'The Martian' Review

Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Actor; Matt Damon, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.

The Martian is a phenomenal film and honestly one of the best movies I have seen all year! The Martian has an incredible cast, great visuals, production design, writing, directing and a compelling story. If I were to compare The Martian to the more recent space films Gravity and Interstellar, I would say I preferred it better than both. I wasn't really a fan of Gravity but I really did enjoy Interstellar and I think one of the things I loved about The Martian was the light tone and the humor in what should be a dark, desperate situation. It was a great contrast and something that was definitely missing from Gravity and Interstellar as both of those were darker films. However despite the light tone, the film was aware of when it needed to be serious and when Mark Watney, the astronaut stranded on Mars, was in a grave situation the film went to that dark place when necessary.  I really liked watching Watney adapt to all of the challenges that can happen in space and see him work to do what can be considered by many to be impossible. the way the story was crafted kept the film interesting and I was never bored despite the somewhat long runtime. Also there are a few fun references to Lord of the Rings and one to Iron Man that caught me by surprise as I didn't really expect the references but I did enjoy them. Ridley Scott did a great job bringing all of the elements of this film came together to make it quite enjoyable. The visuals were very beautiful yet felt real and at times I forgot the film wasn't actually filmed on Mars, which goes to show how great the production design, cinematography, and visual effects came together to create a realistic immersive film experience. The cast were all incredible and worked quite well together on screen but the standout was definitely Matt Damon. It was incredible to see him act alone and really convey what it would be like to wake up stuck on a planet far away from home. Damon did a great job channeling the attitude of the everyman astronaut that the audience can root for. I was very impressed with his performance but he had an incredible supporting cast that all worked well together and never overshadowed Damon. The supporting characters never felt like they were invading the story or felt unnecessary each really adding to the compelling story about trying to bring a man home. The all star cast composed of Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, and Chiwetal Ejiofor really all added to the experience and created interesting supporting characters that felt necessary to the story. Overall, The Martian is an incredible must see film. If you feel that it looks too similar to either Gravity or Interstellar I can tell you that it is a completely different film with a different story, set of circumstances that I prefer to the latter.

Film Assessment: A-

'Fantastic Four' (2015) Review

I will admit I have been concerned about how this film would turn out from the beginning with rumors of very troubled production, the fact that they were changing tradition and cast a black actor as Johnny Storm but failed to make his sister Sue Storm the same ethnicity instead saying she's adopted, the look of Doctor Doom, and the fact that this is the only incarnation of the Thing not to wear a pair of pants. So I went into this film with very low  expectations, especially after seeing the dreaded reviews but tried to remain optimistic since sometimes I don't agree with the majority of critics but sadly that is not the case here. This reboot is a jumbled mess but the sad thing is that it's apparent the trouble comes from behind the camera. The story is incoherent with no theme or central message, the tone of the film proved to be very inconsistent, and the script was ridiculous at times. This movie is very boring and almost entirely chocked full of exposition with little to no action. It also takes a team who are usually depicted in a light setting and tries to mimic the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy by having a darker tone but this proves to be very unsuccessful. There are specific scenes or gags in the film that you can tell screen writers wrote to be intentionally funny but it doesn't really come across in the dark setting. I'm unsure if 20th Century Fox or Josh Trank is to blame for what has occurred because there are various conflicting reports. Trank even tweeted last evening that a year ago he had a great film in mind that was ruined due to studio interference. This does seem likely since he was practically removed from the project and there were many reshoots done but in the end it does't matter since it's very unlikely there will be a sequel. I will admit there are a few aspects I enjoyed about the film. There were many great concepts that just seemed to be developed poorly, the cast was terrific, and the visual effects looked amazing. The cast is very talented and each gave admirable performances with what they were given. I particularly enjoyed Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Michael B Jordan, and Kate Mara in their respective roles. Miles Teller made a very convincing Reed Richards and had great chemistry with Jamie Bell who did quite well in the role of Ben Grimm. One of my biggest complaints about the film prior to seeing it was the look of the Thing and I must say that I have changed my opinion for the most part. I did like the CGI look of the Thing that was much more expressive than the 2005 adaptation but I still think it's ridiculous that the Thing didn't have pants. All of the other team members were given some form of a suit except the Thing. Unfortunately Michael B Jordan and Kate Mara, who played Johnny and Sue Storm, didn't have much to do in the film and there was so much potential to explore their adoptive sibling relationship in this adaptation that was simply ignored. Despite the good performances almost none the the actors really had good chemistry or worked well as an ensemble cast like for example The Avengers cast as these actors seemed to work better independently other than off of one another. Toby Kebbell portrays the film's villain Victor Von Doom, a while back it was reported he would be an internet blogger with a different name but I assume they reverted back after fan backlash, and he does a decent job but once he is transformed into Doctor Doom the character is ruined. He has absolutely no motivation, looked ridiculous, and is simply a stereotypical powerful villain that must be stopped because he wants to destroy everything. I did really like most of the visual effects though, especially the effects used for the Fantastic Four's power set. Throughout the film there are many cool conceptual ideas that weren't quite able to flourish for some reason that might work more effectively in a sequel. Overall, I will admit the film wasn't awful but it wasn't good either, it was just "alright". I do believe that with the proper guidance a successful sequel could be made thanks to the talented cast but I doubt it will even be greenlit. If you were remotely interested in the Fantastic Four at all, I'd advise that you go see either Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation or Ant-Man as better substitutes for a fun action film. 

Film Assessment: F