'Captive State' Review

Synopsis: Set in a Chicago neighborhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extra-terrestrial force, Captive State explores the lives on both sides of the conflict - the collaborators and the dissidents.

Runtime: 109 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sci-fi violence and action, some sexual content, brief language, and drug material)

Who should see it? Fans of apocalyptic sci-fi and alien invasion films. 

Directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by Wyatt and Erica Beeney, Captive State is Wyatt's first sci-fi flick since Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Wyatt successfully revitalized the Apes franchise eight years ago, but his efforts here yield mixed results. The idea behind Captive State is actually quite intriguing as Wyatt and Beeney have a strong premise with plenty of unique sci-fi concepts, but it all becomes muddled in execution mostly due to convoluted storytelling.

Conceptually, Captive State offers an exciting spin on alien invasion stories by setting itself a decade after the first contact. At this point, aliens have already integrated themselves into our society as our "legislators," closely monitoring the citizens of Earth with a Big Brother mentality. The invasion's over, but the human uprising against these alien overlords has just begun. Wyatt is more interested in the ideology behind rebellion than the humans leading it though, so characterization is tenuous at best. However, Wyatt excels at building atmospheric tension (huge credit to Rob Simonsen's score), the visual effects are first-rate, and the alien designs stand apart from what's come before. 

The narrative is where everything unravels. Sequences of events are forced together to paint a broad picture of rebellion, but the supposed protagonist is absent for much of the action, so there's very little connective tissue. A prime example of this occurs maybe thirty minutes into the film. Suddenly, the audience abandons the protagonist for an absurd amount of time to watch a group of mostly unfamiliar rebels enacts a scheme. These characters are painted in broad strokes and introduced very quickly, so as an audience member you're left confused about the subplot's relevance to the overarching story. It makes sense later on, but I couldn't shake off the clunky exchange.  

Light characterization aside, the performances across the board are sufficient. Ashton Sanders and John Goodman are both under-utilized as leads, but provide high-caliber performances when all is said and done. Meanwhile, Jonathan Majors, Vera Farmiga, and Kevin Dunn bode well in the ranks of the supporting cast. It's just a shame these actors weren't provided any substantial material to sink their teeth into because that could have easily elevated my interest in the onscreen affairs. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I wasn't invested in the story or characters as a result. 

Captive State certainly has some merit as high concept science-fiction, but Rupert Wyatt squanders most of its potential due to unfocused execution and shallow, haphazard storytelling. I wouldn't mind watching Captive State on cable or a streaming service, but I'd advise against volunteering to be a captive audience member in theaters.

Film Assessment: C+

'Atomic Blonde' Review

Atomic Blonde pits audiences in the thick of the Cold War. Pre-eminent MI-6 agent Lorraine Broughton has been sent into Berlin to work alongside ambiguous agent David Percival and retrieve a list containing classified intel on several secret agents that could compromise them all and potentially prolong the lasting international anxiety.

Atomic Blonde is directed by skilled stunt-coordinator and stuntman David Leitch with Kurt Johnstad spearheading the screenplay based on Antony Johnson and Sam Hart's graphic novel The Coldest City. Leitch has worked on many renowned action films over-the-years including the likes of The Matrix trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Bourne Legacy but he's probably most well-known for co-directing John Wick alongside Chad Stahelski. Earlier this year, Stahelski struck out on his own to direct John Wick: Chapter 2 solo, but now it's Leitch's turn.

Leitch is currently set to direct next year's Deadpool 2, which is deep in the production process at this point (but you never know what could happen with all the director drama as-of-late), and after watching Atomic Blonde I'm fairly confident he'll be able to handle things on his own there. In Atomic Blonde, Leitch turns up the stylistic flourish that propelled John Wick to prominence but the film overall winds up feeling more akin to something like Hardcore Henry, another unique European-driven action film that couldn't help but succumb to the tropes of the genre.

Lorraine may be British, but she's definitely more Bourne than Bond. Leitch takes his years of stunt experience and utilizes it to offer Theron an unwieldy and unrestrained visceral fighting style that's simply thrilling to watch. It's such a relief to be able to see what's happening onscreen in an action movie because much of the last ten years has been dominated by gratuitous shaky-cam. However, the con to this was that Focus Features took note and plastered these sequences all over the marketing. I didn't ever go out of my way to watch an Atomic Blonde trailer. I saw the marketing material for the film almost exclusively in theaters and maybe once or twice as an ad in front of a YouTube video but while watching the film, I felt as though I'd seen nearly all the action already.

There was one brutal, bare-knuckles fisticuff in a staircase that I had not already seen a glimpse of that was so intense, even I felt a little winded when it was all over. As you can probably tell by now, Atomic Blonde rests its hat on the extraordinary execution of its action. I kept hoping something would rise to challenge the action, but nothing ever did.

Atomic Blonde's story is nothing special. I can guarantee you've seen this premise at least a dozen times before. The idea of a list leaking that could jeopardize an entire agency is nothing new and I'd be totally fine with that if the surrounding circumstances were more interesting. Everything about the plotting of Atomic Blonde just felt like every other generic action movie, the only difference being I had no idea why anything happened when it was all over.

In a spy movie you expect a number of double-crosses and surprises, but it was unfathomable to me how the motivations fueling all these characters were incredibly unexplainable. When the movie was over, the friend who joined me at the screening asked if I understood exactly what happened at the end and I was unable to provide an answer. I realized I had absolutely no idea because none of the plotting made a lick-of-sense. Information will inevitably be withheld from you during a spy film, but even with the additional information I couldn't quite piece everything together.

I think even poor plotting can be excused if you still manage to invest yourself in the characters, but I even had difficulty doing that. Atomic Blonde puts an outstanding amount of effort into make the viewer think Lorraine is cool by having her confidently smoking cigarettes, drinking vodka, and kicking butt like nobody's business. Unfortunately, none of that really worked for me as Charlize Theron was as insipid as Scarlett Johansson in Lucy. Theron's performance isn't bad per-say. It's simply soulless. In trying to be cool, Theron played things straight but to such an absurd degree that Lorraine lacks a personality all together. In comparing Lorraine to Johansson's other infamous agent Black Widow, you'll find shades of a complex past buried within both individuals but only Romanov exhibits a shred of humanity. 

Sofia Boutella strides in to redeem herself from The Mummy (2017) and add further credence that her scene-stealing turn in Kingsman: The Secret Service was no fluke. Boutella's French agent's an interesting side character who doesn't have quite enough screen time to fully flesh her character out, but she serves her narrative purpose well.

In the meantime, James McAvoy runs away with another outstanding supporting turn as David Percival. Percival's an unpredictable kooky agent that held his screen presence well opposite other seasoned performers and McAvoy proves his powerful performances aren't coming to an end anytime soon.  

 

Filling out the cast, John Goodman and Toby Jones fulfill the need for governmental entities and Eddie Marsan's Spyglass was a surprising standout. One last interesting thing to note is Atomic Blonde's unabashed use of '80s hits to fill the atmosphere. It's not exactly integral to the story like the soundtracks fueling Baby Driver or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but it's a fun mix nonetheless.

In summary, I think you can wait to catch Atomic Blonde on cable or home media and your money might be best spent seeing some of the diverse selections that have emerged in the past month such as Baby Driver, The Big Sick, Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, or Dunkirk. Atomic Blonde, much like its proverbial heroine, boasts some slick style but can't carry the necessary, underlying substance. The film reminded me of Bond's favorite alcoholic beverage once it was over; shaken around quite a bit, but not particularly stirring.

Film Assessment: C+

'Kong: Skull Island' Review

Nominated For: Best Visual Effects.

In Kong: Skull Island secretive government organization Monarch sets off to explore the uncharted Skull Island, dropping bombs to map the island's terrain, only to have their expedition brought to a screeching halt when a 100 foot ape trashes their helicopter convoy. That ape is Kong of course, who happens to be the largest incarnation of the raging gorilla yet.

Kong: Skull Island is the second entry in Warner Bros. and Legendary's MonsterVerse which kicked off with 2014's Godzilla and is headed towards a monster showdown between these two versions of Kong and Godzilla (the reasoning behind Kong's size-up), and there are plenty of breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout the film hinting towards that confrontation including a post credits scene I highly advise you wait for afterwards. Kong: Skull Island is unique when contrasted to the other Kong flicks, its set in 1973 and takes place almost entirely on Skull Island once the crew arrives (Don't be hopeful for an Empire State Building standoff because you'll be severely disappointed).

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and cinematographer Larry Fong soak Kong's cinematic resurgence in 'Nam napalm to evoke Apocalypse Now's vibrant color palette, leaving Kong: Skull Island's stylistic aesthetic to be one of the film's highlights. On that note, Kong: Skull Island's quite impressive from a technical standpoint. It's got superb sound design and a rousing rock soundtrack but I found the score to be lacking. None of the arrangements from Henry Jackman were particularly memorable, something I found disappointing since I hold Jackman in high regard for his scoring of X-Men: First Class, Big Hero 6, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Captain America: Civil War.

The various creatures brought to life by the team of visual effects artists assembled for the feature are absolutely incredible though, with the great ape standing chief among them all as the film's crowning achievement. Kong manages to simultaneously exhibit inspiration from cutting edge motion capture animation work showcased in recent Planet of the Apes films while paying homage to the look of the model utilized in the 1933 King Kong production composed of rabbit fur, rubber/foam for muscle structure, and a metal mesh skeleton. It obviously looks much better than that original model but I noticed a few similarities when looking at Kong from a distance that I'm sure were intentional. One thing that annoyed me to no end about 2014's Godzilla was how long it took for director Garth Edwards to show the King of Monsters in his full reptilian glory, I understand the visual effects required to render the beast are expensive but consistently playing with your audiences expectations by teasing the beast's emergence only to cut away was downright cruel.

Thankfully, Kong: Skull Island doesn't suffer from this issue as it doesn't take long for Kong to trample onto the scene and Vogt-Roberts lets you back in his glory once he shows up. Kong's fight sequences against the other monsters are magnificent to say the least. My screening was in IMAX 3D and I can say in these moments the experience payed off, largely due to the larger screen and fuller sound, but overall I'm not quite sure it would be worth the uncharge. However, Kong: Skull Island does have story and character vulnerabilities that somewhat drag it down. Admittedly, that's not exactly what one would come to a monster movie like Kong: Skull Island to see but it doesn't hurt to have characters the audience will actually care about. I legitimately can't remember a single character's name and couldn't tell you any character traits beyond their corresponding skill set, appearance, and occupation for a vast majority of the characters.

This largely derives from the screenplay penned by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, and Derek Connolly featuring a story from John Gatins. The script just has too many characters to juggle so the result is that virtually all the characters are underserved. On the flip-side, I was pleasantly surprised how the screenwriters toyed with genre conventions and cliché moments leading to some fantastic situational humor (I'm not even sure I was supposed to laugh at these moments but I relished in the irony). Otherwise, the plot of Kong: Skull Island is fairly paint-by-numbers so don't expect anything too abrupt.

Kong: Skull Island's cast is stacked with plenty of prestigious talent as well as names you may recognize from a genre film or two. Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and Shea Whigham all do the most with what's provided to them but but it's Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly who were able to flip things around and make the most of meager caricatures. Oh and Tian Jing shows up out of nowhere and literally adds nothing of significance to the story just so Warner Bros. and Legendary could shoehorn in an Asian actress and cover all demographics I guess?

Really just about every cast member but Jackson and Reilly are wasted space, something I'm disappointed to say considering their show of talent elsewhere. Something interesting to note though is that Tobey Kebbell has a small live action role and provided the motion capture performance for Kong, along with Terry Notary, similarly to how previous Dawn of the Planet of the Apes costar Andy Serkis was utilized in King Kong (2005). It's funny how the two were rival characters in the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and have become the pillars of motion capture acting today. I rarely see motion capture performance driven films today that don't take advantage of all Serkis and Kebbell have to offer.

If you're looking to take a trip to the theater this weekend, I'd prioritize seeing Logan over Kong: Skull Island. However, if you're looking for a dumb popcorn blockbuster then Kong: Skull Island should suit your mindless monster movie needs. Sadly, the vague strokes of characterization hold Kong: Skull Island back from its true potential but the impressive effects work, adrenaline-fueled action sequences, and stylish visuals help position it to be an entertaining monster flick.

Film Assessment: C B-

'Patriots Day' Review

Patriots Day depicts the events of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013 and the subsequent manhunt for those responsible. Patriots Day is the third collaboration between director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, following up Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor, to depict a recent true story in typical bio-pic fashion, they should totally get a production company up and going called Berg & 'Berg (Just a thought). 

Patriots Day is very unique in the regard it walks the fine line between being a reenactment, a documentary, and an overdramatized depiction of the events. The film could have easily fallen off the tightrope into one of the aforementioned categories in less capable hands but Berg delivers one of the most authentic cinematic experiences imaginable. One aspect I really liked was how Berg and editors Gabriel Fleming and Colby Parker Jr. were able to incorporate actual security camera footage and news reports without compromising the film overall. I'm not sure exactly how accurate the story is but everything that happened certainly felt real, and that's the highest praise I can give Patriots Day, and seemed like a fairly reasonable approximation of the events based on the news reports I remember. 

Every line of dialogue and even the most basic character interactions felt incredibly authentic and that can all be credited to the writers behind Patriots Day's story and screenplay; Eric Johnson, Paul Tamasy, Joshua Zetumer, Matt Cook, and Berg himself. Patriots Day chronicles the events through multiple perspectives, maximizing the emotional connection to these characters, and there will be times while you're watching it where you will wonder how this character could possibly factor into the story but I guarantee every scene thought to be a wasted moment has its payoff down the line. 

The only real shortcomings from the script is that due to the multitude of viewpoints explored many characters feel a tad underdeveloped and Mark Wahlberg's fictional police officer Tommy Saunders feels like a convenient connective tissue tying everything together. In other departments, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' chilling compositions provide an ideal ambiance and Patriots Day's cast is the cream of the crop, with big names aplenty in key supporting roles and relative unknowns filling in the gaps. 

Even though Mark Wahlberg plays a fictional character, he delivers what I'd consider one of his career best performances. Wahlberg has one scene in particular after the bombing that's absolutely phenomenal exploring the PTSD angle to law enforcement, similar to a scene in Deepwater Horizon although under completely different context. 

Sprinkled throughout the supporting cast, Jimmy O. Yang's Dun Meng is one of the film's everyday heroes who will leave a lasting impression, Themo Melikidze and Alex Wolff successfully humanize the bomber brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, while Melissa Benoist is haunting in an interrogation scene as the Tamerlan s wife, surprising because she's typically a bright rosey face as Supergirl. John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, and Michelle Monaghan each deliver admirable supporting roles but as I mentioned earlier are scarcely underdeveloped. 

In summary, Patriots Day could have easily become a propaganda piece but Berg paid the upmost respect to those affected by the bombing and appropriately honored those who shone in Boston's darkest moments. 

Film Assessment: B+

'10 Cloverfield Lane' Review

In 10 Cloverfield Lane an aspiring fashion designer has a few quibbles with her fiancé and runs away. In her frantic getaway, she is involved in a car accident and awakens in a mysterious underground bunker and supposedly everyone above ground has been killed in an extinction level event. That's the setup for this claustrophobic sci-fi thriller.

10 Cloverfield Lane is very intriguing in the sense that the film remained a secret until about two months before it's release when a surprise trailer splashed online and began trending almost immediately. This was in large part because one of the biggest names associated with the project was the producer, J. J. Abrams, who also produced Cloverfield. J. J. Abrams was quite busy working on Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and maintaining a secretive marketing campaign for that film as well so people were so concentrated on Star Wars that no-one had any idea this film was happening since it's fake production name gave no indication it would be related to Cloverfield and since a majority of the film takes place in a bunker it was quite easy to film in secret on a closed set. 

First of all, I think it should be clarified that 10 Cloverfield Lane isn't exactly either a sequel or spinoff to and it's very unclear as to how these films are connected, if they are connected at all although it has been labeled as a "blood relative". Therefore if you go into the film expecting a similar film to Cloverfield you will probably be disappointed, because this is first and foremost a suspenseful thriller and none of the film is shot in the found-footage perspective. 

First time director, Dan Trachtenberg, does a phenomenal job building suspense in the drawn-out scenes where character motives become increasingly more questionable and the viewer is drawn closer and closer to the edge of their seat. The suspenseful atmosphere is only amplified thanks to 10 Cloverfield Lane's chilling score written by Bear McCreary. This suspenseful atmosphere makes a perfect stage for the small cast that will knock your socks off. 

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the more relatable character to the audience as Michelle. She embodies the every day person and her actions are similar to what any one else would do if they woke up handcuffed in an underground bunker. Winstead really stands out in her true moments of fear and terror which she conveys exceptionally well allowing for great juxtaposition with the other two cast members. John Gallagher Jr. is serviceable as Emmet, who came running to Howard and broke his arm trying to get inside the bunker. Emmet is primarily in the film to serve as a bit of comic relief to alleviate some of the tension brewing throughout the film. 

The real star however, is John Goodman. Goodman is exceptional as a twisted, complex character. Howard's very unpredictable and every move will raise some red flags with the other characters and the audience as they begin to question how much of what he says is actually the truth and Goodman owns the creepy vibe his character gives off and pays intricate attention to put every subtle detail in his performance that will leave the audience guessing. 

For those of you who are still skeptical about seeing 10 Cloverfield Lane, be aware that it's completely different from Cloverfield. Don't go in expecting Cloverfield 2 or you will be severely disappointed. If you liked the trailer or like suspenseful thrillers, 10 Cloverfield Lane is perfect for you. In summary, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a perfect matrimony between a exceptionally talented cast and fantastic first time director that manages to deliver a frightening, suspense thriller that will bring you to the edge of your seat.

Film Assessment: A-