot?

In this scenario, concocted by Will Soodik, the Backrooms are found by Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a down-on-his-luck furniture store manager, in his store’s basement. Clark recruits his only two employees, Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and Bobby (Finn Bennett), to help him explore the world beyond his walls. When the quest goes wrong, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), goes down the rabbit hole. He doesn’t want to leave, and there’s something that doesn’t want her to leave. 

And the cast?

Ejiofor’s Clark is pretty compelling, but not really likable. At all. Clark practically blames everyone but himself for his impending divorce, and he refuses to change by the end. “That’s how we’re wired,” he puts it. He’s still pretty funny in his store’s cheesy commercials, though. His dog metaphor with the Backrooms is kind of odd, but it makes some sense.

Reinsve’s Mary has her own psychological issues, mainly from her rough childhood with her erratic mother (Krista Kosonen). The screenplay, however, leaves those issues disappointingly unresolved. She’s still compelling, however, as she travels the Backrooms.

Meanwhile, Kat & Bobby are a fun duo, which makes it a shame what happens to them. Mark Duplass shows up as Phil, a researcher with the organization ASync. He’s fine, but Avan Jagia is even better as Naren Warne, an ill-fated colleague in the prologue. 

And finally, we come to the Still Lifes, the Backrooms’ distorted recreations of certain humans. While most of them are harmless, Clark’s Still Life, representing himself as his store’s pirate mascot, is the main monster. One can hopefully assume that Robert Bobroczkyi was cast as “Cap’n Clark” specifically for his massive 7’7’’ frame. The CGI augmentations used on him and the other Still Lifes are unbelievably seamless. While we're at it, I can assume that some CGI was used for the deepest parts of the Backrooms. 

Should I See It?

You'll have to work out the mechanics of the Backrooms along with its cast. The denouement barely scratches the surface of what it is, which considering all the lore being created for it, is pretty appropriate. This makes it an oddly good starting point for this world. So, yes, it is worth a trip. Unlike the actual movie, safety is guaranteed. I think I've said enough.

Obsession

 This summer, two horror movies by YouTube personalities have topped the box-office. Both easily made their budgets back within days. And I’m late to reviewing both of them. Let's first check out America’s newest horror obsession… Obsession.

Its aforementioned personality, Curry Barker, and this film’s co-star, Cooper Tomlinson, front the channel that’s a bad idea. His debut feature, Milk & Serial, debuted on YouTube just a few years ago. In his theatrical debut, we meet Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston) as he’s being coached by best-bud Ian (Tomlinson) on how to confess to Nikki (Inde Navarette), their mutual co-worker at a music store. After he gets cold feet again, Bear buys a “One Wish Willow,” a toy branch that can apparently grant any wish if you snap it in two. He wishes for Nikki to love him, and it works.

Soon enough, Nikki becomes hopelessly devoted to Bear. Her personality, however, becomes increasingly possessive and erratic, to the point that she switches moods in split-seconds. It’s as if she’s been replaced by something that doesn’t even know how to pass for human. That’s pretty much the case, even if the film doesn’t completely spell it out. Sure, Bear likes his new relationship, but if he doesn’t get the curse reversed, “Freaky” Nikki will be the death of him and his friends.

Bear maybe the protagonist, but Freaky Nikki is the real star of the show. It’s surprisingly fun to watch Navarette go all out for Nikki’s mood swings. She spins unnerving monologues about death for minutes, then switch to calm like that. Her often-childish personality seems like a parody of someone like Alex in Fatal Attraction. Late in the film, however, you’re brutally reminded just how much of a danger she is to herself and others. That is, if her fascination with Bear’s dead cat didn’t clue you in sooner. She's an oddly sympathetic "villainess," while normal Nikki is more unquestionably sympathetic.

So, what about our actual protagonist? Tomlinson is so pleasantly dorky as Bear - refer to the opening - that it’s sometimes easy to overlook how morally deficient he is. Any sympathy you’ll have for him after his cat’s death evaporates once he fully comprehends what he did… and he barely cares. Even his ultimate heroic sacrifice is debatably heroic; let’s just leave it at that.

Sarah (Megan Lawless), the fourth member of Bear’s friend group, is significantly more likable. She’s mostly just there to be the cool wing-woman of the group with a little selfish secret. But she’s just likable when she gets to be alone with Bear at one point. Granted, I could tell from a mile away that she wouldn’t survive that scene, but not how suddenly and brutally it would happen. You probably won’t either. 

On a lighter note, Andy Richter also shows up as Sarah’s dad and manager, which is neat. Tomlinson, meanwhile, is fine as Ian, while Barker himself pops in as the voice of the unhelpful rep of the Willow’s makers. 

Now, we get to the technical stuff here. Cinematographer Taylor Clemons truly shines, ironically enough, when he obscures Freaky Nikki in shadows. One of her earliest scenes has her eyes seemingly glow in the dark. Special attention must be given to the makeup team that helped Navarette blend in with the dark. Barker, as the editor, usually leaves the camera running for quite a bit (sometimes more than anyone would ever want to see). These images are set to an unforgettably ominous score by Rock Burwell.

Just recently, Barker just finished his second professional feature, Anything but Ghosts, which sounds like a modern riff on those Golden Age supernatural comedies (or it might not be funny at all). I’m ready to see that, whenever that is. That anticipation goes to show how good a professional debut Obsession is. I think you might agree too. See it soon.