By Brett Blake Any time a franchise reaches its fifth installment, it would be reasonable to expect that things would begin to get a bit stale. Just how many variations on the same material can filmmakers - even creative ones with the best of intentions - come up with? As ROGUE NATION demonstrates, there are still many variations on the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE formula left to explore. This is world-class entertainment - thrilling and funny and mysterious - and not only is it not a step down from the great fourth entry, GHOST PROTOCOL, it’s an even better movie, and the best of the series thus far. The plot concerns veteran Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt's (Tom Cruise) attempt to track a shadowy terror network called “The Syndicate,” a group seemingly bent on sowing chaos across the globe. When the CIA - personified by Hunley (Alec Baldwin) - shuts down the IMF, Hunt and his team - Benji (Simon Pegg), Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and Luther (Ving Rhames) - must go on the run to find the leader of The Syndicate, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), before his next nefarious plan can take shape. Along the way, the mysterious Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) proves to be both an ally and a foil for the team, with her true loyalties frustratingly uncertain. What jumps out immediately about ROGUE NATION is that it is the total package, containing just about everything a person could ever want from a spy film. There are chases and fights, there is suspense and mystery, and there is a sophisticated and balanced tone that ties everything together. This isn’t exactly a romp, as the stakes are real and the danger to our heroes feels more immediate and close than it did in the very fun GHOST PROTOCOL, but the humor is always there to lighten the mood when things threaten to become too dire. This delicate handling of tone can be credited to director Christopher McQuarrie. He has a “back to basics” cinematic style that is refreshingly old-school; there’s flair and verve to spare, but the direction is clear and interesting in a classical sense. McQuarrie stages action in such a way that the geography and relationships between the characters (both spatial and intellectual/emotional) are at the forefront of the staging. And when I use the word “action,” I’m not even necessarily talking about traditional action setpieces, either; there are several big sequences of suspense and intrigue that are every bit as satisfying and exciting as the chases and shoot-outs. One lengthy section - set at the Vienna State Opera - is absolutely spectacular; it’s a setpiece of delightful buildup, if you will, showcasing McQuarrie’s playful and cine-literate eye. It’s downright Hitchcockian in its cinematic construction (indeed, it pretty directly homages THE MAN WHO KNEW TO MUCH to wonderful effect), and it’s the best individual piece of filmmaking I’ve seen all year. The pacing of the movie is exceptional, as well. We aren’t just quickly shuffled from one gigantic sequence of mayhem to the next; rather, there is real time spent with the characters as we watch them do some actual, honest-to-goodness espionage work of the sort that lesser movies might gloss over. It’s fun to watch Hunt and his crew put the pieces together and formulate their plans, and it’s even more fun to see how those plans fall into place… or perhaps don’t. The team of actors assembled is perhaps the strongest of any M:I movie thus far. Tom Cruise is the glue holding everything together at this point, and his (extraordinarily admirable) dedication to his work has never been as clearly illustrated as it is here. Whether it’s hanging off the side of an airplane as it takes off, or holding his breath for some agonizingly long takes while underwater, or doing the bulk of his own stunt driving, he - personally - is actually onscreen for most of the movie’s most hair-raising moments to sell thrill. That’s not just part of an ego trip, either. It truly does add an intangible value to the film as a whole, and his willingness to throw himself into very physical and arduous work - so that we in the audience will have a more exciting experience - is really laudable. Cruise has gotten a lot of flak over the years for issues relating to his personal life (some deserved, most not), but even his harshest critics should be silenced by the ways in which he’s gone above and beyond for this franchise. Jeremy Renner - at first glance - feels like he’s sidelined a bit during the first two acts of the film, sort of off in his own bureaucratic nightmare subplot as he delightfully bickers with Alec Baldwin, but this is intentional and it does pay off; Renner feels like an outsider, but that’s a specific choice that truly informs the character and his actions in a perfect way. Simon Pegg continues to deliver the comedic goods - though in a much drier fashion this time out - but he also gets to play some nicely emotional moments that explore more of his relationship with Cruise’s Hunt. Ving Rhames (the only one of the cast - save Cruise - who’s been in every M:I movie) brings a slightly world-weary grumpiness to the team dynamic that is a lot of fun. Also fun is Alec Baldwin, who portrays the kind of character we’ve seen countless times before (the stuffy bureaucrat who doesn’t like our heroes’ methods), but the script wisely ends up subverting that trope in a great way. As the villain, Sean Harris makes an immediate and striking impression; he’s eerily soft-spoken, calm, and calculating, and from the moment he appears onscreen, we totally buy that this is a very dangerous man. His final confrontation with Cruise is quite memorable and packs a great, electric punch. And that brings us to the woman who steals the entire film, Rebecca Ferguson. You’re probably mostly (if not entirely) unfamiliar with her, but that is surely going to change after ROGUE NATION. She’s as fascinating, enigmatic, and compelling a character as this series has ever seen, a fully-fleshed-out badass who’s complicated, sexy, flawed, and also very, very good at her job. It’s a breakout performance by Ferguson, who exudes a steely competency as Ilsa, as well as a playful charisma that totally screams “star in the making.” We can only hope. I don’t even have any nits to pick with this movie. It’s simply a spectacular entertainment, one that honors all of the history and lore of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series (both its television and cinematic incarnations), and brings a fresh energy to the proceedings that will hopefully pave the way for more adventures to come. Going into 2015, I was operating under the assumption that the upcoming James Bond film, SPECTRE, would be the spy movie to beat. Well, 007 is going to have some serious work to do if SPECTRE is going to top ROGUE NATION. It’s that good, and trust me… it’s a mission you want to accept.
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By Brett Blake ANT-MAN is the better of the two Marvel movies released this year. Yes, it is better than AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, which - given the divisive reaction to that movie - might not being saying all that much if it left you cold. However, if you had told me at this time last year that my opinion would be as such, I would have thought you were crazy. That’s not to say I wasn’t looking forward to ANT-MAN, because I very much was, but I didn’t dare to hope that we’d be getting as good a movie as we now have in cinemas. It is the real deal, an exciting, contained story that offers interesting character moments and fantastic action in equal measure. Centrally, the narrative focuses on Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a highly capable small-time thief (but one with a heart of gold, of course) recently released from a stint in prison and down on his luck as he attempts to find a way to support his young daughter. Lang finds himself enlisted into a corporate espionage-type situation by Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), a scientist with an apparently mythical backstory in the Marvel Universe who has developed technology allowing the wearer of a high-tech suit to shrink in size. Armed with this suit, and aided by an amusingly shifty collection of quirky crooks (Michael Pena, T.I., and David Dastmalchian), as well as Pym’s estranged daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), Lang and Pym set out to take down Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), Pym’s ruthless business successor who seeks to militarize Pym’s shrinking technology, with potentially disastrous results. Early reports indicated that ANT-MAN was going to be Marvel’s version of a classic heist story, and these reports were not wrong. Of course, it’s still first-and-foremost a superhero tale, but the structure onto which the superheroics have been grafted is very much in the vein of a heist. There’s the motley crew/team of specialists (many with quirks) assembled because of their expertise, there’s the mysterious MacGuffin which is the object of our central characters’ robbery (in this case a prototype miniaturization suit Cross is attempting to build), and there’s the sense of fun that comes from vicariously rooting for these people who are, let’s face it, attempting to commit thievery (however good their intentions might be). The movie absolutely satisfies as a heist flick, complete with nifty montages of planning, unforeseen complications, and a snazzy, sneaky score from Christophe Beck which would feel as at home in an OCEAN’S ELEVEN-style movie as it does in this comic book film. But when the more comic book-y superhero stuff does come into play, it’s just a blast. The effects and photography used to bring the miniature world to life are very cool, and the “size fu” choreography of the fight scenes is wonderfully creative. Even the lower-key setpieces, like the one where Lang and his buddies break - in true heist movie fashion - into Pym’s house early on, are completely entertaining. The action culminates in a third act which is one of the strongest of any Marvel film yet, one which utilizes the concept of a fight between two men who can shrink at will (and who can shrink - and blow up - other objects!) and executes that to its fullest potential. There is also something called the “Quantum Realm,” which is the location of a key effects sequence, and it is beautifully rendered in all its weird, sci-fi glory. And that’s not even mentioning the armies of ants that Lang and Pym have at their disposal, and which are brought to delightful life by digital effects that - if not fully photorealistic - have a lot of personality. As good as the action and caper stuff is, what really makes the movie something memorable is the strength of the character work and - by extension - the acting. Paul Rudd is incredibly watchable and charming in the lead role, and his sense of humor fits the character and story perfectly. He also has a markedly different energy than anyone else in the Marvel movies so far, even the funnier ones like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Pratt, coming at it from more of an “everyman” place. Rudd also really brings home the sense that Scott Lang - whatever his criminal faults may be - is a fundamentally good guy, and one who truly loves his daughter. It is this father/daughter element which forms the backbone of the story’s themes, as Douglas’ Pym and Lilly’s Hope have a deeply strained and complicated relationship that is excellently portrayed by both performers. Douglas, in particular, does some quite nuanced work with a really interesting character; he brings both gravitas and playfulness, but first and foremost, his Pym is a haunted man, haunted by his past failures and his once-strong relationships which, through his own actions, have essentially been stripped from him. This stuff never takes center stage in the narrative, but there are numerous character beats devoted to them, and they help to ground and flesh out the movie in a quite wonderful way. A quick word has to be said about director Peyton Reed, and the circumstances through which he ended up in this movie’s director’s chair. For those unfamiliar with the behind-the-scenes melodrama, the situation went down like this: after working on the project off-and-on for eight years (predating even Marvel Studios’ IRON MAN back in 2008), writer/director Edgar Wright parted ways with Marvel after the movie had already been cast, and mere weeks before it was scheduled to begin shooting. A quick director search led Marvel to Peyton Reed, a self-confessed comics fan, but a director with little in his almost-exclusively-comedic back catalog to indicate he’d be a good fit for the material. As it turns out, he was not just a good fit, but a great fit. Working from a script which, according to the credits, still retains many of Edgar Wright’s ideas, Reed has crafted a funny, kinetic, and - above all - fresh caper. As steeped as it is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and it is; there are several cameos by - and references to - other key players we’ve met in previous films), ANT-MAN feels almost totally unlike any of them. In telling its smaller-scale story (that is not a pun!), it manages to have a distinctive personality, and that’s something that should never be taken for granted when it comes to studio blockbusters, even those from Marvel Studios. This feels the most un-Marvel-y of any of their releases yet, but that’s not a bad thing. Reed had an unenviable task, but he pulled it off with flair. Honestly, I can think of few things to criticize the movie for, and any qualms would amount to mere nitpicks, so let’s not waste time on them. ANT-MAN is most definitely a slight film. There aren’t gigantic “the fate of the world is in the balance!” stakes, and there aren’t many weighty, philosophical issues at play, but you know what? That’s perfectly fine. This movie is a romp, pure and simple (albeit it one with interesting characters and a big heart), and it’s one of the best blockbusters of 2015. By Brett Blake TERMINATOR GENISYS marks the long-awaited (or perhaps not?) return of Arnold Schwarzenegger to the franchise that launched him to mega-stardom. The result is a very mixed bag, a movie with a dodgy (at best) script and questionable characterizations, but also with a genuine sense of breathless fun. Picking up in the year 2029, John Connor (Jason Clarke) - the leader of the human resistance against Skynet and its machines - sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back in time to 1984 to protect John’s mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), from being killed by a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), which were the events depicted in 1984’s original TERMINATOR film. When Kyle arrives in 1984, however, he finds a changed timeline, wherein Sarah has been raised by a “good” Terminator, and is already on a quest to stop Skynet from ever coming online. Complications arise, Terminators (both familiar and new) attempt to kill our heroes, and we eventually travel to the year 2017, where a nefarious new villain is attempting to change the timeline yet again and usher Skynet into existence in the form of a computer operating system called “Genisys.” Does that sound kind of complex and/or hard to follow? Yeah, it is. Too much so, in fact, but more on that later. On the acting front, overall the cast does good work. Jai Courtney’s Kyle Reese acts as the audience point-of-view character, and he’s not bad so much as he’s kind of bland. I don’t harbor the hate for Courtney that many in online circles do, but he brings little to the role of Reese, a character who was so full of nuance and personality courtesy of Michael Biehn in the first TERMINATOR film. However, he’s adept with the physical demands of the action, and he sells (well enough) his character’s devotion to both John and Sarah Connor. As Sarah, Emilia Clarke looks eerily like Linda Hamilton’s incarnation of the character at many points, and she does a nice job of fusing the vulnerability and uncertainty of Hamilton’s Sarah from the first TERMINATOR with the tougher, more kick-ass version of the character from T2. J.K. Simmons pops up in a fun supporting role, and he manages to sell some of the more on-the-nose comedic bits with conviction; the movie could have actually used more of him, as his character’s story is one of the more interesting side-elements in the movie. As the titular Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns for the first time in 12 years (much like Sean Connery returned to the James Bond role after a 12 year hiatus in 1983 with NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN), and he’s great. In the intervening years, it might have been easy to forget that he was once one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but here he reminds us why that was the case. He’s perfected the Terminator persona, and even when playing a supposedly emotionless cyborg, his charisma is present in full force. It’s hard to deny that watching him in this role is very entertaining. That brings us to Jason Clarke’s John Connor. Clarke himself does a pretty fantastic job with the character; he makes him a truly compelling individual with quirks, and in the scenes where he gets to interact with the other principal characters, he’s a magnetic presence. The character of John in this movie, though, is deeply problematic. What the writers do with him feels severely misguided, and it borders on outright character assassination (indeed, almost literally). If this were a fully self-contained movie that would be sort of forgivable, but this isn’t a self-contained movie; the choices made regarding John render the emotional stakes of the first two TERMINATOR films absolutely meaningless and irrelevant, and I’ll admit to being irked at the way the character is treated. Apologies for the vagueness, but to go into greater detail would require spoilage. The Connor issue is symptomatic of the problems with the script as a whole. You can feel the screenwriters throwing every idea they could have possibly had (some of them quite cool) into this thing, with little regard for cohesion or simplicity. The time travel shenanigans - and their effects on the narrative - are borderline incomprehensible at times, and there are at least two obvious plot holes that are baffling. There’s also the issue of the way the movie attempts to reboot the franchise; usually when Hollywood reboots a series, it’s so that they can take the best elements of the good movies in that series and ignore that subpar entries (see 2009’s STAR TREK, or 2014’s X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, a film which exists almost entirely so the franchise could disown 2006’s X-MEN: THE LAST STAND). With TERMINATOR GENISYS, the filmmakers have made the utterly bizarre decision to essentially wipe out the only two truly great movies in the franchise! Also, for all the talk about rebooting the timeline, which - in theory - should allow the story to go into fully uncharted and fresh waters, the plot once again becomes all about stopping Skynet (the A.I. controlling the Terminators and machines in their war against humanity in the future) from coming online and initiating Judgment Day (the day the machines began wiping out the human population on the planet)… which is the same basic plot as two of the previous four movies. Despite having some fun with the time travel hijinks, the movie eventually just becomes the same story we’ve already seen in this franchise, and one can’t help but come away feeling like nothing truly unique has been added to the TERMINATOR mythos. So, you might be asking, what’s good? Well, pretty much everything else! The movie is paced incredibly well, bouncing from action setpiece to action setpiece with just enough breathing room for introspection and exposition in between, and the action stuff is certainly a lot of fun. There are several big brawls between various Terminator characters, and despite some sketchy CGI at times, these fights have a thudding, clunking, heavy physicality that is exciting. There are also a pair of chase sequences that are nicely staged by director Alan Taylor, even as they both rather gleefully defy the laws the physics. “Shut your brain off” is a phrase I tend to dislike, but it does seem to apply to TERMINATOR GENISYS, where no amount of thought put into it on the audience’s part will allow its plotting to make much sense, but there are definite visceral pleasures to be enjoyed, and the cast - for the most part - makes it incredibly watchable. TERMINATOR GENISYS may be less effective as an overall story than either TERMINATOR 3 or TERMINATOR SALVATION (and given that both of those are pretty much already the superfluous also-rans of the series, that’s kind of saying something), but it is definitely a lot more fun and entertaining, which is probably all one should have reasonably expected in the first place. |
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