No Time to Die (2021) review

 

Since 1962, six actors have officially portrayed author Ian Fleming’s suave secret agent James Bond AKA 007 in Eon Productions’ long-running franchise of films based on Fleming’s work, with each of them bringing their own unique spin to the title role. Up until this year, however, arguably the one thing that most of them had in common was that, unfortunately, their tenures in the role didn’t exactly end on a good note as their final films tended to be some of the franchise’s worst-received installments, sometimes for reasons that extend beyond the film’s quality. Sean Connery, for example, may have been the first and quite arguably most iconic James Bond, but his run ended in a rather bizarre way where he temporarily left the franchise after 1967’s You Only Live Twice, returned for 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, then left again, and then proceeded to star in an unofficial Bond film, 1983’s Never Say Never Again, which was just a remake of his fourth Bond film, 1964’s Thunderball. During Connery’s temporary hiatus, George Lazenby took up the role, and while 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is often seen as one of the franchise’s best films, Lazenby infamously stepped away from the role after just a single film on the advice of his agent. Thus, Roger Moore ended up becoming the first ‘proper’ successor to Connery and notably appeared in a franchise-record 7 films. However, many felt that he had stayed in the role for too long to the point where, by the time that he had starred in 1985’s A View to a Kill at the age of 57, he was older than lead Bond Girl Tanya Roberts’ mother.

After Moore’s departure, Timothy Dalton was cast; like Lazenby, his tenure was another notoriously short one although, in his defense, this was mainly because the series ended up in some major legal issues after only his second film, 1989’s Licence to Kill. After that, Pierce Brosnan helped revive the franchise in the mid-’90s, with his final film, Die Another Day, notably being released in 2002, which coincided with the series’ 40^th anniversary… it also ended up being one of its worst-received outings. Thus, we now cut to Daniel Craig, the man who successfully managed to defy his biggest critics who heavily crucified his casting in 2005 because they felt that he didn’t fit the character’s long-standing image as it was both described in the books and portrayed by his five predecessors. And yet, once his first film, 2006’s Casino Royale, hit theaters, he quickly became a fan-favorite amongst critics and audiences as the series effectively rebooted itself, eschewing many of its campier elements to be more in line with the grounded spy thrillers of recent years such as the Jason Bourne franchise. In the years since, Craig has arguably maintained one of the most consistent runs of any of the Bond leads to date. Sure, his first four films were an even mix of critically-acclaimed outings (Casino Royale and 2012’s Skyfall) and incredibly polarizing affairs (2008’s Quantum of Solace and 2015’s Spectre), but overall, Craig has managed to muster a strongly positive reputation amongst Bond fans. However, by the time that Spectre was released, it was unclear if Craig was going to return for another film, especially after an infamous comment that he had made during an interview where he noted that he’d rather “slash his wrists” than do another one. Granted, he did later admit that this was simply a poor way of responding to the question in the immediate wake of Spectre’s production, but nevertheless, it did cause a bit of a scandal. Ultimately, though, Craig confirmed that he would return for one more film which, as you’ll see, ended up going through quite a lot.

After it was confirmed that Skyfall and Spectre director Sam Mendes would not return to direct a third Bond film, it was announced that visionary director Danny Boyle was tapped to direct Eon’s 25^th official Bond film with a screenplay that he had co-written with his longtime collaborator John Hodge. Had this gone through, Boyle would’ve quite arguably been the most prominent director to ever be attached to the franchise given Eon’s tendency to not rely on big-name directors, having notably turned down the likes of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in the past. Unfortunately, Boyle ended up dropping out of the project in August 2018 due to creative differences over his and Hodge’s script. Luckily for Eon, the search for a new director didn’t end up taking too long as they ultimately hired Cary Joji Fukunaga. Over the past few years, Fukunaga has made quite a name for himself as a director thanks to his work on the likes of the 2015 Netflix film Beasts of No Nation and the first season of HBO’s True Detective. With his hiring, Fukunaga notably became the first American-born director to helm a Bond film as well as the first to also have a writing credit on the film, which he shares with series regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and, by Daniel Craig’s own request, Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. And apart from an ankle injury that Craig sustained during filming, everything seemed to be going well for what would eventually be titled No Time to Die as the film was primed for an April 2020 domestic release… and then the COVID-19 pandemic happened.

With theaters closing around the world due to the impact of the pandemic, MGM and Eon promptly decided to push No Time to Die’s release date back, effectively making it the first film that had to bow to the pressure of a COVID-forced delay. And sure enough, other big-name blockbusters like F9, Black Widow, and Wonder Woman 1984 were forced to move back to a later date as well. As for No Time to Die, it was clear that this was for the best to ensure a strong financial performance at the worldwide box office as it was estimated that the film would’ve lost about $300 million had it stayed in its April 2020 slot. First poised for a November 2020 release, it was then pushed back again to April 2021, a full year after its initially planned release, when it was clear that theaters wouldn’t be back in full operation by that time. But when the new year rolled around, it was pushed back again to October 2021; thankfully, though, that release date was officially locked in back in August, and thus, more than one and a half years after it was originally set to hit theaters, the grand finale to Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond is finally here. Obviously, this one’s been a long time coming, but thanks to Cary Joji Fukunaga’s brilliant direction and its many moments of powerful emotional poignancy, No Time to Die achieves a genuine first in franchise history by giving its lead actor the send-off that he damn well deserves.

In the wake of MI6’s successful capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), the leader of the sinister criminal organization known as Spectre, James Bond AKA Agent 007 (Daniel Craig) has begun to settle down with his lover, psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). However, their peaceful lives are tragically upended when a run-in with Spectre agents leaves Bond to believe that Madeleine has betrayed him, thus resulting in him abandoning her and retiring from MI6. Five years later, Bond is approached by his old friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who requests his help in locating a kidnapped scientist, Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik). Bond soon discovers that Obruchev has been working with MI6 on an advanced nanobot bioweapon known as ‘Project Heracles’ that can eliminate any target by coding itself to their DNA. This immediately compels Bond to return to active duty, where he finds himself reuniting with his old MI6 associates (MI6 head Gareth Mallory AKA M (Ralph Fiennes), his secretary Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), chief of staff Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear), and Quartermaster Q (Ben Whishaw)) while also meeting his successor as 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch). Eventually, Bond comes face to face with the true perpetrator behind Obruchev’s kidnapping, terrorist Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), who happens to have a notable connection to Madeleine due to a previous encounter with her when she was younger. Thus, Bond finds himself having to reunite with Madeleine for the first time in years as he and MI6 work to stop Safin before he can unleash ‘Project Heracles’ upon the world and cause the deaths of millions.

As of 2021, No Time to Die is, officially, the longest film of the franchise with a near 3-hour runtime of 163 minutes. Admittedly, there are a few instances where you do feel the brunt of that hefty run-time, like when the film reaches its finale and it’s clear that there’s at least a half-hour left to go. Still, that doesn’t mean that the film is a slog or anything as the main plot is solidly engaging as far as premises from this franchise are concerned. And just like how Daniel Craig’s previous odd-numbered Bond films did a great job of recontextualizing the Bond franchise for the times in which they were released, No Time to Die wholly succeeds at being another attempt at modernizing James Bond. In this instance, being that this was the first Bond film released in the wake of the #MeToo movement, it goes above and beyond to combat the series’ long-standing habit of objectifying its female characters, mainly by giving them some of the most significant roles that any ‘Bond Girl’ has ever had in these films. And while I know that there are some old-school fans out there who are viciously decrying this film for being ‘too woke’, this is all just very much in line with how Daniel Craig’s Bond films have been handled. It has also helped to give them some of the most emotional narrative moments in the history of the franchise, and sure enough, No Time to Die is arguably the most emotionally driven Bond film to date, which is a fitting development seeing how it does, indeed, serve as the end of an era.

Given how many actors have portrayed James Bond over the years, there’s been plenty of debate over the question of which of Eon’s 6 official leads is the ‘best’ of the bunch. And while many Bond fans usually tend to give Sean Connery that honor due to him being the first and most iconic Bond, it could be argued that Daniel Craig has managed to legitimately challenge Connery’s spot for that vaunted position. Regardless of the quality of his films, Craig has arguably been the best ‘acted’ James Bond as each of his five Bond films has done a great job of highlighting his deeply raw and emotionally vulnerable take on Bond, with his more recent outings also allowing him the opportunity to flex his comedic talents via Bond’s trademark quips. And as I noted earlier, No Time to Die pairs him with some of the franchise’s best female leads which, of course, all starts with a returning Léa Seydoux in a significantly improved turn as Madeleine Swann. Madeleine’s role (and, for that matter, Seydoux’s performance) in Spectre was one of the more polarizing aspects of what was quite frankly the franchise’s most polarizing installment in recent memory, with several critics and fans feeling that her chemistry with Craig was mediocre and that the romantic relationship between Bond and Madeleine wasn’t exactly developed properly. It’s a much different story here as Seydoux’s chemistry with Craig is much stronger and their relationship is far more pivotal to the plot, thus making it a nice bookend to Craig’s tenure as Bond as it matches up nicely with a lot of the big narrative beats that defined Bond’s similarly strong yet ultimately tragic relationship with Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale.

As for the film’s other Bond girls (a term that, full disclosure, isn’t exactly a fitting way of describing these characters nowadays), despite some initial fears of her potentially being underutilized, Lashana Lynch’s Nomi is properly established as Bond’s equal as his successor for the position of 007. It also helps that Lynch has a terrific back-and-forth camaraderie with Craig whenever they’re on-screen together. And while she only appears in a single sequence in this nearly three-hour film, Ana de Armas is, as has been the case with a lot of her recent work, a major standout as Bond’s CIA ally Paloma. Then, of course, you have all the Bond franchise’s regulars, from Bond’s MI6 allies (Ralph Fiennes’ dry-witted M, Ben Whishaw’s lovably dorky Q, Naomie Harris’ spunky Moneypenny, etc.) to Jeffrey Wright’s first appearance as Felix Leiter since Quantum of Solace. Finally, we come to the latest main antagonist of the Bond series, Rami Malek’s Safin, whose role in the story has been one of the more polarizing elements of the film. From what I can tell, this is mainly because some feel that he isn’t in it that much which, admittedly, has sort of been a recent trend with Bond villains as both Javier Bardem’s Silva and even Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld had rather limited screentime in Skyfall and Spectre, respectively. For what it’s worth, though, Malek does succeed in making Safin a legitimately sinister antagonist, especially thanks to the appropriately oft-kilter vibe that Malek gives him.

For the longest time, none of the actors who have played James Bond have ever had a great final film… with No Time to Die, Daniel Craig officially breaks that curse. Aside from just being another great example of this franchise’s penchant for top-notch action set-pieces and thrilling globe-trotting adventures, No Time to Die also does a beautiful job of maintaining one of the strongest elements of the Craig-era Bond films, their strong sense of emotional poignancy. While this era of the franchise may have started with James Bond being subjected to all the character beats that made him… well, James Bond, this Bond has also undergone a noticeable evolution for a character who was once described by Judi Dench’s M (albeit back in the Brosnan era, but the point still stands) as a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and a “relic of the Cold War”. In other words, regardless of how much it will inevitably piss off longtime fans of the franchise, No Time to Die effectively updates its main protagonist for the current cinematic landscape, thus resulting in a James Bond that no longer beds every single woman that he comes across but is still very much the coolest guy in the room. And since the Craig era was the first time in franchise history where subsequent follow-ups were true direct sequels, this allows No Time to Die the chance to effectively tie up any loose ends from the previous four films which, as a result, gives Daniel Craig’s Bond the best kind of send-off that any cinematic protagonist could possibly get.

Rating: 5/5!

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) review

2018’s Venom is easily one of the most fascinating films to come out of the superhero genre in recent years, mainly due to its overall reception. The film was primarily intended to be a more faithful take on the titular fan-favorite Spider-Man villain turned anti-hero after his live-action debut in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 (where he was forced in by executive meddling against director Sam Raimi’s wishes) left most fans underwhelmed. It was also poised to be the start of a new superhero cinematic universe based around characters from the Spider-Man mythos without having to solely rely on Spider-Man himself, especially since the current incarnation of the character as played by Tom Holland was primarily operating within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, upon the original Venom’s release, it didn’t do so hot with critics, many of whom found it to be a tonal mess that was severely hindered by the lack of a proper connection to Spider-Man. And yet, it managed to fare a lot better with audiences, who notably latched on to the unique relationship between the film’s main characters; reporter Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote that he becomes bonded to, Venom. As a result, the film earned an impressive $856 million worldwide, allowing it to become the seventh highest-grossing film of that year.

Thus, a sequel was promptly announced not long after, and thanks to the first film’s mid-credit scene that introduced the character of serial killer Cletus Kassidy (as played by Woody Harrelson), it was confirmed that the sequel would focus on another fan-favorite Spider-Man antagonist, Carnage. Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley, Carnage first debuted in issue #361 of The Amazing Spider-Man in 1992 as the symbiotic ‘offspring’ of Venom. Like its parent, Carnage quickly became a popular new addition to Spider-Man’s rogue gallery and proved to be such a dangerous threat for the web-slinger that he was forced to team up with Venom to stop it on numerous occasions, including the famous 1993 story arc Maximum Carnage. As for the new film, subtitled Let There Be Carnage, a notable change in directors had to occur since Ruben Fleischer was busy working on the long-awaited follow-up to his 2009 film Zombieland, 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap. Thus, directorial duties were taken up by none other than the widely proclaimed king of motion capture performance work, Andy Serkis. Yes, the man known for his critically acclaimed roles such as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth films and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy has recently started to establish himself as a director, having previously helmed the Robin Cavendish biopic Breathe and his decidedly non-Disney esque Jungle Book adaptation, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. And under his solid direction, Venom: Let There Be Carnage wholeheartedly embraces its predecessor’s most popular elements to deliver an all-around wackier sequel that may not win over the original’s biggest critics but, at the very least, is a lot more consistent from a tonal and visual perspective.

It has been about a little over a year since investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) became the [somewhat unwilling] host of Venom (voiced by Hardy), an alien symbiote from a far-away planet. Since then, Eddie has struggled to keep his ‘new friend’ hidden from the rest of the world, especially given Venom’s unstoppable urge to eat people. As part of his efforts to revive his journalism career, Eddie takes on the assignment of interviewing imprisoned serial killer Cletus Kassidy (Woody Harrelson), who has mysteriously agreed to talk to him and nobody else. Through their talks with each other, Eddie (with the help of Venom) manages to figure out the location of the bodies of Kassidy’s many victims, thus resulting in Kassidy being handed an immediate death sentence. Before his execution, however, Kassidy ends up acquiring a sample of Venom during a heated confrontation with Eddie that allows him to survive his destined demise as he becomes the host of the red-colored symbiotic ‘offspring’ Carnage (voiced by Harrelson). After escaping from prison, Kassidy and Carnage promptly embark on a rampage across San Francisco as the former searches for the love of his life, Frances Barrison AKA Shriek (Naomie Harris), whom he was separated from at an early age when Frances was dragged off to the local mental asylum. Thus, Eddie and Venom quickly find themselves having to work around their growing differences so that they can stop their most dangerous adversary yet.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is very much a sequel that’s fully aware of what it was about its predecessor that made it so popular and uses that information as the primary influence behind its overall direction. In this instance, director Andy Serkis and his team clearly recognized that fans of the first Venom primarily dug the delightfully twisted dark humor that stemmed from the uniquely ‘odd couple’-style relationship between Eddie Brock and Venom. Because of this, Let There Be Carnage opts to be much more comedic-oriented than its predecessor which, by comparison, attempted to find a greater balance between its humorous moments and its primarily dramatic plot beats. And while your overall mileage may vary on how effective it is as a comedy, especially given some of the incredibly ludicrous lengths that it goes to when crafting the scenarios that Eddie and Venom end up in, this does ultimately result in a far more tonally consistent sequel. It also manages to one-up its predecessor from a visual perspective as Serkis goes all-in with some incredibly eye-catching gothic imagery that improves upon the first film’s knack for sterile laboratory environments. Despite all this, however, Let There Be Carnage still has the same narrative shortcomings of the first film; in other words, a very generic plot that trades out the previous film’s straight-forward ‘stop the evil businessman’ premise for an equally straight-forward ‘stop the murderous psychopath’ plot. Part of this may be due to the film having a short 97-minute runtime which, at this point, is practically an anomaly for the superhero genre. To be clear, though, it’s not like there’s anything inherently wrong about this film having a short run-time as it helps give it consistently smooth pacing that prevents it from dragging at any point; it’s just that, narratively, it also could’ve done a lot more with certain plot-threads.

Nevertheless, Let There Be Carnage’s biggest selling point continues to be the humorous interactions between its two main protagonists, and Tom Hardy truly deserves a lot of credit for how utterly committed he is to the dual role that he plays in these films. He very much succeeds in making Eddie Brock and Venom perfect foils for one another, with Eddie being the good-natured but rather pathetic straight man who must consistently put up with the antics of the incredibly overeager Venom who, let’s face it, gets all the best lines (“NO ONE LIKES YOU, DAN!”). Their dynamic relationship is then perfectly complemented by Woody Harrelson’s own dual role as Cletus Kassidy and his alien symbiote partner, Carnage. Sure, the minimal plotting ends up making Kassidy your routine psychopath (with Carnage itself nearly being a non-entity, narratively speaking), but Harrelson’s appropriately creepy performance makes him and Carnage a much stronger pair of antagonists than Carlton Drake and the alien symbiote Riot from the previous film. Speaking of antagonists, there’s also Naomie Harris in an equally standout role as Frances Barrison AKA Shriek, whose sonic scream abilities provide a uniquely complicated layer to her romantic relationship with Kassidy given that symbiotes like Venom and Carnage are notoriously weak to loud noises. Unfortunately, Harris ends up being a bit underused here, and the same can be said for a returning Michelle Williams and Reid Scott as Eddie’s ex-fiancé Anne Weying and her new fiancé Dan Lewis. Granted, they aren’t completely ignored here as they do help Eddie and Venom out like they did in the first film, but in Williams’ case specifically, it does feel like a noticeable step backward for these films’ main female lead.

Back in 2018, I gave the first Venom a decently positive 3.5/5 review, and overall, my thoughts on the film haven’t changed that much since then. While I’ll fully concede that it’s far from being one of the superhero genre’s best outings, the strong humor that spawned from the interactions between Eddie Brock and Venom helped the film overcome some of its biggest shortcomings such as a mediocre villain and its mixed attempts at balancing its humor with its serious moments. And while I’m about to give its sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the same exact rating, this is ultimately a case of a superior sequel. Unlike the first film, Let There Be Carnage doesn’t try to take itself too seriously and fully embraces all the wackiness that ensues from what is arguably the superhero genre’s most notorious odd couple. And thanks to solid direction from Andy Serkis, the film not only flows a lot better than its predecessor but also looks a lot better as well with some delightfully twisted gothic visuals that, speaking as someone who doesn’t read a lot of comics, feel very much appropriate for a story based around its titular symbiotes. All that said, though, this sequel does suffer from some of the same narrative issues that plagued its predecessor, and while it never overstays its welcome thanks to a shorter run-time, it still feels a bit rudimentary when compared to some of the other films from this genre. In short, Let There Be Carnage is just as much of an enjoyable popcorn flick as its predecessor was, and while Sony’s plans to develop their own cinematic universe a la the MCU have arguably yielded mixed results so far, I’ll admit that I’m still genuinely curious to see what comes next, especially given this film’s post-credit scene which, without spoiling anything, is a big one.

Rating: 3.5/5

Rampage (2018) review

Well, it seems like Warner Bros. went double or nothing this year in terms of potentially producing the first ‘great’ film based on a video game. Last month, they released Tomb Raider, a reboot of the series’ film franchise that was based on the more recent entries in the video game franchise. And while the film didn’t really end up breaking the dreaded ‘video game film curse’, it did technically fare better than most films of its genre both critically and financially. With that in mind, we now come to Warner Bros.’ second major video game film adaptation of the year, which is a rather fascinating one considering its source material, Rampage. Rampage was an action arcade game developed by Midway in 1986 in which players took control of three gigantic monsters who, as the title suggests, rampage through various cities and cause all sorts of property damage. Upon its release, the game proved to be a huge hit, which helped Midway a lot considering that it came out just three years after the video game industry’s infamous period of recession in 1983. As a result, the game ended up getting four sequels and a puzzle-based spin-off, and even though the most recent installment of the series came out more than a decade ago in 2006, Rampage now makes its big return into the world of pop culture via a feature film adaptation headlined by the one and only Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The film also sees Johnson reteam with director Brad Peyton, as the two previously collaborated on the 2012 family adventure flick Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and the 2015 disaster flick San Andreas, two films that proved to be big box-office hits despite receiving generally mixed reviews. And this trend ultimately continues with their latest endeavor, because while Rampage still isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about the potential for quality video game adaptations, it is at least a decent popcorn flick that’s very much bolstered by its charismatic lead actor.

At a wildlife preserve in San Diego, ex-Special Forces soldier Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) works as a primatologist. During his time there, he has developed a strong connection with the preserve’s collection of primates, most notably a rare albino gorilla named George whom he rescued from poachers at a young age. However, their peaceful lives are soon threatened when debris from a destroyed space station results in canisters of a mysterious pathogen crash-landing all over Earth. This pathogen then proceeds to affect all animals that come across it, including George when one canister ends up on the preserve. Because of this, he starts to grow considerably larger and begins to develop a more aggressive behavior. Soon afterward, Davis is approached by scientist Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), who tells him that George has been subjected to a genetic editing experiment codenamed ‘Project Rampage’ that was developed by a company called Energyne. However, while Caldwell (a former Energyne employee) had intended for the experiment to be used to cure diseases, Energyne CEO Claire Wyden (Malin Akerman) and her brother Brett (Jake Lacy) have instead used it as a biological weapon. Thus, when Claire uses a transmitter to coerce George into traveling to the company’s headquarters in Chicago so that he can be studied, Davis and Kate find themselves in a race against time to try and find a cure for George’s condition before that happens or the military ends up taking him out. This situation is only compounded further by the arrival of other creatures affected by the pathogen, including a flying gray wolf named Ralph and a giant crocodile named Lizzie.

Back in my reviews of the Tomb Raider films, I mentioned that arguably the most important thing for a film based on a popular video game to do is to maintain an accurate representation of its source material. If anything, it’d give the film an advantage over something like 1993’s Super Mario Bros. or the multiple adaptations that were directed by Uwe Boll because, at the very least, it wouldn’t completely alienate fans of the games by being such a radically different take on the source material to the point where it doesn’t even remotely resemble it. With Rampage, though, admittedly it goes about this in a 50-50 manner. Obviously, there wasn’t that much to the plot in the original games aside from destroying everything in sight; thus, the film attempts to bring a little more depth to the story by having a main human character who shares a special bond with one of the three original monsters, all of whom do appear in the film, for the record. However, there is one notable difference from the games, and that is that instead of having the creatures be portrayed as mutated humans who were subjected to all kinds of experiments by an evil corporation, here they’re just regular animals who were subjected to such experimentation. Despite this, however, along with sharing the same narrative issues that plagued the new Tomb Raider film by having its biggest action sequences be reserved for the third act, Rampage does boast one major advantage over Tomb Raider; it never feels sluggish at any point. Now don’t get me wrong, this is very much one of those mindless action films with little to no character development. Still, when the film does get into the franchise’s main selling point of seeing monsters cause all sorts of chaos, represented here by the big finale in which the monsters tear through Chicago, it does pave the way for some highly entertaining action sequences.

And really, if there’s anyone who could have potentially been able to break the ‘video game film curse’, it would be Dwayne Johnson. Despite all its silliness, this film serves as further proof as to why he’s one of the most charismatic actors in the business. Because while this is obviously by no means an Oscar-worthy screenplay, Johnson does give it his all here just like he does with every other role that he takes on. In the case of this role, a lot of this is due to the solid friendship that he shares with George even though, technically speaking, the two of them spend a considerable amount of the film’s run-time separated from each other. Just like what Andy Serkis and company did in the recent Planet of the Apes films, George is portrayed via motion capture, and actor Jason Liles does an excellent job of making the character sympathetic even with all that he goes through in the film. Johnson also happens to have solid chemistry with Naomie Harris; sadly, though, she ends up being quite underused in this film. Despite a plotline that establishes a ‘dark’ past for her character, whose reputation was tarnished when she was fired by Energyne when she tried to expose their sinister intentions, she’s mostly just a simple love interest for Okoye who ultimately doesn’t contribute that much to the overall plot. But then there’s the other major standout of the cast, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Harvey Russell, a government agent who Okoye and Kate constantly cross paths with, though it should be noted that he is not a villainous character. Like Johnson, he brings much charisma to the role and the tense dynamic between the two results in some of the best character moments in the entire film.

So, in conclusion, I admittedly find myself repeating quite a few of the same points that I mentioned in the conclusion of my review for the new Tomb Raider film in this review. Like that film, Rampage isn’t exactly going to be bucking the trend of mediocrely received films based on popular video games. Now, granted, also like Tomb Raider, it has managed to maintain a higher score on Rotten Tomatoes than most other entries in the genre. Still, aside from a recent animated TV series adaptation of Castlevania that premiered on Netflix last year, we’ve still yet to see a freshly-rated video game film adaptation. But for what it’s worth, I surprisingly found myself enjoying this film a bit more than Tomb Raider, which is saying something considering that I have more experience with that franchise than I do with Rampage. I mean, sure, it does share the same general plot structure of that film, meaning that it doesn’t get to its biggest action set-pieces until the finale. But to its credit, when the film does get to these action set-pieces, they are at least entertaining and live up to the franchise’s premise of having giant monsters wreak havoc in a city, even if the plot itself isn’t the most faithful of adaptations as far as this genre is concerned. Plus, this film boasts stronger pacing compared to Tomb Raider and is bolstered by a pair of terrific lead performances from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan; heck, they’d even be the main reason to go see this film if it wasn’t for all the fun monster action. In short, while this is very much a dumb action film, if you’re just looking for a decent popcorn flick that attempts to resurrect a classic video game franchise from the 80’s/90’s, you could obviously do far worse than this one considering all the other films in its genre.   

Rating: 3.5/5

Spectre (2015) review

It was just over a decade ago when Daniel Craig became the sixth actor to take on the role of James Bond for Eon Productions. But, just like with pretty much any actor or actress who takes on a major role in a comic book film, Craig’s casting led to a ton of backlash by fans of the franchise. Simply put, many believed that the 5’10’’ blond-haired Englishman did not fit the ‘tall, dark’ description of the character both described in Ian Fleming’s original novels and portrayed by Craig’s predecessors in the role. But, thankfully, Craig managed to prove his biggest critics wrong with his first film, 2006’s ‘Casino Royale’, which served as a reboot of the franchise after the critically bashed ‘Die Another Day’. Instead of the campy gadget-filled escapades of the franchise’s older days, ‘Casino Royale’ took on a much edgier and grounded route while Craig portrayed Bond as an emotionally driven and more vulnerable character, again compared to his predecessors. The end result was simply perfection as far as the franchise was concerned… and then his second Bond film, 2008’s ‘Quantum of Solace’, ending up being a major disappointment. It may have had something to do with the Writer’s Strike that was going on at the time but even then the film was extremely bland as far as Bond films went. Thankfully, Craig’s run as Bond rebounded with 2012’s ‘Skyfall’. Under the excellent and classy direction of Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, the film served as both a fitting commemoration of the franchise as it celebrated its 50^th anniversary and another ‘re-invention’ of the franchise in this modern technological world.

Three years later, Craig, Mendes, and the new cast of primary Bond allies that were introduced in ‘Skyfall’, are back for the franchise’s 24^th installment, and Craig’s fourth official Bond film, ‘Spectre’. As the title suggests, this film re-introduces the franchise’s classic criminal organization of the same name; ‘Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion’ (disclaimer: this acronym is not used in the film). SPECTRE played a major part in the Sean Connery/George Lazenby era of the franchise but had been absent from the franchise since its last appearance in 1971’s ‘Diamonds are Forever’. This was mainly due to copyright issues that had initially spawned from legal disputes between Ian Fleming and ‘Thunderball’ co-writer Kevin McClory, which subsequently affected Eon Productions for more than four decades. MGM finally managed to get the rights back to SPECTRE in 2013 and immediately implemented the organization into ‘Bond 24’. But now the question is how Mendes’ second Bond film turned out. Well, despite what the rather low 62% rating on RT may suggest, ‘Spectre’ is another rock solid entry of this long-running franchise. Now while I don’t want to make any major comparisons to ‘Skyfall’, I will admit that this film can be rather predictable in terms of the writing. But even with that said, this is still very much a Sam Mendes directed Bond film that manages to be a well-crafted and classy spy thriller in almost every way.

After a unauthorized mission in Mexico City ordered by the previous M before her death (Judi Dench makes a brief video message cameo) in which he kills an assassin by the name of Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona), MI6 Agent 007 James Bond (Daniel Craig) is taken off field duty by his boss, the new M (Ralph Fiennes), who is in the middle of dealing with the recent merger between MI5 and MI6 headed by Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott) that could end up resulting in the shuttering of the ‘00’ section. Meanwhile, against orders, Bond begins an investigation into the mysterious organization known as Spectre that Sciarra was a member of. His probing soon leads to him crossing paths once again with an old foe, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), as Bond learns that White, whose organization Quantum is revealed to have been a subsidiary of Spectre, has a daughter named Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) who, like him, is being pursued by the organization. Bond finds Madeleine and the two, with the help of Bond’s MI6 allies Q (Ben Whishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), venture off in order to uncover the mysterious plans of Spectre. This ultimately leads Bond into having to deal with a ‘ghost from his past’ in the form of Spectre’s mysterious leader, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), who as it turns out has a very special connection with Bond.

As far as the plot is concerned, ‘Spectre’ is admittedly much more predictable than its immediate predecessor. A certain reveal about the main villain is pretty darn obvious given both the history of the franchise and the fact that pretty much everyone on the internet predicted it just like they did with Khan in ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Not only that, but one of the main plot-points in the film about a new intelligence system reminded me of, of all things, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. In other words, this film is a much more straight-forward entry in the franchise compared to ‘Skyfall’. But at the end of the day, I’m totally fine with that. Even with some of the story’s shortcomings, Sam Mendes’ direction is just as excellent as it was in his previous Bond film. The action sequences are once again superb, from the film’s terrific pre-credits sequence that takes place in Mexico City during the ‘Day of the Dead’ festivities to the intense hand-to-hand fight scene on a train between Bond and Spectre operative Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista in a short but definitely memorable henchman role). Sadly Roger Deakins didn’t return to do the cinematography this time but ‘Interstellar’s Hoyte van Hoytema is a more-than-suitable replacement. And despite what I said before about the writing’s predictability, one thing that I did really love about this film’s story was how it managed to connect certain events and characters from all of Craig’s previous Bond films and tie them all to Spectre. And just like how ‘Skyfall’ focused on Judi Dench’s M dealing with a ghost from her past, this film’s plot sees Bond’s past coming back to haunt him.

Four films in, what more can be said about Daniel Craig as Bond? He’s just as excellent as he’s been in his last three Bond films. But with that said, one of the best things about Craig’s performances in the Mendes-directed films in particular is that he’s been able to have the chance to bring back the character’s sense of wit that was rather absent from his first two Bond films. And believe me when I say that this film definitely delivers in terms of its witty dialogue; after all, no Bond film is complete is without a few highly quotable lines. As the main villain, Christoph Waltz admittedly isn’t in the film that much to be as memorable as Javier Bardem was as Silva in ‘Skyfall’ but does manage to bring the right amount of diabolical charm and intimidation required for the role whenever he does appear onscreen. And without giving anything away, Waltz was a perfect choice for this role. As far as the film’s ‘Bond Girls’ are concerned, Monica Bellucci, who plays Lucia, the widow of the assassin that Bond killed in the opening, really only has a ‘cameo role’ in the film as she appears in only two scenes near the beginning. But as for the film’s main leading lady, Lea Seydoux is arguably the film’s biggest standout. Dare I say she even outshines Craig? Madeleine Swann might not be a vengeful spy like Bond but she’s still a very strong-willed woman reminiscent of classic Bond girls like Natalya Simonova and Tracy Bond. And of course, all of the returning regulars from ‘Skyfall’ are great as well, from Q (Ben Whishaw continues to be a worthy successor to the great Desmond Lleweyn) to Moneypenny (Naomie Harris continues to have solid flirtatious chemistry with Craig).

I don’t want this to seem like I’m pointing any fingers at anybody but I have the feeling that the rather low RT score for this film was partially due to certain critics negatively comparing this film to ‘Skyfall’, which in my opinion is a rather unfair thing to do. I don’t believe that Bond films should be compared to each other as if they were just sequels, save for the franchise’s only true sequel to date, ‘Quantum of Solace’, because they are all their own separate stories that just so happen to be a part of the same franchise. And even though ‘Skyfall’ has ended up becoming my favorite Bond film to date, I didn’t go into this film expecting it to be ‘better’ than its predecessor. And ultimately while I do feel that ‘Skyfall’ is still the better film, I don’t hold that against ‘Spectre’. It’s rumored that this may be Daniel Craig’s last Bond film and if that ends up being the case, then he does manage to end his tenure as Bond on a much better note than some of his predecessors like Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore. Sure, ‘Spectre’ can be rather predictable in terms of its plot, namely a reveal that the internet figured out months beforehand, but that doesn’t mean it is, to quote a review by someone who won’t be named, ‘the worst Bond film in 30 years’. Whereas ‘Skyfall’ was a reawakening for the Bond franchise in which Bond dealt with the possibility of being obsolete in this modern world, ‘Spectre’ is very much a tribute to the classic Bond films of yesteryear.

Rating: 4.5/5