Maverick sticks the landing…. Again!

Tom Cruise is one of the last great movie stars still in the business, and probably one of the most bankable stars out there. But when they announced he was making a sequel to Top Gun, a lot of us groaned asking him to leave well enough alone. The original, while an absolute blast to watch (and re-watch) was the result of a unique lightning-in-a-bottle combination of a new on the block Director (Tony Scott), a young actor just starting to become a bona-fide star, a rocking soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer and Kenny Loggins, and some of the best dogfights put on screen.

Watch in IMAX if possible

I had no doubt the new movie would just be a cash grab – and Cruise wouldn’t even get a chance to run! 😉 (Spoiler alert – he does get to run in this one). Thankfully Cruise and Kosinsky (taking over from Tony Scott, may be RIP) knows more about the movie business than the rest of us. Top Gun:Maverick is an absolute joy to watch.

Considering it’s been 36 years since the 1st movie hit the screens, it is a given that a lot of people watching today may not know why Maverick commands so much awe from all the other characters, or why is Goose such a loved character, or Iceman worthy of so much respect. So it’s inevitable that there has to be some ground that had to be retread-ed, but thankfully it’s never excessive, and most of the callbacks are cute (very similar opening sequences with the same music – Danger zone, followed by the Top Gun theme) or reworked (a misunderstanding at the bar between Maverick and Kelly McGillis’ character is kind of inverted here for example). Acts like a cool Easter egg for fans of the 1st movie, and as a fun sequence for newcomers to the series.

Cruise acts his age in this one, still cocky but carrying a world weariness of a man who’s still a Captain when his peers have been promoted to Admiral or more. Val Kilmer who’s sadly battling throat cancer makes an appearance in a mostly non speaking role as Admiral “Iceman” Kazansky, Jennifer Connelly classes up the proceedings as the “admiral’s daughter”, Penny, who’s just referenced in the 1st movie, taking over from Kelly McGillis, and the new gen led by Miles Teller as Maverick’s old partner, Goose’s son, do a really good job in bringing this 80’s movie into the present. A lot of it works much better than the first part and the Dogfights on an IMAX screen are nothing short of jawdropping. While CGI has its own role in movies of today, movies like Top Gun underline how practical effects add such a sense of place to the proceedings.

Baby Goose is a big man now

The wife and I got so much into the Top Gun Zone that we ended up coming home and watching the 1st movie and had a blast seeing it again. See it in IMAX if possible for a truly exhilarating ride.

Some Assembly Required

So this post was supposed to be my review of Avengers:Infinity War, but just like with the movie, I ended up writing so much it had to be split into two posts. This one catalogs the MCU, and the next post (whenever I get around to it) will deal with Thanos.

MCU: Phase 1

Ironman (2008)

10 years back, a little movie called Ironman released and kicked off the Marvel juggernaut that has not only killed off movie slots in Summer for any other AAA blockbuster, it has also all but killed off the DC movie universe as well (though, in all fairness the clowns at DC and WB can take a lot of credit for that). Back in 2008, most of us were not too familiar with the extended Marvel comics universe. I mean sure, everybody knew Spidey and X-men and I had read Frank Miller’s seminal take on Daredevil. Other characters like Hulk, Captain America, etc I knew of, but only tangentially. Ironman was all but unknown to me, considering he was pretty much a B character from Marvel’s Canon. Who would have thunk that a movie helmed by Pete the billionaire MMA fighter from FRIENDS and starring an actor who was just recently released from rehab and had a long history of drug use would earn like 700 million dollars at the box office?

But in a case of art imitating life, RDJ, with his history of alcoholism and drug abuse and also for flashes of brilliant acting especially in Chaplin, owned the role of Billionaire Playboy Alcoholic Tony Stark and his alter ego, Ironman. The movie by itself was a great origin story, setting up the character for many, many sequels, but also introduced something that has come to define a Marvel movie now – the Post credit scene. And when Nick Fury comes out into the light in Tony’s study looking all Samuel L Jackson-y wanting to talk to Tony about the Avengers initiative, they introduced another thing that has now expanded beyond Marvel and cross-polinated into a number of other Summer blockbusters, a Shared Universe. Action movies have never been the same since.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Ironman was followed by The Incredible Hulk, which, even though a competent movie, didn’t exactly meet Marvel’s goal as a reboot to Ang Lee’s Hulk as it didn’t make as much money as that version, and Edward Norton, Leterrier and Marvel having “creative differences” resulted in him getting replaced for The Hulk’s next movie. The dwindling box office returns also resulted in standalone Hulk movies being shelved since. The post credits saw Fury again chastising General Ross for his ham handed techniques and also talked about a team being “Assembled”.

Ironman 2 (2010)

Ironman 2 followed, which was a bit of a drag with Rourke’s iffy Russian accent as whiplash, too many plot lines even though Sam Rockwell tried his best as Justin Hammer and the reveal of Scarlett Johanssen being Black Widow was fun. A dour Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard who had brought a childlike enthusiasm as Rhodey was also a bit of a downer. However, the post credit scene thankfully kicked things out of the park with Agent Coulson heading to the NM desert to find a mysterious object that turned out to be Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thor.

Thor (2011)

Thor was next and even though Kenneth Branagh imbued the movie with some Shakespearian gravitas, this was probably not the best approach for what is basically a space Opera where Marvel retconned the Norse Gods into aliens from another world who rule over the 9 realms including Midgard, aka Earth. The movie did of course give us the gift that kept on giving, aka Chris Hemsworth who like RDJ just owns the part of the cocky Crown Prince of Thunder and you cannot imagine anyone else playing the role now. It also gave us Tom Hiddleston as the scheming Loki, who in another Marvel movie trend of underwhelming villains, stands out as one of the best. The post credits scene shows Professor Selvig, under the influence of Loki (a bad penny always turns up) getting into a SHIELD facility and checking out the Tesseract (hello, Space Stone)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Every team needs a leader, a Captain. Enter Cappy, in his origin movie, set during the World War. Chris Evans, who previously played The Human Torch on the terrible Fantastic Four movies, made for a very earnest and idealistic Cap (true to the character) who always stood up for Truth, Justice, and the American way (Oops, wrong universe, Martha Culpa). The movie goes into greater detail about how the Tesseract can give untold power to whoever wields it and how the Nazi Science officer Johann Schmidt, aka Red Skull plans to use it for his own nefarious purposes (Shield, meet Hydra). Of course, Cappy save the day and “dies” while saving New York. The end see him waking up in 2012 with Nick Fury (he always turns up too) welcoming Cap to the modern world. Post credits has Fury asking him to basically, be an Avenger – cue Avengers teaser.

The Avengers (2012)

The Avengers turned out to be exactly what everybody wanted from a team up of the World’s Finest (Martha Culpa again). Joss Whedon did what was thought to be impossible, come up with the best (as of then) ensemble superhero movie (LXG doesn’t count). Loki was vanquished, the Chitauri were crushed, and Hulk, well, he smashed. The movie also established why Cap was the only person who could lead this disparate group of misfits to victory. The movie also featured the second infinity stone – the Mind stone in Loki’s staff. Post credits showed our heroes, tired but celebrating a quiet moment having some Shawarma, but then, “hey what was this, a second post credit? Who does that? I want to go pee man, except, who’s that huge guy in the throne, why’s he purple, OH MY GOD IT’S THANOS!” Avengers marked the end of Phase 1 and also called time on an Infinity War that was now inevitable.

End of Phase 1, Phase 2 commences… (yeah, we’ve only gotten started)

MCU:Phase 2

Ironman 3 (2013)

Once Phase 1 ended with the super duper hit that was “The Avengers”, the head honchos at Marvel must’ve thought, “how in heck do we top that?”. The right answer, obviously, was that you don’t. Instead you separate the Iron from the Man and make the stakes more personal. You also hand the reins to the writer of the Lethal Weapon series to ensure that the audience is laughing while they’re being thrilled by all the spectacle. While the Mandarin twist was widely derided (I personally loved it), the movie did a great job in bringing Tony back to basics and helping him deal. Post credits was just a funny takeaway with Tony using Banner as his shrink (“I’m not that kind of doctor”)

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Thor: The Dark World tried to undo some of the mistakes from the first Thor movie, but it still suffered from gravitas-itis even though GoT’s Alan Taylor tried his best. Having a lot of the movie centered around Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster didn’t help as she’s phoned her way through the movie. Christopher Eccleston (the Ninth Doctor) was given a role that was far from “Fantastic”, wasted as the Dark Elf Malekith. The only redeeming factor was the appearance of the Aether, aka The Reality Stone. Post credits show Lady Sif and Volstagg handing the Aether over to Taneleer Tivan, aka the Collector for safekeeping.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Once Superhero movies had becomes it’s own genre, directors would obviously have to try and add in a Hollywood twist to make what is essentially superpowered individuals clashing follow a rote formula. and just like how post the blockbuster success of Die Hard, movies were being pitched as “Die Hard on a bus” (Speed), “Die Hard on a ship” (Under Siege), Winter Soldier had it’s own twist – this was the Superhero movie as a cold war thriller. Thankfully, far from being a trope, the movie turned out to be one that even topped the Avengers and stands even today as one of the best in the MCU. It also introduced the mavericks that were the Russo Brothers who had only directed a few episodes of Community and Arrested Development, and a couple of small movies (You, Me and Dupree) before jumping into a AAA movie. Winter Soldier saw Bucky make a (surprise, surprise) comeback as the eponymous Winter Soldier and Cappy coming to the realization that Hydra wasn’t destroyed with the Red Skull, they just had gone dormant and quietly infiltrated SHIELD. Winter Soldier also saw the introduction of the Russo Brothers (Community) into the MCU, and their decision of updating the regular Superhero movie formula by doing the equivalent of a Cold War spy thriller like 3 Days of Condor with Robert Redford himself doing a pivotal role, although Cap is playing the Redford role and Redford playing the villain. Apart from being a really, really good movie, the movie also introduces Falcon and Crossbones to the MCU, and last but not the least, the best Elevator fight scene ever committed to film. Post credits show Baron holding the Scepter from Loki with the Mind stone and then revealing his secret weapons – the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro, aka Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver. Bucky is also shown to be slowly regaining his memory when he visits the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

With Guardians of the Galaxy, maverick director James Gunn (Slither) shows the rest of the world how a space Opera should be done and leaves you “Hooked on a feeling” (Ooga Chaaga!). The movie showed Marvel really shooting for the stars and exceeding any of their expectations, I mean if you can make a movie with a talking Raccoon and a talking tree a super duper hit, then you can turn anything to gold. Perfectly cast with Chris Pratt as the brash, idiotic but hilarious Star Lord (Who?), Zoe Saldana as “Daughter of Thanos” Gamora, Vin Diesel as Groot, Bautista as Drax and Bradley Cooper as Rocket. This movie, more than anything informed how Thor movies would be treated going forward, for the better. It also led DC to do massive reshoots of their Dark Suicide Squad movie to add in more humor, and famously led to a half and half movie that was just terrible. The movie also was the first glimpse of the Power Stone that ends up being housed in Xandar for safekeeping. Post credits just shows The Collector sitting in his sanctum on Knowhere, being mocked by someone from his collection, Howard The Duck.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

And now, another Avengers movie. Thanos and his quest for the infinity stones was still a work in progress so who could be a big enough challenge to bring the Avengers to “Play it again, Sam”? Turns out it’s basically Tony and Bruce who upon retrieving Loki’s Scepter with the Mind stone from Strucker, decide to play God and create an AI construct (yeah this isn’t ending well) to basically prevent crime and mass murder in case the Avengers weren’t around. Except, Ultron (yeah, that Ultron, voiced by James Spader doing an extension of his Red Reddington schtick) as all AIs must, becomes self aware and decides that humanity is the reason behind all wars, crime and mass murder, ergo, vis-a-vis, concordantly humanity needs to be destroyed. Cue Avengers theme, assemble. Directed again by Whedon, this movie was slightly long and clunky in execution (purportedly due to studio inteference). The movie mainly served to introduce the Maximoff twins (Wanda and Pietro) aka Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch who initially aid Ultron against the Avengers since they lost their parents to Tony’s weapons, the Hulkbuster suit, Vision, and Sokovia. Post credits show Thanos getting pissed off at the lack of progress and putting on a newly minted Infinity Gauntlet saying “Fine, I’ll do it myself”. Shivers!

Ant Man (2015)

For a change Phase 2 doesn’t end with Avengers, but with a movie about the smallest superhero ever. Ant-Man cannot even be counted as a B hero like Ironman was, he’s probably an F, but by casting Paul Rudd as Steve Lang/Ant-Man the movie brings oodles of charm and by hiring Edgar Wright as director, that just added oodles of quirk. While Edgar Wright sadly quit during production, replacement director Peyton Reed didn’t end up changing much of the quirky style and brought a certain panache in shooting the action scenes where at any moment the characters may be normal-sized and in the next they are, well, Ant-sized. An action scene inside a suitcase is probably one of the most clever sequences filmed, on par with the “lightning in a bottle” quicksilver scene from Days of Future Past. Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas were great in supporting roles, while Michael Pena, as usual, almost steals the movie with like 2 scenes. Post credits, you ask? Mid credits show Hank Pym (Douglas) showing an upgraded Wasp suit to Hope (Lilly), and in post credits, Cap and Falcon are shown to have found Bucky with his arm trapped in a vice-like object, but they are unable to contact Tony for help because of “The Accords”, and Falcon says he “knows a guy”.

End of Phase 2, Phase 2 commences… (sorry, hope you went to the loo before starting this)

MCU:Phase 3

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

It was back in the 90’s that Guns ‘N Roses sang “We don’t need no Civil War” in their anti-war anthem “Civil War”. But in the world of superhero movies, war is but an excuse to mash a whole (I thought that was a water truck) load of heroes against each other and step back and see the mayhem unfold. Captain America:Civil War, just like Nolan’s Dark Knight, is not just a great superhero movie, it’s a great movie. The Russo brothers have turned a Cap-focused movie into a spectacle that stands tall in the Marvel movie pantheon, second only to Guardians of the Galaxy or maybe their own Winter Soldier. Chris Evans is strong, earnest and stoic and manages to stand out in spite of the plethora of characters in what is supposed to be his solo outing, RDJ carries on with his stubborn jerk-y behavior from Age of Ultron, Tom Holland brings to life the best incarnation of the webhead ever put on screen, but it is Chadwick Boseman’s dignified Black Panther and Daniel Bruhl’s very human villain, Helmut Zemo that almost threaten to run away with the movie. Marvel once again proves how good they’re at long form storytelling by using all the character development from the past movies to inform on where the characters stand and how they will respond to situations thrust upon them. DC need to pick themselves a lot to get even close to where Marvel has built up their shared universe. What a wonderful way to kick of Phase 3 this was! Post credits have Cap heading to “oh my god it’s Wakanda” and Bucky choosing to go into crysleep until a cure is found for his brainwashing, while Peter is shown playing with the Spider watch gifted to him by Tony and figuring out what it can do.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Phase 3 started things off with a bang with Civil War. Here, it takes a turn for the mystical and, well strange with Doctor Strange. Just like Disney took the tried and tested template of “A New Hope” to stunningly successful results with “Force Awakens”, Marvel goes back again to the Stark well for Doctor Strange and end up with another home run. Horror helmer Scott Derrickson brings in the right kind of twisted perspective to this movie where up, down, left and right can be flipped on its head with a wave of a sorcerer’s hands. If Inception blew your mind, this movie will leave you whimpering at the perspective effects. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, and Benedict Wong almost steal the movie, but as it should be, its Bumbledick Cucumbersnatch who anchors the movie and emerges as one of the best new heroes from the Marvel stable. Are new heroes like Dr Strange the way forward? (Foreshadowing!)Post credits show Strange meeting with Thor and Loki (crossover five!) to search for Odin, and Mordo (Ejiofor) taking powers back from Pangborn, saying that Earth has “too many sorcerers”.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017)

I’ve already posted a full blog post about the movie, so here’s the link: https://ascannerclearly.wordpress.com/2017/05/06/the-bunch-of-a-holes-are-back/

Post credits had about 5 scenes – Kraglin takes up Yondu’s telekinetic arrow and control fin, Sylvester Stallone, aka Stakar Ogord reunites with his old teammates (Expendables, in space!), Groot becomes an annoying teenager, Ayesha, the leader of the Sovereign race, creates an artificial being she christens as Adam (Adam Warlock?) to help her take revenge on the Guardians, and the Watchers get bored with their informant on Earth (Stan Lee).

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

Again, here’s the link to the blog post – I had gotten more regular about posting since early 2017 (I have since slacked off this year again 😦 ) – https://ascannerclearly.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/webhead-comes-home/

Post credits had Gargan (Scorpion, also Vaas from Far Cry 3) asking Toomes if he knows the real identity of Spidey but Toomes denies this, and Captain America acts like a goody goody.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Link to the blog post – https://ascannerclearly.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/every-thor-has-his-daeg/

Post credits showed Thor in the Grandmaster’s vessel taking the remaining Asgardians to Midgard, aka Earth, only to be intercepted by a large spacecraft (ooh, foreshadowing again!), and the Grandmaster encounters a group of his former subjects who are, shall we say not so much in awe of him anymore.

Black Panther (2018)

And we’re one step away from the gauntlet. Like I had alluded earlier, late 2017 and 2018 so far have been a lazy period for me, writing wise and I never got around to penning down my thoughts about Black Panther, so here…we….go.

Directed by Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) with the kind of insight a white director could never have brought about this unique story of a Black superhero fighting to save the world – a world that’s (as per popular culture) built by White men, where a Black person was often put down as lazy or inferior. The character of Black Panther was created as a refutation of this urban legend. Chadwick Boseman returns as newly minted King T’Challa of the technologically advanced kingdom of Wakanda, a kingdom built upon a motherlode of Vibranium. Wakanda has always been shrouded in myth, rich and advanced beyond most Western countries, but hiding behind a facade of a third world nation that’s loath to open its borders to both aid or outsiders. A facade that comes crashing down when Eric Killmonger (Coogler’s muse, Michael B Jordan), forcing T’Challa’s hand on whether to continue the facade or to open up Wakanda to the world outside and try to help their fellow man. I don’t know how Marvel keeps doing it but Coogler turns out to be perfect for a movie so charged, balancing the needs of a Superhero movie even when the serious undertones are never far beneath the surface. I’ll leave the more serious discussions about how important a movie is Black Panther to Jelani Cobb’s brilliant article: Black Panther, and the invention of “Africa”

Post credits show Shuri (a scene stealing Letitia Wright) helping Bucky who has presumably completed his treatment for the brain washing he was administered by the Russians.

Phew! That was a long post, and probably an exhausting read as well. If you’re still here, I’ll just leave you with a post credits sequence, so to speak and sum up all the Infinity Stone appearances in the 18 movies so far:

1. The Space Stone aka The Tesseract

First shown in Captain America: The First Avenger, and again in the Avengers and Thor:Ragnarok. Last seen being taken by Loki at the end of that movie before Asgard goes kaboom.

2. Reality Stone aka Aether

Only shown in Thor: The Dark World. Last seen being handed over to The Collector (Benicio Del Toro)

3. Power Stone aka The Orb

Only shown in Guardians of the Galaxy. Last seen housed in Xandar watched over by the Nova Corps.

4. Mind Stone aka Vision (basically)

Shown first in the Avengers, and again in Age of Ultron, Captain America:Civil War, housed in Vision’s head.

5. Time Stone aka The eye of Agamotto

Shown only in Doctor Strange. Last seen with the sorcerer Supreme.

6. Soul Stone

Hasn’t showed up in any of the movies before Infinity War. Location: unknown.

That’s all Folks! Next stop, Infinity!

Escape to Victory

The prison break movie is a long running staple of Hollywood. Escape to Victory, The Great Escape, Von Ryan’s Express are classic escape movies that underline an essential fact of life – Everybody loves a story where the little guy stands up to the man and comes up trumps.

Dunkirk is, in essence the greatest escape that ever happened. Imagine the war to end all wars, more than 300,000 Allied forces trapped on a beach in Dunkirk on the French coast, surrounded on one side by 150 miles of the English Channel and on the other 3 sides by the German army, unable to push back, or to retreat and doomed to perish in a location where one of the Commanders (Kenneth Branagh) says “you can almost see home” from.

Had the evacuation not happened, it would have resulted in the greatest defeat for the Allied forces and would have resulted in a death blow to the Allied cause. Had it failed, depriving Churchill of 300,000 troops he needed to continue the war, we might all be speaking in German today.

Now the setup for this movie isn’t really something you’d imagine Nolan would relish. There’s no science fiction here, no clowns, no timeline changes (you’d think) , heck not even a proper villain (apart from “Ze Germans” who remain an amorphous “them”). It’s a straightforward war story. Even the running time at less than 2 hrs is hardly Nolan-like. But this perhaps resulted in Nolan stripping down his patented movie making formula down to the barest bits, he has previously used silences as a dam against the storm of action his movies were known for; here silence engulfs the entire movie. You can literally count the amount of dialog in the movie on your hands. He also manages to play with the timeline a bit for dramatic effect in what a reviewer called, “Nolan-linear narration”.

The movie is divided into 3 distinct timelines that are interspersed – Land (1 week), Sea (1 day) and Air (1 hour). This timeline mashing results in some moments that may be initially confusing (the same character appears in 2 different places at what seems to be the same time, the same scene shown from multiple perspectives a la Rashomon, or more recently, Yuva/Aayudha Ezhuthu, etc.), but it all adds up to a Nolan experience unlike the ones before. This movie is like the Tumbler from The Dark Knight, only stripped down to just the 4 wheels and that massive engine.

This stripped down narrative, and a cast of mostly young boys (including a surprisingly good Harry Styles) results in you not being able to really tell one character from another but you somehow end up caring for what happens to them. It’s like you realize that these young soldiers need to “Live today to Die Another Day” like James Brosnan Bond once said. They need to risk their lives in other theaters of war so that we can have the world we have today.

The Land portion which tells the story of the 8 day evacuation has the largest cast of characters – newcomer Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles, Kenneth Branagh and James D’Arcy (Jarvis from Agent Carter) all trying to figure out how to get off the beach or how to ensure the soldiers are evacuated from the beach. Since the Channel isn’t too deep destroyers and the like can’t come in and rescue soldiers by the ship load, and with the war going on multiple fronts, most of the Navy ships have been redirected “elsewhere”. The only silver lining was that the German high command decided to halt their advance to take down the stranded Allied forces in Dunkirk and let the Luftwaffe pick them off slowly on the beach. The Luftwaffe didn’t have an easy job of this due to weather conditions and sorties by the RAF. This allowed the Allied forces the time to execute Operation Dynamo. More than 400 civilian boats from the English coast were commandeered in making quick trips across the Channel, and rescuing however many soldiers they could carry, while being protected from the Luftwaffe by the RAF planes. This brings us to the sea part of the equation where Mr Dawson (the great Mark Rylance who brings his brand of quiet dignity to every role he plays), his son Peter and his hand, George decide to pilot their boat themselves instead of letting it being piloted by the Royal Navy.

The air part of the story, set over an hour is headlined by Tom Hardy (again in a mask). The hour signifies how each sortie had to be restricted to an hour due to the fuel capacity of the Spitfire aircraft.

A Nolan movie can’t be completely described without talking about the sound design by Hans Zimmer, and the 70mm IMAX photography by Hoyte Van Hoytema. Zimmer, known for his foghorn style music that hammers the tension of the situation into you, dials the volume down a tad here,perhaps mirroring the minimalistic approach by his director. But his sound is still relentless and manages to ramp up the tension to almost unbearable levels, helping underline the terror, the sheer exhaustion the soldiers would have felt on that beach, the civilians on their boats, and the RAF pilots in their Spitfires. The camera work is equally breathtaking, the aerial dogfight scenes especially glorious and disorienting at the same time. Almost 90% of the movie was shot on native IMAX cameras, making IMAX really the only format in which you should be watching the movie, even if we don’t have 70mm IMAX theaters here in India.

The Zimmer sound, the van Hoytema camera, the fog of War, the Sounds of Silence, never before has Nolan really harnessed all the tools at his disposal in such a cohesive way. If Dunkirk doesn’t net him that elusive directing Oscar, I don’t know what will.

This Mummy should’ve remained Mum

With Shared Universe movies like the Marvel and DCEU movies and even the Monsterverse from Legendary and WB making Mucho Dinero, everyone and their Mummy (heyo!) is out to cut them a slice of that pie. Universal, with their drawer full of famous creepy-crawlies like the Mummy, Wolfman, and Frankenstein had a unique opportunity here to setup a Shared universe of Villains instead of heroes that everyone else was doing.

While the idea was decent, greenlighting a big budget movie with the agenda of setting up a new series and then casting Tom (“Young man”) Cruise runs the risk of the overall agenda getting overshadowed by the Superstar persona that is Tom Cruise. Sadly, that is exactly what happens here. Yes, Tom Cruise does a lot of running as usual [Everybody runs! 😉 ] 

When the movie was announced and the trailers came out, it appeared like the movie would be taking the franchise back to its horror roots. Even though Tom Cruise and his now infamous screams were present throughout the trailers, the premise with a scary, female Mummy seemed intriguing at the very least. Sadly it wasn’t to be.

Cruise stars as Nick Morton (basically an a-hole version of Brendan Fraser’s lovable rogue character from the first Mummy reboot), who along with his army ranger buddy (Jake Johnson from New Girl, who is so much better than this movie) steals a map from an archeologist he had a one night stand with (Annabelle Wallis) and hunts around wartime Iraq for a secret Egyptian tomb looking for treasure. Of course instead of treasure, they actually stumble upon a “beware who shall pass” type tomb housing an ancient evil (a scary Sophia Boutella) who proceeds to wreak havok on the modern world.

But, this is a Tom Cruise star vehicle, so naturally Nick Morton dies but comes back to life as he’s cursed by the Mummy and she also wants to mate with him so that the God Set (who actually was the Egyptian God of storms, violence and disorder, but here they conflate him with Satan and make him pretty much the actual devil) can reincarnate in human form and they can rule the world together. Cruise hogs the entire movie and ensures he has more screen time than the Mummy in question turning it from the scary thriller the trailers suggested into “Mission Impossible 25: Jack Reacher goes to London by way of Iraq”.

The movie’s problems are compounded by a subplot involving Dr. Jekyll (Russel Crowe) who heads an organization called Prodigium that hunts monsters who is trying to stop the Mummypocalypse from coming to pass. This whole tertiary subplot was added solely as connective tissue to the Dark Universe and to setup the next movie (rumored to be Bride of Frankenstein to be released in 2019 and could possibly star Angelina Jolie with Johnny Depp as the Invisible man and Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster already cast for later movies). Newbie director Alex Kurtzman was clearly not upto the herculean task of spinning all these threads into anything approaching coherent movie, and with rumors of micro-managing by Cruise, it is no wonder that the movie ends up being the mess it is. The effects are competent as usual, and a few jump scares for the horror lovers are basically all the good there is in the movie.

Unfortunately for Universal, this Mummy delivers a stillborn Dark Universe.

A (Wo)man for all Seasons

The DCEU frankly has been in a rut for some time now. While Man of Steel was a very good take on the Last son of Krypton, the movie found a fair amount of detractors who didn’t like the overall bleak tone of the movie and Supes being so cavalier about loss of civilian life. Batman vs Superman was a convoluted mess and “Marthagate” didn’t help things. Then came the supposed light at the end of the tunnel, Suicide Squad, but we all know how that turned out – Studio intervention turned what could have been a gritty, superpower enhanced black comedy into a weird amalgamation of 2 different movies.

The only bright spot in all of these was the extended cameo of Wonder Woman in BvS that pretty much stole the movie from the title characters. As Diana from Themyscira and as her alter-ego Diana Prince, Gal Gadot seemed pitch perfect and the Cello-heavy theme by Zimmer and Junkie XL gave you goosebumps like the first time you heard John Williams’ Star Wars theme, or his Superman theme (Sidebar: The Wonder woman theme is my current ringtone). My anticipation for the standalone Wonder Woman movie was sky high.

But as they say, the night is darkest before dawn, and reports of reshoots and studio interference started trickling out. People in the know were saying that the movie was “a mess” and I started having flashes of Wonder Woman claiming that Hippolyta’s middle name was Martha!

However all the trailers (and there were so many of them) were excellent and early buzz and initial reviews were all overwhelmingly positive (especially from my brother and cousin) so I went in today with a lot of hope.

The movie kicks off in the present when Bruce Wayne sends Diana Prince the original of the WW1 photo that he showed her in BvS. The photo causes her to flash back to her childhood on the magical island of Themiscyra being brought up as the child of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Trained in fighting in secret over the years by her aunt, Antiope (a terrific Claire Underwood, I mean Robin Wright), she gets a glimpse of the outside world when Steve Trevor from British Intelligence crashes his plane past the “bubble” that surrounds Themyscira to prevent the outside world from trickling in. From Trevor she learns of the “War to end all wars” aka WW1 being fought all over the world and how millions of people have died with even more to die unless the Germans agree to an armistice. Diana heads back with Steve to the “real world” to try and help stop the war and ends up learning things about herself and about the humans who may not always be deserving of her protection.

Gal Gadot shines from the first frame to the last as the Stranger in a strange world and kicks ass like nobody’s business. Watching her stride into battle with nary a flinch and staring down cannons without blinking brings goosebumps to your skin and a lump in your throat to see such an iconic character brought to glorious life and that too by DC, which has faltered badly in their last 2 outings. Chris Pine is understated and charming as the spy that would dare to love an Amazon. The supporting cast including Ewan Bremner, Said Taghmaoui, and Lucy Davis are given short but very impactful roles, each given enough to shine.

Let me also talk about the direction. Considering this was the first time a Female superhero led movie was greenlit by a major studio (we’ll just pretend that Catwoman never happened, thank you), it was important to get a director who would be able to bring this character that’s been a source of inspiration for so many, both women and men without putting the character down. Patty Jenkins (Monster) came out of left field, especially because there are so few women directors and noone has been given the reins of such a huge summer tent pole like Wonder Woman. Thankfully it turned out to be a serendipitous decision as she brings so much heart to the dramatic beats, the quiet moments with long dialogues and yet doesn’t shy away from the big action scenes as well. The only issue I had was with the muddled third act that tried to do a bit too much too fast. My only other complaint would be that I wanted more scenes of the Amazons kicking ass.  But Wonder Woman as a movie is a huge triumph for the character and for the DCEU. I really hope they can show similar improvement on Justice League and further movies as well.

Let me leave you with the kickass movie theme which Patty Jenkins used to great effect at key moments to really amp the audience up

The bunch of A-holes are back!

At a time when Marvel could do no wrong, when the riskiest movie they had done, “The Avengers” had turned out to be a Universe-eating hit, they announced a movie about a little known (outside of the comic book faithful) bunch of heroes called the Guardians of the Galaxy. This seemed way out there even for a studio that had done successful movies about a Norse God and a giant green rage-monster, because the Guardians had a dorky hero, a green heroine, a talking Raccoon and a walking tree which only said 3 words, “I am Groot”. As it turned out it was one of the standouts of Phase 2 and a massive hit to boot. The sheer impact of Guardians’ unlikely success can best be summed up by director James Gunn’s statement – “If I had a penny for every time someone told me the movie won’t work, I’d have….roughly the same amount of money made by the movie”.

So now Phase 2 is over and Phase 3 already had “way out there” movies like Captain America: Civil War, Dr Strange which really took the Marvel movies to the next level in terms of visual storytelling and now Guardians suddenly didn’t seem all that novel anymore.

So what does returning director James Gunn do for Vol 2? He mixes things up by splitting the team up, forcing new groupings such as Yondu, Rocket and Groot, or Nebula, Gamora, Peter and Drax. On the surface this seems like the clichéd approach taken by most sequels and has been tried in so many of them, most recently in Star Trek:Beyond to rather mixed results.

But in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, this actually becomes a boon in that it gives characters like Rocket a lot more screen time and fleshed out their characters so much more. Said fleshing makes this a much more emotional outing for the a-holes but it doesn’t lose the trademark twisted humor that quickly warmed audiences to these quirky characters.

Just like Vin Diesel’s other megahit of this year, this movie is also about “Family” (cue mental image of SRK with outstretched arms and “constipated romance face”) – Peter’s search for his family, aka Starman dad, Gamora and Nebula’s search for each other (after a few attempts to kill each other), and the entire team discovering that they’ve always had Family – each other. Now this may sound SRK level corny but it works really well given the irreverent tone of every character and the movie manages to be as much of a laugh-a-minute riot as  the first movie.

Kurt Russell who plays Ego the living planet, and also Peter’s deadbeat dad (sadly the Hoff wasn’t his dad as he had hoped) is excellent, and so is Elizabeth Debecki who plays Aisha, the high priestess of the Sovereign race who are after the Guardians due to something that Rocket stole from them.

We also have some stellar cameos like Howard the Duck again, Jeff Goldblum who was seen in the Thor:Ragnarok trailer, and Sly Stallone himself as the leader of the Ravagers, Stakar, making this a reunion of sorts for Tango and Cash. Michelle Yeoh and Ving Rhames also make short appearances as other Ravager leaders forming a sort of Expendables within the MCU(there are rumors that they may spin off into their own movie)

But it is Drax and Baby Groot who really steal the movie, which is ironic considering that Dave Bautista and Vin Diesel are 2 actors who will never win any acting awards. But these are 2 excellent characters that just knock it out of the park each time the camera is on them.

The opening fight scene cum opening credits is a Marvel (ahem) of innovative storytelling that focuses completely on Baby Groot grooving to Peter’s 80’s tunes while the rest of the team get their collective asses kicked by an octopus-looking monster.

This is the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year. Must watch.

PS – the awesome mix is back baby, and Vol 2 is as good as Vol 1. There are also 5 bonus scenes at the end so make sure your bladder is emptied at the “strategic” intermission if you’re watching it in India, or hold on to your butts as Sam Jackson likes to say,  if you’re watching it anywhere else.

All hail the Kong!

“Shared Universe” – one of the buzzwords that came out as a consequence of the superhero trend that Hollywood has latched on to. Ever since Nick Fury sat Tony Stark down and explained the “Avengers Initiative ” to  him in a post-credits scene (there’s another of those buzzwords), theater goers have had to plan their bathroom breaks well in advance in order to be able to wait till the credits finish rolling and a short teaser drops that connects the movie to the next in the series, building towards that shared universe.

When 2014’s Godzilla came out, I thought it would be a lazy attempt to cash in on the reboot craze or at best to makeup for Roland Emmerich’s horrendous Godzilla movie from the 90’s. While it made mucho Dinero, and was critically acclaimed I remember being left cold by it. The acting was mostly pedestrian except for the excellent Ken Watanabe and the whole “Get out of the way humans, let the monsters fight” thing was a bit boring. I mean, sure these Kaiju movies are all about sitting back and watching building-sized monsters kick ass, but hey I still need some human agency in my movies. Throwing in the standard toddler going around playing oblivious to whole cities falling around it cliche doesn’t cut it for me.
Kong:Skull Island from the get go looked much more interesting even though I was skeptical about Legendary and WB creating their own Monsterverse around these legendary Kaiju. The trailers were awe-inspiring, the cast very appealing and they even had an Indie director in Jordan Vogt-Roberts who had never made a big budget entertainer, which Hollywood has found of late is a sure shot winning formula (Godzilla’s own Gareth Edwards also had his start the same way and so did Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow, both of whom have graduated to making Star Wars movies).

Anywho, back to the 30,000 pound gorilla in the room. Skull Island doesn’t waste time and gives you a good eyeful of Kong right off the bat and then takes you to 1973 to the final throes of the Vietnam War, where the shadowy organization, Monarch (also seen in Godzilla) is hunting MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) on an uncharted island called, well, Skull Island (d-oh!). Monarch, headed by Randa (John Goodman) convinces the US government to insert them into a land mapping expedition to the area and sends in a Military escort led by Nick Fury himself (Samuel L. Jackson) playing Col.Packard. As the US withdrew gradually from Vietnam, while the rest of his crew look forward to returning home to their families, Packard jumps at the chance for some more action.

And find it he does in the form of the titular ape who shreds through an entire squadron of helicopters like they were so much Swiss cheese in one of the most spectacular setpieces in the movie. The rest of the movie deals with how the survivors band together only to find even worse horrors like a giant Spider, birds that make off with and eat people, savages, monsters from the deep, and worst of all, the evil within us.

Where even someone as accomplished as Peter Jackson chose the much walked road in remaking Kong, Director Vogt-Roberts blazes his own trail with a screenplay that owes more than a little to Apocalypse Now and the book it was based on, Heart of Darkness. Even more notable is the innovation he imbues into the minute-to-minute action. A scene where a camera strobe light is used in a unique way to telegraph a monster attack will have you marveling at the audacity of the director. His is a talent to watch out for – as long as he doesn’t get branded as a visionary after this movie and goes down the Zack Snyder path, that is. 😉

A Kaiju movie doesn’t usually give scope to the actors, but thankfully all the actors here acquit themselves well. Hiddleston as the ex-SAS tracker is understated, Brie Larson anchors the movie around her, Jackson is great as the Kurtz stand-in, John C Reilly is hilarious and poignant, but it’s Shea Wigham in a small role as one of Packard’s grunts who runs away with some of the most quotable lines from the movie.

In order to give full justice to the humongous creatures brought to vivid life by the wizards at ILM and given glorious voice by the Jedi army from Skywalker Sound, make sure to watch the movie in the biggest screen possible.

Sit down, sit back, and watch ’em Roar!

Pro-tip – wait till the end of the credits for an Avengers initiative-like scene that sets up the next couple of movies.

Get off my lawn bub!

When I heard that James Mangold was doing another Wolverine movie, I remember thinking to myself “meh”. Not because I think he’s a bad director – I loved most of his earlier movies, right from Cop Land to Walk the Line, and 3:10 to Yuma. Heck, even Knight and Day has risen in my esteem since I watched it’s execrable remake, Bang Bang. 

But in my opinion, The Wolverine wasn’t all that. Of course having come towards the end of a jam-packed superhero season in 2013 probably didn’t help but I felt Mangold who is at his roots a “Western” genre director hadn’t exactly bridged the long shots and pauses which are a hallmark of a Western, with the awe and bombast of a big studio Superhero tentpole. This left the movie in a weird limbo where it was neither here nor there. The staging of the action setpieces left a lot to be desired as well.

Long story short, meh was what I was thinking while going in to the theater today in spite of the glowing reviews. I’m glad to be proven wrong here as this is the best Superhero movie of the year and may just end up being one of the best movies of the year. 
Logan sees our favorite Canadian (apart from Trudeau) inexplicably as an old man eking out a living as a limo driver in New Mexico in the year 2029. His healing capacity all but gone thanks to a case of Adamantium poisoning, he tries his best to stay away from trouble and takes care of a dementia-afflicted Professor X with the help of the albino tracker mutant Caliban South of the border. This is a dystopian future where mutants are all but extinct and a new mutant hasn’t emerged since 2004.

Hard as he tries to avoid it, trouble seeks Logan out in the form of a Mexican nurse, Gloria who seeks out the “Wolverine” to escort her “daughter” to a mythical mutant eden in Canada. By now you’d be forgiven for thinking “So far, so ‘Children of Men’ “. But the child, Laura turns out to be a Adamantium enhanced mutant herself with bad guys from Alkali Lake hot on her heels. 

This leads Logan on an epic road trip to escort Laura to the promised land which forms the rest of the narrative. 

In terms of feel, the movie feels closest to Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma with a relentless feel of doom closing in on our protagonists. Said doom is given human form by Boyd Holbrook who gives the movie what most Marvel movies lack – an engaging and grounded villain.

Logan is not a pleasant movie to watch, taking pride in its hard R rating with human beings getting sliced and diced in gory detail and a relentlessly depressing tone, but somehow Mangold manages to engage you in every frame. He has finally found that balance between the needs of a Western and a summer tentpole. He also manages to throw in a few homages to the all-time Western classic, Shane with several narrative parallels with the Alan Ladd epic. 

Hugh Jackman gives all he has got in what is sure to be one of the biggest upsets when he will inevitably not be nominated for an Oscar this year. He has brought the character of Wolverine to life in several movies over the past decade, but never has he been so vulnerable, conveying the dichotomy of the man who could never die, but who has been wanting to from the beginning. Patrick Stewart is poignant in his role of the mutant with a mind classified as a WMD by the government, and yet unable to control said mind anymore. But it’s the young Dafne Keen who walks away with some of the best scenes of the movie. She reminds you of the breakout role by Chloe Moretz in Kick-Ass in all the best ways. 

This is appointment cinema of the best kind. Do not miss it.