The Call of the Wild

First Hit: I was very distracted by the computer-generated dog, Buck, that acted more like a human than a dog, therefore, I missed the power of the story.

This film is based on the great Jack London short novel of the same name. From the moment we meet Buck, his looks and mannerisms reflect the humanization of the dog. Being a dog owner, I really disliked this. Reading into a dog’s eyes and looks to reflect our human emotions is a fantasy I don’t particularly like.

Basically, the story goes that Buck is stolen from his owner Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford), in Santa Clara, CA. While with the Judge, Buck had the run of Miller’s home, and the opening scenes we see him eating whatever food he can find, and then he ruins a whole table full of food, by sampling or eating more food than a dog, of that size, could ever eat.

Now stolen from his home, Buck is shipped to Alaska and meets John Thornton (Harrison Ford), who is grumpy but sees something in Buck he likes and gives a wry smile.

Buck is purchased by the mail delivery team of Perrault (Omar Sy) and Francoise (Cara Lee). Although Buck is a huge dog, he’s out of his element because Perrault and Francoise are dog sled mail delivery workers, and Buck has never been a working dog and knows nothing about snow or being a sled pulling dog. He’s been a home dog.

Buck is mystified by the snow and then becomes demoralized after being hooked up to a harness and asked to pull a sled led by other computer-animated dogs. He does his best but, in a human way, makes mistakes.

But CGI Buck decides to become the best dog in the team, which comes across as another human aspect. The lead dog appreciates Bucks's efforts (more human emotions), but the entire movie audience knows what is coming, a confrontation with the lead husky.

This confrontation ultimately ends up in glory for Buck, Perrault, and Francois, but as the story would have it, Buck gets sold again to a greedy miner Hal (Dan Stevens) who wants to find gold. He and Thorton get into it, and bad blood arises over Hal’s treatment of Buck.

Buck escapes Hal, finds Thornton, and they walk together into the wilderness, the call of the wild sort of speak.

Together they create an excellent partnership. Upon arriving at a remote cabin, they set up shop, and Buck starts to flirt with and hang out with timberwolves. Of course, there is one final predictable confrontation with Hal, and we all know what will happen.

There are lovely and poignant moments, and they mostly revolve around Thornton’s grumpy demeanor and Buck’s loving, caring way.

Not being able to forget just how humanized Buck was made to be, the film’s real story about self-redemption and following your dream, was left on the cutting room floor.

Ford was terrific as John Thornton, a man who was still mourning the loss of his son. Sy was great and engaging as Perrault, the sled driver. Gee was excellent as Perrault’s co-sled team driver. Michael Green wrote this screenplay. There wasn’t anything wrong with the screenplay, but the execution of the CGI dog just failed the film. Chris Sanders did a reasonable job of directing this story, but the CGI hurt the effort, and Sanders is part to blame because he allowed too much humanization of Buck.

Overall: This was a difficult film to watch because it seemed too made up.

Birds of Prey

First Hit: This movie was absolutely horrible and a waste of time and money.

The original title of this film is “Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.” The title alone is a warning enough, and when you read it, it is all you’ll need to know about this story. I do not know what the screenwriter or director was thinking, but it wasn’t about making a movie that had conscious cognizant coherence.

From the get-go, this film is a mess. Using narrative and disjointed clips of film to attempt to put the story in place and time was useless here because there really is no place or time.

I thought “Suicide Squad” was a quirky fun movie. It is where we meet Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) for the first time. She was odd, “out there,” and on the edge of crazy. This film Birds of Prey is supposed to give us the backstory of Ms. Quinn. It is also a way to introduce other characters, the “Birds of Prey,” consisting of Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), “The Huntress,” aka Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and “Black Canary,” aka Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell).

There’s little character development, Instead, narration and snippets of past stories are used to fill in the backstory of these characters.

This group of women come together because of and over the improbability of a young pickpocketing girl, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), swallowing a large, I mean colossally large, diamond stolen from a thieving, conniving, and self-named lord of Gotham, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor).

Lots of fighting ensues, and we always know who wins. The fighting scenes are not well-choreographed and felt staged. The logic stream of the story was virtually non-existent. It seems as though the director Cathy Yan threw together a bunch of film scraps she shot with this cast doing stuff and called it a day.

Robbie is an excellent actress. She’ has proven her abilities in many films. Therefore, I’m surprised she co-produced and acted in this hot mess. Despite her talents, this was not good work. Perez, who has been missed in recent years, did what she could with this limiting role. Winstead was the best of the lot. Her quiet demeanor and her story of how she came up with “The Huntress” when everyone else like called her “Crossbow” was amusing. Smollett-Bell tried to make her character mean something but, again, the script and direction let her down. McGregor was okay as the foil for the Birds of Prey. Christina Hodson created a disjointed and lackluster screenplay with little substance. Yan has no business directing a film with this film as proof.

Overall: This movie was a total waste of time.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

First Hit: In the end, it was satisfying and that’s all that mattered.

I was one of those guys standing in line the first day that the original “Star Wars” film, later subtitled “Episode IV – A New Hope,” was released (1977). The moment the words “Star Wars” came on the screen, followed by the storyline scrolling up and fading into deep space, and lastly, the cruiser coming in overhead, I was hooked.

I liked some of the subsequent films. The prequels were a mixed bag, as were the sequels. Yesterday the final movie, number nine, was viewed, and I was happy I saw the ending to the film that started it all some forty-two years ago.

This film brought in many of the old characters in different scenes signaling this saga of stories’ conclusion. Most of these scenes worked well, but some did not.

The highlights included how they intertwined Leia’s (Carrie Fisher) stored archival footage quite effectively into this story. Because of Fisher’s passing, she had a more significant part than I would have imagined. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), was terrific and became the Jedi teacher, just like his teacher Obi-Wan, was to him. Luke gave Rey (Daisy Ridley) her final lessons to become a true Jedi Knight and with that lesson, the sword (OK, lightsaber) was passed to her.

Her rival and representing the dark side, as Darth Vader once did to Luke, was a continuation of the previous film and well played by Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. The story also included small scenes with Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), who once owned the Millennium Falcon before he lost it in a poker match to Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) and his sidekick Chewbacca.

However, it was Harrison Ford’s addition that didn’t work as well. His talk with Kylo seemed odd because of his casual GQ attire look didn’t seem to fit the Hans of the past. Despite this, I appreciated the closure these additions provided.

The goal of this story was the defeat of the dark side still headed up by Emperor Palpatine. Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) who was secretly managing the demise of the Resistance with the rest of the Siths from their planet Exegol. One of the twists - aren’t there always twists in a Star Wars film, was that Rey was Palpatine’s granddaughter. Palpatine was hoping to turn Rey to the dark side and together with Kylo, they would rule the universe and everything in it.

Heading up the Resistance’s battle against the dark side was Rey, Finn (John Boyega), and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), who had inherited the Millennium Falcon and Chewbacca after Hans death in the previous story. Together they pulled all the outliers of the resistance to do one final battle against the dark side.

The scenes were well done, and the photography and special effects were A-1. The first 2/3rds of the film was a mishmash of battles and strategy sessions attempting to set up the final 1/3rd. The last section built up in a predictable yet effective way.

We know who’s going to win this battle of light and dark, but there was enough there to make one wonder along the way. It’s enough to keep you in your seat when the full-screen cinematography throws up images that touch your joy, curiosity, and memories of days gone by.

Ridley is strong in this role. I never warmed to her in the previous two films, but as this one moved along I started to accept her as the Jedi Knight savior and leader of the Resistance. Driver was excellent as Kylo. He had immediately picked up where Vader left off and even with his helmet off, Kylo’s face scar says it all. Isaac isn’t Ford. And to create a new captain of the Falcon is a significant role to jump into. Ford had his way, and eventually, I bought into Isaac’s version of the Millennium Falcon’s captain. Boyega’s part was good but his overall role seemed to be minor in the scope of things. Williams was okay as Lando, and there was one scene in which his charm was at the level it was when we were first introduced to him. Ford’s role seemed just a bit out of place and almost like an add-on. Hamill’s character was well done and I liked the inclusion. Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams wrote a satisfying finale to this nine-film saga. J.J. Abrams also directed this effort and was able to put a final period at the end of this well-intentioned set of stories.

Overall: I’m more glad that sad that this saga is over because at least it ended strong.

The Aeronauts

First Hit: Although the ground scenes lack any conviction or interest, the up in the air scenes are amazingly shot and provide lots of tension.

Two things that surprised me while watching this film. One; how wonderful it was that Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) was the amazingly brave and daring character in this story. Two, the difference between the mediocre ground-based scenes and fantastic air-based scenes was almost too significant to make the whole film work.

In short, James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) was a scientist and part of The Royal Society, where the big thinkers of the day held court where they expound on grand ideas, philosophy and scientific postulates. Glaisher thought that he and others should be able to predict the weather if they had more information about the atmosphere and how it works. The society laughed at him.

To prove his point, he wanted to go up in a lighter than air balloon to take measurements. The person he asks is Wren, who is still mourning the loss of her husband, Pierre, who was also an aeronaut balloon pilot and took his life to save his wife’s during an ill-fated flight.

The film uses flashbacks throughout to show how Wren and Glaisher meet, and how they ended up in the first scene where Glaisher is impatiently waiting for Wren to show up to their launch site. Wren, on her way in a coach, is both scared and brave in her path to confront the feelings she’ll have been in a balloon for the first time since her husband’s death.

When she finally arrives at the launch site, she’s quite the showman and gives the broad audience, who is here to witness this event, lots of ways to enjoy the beginning of this balloon launch. These scenes include a small dog. It is an enjoyable part of the opening scenes.

However, it is after they take off that the real drama comes into play. Enough to say, it is not only the views they get while rising to a then-record of 38,000 feet (without oxygen) but it is what happens to the balloon and how Wren powerfully saves their lives by doing something I don’t think I would ever consider, even if my life depended on it.

These scenes are beyond tense, well shot, and exciting and it makes this film worth watching.

Lastly, one thing I wondered about through the entire film was what were they using for the lighter other than air gases? Because this wasn’t hot air they were using as there was no flame device to heat the air inside the balloon.

Jones is exceptional in this role. Her portrayal of the Amelia Wren as an Aeronaut and woman was first-rate. She also did an excellent job of showing her sadness and love towards her former husband while conquering fear by piloting the balloon. Redmayne was perfect as Glaisher, but for some reason, he was so overshadowed by Jones that he got lost in the film. When his character gives his talk at the Royal Society after his excursion with Wren, I thought that his pride in proving something felt egoic and small. It did show the smallness of humans whereas the big picture was carried by Wren. Hamish Patel was terrific as Glaisher’s friend and supporter. Tom Harper and Jack Thorne wrote a good screenplay, but it really came to life while in the air, and here is where Harper’s direction and filming made this worth watching.

Overall: Having been up in a hot air balloon, I can only imagine what they were going through as they passed through the higher reaches of the atmosphere where a man can survive without oxygen.

Ad Astra

First Hit: Although Brad Pitt is excellent in this role, the expanse of the story, lack of substantive depth, and slow pacing left me unengaged.

The opening scene has Roy McBride (Pitt) is servicing an antenna that reaches from Earth deep into space. Then there’s a discussion about outposts on the moon and mars.  These two items alone tell the audience that we’re way into the future.

Roy’s job outside on the spacecraft type antennae tower gets interrupted by a power surge from space, they believe near the planet Neptune, causing part of the antenna to collapse, killing someone, and sending Roy falling from space back to Earth. Entering the more massive atmosphere his parachute finally opens. However, the chute gets punctured from pieces of the collapsing antenna and McBride cashes to the ground.

A theme throughout the film is McBride’s mental and physical state. His heart rate never goes above 80 bpm, even during the fall, and his responses to the questions about his psychological state are monitored by a machine. Approval by the machine voice is required for him to continue his missions. We see him sit down with the computer multiple times. Because he’s the only one we see take these tests, I wondered if others had to take these tests as well.

After the antennae accident which proves his mental, physical, and mettle to solve problems and that he has real guts, he’s called into a meeting with senior NASA and government officials.

In this meeting, we learn that the government believes that the Lima Project, which was headed to Neptune and led by Roy’s father H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), may be causing the power surges and destroying Earth. They also believe that the senior McBride is still alive although, in Roy’s mind, his father is dead.

They want Roy to help them locate his father or the ship they were using so that they can send another ship, near Neptune, and destroy what is sending the power surges back towards Earth. In other words they want to use Roy as bait to coax his father out of hiding, if he’s alive. Once that is done, they don’t want Roy to actually go out and retrieve his father.

This is the premise of the story: Will Roy find his father alive? Is Clifford creating the power surges? Will Roy and his father make amends for all of the senior McBride’s absence in Roy’s life? Will the team be able to stop the power surges that are threatening Earth’s existence?

Roy wants to be an integral part of the final mission to Neptune, but he’s not given a chance. He’s only used to create messages that are sent to the Neptune area and see if his father respondes. After finding that his father is alive, because he cannot join the final mission to Neptune, he steals aboard the ship to Neptune and to confront his ever-absent father.

The film has multiple events and circumstances that do not make sense. One such set of facts is while on the moon and being transported from one base to a rocket launch base, Roy and Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) are attacked by pirates in other moon rovers. My question is where did these pirates come from? Where did they live? And, why was this scene needed? It seemed like they needed some action in the middle of the film so this is what the story used.

Pitt was great. There’s an integrated quality he brings to the character that made me believe, he loved what he did and was able to do it expertly and dispassionately. Ruth Negga (as Helen Lantos) was excellent as someone who supports Pitt on his journey. Sutherland as Thomas Pruitt, a friend of Clifford McBride and Roy’s guardian during part of the trip, was okay, but I’m not sure the role was needed. Jones was engaging and entertaining in this role as someone who only cared about his mission and learning if there is life beyond our solar system. James Gray and Ethan Gross wrote, and script that languished while hoping the philosophical concepts the story proposes will make the story engaging. Unfortunately, it doesn’t entirely fill the bill. Gray also directed this film, and although it seems he borrowed heavily from some of the pictures presented in 2001: A Space Odyssey, it fell short of being as engaging.

Overall: This movie was entertaining enough to keep me present, but lacked enough depth to make me really want more.