Movie Review: Uncharted (PG13 – 116 minutes)

 

The Uncharted games are distributed by Naughty Dog through Sony PlayStation consoles. The first one was released in 2007, followed by three sequels and one spin off.  I loved all the games, they feel like playing an Indiana Jones style adventure treasure-hunting movie.  Nathan Drake, the lead of the games, is fun and relatable with enough skills to get out of tricky situations, puzzle areas, and random gunfights.  He is a descendant of Sir Francis Drake and was raised in an orphanage with his older brother Sam. Over the course of the games, he and his mentor, Victor Sullivan (Sully), go on adventures sometimes with partner/adversary Chloe Frazer, or Elena, the journalist who Nate eventually marries and has a kid with – yes, the stories are that detailed.

The game series has been rumored to become a movie for years with various stars attached. Fans (including Nathan Fillion) wanted Nathan Fillion to play Nate, to the point that he made a fan film short with Stephen Lang.  I really (really) wanted to see that movie, but hey - we have come to the point where we get an Uncharted movie starring the extremely likeable Tom Holland.

This movie picks up (as the games sometimes do) with Nate regaining consciousness while hanging in mid-air out of a plane.  We go through a few flashbacks to the orphanage and his older brother Sam, to his working as a bartender and meeting Sully.  Sully strongly encourages the nimble-fingered and treasure-history savvy Nate to join him on a quest for the lost gold from Magellan’s voyage.  Together, they work with Chole Frazer to compete against Santiago Moncada, who believes his family is due the lost treasure, and Moncada’s own treasure-hunter-mercenary, Braddock.  Treasure-hunting hijinks and double-crosses ensue.

The movie is directed by Ruben Fleischer, who directed both Zombielands and the first Venom.  It is swiftly paced and action-packed. The treasure hunting-sequences are engaging and the fight sequences are entertaining.  I enjoyed it more than I expected, and I think it will deliver for those familiar with the games as well as those who have not heard of them.  The scope does not feel as grand or big as some of the games, but admittedly, that is mainly due to the fact that this shot during the pandemic and travel was more limited than a true globe-trotting treasure-hunting adventure deserves.  The cast each bring their own touches to characters that feel familiar both as archetypes and to those that played the games.

Tom Holland continues to be the most charming guy around. As much as I wanted Fillion to play Nate forever, going younger allows them to tell more stories – which I am already looking forward to. Holland is capable of both the action sequences and the guy-with-a-lot-of-historical-knowledge puzzle-solving sequences. You have to believe he is well informed, can solve a riddle, but can also hold his own in a fight.

Mark Whalberg is fine as Sully, but there were so many better choices out there.  He’s easy to buy in the action sequences, but less easy to buy in the riddle-solving scenes, which works because Holland handles most of those. Again, going a bit younger allows them to continue for many years, and he does appear with Sully’s trademark moustache in the post-credits sequence, so who knows. I’m trying to not let my severe dislike of Mark Whalberg color my opinion of his performance.

I love Antonio Banderas as a villain and he certainly oozes his way through Moncada as a guy who believes he is due far more than he is.  I would have loved even a little more of him in this movie – he does more string-pulling than treasure-hunting, and I think I wanted to see him out in the field, mixing it up a bit, throwing some punches and continuing to taunt our heroes.

Chloe has always been one of my favorite characters from the game, she’s the lead of the spin-off and that one is my favorite.  Claudia Black expertly voices her in the games and here Sophia Ali does a wonderful job portraying her. She is essentially the flip side to Nate, equally skilled, but with perhaps a looser moral compass. Looking forward to seeing what else she will get up to.

Tati Gabrielle plays Braddock, who starts out as a henchman and levels up to big bad. She provides levity when necessary and cold-bloodedness when necessary as well.

Overall, the movie is certainly fun and the perfect running length (just under two hours) for an action-adventure.  There’s a super fun Nolan North cameo, who voiced Nate in the games.  I especially appreciated the use of the game’s score in the movie when Nate gets his full outfit.  Since that music theme plays anytime the game is loading, you get very familiar with in after a run through. I will say, there weren't enough scenes of Nate randomly accidentally falling off a cliff while whatever character is next to him yells, "Nate, no!" repeatedly - which is a hallmark of my skilled gameplay.  

I definitely enjoyed this movie far more than I expected to and honestly, a lot of that is due to Holland’s chemistry and charm.  He continues to make some great choices and I am now on board with him as Nathan Drake – I hope they make a bunch more of these.

8 out of 10

Fan Film!

Movie Review: Marry Me (PG13 – 112 minutes)

 I have said it before and I will say it again – if there is one genre of movies I want to stick fairly close to a set formula, it is the rom-com.  The tried and true calculus of “Act 1 meet cute + (Act 2 relationship bliss + contrived conflict) = Act 3 reconciliation due to giant romantic gesture” is a proven formula and it works.  Marry Me is no different.

Pop star Kat Valdez is one of the biggest names in the music industry and as she is currently dating superstar Bastian, one half of the hugest power couple. The two have recorded a song called Marry Me and intend to really get married while performing at Madison Square Garden. Just before Kat takes the stage, she learns that Bastian cheated on her with her assistant.  Despondent and frustrated after all her failed relationships, she vows to try something different and in a flash decision, spots math teacher Charlie in the crowd, holding a “Marry Me” sign given to him by his friend Parker who dragged him and his daughter to the concert.  After Kat’s people bring him on stage, Charlie says yes, and the two get married. 

What follows is completely predictable, but undeniably charming.  Kat and Charlie get to know each other over what her team promises will just be a few weeks and then they will let him get back to his normal life. Kat is charmed by his work with kids and his precocious daughter. Charlie is charmed by Kat’s desire to be more true to herself and not give up on love, despite what the rumors about her say.  Inevitably, Bastian shows back up to throw a wrench into things and Charlie worries he’s not enough for Kat.  After a short split, she shows up at his math competition to provide the required big gesture to seal the deal.

The character of Kat is so similar to Jennifer Lopez’s real-life persona that I had to check if she wrote this (she did not).  The tried-and-true story is exactly what you expect, but what makes a successful romcom is never the story or content – it is the cast and how skillful they are at elevating the material. Lopez is a natural in this, mostly because she is playing herself.  It would be easy to find her privileged and out of touch, but there are just enough moments where she seems genuine with the kids and the desire to remain a romantic even in a world that wants to tear that apart that Kat remains a character you can cheer for, I particularly enjoyed the scene where they go bowling, and Charlie assumes she cannot bowl, and she absolutely can and gets a strike - charming and fun.

Owen Wilson is perfect as regular-guy Charlie who is dealing with his own insecurities as a single dad, wondering if he’s doing enough for his daughter and compounded by curiosity about his ex-wife’s new man.  He is great in the scenes with all the kids in the school as he coaches the mathletes.  He has such a pleasant likeability that he is just perfect here, again – someone you can root for. It's also fun to see these two together again after first seeing them in Anaconda, a true gem of a creature-feature.

The surrounding cast helps to add fun moments while never pulling focus from or upstaging the leads.  Maluma is a bit of a non-factor as Bastian – he’s there to be pretty and sing beautifully, which he does perfectly. 

John Bradley shows up as Kat’s manager – who cares so much about her well-being that I wondered if he was in love with her and maybe that was a side plot that was cut?  Michelle Buteau plays Kat’s personal assistant and, as always with Buteau, adds some perfect comic moments.

Sarah Silverman is dependably funny as Charlie’s best friend Parker and Chloe Coleman from My Spy is charming as fun as Charlie’s daughter Lou.

Overall, the movie delivers exactly what it promises, two likeable leads in a well-executed romcom that is perfect for streaming on Peacock on Valentine’s Day between winter Olympic Curling matches. And bonus – some of the new JLo songs are great! 

6 out of 10

 

Movie Review: Moonfall (PG13 – 132 Minutes)

 

No one destroys the planet like Roland Emmerich.  Moonfall is no exception.

This movie begins with a charming and fun spacewalk in which three astronauts debating whether Toto missed the rain or blessed the rain in Africa.  During this exchange something goes wrong, one gets knocked unconscious, one gets eliminated and the one remaining gets court martialed because no one can back him up on seeing something nefarious that caused the issue. 

Years later, that nefarious something is causing the moon to shift out of its orbit and begin creeping toward earth. This, of course, has terrible consequences including earthquakes, insane tides, gravity fluxes, lack of oxygen, you name it.  Oh, and of course, rioting, looting, and government officials making bad decisions.  It is up to the two remaining astronauts from that original mission, a comic-relief scientist, and their respective families and supporting characters to identify the problem, come up with a solution, and save the day. 

Honestly, that storyline is pretty similar to any Emmerich disaster movie, the best of which is Independence Day and the worst of which is 2012 – others are somewhere in between, but all have popcorn, big-screen, nonsense entertainment value.  This one ambles a bit in the beginning.  As opposed to the tight and clearly defined timeline of Independence Day (Day 1: the problem is identified, Day 2: a solution is crafted, Day 3: the solution is enacted and the day saved), in Moonfall the timeline is a little ambiguous – was there three days or three weeks during the story?  The wacky scientist that no one is listening to finds the issue, but NASA also finds it at about the same time.  The disgraced astronaut is having family troubles, but not enough that we care about any of the people involved.  The mission is put together to save the world, but instead of everyone coming together with a strong sense of unity between all humanity, the government is at odds with NASA, plus random folks are attacking other folks.  It is all a little more loose than I would like.  But, that is just the story. 

Getting down to the scenes of actual destruction, my goodness the scenes of the moon rising as it creeps closer and closer are spectacularly menacing.  The moon starts looming on the horizon, getting larger and larger.  When it starts to enter the atmosphere, the visuals combined with the score and music definitely create a sense of panic.  So Emmerich is still in his element in terms of destroying the world.  The cast is mostly game, but in some of his other movies, the thrown-together ensemble of random heroes is charismatic and engaging, here they are mostly forgettable.  

Patrick Wilson does stand out as disgraced astronaut Brian Harper – the side plot of his troubled kid, ex-wife, and her new husband (and apparently two other daughters?) was a bit fuzzy and lost some steam. That is unfortunate, because Michael Pena play the new husband and even his charm wasn’t enough to make me care about their situation. 

Halle Berry plays the other astronaut who accidentally becomes the head of NASA during the course of the story. She is fine in the role, but I did want a little more from her ‘big speech’ moment.  Eme Ikwuakor plays her husband who is over at the DOD and I did want the two organizations to come together a little more and work together on a solution – this movie was missing the “unification of humanity against external threat” that can take a movie like this to the next level.

John Bradley plays the crazy scientist who first discovers the threat.  Typically in this movie, no one is listening to that character until it is too late – but here, NASA has made the same discovery about the moon’s decaying orbit – it is just his theory about it begin a “mega-structure” that adds to his lunacy. Slight spoiler here - the twist ending, which was spoiled in all the trailers, of him being right and that something dragged the moon out of orbit, was interesting, but could have been a little simpler.  He was fun and provided some comic-relief while also doing what he could with a handful of tender moments.

The others are all forgettable, which is a shame, because what pulls you into a disaster movie is relating to the wide cast of characters – and being moved when you inevitably lose some of them. 

Overall, the movie is fine and certainly an entertaining piece of nonsense.  I wish it had been better paced and that the characters were better – but honestly, I can just rewatch Independence Day and be happy about that.  Also, I really want someone to make a movie from Michael Crichton’s book Prey.  And I'm going to continue to be super polite to my Alexa anytime I ask for anything... just in case. 

6 out of 10. 

 

Movie Review: The 355 (PG13 – 122 minutes)

 Agent 355 was the codename of a female spy who worked under General George Washington during the American Revolution. Seems fitting then to use that as the title for this movie about female spies from various agencies coming together to work a case. And honestly, that brief description sounds like the premise for an awesome streaming TV show that I would be all about. 

In Colombia, bad guy Elijah Clarke is picking up a hard drive from a drug lord containing the latest digital weapon – it can shut down any system anywhere!  Things go sideways when Elijah kills the hacker and attempts to get out with the drive while the drug agents who were outside rush in.  In the confusion, one of the agents, Luis, grabs the drive and attempts to pass it off to the CIA for a profit.  Agent Mace heads to Paris with her partner/best friend Nick to pose as a married couple to pick up the drive and give Luis a bag of money.  During the hand off a German agent grabs the bag, Clarke’s people come for the drive, and Nick doesn’t make it out.  Luis meets up with Graciela, a psychologist from his Colombian agency.  Mace is generally furious about all of this and partners up with an old friend named Khadijah from MI-6. They run into Marie, the German agent and they decide to all work together to retrieve the drive and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

The movie is good, but it could have been great, and that is the most disappointing part. The idea was proposed by Jessica Chastain to director Simon Kinberg while working on the X-Men:  Dark Phoenix movie.  Knowing how that movie turned out, I guess it is not a surprise that I wanted more from this movie. I am not convinced Kinberg is a great action director. I appreciated the amount of action in this movie – it felt like most of the lead actresses did as much of the fight scenes as they could, so once again, I would love for directors and editors to stop disrespecting the actors and the audience by throwing hundreds of cuts into a fight scene. Back up the camera and let us see it start to finish – if they work on the stunts, let us see it. 

I am also a little bit over the digital drive weapon-of-terribleness as the new standard macguffin.  It is somewhat necessary here as the level of threat that brings together several spies from different international agencies, which I loved. And like I said – may have been better suited to an epic action streaming TV show with different cases each week.  Here, the story is clunky and somehow both too fast and too slow, with too many endings. None of that is the fault of the cast, who are all great.

I enjoyed Jessica Chastain in Ava and her other action flicks, so I appreciate her in this and that she seems to prefer doing action movies. Mace is cold and efficient and all about the job.  

Lupita Nyong’o gives Khadijah Adiyeme a weariness to the field work as she has shifted to more desk-work. She functions as the tech-wiz for the group – their man-in-the-chair.

Diane Kruger plays Marie Schimdt as another cold as ice agent, marked in her agency as difficult to deal with and ‘only working alone’.

Penelope Cruz plays Graciela Rivera as the agency psychologist and not a field agent – I wish they had given her a backstory of more field action so that she was more prepared and less cowering. I'm a little perplexed as to why her agency sends her in to collect Edgar Ramirez's Luis when he gets in way over his head when he swipes the drive. He has nearly nothing to do here, which is a shame because he is usually very watchable.

Bingbing Fan plays Lin Mi Sheng and due to some tax issues in China, wasn’t as available as she may have been written. I would have preferred this character join the crew a little earlier on, but she was interesting when she finally met up with them.

I really enjoy Jason Flemyng and it was fun to see him as the big bad, but they could have done so much more with him.  Here, he just wants the drive to do some general bad and collect some general millions.

Sebastian Stan plays Nick Fowler, spoiler alert – his heel turn is telegraphed very early. It is fun to see him play a henchman and when he goes dark, he is legitimately threatening.

I love the idea for this, the cast, and the bones of the story, but the execution falls a little flat for me. I rarely want a movie to ‘hit harder’, but I think this may have benefitted from a harder R rating. Some of the scenes feel particularly choppy and may be because they were cut down for the PG13 rating.  Dialing it up may have suited the gravity of the story, and the grittiness the action.  

Chastain functions well as the ‘straight man’ in the group that holds the crew together.  However, with one central straight-man, you need the others to be bigger, wilder, and in every thrown-together-crew movie, there’s at least one loose-cannon.  Here, everyone is the straight man.  They could all be completely capable at their jobs and still be a little more charismatic.  Everyone takes it just a little too seriously, so the movie is absolutely missing a sense of fun. Honestly, I want it to get a sequel so that we can skip the team formation sequences and get to more schemes, fights, and missions.  I enjoyed it, but I wanted to love it, so I am left feeling disappointed.

6 out of 10

 

Movie Review: Eternals (PG13 – 156 minutes)

 

The Eternals were originally created for Marvel Comics by Jack Kirby in 1976. It was a sweeping, cosmic, weird, and a bit psychedelic story of superhuman warriors that came to earth thousands of years ago and are nearly immortal.  Because of their god-like powers and long life, they become the basis for many human myths in various cultures and civilizations.

This movie follows ten Eternals (Sersi, Ikaris, Thena, Gilgamesh, Ajak, Kingo, Sprite, Phastos, Makkari, and Druig) as they land on earth, battling Deviants as commanded by their… master? God? Director? Manager? … Arishem.  They battle the Deviants for several centuries with several of them getting a bit disillusioned by the genocide they witness by conquistadors in south America.  In fact, one has a full-out Eternal mental breakdown (they call it mind-weary, and what a perfect term for what many of us have gone through in the past year and a half). 

They decide to take a break and we pick up the story with Sersi in modern-day London where she is working at a museum and dating a local named Dane Whitman. Sprite is hanging out with them and seems to have told Dane just about everything about them because when a Deviant randomly attacks them, he knows what it is, but he hasn’t believed her stories up to this point.  This attack allows Sersi an opportunity for some exposition after they are rescued by Ikaris.  They decide to head off to check in with Ajak, because if Arishem is their manager, she’s the assistant manager and the only one who can talk with him.  This leads to a general rounding up of the rest of the team who is spread out across the globe. Once rounded up, they have to take on the deviants that remain all while unraveling their true purpose and deciding how they feel about said purpose.

Hiring Chloe Zhao to direct this movie was a perfect choice. For such an epic tale, her direction and the cast manage to make each of the Eternals feel intimate and relatable. It is very difficult to make a movie with ten leads and ensure each of them is given enough development that the audience understands their point of view. Coming in at two and half hours, this movie certainly has the time - even if I thought it should not have.  Of all the projects, this may have been the one that would have been better served by a Disney Plus show – you could have spent an episode with each Eternal, getting into their story, their powers, their state of mind, etc.  Zhao spent more time shooting on location than some other MCU projects and it certainly does show.  The movie is sweeping and gorgeous with impressive settings, costumes, and performances.

The movie may unofficially have ten leads but the true heart is Gemma Chan as Sersi. Her powers seem to be transmutation – changing one thing into something else. She’s the audience in and the one we spend the most time with.  She has learned to love humanity despite our flaws and her quest to ensure our safety at any cost is epic. 

Richard Madden as Ikaris gets the next most clock and his powers are Superman-like, flight, strength, and eye lasers.  He is very serious about doing the job they were assigned and not question Arishem or their directives. He and Chan have known each other for years and I felt that benefitted the chemistry between them, both when they are getting along (is this the only MCU movie with sex on a beach?) and when their relationship is strained. 

Angelina Jolie is perfect casting as Thena, the Eternal who influenced Athena from Greek Mythology. Her power is creating weapons out of nowhere with cosmic energy and using them with superior fighting skills.  She’s the one who gets the mind-weariness and while she is stoic for most of the movie, it requires an actress of her caliber to pull off painfully withdrawn and reserved with just a touch of snarkiness and engagement.  Easily one of my favorite characters.

Don Lee plays Gilgamesh, with super strength powers. He and Thena have an incredible friendship bond and take care of one another through battles and quiet times. His quiet power is fantastic and I love the sequence where he cooks for everyone.

Lia McHugh plays Sprite, and as you know from Interview with a Vampire and several Highlander episodes – anyone stuck in a child’s body for all eternity is pissed about being stuck in a child’s body for all eternity.  Her powers seem to be casting illusions and sarcasm.

Lauren Ridloff has been one of the best things on the Walking Dead for the last couple of years and here plays Makkari whose power is super speed.  Ridloff did get the opportunity to teach some of her co-stars ASL and they use it a bit throughout the movie. I would have liked a little more for her to do, or to learn more about her character, but again – so many leads.

Barry Keoghan plays Druig and his power is general mind-control?  He’s the one who is the most questioning of their mission parameters of non-interferences and originates the ‘walk away for a bit’ response after witnessing atrocities. He gives Druig a palpable frustration that at times felt like the right response and at other times felt like a threat. I loved the relationship Druig had with Makkari that was really more hinted at than developed.

Salma Hayek plays Ajak, the only one who gets to talk to Arishem. She watches over the other Eternals with her healing power and makes sure they all stay on task and do not go too far off the path.  She glides through the movie with an effortless elegance that centers the group.

Brian Tyree Henry plays Phastos and his power is engineering?  Tools, weapons, ships, you name it.  He helps mankind evolve, which he both relishes and reviles after seeing what they do with some of that knowledge. Eventually when the rounding-up begins, he has settled down with a husband and son and seems to be appreciating the quieter moments.

I mention Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo last because he stole every single second of this movie that he is on-screen for – which makes a decision Kingo makes late in the movie very puzzling. His power is literal finger guns – energy blasts from his hands. He has been excellent in a lot of things for a very long time (go watch the Big Sick if you haven’t) but my goodness, he is the best here. Kingo is an Eternal that loves being an Eternal. He has crafted a Bollywood star role for himself where he is just various offspring of himself so that no one questions how he had made so many movies for so long.  He is charming, fun, engaging, and so watchable that when he is not on screen, the movie suffers.  Also – Harish Patel as his valet is the best – providing some very human viewpoints on various scenarios.

Kit Harington is better here than he has been in anything else, giving Dane a likeability that makes me really excited for his (hopefully) future MCU appearances. Bill Skarsgard voices the head Deviant that begins evolving to the point where he can have a conversation. 

Overall, the movie is lush and beautiful and while I really enjoyed it, I didn’t love it. It certainly feels different than any other MCU movie while still fitting into the overall framework. Two and a half hours is way too long for any movie, even one this gorgeous. I really do think it would have been better as a series so that you could spend the time needed with each Eternal, although, I would not have liked any of the non-Kingo episodes as much!  As a random afterthought, I did love how anytime the Eternals encountered one another after a while, they tell folks around them, “These are my friends from college!”

8 out of 10

Movie Review: Dune (PG13 – 155 minutes)

 

Dune was written by Frank Herbert in 1965. Since then, it has been translated a few times to movies and mini-series. It is notoriously difficult to do as a movie or show because of the wide interstellar setting and the carefully included themes of colonization, politics, religion, ecology, technology and human involvement in all of those aspects. The story is set in a future where humankind has settled a great many planets and we have shifted back to a feudal-type system with various powerful families holding different areas to work and govern.

This version begins with a quick overview of the desert planet Arrakis and how it is the only place in the galaxy to harvest ‘spice’.  What exactly spice does is not covered in great detail here, but it helps with space travel, making it incredibly valuable. The people of Arrakis use it for what seem to be religious purposes but because of its travel value, others come in to harvest it.  Arrakis was under the power of the Harkonnen family, who were brutal and cruel to the Arrakans. The emperor (of the galaxy?) decides to pull the Harkonnens from Arrakis and instead sends the Atreides family to govern it.  From what I could gather, this seems to be a double cross because the emperor is not all that fond of the Atreides and is hoping the Harkonnens will get angry and eliminate the Atreides for him. 

Young Paul Atreides is studying with his mother Jessica who is a member of a religious organization, cult, or perhaps a coven. They are very powerful and have some extra-human skills.  Once they get to Arrakis, word spreads that he may or may not be some sort of savior that the Arrakans have been waiting for. Jessica seems to hint that she has been encouraging the rumor. Meanwhile, Paul’s father Leto has to deal with the mess the Harkonnens left behind in order to run the planet in a peaceful coexistence with the Arrakans.

The main reason I typed all that out was just to see if I had a grip on the plot of this movie. Admittedly, I have not read any of the books (there are a bunch of them) nor have I watched the Lynch movie or the mini-series from a few years ago, so the story is new to me.  I can see how it would be more clearly explained in a book and can be very difficult to convey these layers of political intrigue on screen. I think director Denis Villeneuve does a decent job, because I think I understood what was happening.  I know that he consciously was careful with this movie to try to avoid Star Wars comparisons, but it is tough to do any type of sci-fi epic and not feel similarities.  Villeneuve brings his trademark epic and desolate sci-fi stunning direction and sweeping landscapes to this movie. It is absolutely worth seeing in the theater because of the look of the movie. The story meanders a bit, but not enough to make it unpleasant.  The movie picks up action-wise just at the end as the Harrkonnens come to take back the planet and Paul has to go on the run.  Needless to say, this is just part one and I do find myself looking forward to part 2. 

I do not know, nor have I ever, understood the appeal of Timothee Chalamet.  I find him bland and boring.  I cannot tell if that was direction or choice here, but in my opinion, he lacks the charisma to center this movie – however, that may be accurate for this character.  I will say that everyone around him was incredibly watchable, which in a strange way makes his performance make sense – he’s the stillness at the center of the swirling and shifting performances around him.

Rebecca Ferguson is very intriguing as Jessica, making me almost want to read the books to know more about her character, their group, and where their loyalties lie.  I also found Oscar Isaac as her husband very interesting as a man who is going ahead with the duty he is assigned even when he is not that thrilled with it.  Josh Brolin plays his right hand man who is outwardly grumpy about the entire situation and does his best to keep Paul trained up and ready for anything.

Jason Momoa basically plays himself as a scout for the family that goes on ahead to the planet and embeds with the locals to get the lay of the land prior to the rest of the family showing up.  Javier Bardem is one of those locals and he has very few scenes here but he is engaging enough in those scenes to make you encouraged about what he will bring to the sequel.

Stellan Skarsgard oozes his way through the performance of the head of the Harkonnen clan. He is very creepy and weird and chews the scenery in a great way. Dave Bautista and David Dastmalchian play other Harkonnens who are equally creepy and watchable.  Are all the Harkonnens weird and bald and creepy or is it just these three?

Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays Dr. Liet Kynes, a go-between of sorts helping the Atreides connect with Arrakis, the Arrakans, and learn just enough about the spice and the giant sandworms that wander around the planet.

Zendaya plays the girl Paul is dreaming of, mentioning all kinds of things about Arrakis to him in those dreams. So you can imagine his surprise when he finally encounters her.  Again, this is a character that I assume will have more to do in the sequel.

Overall, the movie looks stunning and is entertaining enough – although it is way too long and very slow in parts.  Those slow parts do look lovely and if you are a fan of Villeneuve’s style, that will not bother you.  I found it a little tedious. 

5 out of 10 – I can’t help but wonder if the sequel will raise this number once I see it. I also wonder if having not seen or read any other version was a help or a hinderance. 

Movie Review: Venom: Let There Be Carnage (PG13 – 97 minutes)

 

I enjoyed the 2018 Venom movie. It did require some mental gymnastics in accepting a Venom movie without Spider-Man in it.  Why is that so difficult? Well, I recommend checking out the series of Venom episodes from the 90s Spider-Man animated series – they explain Venom better than I could. 

But here’s a summary - Essentially Spider-Man picks up an alien symbiote that happily bonds with him – changing his costume black and enhancing his more dark & dangerous impulses.  Upset when he realizes what the symbiote could empower him to do, Peter Parker separates himself from it using sonic vibrations (really loud noise).  The symbiote falls to Eddie Brock – a reporter who has recently developed a world class hatred for Peter Parker for various reasons. So together, Eddie hates Peter, the symbiote hates Spider-Man, and they become Venom, united in their hatred of your friendly, neighborhood hero.  Since he’s the focus of their hatred, they pretty easily shift into anti-hero territory, willing to help out others as long as they can continue to hate Spider-Man.  So, if you can set aside all that backstory and cut out the Spider-Man from it (it’s really hard to do that), you can enjoy the movie. I particularly loved the bits of Venom just Venom-ing around San Francisco and being a ‘lethal protector’.  Plus, Tom Hardy embraced the over-the-topness of the Jeckel and Hyde bit of the story, creating a very watchable Eddie Brock.

Once the symbiote reproduces/splits, and a bit lands on insane serial killer Cletus Kassady, he bonds with the symbiote, causing pure chaos.  A bit I always liked was that Kassady bonded so completely, Carnage always uses “I” to refer to himself and Venom uses “we”, since Eddie and the symbiote remain individuals.

In this movie, we pick up with Venom doing what they can to protect the city as Eddie struggles to keep the symbiote fed – but they are getting on each other’s nerves.  After all, they do share the small living space of Eddie’s body.  Eddie gets to write a story on killer Cletus Kassady, and the symbiote helps him be observant enough to figure out where some additional bodies are buried. This pissed off Cletus, who requests one more meeting with Eddie prior to being executed.  In said meeting, he bites Eddie, picking up a bit of symbiote, which gets angry about the attempted execution and breaks them out of prison.  Carnage then goes to pick up his lady friend from the institution in which she has been staying and they set about on a very Natural Born Killers type rampage of chaos and revenge – forcing Eddie and the symbiote to patch up their differences so that Venom can try to save the day. 

The story is simple and straightforward and honestly, I liked it even more than the first – because here, we skip the origin part and get right to the adventure.  Since the origin is the iffy-est bit of the first, this was great. Adding Andy Serkis as director is a good thing because he understands how to help actors with the physicality of tangling with something that is not there. He kept the action swift, light, and maintains a sense of fun through the whole piece. The fight scenes are really entertaining even if they get a little CGI-heavy, and watching Hardy again embrace big and crazy as Brock argues with the symbiote is fantastic. Hardy gets a writing credit on this one and has already said he’s looking forward to what he can do in the next one and now – so am I.

Woody Harrleson goes to gleefully crazy, which he is very good at, and let loose as Cletus. I didn’t need all the justification in his backstory for his lunacy, but hey, I suppose it provides a why. It doesn’t make him any less of a threat. The Carnage effects are fine, but I do wish he was a little more red. And, not having Peter Parker around to deliver some science-y exposition about the differences between the two symbiotes is not something most will miss (I did, a little).

I appreciate Michelle Williams as Anne and how she is both patient and irritated with Eddie. I also like that she is willing to help when necessary and admits that occasionally bonding with the symbiote is fun.  Reid Scott as her fiancée Dr. Dan is still hilarious and unprepared for the situation – although he certainly steps up here when needed.

Naomie Harris plays Frances Barrison – Shriek – who in this version grew up with Cletus and is in love with him. She’s a mutant with big scream powers – interesting since the one thing the symbiotes hate is big noises. 

Peggy Lu’s Mrs. Chen provides a wonderful stable base for Venom to hangout.  Stephen Graham plays Detective Mulligan who may or may not at some point become Toxin – here, he’s the guy who shot Shriek years ago and is still dealing with that trauma.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and the run time is fantastic!  At just over an hour and a half, it’s a reminder that not every movie needs to be two and a half hours long!  Trim it up and deliver in the time you have.  The post-credits sequence certainly has me intrigued for what is next – perhaps they will find a way to solve all the issues of the first movie? Because I really enjoy Hardy’s Venom and want him to be around for a long time.

8 out of 10