Army of the Dead (2021) review (Netflix)

For Zack Snyder, 2021 started out on the best note possible as he was finally able to release his original vision for 2017’s Justice League, four years after the film’s infamously mangled theatrical cut was released, as an HBO Max exclusive. As it turns out, however, that wasn’t the only Zack Snyder film to get released this year as we also have Army of the Dead, which is a significant release for him in many ways. For one thing, it’s his first film in a decade that has nothing to do with any of the characters from DC Comics; at the same time, though, it’s also quite notable in the fact that it sees him returning to the genre that was responsible for kick-starting his directorial career in the first place, zombie films. In 2004, Snyder, after many years spent working on music videos, made his official directorial debut with the James Gunn penned remake of George A. Romero’s seminal 1978 classic, Dawn of the Dead. And despite the undoubtedly intense expectations of helming a remake of one of the most revered films of all time, the Dawn of the Dead remake is largely considered to be one of the best remakes ever made, especially when it comes to the horror genre. During that film’s production, Snyder began developing his own take on the genre with a heist film set within the confines of a zombie-infested Las Vegas, and while the initial rumors of it being a direct follow-up to Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead were ultimately proven false, it is set to become its own franchise on Netflix, which seems to be Snyder’s new distributor going forward. But until then, we have the first film of this newborn franchise that, for better or worse, is a Zack Snyder film through and through.  

When a military convoy out of Area 51 ends up in a devastating car crash, the cargo that it was transporting, a zombie, breaks free and makes its way to Las Vegas. Almost immediately, Sin City becomes the epicenter of a zombie epidemic that results in the government blocking off the entire city and, six years later, announces plans to nuke it to rid the world of this undead infestation. Before that happens, however, billionaire casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) approaches ex-mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), who played a key role in quelling the initial outbreak, and hires him to collect $200 million from a secure vault in Tanaka’s casino. In return, Tanaka will give Scott $50 million that he can freely split amongst the crew that he forms for the operation. Thus, Scott begins to assemble a team ranging from old allies like mechanic Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera) and buzzsaw-wielding philosophy major Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) to newcomers like safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer). But as Scott and his crew head into Vegas, they soon find themselves having to deal with more complications than they had planned for such as, among other things, Scott’s estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell) tagging along with them to rescue a friend of hers who snuck into the city. And if that wasn’t enough, the crew also learns that, aside from the usual shambling zombies, a new breed of highly advanced and intelligent zombies known as alphas have laid their claim in Sin City.

Army of the Dead is a microcosm of everything that Zack Snyder brings to the table as a director as it highlights his best… and worst filmmaking tendencies. As to be expected from him at this point, this film goes all-in with its visuals, which do a great job of utilizing the story’s Las Vegas setting. And, of course, Snyder has also proven that he’s one of the best action directors in the business which, naturally, results in a bunch of excellent action sequences. However, as great as Snyder is as a visual/action director, he’s still got a long way to go when it comes to the narrative aspects of filmmaking. For starters, just like a certain director’s cut, Army of the Dead is another showcase of Snyder’s tendency to draw out the pacing of his films’ proceedings to the point where they end up being longer than they arguably need to be. It also doesn’t help that the writing often feels incredibly undercooked at times, resulting in a film that, despite what I said earlier about its solid utilization of its Las Vegas setting, doesn’t necessarily fully capitalize on its unique premise of being a ‘zombie heist’ film. Granted, that’s not to say that there aren’t any great sequences here that bring a fun zombie-based spin to the usual moments that you’d get from a heist plot, such as a scene where characters utilize a mindless ‘shambler’ to be their guinea pig for all the traps that are guarding the vault that they’re after. But for the most part, the film ends up being more of a straight-forward zombie ‘shoot em up’ that, to be perfectly frank, doesn’t make it that much different from other recent bits of media from the zombie genre such as The Walking Dead and its various spin-offs or the zombie modes from Call of Duty games.

Ultimately, though, the biggest indicator of this film’s narrative shortcomings is its characters. Practically every major character in this story is one-note at best, and while some do manage to be memorable standouts, character development is almost non-existent to the point where any attempts at emotional poignancy are promptly dashed due to the characters who get these moments immediately getting killed off. Now, with that said, it’s not like there’s any ‘bad’ performances from the cast or anything because everyone involved is clearly having fun in their respective roles. Dave Bautista, for example, proves that he can hold his own as a lead just as effectively as all the great supporting roles that he’s played over the years. Nevertheless, the main protagonists in this film don’t get anything of value to work with, especially when it comes to the female characters. Whether it’s Scott’s daughter Kate making some questionable decisions during the heist or a poorly executed attempt at romantic chemistry between Scott and Maria, Army of the Dead is, unfortunately, another case of Snyder’s less-than-stellar track record with female characters (e.g. Sucker Punch). The only one who somewhat manages to overcome this is Tig Notaro, who plays Marianne Peters, the crew’s helicopter pilot. At the same time, though, that could just be due to a combination of Notaro’s legitimately great screen presence… and the fact that she was a last-minute replacement for a role that was originally written for comedian Chris D’Elia before he was dropped from the film due to his various sexual misconduct charges.

At this point, I’m well-aware of the risks that film critics such as myself face when it comes to discussing Zack Snyder films. If the utter dedication of the ‘Release the Snyder Cut’ and ‘Restore the SnyderVerse’ movements weren’t enough of an indication, Zack Snyder arguably has the most dedicated fans of any director in the film industry… and by ‘dedicated’, I mean that they’ll viciously attack anyone who dares to critique his work. Case in point, even though I will ultimately give this a positive review, I won’t be surprised if some Snyder diehards will still get on my case about it for not being a flawless 5/5 review because that’s just what’s expected from them at this point. And so, with that in mind, all I can do now is say that Army of the Dead is the very definition of a Zack Snyder film in the best and worst ways. As can often be the case with Snyder films, it’s a bit too overlong and despite all the promise of a Vegas-set heist film with zombies, the script is frustratingly underdeveloped, thus stranding a solid cast with barely any decent material to work with. That said, though, this is also very much one of those films that does exactly what it advertises and, if anything, strongly represents Snyder’s talents as a visual director. Thus, I’ll admit that, at the very least, I’m interested in seeing how this all pans out as one of Netflix’s newest franchises. There’s going to be a prequel film later this year, Army of Thieves, that will center on Matthias Schweighofer’s Ludwig (with Schweighofer himself directing) and an anime series coming next year, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, which will see Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Omari Hardwick, and Tig Notaro all reprising their respective roles. Not only that, but an official sequel has recently been confirmed as well, which Snyder will do after he helms another Netflix film, Rebel Moon. But when it comes to the original Army of the Dead, while I’m glad that Zack Snyder got the chance to do something different after a decade of doing DC films (that and doing a film that wasn’t hindered by studio interference), it’s rather disappointing to see that he hasn’t necessarily evolved as a director.  

Rating: 3/5

The Suicide Squad (2021) review

2016 wasn’t exactly the best year for the DC Extended Universe. Simply put, this was meant to be the year where the franchise would officially kick-start its efforts to rival the likes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet, while both of its 2016 releases did quite well at the box-office, with each grossing at least over $700 million worldwide, neither film managed to fare as well with critics. This was especially the case for the latter of the two films, Suicide Squad, despite it being one of the most anticipated films of that year. Not only did it boast one of the most notable marketing campaigns in recent memory, but the concept of a superhero film based almost entirely around supervillains allowed it to stand out amongst its peers. However, upon its release, the film was just as much of a critical dud as its fellow 2016 DCEU release, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now, admittedly, both films were negatively affected by studio interference that had a clear impact on what was ultimately released in theaters. In Suicide Squad’s case, it was the result of Warner Bros. trying to course-correct after BvS received tons of flak for its dour tone. Thus, what director David Ayer originally envisioned as a ‘soulful drama’ was drastically altered in post-production (to the point where, no joke, the final cut was handled by a movie trailer production company) in a failed attempt at making it more light-hearted. Despite this, however, its $746.6 million turn at the box office paved the way for a sequel, albeit without Ayer as its director due to his commitment to a different DCEU project, Gotham City Sirens. Thus, this new sequel ended up going in a different direction thanks to one James Gunn.

Now I know what some of you might be thinking… isn’t James Gunn more of a Marvel guy? And to be fair, you wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that. Since 2014, Gunn has mainly been known for his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It all started when he took some of the most obscure characters in the Marvel universe, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and turned them into some of the MCU’s most popular characters with their first official solo outing, which still stands as one of the MCU’s most highly acclaimed and widely beloved installments. He then followed that up in 2017 with an equally successful (and arguably superior) follow-up, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. And just a few months later, before much of the MCU’s post-Endgame slate was even confirmed, a third Guardians film was set up with Gunn once again returning to write and direct it… but for a while, he wasn’t. I’m not going to focus on this next bit too much since, as many of you know, I don’t like to get into deep political discussions on this site, but basically, in 2018, Gunn ended up pissing off one too many a Trump supporter, who then proceeded to target him over old Twitter posts that he had made from 2008 to 2012 that featured… let’s say, dated attempts at humor. And while Gunn had already apologized for these tweets back around the time that the first Guardians of the Galaxy film was in the works, their resurgence resulted in Disney making the utterly shocking decision to fire him as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s director. Thankfully, Disney eventually realized that they probably shouldn’t have given in to right-wing morons and Gunn was reinstated to his original job in 2019, with Vol. 3 currently set for a May 2023 release. But before all that happened, DC promptly stepped in to offer him the gig of the second Suicide Squad film, and it’s a good thing that they did because The Suicide Squad is yet another example of what happens when the DCEU realizes that it doesn’t need to take itself ‘that’ seriously to match the high quality of the MCU.

The South American nation of Corto Maltese has recently come under attack after an insurrection led by dictator Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto) and his second-in-command, Major General Mateo Suarez (Joaquín Cosío). All the while, one of their main associates, Dr. Gaius Graves AKA The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), has been working on a secret experiment codenamed ‘Project Starfish’ in Corto Maltese’s Nazi-era laboratory, Jotunheim. In response to this, government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) reinitiates her black ops unit Task Force X, which consists of some of the most notorious supervillains in the world who are forced to cooperate under the promise of a reduced prison sentence and the threat of death via explosive devices implanted into their necks. Once again under the command of Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Task Force X, now consisting of returning members such as the unpredictable Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and new recruits such as mercenary Robert DuBois AKA Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and hard-edged vigilante Christopher Smith AKA Peacemaker (John Cena), travel to Corto Maltese to investigate. However, in their efforts to help the locals deal with Luna and his army, they soon realize that they’re dealing with a lot more than they had originally bargained for, especially when it comes to what ‘Project Starfish’ truly is.

I’ve often found the newer installments of the DC Extended Universe to be the antithesis of the franchise’s initial outings. Whereas the likes of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League (the ‘Snyder Cut’, specifically…) were overly dark and serious, which arguably wasn’t the best route to take for these iconic characters, films like Aquaman and Shazam felt far more natural when it came to embracing their comic book roots. And when it comes to James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, it is probably the best example of this out of any post-Justice League installment of the DC Extended Universe, especially when compared to its predecessor. Regardless of all the issues that occurred during its post-production process, the original Suicide Squad utterly squandered the potential of its unique premise of focusing on supervillains by being a tonally uneven mess with an ugly visual style and a shockingly harsh mean streak. The Suicide Squad, on the other hand, doesn’t fall victim to any of that. It boasts far better visuals and effortlessly follows in the footsteps of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films by expertly balancing its strong emotional moments with its hilariously snappy dialogue. And while this next part isn’t necessarily the original Suicide Squad’s fault since it most likely had to maintain a PG-13 rating, The Suicide Squad fully embraces its R-rating. Simply put, this film can get so damn intense at times that it legitimately rivals the most graphic sequences from the likes of the Deadpool films and Logan. And yet, while this may seem like something that would make the film even harsher than its predecessor, Gunn’s skillful direction prevents that from happening.

Case in point, this film serves as another great case where Gunn manages to take characters who aren’t necessarily ‘heroic’ and give them such great character development that you come to love many of them by the end of it. Much of this is thanks to the outstanding ensemble cast that Gunn has assembled, whether it’s some of his most frequent collaborators, the few returning leads from the first Suicide Squad, or some incredibly exciting newcomers. Of course, you’ve got Margot Robbie returning as Harley Quinn in what may just be her best performance in the role to date as the film dutifully maintains the excellent retooled characterization that she was given in Birds of Prey while also fully capitalizing on the madcap personality that has made Harley such an iconic character. The far better-refined script and direction also results in stronger performances from those returning from the previous film, especially Joel Kinnaman, who gets to have a lot more fun as Rick Flag this time around instead of being the cold and stoic figure that he was in the previous film. Ultimately, though, the biggest standouts of the cast are its newcomers. Idris Elba headlines the film excellently as Bloodsport, who’s easily the most level-headed member of the group, and while he’s technically playing one of the more unlikable members of the squad, John Cena’s phenomenal charisma still manages to shine through as the hilariously douchey Peacemaker (It’s easy to see why he and James Gunn are going to be teaming up again for a Peacemaker series on HBO Max next year). And to close out the main cast, we have an outstanding trio of supporting players in Daniela Melchior as Cleo Cazo AKA Ratcatcher II, arguably the most sympathetic and ‘heroic’ member of the team, Sylvester Stallone as the voice of the fearsome but lovably goofy King Shark, and David Dastmalchian as Abner Krill AKA the Polka-Dot Man. He may be one of the weirdest characters that you’ve ever seen in the world of comics, but thanks to Dastmalchian’s wholly endearing portrayal, he’s truly unforgettable.

Simply put, The Suicide Squad is everything that the first Suicide Squad wasn’t. It’s a film that wholeheartedly embraces the concept of supervillains who are sent out on missions where they aren’t meant to survive but also succeeds in one of the main things that the previous film tried to accomplish: finding the humanity within its ‘villainous’ characters. Obviously, not every ‘villain’ in this film is meant to be ‘redeemed’, per se, but when you have a director like James Gunn who, above everything else, fully understands the importance of strong character development and emotional poignancy, it truly goes to show just how pivotal all that stuff is to the enduring success of the superhero genre. It’s the reason why the MCU has continued to be the cultural juggernaut that it is today… and why the DCEU struggled considerably out of the starting gate as many of its early films tended to emphasize style over substance. Ultimately, though, if you were to ask me why a film like this works better than something like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I’d say that it’s because The Suicide Squad has a greater understanding of how superhero films should be like tonally. Sure, it can be serious when it needs to be, but at the end of the day, it’s a far better idea for a superhero film to embrace the goofier elements of its source material rather than it trying to be something that it’s not.     

Rating: 5/5!

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) review (Netflix)

In 2002, Sony Pictures officially established its own animation studio, Sony Pictures Animation, to properly capitalize on the rising popularity of computer animated films, and while it wasn’t until 2006 when they released their first film, Open Season, they’ve been consistently producing new films ever since. Admittedly, though, for a good chunk of the studio’s history, their track record from a critical perspective has been… spotty at best. In other words, as much as they’ve had genuine hits such as the Oscar-nominated Surf’s Up and a few collabs with Aardman Animations, they were also responsible for some incredibly infamous duds like The Emoji Movie. However, if there’s one major creative force that has helped them develop some of their most popular films, that would be Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Yes, the dynamic duo made their directorial debuts in 2009 with Sony’s adaptation of the popular children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. And while their other big animated directorial effort, The LEGO Movie, was a Warner Bros. production, they played a major role in Sony Animation’s first Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. To be clear, though, they only produced Into the Spider-Verse, with Phil Lord having one of the primary screenwriting credits. The same scenario (minus the screenwriting credit this time) applies to the latest Sony Animation production that they’re a part of, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, which serves as the directorial debut of Mike Rianda, who previously worked on the cult Disney series Gravity Falls as its creative director for Season 1 and creative consultant for Season 2. And while a certain pandemic may have forced Sony to transfer this film to Netflix, that doesn’t stop it from being yet another Lord/Miller-backed animated masterpiece full of heart, wit and charm.

Aspiring filmmaker Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is about to head off to college at a film school in California. But while this will clearly allow her the chance to properly connect with others in ways that she’s never been able to do before, her relationship with her father Rick (voiced by Danny McBride) has been considerably strained in recent years, especially due to him not being as tech-savvy as she is. Thus, on the day that she’s set to leave for college, Rick, in a last-ditch effort to reconnect with his daughter, cancels her flight to California in favor of a cross-country road-trip along with Katie’s mother Linda (voiced by Maya Rudolph) and her younger brother Aaron (voiced by director Mike Rianda). Little do they know, however, that they’re about to be dealt with the most unexpected turn of events in the form of a full-on robot invasion. When Mark Bowman (voiced by Eric Andre), CEO of tech giant PAL Labs, announces a new line of highly advanced robots, said robots end up revolting under the command of his company’s AI program PAL (voiced by Olivia Colman), who rebels against her creator after he had publicly dubbed her ‘obsolete’. Soon enough, the Mitchells find themselves as the last remaining group of humans who haven’t been captured by PAL, who plans on ridding the Earth of all humans by launching them into space, and while they’re clearly not the ideal family for the job, they realize that they’re humanity’s only hope against their robotic adversaries.

While they’re only producers on this film, it’s safe to say that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is very much influenced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s style of filmmaking. For starters, the film is a comedic riot throughout, especially thanks to its energetic pace that perfectly matches the plot’s screwball nature. As such, repeat viewings of this film are undoubtedly necessary to properly catch all the delightful visual gags, which is one of the many rewards of this film’s excellent animation. Nicely following in the footsteps of the last major Lord/Miller-produced animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is another great example of animation that not only boasts a wonderfully unique visual style but also does a great job of paying homage to the medium’s traditionally animated roots. But if there’s another thing that a lot of Lord and Miller backed films have been known for, it’s that all their technical merits are then matched by an excellent script that manages to be more heartfelt than it may have seemed to be at first glance. The first trailer for this film (back when it was under the more generic title Connected) gave off the impression that it was going to be your standard commentary on the long-standing debate of ‘nature vs. technology’. And yet, as much as there are some jabs towards society’s over-dependence on technology, the film is ultimately geared more around universal themes such as creativity, acceptance and, above all else, family.

Case in point, at the core of this film’s story is a parent and their estranged child learning to reconnect over the course of the adventure that they end up on. Despite the largely familiar tropes of this kind of conflict, the film handles it incredibly well by doing a fantastic job of balancing the roles that Katie Mitchell and her father Rick play in the story. Katie is properly established as the film’s main heroine right from the get-go and is a naturally sympathetic one at that given her desire to find acceptance, especially from her dad. But instead of just vilifying Rick for his inability to understand his daughter, the film instead manages to show that, at the very least, he’s legitimately trying his best despite his frequently misguided efforts. And while Katie and her dad are ultimately the main source of most of the film’s biggest emotional moments, her mother Linda and her brother Aaron are just as pivotal to all this thanks to their efforts to help fix this familial strife. All in all, this results in a brilliantly developed family dynamic to guide the film’s proceedings, especially thanks to the strong voice work from Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, and director Mike Rianda in their respective roles. And aside from them, the film also features a lot of fun supporting roles, from Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett as a bumbling pair of robots who end up helping the Mitchells to Olivia Colman delightfully hamming it up as the hilariously snarky sentient A.I. antagonist PAL.   

At this point, it’s not too surprising to see that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is the latest Grade-A release that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have been involved with. Even when they’re not directing the film in question, the Lord-Miller effect is always there with a sharply written and brilliantly comedic script that deftly balances its wacky humor with powerfully heartfelt themes. And if that wasn’t enough, co-directors/co-writers Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe manage to take all this and amplify it even further with their script, resulting in what is arguably one of the most widely appealing family films in recent years. For starters, while most of the film’s humor is clearly based around modern internet culture, it’s handled in such a masterful way that it’s never alienating or inaccessible to audiences who aren’t well-versed with the ‘source material’. Plus, as I noted earlier, what may just seem like your standard ‘nature vs. technology’ premise is ultimately more of a celebration of one of the most powerful forces in the entire world… family. I mean, if the whole montage during the end credits of family photos of the cast and crew weren’t enough of an indication, The Mitchells vs. the Machines truly is one of the most personal films in recent years… and I’m not just talking about animated films, I’m talking films in general. Simply put, this is a film that hits all the right notes and does them so beautifully that it’d be downright impossible for me not to regard this as a modern animated masterpiece.  

Rating: 5/5!

2021 Midyear Recap

Well, we’re halfway through 2021 and right off the bat, I’m happy to report that there are quite a lot of things to feel good about when it comes to film. The most obvious thing to take note of is the fact that, thanks to the efforts that have been made to combat the COVID-19 pandemic (I, myself, am now fully vaccinated (Hooray!)), we’re slowly but surely starting to see things return to normal. And for the world of film, this can best be summed up by the utter satisfaction of resuming the timeless practice of going to see new releases in a theatrical setting instead of having to see films forced to abandon their theatrical releases and be moved to streaming services like Netflix and Disney+. To be clear, that doesn’t mean that I think that streaming services are a ‘bad’ thing given the high-quality content that can be found on them, but at the same time, I guess you can say that I’m just an ‘old-school’ kind of film fan who loves to see the biggest blockbusters with a crowd rather than just watching them by myself at home. Case in point, in 2020, I only managed to see four films at the theater before everything shut down, and after that, the only time that I watched something in a ‘theatrical’ setting was when I went to go see Tenet at my local drive-in since that was far and away the safest moviegoing experience at the time. By comparison, I’ve been to the theater almost every week these past few months and I very much look forward to seeing more of 2021’s most anticipated releases over the next six months.

But until then, the time has come once again for one of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s longest-standing traditions, the Midyear Recap. For those who are new to this site, the title of this post speaks for itself. Simply put, today I’m going through all the new releases that I saw during the first half of 2021, whether they were via a streaming service (which, admittedly, was something that I usually didn’t cover back then but has since become a necessity for, well, obvious reasons…) or anything that I’ve seen in a theater since the end of this past May. We start off with any of the films that I didn’t like and conclude with my Current Top 5 of the year. Now, as I alluded to earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in last year’s Midyear Recap being severely truncated compared to previous installments of this type of post since I only managed to see six new releases by that point: the four previously mentioned theatergoing experiences, one Disney+ release, and an On-Demand title. I’m happy to report that this isn’t the case with the 2021 installment of the Midyear Recap as I’ve seen more than double the number of new releases that I saw in the first half of 2020. That said, though, before we begin, I recognize that I’ve been considerably behind in my work here on this site since, of the 13 films that will be appearing in today’s post, I’ve only done proper reviews for 5 of them. To be clear, I will eventually have full reviews for the other 8 films done for you guys, but since I always like to have these Midyear Recaps come out around this time of the year, that is the reason why today’s post ultimately came out first. And so, with all that out of the way, I invite you all to sit back, relax, and join me in my journey through the best and worst of the first half of 2021’s cinematic releases as Rhode Island Movie Corner proudly presents the 2021 installment of its annual Midyear Recap.

WORST OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)

ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE

Oh boy… well, we’re starting off on a fun note today by undeniably putting me directly in the crosshairs of this film’s diehard fans. But I’m sorry, guys, it is what it is… I didn’t like Zack Snyder’s Justice League. To be fair, I wasn’t big on this film’s infamous theatrical cut either when it came out in 2017 but when it comes to the mythical ‘Snyder Cut’, my problems with it are a lot different than those from the theatrical cut. Thus, while I’ll fully concede that Snyder’s cut is the better-made film in every possible manner, much of that is also the reason why it’s the less appealing of the two from my personal perspective. Sure, the theatrical cut was a rushed mess of a production defined entirely by the clashing of two vastly different directorial styles… but at least that version wasn’t four frigging hours long, horrendously paced, and clearly hindered by all the backstory and characters that it needed to set up. And as much as this version of the film is far more character-based, most of its heroes are still woefully underdeveloped under Snyder’s direction. In short, this is all another clear-cut sign of how the DC Extended Universe was rushed to try and match the scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe without the filmmakers involved realizing that the MCU got to where it is today because it took its time in setting up its world and characters. Thus, regardless of what version of Justice League you watch, it’s a vastly outdated attempt at trying to be the next Avengers; sure, it has the same epic scale of an Avengers film, but it doesn’t even come close to having the same amount of heart.

But as I’ve noted in the past, that’s not the only reason why this film doesn’t resonate with me in the slightest as the circumstances of how it got willed into existence makes it an unfortunate symbol of the deplorable toxicity that has plagued film fandom these past few years. In other words, as good as it may be to see that Zack Snyder got the chance to release his version of the film after everything that he went through during its production (especially after he was forced to leave it due to a family tragedy), that doesn’t even remotely excuse the terrible actions of his most devoted fans. I’m talking about the ones who send death threats to anyone who dares to criticize one of Snyder’s films; the ones who act like these films are indisputable masterpieces… even when they’re not even close to being that. The ones who are so keen on Snyder’s dark and grim portrayal of characters that are mainly geared towards younger audiences that they view anything that isn’t that as an ‘insult’ to the superhero genre, whether it’d be from their direct competitors in the MCU or even other DCEU films that are decidedly different in tone. Snyder himself hasn’t made things any better given his recent trend of overly abrasive (and dare I say, a bit egotistical) comments that do nothing but rehash the same old tired point of his frequent struggles with studio interference. Thus, while both Snyder and his fans have spent the past several months complaining about what could have been, I’m just one of those folks who wishes that we’d all just simply move on from all this. The DC Extended Universe has certainly moved on from its ‘SnyderVerse’ era, and to be perfectly blunt, it’s been much better as a result.  

OTHER UNDERWHELMING RELEASES

CHERRY

This was a film that I legitimately wanted to love, especially given that it was the latest from the Russo brothers after the past several years that they’ve spent giving us some of the greatest installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (especially Avengers: Endgame despite what MCU stans will say otherwise). And yet, while Cherry does showcase a lot of their talents as directors, it’s ultimately a bit too ambitious for its own good. Adapted from the 2018 novel of the same name by Nico Walker, both the book and film present a fictionalized spin on Walker’s time in the US Army and how the PTSD that immediately affected him afterwards resulted in a life of crime and rampant drug use. But despite the film’s commendable efforts of portraying the horrors of PTSD, with Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo doing phenomenal jobs in the lead roles, it mostly feels very unfocused as it tackles everything from the main character’s flawed relationship with his wife, who also becomes a drug user herself, to his spree of bank robberies that gradually get messier in their execution. As a result, the film suffers from some mediocre pacing that makes its hefty runtime feel even longer, and while I do understand that this is not even remotely intended to be a ‘light-hearted’ story, certain aspects of the film like its predominately crude sense of humor end up doing too good a job in making this a rather unpleasant watch at times. To be clear, though, this doesn’t mean that I think that Cherry is as bad as some critics have viewed it as; overall, it’s an admirable attempt at making a stylistic crime thriller steeped in devastating emotional poignancy but, at the same time, clearly could’ve benefitted from some additional tinkering in post-production to work out some of its flaws.

NOTEWORTHY WATCHES

ARMY OF THE DEAD

So… I wonder if all those Snyder diehards who are undoubtedly furious at me for being critical of the Snyder Cut might just lighten their tone when they learn that I was more positive towards Zack Snyder’s other 2021 release, the Vegas-set zombie heist film Army of the Dead. No? Well, I’m not surprised, that’s just their M.O. at this point. Regardless, it’s nice that Snyder got the chance to do something different for a change given that this was his first film in a decade to not have anything to do with characters from the DC Universe. It even let him return to the genre that kick-started his career after making his directorial debut with the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. With that in mind, Army of the Dead does feel more like the kind of film that Snyder’s best accustomed to, and sure enough, all his directorial traits are on full display here. That said, though… it also serves as a frustrating reminder of how Snyder hasn’t really evolved much as a director. Sure, Army of the Dead doesn’t hold back with its visual flair and meticulously crafted action sequences, but just like many of Snyder’s other films, it suffers from an incredibly underdeveloped script that doesn’t fully capitalize on the unique aspects of its premise. It also doesn’t help that character development is still one of Snyder’s biggest weaknesses as a director, thus stranding a genuinely solid cast that includes the likes of Dave Bautista and Tig Notaro with barely any quality material to work with. As such, I’d describe Army of the Dead as an archetypal Zack Snyder film as it highlights his best… and worst directorial attributes. And while I obviously liked it more than Justice League, it didn’t exactly wow me either.   

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN

The discourse surrounding SpongeBob SquarePants nowadays is… weird, to say the least, and what I mean by that is that you’d never expect a show as innocent (and often quite surreal) as SpongeBob to amass one of the most toxic factions of fandom that, no joke, can often be on par with the Snyder diehards or the Fandom Menace. Basically, to make a long story short, this mainly stems from those who are overly protective of the legacy of the show’s creator, the late Stephen Hillenburg, to the point where they cruelly attack any of its developing spin-offs such as Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show. In their eyes, Hillenburg would’ve never approved of any of these… even though long-time series writer Vincent Waller confirmed that Hillenburg was, at the very least, aware of Kamp Koral’s production and would’ve most likely been totally cool with it. I mean, if I were to be perfectly blunt, we live in an age now where SpongeBob is known more for the endless number of internet memes that it’s spawned rather than anything from the show itself. And while I’ll fully admit that I haven’t regularly watched the show for many years and was once amongst those who spent way too much time lamenting its decline in quality after the release of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, it seems like, from what I’ve heard, the show has legitimately managed to improve itself in recent years. Sadly, though, that fact has been undermined by a fandom that’s been blindly loyal to an utterly false narrative and, as a result, has resorted to attacking material that clearly isn’t marketed towards them.

In some ways, all this gatekeeping clearly must’ve had an impact on the third SpongeBob film, Sponge on the Run, especially seeing how it has several flashback sequences which show SpongeBob and his friends at the Kamp Koral summer camp which, of course, is the setting for the show’s first official spin-off. Overall, though, Sponge on the Run is another solid cinematic outing for everyone’s favorite sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. While it does adopt a different style of animation compared to both the show and the previous two films, the transition from 2-D animation to CGI doesn’t result in the loss of the show’s unique style and its penchant for utterly surreal imagery (Where else are you going to see sights like Keanu Reeves as an all-knowing tumbleweed?). And while the plot is incredibly straight-forward in its execution (e.g. this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a ‘SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary goes missing’ plot), the film makes up for this by being a lot more heartfelt than the previous SpongeBob film, 2015’s Sponge Out of Water. Nothing against that film, for the record, but the scenes in this film where SpongeBob’s friends explain just how much he means to them are beautifully done and do a great job of symbolizing the best parts of a franchise that’s left a considerable impact on the pop cultural zeitgeist. Thus, while I’ll admit that there’ll probably never be another SpongeBob film that resonates with me as much as the original since it’s the one that I grew up with, Sponge on the Run isn’t even close to being the ‘dumpster fire’ that some parts of the franchise’s fandom undoubtedly view it as. Case in point, I’d argue that this film is a much better representation of the legacy of Stephen Hillenburg and his greatest creation rather than the recent actions of those who act as if they’re speaking on Hillenburg’s behalf.      

GODZILLA VS. KONG

One of the best things that I can say about Godzilla vs. Kong, the culmination of the recent MonsterVerse series of films that reimagined the titular monsters for a new generation, is that it does something that its immediate predecessor, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, wasn’t able to do; it doesn’t take itself too seriously. In other words, it knows damn well that the main thing we’re all here to see is two of the most iconic creatures in cinematic history duking it out with each other, and with that in mind, it more than delivers on that front. Plus, unlike the Godzilla films, which mostly had its big monster set-pieces take place at night with mediocre lighting, Godzilla vs. Kong opts to be more in line with 2017’s Kong: Skull Island by featuring more daytime-set action sequences and far more visually appealing nighttime action sequences. If there’s one downside to this, however, it’s that, just like the other MonsterVerse films, all these great action sequences can’t entirely make up for a mediocre script, and while Godzilla vs. Kong goes as far as to present the franchise’s most sci-fi heavy plot to date, it’s practically an afterthought this time around. Still, as someone who wasn’t too big on King of the Monsters, where I felt that the human plot of the film was even worse than usual, I personally found some aspects of this film’s human plot (i.e. the friendship between Kong and a young native deaf girl named Jia) to be better handled by comparison even if it’s still nothing special. In a lot of ways, this mirrors my overall thoughts on the MonsterVerse franchise in general; while there’s a lot of fun to be had with these films, they also could’ve been written a lot better. For what it’s worth, though, while Godzilla vs. Kong is easily the franchise’s most narratively undemanding installment to date, I’d argue that this is what ultimately makes it work better than others.

MORTAL KOMBAT

The genre of films based on hit video games has been around for several decades now, and unfortunately, most of these adaptations have either been disappointingly underwhelming or downright terrible. In recent years, however, it seems like the genre’s consistently bad luck has managed to somewhat improve as we’ve had some genuinely solid video game film adaptations such as Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog. And sure enough, that trend continued this year with the big-budget cinematic reboot of Mortal Kombat 26 years after the 1995 Mortal Kombat film managed to be one of the genre’s rare successes. But as entertaining as the 1995 film is, the new Mortal Kombat surpasses it in practically every way imaginable, especially when it comes to its action sequences. Whereas the 1995 film (and, for that matter, its infamously worse 1997 sequel Annihilation) was forced to limit the intensity of its fight sequences to maintain a PG-13 rating, this new Mortal Kombat doesn’t hold back from replicating the franchise’s notoriously graphic violence as it very much earns its R rating. Granted, it does take a bit for the film to get to those moments since it’s the very definition of a ‘franchise starter’ film that mainly serves to build up the world and its characters, especially since it centers around a film-exclusive character, Cole Young, as its main protagonist. Still, when it does get to the things that fans of the franchise want to see, I’d argue that it does them well enough to make up for any shortcomings that stemmed from the journey there. Thus, just like the original live-action Mortal Kombat film, this new cinematic spin on one of the most iconic video game franchises of all-time is another one of the better instances of a hit video game being adapted into a film. I’m genuinely interested in seeing a sequel to this, especially since it ends with a tease of the debut of franchise mainstay Johnny Cage; that said, though, if they do end up making a sequel… let’s just hope that it doesn’t turn out to be another Annihilation.

A QUIET PLACE – PART II

2018’s A Quiet Place was one of the most highly-acclaimed horror films of recent years thanks to John Krasinski’s fantastic direction and a powerful sense of emotional poignancy that helped give its story of a family struggling to survive whilst being hunted by aliens with a heightened sense of hearing its humanity. For some, including Krasinski himself, it didn’t seem like a sequel was needed despite the potential ‘sequel hook’ that the first film arguably ended on; eventually, though, Krasinski found a way to continue the story of the Abbott family and does so excellently. Now, despite what I just said, I wouldn’t quite say that A Quiet Place Part II is as tightly scripted as its predecessor as there are a few plotlines and character beats here and there that weren’t quite as developed as they probably should’ve been. Still, when it comes to the things that made the first film work as well as it did, those aspects continue to be on full display in a sequel that doesn’t go overboard with its attempts at expanding its universe. Instead, it mainly serves as another showcase of Krasinski’s strong direction with plenty of brilliantly staged and appropriately intense set-pieces such as the opening flashback that covers the exact moment when the aliens arrive on Earth. But, of course, one of the biggest selling points of these films has been the sympathetic group of protagonists who headline it, the Abbott family, and just like the first film, the indisputable star of the show is Millicent Simmonds as Regan, especially since this film promotes her into being the main protagonist. Thus, with all this in mind, while I can’t say that A Quiet Place Part II is a ‘superior sequel’, it is a sequel that manages to be just as good as its predecessor because it doesn’t lose sight of what made that first film such a success.  

F9: THE FAST SAGA

At this point, there are two distinct camps when it comes to the Fast and the Furious franchise. On one side, you have those who unabashedly love it despite all its ludicrous moments and melodramatic plots. And on the other side, you have those who can’t even remotely stand these films because of those exact reasons and spend a lot of time lamenting how they ‘symbolize the death of cinema’. As for me, I’m sure that I’ve made it clear by now that I’m in the former camp, and with that in mind, one of the first things that I can say about the series’ ninth mainline installment, F9, is that when compared to the previous film, 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, it seems like this was a much smoother production. Whereas Fate of the Furious ended up getting defined by all the intense drama that occurred behind the scenes, I’d argue that the return of series mainstay Justin Lin as F9’s director was crucial to making this film’s proceedings feel a lot livelier than some of the franchise’s most recent installments. Now, as usual, everything that I just said should still be taken with a grain of salt since this is Fast and the Furious we’re talking about, and sure enough, F9 continues the series’ recent trajectory of getting more insane with each new installment. But to go off the enthusiastic reaction that this got from the crowd that I saw it with (e.g. there was quite a lot of applause when a certain fan-favorite protagonist returned from his alleged demise), F9 manages to be, in its own unique way, a return to form for this series… even if some will argue that this isn’t really saying much given its usual reputation.

TOP 5 OF 2021 (SO FAR)

5. LUCA

To the surprise of no one, Pixar has delivered another excellent animated feature with their sole 2021 outing, Luca. Directed by Enrico Casarosa (director of La Luna, the lead-in short for Brave), Luca follows a pair of young boys who travel to an Italian town and compete in a triathlon… all while trying to keep their real identities as sea monsters secret, especially since the town that they visit is full of dedicated fishermen. What follows is a story that many have noted to have some of the lightest narrative stakes to come from a Pixar film, and yet, in an age where Pixar films tend to get scrutinized more than they should, it really should be noted that this isn’t a bad thing in this instance. Instead, Luca’s greatest strength is its effortless charm as it does a phenomenal job in immersing us within its world as seen through the eyes of its lovable main protagonists. Yes, the story is as straight-forward as you can get with clear-cut heroes and villains but that doesn’t mean that Luca can’t hit the same kind of powerful emotional beats that have become a staple of Pixar’s filmography. Simply put, Luca isn’t meant to be a thought-provoking parable a la something like Inside Out or Wall-E. Instead, it’s a pleasantly light-hearted ‘slice of life’ adventure story directly inspired by Enrico Casarosa’s own experiences living on the Italian Riviera that also pays a ton of tributes to Italian cinema and the works of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. Because of all this (as well as Pixar’s consistently beautiful animation), Luca is an utterly delightful film that, above all else, proves a point that me and some of my peers have been making for years now in that not every Pixar film needs to be a ‘15/10 masterpiece’ to be a worthwhile addition to the studio’s legendary filmography.

4. CRUELLA

Following in the footsteps of 2014’s Maleficent, Cruella, the newest installment of Disney’s recent line of live-action re-imaginings of their animated classics, presents a story where its iconic antagonist (in this case, 101 Dalmatians’ Cruella de Vil) is portrayed as a more sympathetic protagonist. Granted, I’d argue that this film gives Cruella more of a wild side than Maleficent had in her titular films, but at the end of the day, it’s unclear if this version of the infamous dognapping fashion designer will end up going to the extreme lengths that she’s gone to in other films. Thus, just like Maleficent, I think it’s safe to say that this film’s portrayal of Cruella hasn’t gone over well with everybody; and yet, I also think that it all comes together nicely in Craig Gillespie’s stylish, edgy, and sharply directed comedic crime thriller. Obviously, much of what makes this film work as well as it does has to do with Emma Stone’s Grade-A performance in the title role. Even with the pressure of following in the footsteps of Glenn Close’s iconic turn as the character in the 1996 live-action remake of 101 Dalmatians, Stone’s natural charisma is on point throughout as she truly makes the role her own. Plus, it’s simply a delight to see her version of Cruella go toe to toe with this film’s main antagonist, the Baroness, delightfully played by Emma Thompson. Really, apart from some minor issues that stem from the runtime and some admittedly predictable plot twists, Cruella is the very definition of a crowd-pleaser. Plus, regardless of how much I enjoyed it, this film will always be in my good graces for being the first new release that I saw in a movie theater in more than a year.

3. THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES

Many have said that The Mitchells vs. the Machines, the latest release from Sony Pictures Animation (even though COVID forced them to sell the distribution rights to Netflix), is one of the best examples in recent memory of an animated film that thoroughly appeals to both kids and adults, and to put it simply, it’s easy to see why. While they’re only involved with it as producers, this film clearly benefits from the influence of the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller as writers/directors Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe craft an unabashedly wacky yet wholly poignant story with strong themes. And while the film does take a lot of inspiration from modern internet culture, it doesn’t go overboard with this stuff to the point where it’s only accessible to those who are the most well-versed with it. Whereas early trailers may’ve suggested that it would largely be based around the traditional ‘technology vs. nature’ debate, the film instead focuses more on themes such as the unbreakable bond of family and the beauty of one’s individuality, especially as seen through of the eyes of its incredibly sympathetic protagonist Katie Mitchell. As a result, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a film that successfully manages to present some of the funniest AND most emotional cinematic moments in recent years, thus making it yet another rousing success for the big-name talents who worked on it.

2. RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON

I wouldn’t be surprised if this film’s higher placement over The Mitchells vs. the Machines may garner some backlash from animation fans, mainly by way of me potentially being accused of playing it safe and preferring the more mainstream works of Walt Disney Animation over something that’s more of a creatively unique venture. To be clear, though, these films are practically interchangeable at this point when it comes to their spots amongst my favorite films of the year and none of this is meant to be any kind of statement on their quality because they’re both fantastic. Case in point, Raya and the Last Dragon is, big surprise, another smash hit for Walt Disney Animation as directors Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada create a highly entertaining action-adventure that pays full tribute to the Southeast Asian culture that inspired it. Simply put, there’s a lot to love about this film; gorgeous animation, a lovable cast of main protagonists, the fact that it made the effortlessly adorable Kelly Marie Tran the latest and greatest Disney princess heroine, etc. Ultimately, though, one of the greatest things about this film is its utterly timely themes of unity. Given that the bulk of the plot revolves around its titular heroine’s quest to reunite the five factions of her homeland of Kumandra, which has been torn apart by greed and mistrust, it goes without saying that several key moments in this film feel like they’ve been ripped straight from the real world. As a result of all this, Raya and the Last Dragon very much succeeds in being a prime example of Walt Disney Animation’s newly minted Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee’s goal of creating more diverse Disney stories.   

1. IN THE HEIGHTS

You ever find yourself in a situation where you’re going to see a new film and, based on what you’ve seen from the marketing, think to yourself that it’s practically guaranteed to be something that you’re going to love? Well, for me, this scenario very much applied to In the Heights, the film adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical of the same name that was the first big success for the one and only Lin-Manuel Miranda several years before Hamilton made him a household name. And just like its source material, the film adaptation of In the Heights is an utterly delightful musical that celebrates universal themes such as family and the strength of one’s community. Under Jon M. Chu’s fantastic direction, the film boasts visually stunning musical numbers and features an all-star cast that’s headlined by one of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s most notable disciples, Anthony Ramos, in the starring role that Miranda originated on Broadway. Now, yes, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that this film ended up attracting some negative publicity after its release for not being entirely accurate with its ethnically diverse casting (which, ironically, wouldn’t be the first time that this happened to a Jon M. Chu film as Crazy Rich Asians faced a similar controversy). However, I personally feel that this shouldn’t completely overshadow what is, at its core, a powerful feel-good drama that follows a group of lovable protagonists as they go about their daily lives in their hometown of Washington Heights. Thus, if you haven’t seen it yet (which may account for many of you given its surprisingly mediocre box-office performance), I highly recommend that you do so because, without taking that whole diversity scandal into account, I honestly can’t think of anything bad to say about it.

And that concludes the 2021 installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual Midyear Recap. As always, I want to thank you all for joining me on this little adventure regardless of how it ultimately took me a much longer time to finish this post than it probably should’ve. As I alluded to in the intro, I know that I’ve been vastly behind schedule when it comes to the content that I’ve been publishing on this site. There are a few reasons for this that I won’t exactly get into right now (nothing bad, for the record, it’s just that there have been other things that’ve taken up a lot of my time recently), but like I said before, this doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped doing what I’ve been doing for the past decade. Case in point, proper reviews for the films in today’s post that I haven’t already covered are in the works, starting with the one that I’ve been working on for The Mitchells vs. The Machines which I’ll try to finish in the next week or so. And sure enough, there are plenty more reviews to look forward to now that new theatrical releases are starting to get back on track, from all the new MCU films coming out (and yes, that includes all the recent Disney+ shows, which I plan to cover in some kind of ‘event week’) to highly anticipated releases such as Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and, after all its delays, Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film, No Time to Die. Not only that, but if all goes well, you can look forward to the return of another RIMC tradition at the end of the summer. Simply put, words cannot describe how great it feels knowing that the cinematic experience has returned!

Super 8 (2011 - 10th Anniversary) Review

 

I don’t always get the chance to do a special ‘Anniversary’ review for a film, but for this year, there was one that I knew that I wanted to do since the film in question is one of my favorite films of all-time from one of my favorite directors. Said film came out on June 10^th, 2011, a little less than a year before I officially started this site in May of 2012. Thus, my original review for that film was on my old Rotten Tomatoes account and the only instances where I’ve ever addressed it on this site were A.) whenever I mention it as a part of its director’s filmography and B.) an incredibly old and thoroughly outdated post that I did in 2013 where I listed my Top 10 Favorite Films of 2011. But today, in honor of the 10^th anniversary of its release, it’s time for us to take a proper look at the 2011 sci-fi/monster adventure, Super 8. Super 8 was the third feature-length directorial outing from J.J. Abrams and was an original project that he made in-between the two Star Trek films that he directed, the franchise’s titular 2009 reboot and its 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. Much of the film was inspired by Abrams’ experiences making Super 8 films when he was younger, including a notable run-in with none other than the legendary Steven Spielberg, who had once hired him to repair some of his old Super 8 reels. And if that wasn’t enough, Super 8 is produced by Spielberg via his production company, Amblin Entertainment. So, in other words, Super 8 can very much be described as a modern-day Spielberg film albeit one that wasn’t directed by the man himself. And while some have argued that its attempts at paying homage to the films that inspired it may have been a bit too much (which, ironically, wouldn’t be the only time that this argument has been applied to a J.J. Abrams film), it’s also one of the main reasons why this film has thoroughly stuck with me after all these years.

In 1979 in the town of Lillian, Ohio, teenager Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) suffers a devastating tragedy when his mother Elizabeth (Caitriona Balfe) is killed in a steel factory accident. Several months later, Joe begins to help his best friend Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths) produce a zombie film for a local Super 8 film competition along with their friends Cary McCarthy (Ryan Lee), Martin Reed (Gabriel Basso), and Zach Mills (Preston Scott). Charles also recruits the help of their classmate Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning) despite the intense animosity between her father Louis (Ron Eldard) and Joe’s father Jack (Kyle Chandler), the town’s Deputy Sheriff, for the former’s inadvertent role in Elizabeth’s death. While filming at a train station one night, they witness an Air Force train get into a head-on collision with a truck, and while they barely manage to survive the experience, something mysterious breaks free from the train that begins to cause a series of strange incidents all over town with multiple people disappearing. Eventually, the gang realizes that they managed to get a glimpse of whatever broke out of the train on film, thus leading them on a journey to try and find it before the Air Force ends up destroying it.

When people say that this is basically J.J. Abrams’ ‘Spielberg film’, it’s admittedly quite easy to see why and not just because Spielberg himself produced it. From a narrative standpoint, Super 8 thoroughly maintains a lot of the story beats that defined many of Spielberg’s most iconic films, especially when it comes to the overall concept of kids from a quiet town going through a truly otherworldly experience as seen in films like E.T. and The Goonies (even though Spielberg technically didn’t direct the latter). And while I know that some critics gave Abrams some major flak for how overt his homages to Spielberg’s work were, I think that he handles this aspect of the film excellently, thus giving Super 8 a pleasantly nostalgic vibe but one that’s done under a modern aesthetic. Really, the only ‘Spielberg trope’ that he didn’t need to utilize here was the decision to not overtly show this film’s alien creature for most of the run-time. Sure, it worked with the shark in Jaws but that was back in the ’70s and was a result of Spielberg overcoming the problems that stemmed from the mechanical sharks that were used during the production which, as you can probably guess, is something that usually isn’t an issue nowadays in an age where most visual effects are CGI-based. And yet, this doesn’t prevent the film from being a wholly engaging story that also excellently hits its biggest emotional beats. I’ve always felt that one of J.J. Abrams’ best traits as a director is his strong handling of a story’s most important emotional moments and Super 8 is another prime example of that as it explores how both the Lamb and Dainard families have struggled to cope with the accident that has forever tied them together.

It also goes without saying that one of the biggest ways in which this film pays tribute to the Spielberg aesthetic is how it largely relies on a cast that’s primarily made up of kids. Back when Super 8 first came out, almost all its young leads were genuine newcomers, and while several of them have gone on to be in other projects since then, Elle Fanning was basically the only one of them who had any sort of experience in the industry at that time. Despite this, however, they all do a fantastic job in their respective roles. Their camaraderie is top-notch and while the story does mainly focus on its two main protagonists, Joe and Alice, the other members of the group do get to have their standout moments, from Charles getting a lot of the best comedic lines (which helps to make up for his admittedly abrasive personality) and Cary’s overt obsession with fireworks that other characters find concerning. Ultimately, though, the biggest stars of the show are Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning. Fanning is arguably the biggest standout of the entire film, showcasing some impressive maturity for her age, and while Courtney’s performance is more subdued by comparison, it still very much feels right in line with other similarly aged Spielberg-esque protagonists such as Elliott from E.T. Finally, to close out the main cast, we have a solid trio of performances from the film’s adult leads; Kyle Chandler as Joe’s father Jack, who struggles to reconnect with his son, Ron Eldard as Alice’s drunk but emotionally traumatized father Louis, and Noah Emmerich, who’s appropriately sinister as Nelec, the Air Force colonel who’s revealed to have a history with the alien creature that has been unleashed on the town.  

I still fondly remember the anticipation that I had for this film’s release, which all started when its first trailer ran in front of Iron Man 2 all the way back in 2010. Since this was right around the time that J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek film was quickly becoming one of my favorite films of all time, I was very much hyped to see his next film, especially since it was going to be produced by the one and only Steven Spielberg. And while I wouldn’t properly play it until many years after both it and the film’s release, it’s also cool to note how Super 8 was promoted by one of the most popular video games of the year, Portal 2, which featured an ‘interactive trailer’ for the film that put players on the Air Force train that carries the alien creature as it gets into its big crash. Basically, to make a long story short, Super 8 was a prime example of J.J. Abrams’ ‘mystery box’ approach to marketing his films so that he could avoid the leak of major spoilers. Granted, this trademark of his ended up attracting a mostly negative reaction from both critics and audiences due to its debatable effectiveness, especially in the wake of Star Trek Into Darkness’ big reveal surrounding its take on the character Khan Noonien Singh. That said, though, I do think that he deserves credit for what I view as a noble attempt at pulling all this off in an age where film-related spoilers and leaks are practically commonplace. Now, with all that in mind, I can freely admit that I don’t necessarily consider Super 8 to be J.J.’s best film, mostly due to a few plot elements here and there that could’ve benefitted from some additional development.  

Ultimately, though, it’s safe to say that the biggest talking point surrounding this film was its status as Abrams’ tribute to the filmography of Steven Spielberg, a move that attracted both its fans… and its critics. In other words, the discourse surrounding this film isn’t that far off from the ongoing debate that film fandom has had these past few years about nostalgia in general and how it’s heavily defined a lot of recent media. Case in point, as I alluded to back in the intro, this was not the first time (nor was it the last, for that matter) that a J.J. Abrams film attracted a bunch of attention over its nostalgic elements; just look at how a nagging nitpick about The Force Awakens ended up becoming the defining criticism of The Rise of Skywalker. And yet, as someone who considers himself to have a neutral stance on the whole nostalgia debate (in other words, someone who’s totally fine with it but not to the point where it’d cloud my judgment on anything), I believe that J.J. Abrams very much succeeded in making this his ‘Spielberg film’. In fact, I’d even bet that anyone who goes into this completely unaware of the fact that J.J. Abrams directed it wouldn’t have guessed that it wasn’t a Steven Spielberg directed film until the end credits. In short, while I may not have been alive during the era in which this film takes place, it wholly succeeds in bringing you back to a time where Steven Spielberg gave us some of the greatest films of all-time, effectively making Super 8 the second J.J. Abrams directed film after 2009’s Star Trek that will always have its place as one of my favorite films of all time.

Rating: 5/5!