'Serenity' (2019) Review

Baker Dill is a fishing boat captain who leads tours off of the tranquil enclave of Plymouth Island. However, his peaceful life is shattered when his ex-wife tracks him down and begs him to save her and their young son from her abusive husband. Thrust back into a life he wanted to forget, Baker now finds himself struggling between right and wrong. 

Written and directed by Steven Knight, Serenity is sure to be the most bizarre thing shown at the multiplex all year. I was drawn into seeing it purely out of curiosity upon learning there was a ludicrous twist at the film's center (I'll eventually elaborate on this in a clearly marked spoiler section of the review) but walked in entirely unaware of what would soon occur. While I'll quickly detail why I believe you shouldn't waste your money seeing Serenity in cinemas, going in blind is the proper way to best experience this head-scratcher of a movie. Knowing absolutely nothing about it aside from the talent involved with the project honestly made the experience all the more interesting as I was perplexed to wonder why in the world this project wasn't scrapped at the scripting stage. At the outset, the story seemed to be a modern take on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, but it then became a thriller of sorts before eventually evolving into something else entirely. I'd say Serenity has an identity crisis, but that's not quite the case. 

It knows what it is, but Knight doesn't reveal what Serenity's actually about until the end. I've heard it said plot-twists can make or break a movie but never seen a late revelation neuter its narrative quite like this. A bonkers twist turns the entire thing on its head and makes you re-evaluate everything you just watched, but not in a good way. Ultimately, this discovery calls the whole plot into question. So what is this game-changer of a twist you ask? I'm happy to tell you.

**Spoiler Warning for Serenity**

When Dill's ex-wife Karen finds Dill, she asks him to take her husband Frank out fishing and push Frank overboard to be eaten by sharks. She requests this of him because she and their son are abused by this man. Dill contemplates the deed over the course of the film but declines several times before eventually agreeing. Meanwhile, there's a character named Reid Miller who's been trying to speak with Dill but regularly misses him by mere minutes. It quickly becomes a recurring gag as the story progresses. Towards the end, Reid finally reaches Dill and shadily tries to give him free product (a fish finder and other materials to help him fish). Dill sees through the deception when Reid accidentally tells Dill that he knows of the murder plot, so Dill demands Reid tell him what's really going on. The audience then learns that everything in Serenity is happening inside of a video game created by Dill's son Patrick in real life.

We learn Dill actually died in the Iraq War and that Patrick coded the game as a way of connecting with his lost father. It's a form of escapism from his troubled life which enables him to "fish with his father again." However, as Patrick's focus shifts from fishing with his dad to murdering his step-father, the game follows suit, and a fantasy scenario ensues where his father can "save him" in the virtual world. It's quite literally wish fulfillment for the young boy, and the game is representative of Patrick's inner thought process. There are some subtle hints towards this, but the twist comes entirely out of left field and renders everything else to follow as inconsequential. Essentially, Dill becomes self-aware of the fabricated reality without realizing it, but Reid's revelation helps him see it the following day for himself.

The focus is then once again drawn to whether Dill will kill Frank or not, but the conflict immediately becomes superficial because the illusion of choice for this character is gone. He's not the one making the decision. He's a video game avatar. His sentience is left largely unclear, but since his dilemma is symbolic of Patrick's struggle, you'd assume Patrick's the one in control. Anyways, the non-playable characters (NPCs) populating the game try to convince Dill he shouldn't kill Frank, but nothing they say dissuades him. In fact, the game and the NPCs sabotage this plot somehow by sending gang members to break Frank's hand so he can't fish. This plot point is incredibly confusing because the audience is aware Patrick is in control of the game, so did Patrick willingly put this obstacle in his own path? That question's never really answered, but it's implied the game did this on its own? Very confusing, I know. Despite this obstacle and many others, Dill ends up embarking on the fishing voyage with Frank and Karen (who comes along to help Frank fish). Another character somehow sneaks onboard and shows up out-of-nowhere as an attempt to adding further weight to this choice. It's treated as though Dill will be punished for following through with the murder, but the audience already knows this is all taking place inside a video game, rendering the stakes meaningless. 

I mentioned earlier that The Old Man and the Sea came to mind while I watched this insane production, and here's why... In the very beginning, there's a specific fish called "Justice" that Dill is desperately trying to catch. Nevertheless, the fish eludes him time-and-time again. So to bring things full circle, they catch Justice on the fishing line and hand the rod to Frank. The fish is putting up a fight, so Frank ends up at the edge of the boat. Anne and Dill release Frank, he falls overboard and is dragged to the depths of the sea to drown. Then, we see Patrick from the computer monitor's perspective. He's holding a knife and contemplating something. He gets up and leaves the room to go LITERALLY kill his step-father. The film has lost ALL subtlety at this point. It's shown that Patrick went to some sort of facility or mental institution. However, we then see the ending from Dill's perspective inside the game. He speaks to Patrick in real life via a payphone somehow... Whatever... At this point, I'd already questioned so much... Patrick tells him they can be together again and the world dissolves before reforming, bringing Patrick into the game. This ending's fairly ambiguous with a wide range of possible implications, but it just seemed like a strange way to end such a sadistic story. 

It's a happy ending which effectively condones violence with virtually no consequences. The characters get what they want, but at no cost in spite of their heinous actions. Imagine if there was a happily ever after for all the characters in Breaking Bad, that's how out-of-sorts this seemed. Not to mention how confused I was by the pivotal twist...

**End of spoilers**

Regarding positives, I'd say the cinematography offers up idyllic imagery. I think I've gone on enough regarding the writing and direction, but elsewhere, the score rarely matched the tone of what was happening onscreen and the acting was less than stellar for this A-List line-up of Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, and Diane Lane. 

Aside from its bonkers twist, Serenity is a dull expedition which capsizes after encountering some troubled waters...

Film Assessment: D-

Throwback Thursday Review: 'Man Of Steel'

This week's Throwback Thursday Review is over Man Of Steel, the film that launched DC's Extended Universe and will be further propelled with this week's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Man Of Steel is an interesting film to review because of the decisively mixed reactions from both critics and the general public and you will soon learn what end of the spectrum I lie on. Just a warning, there will be some spoilers for some major plot points in the film that I feel need to be discussed. Next week I will continue my series of reviews of the Bourne series with the second installment The Bourne Supremacy. In the meantime, I will certainly have a Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice review uploaded very soon.

'Man Of Steel' Review

Man Of Steel is probably one of the most divisive films in recent memory, with critics either hailing it as a masterpiece or labelling it to be a sloppy mess, and the audience's just as evenly split. I'll admit I lie more in the middle ground, as there are elements in Man Of Steel I would consider brilliant and there are portions of the film that irked me, and I feel most problems were with the creative team and not the performances or the technical aspects.

For one, the film has this bleak, dreary, grayscale filter applied for a majority of the lengthy 2 hours and 23 minute runtime that honestly looks like it was ran through some filter on Instagram. Now there is technically "color" in the film of course, but most of the sets, environments, and costumes are in a darker gray, black, or blue color palette that makes the film all the more bleak and dreary. That's another point of discussion altogether, the film attempts to emulate Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy and it's not all too surprising since Nolan produced the project.

Now, I don't mind Warner Bros. trying to emulate their previous success with the Dark Knight Trilogy, which also helps to differ their comic book cinematic universe from Marvel's, but I don't think that everything needs to be so dark and gritty. I think a happy medium of both a dark and light tone would probably work better but Warner Bros. certainly know how to execute a darker, gritty film, and Man Of Steel is that exactly.

Man Of Steel is visually a masterpiece. This is large part to director, Zack Snyder, whose talents mostly lie with visual iconography and not the actual story itself. The cinematography feels very natural and when combined with the editing makes for a smooth viewing experience doing justice to the visual iconography Snyder brilliantly imagined. The film's visual effects are a mixed bag in my opinion. The effects for Superman's powers at times can look very fake, but for the most part seem quite authentic and are well realized. When Superman first gets his suit and flies around for a bit, the effects are remarkable and the cinematography adds to the authenticity incorporating some shaky-cam and gorgeous shots both behind and in front of Superman.

However, there is one brief moment where it is apparently clear a green screen is being utilized. In this brief moment, Superman's flight just seems mismatched with the background and there's a lighting issue where Superman looks darker than the surrounding brighter lighting and it annoys me every time I watch the film. I feel the effects for Superman's strength, heat vision, and X-Ray vision are handled exceptionally well and the sound mixing and editing are also well executed throughout. In particular, Superman's super-hearing and the Krypton technology sound effects are two of the best showcases of the excellent sound design.

One odd sound design choice though was that the weapon utilized by the Kryptonians to attempt to harvest the Earth for a new generation of Kryptonians, the World Engine, sounds like a dub-step cannon. Amidst the subject of sounds, I feel that I must comment on Hans Zimmer's fantastic score. Zimmer manages to create this grand, epic score that seems to be a perfect embodiment of the ideals of Superman but expressed in music.

The performances across the board are quite exceptional, and I have to say that both young actors portraying the younger Clark Kent, Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline, impressed me in their brief screen time. Henry Cavill makes for a very capable lead as Kal-El (Superman), although he's no Christopher Reeves, but he certainly fills all the requirements I think an actor needs to portray Superman. One thing I think he does remarkably well is his facial emoting, where he really sells that he's struggling or frustrated when using his powers and whatnot. Unfortunately, the film doesn't make time to explore the duality and pressures of balancing his normal life as Clark Kent and his super heroics as Superman but that's one element I can't wait to see explored in these future DC films, whether it be Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League.

Amy Adams makes for a solid Lois Lane and actually does quite a bit to drive the story, but unfortunately at times becomes too much of the damsel in distress trope because of her willingness to plunge herself into danger. Aside from those little nitpicks, Lois comes across as a strong, developed female character, whose purpose isn't purely to be a love interest.

Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner both make for great father figures to Kal-El/Clark Kent as Jor-El and Jonathan Kent respectively and you can instantly feel their connection to Kal-El due to the incredible chemistry they have with Cavill and the gravitas of both actors. Diane Lane serves as Kal-El's mother figure as Martha Kent and is terrific in that capacity but she is very much a supporting character that's relegated to a few scenes sprinkled throughout. Laurence Fishburne gets to play Perry White, and I think he was terrific in the small capacity used.

Meanwhile for our antagonists, we have Michael Shannon, who makes for a great villain as General Zod. At times he seems a bit over the top and chews the scenery, not that that's necessarily a bad thing though. I liked that he had a genuinely believable motive and like most great villains believed what he was doing was just. Antje Traue is truly awesome as Zod's lieutenant, Faora, who kicks a lot of butt and is honestly everything the character Captain Phasma should have been in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. 

In summary, I think that Zack Snyder certainly presents a film that's very much style over substance, as the first half of the film is phenomenal but it finds itself in a sticky situation with it's grand finale that I will discuss in great detail soon. The scenes that I enjoyed watching were primarily in the first half of the film when Superman is actually saving people or the flashbacks where he's adjusting to life on Earth. I really like how the film stays primarily in the present day and jumps back to flashbacks to fill in for some crucial parts of Superman's origin story instead of wasting an hour on a young Kal-El growing up on Earth. The story is quite lacking in some moments towards the end and there are creative decisions made regarding Superman that seem out of character for the Son of Krypton that I personally see as an abundance of issues.

The action sequences are all grand and epic in scale but while they are quite awesome, I have a number of issues with a few in particular. One really small nit-pick is that these fights use the most blatant, obvious product placement although I don't see how Kryptonians destroying a Sears would convince anyone to shop there? The fights between Superman and the Kryptonians feature copious amounts of collateral damage, that just seems way too excessive. I understand that two people with these powers would destroy tons of property but the fight between Superman and Zod almost levels Metropolis.

What annoyed me to no end regarding this was that throughout the fight, Superman rarely makes any attempts to stop Zod from destroying any buildings or save any civilians, but rather actually even pushed Zod into some of these buildings. This was amidst a fight where buildings were collapsing. I feel that this interpretation of Superman was pretty reckless and there was tons of collateral damage as a result. The one time Superman did save people during this fight was when he snaps Zod's neck to prevent him from using heat vision to kill people. So yes, Zod's death was a necessary evil but it seems even more out character for Superman to kill someone, regardless of what they've done or plan to do, but this version of the hero clearly doesn't take much issue with cracking necks. The screenwriters should have avoiding putting the character of Superman, whose supposed to have a higher morality, in a position where he's forced to kill his villain. In fact, it's kinda hard to even call this interpretation a true hero and I think that is the film's biggest problem. 

Now to sum all of this up, if someone came and asked me to give a one-word review of Man Of Steel, I'd have to say that it's "meh." It's not great, but it certainly isn't terrible either, it's honestly just okay and I feel that Warner Bros. shouldn't accept something that's passable if they ever hope to truly compete with Marvel's Cinematic Universe. 

Film Assessment: C+