Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) review

Of the many classic children’s books that author Chris Van Allsburg has written, one of his most famous is 1981’s Jumanji. The story follows two kids named Judy and Peter as they come across a magical jungle-themed board game named Jumanji that forces them to endure realistic versions of the various obstacles that they come across in the game. Upon publication, the book was so successful that it earned Van Allsburg his first Caldecott Medal for being the year’s ‘most distinguished American picture book for children’. In 1995, the book was adapted into a feature film by former VFX artist turned director Joe Johnston that starred Robin Williams in the role of a man who ends up trapped inside the game for 26 years. And while the film didn’t necessarily do too hot with critics, it was a sizable hit at the box-office and is still very much regarded as a beloved 90’s classic. Thus, it was that legacy that made fans quite skeptical towards the announcement that a new take on Jumanji was in the works, especially since it was first announced only a year after Williams’ tragic death in 2014. And yet, instead of being a straight-forward remake of the original, 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a sequel that re-imagined the world of Jumanji as a video game that the film’s main protagonists get sucked into. Upon its release, the film surprised many by doing solidly with critics and managing some impressive staying power at the box-office as it grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide. And because of this, a sequel was promptly put into development once again directed by veteran comedy director Jake Kasdan and headlined by the quartet of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. Sure enough, all this talent in front of and behind the camera results in yet another highly entertaining popcorn flick even if it does retread a lot of familiar territories.

It has been three years since high school students Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner), Anthony ‘Fridge’ Johnson (Ser’Darius Blain), and Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman) were sucked into the dangerous world of the video game Jumanji and turned into the game’s eclectic group of playable avatars. The four teens ultimately managed to escape their predicament by coming together as a group, which effectively changed their lives for the better once they got out. However, while his friends have all managed to move on with their lives, Spencer finds himself having a lot more trouble when it comes to re-adjusting back to life in the real world. Thus, Martha, Fridge and Bethany soon discover that Spencer ended up ‘fixing’ the game (which they had destroyed at the end of the previous film) and has gone back into it, forcing them to go back in as well to rescue him. Upon their return, however, they quickly realize that things are a bit different this time in the world of Jumanji. While Martha reprises her role as dance-fighting commando Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), Fridge ends up switching to the role of cartographer/curvy genius Professor Shelly Oberon (Jack Black). And instead of having Spencer and Bethany by their side out the starting gate, the two learn that Spencer’s crotchety grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his estranged friend Milo Walker (Danny Glover) have been sucked into the game as well. Now Eddie inhabits the role of Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), the strong, muscular archeologist with the power of smoldering intensity, while Milo becomes Bravestone’s ‘backpack guy’, zoologist/weapons specialist Franklin ‘Mouse’ Finbar (Kevin Hart). And so, Martha and Fridge are now forced to adjust to the personalities of their new comrades as they set out to find Spencer and Bethany, which involves them embarking on another adventure to save Jumanji from an imposing new threat.   

Jumanji: The Next Level is admittedly one of those cases of a sequel that doesn’t try to deviate too far from the things that made its predecessor the massive hit that it was. Namely, it retains almost the exact same general plot structure of its predecessor right down to its main conflict of the group trying to stop a bad guy who stole a mythical jewel. And just like Welcome to the Jungle, most of this film’s humor is still based around how the main characters’ personalities are translated to their video game avatars. That said, though, the best aspect of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was its humor, which means that The Next Level is just as much of a top-notch comedic riot throughout. It also helps that this film properly retains the solid character development that the lead quartet of Spencer, Martha, Fridge, and Bethany gained in the previous film. Whereas the pre-game sequences of Welcome to the Jungle were some of the weakest moments in that film, those same moments flow a lot better in this film (as does the humor in those parts) because of the main characters’ vastly improved camaraderie. In other words, if there are two things that The Next Level does better than its predecessor, it’s that the humor is a lot more consistent this time around and the main characters get to start out as the endearing quartet that they were at the end of the previous film. And while that technically means that the new character development that they get in this film isn’t necessarily as substantial as what they had in the previous film, it still results in another entertaining adventure with a feel-good ending. Plus, despite its adherence to the previous film’s formula, The Next Level does switch things up in the best way that it possibly can by trading the previous film’s jungle setting for fun, new action set-pieces in both the desert and the wintry mountains.

It goes without saying that one of the best aspects of Welcome to the Jungle was getting to see the lead quartet of Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan take on the personas of their real-world counterparts, whether it was Dwayne Johnson acting like an easily scared nerd or Jack Black embodying a self-absorbed teenaged girl. Sure enough, this concept is once again handled brilliantly in The Next Level as each member of the quartet gets to take on a new personality over the course of their latest adventure. The hilarious results that stem from this are so delightful, in fact, that I can’t even mention them all here (outside of Johnson and Hart’s spot-on impressions of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, respectively) because I’d be delving into spoiler territory. But just like before, these four have an utterly phenomenal camaraderie that’s also well-reflected by their real-world counterparts as Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser’Darius Blain, and Madison Iseman all benefit greatly from the solid character development that they got from the previous film. Meanwhile, Danny DeVito and Danny Glover are a fun pair of additions to the ensemble (in their admittedly minor roles outside of the time their characters spend in Jumanji) as is Awkwafina as the game’s newest avatar, thief Ming Lightfoot.  Unfortunately, as was the case with the previous film, The Next Level’s biggest shortcoming is its villain, warlord Jurgen the Brutal. Sure, it’s revealed that Jurgen was the one who killed Dr. Smolder Bravestone’s parents in a ‘cut-scene’ flashback, but just like with Bobby Cannavale’s Van Pelt from Welcome to the Jungle, Jurgen is adversely affected by his generally limited role in the plot despite Game of Thrones alum Rory ‘The Hound’ McCann’s best efforts in the role.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was easily one of the most entertaining films of 2017. Sure, it may not have been the most thought-provoking film to come out of the action-adventure genre, but the phenomenal comedic performances from Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan effectively made it a good, old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. Thus, while it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel when it comes to its writing, Jumanji: The Next Level dutifully retains everything that made its predecessor such a big hit, resulting in an arguably superior follow-up. Even though it does repeat practically every major story beat from its predecessor, The Next Level does have the advantage when it comes to not having to deal with the more awkward bits of set-up from Welcome to the Jungle. And because of this, the whole film flows a lot better when it comes to its humor, pacing, and overall camaraderie between its main characters. This, in turn, also helps when it comes to the film maintaining the simple but effectively heartwarming emotional beats that have always been an element of these films, like in the original Jumanji when Alan Parrish learned about how much things changed when he got sucked into the game. Because of all this, Jumanji: The Next Level is another solid entry in this growing franchise, although I will say that if they end up doing another one, they should probably try to do something a little different story-wise. One way could involve the incorporation of elements from the original book’s 2002 follow-up Zathura, which had a pair of brothers go through a similar scenario but with a space-themed board game. That book got an enjoyable albeit commercially underrated film adaptation in 2005 via director Jon Favreau, and while Favreau did try to distance it from the original Jumanji film since he wasn’t a fan of it, it could be fun to see a new spin on Zathura that’s in line with what we’ve gotten from these last two Jumanji films.

Rating: 4.5/5

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) review

In 1981, author Chris Van Allsburg published Jumanji, a fantasy picture book about a pair of siblings who come across a mysterious jungle-themed board game. What they soon learn, though, is that the various dangers that they encounter in the game end up coming to life and will not go away until the game is finished. 14 years later in 1995, Allsburg and veteran director Joe Johnston brought Jumanji to life on the big-screen, headlined by the one and only Robin Williams in the role of a man named Alan Parrish who ends up getting trapped within the game for several decades. While the film wasn’t much of a hit with critics, it did do quite well at the box-office as it grossed over $262 million worldwide. Thus, the film has very much become a staple of its time when it comes to 90’s cult classics. But now, the time has come to return to the world of the jungle via a sequel, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. This time around, the premise shifts from Jumanji being a board game that comes to life to a video game that directly sucks its players into its world. Comedy director Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Bad Teacher) directs this new take on a classic IP with an ensemble cast headlined by big comedic stars like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black. But for many fans of the original Jumanji, they’ve been wondering if this new film will manage to live up to the legacy of its predecessor. Well, I’m pleased to report that it does do so, for the most part.

On an average school day, teenagers Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman), Anthony ‘Fridge’ Johnson (Ser’Darius Blain), and Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner) end up in detention for various reasons. While serving out their punishment of cleaning out the school basement, the four come across a mysterious video game titled Jumanji. After selecting their avatars from the available roster of characters, they suddenly find themselves sucked into the game, where they’re transformed into the avatars that they’ve selected. The nerdy Spencer becomes the group’s muscular and charismatic leader Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) while football jock Fridge is demoted to the role of Bravestone’s weapons valet Franklin ‘Mouse’ Finbar (Kevin Hart). Bookworm Martha becomes the badass commando Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) and pretty girl Bethany faces a severe case of culture shock when she becomes the ‘overweight, middle-aged’ male cartographer Professor Shelly Oberon (Jack Black). The group soon learns that they each have three lives and must finish the game without losing them all in order to escape it. Thus, they embark on a perilous journey through the jungle in order to lift a powerful curse that has been placed upon the game world by Bravestone’s old associate, an explorer by the name of Van Pelt (Bobby Cannavale).

The first question that a lot of people had when this film was first announced was in regards to how it would be connected to the original Jumanji. Although it was initially announced as a ‘remake’, the film is ultimately more of a sequel. While it is set several years after the original film, a connection is still established with it thanks to a major nod to Robin Williams’ character Alan Parrish. And while it is understandable if some may scoff at the idea of how the film re-imagines Jumanji as a video game, it does, at least, make sense for a modern take on this story. With that in mind, the film does manage to be a solid follow-up to its predecessor. Given that it mainly takes place within a video game, the film throws in plenty of fun gaming references; everything from the backstory-spewing cut-scenes to the NPCs (non-player characters) that always spout the same bits of dialogue over and over again. And on that note, Jumanji sports a solid hit-miss ratio when it comes to its humor. Now, granted, this is mainly after the main characters get sucked into the game, as most of the humor that occurs in the real world does admittedly fall a bit flat. But even with that in mind, along with the fact that the plot is a fairly simple one in which four teens go through a transformative experience that ends up changing their lives for the better, the film is quite consistent with its humor during the stretches of it that are set within the game world. Plus, for his first major foray into the action genre, director Jake Kasdan does a solid job with the film’s various action sequences.  

Ultimately though, the biggest highlight of this film is seeing the four main leads go out of their comfort zones to portray teenaged characters who find themselves transferred into the bodies of their in-game avatars. While both Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillan have had plenty of experience when it comes to action films (in Johnson’s case, the numerous action films that he’s starred in, and in Gillan’s case, her turn as Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), the sight of them acting like shy and nerdy teenagers paves the way for plenty of great comedic moments. The same scenario applies to the other two leads as well; Kevin Hart as the football jock turned practically useless* (in terms of combat) weapons valet and Jack Black acting like a teenage girl. In short, the four leads are easily the best part of the film, as they all have great comedic timing and work incredibly well off each other. The other big name in the cast that’s worth noting is Nick Jonas in the role of the game’s fifth playable avatar, pilot Seaplane McDonough. Jonas works great alongside the other four leads in a role that, without giving anything major away, shares quite a few similarities with one of the original film’s main characters. But whereas all of the film’s main leads are solid, the same can’t exactly be said for the main villain Van Pelt. To his credit, Bobby Cannavale does bring the right amount of creep factor to the role, namely in regards to the character being possessed by a jewel that allows him to control animals. However, Van Pelt is just ‘there’ for the most part, unlike the previous film where the character of Van Pelt (played by Jonathan Hyde) had a far more substantial role in the plot.

When this film was first announced, there was quite a lot of backlash towards it (as is quite frankly the case with any major revival of an old IP nowadays) from fans of the original, especially given the fact that the initial reveal occurred just one year after the death of Robin Williams. I will admit, though, that I wasn’t too bothered by this development because, to be perfectly frank, I don’t necessarily view the original Jumanji as one of the best films of the 90’s. Don’t get me wrong, I do still like the film, but that doesn’t mean that I think that it’s a masterpiece or anything. It’s just a fun and simple fantasy adventure bolstered by the always terrific Robin Williams. This same mindset applies to the sequel as well; it’s by no means perfect but, at its core, it’s not trying to be. At the end of the day, it serves its purpose of being an entertaining action-adventure comedy that does a solid job of reworking the original concept of Jumanji in a new direction without disrespecting any of the stuff that came before it. Sure, the plot is a simple one and not every joke hits, but a lot of the film’s humor does work thanks to the excellent lead quartet of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. Simply put, these four are the main reason why this film is worth checking out. And for those who still uncertain about it, fear not because it treats the original Jumanji, along with all the work that the late Robin Williams put into it, with genuinely wholehearted reverence.

Rating: 4/5

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) review

Flash back for a second to 2012, when Marvel Studios announced the then-upcoming releases that would make up Phase Two of their ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. There were the usual suspects, like sequels to Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, but then there was one notable entry in that list that piqued the interest of fans; Guardians of the Galaxy. And that was primarily because, when it was first announced, most people probably thought the same thing that Djimon Hounsou’s character Korath says in the film when the character that he confronts, Peter Quill, mentions his ‘other’ name, Star-Lord; “Who?” I’ll admit that I was one of those people. At that time, I had no idea who the Guardians of the Galaxy were and I bet that, back then, even some of the biggest comic book fans in the world had no idea who they were either. Marvel was literally going with what was, at the time, a ‘C-list’ superhero team to headline one of their big-budget blockbusters. Thus, there was arguably quite the uncertainty surrounding writer-director James Gunn’s then-newest film. And yet, at the end of the day, it’s safe to say that it far surpassed our expectations. Not only was it one of the funniest and most entertaining films of the entire MCU but it was also one of the most heartfelt and emotional. Gunn succeeded in making us, the audience, care about a group of outlaw protagonists that featured a talking tree creature who could only say ‘I Am Groot’ and a genetically-modified talking raccoon who liked to use big guns and explosives; no small feat, indeed. Plus, it also basically confirmed that the team at Marvel Studios were truly the kings of the superhero film genre, with a winning streak that most studios dream to achieve.  

One MCU Phase later, we’re back with everyone’s favorite bunch of intergalactic a-holes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. James Gunn is back to write and direct, once again, and the main cast of the first film (those who survived, at least) return to reprise their respective roles. This time around, Star-Lord and company find themselves on a new adventure that reveals the truth about something that has bugged Peter Quill since the beginning; his heritage. At the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, he learned that while his mother was from Earth (or, as the cosmic side of the MCU puts it, ‘Terra’), his father, described by his mother as ‘an angel made of pure light’, was of a different origin. This explained why he could withstand the force of the Power Stone (one of the six Infinity Stones that have been gradually introduced over the course of the MCU’s run) that everyone was after in that film when he held it in his bare hands during the big climactic battle. This film ultimately explores that answer and then some as Peter finally reunites with the father that he never got to know before. But, of course, now the question is this; how does this film hold up compared to its immediate predecessor? Well, unlike many of the other reviews for this film, I’m not going to get into that debate. Instead, I’ll just talk about exactly what this film is; yet another fun entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that provides fans with the same great elements that they loved about the original Guardians of the Galaxy.   

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens just a few months after the events of the first film. After successfully saving the galaxy from the Kree radical Ronan the Accuser, the Guardians; charismatic thief Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), stoic assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the slightly maniacal warrior Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), hot-headed thug Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and Rocket’s best friend, tree creature Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) who, following his sacrifice at the end of the first film, was revived yet is only an infant during this film due to the short gap between it and its predecessor, have since been working odd jobs for various intergalactic organizations. However, due to some trouble caused by Rocket, the team find themselves pursued by their most recent clients, the Sovereign, led by their High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki). Not only that, but she ends up hiring the crew of Ravagers led by the Guardians’ occasional ally/foe Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) to chase after them as well. However, things get a little more complicated when one of Yondu’s lieutenants, Taserface (Chris Sullivan; And yes, that’s his name, Taserface), initiates a mutiny against his captain. While all of this is going on, Peter begins to learn more about his true heritage, namely when he finally meets his long-lost father, Ego (Kurt Russell), who is revealed to be a celestial being with unparalleled power.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 once again delivers many of the same great things that we loved about the first Guardians. Visually speaking, the film is gorgeous; hell, this is up there with Doctor Strange as one of Marvel Studios’ best-looking films. Obviously, it doesn’t go to any of the truly surreal places that Doctor Strange went but it still provides us with bright and colorful visuals throughout. After all, this was the first film ever to be shot in 8K, currently the highest screen resolution out there, and the results are fantastic. In terms of the trademark sense of humor that the original film (and the entire MCU in general) had, there are, of course, plenty of great humorous moments and bits of dialogue in this film courtesy of writer/director James Gunn. But, at the same time, the film also provides us with some great emotional moments as well, once again proving how much we care about this team and its members. And does this film have a kick-ass soundtrack, just like its predecessor? Abso-frigging-lutely! And, believe it or not, that’s about as much as I can say about this film because there is quite a lot that happens in it; so much so that if I start to talk about any of it, I run the risk of going into spoiler territory. Thus, you can expect a ‘Spoiler Post’ sometime later this month. What I can say here, in a non-spoiler fashion, is that Gunn does a solid job once again with the overall story. Sure, there are a few narrative hiccups here and there, maybe a bit of a slow start even. But like I said before, the emotional core is just as strong as it was in the first film, all tied to a great storyline in which Peter Quill finally reunites with his long-lost father.

The main cast is just as great as they were in the first film; Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel all slip back into their respective roles with ease and once again have terrific camaraderie. So now, let’s talk about the new additions to the cast. Well, technically, I’m starting out with the new additions to the Guardians that return from the original film; Yondu and Gamora’s vengeful sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan). Given that both characters, for the most part, acted as antagonists to the Guardians in the first film, it’s cool to see them transition into more central roles in this film’s overall plot. Rooker, especially, gets a fantastic arc to work with as Yondu. At the same time, though, Gillan gets more to do this time around as the film does a nice job of exploring the tense relationship between Nebula and Gamora. The other new addition to the team is Mantis (Pom Klementieff), who is first introduced as Ego’s assistant or perhaps, as Drax puts it, ‘pet’. Right out the gate, Klementieff proves to be a fantastic addition to the team as the empathic being who has some trouble when it comes to social interaction. But that is exactly what helps make her just as endearing as the rest of the Guardians. How about the villains? Well, this is another aspect of the film that I can’t delve into here because of the risk of bringing up spoilers. All I can say is that the ones who we were initially led to assume were the villains don’t factor into the plot that much. But the true villain of the film? Dare I say, this character is one of the best in Marvel Studios’ oft-maligned collection of villains.

I’m going to refrain from using a certain phrase that I’ve seen tossed around in quite a lot of the reviews for this film. In fact, I’m not even going to say it here; if you’ve seen any of the other reviews for this film, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Said phrase is the one that is commonly brought up when it comes to reviews for most sequels as it is the result of comparing them to their predecessors. Do I agree with this statement, in any way? Well, in some cases, yes, but I feel like this ‘argument’ is becoming increasingly overused in this instance. I’m not saying that this film is perfect; there are a few flaws here and there, namely some narrative hiccups. But that does not, at all, take away from my overall enjoyment of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I absolutely loved this film. It delivers exactly what fans of the original were hoping for. A solid story with a strong emotional core, great and endearing protagonists, fun new characters, exciting new developments for certain returning characters, beautiful visuals, hilarious dialogue, and a kick-ass soundtrack all come together for another great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, feel free to stop reading this review right now and go see this glorious entry in the superhero genre. Seriously, I’m just holding you folks back at this point. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll jam to ‘Awesome Mix Vol. 2’. What’s more important to note, though, is that you’ll have another great time in the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Let’s see, where are they at now in terms of their track record with their films, 15 for 15? That must be some kind of record…

Rating: 5/5!

The Circle (2017) review

Technology has become such a prevalent part of our society in recent years. It has allowed us to achieve many things that seemed impossible before thanks to the many advancements that have been made in fields like science and communication. And yet, at the same time, it always poses a risk, not just because of those out there who seek to use it for sinister purposes but also because of how our lives can often be completely consumed by it. Thus, it’s easy to see why there have been plenty of films and TV shows that have explored the dark side of technology, including Black Mirror and Westworld. And the newest entry to this ‘genre’ is The Circle, an adaptation of author Dave Eggers’ best-selling novel of the same name from 2013. In the director’s chair is James Ponsoldt who, over the past few years, has made a name for himself with a series of critically acclaimed indie flicks, including 2013’s The Spectacular Now and 2015’s The End of the Tour. His latest film is easily the biggest that he’s done to date, especially due to it featuring an all-star cast that includes the likes of Emma Watson, who’s fresh off the $1 billion-grossing remake of Beauty and the Beast, and America’s ‘everyman’, Tom Hanks (in a villain role, no less!). However, despite the prestige of those working on it, what could’ve been a thrilling dark fable on a topic that many can relate to ends up suffering from an underwritten narrative that doesn’t quite have the edge that it wants to have. 

The most powerful corporation in the world is the titular internet company known as ‘The Circle’, co-founded by the charismatic Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) and his partner Tom Stenton (Patton Oswalt). It is this company that young and idealistic tech worker Mae Holland (Emma Watson) ends up landing a job at thanks to her best friend, Annie Allerton (Karen Gillan), who also works there. Rather quickly, Mae begins to become accustomed to life at ‘The Circle’, where social interaction amongst the members of its community is greatly emphasized. Mae even manages to grab the attention of Eamon and Tom by suggesting new ways that they can establish a sense of total transparency, one of the primary goals that the company constantly tries to achieve via its vast line of products, including ‘SeeChange’, a series of miniature cameras placed all over the world. However, as Mae begins to become more and more popular amongst her peers, she soon starts to come across some of the more questionable aspects of the company. She ends up meeting Ty Lafitte (John Boyega), the elusive third co-founder of ‘The Circle’, who warns her that the company’s been collecting data from everyone on the planet and could potentially use it against them. Thus, Mae finds herself in a complicated situation over the consequences of everything that she’s been doing for the company, which even starts to affect her relationships with her friends and family.

To the film’s credit, the messages that it conveys are at least timely. In this modern age of social media and the technology that’s tied to it, a lot of people have expressed concern over how recent advancements in technology end up interfering with their privacy. Just look at all the controversies that Facebook has been in over the years when it comes to the backlash over its privacy settings. This film is basically the equivalent of that exact scenario; unfortunately, the overall execution is where the film starts to falter. More specifically, the problem with the film is that it feels very truncated in terms of its plot, especially when compared to the book that it’s based on. For the record, though, at the time I’m writing this, I have not read the original novel. However, I did read through the plot synopsis after watching the film and found some elements from the book that were noticeably absent in the film. Namely, there were some rather dark places that the book went to, and even though she was the main protagonist, there were moments where Mae made some questionable decisions. Clearly, the biggest change between book and film was that the latter decided to not go as dark as its source material and make Mae a more likable protagonist in the process. But while this overall change in tone isn’t that big of a problem, in the long run, it still feels like something was lost in the translation from book to film. There doesn’t seem to be that much to the plot in terms of its overall stakes and certain plot threads come off as being incredibly vague and underdeveloped.

This truncating of the plot also ends up severely affecting its characters. Because the film focuses so much on Mae, she’s the only character in the whole story who gets any sort of character development. Everyone else ends up disappearing from the film for periods of time and, thus, are often sidelined in favor of Mae. The biggest example of this is Ty, who despite being the co-founder of ‘The Circle’ barely factors into the plot at all. Seriously, poor John Boyega gets nothing to do in this film other than to spout exposition. At the same time, if the film’s intention was to have us view Eamon Bailey as a ‘villainous’ character… you don’t get that out of Tom Hanks’ performance. He’s just the same, charismatic Tom Hanks that we all know and love. I can’t even remember a single moment in the film where he acted in a ‘villainous’ manner. His company’s overall intentions are more sinister than he is and as many have pointed out, that sinister nature is there from the beginning. It’s a shame, really, that the film’s characters are so underdeveloped because as I noted before, this film does sport a stacked ensemble cast. And while most of them are fine for the most part (albeit, with a few miscasts here and there (e.g. Hanks)), they really don’t have anything substantial to work with. Not even the bittersweet feeling of watching Bill Paxton in his final onscreen role, in which he plays Mae’s father, Vinnie, who is stricken with multiple sclerosis and ends up getting helped by her company’s health care system, is enough to save this film.

Despite the best efforts of its all-star cast, The Circle, unfortunately, fails to live up to the potential of its themes. And it seems like this is mainly due to how it was adapted from book to film. Again, I haven’t read the book but from what I’ve read about the plot, it’s clear that the film decided to tone down some of the darker elements of the novel, particularly in terms of its overall characterization of its main protagonist, Mae. And even though author Dave Eggers did write the screenplay along with director James Ponsoldt, their method of translating the book to film ends up affecting the plot in the worst possible way. From lessening the overall stakes, and therefore the impact of its message, to limiting the roles of its supporting cast, it makes you wonder if this was a case like the theatrical cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice where a sizable chunk of the story ended up on the cutting room floor. Right now, the film is sporting a mediocre 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While I don’t think that the film is ‘that bad’ (I’d say the overall RT score should be more in the high 20’s/low 30’s), it still isn’t one that I can really recommend. Because even though the themes that it addresses do correlate well to society’s current paranoia over privacy, it just didn’t hit its mark. And while it is being marketed as a ‘thriller’, it’s severely lacking in that department.

Rating: 2/5

Guardians of the Galaxy: SPOILER POST

(WARNING!!!)

The following post contains spoilers for the 2014 Marvel Studios superhero film, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. If you have not yet seen the film, I’d recommend that you please refer to my Spoiler-Free review of the film (and then see the film) before reading this post for here I will be discussing key moments of the film in detail.

You have been warned!!!

(Spoiler-Free Review: http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2014/08/guardians-of-galaxy-2014-review.html)

Well, considering that this year I’ve done spoiler posts for every major superhero film that has come out this year so far: ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, and ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, I figured that I should finish this year 4 for 4 and do a spoiler post for Marvel Studios’ latest and strangest film, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, which I have to say really impressed me considering how I was fairly hesitant about it when it was first announced. My original reaction to this announcement can best be summed up by what Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou) said after Peter Quill pronounced to him that he was Star-Lord: “Who?” I legitimately did not know who the heck these characters were and I remembered at the time that I was even questioning why Marvel was deciding to go with this fairly obscure group as the focus of one of their Phase Two films. Well, that hesitation soon began to go away after the marketing campaign for the film began and I was very eager to see how this film turned out… and sure enough, it did not disappoint. So today, as I’ve done with all of the other Spoiler Posts this year, I’ll be talking about a few of the aspects of this film that I wasn’t able to talk about in my original review of the film for fear of spoiling things for those who haven’t seen the film.

THE SOUNDTRACK

I only briefly mentioned this part of the movie in my original review so now I’ll elaborate on it a little bit further. The soundtrack to the film is, quite simply, phenomenal; it’s easily one of the best soundtracks to ever grace not just a superhero film, but any film for that matter. While I haven’t seen the other two films he directed, ‘Slither’ and ‘Super’, I can tell that James Gunn definitely has quite the keen eye when it comes to picking really good soundtracks for his films, and here it’s no exception. It also works incredibly well within the context of the film itself. In the film, the songs that are played in the movie (a great selection of 70’s and 80’s tunes) are on a mixtape that Peter Quill has in the Walkman that he always has with him. He had it when he was taken by the Ravagers when he was a kid so, in other words, this is how he stays attached to the world that he left behind. While I do question why ‘I Want you Back’ by the Jackson 5 and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ are on the official soundtrack for the film, titled ‘Awesome Mix Volume 1’ (like the mixtape in the film itself), when in the movie they are actually part of ‘Awesome Mix Volume 2’, which was the gift Quill’s mother had given to him before she died (by the way, I cannot wait to see what songs will be in the sequel), this is a great film soundtrack that complements the movie incredibly well, in terms of both the film’s overall tone as well as being a crucial part of Quill’s character.

THE HUMOR

Pretty much every film in the MCU has had a good amount of funny dialogue and of course the same can be said for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Of course, as you expect from a superhero film, ‘Guardians’ does play things seriously when it needs to but at the same time it’s not completely serious compared to some of the recent films from DC. As I noted in my review, one of the main reasons why I prefer Marvel films to DC films is because they’re much more light-hearted. ‘Guardians’ in particular is easily one of the funniest out of all of the MCU films (arguably as much or possibly even funnier than ‘Avengers’ though that might be up for debate). In fact, there were even some lines that I’m amazed managed to appear in a film that is part of the generally family-friendly MCU that is owned by Disney. The one that stands out to me the most when it comes to this film’s more risqué jokes occurs before the final battle when the Guardians return to Xandar to warn the Nova Corps about Ronan’s impending attack. Of course, they’re still considered criminals by Nova Corps after their capture and arrest on Xandar and later escape from prison, so Star-Lord sends a message to one of the members of the Nova Corps, Rhomann Dey (John C. Reilly), which basically says that ‘he may be an a-hole but he’s not 100% a dick’. Ultimately, the Nova Corps accept their help with Star-Lord noting that ‘they got my dick message’. I don’t think I need to elaborate any more on that. It speaks for itself.

Aside from that, here are some of my personal favorite hilarious moments from this film; there’s the sort of random reference to ‘Footloose’, the story of the great hero Kevin Bacon and how he convinced a town full of people ‘with sticks up their butts’ that dancing is the greatest thing in the world, during a scene where Star-Lord is talking with Gamora (Gamora’s response, asking ‘who put the sticks up their butts’, is priceless). There’s the scene where Rocket lays out his plan for getting the group out of prison, part of which apparently involves in them needing to steal one prisoner’s prosthetic leg. Star-Lord then proceeds to acquire the leg… but it turns out that Rocket was just joking; he didn’t really need the leg (though in a later scene, he asks if he can take a Ravager’s robotic eye). But probably my favorite moment in the film occurs during the finale on Xandar. The group is on Ronan’s ship, the Dark Aster, when they are approached by a group of his soldiers. Groot then proceeds to impale quite a few of them (did I also forget to mention this is probably the most violent MCU film to date) with one of his arms and slams them against the wall multiple times. Once he’s done, he turns to the group and innocently smiles. Of course, these are just my personal favorites but there are plenty more incredibly hilarious bits of dialogue in this film. Sound off in the comments below about your favorite lines/moments from the film.

THE EMOTIONAL RESONANCE

Probably the one thing that surprised me the most about this film was how much I was emotionally invested in it. For being one of the funniest of the MCU films, it actually starts off on a pretty damn depressing note as a young Peter Quill watches his mother die before his eyes before he is taken by the Ravagers. Talk about a dark way to start off a superhero film. Anyway, the emotional resonance of this film is easily one of its greatest strengths. Despite the fact that the Guardians are criminals and, to quote Peter Serafinowicz’s character, ‘a bunch of a-holes’, you do care about them because they’re all just trying to find a place where they belong and over the course of the film they become quite the close family. The scene where Rocket gets emotional over someone calling him ‘vermin’ certainly hits in the feelings department as is the scene during the finale when Groot sacrifices himself to save the group when the Dark Aster crash lands on Xandar despite Rocket pleading with him not to do it (also, the bit where Groot puts one of his twigs on Rocket’s face to comfort him… let me tell you folks that really got me teary-eyed).

Thankfully, as we see, Groot does survive because he has the ability to regenerate. This results in an incredibly cute mid-credits scene where he dances to ‘I Want you Back’ behind Drax’s back (he stops dancing when Drax looks over at him, continuing to do so once Drax looks away again). And yes, despite this, I am aware that now every MCU film since ‘The Avengers’ has had a character supposedly die but then come back (Coulson in ‘Avengers’, Pepper in ‘Iron Man 3’, Loki in ‘Thor: The Dark World, Nick Fury in ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’, and now Groot in this movie) a little bit later, which some feel is one of the big ‘problems’ with the MCU (I’ll get into another problem some people have with the franchise when I talk about the villains). This has never really bothered me before and it certainly didn’t here. Though I will say this… even though Marvel has pulled this trick for every Phase Two film (as well as the first ‘Avengers’ film), I have the feeling that a permanent death will happen sooner or later… maybe in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (we all know how Joss Whedon likes to kill off major characters so I’m guessing one could potentially kick the bucket in the film). Ultimately though as I said, I’m not too bothered by this recent trend.

THE GUARDIANS

If I was asked who my favorite member of the Guardians were from the five in this movie, it would actually be a little tough for me to decide because I really like all five of them. Though, if I had to choose just one, I guess I’ll have to go with Groot. Yeah, I know that it’s an obvious answer but Groot’s just so likable. Sure, he’s Rocket’s partner-in-crime but he’s also the most innocent of the five. Rocket was also one of the best of the bunch with his hot-headed nature. But I have to say that the one that surprised me the most was actually Dave Bautista as Drax. I remember reading an article somewhere online in which the writer predicted that Drax would end up being the least popular of the five Guardians because he was the most serious in nature given his whole backstory and his thirst for vengeance. However, that serious persona actually resulted in him having quite a lot of funny lines with my favorite occurring during the scene where Rocket says that metaphors will go over his head (“Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast… I would catch it…”). Gamora, like Drax, is also more serious in nature which means that she doesn’t have as much comedic dialogue as the rest of the group. However, I will say that she had two of the best lines in the entire film; one is during the escape from prison where, during an argument amongst the group, she laments that she is “going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy”. The other is during a scene between Gamora and Star-Lord where he tries to kiss her but she stops him before he can do so, saying that she wasn’t going to fall for his “pelvic sorcery”. Finally, we have Star-Lord, the ‘Han Solo’ of the group perfectly portrayed by the charming and hilarious Chris Pratt, the third major Chris of the MCU after Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans.

THE VILLAINS

As I noted in the review, I’ve heard a lot of people say that the weakest part of the film for them is the villains which I also noted apparently connects to a major problem that some people apparently have with the MCU in that the villains of the MCU films, to put it simply, ‘haven’t been that good’. Now I hate to be controversial here, but I feel that this is being incredibly unfair to any of the villains in the MCU who aren’t named Loki. Sure, at the end of the day, Loki is still the best MCU villain by far and there have been some fairly weak MCU villains, like Malekith in ‘Thor: The Dark World’ or Ivan Vanko in ‘Iron Man 2’ or Emil Blonsky in ‘The Incredible Hulk’. But even with that said, that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been some really good MCU villains. Obidiah Stane was a pretty awesome villain in the first ‘Iron Man’. Red Skull (‘Captain America: The First Avenger’) may not have been the most ‘developed’ superhero film villain ever but he still had a great villainous presence which I’d say can sometimes make up for a lack of proper character development. Hell, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ actually got by without really even having a singular main villain at all. HYDRA was the ‘main threat’ of the film and the titular ‘Winter Soldier’ was more of a henchman. So in short, even if most of the MCU villains haven’t been as great as Loki, that doesn’t exactly mean that a lot of them are ‘bad’ villains. Case in point, I really liked both of the main villains of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.

First off we have Ronan, played by Lee Pace. I thought that Pace did an excellent job in the role. The makeup for the character was phenomenal (as it was for the other main villain, who I’ll get to momentarily) as Pace was quite unrecognizable as Ronan the Accuser. That and I do feel that if anything, it wasn’t like he didn’t have any villainous motivation other than the whole ‘just because he’s evil’ thing. He’s a radical Kree who opposes the peace treaty between his race and the Nova Corps’ home world of Xandar so he teams up with Thanos. He agrees to get him the orb that Peter comes across on the planet Morag in exchange for Thanos destroying Xandar for him. However, after he acquires the orb and realizes the great power within it, he makes the incredibly ballsy move and defies his ‘ally’. I felt that there was at least more depth to Ronan than Malekith, who had a lot of his scenes (including one that showcased what clearly must have been his major motivation; his family) cut from ‘Thor 2’. I also liked that the final battle between him and the Guardians wasn’t so anti-climactic. I was worried that it was going to be that way when Star-Lord fires a weapon at Ronan, and it almost looked like he was instantly defeated but thankfully that wasn’t the case. And then guess what… they do it again. Rocket crash-lands Star-Lord’s ship the Milano into Ronan’s ship where he then proceeds to hit Ronan with the Milano. But after the Dark Aster crash-lands on Xandar, Ronan still manages to survive and it isn’t until the Guardians use the Infinity Gem within the Orb (more on that in a little bit) that Ronan is finally defeated. Whether or not you think he’s a good villain you at least have to give him credit… he endured more than some of the other MCU villains.

If we’re focusing on character development, then I’d say that Nebula (Karen Gillan) was a more interesting villain than Ronan was, given her relationship with Gamora. They’re both adopted daughters of Thanos and there is quite the sibling rivalry between them, especially considering that Thanos favors Gamora over Nebula. Like Pace, Gillan was fantastic here as she had quite the menacing presence in the role (her first major role as a villain). However, I do wish that she had more to do in the first half of the film because during that part of the film, she’s really just ‘there’ and doesn’t really do much other than just doing whatever Ronan tells her to do. Thankfully, she does get more to do in the second half of the film (after the Guardians visit the Collector on Knowhere) and her fight sequence with Gamora on the Dark Aster is one of the major highlights of the film. Also, unlike Ronan, she does survive the final battle. After her battle with Gamora, she falls off the ship (after cutting off her robotic hand) but then proceeds to land on a Ravager ship which she then commandeers. I’m glad that this happened because I am interested in seeing more of her in the MCU. I am aware that in the comics she started out as an enemy of the Avengers so… given that ‘Avengers 3’ is likely focusing around Thanos, maybe she can be in ‘Avengers 3’, perhaps? If anything, I’m just glad that there are more opportunities for her to appear in future MCU films because she wasn’t killed off in this movie.

THANOS AND THE INFINITY GEMS

While he may not be the main villain of ‘Avengers 2’, it’s very much clear that they’re clearly building up Thanos’ role as the main villain of ‘Avengers 3’. This film gave us our first look of the character as portrayed by Josh Brolin and I must say that even though he’s only in the film for a very brief amount of time, he’s already made quite the impression. The motion capture effects for him do look pretty good… not only that, but he looks frigging huge compared to what he looked like in ‘Avengers’. This film shows that it’s looking like Marvel will be exploring more of the ‘Cosmic Universe’ in the next few MCU films. One way these films will impact future events will be the introduction of the rest of the Infinity Gems, the six stones (Soul, Time, Space, Mind, Reality, and Power) that, when used with a glove known as the Infinity Gauntlet (which made a brief ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ appearance in Odin’s treasure room in the first ‘Thor’ movie), gives the user god-like powers. As of now, three (potentially four) Infinity Gems have been revealed.

The first was the Tesseract from ‘The First Avenger’ and ‘The Avengers’, which has been confirmed to be the Space Gem. That makes sense considering that the Tesseract was, to put it simply, a ‘portal’ between worlds. The second Infinity Gem introduced in the MCU was the Aether from ‘Thor: The Dark World’. Now I don’t know if it has officially been confirmed yet but some reports are stating that it is the Reality Gem, which allows the user to fulfill any wish they might have. Finally, the one that appears in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, contained in the orb that Star-Lord finds on Morag, is the Power Gem. However, while so far these three have been the only official Infinity Gems revealed in the films, there is supposedly a fourth that is in Loki’s staff that he used in ‘Avengers’. If so, I’m guessing that it’s the Mind Gem considering that Loki used his staff to brainwash people like Hawkeye and Dr. Selvig. So in that case, we have yet to see the Time and Soul Gem but it’s pretty much a given that we will soon see them. One thing I’m interested in seeing is how Thanos will collect all of the Gems because right now he actually does not have any of them, nor does he have the Gauntlet. The Tesseract and Gauntlet are on Asgard, the Aether is with the Collector, the Power Gem is with Nova Corps, and (again, if it does contain one of the Gems) Loki’s staff is currently under the ownership of Baron von Strucker (as seen in the mid-credits scene of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’).

THE POST-CREDITS SCENE

Well, I guess I’ll finish this off by just briefly going over the post-credits scene for the film; not the mid-credits scene where a baby Groot dances to ‘I Want You Back’… I’m talking about the other one. Now for the record, this scene doesn’t actually really add much to the story but I felt that it was at least worth it just for the incredibly odd/random cameo that occurs in it. Earlier on in the film, the Guardians had met with the Collector on Knowhere where they learned that the object within the orb that Star-Lord found is one of the six Infinity Gems. The Collector’s assistant Carina then proceeded to grab the stone in defiance for his abuse towards her, causing an explosion that destroys his archive. We return to him in the post-credits scene as he sits in his archive drinking when one of his exhibits, the telepathic Russian cosmonaut dog Cosmo, comes up to him and licks his face. Someone else starts talking and then we find out that this ‘person’ is actually none other than Howard the Duck. Yes, the same duck that appeared in the infamous 1986 bomb of the same name is in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and would you believe it, he’s voiced by Seth Green. I have to admit… I did not see that coming… that being the fact that Green voiced him (I actually did know he was going to be in the post-credits scene).

"What do you let him lick you like that for?...Gross!"

Like I said, this scene actually doesn’t add much. According to James Gunn, this was just done for fun and wasn’t supposed to be taken that seriously. Still, it is pretty surreal that Howard the Duck appears in this and for that matter is now officially a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I’ll let that sink in a moment for you folks…). Then again, he did appear in the ‘LEGO Marvel’ video game so maybe it’s not that surprising that he would appear in the MCU, even if it was basically just done as a joke. So that’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ for you. It’s certainly one of the strangest superhero films ever but it’s also one of the best in the entire MCU. It’s incredibly funny but also takes itself seriously when it needs to. Not only that, but I found myself emotionally invested in the film… a film that stars a talking raccoon and a tree creature that can only say ‘I’ and ‘am’ and ‘Groot’ (in that order). Because of that, I say the following… Kudos Marvel Studios, Kudos director James Gunn, and Kudos to the great cast and crew of this film; you truly made a phenomenal superhero film. When this was first announced, I had no idea who most of these characters were. Now, I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel that is set to come out in 2017. 

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) review

Marvel Studios has made quite a few notable risky ventures in regards to establishing their Cinematic Universe. Heck, the very idea alone of a shared Cinematic Universe for all of Marvel’s superheroes was incredibly risky because at the time when the first ‘Iron Man’ film was released, nothing like that had really ever been done before. Not only that, but the studio didn’t have the rights to some of the company’s most popular characters, like Spider-Man or the X-Men. So instead, they had to go with some of their lesser known heroes to headline their films. Of course as we all know, so far that plan has been very successful as the studio took the proper time to introduce the various superheroes of this world through solo films before bringing them all together for the ultimate superhero team-up film, ‘The Avengers’. And sure, some of the films that the studio has released since 2008 are better than others but so far I’d say that they have yet to make a bad film. Before ‘The Avengers’ was released, probably the riskiest solo film out of all of Marvel’s Phase One would have to have been ‘Thor’ because they had to make that whole mythical universe that the God of Thunder resided in work within the confines of what had already been established in both the first two ‘Iron Man’ films and ‘The Incredible Hulk’. But Marvel’s latest film, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, takes the cake for what is probably the riskiest project that Marvel Studios has ever done since they started back in 2008.

Why is this, you ask? Well, it’s quite simple really… when this film was first announced, how many of you actually knew who these characters were? If you didn’t know about them, then don’t worry because I was right there with you and I’m guessing that even some of the most avid comic book readers were unfamiliar with them. So who are these ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’? Well, they are a superhero team that first debuted in Marvel Comics in 1969. The team mostly appeared in a few Marvel titles alongside other heroes like Captain America and the Thing. Then, in 2008, the team was brought back again as they starred in their own series that ran for about two years. So like I said before, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is clearly Marvel Studios’ biggest gamble at this point being that it’s based off of a relatively obscure series, especially when compared to something like ‘The Avengers’. But in the end, this film does not disappoint. I assure you folks that seeing this film will be the most fun time you’ll ever have in theaters this year (at least so far). ‘Guardians’ succeeds by not only being one of the funniest films in the MCU (in fact, it could arguably even be the absolute funniest of the franchise) but also one that you find yourself really emotionally invested in, which is saying a lot considering that is one of the strangest superhero films that I’ve ever seen.

The film begins in 1988 on Earth when, following the death of his mother, a young Peter Quill is abducted by a group of space pirates known as the Ravagers, led by Yondu (Michael Rooker) (Fun Fact: in the comics, Yondu was one of the original ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ back in the 60’s), who end up taking him in as one of their own. 26 years later, Quill (Chris Pratt), who now goes by the name Star-Lord, comes across a mysterious orb-like artifact which he soon realizes is being coveted by the radical Kree Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). When Quill tries to sell it on the planet Xandar, he soon finds himself thrown in prison by the planet’s police force, the Nova Corps, along with assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the adopted daughter of Thanos (AKA the big purple alien seen during the end-credits of ‘Avengers’, portrayed here through motion capture by Josh Brolin) and the bounty hunter duo of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a genetically-engineered raccoon, and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a humanoid-like tree creature. Realizing that Ronan will soon be after them in order to get the orb, the four of them, along with the warrior Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), who seeks vengeance against Ronan after he had killed his family, team up in order to stop Ronan before he can get his hands on the mysterious orb and use the powerful artifact that resides within it in order to destroy the galaxy.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is easily one of the funniest films of the entire MCU, which you would probably expect going in seeing how this is directed by James Gunn, who has mostly been known for the comedies that he directed, ‘Slither’ and ‘Super’. This film is chock-full of hilarious lines of dialogue many of which will definitely produce some real gut-busting laughs. Some might even catch you off-guard. But at the same time, this film is not a straight-up comedy. Like many other superhero films, it still plays things seriously when it needs to but is still loads of fun to watch which, if I haven’t already noted before, is in my opinion one of the greatest strengths of the MCU in general. Sure, these films may not be as serious in tone as the DC films but I find that because they are more light-hearted in nature, I feel that they’re a bit more accessible to general audiences. Speaking of the MCU, this film really does a great job of expanding the universe and is definitely one of the biggest MCU films to date in terms of its overall scope. It may not necessarily connect with certain characters we’ve already gotten to know like Thor or Captain America or Iron Man (which in the case of the latter is actually pretty ironic considering that at one point in the comics, Iron Man was a member of the Guardians) but the film in general still very much feels like an MCU film.

Every aspect of this film is well-executed. The action sequences are very well-done, the visual effects are top-notch, and the makeup design (particularly for the two main villains) is also really good. Of course, I can’t forget to mention the excellent soundtrack to this film which is easily one of the best soundtracks that has ever graced a superhero film. I have to say though… two aspects of this movie caught me by surprise. The first is that, despite this being a part of the MCU which is course is currently owned by Disney, this is quite arguably the most violent and adult out of all of the MCU films so far. Now for the record don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that this isn’t suitable for kids or anything because it’s still a generally light-hearted MCU film. It’s just that the action in this is more intense than some of the other MCU films and I’m pretty sure that certain jokes are going to fly over the heads of younger audience members. The other thing that I didn’t expect was the emotional resonance in this film, which I felt was done incredibly well. You do really care about the Guardians by the end of the film; sure they’re not your typical ‘superhero group’ and they are technically criminals, but at the end of the day they’re a bunch of misfits who are all just looking to belong. And I must say that a key scene near the end legitimately moved me to tears. I did not expect that to happen and because it did, I salute this film for making me so emotionally invested in the characters.  

This is also probably one of the best ensemble casts that the MCU films have ever had. The Guardians themselves have excellent camaraderie, the villains are intimidating, and the rest of the supporting cast is very good as well. While I may not have been too familiar with the character of Star-Lord before this movie came out, as soon as I saw the first trailer I could tell that Chris Pratt was perfect for the role. His charm and comedic ability shine here in the role of the Han Solo-like rogue. Zoe Saldana is also great as Gamora; she may not have as many comedic moments as the other Guardians (though I will say that she does have two very funny bits of dialogue which I won’t spoil here) because her character is more serious in nature but I did like her overall arc and how she was trying to redeem herself being that she was a daughter of Thanos. As Drax, Dave Bautista is one of the biggest surprises of the film. Even though Drax is a very serious character seeking vengeance after what Ronan did to his family, he does get some very funny lines as a result of his rather overly serious persona. Of course as expected, easily the biggest standouts of the group are Rocket and Groot. Both Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel really get into their respective roles and there’s some pretty nice contrast going on between Groot’s innocent nature and Rocket’s more ferocious attitude.  

As for the villains, I have heard quite a lot of people say that they’re the weakest leak of the film (which, according to critics, is sort of becoming a common trend in the MCU). However, I found myself really liking both of the main villains. As the main villain Ronan, Lee Pace does a really nice job here. The makeup design for his character is phenomenal (making Pace quite unrecognizable in the role) and I do feel that Pace had a really nice intimidating presence that works really well here. If anything, I think he’s a much better villain than Malekith from ‘Thor: The Dark World’, who I still think is the weakest villain to date in the entire MCU. Equally excellent here is Karen Gillan as Nebula, Ronan’s main ally who, like Gamora, is an adopted daughter of Thanos. I felt that her character was a bit more interesting than Ronan given the whole ‘sister rivalry’ between her and Gamora (given that Thanos preferred Gamora over her) and, like Pace, Gillan also really had a nice menacing presence in the role (for her first major villain role, she handles it really well). However, I do wish that she had more to do in this because for the first half of the film, she’s mostly just stuck on the sidelines. Even with that said, all of her scenes in the second half of the film (along with all that I just said about her character) help make up for that. Her fight scene near the end with Gamora in particular is one of the highlights of the entire film.

Marvel Studios, I salute you, because you now have my complete faith in whatever you do from now on. That’s because you managed to take a relatively obscure group of characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy and use them to make one of the best films in the MCU. It’s certainly one of the funniest MCU films to date but it’s also a superhero film with quite a lot of emotional resonance, which I wasn’t really expecting. In all my years, I’d never thought that I would ever say what I’m about to say right now but it’s true. I became emotionally invested in a film that features a talking raccoon and a tree creature who can only say ‘I am Groot’. That just shows how great of a film this really is With a top-notch cast, phenomenal direction from James Gunn, great action sequences and visual effects, and most importantly a great sense of fun (something that the MCU has very much been known for), ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is easily one of the best MCU films so far. I don’t know if I’d say it’s the absolute best (that and I need to see this film again, which I most certainly will) but it’s certainly near the top of the list.

Rating: 5/5!

(P.S. Make sure to stay through the credits, which of course you should know to do by now given that this is an MCU film. But I say this especially in regards to this one because of what will go down as one of the most random and yet rather awesome cameos ever. I won’t even dare spoil it here.)

Oculus (2014) review

I’ll openly admit that I’m not the biggest fan of horror movies. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen a few of the really good horror films, like ‘Scream’ and ‘Evil Dead’, but for the most part they’re just not my thing. Also, it might have something to do with the recent trends that have been going on in horror films, like the numerous remakes of horror classics that, for the most part, end up being rather terrible or when these films favor gore and jump-scares over legitimately scary moments. However, if a film does get pretty good reviews from critics and if it looks interesting, then I might see it. ‘Oculus’ is a good example of that. This film is a feature adaptation of a short film, ‘Oculus: Chapter 3- The Man with the Plan’, which was directed by Mike Flanagan, who returns to direct this adaptation of the story. Now, I haven’t seen that short film, but this film’s premise, as well as its solid reviews from critics, interested me… but in the end I think I would have been better off with the short film. That’s because while there are some good things in this film, for the most part I’m pretty meh on it.

Eleven years earlier, Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) was sent to a mental hospital after an incident where he shot and killed his father Alan (Rory Cochrane) after witnessing him kill his mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff) but also for believing that the whole thing occurred because of a supposed supernatural entity that resided within an antique mirror in their house. After he is released from the institution, he reunites with his sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan) who has had to live on her own following the incident. While Tim looks to move on from all of this, Kaylie isn’t ready to leave the past behind. In the years since he was taken away, she has been investigating further into the matter and has discovered similar incidents have occurred to the previous owners of the mirror. With this in mind, she looks to prove that Tim and their father were innocent and that the mirror was responsible for the murders. However, this doesn’t turn out to be as easy as they think it will be, and they soon find themselves trying to figure out what is real and what’s not.

Now like I said, there are some good things in this movie. For one thing, it is well-acted from all who were involved. Gillan, Sackhoff, Thwaites, and Cochrane all did good jobs and I did find Gillan’s character to be a pretty interesting horror film female lead; someone who is a bit obsessed but nevertheless committed to the goal she wants to achieve. However, the biggest standouts of the cast are actually Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan, who play the younger selves of Gillan and Thwaites’ characters. These two kids steal the show and in the end, the best thing about this whole film is its cast in general. There are some pretty creepy scenes throughout the film, particularly in the second half of the film. Without really giving anything away, it is at this point where the flashback scenes to when Kaylie and Tim were kids start to ‘merge’ with the present day and it makes the whole thing very interesting on a psychological level and I will admit that the ending did sort of catch me off guard.

But unfortunately, a lot of this film falls rather flat in many areas and many of the good aspects of the film that I just mentioned are part of a ‘double-edged sword’. I said that the best scenes in the film are towards the second half of the film, and that’s because the first half really drags on. It might just be a case of translating a short film into a feature-length film, but for the first hour or so, not much happens here. A certain scene in the trailer involving Sackhoff’s character and the mirror is the moment where the movie does get interesting. However at the same time, it also gets a bit confusing because the past and present start to blend together so closely that it comes to the point where it jumps between these two periods of time just seconds apart over and over again. It’s not too ridiculously complex but at the same time it means that the narrative structure for the film is a bit of a mess. And then we come to that ending… I did say I didn’t expect it but that’s because I haven’t seen a lot of horror films. I saw this with my friend Matt, who has seen more horror films than me, and I agreed with him in that the ending was kind of a cop-out and from what I’ve been hearing, it’s intended to set up for a potential sequel. Ehh…

I really want to like ‘Oculus’; it’s an interesting premise and it has a really good cast to back it up… but unfortunately it has a couple of noticeable flaws, and most of them actually do stem from some of the good aspects of the film. The film doesn’t get interesting until the second half and that is after a rather slow first half. There are some genuinely creepy moments in the film and it gets pretty interesting on a psychological level, but at times it also gets a bit confusing as the past and present start to come together at once, resulting in a pretty messy narrative. Finally, while the ending did catch me off guard, it also sort of feels like a cop-out with the purpose of continuing things through a sequel. I mean, if you do like horror films, then you’ll probably like this film. However, as someone who isn’t that big a fan of the genre, this one didn’t really do much for me and that’s a shame because I was actually sort of looking forward it but ultimately, it comes off as a bit of a disappointment.

Rating: 2.5/5