Annihilation

First Hit: This film wasn’t suspenseful, interesting, or had characters the audience could care about.

It was hard for me to believe that a film with Natalie Portman (as Lena), Jennifer Jason Leigh (as Dr. Ventress), Oscar Isaac (Kane), and Gina Rodriguez (Anya) could not be full of drama and interest. However,  not being able to care about the characters, I was hoping to care about their predicament.

Lena is a teaching physician in biology medicine after having a seven-year career in the military. It was in the military where she met her husband Kane who is a special ops person in the military.

Kane gets assigned to be sent into “The Shimmer” which is overtaking a place on the east coast of the United States. He's suppose to help the government understand what this thing is. The Shimmer came as a result of a meteorite hitting a lighthouse. Every group that goes into The Shimmer never comes back and The Shimmer is expanding.

However, after a year Kane does return and is in a sealed room being watched by the government and scientists. To find out what caused her husband to be in this comatose state Lena goes in to The Shimmer with Anya, Dr. Ventress and two others.

Only Lena gets to the goal, the lighthouse where the meteor struck.

The Shimmer wasn’t very interesting to look at. The story line and what Lena finds at the lighthouse isn’t interesting. The worst thing is that the characters aren’t interesting at all.

Portman probably did as she was told by the director and read the lines, but there wasn’t any depth to her character and I’m not sure where to put this problem because Portman is a great actress and usually delivers a strong character. Leigh was intense and gritty but, as with Portman’s character, I didn’t care and didn’t want to know anything more about her. Rodriguez was the most volatile character but there wasn’t anything around her character to have me care either. Isaac was no better than the rest of the characters, non-interesting. Alex Garland wrote and directed this mess.

Overall: This film is not worth seeing even though the names associated with the film are held in high regard.

Black Panther

First Hit:  The inspiration was lost in the excessive fighting.

I’ve stated before and I’ll say it again. I’m not the target audience for Marvel type films. I find them excessively violent, do not base enough of the film on believable, or an attempt to make believable, characters, and don’t have interesting stories behind them. This film was no exception. It may be the last time I see a Marvel film.

That there is an entire country in Africa having such a superior technology and basis for living and not taking advantage of it to lead the world out of its stupidity, just didn’t work. Yes, the screenwriters gave a reason for this and I didn’t think it was intellectually based.

The best part of the film was how the story elevated women as the leaders in scientific and protective warrior prowess. The second-best part of the film were the effects. In many sections the special effects were first rate.

The essence of the story, from what I could figure out, is that because of mistrust, the previous king T’Chaka (John Kani) goes to Oakland, CA to find out how Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) had infiltrated his country Wakanda and stole Vibranium, the secret component that allows Wakanda to be technology light years ahead of everyone else in the world. The thieves were planning to use the secret powers of Vibranium in the world at large.

Exposing this plot, King T’Chaka, kills his brother, and leaves his brother’s son Erik Killmonger (as an adult Michael B. Jordan) in Oakland. The king dies and his other son T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) becomes King and the Black Panther after drinking the essence of flowers grown in Vibranium.

Because of a heist of vibranium from a museum, the Black Panther and his intellectual lieutenant Shuri (Letitia Wright) and special forces chief Okoye (Danai Gurira) go out into the world with their super powers and attempt to recapture the stolen Vibranium.

Being throwarted Killmonger in his plan finds a way to Wankanda to get ahold of all the Vibranium. He challenges T’Challa for the throne of Wankanda and succeeds. With his new-found conquest, he decides, with vindictiveness, to rule the world with Wankanda’s technology.

However, as we all know, T’Challa wasn’t killed and comes back to save Wankanda from Killmonger's change in plans for Wankanda.

The fighting sequences were overdone, the use of rhinoceroses as battle weapons was sad and a bit overdone, and the line that seemed odd to me was when and Killmonger proceeded to say that he was fighting for his ancestors that were sent to the new world as slaves. What was peculiar about this was, that his ancestors came from Wankanda, a privileged society, long before slavery was began in Africa.

Boseman was good as the King and Black Panther, but there wasn’t anything outstanding about his performance. Strongest performance of this film goes to Letitia Wright. Her powerful character as intellectual leader was fantastic. Gurira was also excellent in her role as leader of the special forces. She embodied this role. Jordan was very good as the protagonist. His dynamic personality came through in this role. Lupita Nyong’o as T’Challa’s former lover Nakia, war dog, and undercover spy was very strong. Forest Whitaker as Zuri as the wise elder statesman and keeper of the secret Vibranium herb, was OK. He seemed to press his lines to make them important. Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole wrote this script that focused more on fighting and special effects than substance of a story, but that is what Marvel wanted and paid for. Coogler directed this film.

Overall:  I’ve got to stop going to Marvel films because I get bored quickly and find them to lack substance beyond the displaying ways to present action.

Winchester

First Hit:  This film needed to be taken out back and shot with a Winchester rifle.

I’ve been to the Winchester mansion in San Jose. It is a very interesting structure and although currently it is large, 4 stories in some sections, it was once much larger at seven stories high in places. But after the 1906 earthquake, also a plot device in the film, it got reduced in size.

The basic story about the house is that Sarah built this house to capture and confuse the ghosts resulting from people who died by her husband’s rifles. She was told by a medium, that she needed to amend for her husbands invention of the repeating rifle. This film takes the bent that because she owned a huge portion of her deceased husband's company, Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the board of directors thought she was crazy to be building this house, and wanted a negative evaluation of Sarah Winchester’s (Helen Mirren) mental capabilities to take back control of the company.

The directors hire Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) who’s imbibing Laudanum to ease the pain of losing his wife who killed herself with a Winchester Rifle after wounding him with the same rifle, to analyze Sarah and report back to the board.

They pressure him to determine that Sarah is crazy. He arrives at Winchester’s house and has dealings with staff, niece Marion Marriot (Sarah Snook), her son, and ghosts. Because Sarah is driven to house and appease all the ghosts, building rooms onto the house goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People are always working on the house.

The film tries to make a compelling ghost and horror story about Sarah, Marion’s son, and Eric and how, together, they fight to kill one rambunctious ghost, Ben Block (Eamon Farren).

I cannot tell you anything I liked about this film. It was shot way to darkly (in color) and they showed very little of the peculiarities of the house itself. Winchester House is interesting and fascinating and this film does nothing with this, they just made a poorly constructed and contrived ghost story.

Mirren was OK in a role and script that didn’t become her abilities. Clarke was poor. His choices, as directed in the film’s script, were poorly done and not well thought out. The story of his demise felt contrived. Snook tired to be sincere but it was the role and script that failed her. Peter and Michael Spierig wrote and directed this mess. I’m not sure how they got funding for this, and my guess is that they will be hard pressed to get funding for a future project.

Overall:  This film is a waste of any money used to go see it, let alone make it.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

First Hit:  Unimpressive effects, tired story, and there is little hope that the new cast of characters can carry this story into the future.

Trying to create the magic of the original film by using the same music, the open space background and the scrolling storyline explanation almost worked.

However shortly into the story, all we got to watch is multiple battles; signal combatants and groups of combatants. It just got boring to watch fight after fight after fight.

What would have helped was, if Rey (Daisy Ridley) had the depth of spirit and a powerful inner presence to play someone going to take us, and the story, to a next level and into the future. Her facial expressions showed she doesn't understand the depth of this story and the inability to create the kind of intrigue that Star Wars must hang on. The lack of communication through her eyes was a dead giveaway. This was a disappointment because in her first turn as Rey in “The Force Awakens,” she showed promise. The hopes of having a strong independent woman take us forward is perfect because Leia’s character passes with Carrie Fisher’s passing.

Another problem with this film is Luke Skywalker’s role and character (Mark Hamill). Here he is played as grumpy and tired. Yes, he has a right to be tired and grumpy, for all the battles’ he’s been through but the script gives him little room to breathe. Because of this he suffocates as Luke and so does the audience.

The story is essentially the turning over the final page of the old guard characters, and opening the book to the new guard. Hans Solo is gone, Darth Vader is gone, Snoke (Andy Serkis) gets toasted, and Leia, who is the leader of the resistance, has a son, Kyle Ren (Adam Driver), who becomes the leader of the first order bent on destroying the resistance and ruling the universe. Before it was father (dark) and son (light); now it is mother (light) and son (dark).

Too many things are already known, which is the opposite of what made the original film work. The first film was an exploration into the unknown. The films, after the original, varied in strengths and weaknesses, but always sought to keep an edge of the unknown for the future. The Force Awakens, was strong and was that way because it was a welcome back to the original story and characters and what would happen as they passed. Now we know - little.

Besides being overall dark of color, there are a few interesting special effects but nothing that will set this film apart from any of the other effects focused films that have come out in the last few years. Effects can never take the place of a good story with interesting characters.  And having mediocre effects and little story makes this film fail.

Hamill acted as though the life had been sucked out of him. Yes, this was part of the role but it didn’t seem like his heart was in this character any longer. Carrie Fisher as Leia was tired. She looked tired, there was little energy or enthusiasm coming from her and this swan song is not reflective of what she gave to the role in the past. Driver is one of the few highlights in the film as he does have the capability to carry the anger and darkness required as the new enemy of the resistance. Ridley is fair as Rey. She’s supposed to be a ray of light to the upcoming stories but to me she lacks a depth of spirit and it shows in every frame she’s in. John Boyega as Finn is good. As a side character and carrying what is good about the resistance he’s strong, but I didn’t buy into his being the fighter he is made out to be. Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron was good but it’s mostly script and storytelling that fails him. Serkis as the character Snoke is good enough. Rian Johnson wrote this mediocre script that relies on fighting and digital effects more than telling a great story with characters. Johnson also directed this film and it shows that he doesn’t have the chops for telling a Star Wars story that intrigues an audience into the future.

Overall:  This film could keep me from seeing next installment as I don’t want to dragged down any further.

The Shape of Water

First Hit:  Beautifully crafted and acted, and I didn’t find it all that interesting.

Although most of the scenes are dark and have a green color tint, they are beautifully crafted. The greenish tint is in the walls of the lab, the color of the hallways in the facility, the color of the water in which the beast lives and the van that was used to transport the beast. To break up this hue, color, like the deep dark red velvet seats in the movie theater, would be used to signify boldness.

The movie theater plays a role in the film because it is the home of Giles (Richard Jenkins) and the amazing star of the film Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins). They live upstairs in small apartments.

Sally is a mute and works at a laboratory as a janitor. Her workmate, friend and protector is Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). One day, when they are cleaning a secret room of the lab Sally is startled by the beast (Amphibian Man / Doug Jones) when she places her hand on a chamber he's being contained in. The amphibian has been captured and is being studied by Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) who is also happens to be a Russian spy.

The US government is trying to keep the amphibian secret and has hired Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) to keep tabs on the creature. Strickland is cruel and thinks himself superior to everyone, especially Zelda and Elisa. He shows his cruelty by carrying around a cattle prod which he uses to  control the amphibian.

Eliza’s days are monotonous and the same. After sleeping; she gets up goes into the bathroom, masturbates in her tub, makes a sandwich for herself to take to work and one for her neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins), goes to work, cleans the lab and bathrooms, returns home and spends time with Giles in his apartment where they watch dancing films on television.

Loved the scenes when Giles and Eliza do dance routines while sitting on the couch. Sweet and touching and added a heartfelt feeling to the characters.

Dancing is nice aspect of this film and it brings a lightness to this, otherwise, heavy film. The dance routines were directly from some of the films of the 1940s and 50s.

The obvious set-up is that Eliza feels a deep connection with the amphibian partially because they both don’t speak. However, they find a way of communicating with each other. She falls in love with him and is stressed because of the cruelty Strickland imposes on the amphibian. The question becomes, will she fight for the amphibian?

One of the failings of this film were the scars on Eliza’s neck. This detail was too obvious and allowed me to see the end before it came.

This film is a love story and in many ways, it really works well. I’m not sure of the necessity of having Hoffstetler be a Russian spy and I’m not sure why the pie store owner needed to be a racist. I just didn’t think it enhanced the story.

Hawkins was perfect for this role. Her clarity of purpose, her portrayal of being mute and desire to be seen as a person, was divine.  The development of her finding the strength to act on her love was compelling. One of the best performances of the year. Just as Hawkins was purposeful in her role, Shannon was equally intense as the man who wanted to control the amphibian. His driven personality to succeed at his job, his way, was perfectly played. Jenkins was great as the scared and scarred neighbor that had been let go from his job as product illustrator. Stuhlbarg was fantastic as the Russian agent who wanted science and this discovery to prevail over the wants of the Russian Government. Spencer was great as Eliza’s friend and protector. I sensed that writer and director Guillermo del Toro wanted this film to be both an interesting and emotional journey, but I found it lacking in interesting department, except when I was thinking about how the scenes were shot and the detail of the well-crafted pictures, like the cracked tile in Eliza’s bathroom. However, the direction by him of this cadre of actors was exquisite and keep me engaged.

Overall:  Although exquisitely beautiful in its crafting, it did not leave a lasting impression of greatness.