Elysium

First Hit:  Well-crafted film about the future while keeping humanness as part of the story.

The future is clear, there are the haves and have nots.

The haves do not live on Earth any longer. They live on a spinning wheel space station just out of the atmosphere called Elysium. It can be seen from Earth. On this space station people do not get diseased and if they do, their machines make them well.

On Earth there is overcrowding, theft, crime, and denigration of humans and their spirit. Max (Played by Matt Damon) has been a thief, imprisoned, and now just is trying to get by. When he makes a joke to one of the robot policemen, he gets beat. His childhood friend, Frey (Alice Braga) is a nurse and was serving on Elysium but had to come back to Earth because her daughter Matilda (Emma Tremblay) had leukemia and wasn't a citizen.

Not being a citizen (meaning someone with an embedded code in their arm) means that you don't really exist to the people of Elysium. Frey and Max meet up again and she wants him to help her daughter to Elysium to get healed and he wants to get there because he just got a lethal dose of radiation and will die in 5 days.

Of course the heads of Elysium, especially Secretary of State Delacourt (Jodie Foster) who has eyes for more power, don’t want their world contaminated so no non-citizen gets to the space station.

This film explores, where are we going as a human race and what will we do to create equality among people. It explores the question of what will become of us in the year 2154.

Damon is, as he always is, sublime. He makes his role so real and effortless that you can’t help but be on his side and believe his rightness. Braga is great as his longtime friend. She brings such humanness to this film as does her daughter Tremblay. Foster is powerful and spot-on as the politico who wants control and to politically move up the ladder to President. Neill Blomkamp both directed and wrote this story. His extraordinary use of special effects on space vehicles and landscapes were well thought out and implemented.

Overall:  Although this film is well done, it may not do well at the box office because it just may be too smooth and the name doesn't help it.

The Incredible Shrinking Man

First Hit:  I saw why this film made me a fan of films. It opened a wonderful door to amazing story-telling.

In 1957 I saw this film. It was the first film I saw and as a young boy I was thoroughly moved. Last week I was able to see this film again and believe me – it holds up extremely well.

With all the modern technology of today to make things bigger and smaller I was worried that I would get caught up in the “how does it look” syndrome when comparing it to today’s technological abilities. This baby holds up well.

Yes there are scenes that are not as seamless as what could be done today, but overall it is well done. However, the real delight is that this story is told in a tight 81 minutes, covers all the bases, and ends with a philosophical statement and view that is spot on wonderful.

In brief, Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is enveloped for a few minutes in a cloud that may be radiation. When this film was made the cold war was in full swing and radioactivity from a nuclear bomb was ever present. What happens is that he begins shrinking slowly after a couple of weeks. He continues to shrink until he gets a temporary fix for a month or so.

But then he starts shrinking again until he is towered over by a matchbox. How he deals with this change, what he discovers about himself (at the very end) makes up this wonderful story. The special effects are very good and hold up extremely well.

Williams is extraordinary sublime and does an amazing job of having the audience believe he is truly shrinking and how it feels to be an outcast. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay from his novel and it totally works. Jack Arnold directed this film with intelligence and his command of special effects and how to use them well is amazing.

Overall:  This film solidified how a good film can stay with someone for many years. This one lasted 56 years and re-established that a great film can affect its audience for years to come.

Star Trek Into Darkness

 First Hit:  Kept the thrill, charm, and excitement of the first prequel – I liked it.

What I really liked about the first 2009 “Star Trek” prequel was the embodiment of the original Star Trek television series characters as younger people.

For this film, the thing I was concerned about was if this film would be able to carry through the joy and feel of the characters. The answer is yes. Although there were things that needed some work and scene trimming, the feel of the film worked and it was fun to watch.

I’m not sure what others think, but Chris Pine (playing Kirk) has a great feel of the original Captain Kirk. A brash intelligence mixed in with independence. He knows he doesn’t know everything but he cares about the crew more than himself.

The film begins with him losing the star ship Enterprise do to this brash behavior. Then he is pressed into being captain again because of an attack at Federation HQ by Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) and he's the one who figures it out. The story hangs together really well and the main criticisms where that some scenes, like Spoke in a fist fight with Khan on the cargo containers, was overly long and served no real purpose.

The special effects were well done and did not take over the film but enhanced it.

Pine makes a great Kirk and there is room for him to grow the character in the next film. Zachary Quinto as Spock is very good. Zoe Saldana as Uhura is strong and brings an exotic presence to the bridge. Karl Urban as Bones is slightly overplayed but good enough. Simon Pegg is wonderful as Scotty. John Cho as Sulu holds his character with strength. Anton Yelchin does a wonderful job of embodying Chekov. Cumberbatch did a very good job of being the guy who was going to rule the universe. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman did a good job putting together a fun and interesting script while J.J. Abrams kept the Star Trek theme and feeling alive – kudos.

Overall:  Very entertaining and a good effort for the second prequel.

Iron Man 3 (3D)

First Hit:  Loved and enjoyed moments and was bored silly at what seemed to be a dumb premise – very uneven film.

The opening credits and set-up were interesting and I was hopeful of a witty well done film in the genre of Iron Man 1.

Robert Downey Jr. was perfect in 1 and in that film he set a high mark for the character. He’s always done his best to fulfill the scripts given to him in all these films.

In 3 we see Tony Stark (Iron Man) spend all his time tinkering, having odd flashes of anxiety, and in a deeper relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). The unbecoming part of this story is, someone came up with a drug to increase a person’s strength and would also fix their physical issues (like a cut, missing limb, etc.) – yeah it sounds both interesting and stupid and that is exactly how this film is.

The product has problems, so if you have anger management issues, it is likely you will explode like a small thermonuclear device. The guy who is controlling all this Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who doesn’t want the limelight of being the head terrorist so he hires someone to be the primary public figure and names him “The Mandarin” (Ben Kingsley).

Killian gets people hooked on the drugs properties and uses them as weapons against society in a terrorist fashion. What is he aiming at? Whoa, that is the issue; because control of the USA is unlikely in the way the plot unfolds. There is nothing in the story development that gives you the sense that this end goal would result in anything.

Yes a film with a “not well thought out plot”. All of this “stuff” (and that is what it is – just stuff) is a way for the director to create a pretense for Killian and Stark to have clashes all over the USA – some in California, Tennessee, Washington and NYC. In another piss poor equipment twist (made to be funny); was when a bus runs into one of the many Iron Man suits, it completely breaks apart, while in other scenes the another suit withstands 10 times the punishment of a bus hit and is unscratched. Which is it? Is the suit strong, or is it a plastic mock up?

The kid Stark works with Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins) is perfect to bring out other sides of Stark.

Downey Jr. is as always witty. It is unfortunate that the storyline is so poor that his witticisms and incredible acting abilities are wasted. Paltrow, although a key character, has a minor role but does what she can within the confines of the mediocre script. Pearce is ineffective at portraying a character wanting to control the USA. Simpkins is enjoyable and one of the better parts of the film. Kingsley is amusing as The Mandarin. Don Cheadle, reprising his familiar role as Colonel James Rhodes, enjoys his “War Machine” (“Iron Patriot”) suit and it comes across that way. Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen (maker of the juice that screws people up) is OK but lacked believability that she would have created this juice, let alone sold out to Killian. Drew Pearce and Shane Black wrote a very mediocre script with more thoughtless holes than Swiss cheese. Shane Black got caught up with his own story and therefore directed a mediocre film. However, I will say that the 3D effects were very good because it only enhanced the film and didn’t make it the object of the film.

Overall:  This film ranks far below the original Iron Man.

Oblivion

First Hit:  Although confusing at times, an interesting story line and Cruise is solid.

The confusion around the story expresses itself with narratives and character dialogues specifically "telling versus showing" to keep the story in the boundaries the filmmakers wanted. 

When the director and writer have to do this and not let the film tell the story with pictures and non-explanatory dialogue, then there is a problem. However, this film makes up for it in visual crispness and the idea that we have been replicated and are remnants and memories of who we were.

Jack has dreams of another life with a woman and when the plot (confusingly) sends a space craft which introduces this woman of his dreams (his earthly wife) Julia (Olga Kurylenko) I had a difficult time wondering how this worked. Where did the space vehicles come from that brought real humans of our past? 

Although the answer to this is question is given towards the end of the film, Julia's arrival created confusion and took me away  from the story. Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are “an effective team” whose job is for Jack to fix drones which protect machines sucking all the life out of the oceans while Team Leader Victoria guides and provides support for Jack from their home in the sky. Victoria talks/works with “Sally” (Melissa Leo) a woman who invites kindness with her southern accent.

Sally appears to be the boss of all the machines. The reason for Jack and Victoria's work is that there are "Scavs" (scavengers?) who are damaging the drones and want to damage the machines that are sucking the life out of the ocean (earth). Leading the Scavs, who are remaining humans on earth, is Beech (Morgan Freeman). His band of rebels reaches out to Jack because they think he has enough of his human memory left that he can be "turned" to help them defeat the alien force.

Cruise is as he always is, brave, charming, and the hero of his films. However, he is reliable and always delivers his role with conviction. Risenborough is good but her limited character’s role made it difficult to care much. Kurylenko is very good and is as strong as Cruise and Freeman. Freeman is perfect as the guy with a vision that humans will persevere. Leo is good in a mostly voice and video picture representation and version of the aliens. Joseph Kosinski and Karl Gajdusek wrote the script which didn’t always work. Kosinski directed the film and didn’t really get how the audience might see/interpret his vision.

Overall:  This was interesting enough to keep me engaged and wanting to see the end.