My Own Little World

What is the Jurassic Park franchise, and what should it be? Those two questions are sitting at the front of my mind the morning after watching the fifth installment in this series, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom . Sleeping on this movie was not a good idea; instead of being ambivalent as I was last night, I am now deeply concerned that this franchise is not going to continue being one of my more anticipated summer movie events as it has been for both this film and Jurassic World . The predominant problem with watching Fallen Kingdom is structure and pacing. It appears like two separate movies were put together end to end and played as the final product. The first half revolves around getting the dinosaurs off the island of Isla Nublar, saving the animals from its active volcano, while the second half turns into a gothic horror-esque monster movie that is tonally inconsistent by itself. These distinct aesthetics and tones make the finished film nothing more than a bridge b...

Upgrade really, really, really tries to be smart. It knows that it has the confines of a familiar story arc of a man seeking revenge for the killing of his wife. It knows it has a small budget which means it cannot do anything too ambitious. It knows that it needs to have an aesthetic like films much more intelligent and meaningful than itself. Upgrade knows something else, too: it has a get-out-of-jail-free card inside the mind of its protagonist. And that makes it one of the laziest films I have seen this year. STEM, the computer implanted in the protagonist Grey’s spinal cord, can do whatever it wants to with Grey’s body if he gives it permission to do so. We see this happen near the beginning of the second act in a fight scene that caught me by surprise with its tone and fun cinematography, both of which were altered dramatically from the moments before it. As scenes like this began to make a pattern, however, my mind began to see how the script was using STEM as...

Solo is the first Star Wars movie where I just don’t care. This isn’t because of franchise fatigue or because it irreparably damages the franchise in any way or because it is a lesser achievement in filmmaking than the other entries in the series: Solo cannot stake any claim of coming close to these faults. No, my apathy towards this film is due to how much it bores me. There is nothing of consequence – either good or bad – to the Star Wars franchise, and there is nothing stunningly good or atrociously bad regarding the filmmaking. Solo takes not one risk in its 135-minute runtime, and it feels just as bland as that statement makes it out to be. The largest contributor to this is the film’s character development. Instead of being an origin story of how Han came to be the scruffy-looking nerf herder to who we are introduced in A New Hope , he shows up already being that character in the first five minutes, taking away any tension or anticipation for the character’s ar...

Ready Player One is exactly what I expected. And that is a very good thing. Steven Spielberg is more or less the one who created movies like this one, and he proves once again here that he can helm a big blockbuster film in ways that few others can. There is attention to detail in the direction; there is a firm command of the power of scale; there is excitement and fun and some emotion. This is probably the most fun I’ve had watching a movie so far this year, and it is all because the man who created the template for great escapist filmmaking is back doing his thing. Of course, Ready Player One ’s escapist nature does make it suffer a tad in some areas that would seem very important like character development and a possession of deeper themes, and I know some will complain about that. While I understand how some might see this film as shallow and meaningless, there is a very good story at its core that makes me feel. It doesn’t have the emotional punch of an Oscar-nominate...

Blade Runner 2049 is a really, really, really beautiful film. I don’t think I have been more visually or sonically treated in the past few years of watching movies. Between Roger Deakins’s Oscar-winning cinematography that is transportive and elegant, Hans Zimmer’s electronically graceful score, the sound direction, production design, and perfect (and I do mean perfect) visual effects, there is so much to take in from each shot that I almost could not comprehend everything that was happening. And that is Blade Runner 2049 ’s undoing. As perfect as Denis Villeneuve’s technical direction of the film is, its structure and narrative are kind of a mess. I loved Ridley Scott’s original film that discussed big-picture questions of humanity and reality while also forcing me to use my brain to connect the pieces of his visual storytelling amid the lack of plain and simple exposition – something that I was annoyed with at first but came to enjoy the more I reflected upon it. Wha...

Aw man. Before it came out, I was really rooting for A Wrinkle in Time . I liked the only other film by its director Ava DuVernay that I have seen (it was Selma ), and I thought she could do a good job with material like this that needed a stylistic, visionary mind. I also liked some of the cast, and the first time I saw the trailer I was actually quite excited for it. Yeah, that visionary film I was expecting wasn’t the final product we got. A Wrinkle in Time is a mess. It doesn’t make any profound points, even though it spends every second trying. It also doesn’t tell a coherent story, even though it is from one of the most acclaimed children’s science fiction novels of the past century. It doesn’t even do the one thing I thought it could for sure achieve: be a visually astonishing film. I don’t think this film looks bad, to be sure, but some of the shot-to-shot editing seems really choppy, especially in dialogue scenes. DuVernay uses a lot of solo close-up shots of a...

I have no words. Guys, Annihilation is one heck of a movie. It doesn’t hold my hand through its runtime; instead, it forces me to think with the iron grip of its narrative. For that reason, it is one of the most unique movies I have had the pleasure of experiencing in a theater. Of course, this film goes nowhere without director Alex Garland. I remember watching his first film Ex Machina and getting floored by the points it made about human nature by using an artificially intelligent robot to demonstrate our unique ability of attachment and how that could eventually be our downfall as a race. Besides that, that film was beautiful and brilliantly crafted, a slow burn that exploded in a pitch-perfect climax. Annihilation changes the game a little for Garland as he continues his exploration into human nature. This time, the film centers on our desires and how they ultimately will lead us to our self-destruction. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character posits at one point that ...

In closing the door on 2016, I realize that there are a lot of films that I have seen that unfortunately I was unable to review for one reason or another. That doesn't mean, however, that I don't want you guys to know what I think of most of these films, so just like the last couple of years I will be doing a few posts over the next month or so wrapping up all of the films I got a chance to see from this past year. This time, I've got one of this year's most prominent sci-fi releases and a non-Transformers Michael Bay film... Arrival  - Buy it.  Arrival is one of the most thought-provoking sci-fi films I've ever seen. The direction from Denis Villeneuve is ridiculously visually rich and very artistic with its long takes and steady shots. Amy Adams turns in the best performance of her career, and the way the film reveals her character's true nature in the third act is stellar. The design of the aliens and their language is beautiful, and I love the film...

I love science fiction films. The Star Wars franchise has a near and dear place to my heart, as well as more recent films like Interstellar , The Martian , and Gravity . I love how people are getting really interested in these films again and also that the special effects used on such films are getting really, really, really good. I couldn't even tell that Gravity  was using CGI, even though I knew it was. So, naturally, I was looking forward to Passengers . Chris Pratt is a really solid actor who has charisma like crazy, and Jennifer Lawrence is Jennifer Lawrence. Morten Tyldum also seemed like a good director from the one thing I've seen from him, 2014's Imitation Game . It was a pretty decent biopic with some minor issues, but the visual front was very well-executed, something that I knew this film would need. And to be fair, the visuals in Passengers  are great, and they're probably the best part of the film. The effects are magnificent and blend well with the...

So, Star Wars. We all know and love it, especially me. I have seen the original trilogy more times than I can count, the prequels just enough times so I can not completely hate them, and The Force Awakens  about half a dozen times in the year it's been released. I also love what Disney has done with the place, aiming to release one film a year for the next several with the anthology films and the saga continuing. That being said, I was a little nervous going into Rogue One . A spin-off film has never really been done in the Star Wars universe before, and I had no idea what to expect. How similar would it be to the saga films? Would it add to the franchise in a meaningful way, or would it simply hold me over until Episode VIII  is released next December? To be honest, Rogue One  caught me by surprise in a lot of ways. I really ended up enjoying this film, but it was not by any means perfect. It does have a killer finale and some very well-directed moments, as well as...

I've taken a little more time in prepping my year-end wrap-up this year, mostly because I was making sure I had seen everything I wanted to in theaters before publishing. Like last year, I've written mini-reviews on all the films that I either saw too far into their theatrical run to do a full review on or after their home video release. Without further ado, I present to you Part 4 of the Rest of 2015... Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - Buy it.  How can a franchise be this good in its fifth installment? M:I shows no signs of stopping with Rogue Nation , and neither does Tom Cruise, as he performs some of the most dangerous stunts of his career. The rest of the returning and new cast members make sure we don't lose the team dynamic that was so essential to Ghost Protocol . McQuarrie also has some great helming of the many action scenes, particularly the motorcycle chase. This is a thrill ride that keeps you on edge the whole time. Grade: 92 The Martian...

If you want the too long, didn't read version of this review, here it is: I just saw The Force Awakens again on Friday after seeing it Thursday night.  Like, this movie is seriously that good. And just to be clear, I was going to have no problems saying The Force Awakens was just good, decent, or even terrible if I thought so. But this movie is seriously incredible. I've never wanted to see a film more in my entire life. I've never pre-ordered tickets for any film except this one. I've never had higher expectations walking into a theater and had them fulfilled like this. This review is going to be very different from my normal style. Usually, I break up the components of a film and talk about them individually. While I’m still going to do that to a certain extent, I’m more so going to talk about this separately as a fan and a critic because it will allow me to collect my thoughts more easily.  As a Star Wars fan, watching this film excited m...

You know, I was going to begin this review with some little quip about Interstellar 's similarities with 2001: A Space Odyssey  or some note about why I love Christopher Nolan's film-making. And, to be fair, those would have been perfectly sufficient ways to capture your interest in this film. However, both of these methods don't seem very fitting after seeing it, so I'll start by saying this:  Interstellar  is, quite honestly, the best movie-going experience I have ever had. There are so many things about it that make it great, but it all comes down to this: it melds its impressive visuals perfectly with its emotional impact. This is so important for many films today, as they repeatedly entice us with their stellar visuals while sometimes falling a hair short on the emotional front (or vice versa). Let's start with the story. Interstellar 's plot largely operates around a 2001 -type setup: multiple movements in the same grand symphony. However, the move...