science fiction
The Force Awakens intentionally goes out of its way to remind us that it’s the good old Star Wars we are used to. It was a logical choice for the first new Star Wars film since the almost universally reviled prequel trilogy. The movie sticks beat-for-beat to the “A New Hope” formula – exactly the reason why it’s arguably the only Star Wars film outside of the OG trilogy that captures some of the magic and wide-eyed-wonder we felt watching Episodes IV-VI as younglings. J.J. Abrams understands the power of nostalgia. Our introduction to Kylo Ren is wonderful and terrifying and his emo-Darth Vader sensibility works for providing the character with a believable motivation. Just like Vader before him, he is by far the most interesting character in the film. Rey, Finn, Poe and BB-8 all come across just as intended – as likable characters you want to see succeed. Film after film the Academy Award winning visual FX provided by Industrial Light and Magic set and re-set the bar for creating science fiction worlds on screen. The lightsaber battles, grounded relative to the prequel trilogy with a noticeable lack of flips and flourishes, incorporate the latest VFX technologies to create the most satisfying hums and clashes yet. From start to finish, The Force Awakens is smile-inducing. Then, things got weird.
The Force Awakes receives a score of 8.5 out of 10 for being the only film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy that just wants to be fun and isn’t jerking us around or course-correcting poorly made story decisions.
I walked out of the opening night showing of The Last Jedi feeling letdown and conflicted due to an extremely noticeable lack of lightsaber combat and slap in the face non-payoffs to next-big-things (as setup in The Force Awakens) Rey and Supreme Leader Snoke. Upon re-watching the film for this review, only one of the three still bothered me. The lack of lightsaber combat is truly disappointing. If I told you there would be a Star Wars movie in the numbered episodic series that throughout its 150-minute runtime didn’t have a single instance (save for a momentary flashback) of a lightsaber clashing with another you’d be surprised and confused right? I was surprised and confused as well. Lightsaber combat and how the films find new and interesting ways of presenting the beautiful dance of laser swords is a sizable part of why I and I presume many others love Star Wars. The Last Jedi is undeniably lacking in this arena. Moving on, everything between Finn and Rose is a chore to watch and an entire section of the film within an intergalactic casino brothel feels like a deleted scene that got slipped into the final cut. And I still want to know how Supreme Leader Snoke got those magnificent scars. Despite the bad there is lots of good to be found in the film and almost all of it is specifically Jedi-related. Kylo Ren and Rey are exciting and compelling to watch and the two have fantastic chemistry. The character revelations specific to this film concerning the two don’t make complete narrative sense when you consider what we eventually learn in the finale to the Skywalker saga (how could Rey be more naturally powerful in the force than Ren if she truly came from nothing?) but taken as a stand-alone film the ReyLo arc is satisfying.
The Last Jedi receives a score of 7.5 for being a good Star Wars film that is overall the weakest of the sequel trilogy with too little laser sword action.
It doesn’t matter how you or I feel about this or any Star Wars film, we can all agree that Babu Frik must be protected at all costs. He was Baby Yoda before Baby Yoda. My overall impression of The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) has a lot in common with my feelings around the sequel trilogy as a whole. That is, anything related to fleshing out the mysteries of and conflicts within the Skywalker/Palpatine lineage is a joy to watch. We learned way back in The Empire Strikes Back that the primary antagonist of the Skywalker Saga (I love that nomenclature btw) and best-movie-villain-ever was the father of the protagonist. “I am your father” persists as one of the most talked about, quoted and remembered movie moments ever. Will current generations reflect back wistfully on similar revelations from TROS? Doubtful, but that’s a pretty high bar to measure up to. TROS is quite good when viewed without the immense expectation that it will wrap up perfectly the arcs of so many characters significant and minor that have real meaning in the lives of so many of us (it largely does). ReyLo is just as interesting here as in The Last Jedi. It's hard to look away when the two are on screen. The relationship between emotionally split Kylo Ren and frightened-by-her-own-power Rey is at the center of the film and trilogy. Ren/Rey is essentially a proxy for Luke/Vader and the film and movie-goer both know it. Some of us walked away from TROS after first viewing unsatisfied with certain character arcs. I get that. I encourage you to go back and look again. The actual “star war” going on in the film is largely rote and Poe Dameron, Finn, Rose, etc. don’t have much of an impact. But the saga of the Skywalker family and message that any of us can make amends and be redeemed is a message worth considering.
The Rise of Skywalker receives a score of 8 out of 10. Within the sequel trilogy it falls just behind The Force Awakens and well ahead of The Last Jedi.
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The infamously terrifying and claustrophobically shot scene at the tail end of Star Wars: Rogue One is essentially the one and only time we get to see a live action Darth Vader go full Sith at the height of his powers. It’s a sublime moment in a Star Wars universe boasting a lot of them. Scoundrels across the galaxy speak in hushed tones of Vader’s near limitless power and simmering rage. It was worth the wait to see. Would this film still be considered a diamond in the rough of the expanded Star Wars universe in the absence of witnessing Anakin effortlessly decimate a dozen helpless, faceless rebels? It’s a question worth asking. That Rogue One contains the now infamous and endlessly rewatchable scene which also happens to lead directly into the start of the start of The Skywalker Saga (not a typo) gives the film extra meaning. Rogue One is underappreciated and becomes even more so with time. Beautiful in its simplicity, it tells a tale we always imagined but never thought we’d see. It’s far more coherent from beginning to end than any of the sequel trilogy. Going in knowing the end certainly helps, both for us and the filmmakers. I’ve always found ground battles to be more compelling than the aerial counterparts - it’s far easier to consistently understand who is attacking who and from what angle. The “Star War” aspect of Rogue One benefits from taking place almost entirely on foot/hand-to-hand. In that way, It almost feels like a precursor to The Mandalorian, another Star Wars property almost entirely devoid of aerial combat. Being compared favorably to The Mandalorian means you are doing something right.
Rogue one receives a score of 8.5 out of 10 for both general audiences and Star Wars wonks. The film is woefully underrated.
T2 (1991) is the MacBeth of action movies and the unquestioned high-water mark within the genre for its spellbinding story, pitch-perfect casting, phenomenal acting, groundbreaking visual effects and creatively staged set pieces. It is the film by which action movies with aspirations of transcending genre trappings are judged. Rightfully so. It wouldn't be hyperbolic to call it the best action movie ever. That it is still in the conversation 30 years later is as much a ringing endorsement of director/writer James Cameron as a filmmaker as it is an indictment of the state of the Action Film. There have been four sequels and few consider any to be in the same quality orbit as T2. It's unlikely any film inside the franchise or out will ever match it. T2 is singular in its crystal-clear delivery of a cautionary tale that becomes more plausible with time rather than the other way around. Cameron's timeless direction provides the perfect canvas for complete and painfully believable performances by the iconic cast as well as a central conflict that creates action in perfect sync with the Cameron penned story. Nothing here is by chance or shoehorned in to justify the movie’s existence within the action genre. Each stab, haymaker, bullet, rocket and grenade hits with the same synapse-shattering thwack we are accustomed to experiencing in high drama even though T2 is plot-wise fairly standard robot apocalypse fare. Many films and TV shows tell this story. T2 stands way out because it presents the humans and the doomed path by which they hand power over to the machines as equally interesting to any physical conflict. Terminators are supremely cool and visually interesting but showcasing a new model while telling the same story is not enough. This is what the sequels after T2 miss. Movie-making is a business and it's easily understood why producers keep going back to the well. They are correct in concluding that most fans of the franchise won't dare skip a Terminator film even if the franchise arguably jumped the shark with Terminator Genisys. The story of Skynet and human's quest to avert Judgment Day was fully told in T2. The Terminator franchise should’ve ended, poignantly, along with the T-800 and that heart-wrenching thumbs-up.
10/10
Is the Predator a villain? l see an alien of staunch principle who doesn't concern himself with being nice. Many earth based lifeforms with similar manifestos succeed and are admired. On his planet he could be the Jerry Seinfeld of Predators, adored by all. How would we know? Strict Honor Code? Check. Doesn’t attack the unarmed, sickly, or pregnant? Check. Intelligent enough to build and pilot interstellar aircraft? Check. If you disregard comics or video game expanded universe content and consider Predator behavior strictly from the movies you'll find a species that hunts for sport/to eat and is supremely aggressive. Sounds pretty human to me. The Predator, created in 1987 by Stan Winston with an assist from James Cameron - he suggested the mandibles - is a timeless icon and relic of a forgotten, under-appreciated era where movie monsters were men and women in suits rather than CGI creations. We know the Predator and his unmistakable silhouette of mask, shoulder cannon and dreadlocks (with the latter feature serving no discernable or stated purpose, adding to the cool factor). It’s easy to pick on modern day filmmakers for overuse of CGI. It comes from a good place. Done right, practical effects create a sense of realism and feel that can't be duplicated in a computer. Imagine if the original Predator film was releasing for the first time in present-day. It's unlikely we'd get a 100% in-camera Predator nor the iconic hand to hand finale. For evidence, see 2018’s The Predator or any of the Alien movies after Aliens. I miss the guerilla-style, figure-it-out, George Lucas-with-no-green-screen style of filmmaking we used to get back when the default solution wasn’t to fix it in post. Necessity is the mother of invention. RIP Stan Winston.
Predator receives a score of 10/10 for giving us a character and franchise that remains as cool now as 30+ years ago (even if 2018’s The Predator is a perplexingly laughable turd that represents the low point of the franchise).
The underappreciated and oft-overlooked Predator 2 establishes definitively that Predators are not villainous in the traditional sense. Their behavior toward prey is akin to that of humans towards the Caspian Tiger or Muskox, both of which are hunted nearly to extinction. Right or wrong, Predators hunt for sport and to eat - just as we do. They differ from us in how they attack only prey that can reasonably defend themselves or return fire and will engage defenseless prey hand-to-hand. I don’t know that a Homo sapiens hunter ever fought and captured a deer or grizzly bear with their bare hands. Predator 2 deepens interestingly and arguably softens the Predator mythology. At the films captivating conclusion an elder Predator tosses Danny Glover’s Detective Harrigan a vintage flintlock handgun as a show of respect. This act can only be described as human and it establishes the Predator species as thinking and feeling creatures with the ability to speak, interest in culture and the capacity for compassion. We had a basic sense of their honorable hunting policies but no inkling that they possessed an alien anthropology with customs overlapping with our own. This revelation alone, especially when viewed through the prism of 2018’s The Predator, makes Predator 2 downright Shakespearean. The ending to Predator 2 is also just as good if not superior to that of the original. Were the other Predators just watching the fight the whole time? They watched their friend get killed. What a bunch of jerks.
Predator 2 receives a score of 6.5/10 for general audiences and 9/10 for fans of the Predator universe or the late 80’s/early 90’s type of frenetic no-frills action.
Aliens (1986), written and directed by James Cameron, is the poster child for the somewhat rare direct sequel that bests the original. It takes everything we loved about the first and gives us more while also greatly expanding the (now) convoluted mythology of the Aliens universe. Cameron has an uncanny knack for creating story canvasses where the action feels earned. This is largely why Aliens, on its surface an exercise in the “military must respond to unknown threat” trope, is nothing if not cerebral. Sigourney Weaver creates with Ellen Ripley one of the most iconic action stars ever…period. In the “false” finale (prior to the real finale with the infamous power loader) she takes up arms and faces down the entire Alien colony completely by herself. No matter how many times I see her ride down that elevator to save Newt I can’t help but think she might be the most staunchly heroic character in movie history. She saw what the Aliens did to an entire unit of trained and heavily armed colonial marines. Most people would’ve accepted or rationalized that Newt was already gone. Not Ripley. It is lost on all but the most die-hard science fiction genre fans that Weaver was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Apologies to Marlee Matlin, but Weaver got robbed. Perhaps it was because it was exceedingly rare, just as it remains now, for a science fiction film to receive a nomination for acting. In that regard, Cameron and Weaver should be credited for providing an early shining example that loud doesn’t always equal dumb.
Aliens is a genre classic in the truest of senses. 10 out of 10.
“Polarizing” is an overused movie descriptor. Prometheus earns it. Directed by the legendary and highly respected Ridley Scott, the movie was marketed as a pseudo-sequel within the Alien(s) universe that would provide definitive answers to questions we knew to ask – and many we didn’t. In a development that set the internet ablaze and had genre fans giddy with excitement, the trailer - one of the best ever made - teased that we would finally be shown the origins of the mysterious Space Jockey from the original Alien film. Cut to Prometheus and we discover the Space Jockey was part of a group of alien but essentially humanoid beings capable of interstellar travel, described as “Engineers.” The Space Jockey was an Engineer in a containment suit/rebreather. This is one of the only clear-cut answers provided by the film. In present day we know the mysterious and seemingly random black goo featured in Prometheus was a biological weapon used on multiple planets for thousands of years by the engineers to create life…and destroy it. One can gather a fairly complete picture of the Engineers gene-tampering machinations from Ridley Scott sound-bites, 2017’s Alien Covenant (the special feature content on the blu-ray is equally useful as the film) as well as from the many excellently written expanded universe graphic novels. I imagine it’s frustrating for the more casual fan that all of the aforementioned were released well after Prometheus. I urge you to go back and watch again with the added context. You might just discover, as is my opinion, that Prometheus is the best film in the Alien(s) universe since Aliens. Final thought: Ridley Scott is clearly more interested in synthetic life/androids than xenomorphs. For evidence, see Raised by Wolves (we've reviewed it). It's his amazingly thought-provoking series streaming now on HBO Max.
Prometheus receives a score of 7.5/10 for casual fans and a score of 9/10 for those willing to do the homework (I know, you shouldn’t have to) to fill in the blanks.
Have you watched V for Vendetta lately? That film and 2002’s Equilibrium share more than a few themes. Both present a depressing dystopian future with oppressive government as the main feature. Both films are hypnotically shot, peppered with bursts of mesmerizing action and force the viewer to consider life in the absence of free will. The antagonist of Equilibrium presents the logically accurate case that human emotion is the catalyst for all violence and ultimately, suffering. What if we could rid ourselves of emotion entirely? It’s a compelling premise and dare I say, timely. While V for Vendetta is a political action film marketed as an action film, Equilibrium is an occasionally slow paced but unrelentingly cerebral pure action film with strong science fiction and political action elements. The “gun-kata” fictional fighting style practiced by Christian Bale’s John Preston is a pleasure to watch and wholly unique. The fight choreography is often compared to The Matrix and while there is a grain of truth there, Equilibrium is no Matrix clone. The darkly lit cinematography style and forebodingly manic energy of the opening scene sets the tone and is a sight to behold. Imagine the gunplay from The Matrix minus the excessive wire-work and if the gun-wielders were less concerned with looking cool and more with avoiding return gunfire – that’s the gun-kata in Equilibrium. The film deserves its cult status. Christian Bale has been a great action star this whole time, way before he donned the cape and cowl.
Equilibrium receives a score of 7/10 for general audiences and 8.5/10 for fans of cerebral action with fights that always serve the story.
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The instant James Cameron and Linda Hamilton attached themselves to Terminator: Dark Fate they created the expectation the film might finally have something in common with the first two terminator films, both of which are unquestioned classics. While this latest return to the robot apocalypse well is far from bad and competent in most every respect, nothing about it feels manifestly different than the other three largely forgotten sequels released since T2. The action scenes are bombastic and thrilling but does this offering bring anything to the Terminator franchise approaching the overall standard set by Terminator 1 and 2? The answer is a resounding “not really.” It’s a shame because you can tell the producers and writers tried valiantly to capture the story-driven magic of T2. Serious chances are taken with the canon that are ill-guided at worst and polarizing at best. They also painted themselves into a corner casting an aging Schwarzenegger. The rationale for why he’s still around and what he’s been doing all this time feels like fan-fiction. The laughably tone-deaf opening completely invalidates the core conflict of the first two films in an attempt to be shocking. It doesn’t work and feels unearned. The obligatory new terminator model feels yet again like a downgrade from the T-1000. It’s more complex and admittedly visually interesting but as with the TX from T3, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Skynet took a step backwards in going away from the 100% liquid poly-mimetic alloy. The franchise is a prisoner of its own success as the standards set by the decades old T1 and T2 seem more and more out of reach with each new film. There will always be a market for the Terminator property and it is likely these watered-down, cash-grab sequels will keep releasing every few years. Fans will continue to show up at the cinema but it's time to do a proper reboot with new characters and new ideas. The logic is questionable in continuing to remind us of the better films in the franchise.
Terminator: Dark Fate, like all Terminator sequels save for T2, is crushed by the weight of expectations. It receives a score of 6/10 for both general audiences and Terminator franchise stalwarts.