Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Overall:  Visually entertaining, poignant message and fun to watch.

The “setup” I thought was a bit weak when there’s an explanation as to how and why this very large spaceship/planet/thingy named Alpha become home to species from a thousand planets. However, getting past this we are introduced to Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) who work for the government of Alpha. Therefore, the best interests of the government, not any particular species is their focus.

The film also documents, at the beginning, the destruction of planet Mul, which was occupied by highly evolved and functioning humanoids that focused on giving back what it receives.

The Defense Minister (Herbie Handcock) instructs Valerian and Laureline to guard Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) because the Commander warns that the ship has an expanding radioactive bubble in the middle of the ship and they cannot figure out what it is or why it's there . Unfortunately for the film, Filitt acts in such a way that he gives it away that he’s implicated in this radioactive bubble. This could be because of the way the character was written or because Owen often plays this type of double crossing character.

Valerian and Laureline are also sent to find the “converter” which replicates items it ingests. It is a survivor from the planet Mul and really belongs to the remaining humanoids as part of their way of life. They also find a pearl which was used by the Mul members to feed the converter and then the planet itself.

Filitt is then abducted and Valerian must search the ship to find him discovers that the “radioactive” menace in the core of the ship is not what they think it is. As they figure out what really happened to Mul and why Filitt is implicated, Laureline convinces Valerian to give the converter and pearl to the rightful owners, allowing them to restart their nirvanic race. It is hard for the major to break his dutiful role and use love as the answer.

DeHann was good and embodied the youthful character required to make this film work. Delevingne was, to me, the star of the film. Her wide-eyed soulful intelligence worked and made the film complete. Owen was, and is always, good as a self-righteous villain. Rihanna was very strong as Bubble. Ethan Hawke was wonderful as Jolly the Pimp. Hancock was OK in a pivotal but distant role. Luc Beeson wrote the screenplay as well as directed this film. It was a visual extravaganza and this made it worth watching.

Overall:  The film’s visuals,  Delevingne and DeHann are what kept me watching this film with interest.

The Mummy

First Hit:  Starts off okay, but falls off quickly into a waste of film and time.

Tom Cruise (here as Nick Morton) gives his all in everything he does. In some films like Risky Business, Top Gun, and A Few Good Men, it is more than enough and strong but you still know it is Tom Cruise.

The difference between those films and this one is they had good and believable stories. This story fails early on. The idea that Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), an Egyptian princess, decided to embrace the dark side and be all powerful when her legacy is taken away from her because of the birth of a male child, was rather thin. Then to make the story interesting, because of her new-found power, she was killed and was buried in Mesopotamia. The fear of her power required that she be interned in a tomb filled with mercury to keep her powers deplete. This made the reach too far to be believable. In fact the finders of the tomb said it was far fetched that there was an Egyptian tomb in Mesopotamia.

The story has Nick and his side-kick Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) being artifact hunters who illegally sell what they find. Nick steals a map of an artifact site from Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and accidently finds the sarcophagus with Ahmanet.

Until this point the film is tolerable. But after the plane, which is transporting the tomb to London, falls out of the sky and Nick survives without a scratch, the film really reaches into the bag of unbelievability.  And it's at this point we get that Nick is part of Ahmanet’s plan to destroy the world.

The visuals are good and there was no expense spared in making the visuals work, however, for me Ahmanet’s costume failed. She’s supposed to be wrapped in mummy cloth strips, but the outline of her underwear was too obvious. Additionally, I don’t think any of the body markings on her face or body added anything to her role.

Cruise, as I’ve said in other film reviews with Tom Cruise as the star, is simply Tom Cruise in a role. He never embodies a character and becomes the character, he is Tom Cruise as a character. Boutella was okay. I didn’t think the double eye irises added anything of interest. Of course, with four irises, I don’t know how she could see. Johnson was okay as the side kick, but as a zombie, it didn’t work. Wallis was the best part of the film. She came across as smart and in control of her role. David Koepp and Christopher McQuarrie wrote a far-fetched screenplay. Alex Kurtzman did an okay job of directing the actors. That the story was mediocre and that Cruise will go all out making sure we know it is Tom Cruise acting a role, made his job harder.

Overall: Another waste of time watching an expensive blockbuster.

Wonder Woman

First Hit: I was put off at the beginning and the movie didn’t get much better from there. Unfortunately, this spring there has been a lack of quality and interesting films. This film is another one of those failed films that attempted to make a point of some sort and fails to deliver. What I thought the points that this film wanted to make were: Women are powerful and that love is the only way we can all live in peace. To do this the movie spends its time in titanic wars between entities that are not real.

On the first point, yes it shows a woman as a physically strong woman, but I think Hidden Figures and Zero Dark Thirty model stronger women with mental fortitude in more realistic settings. On the second point, our history from WWI is self explanatory.

The odd thing about this film and an obvious failure, is that after Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) defeats Ares/Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) in a battle during WW I, which is suppose to bring peace to the world but doesn't because a few years later the world experiences WW II. So the point or mission of Wonder Woman to kill the God of Death, Ares, doesn't really do anything.

The early background scenes of the hidden island of Themyscira, which is home to the Amazon race and Diana Prince, were horrible. The waterfalls were obviously not real and against the live background really looked fake. Additionally the dialogue between Hippolyta (Connie Nelson) and Antiope (Robin Wright) was stilted and seemed forced. The other item that struck me as amateurish was the beginning voice overs telling us the story so that we would buy into the premise. I didn’t.

Although everyone who doesn't live on the hidden island is skeptical of a God of Death and War, Ares, Wonder Woman knows he exists and leaves the island to kill him and make the world safe for all. When a young spy accidentally travels through the hidden island’s cloak (not a very good cloak) she follows him back out of the cloaked island ready to find and kill Ares.

There are numerous scenes where Wonder Woman is an anomaly to this WWI story and that’s part of the point. However, the film does not do this well and therefore I ended up wondering if this was a poor action film or a very poor tongue-in-cheek comedy.

The fight scenes were attempting to be grand gestures, however it just seemed too fake. Wonder Woman rarely got dirty and the long slow buildup to the supreme war between her and Ares just wasn’t very good. It lacked excitement and well-designed choreography.

Gadot was okay as Wonder Woman, but the storyline and direction let her down. I think there is more to her than she was able to give us here. Thewlis was mediocre as Ares. Didn’t think the casting was right for this. Chris Pine as the spy Captain Steve Trevor was appropriately amusing if this film were more aimed to be a tongue-in-cheek comedy. There are a host of other people playing parts but I don’t think it is appropriate to review their performances. I disliked Allan Heinberg’s screenplay as I thought it was lost and without a clear genre. Patty Jenkins seemed as lost as the screenplay and if the point of this film was to make an impact, it failed.

Overall: Cannot recommend anyone sitting through over 140 minutes of this celluloid.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

First Hit:  At times funny, tongue in cheek and farfetched, but isn’t strong enough to make it memorable the next day.

The best parts of Volume 1, was the irreverent humor used to make the unbelievable story and places they visit, fun. Volume 2 does all this a little better.

Star-Lord AKA Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is with his compatriots; Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Baby Groot (Vin Diesel), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and they are off on another adventure. They saved the galaxy before now they're here to do it again.

Whom do they save it from? Peter's father Ego (Kurt Russell) and a reluctant Mantis (Pom Klementieff) who is the one person that can make Ego sleep and relax. Also, for different reasons, Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) want to hurt Peter and his crew as well.

After years of not knowing who his father was, all of sudden Peter is confronted with his father, Ego. Ego lives on planet Ego and is a God of sorts. He traveled to many planets to plant his lights, which he controls through his powers. He's looking for a progeny that can assist him in making the light devices to bloom and take over the worlds he’s planted these things on. Additionally, while on the planets planting his light plants, the story has Ego planting his seed in many women on these planets as well. One of them was Peter’s mom, Meredith (Laura Haddock). However out of all the progeny Ego tests to see who can help him activate the lights, Peter is the only one who shares, and has, Ego's super powers.

The problem is Peter’s eclectic family doesn’t buy the Ego’s premise about wanting to be a loving father and when Peter figures out that Ego is planning control and destruction, he knows he has to kill his father.

All through this, Nubula is trying to kill Yondu now that he’s teamed up with Peter and his team. Then there is Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) who wants to kill Yondu as well.

In the end there is a life and death struggle for the galaxy and the team wins again and I know I’m letting the cat out of the bag, but we all knew the ending anyway.

Pratt is fun, on the edge of silly, but carries the ability to be both serious and irreverent all at the same time. Saldana is wonderful as the illusive Gamora. Bautista has some of the funniest lines and it’s fun to watch him. Diesel is funny and appropriately constrained as small Groot. Cooper as Rocket was fantastic. Klementieff was great as Mantis. I loved the way she danced between surety and lack of confidence. Russell was really engaged and full of life in this part. Gillan was strong as the golden leader of another planet’s race. Rooker was perfect as the guy who wanted to be good and support the team, but also live within the rules of his own clan. Stallone was OK as Ogord. James Gunn and Dan Abnett wrote a perfect irreverent script that held together through a highly improbable story. Gunn did a great job of providing the right level of effects and joyful fun scenes. Everyone got a chance to shine.

Overall:  This was as good and probably better than Volume 1.

King Kong: Skull Island (3-D)

First Hit:  Although a couple of characters were OK and the CGI was strong, the film’s story lacked in generating any interest.

Really? The reason our government paid for this team of people to explore Skull Island was to beat the Russians to it. That this island had never been seen before, was clouded in its own weather system, and Bill Randa (John Goodman) believed it held secrets to ships sinking was neither believable nor explained.

What we got were strongly divided characters, a pacifist photographer named Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), mercenary James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), angry Army helicopter platoon leader Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) and an oddly lost WWII pilot Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly). All of these, except Marlow, make it through the island’s protective weather in helicopters and as they begin dropping sonic bombs to develop an understanding what is underneath the island’s surface, the disruption wakes up King Kong who knocks helicopters out of the sky.

Now they all think that Kong is the enemy. Because he hurt his team, Packard is hell-bent on killing Kong. The audience knows this is a stupid idea. While the remaining exploratory team members try to find each other, they run into very tall spiders and some mean flying reptiles.

During all the commotion, one group finds themselves surrounded by a silent tribe of painted and scarred men and women. Just as this tribe is about to hurt them, Marlow appears in a jokingly funny sort of way. He has influence with the silent tribe because they let these new island invaders go.

We are given the story that Kong protects the tribe and humans from the skull eaters which are lizard like animals that live below the surface. This storyline can get worse and it does, however the CGI of Kong fighting the skull eaters was effective and interesting.

The storyline is weak and made up to only have these great fights between these large creatures. The filmmakers have some of the landing team be kind and helpful towards Kong which makes Kong become a  positive sympathetic character as he helps them survive the attack of the skull eaters.

Goodman is mediocre as someone who lost his son and wants to uncover the mystery of this island. Hiddleston is OK and is above the fray of this film's poor story and poor script. He’s believable in an unbelievable story. Larson is good as the photographer who is looking for shots that make her known. Jackson is fine but it is his character that I didn’t like. He was way too hawkish and illogical to make me care or want him to succeed. Reilly was the most interesting and amusing character in the film. He brought levity and fun to the overall experience. Jing Tian had a minor part and seemed out of place.  Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, and Derek Connolly wrote a very mediocre screenplay that had little depth. There were moments that they tried to create back stories for the characters, but there was little effort in this and therefore it failed. Jordan Vogt-Roberts did what he could with the story. Many of the shots were well crafted, but it is hard to make a good film with a mediocre story and script.

Overall:  This film fails to entertain and is lost because of the story and script.