Passengers

First Hit:  This was an enjoyable film with wonderful visual effects and three actors and a director that made it work.

Not only was the overall film enjoyable, I walked away thinking would I sign up for a space journey like the one they were on?

To ask this question meant to me that I bought into the premise of the film that 5,000-people signed up to be put to hibernation for 120 years, loaded onto a spaceship so that they could travel to a distant habitable plant, Homestead II, and start a new life. I’d do it in a heartbeat because it would be interesting to see what people bring to the table and the reasons why they would take this risk. It would also give me a chance to use what I’ve learned to assist in the growth of a new society.

On the way to this distant planet, the starship “Avalon” passes through a massive meteor shower and collides with a very large meteor. The ship gets damaged and although it does its best to repair itself, the system overrides cause additional errors to begin, grow, and cascade. This is gets communicated to the audience by giving them a peek into the Avalon's control bridge holographic visuals of the ship's status.

The damage releases the hibernation sequence in one of the pods and wakes Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) 90 years early. At first, he’s really confused as he wanders the ships massive corridors and meeting rooms only to find out that he’s the only one alive. He makes attempts to re-hibernate himself but learns that it is not possible. He tries to break into the hibernating crew quarters but to no avail. His only friend is a robot bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen).

After about a year of loneliness and frustration and realizing that he will live the rest of his life alone on this spaceship, he decides to wake a fellow passenger whom he thinks is attractive and interesting. Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), the person he wakes up, is a creative writer and when she shares her storyline, as to why she made the choice to go on this adventure, it is beautifully expressed.

The struggle for Jim is that he is also giving her the same death sentence he has by waking her. Again, this provides provocative questions:  Would you wake up another person? Would you tell them that you did this?

The visual effects are well done with a few being outstanding. I liked the views of space, the interior shots of the ship, when they venture outside the ship on tethers, and I was especially impressed with the scene when gravity is lost while Aurora is in the swimming pool. I liked the romance that these two created as it wasn't rushed and left to develop nicely with breath of spaciousness.

This story is unique which also adds to this movie’s appeal. When they discover the ship is dying and they have to try to fix it or the remaining passengers and crew will die, the film shifts into another gear.

Pratt was very good and probably the best role I’ve seen him in. His naturally humorous nature was used judiciously while his caring intensity was kept in check. Lawrence was mesmerizing. She has a way with her voice that allows her to seem both intelligent and sultry at the same time. It is a great combination. Sheen was fantastic as the droid bartending robot. His subtle and human nature spiced with robotic witticisms was perfect. Laurence Fishburne as Gus Mancuso a crewmember that also gets mistakenly awakened was good in this minor role. Jon Spaihts wrote a very strong script that incorporated humor, dramatic elements and a great backdrop. Morten Tyldum had a firm and confident grip on directing the actors, storyline and visuals.

Overall:  This was a very entertaining film in all ways.

Doctor Strange (3-D)

First Hit:  I fully enjoyed the film and Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as Dr. Stephen Strange.

What makes this film work and hold together is the acting of Cumberbatch. In fact, one could take out some of the special effects and this film still works.

Strange is a compulsive, arrogant, and a larger than life self-aggrandizing surgeon. His surety and cavalier way of performing surgery are displayed in opening scenes. He’s listening to music and then challenges one of his assistants to change up the music and give him a music quiz. The song his assistant hopes to trip him up on is Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” which the assistant says came out in 1978 while Strange argues correctly that it was released in 1977. This was a superb way to display who he is.

Then, to solidify the point, Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), rushes into the OR and asks Dr. Strange to look at a patient who they are about to harvest for organs. Her claim is that the patient can be saved and isn’t brain dead. Strange looks at the medical x-rays, scans and diagnosis documents, moves the patient to ER and pulls a bullet out of the patient’s head, thereby stopping the organ harvest, keeping the man alive. He only cares about his success at being right and competent and sort of rejects the patient's family's thanks. Lastly Dr. Palmer shows a deeper than friendship interest in him but he just sluffs it off putting his needs ahead of everything.

However, he gets hurt in an accident and destroys his hands. Without having his surgical skills available he ends up with nothing and takes one last trip looking for Kamar-Taj, a place that may be able to provide him help in getting his hands back. While in Kathmandu he ends up meeting “The Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton). She calls him out on his arrogance and self-centeredness and demonstrates that there is more to life than the physical world. She demonstrates alternate realities and it shocks Strange into curiosity and then wanting to become a student. As The Ancient One points out, Strange still thinks of only himself but takes him on as a student because he’s got abilities and really wants to learn.

The film ultimately is about two things: First, the fight between good (light) and evil (darkness). And two, about how to live by putting others first. To this end, the film is interesting, however, I do believe that the number of spectacular visual scenes to represent the fragility of most peoples’ perception of reality were not needed. At first the spinning of the streets and buildings into different spatial realities were cool and interesting to watch. But after a while it took away from the story and acting which was very strong.

Cumberbatch was extraordinary good in this fantasy film. He brought a serious, adventurous and human context to the character regardless of the topsy-turvy visual convolutions. Swinton was much better than I thought she would be. I struggled thinking that it needed to be an Asian spiritual leader because the film felt like it was sharing ancient Asian wisdom. However, from the get go, Swinton owned the role. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, The Ancient One’s right hand person, was excellent. He put an edge into the film that made it better. McAdams was wonderful as Strange’s co-surgeon. Her humanness towards a difficult Strange was perfect. Benedict Wong (as Wong) was delightful. His protective seriousness of the spiritual path and library worked well against Strange’s behavior. Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson, and C. Robert Cargill wrote a wonderful screenplay, which was enhanced by the use of humor and interesting dialogue among the characters. Derrickson had a strong hand on the tiller of this film. I only thought that he used CGI more than needed.

Overall:  Although the film is not Oscar worthy, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and that is the point.

Prometheus 3-D

First Hit:  Interesting concept, startling visuals, and a fairly good story but in the end not quite a great film.

I wanted to really love this film. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good space oriented science fiction.

Given the previews and cast, I had hopes for this Ridley Scott offering. Hope emerged at the beginning with the archeological finds but soon it started a long slow fall. It was easy to link David (the android played by Michael Fassbender) to be a cross between "Data", "Spock", and "HAL" the computer.

Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green) discover a link of cave picture drawings that were dated thousands of years apart and painted by different civilizations. The drawings made them believe that humans were created by some other race that lived somewhere in space.

This leap of faith, sort of speak, wasn’t developed enough to have me come to the same conclusion, but I went with it. The long ride to the solar system where they believe the “Engineers” reside was on a great looking rocket.

All the crew including the scientists were put to sleep for over 2 years until they arrived at their location. The only one awake on the ship was David. The leader of the expedition was Meredith Vickers (played by Charlize Theron.

As expected, there is conflict on this ship because of differing agendas, and the question was; will they pull together when they meet their makers or the alien creatures? The highlights were the attention to detail in the alien planet, the cave, the space ships, Elizabeth’s surgery, and the visuals used to provide information to the crew.

The downsides include the long waits between interesting scenes, the lack of continuity and development of the story, and a redo of alien monsters that climb into people’s mouths to cause havoc (I would have wanted something new).

Rapace is very good uses her intelligence, even temperament and her athletic body to portray an interesting character. Fassbender is strong as an android even when he was just a talking head (see the film and you'll see what I mean). Theron is very strong as the conservative tough mission commander. Marshall-Green was mediocre as the other scientist. Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof wrote a script needing additional clarification and development. Scott directed some sequences with eloquence while others seem to lag and drag.

Overall: This film is nice in 3-D but overall it just didn’t carry the day and was mostly forgotten the following day.