Story

An alien spaceship is pursuing another one through space. A brief ripple of time-space continuum and runaway spaceship gets thrown into vicinity of Earth. It has to crash land. Unfortunately, it crashes in the forest of Mexico, right where U.S. Special Forces are conducting an operation. Army sniper Quinn McKenna is first to discover the spaceship and also what seems to be body armor of alien creature. McKenna knows something is happening as soon as he sees US helicopter flying over. So, he grabs alien’s helmet and runs away. In the meantime, alien creature is captured and brought to secret government facility in U.S.A. So is biologist Casey Bracket who is escorted to facility to help investigate alien creature genome. She is very surprised to find out that this is not the first time aliens made landing, that they are extremely dangerous and kill for sport. And also, they are called Predators.

Writing

Problems with “The Predator” start very early. Not that I did expect extreme sophistication of plot and structure, but there are a lot of issues with writing. There is just not enough room to fit all what has been written on the paper to the screen! Unlike other movies of this genre, “The Predator” boasts a huge amount of supporting cast members. When usually these characters would get bottled in and left to die one by one, there is not enough time to get them all killed. And screenplay doesn’t even offer us a bottle situation. There are good guys, bad guys, semi-good guys, semi-bad guys, neutral guys. All kind of guys. Film dives deep to analyze intricate details between the characters and just gets lost in it.

Aliens do exist

No, I am probably wrong. Screenplay probably had it all clear – the interactions, the logic and all. How one scene ties into another, how one dialogue leads to new information. But since film is just couple minutes shy of two hours I am sure there was a lot of things left on the editing floor. As such film seems very chaotic at times. Characters make some weird choices that we have to take for granted. Literally at one point I was wondering where RV came from (no spoilers). You will see what I am talking about. And I am sure there was a scene or two explaining all that but was just deleted from final picture.

Is it problem of editing though? Was so much cut that screenplay became incoherent and ineffective? I highly doubt that. Because editor did leave several unneeded scenes and jokes. I am more and more sure that this is really screenplay problem. And I want to believe that this film could have been way better if it would have been made into two movies. Or if the screenplay was butchered properly to have less things happening in one single film.

On the other hand, film has characteristic to Shane Black style dialogues and character interactions. When film wants to get funny it does so very well. There are a lot of self-satirical references, running gags, you know, simple stuff that can make film from being a stupid mess to somewhat tolerable B-rated, grindhouse film. I have to admit that film achieves that very well.

Yeap, that is him!

Directing

Problems with editing and script aside, Shane Black does a decent job with directing. This especially shows itself during action sequences, which are adequately made and satisfyingly violent. Packing enough punch to make previous film jealous, “The Predator” delivers a very potent image of alien creature going berserk. Isn’t that all why we came to see “The Predator”? To see ridiculously ugly creature from outer space that enjoys killing other creatures for a sake of it, rip a hole in man’s guts and pull out his spine? We don’t need a proper script for that! We just want gore, guts and gurgling sounds!

As a result, “The Predator” turns into an action film. Unlike the rest of the series which had some kind of balance of action, horror, science fiction and thriller elements, “The Predator” is pure action film. Nothing more and nothing less. Whether you like it or not depends on what you actually expect of it.

When supporting characters are better than main ones

Acting

“The Predator” is one of the rare films that has supporting characters much better than the main one. How weird is that? And yet we have extremely shallow and one-dimensional main characters in face of Boyd Holbrook, who plays sniper Quinn McKenna and completely not interesting Olivia Munn playing biologist Casey Brackett. Oh, and also Sterling K. Brown, who is extremely talented dramatic actor playing extremely uncharacteristic bad guy. Even in mediocre “Hotel Artemis” he had a better role.

Supporting cast on the other hand shines through always fun to watch Thomas Jane, “Game of Thrones” alum Alfie Allen, comic star Keegan-Michael Key, charismatic Trevante Rhodes, talented young actor Jacob Tremblay, and, hell, even full of fight Yvonne Strahovski. Every single on of them are more defined and developed than the main characters. Again, this might be just the same issue of screenplay.

Summary

“The Predator” gives what fans wanted to see – alien creature wrecking havoc. Nothing more, nothing less. Shane Black does very well during action sequences, but anything else drags into incoherent mess, with supporting characters more interesting that main heroes. If you like the kind of movies where you get drunk and just enjoy the spectacle, “The Predator” is definitely for you. You will find it fun and entertaining. Otherwise, it will seem like a freaking train-wreck to you.

The post The Predator appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Billionaire Jack Morris arrives to groundbreaking research facility he paid for to meet scientist Dr. Minway Zhang. Morris has arrived right in the midst of lab’s biggest mission. Crew is diving into deepest section of Marianas trench to prove the theory that cloud of gases is masking real ocean floor. To everyone’s amusement that turns out to be true. But celebrations are short. Research vessel is almost immediately attacked by a gigantic creature. Damages of vessel prohibits it from raising and on surface everyone is scrambling for rescue operations. But there is only one person who can attempt such a daring act: ex-rescue diver Jonas Taylor. Despite his objections, Jonas is forced to join the mission when he learns that his ex-wife is one of the members of stranded crew. But his biggest fears will turn to be right when they will discover that the mystery creature is a megalodon!

Yes, they are trying to kill a giant shark with little cage…

Writing

There is literally nothing unique about the script of “The Meg”. It is riddled with cliché storylines, plot elements, character drivers and motivations, resolutions and outcome. From hero who no one believes to and his ex-wife being one of the victims, to main female hero in desperate need of a man in her life and father who never trusted his daughter. List is so big I can just spend whole night writing about it. In fact, the scrip it so unimaginative that characters themselves start making fun of sheer stupidity of some of the points. This self-irony somewhat saves the day, giving audience something to laugh at. That being said, film is not on the “Snake on the Plane” level of ridiculousness, so that’s somehow saves it.

Jonas (Statham) is expertly sizing up new opponent – a megalodon!

Directing

And what gives “The Meg” somehow good rap is directorial work of Jon Turtletaub. To my big relief, he didn’t make movie as a freaking big monster disaster movie (though the ending might seem like that), but as a horror/thriller. To that extent, “The Meg” tried to give more of “Jurassic Park” feeling than “Godzilla”. Side note – horror/thriller is a bit of a stretch, as a film is plagued by a financial decision to keep it PG-13 rated. Thus, violence is muted, however it was still pretty wild in some instances.

That pays off well. He uses subtle tension moments, combining with sudden jump scares and timely reveals. In that Turtletaub makes film at least enjoyable to watch. To the point that you might momentarily forget the shortcomings of the script. “The Meg” probably achieves same results as Dwayne Johnson’s “Rampage“. In both films, you just manage to shut down all logic and reason and just enjoy the spectacle.

Diversity rules!

Acting

Über-diverse cast of “The Meg” did actually surprise me. In fact, the only minority groups not represented were Hispanics and Arabs. Not because it is inconceivable to have so much diversity in a group of people, but the fact there was so much variation of nationality, race, age, sexual orientation, hair style, hell, even tattoo choices that it was quiet shocking. Not two members of characters carried same trait. And this diversity was so in your face, combined with stereotypical traits for each character, me, biggest proponent of realistic representation of diversity, was just appalled by how much “The Meg” overdid it.

However, I have to admit, cast did more than adequate job. Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor is very effective both as grumpy savior and funny romantic. Li Bingbing, though written cliché, proves she can stand her own ground. I did enjoy also Rainn Wilson‘s performance, who very nicely plays moneybag with ulterior motives.

Summary

“The Meg” may have a horribly cliché script, but combined with Turtletaub’s direction it actually turns out to be fun to watch. And while Jason Statham trying to kill monster shark will not go into history as a memorable film, at least it is enjoyable. Until next killer shark film arrives.

The post The Meg appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Three years passed since the events of “Jurassic World.” In this time the volcano became active on Isla Nublar, the location of the original and new parks, and threatens to destroy the whole island and with it the only inhabitants – dinosaurs. People have different opinions on how to act. Some argue that dinosaurs are dangerous and should be left on the island to die. Others claim that dinosaurs are live animals, and despite being artificially created deserve to be rescued.

Leading the rescue initiative efforts is Claire, ex-manager of Jurassic World. She has organized Dinosaur Protection Group, but final decision by U.S. Senate arrives that prohibits any intervention to rescue. Right then she receives a call from Benjamin Lockwood, ex-colleague of original park’s creator John Hammond. He informs that he has arranged an island for dinosaurs and needs Claire’s help locating and transferring the dinosaurs on the island. He is specifically interested in Blue – velociraptor that was raised by Claire’s ex-boyfriend, Owen.

You would think that molten lava can stop dinosaur from trying to eat Claire (Howard), right?

Writing

In most cases, the reason for a messy movie is a screenplay. But with “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” the problem lays with the main idea of the plot. The whole idea of island getting destroyed by a volcano and rush to save dinosaurs from second extinction feels forced and ridiculous at best. Apparently, a lot of people are interested in replicating genetic engineering results, but ever since Hammond designed dinosaurs over 25 years ago, no one was able to come close. But wait, they did, that’s how the second park was conceived, wasn’t it? You mean to say that all that research was completely lost and the only copy of the materials and information is on the island?

Film opens up with a short clip about a military operation trying to steal remains of Indominus Rex. No need to say that their plan goes awry. But then we will find out that this whole scene made ZERO impact on the film plotline. Essentially, director could have just cut that scene and it wouldn’t have mattered even a tiny bit. Why is it there? To open the film with something? To give us a small teaser of what “might” happen? Or just to mess with our expectations for the movie? The scene is good and intense, unlike the rest of the film.

Heroes from previous films have changed tremendously. Claire, who was a calculating and pragmatic manager of operations of whole park has apparently overnight gone hippie and now is fighting for dinosaur rights. Wasn’t she directly responsible in design of Indominus Rex and also accountable for numerous deaths and injuries to the people in the first film? Why is she not rotting in jail, instead of going around and crying about dinosaurs dying? Film wants us to believe that she is a changed person, fine, but this change is so abrupt and so not in compliance with her personality. Oh, and Owen is essentially a freaking James Bond!

Owen (Pratt) can kungfu a dinosaur

And then there is a screenplay, of course. Film consists of two parts – on and then off the island. And here is where things go stupid. Each section has it’s own villains and film divides it’s attention. “Jurassic World” concentrated on one bad dinosaur, who was a bad guy from first scene all the way to the end. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” has a bad dinosaur, but it’s only in the second part. It gets really short amount of screen time and doesn’t even make a very compelling bad guy.

Then there is an issue with Blue, the raptor. He apparently not only recognizes good from bad, but also right from wrong. In fact, he is so humanized, that eventually he seems to be the only smart being in the whole film. Overall dinosaurs and what they do seems to be super ridiculous. That includes a dinosaur who gets burned by lava but despite this still wants to kill people; some predators who in the stampede to try to escape from volcano also decide to attack other dinosaurs for no other reason but to be assholes; ex-machina dinosaur who helps heroes when they are in captivity; super killing machine who can smell anything but fails to smell people hiding in plain sight, etc.

Supporting characters are just horrible. Like in all Jurassic movies, there is a) annoying child, who deliberately tries to put itself into peril, b) nerdy comic relief guy, who is very out of touch with real life but still can hack and open every door, c) crazy old school hunter, who is there for pure sport and joy of killing a dinosaur, and d) an old man who goes “what have we done”.

I don’t want to talk about the ending. It is so dumb and irrational it made me cringe. You will have to see it for yourself to understand.

I am sure you haven’t seen T-Rex before

Directing

J.A. Bayona directed “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” And though film is just miserable clutter struggling under its own weight, Bayona at least tries to salvage what he can, but with mediocre results. Rating is PG-13, meaning lesser amount of violence and lower levels of scares. And while original films were also not big on delivering scares, there were pretty awesome in building tension. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” struggles with that. As a matter of fact, the only scare involves a child jumping out to scare her nanny. There is nothing intense in this film and when film manages to get just a little interesting, something stupid would happen and whole tension would dissipate.

Magic of the Spielberg’s version was in the reveal of dinosaurs. The brontosaurus walking into the light, T-rex not showing up to eat the goat, raptors who destroy the cow. This is what made “Jurassic Park” a freaking miracle. Here there is absolutely no magic with the dinosaur reveals. No cinematography tricks, no editing magic. It is as plain as it can get.

Acting

Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt reprise their roles as Claire and Owen, respectively. I did enjoy Howard in “Jurassic World”, she really filled the role of uptight managerial figure with her performance. In “Fallen Kingdom” she feels very out of place playing a romantic animal-rights fighter. So does Chris Pratt. In “Jurassic World” he was a practical and strong every-man-Joe, who hated bureaucracy and politics. In this film he also apparently possesses James Bond-like powers to kick everyone’s ass and also do some Ethan Hunt “Mission: Impossible” level tricks.

Rest of cast is blah. Justice Smith plays nerdy-goofy-geeky-hipster-hacker, who is annoying and zero funny. Daniella Pineda is another hipster zoologist (“paleoveterinary” I think she said?) who is supposed to be badass but is just plain as hell. Film also manages to successfully waste talents of amazing actors Toby Jones and James Cromwell. And there is also Jeff Goldblum, who has literally more screen time in the trailer than the whole movie.

Summary

“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” has stupid plot, ridiculous story arcs, uncharacteristic heroes, wasteful supporting characters, irrational decisions, illogical consequences, and plain dumb ending. How this film remains to be even mildly entertaining, I can only attribute to the director. But there is only so much you can do to save the day…

The post Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Energyne is conducting experiment on genetic serum called Rampage. So volatile is the compound that it is being tested in open space. However, one of the “test subjects” destroys the space station and capsules with Rampage gas crash on Earth. In Wyoming a wolf stumbles upon the capsule. In Florida an alligator thinks it’s a prey. Last capsule is recovered by curious albino gorilla George. He is living in a wildlife sanctuary under supervision of primatologist Davis Okoye. Davis is ex-military, who turned his life becoming anti-poacher. He has saved George when he was just a baby and he is very close to him. That is why he is extremely shocked to find out next day that George has substantially grown up in size and is showing uncharacteristic animal traits. Just as he is trying to figure it out, Dr. Caldwell shows up announcing that she has originally designed the DNA altering serum that George has inhaled and that it will only make George bigger, stronger and faster.

Writing

As ridiculous the story sounds, writers did a good job exploring the backstory of George and relationship with his pal Davis. They are using sign language to communicate. George is playful and has weird sense of humor, we find out. This makes him very human-like. In our eyes he is no longer just an animal. He has a personality and charisma. When he starts transforming we see and we feel his pain. Davis reacts emotionally to his changes. He is worried about him, he truly wants to help his friend. All these adds an extra layer to the film that most monster films lack. We are invested to see what is going on and what will happen with the George and Davis.

Yes, Davis (Johnson) the wolf indeed flies

Rest, however, is full of crap, to say the least. Cartoonish villains don’t add anything to the plot. Their logic, actions and overall design is horrible and makes little sense. I liked the bad guy, head of Energyne, Claire Wyden. She is strong and determined. Her brother, though, is freaking clumsy and plain stupid. I don’t know why he is in the film to begin with. To be a comic relief? Supporting characters are genetic engineer Dr. Caldwell and cowboy government agent tasked with “cleaning the mess”, Harvey Russell. I have to give it to writers, they stayed away from obvious cliche of turning Caldwell into romantic interest. There is some sparks flying between her and Davis, but for the sake of our rationale it is all kept to minimum. Cowboy Russell is fun to watch, but he was either underutilized or overutilized. Can’t figure it out which. And of course, there is a general who wrongfully believes the rockets can kill the beasts.

Guess if that plane will destroy the giant alligator

Directing

Director Brad Peyton actually did an amazing job. Taking into consideration the mess that the plot is, he is able to keep the film on tracks. I enjoyed the pacing. Right from the start we dive into the action and it keeps going all the way till the end. He totally nails the job of keeping this movie from becoming another Transformer installment. High adrenaline clashes of beasts, city destruction sequences, military getting their ass kicked – all this surprisingly enough doesn’t bore you at all.

Another good thing I noticed, director doesn’t shy away from showing how people are affected by all the destruction. After all, the fight happens in the city. When other films would like to minimize the damage to civilians (see Avengers, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, etc.) film directly shows people being killed or injured. This also adds another emotional sub-context into how bad the bad guys are and increases the effect of city destruction in our minds. I mean who cares if the buildings are being destroyed? But you see people in this buildings and you go “oh crap! are these guys gonna die?!”

Of course, director couldn’t solve much. Tone of the film is darker than you would imagine. Even Pacific Rim has a lighter approach with multiple comic reliefs and jokes. “Rampage” doesn’t have it. I mean how could it with all the damage and people dying? Which again pushes it towards god-awful Transformers territory.

Davis (Johnson) tries to stop police from shooting George

Acting

No doubt Dwayne Johnson is an amazing action start, but I have dual feeling about his casting in “Rampage”. From one side he shows amazing emotional skills and plays very well. We see how much he cares about George and how he aches for his pain. His Davis is highly motivated by social injustice towards animals. At the same time, don’t expect any ass kicking or funny one-liners from Johnson. There are literally two people he punches in the whole film. Goes completely against his physical built. Most of the time he is just chasing George or trying to convince government officials not to bomb Chicago or shooting grenades into giant alligator. I am just saying, he could have been easily replaced with some nerdy looking actor, which I assume how vast majority of primatologists are.

Naomie Harris plays Dr. Caldwell, but she has nothing much to do than to deliver information to other characters and us. She has a backstory of working for Energyne and getting fired after realizing malicious intents of the company. Her character is never fully explored. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Agent Russell, a cowboy who admits he is an asshole, but nevertheless is the only person who helps Davis. He is hilarious in his role, he totally fits in. His completely don’t-give-a-f$%# attitude goes into contrast with totally serious Davis. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, it’s either too less of him or too much. Movie, decide! Malin Akerman plays a total bitch of a villain. She is good, I enjoyed her, but film again doesn’t give any complexity to the character and keeps her very cliche.

Summary

For a movie that is supposed to be total trash, “Rampage” offers actually way more than can be expected. Relentless action sequences, annihilation of city landscape, CGI character design and addition of emotional storyline makes film not a bore to watch. However, poorly developed supporting characters and stupid cliche villains drag this film down. In the end, it still is better than any Transformer movie, but worse than any Pacific Rim installment.

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