The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

First Hit:  I was barely able to watch, let alone like, the screen for its 137 minute running time.

I thought that Part 1 was one of the worst of this series until I watched this final film of the 4 part series. I enjoyed the original film, the second, “Catching Fire”, was too long and wasn’t up to the first film’s stature.

Part 1 (#3 in the series) was one very long uneventful setup for Part 2 (#4). This series started on a high note and fell into the gutter. For instance, what was the fighting scene in the sewers about? It had no value except to get some people killed and make Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) feel more pain to spur her on.

The ending was obvious and exposed way too soon. There was no surprise (reminded me of the line from a Who song: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss). The acting in most cases seem stilted and without feeling, like the actors just wanted to get through it.

Watching a purposefully elongated story was absolute torture. It is hard for me to conceive of people with active and useful brain cells objectively watching this film and thinking it is good. There is nothing that I can say that is good about this film except I don’t ever have to watch another Hunger Games film again.

Lawrence was good at times but generally, it felt as though she wanted it to be as over with as I did. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta had one of the most difficult and awkward roles. As a plot ploy, he had to pretend to be both in love with and be a hurtful enemy of Katniss. It’s difficult to pretend to be brainwashed and Hutcherson didn’t pull it off. Liam Hemsworth as Gale was a poorly executed character. His role of hero martyr felt stilted and without soul. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch tried to bring adult thinking to the role – he failed because the film failed to make it important. Donald Sutherland as President Snow, did his job and it felt like it. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Pluarch was painful to watch because it’s a lousy role, his performance poor, and it is the last time we’ll see him in a new film – sad. Julianne Moore as the new President Alma Coin was so below her recent performances that I cringed. Peter Craig and Danny Strong’s script was lazy, without interesting dialogue, and bloated. Francis Lawrence’s direction provided little interest and absolutely no excitement.

Overall:  I wanted to leave the theater so bad that I felt like a runner waiting for the starting gun and when final credits began to role – like a flash I was gone.

The Martian

First Hit:  Matt Damon is wonderful in this interesting and engaging film.

With the latest news indicating that there is water on Mars, this film will have even more interest from audiences.

I cannot speak to the science demonstrated in the film and I will say the story is compelling mostly because of the acting. We have a crew on an extended mission to Mars but because there is a huge storm, they have to leave early leaving behind one of their team.

Mission Botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) was thought to be dead when the crew led by Captain Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). NASA led by Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) decides to not tell the crew heading back to Earth that the person they left behind is still alive. The reasons he uses are valid from one point of view but, the on Earth, person responsible for the crew, Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean) decides to inform the crew about Mark’s survival on Mars.

This works well as a plot device to set up an attempted rescue by this same crew later in the film. A good portion of the film is about how Mark solves the dilemma of being in a place where his food won’t last until a possible rescue mission comes back for him. He solves this problem with great verve, humor, ingenuity.

There is a bit more focus on the music he’s left with (disco era music) by Captain Lewis and it got old to me. I know it was used a clever plot device to created amusement and it wore thin. I’ve no idea if NASA works the way the film portrays but it was believable.

Besides the wonderful acting by Damon on Mars, the mixture of other characters helping to rescue him was also very good.

Damon was really strong as “the greatest botanist on the planet”. He does well at showing a positive outlook, intelligence, and fortitude to take this difficult situation and survive. Chastain was good as the mission leader, showing compassion, strength, and willingness. Daniels was very good as the no-nonsense NASA leader. Sean Bean was good in his small yet pivotal role. Donald Glover was probably the most interesting minor character. His portrayal of a certified genius able to solve the problem of identifying a rescue plan was perfect. Drew Goddard wrote a wonderful, interesting and, at times, amusing script. Ridley Scott did a great job of creating great sets (spaceship scenes were reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001) and getting some very strong performances from his actors.

Overall:  Although a little long it was an enjoyable and entertaining film.

Ant-man

First Hit:  Very enjoyable film that works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A fun filled adventure that definitely works because of the storyline, acting, and especially of the acting by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-man. He approaches the role with intelligence, irreverence, and honesty.

His compatriots, outside of the ants, are Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (T.I.), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian). All together they help Ant-man suit inventor Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), defeat Darren Cross / Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) who is trying to re-create Dr. Pym’s technology for evil use.

The motivation for Scott is his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) whom he doesn’t see much because he’s been in prison. The scenes of Lang as Ant-man when he’s working with the ants is priceless. As an audience member, I knew it was fantasy, yet I bought the story and film because it was so well put together – with lightheartedness.

Rudd was perfect for the role. He’s so comfortable in his body and the script’s dialogue was perfect for him. He’s great. Pena is also fantastic. He’s talkative, yet there is an air of intelligence in his storying telling. Douglas is strong as the scientist. Lilly is wonderful to watch and her backing up her intelligence with physical abilities were excellent. Stoll was really good as the strength of evil doing and the antagonist. Fortson was enjoyable as Rudd’s daughter. Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote a great script. Payton Reed had a great handle on how to execute this story.

Overall:  This is a really fun and enjoyable film.

Jurassic World (3-D)

First Hit:  Although the CGI is great, the whole film felt staged like it was a sequence of scenes strung together to make a story.

I liked Jurassic Park enough to want to see this leap forward film. This story has us, the visitors to the park (world), always wanting something new and different or else we won’t spend the enormous amount of money required to visit the amusement park and make it profitable.

This is the “why” they genetically created this new dinosaur (Indominus – Rex) as an attraction. To bring more people to fund more generic engineering. Then there is the story about the Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) who works at the park but is being neglectful of her nephews Zack and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins respectively) who come to visit her at the park.

Then there is Own (Chris Pratt) who works at the park and is “training” the Velociraptors to respond to his commands. We’ve got Claire running through the jungle and the film in high heels (although there is a scene where she has flats on). There are a number of misrepresentations during the film, but the fun factor makes it rise above mediocrity, but not by a whole lot.

Pratt is fun in his best interpretation of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. He’s good in this rough and tumble role. Howard is good as the female interest of Pratt’s as well as the key female character in the story – she’s the one from which the story binds. Vincent D’Onofrio as Hoskins the quasi-military oriented guy who wants to use the dinosaurs as a weapon was very formula driven. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver wrote this overly ambitious script. Colin Trevorrow directed this film. Unfortunately, the bigness of the task at hand was beyond his ability to rein in the ideas into a single cohesive story.

Overall:  The ambitiousness of the concept and the multitude of stories ran further than the abilities to make this film work.

Tomorrowland

First Hit:  Interesting scope, parts that excelled, but overall this movie fails to deliver an engaging film from beginning to end.

The film’s early opening scenes included Casey, a truly curious smart girl (Britt Robertson), trying to hamper a rocket’s launch thereby keeping her engineer father employed. It also included Frank Walker (Young Frank played by Thomas Robinson and older Frank played by George Clooney) telling the story through two sets of eyes, the young curious smart boy and the wise old man who’s given up hope.

These three characters are pulled together by Athena (Raffey Cassidy); a robot created from the future whose mission is to find hope in the human race and give them the clue to the possibilities by giving out Tomorrowland pins.

The point of the film finally comes towards the end, when Nix (Hugh Laurie) gives a speech about how humans don’t care enough to fix the problems they are facing. The lavish way this film is presented is wonderful and engaging. The movie felt long which isn’t good and at 130 minutes, it was long.

Robertson was good and I felt that she did a great job of embodying her role. Robinson was cute and his early scenes were wonderful to watch. Clooney was good but there was something missing that kept me thinking “Clooney” and not about the role he was playing, Frank Walker. Cassidy was fantastic. I was fully engaged when she was on the screen, her way of being this robot was amazing. Laurie was a wonderful antagonist and his colloquy on the future was on target. Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird wrote a lengthy screenplay which is a commentary on how we are mortgaging our future and not paying attention to our self-created predicament. Bird did a great job of creating wonderful pictures of the now and the future, but it dragged on and could have used some snipping to tighten it up.

Overall:  A bit overblown, visually nice, but in the end not a very good film.