Recent Viewing Part IV

...well she isn't...

...but jokes are.

NP: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS dir. J.J. Abrahms

Had the urge to re-watch this after just having seen Solo: A Star Wars Story... and I can't tell you how much I wanted the new Solo theme to appear whenever Harrison Ford was on screen. Chewwie's too. It was almost frustrating!

But then, that theme has been stuck in my head since I first heard it. Too fresh in my mind, I guess.

Looks gorgeous.

I'd like to see it for myself.

I know you are a serious person, so I understand your point, yet I thought it was often mindblowing to see these batshit (pun intended) people climbing, flying, biking, ravelling, ... those fantastic places.

I agree about Willem Dafoe, what he says is often the result of not enough oxygen it appears, and thus the texts are often a bit stupid. He talks about mountains as if they are alive and have brains. But yes, the whole things has a bit a floaty air over it.

However, the images are spectacular. The camera flies around summits, and through cravasses, turns around pointy towers of stone, all creating vertigo from your chair. It's also quite varied, with fine shots of ski areas and the sad mass queueing at Everest. Lots to see and I can only eny the adventurous who dare to tackle such endeavours. i'm too scared for that and prefer a regular hiking path.

Just came back from JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, btw.

I really, really wanted to like this film, since I'm a big fan of Bayona, but alas I found it even more disappointing than JURASSIC WORLD. Just came back from an IMAX screening here in Norway. There are 4-5 good scenes, where the Bayona touch shines through -- whether his gothic horror-like style (A MONSTER CALLS, EL ORFANATO) a or his brilliant melodrama skills (LO IMPOSSIBLE). But beyond that, it's a messy affair with shallow, stereotypical characters. No ingenuity in the action tableaux, no awe & wonder.

It's not a bad film -- like WORLD, it stil works as a reasonable "creature feature" -- but it had so much more potential.

The score was -- predictably -- absolutely dreadful, and at least 75% responsible for my disappointment. Giacchino has two tricks -- either very simplistic, big chord leaps (rather than defined melody lines) or endless ostinati, and this is on display here yet again. The few references to Williams themes (fewer than in WORLD) were mostly hokey and unsophisticated in terms of how they appeared. I can only imagine how much more involved I'd been if Bayona had been allowed to bring along Velazquez for this film.

My suspicion is that Colin Trevorrow's damp hand has prevented this from being the visionary Bayona film it could have been. At least I want to blame Trevorrow. But in a way, it also says to me that perhaps Bayona is not an action auteur; he works better in other forms of cinema.

No, feel free to make your own judgements. But I've heard disparaging reviews even from Giacchino fans, so that's perhaps worth more to you.

Captain Future: Space-Emperor of Terror / Der Herrscher von Megara (1978)

I bought the German BluRay some time ago and now I actually revisited my avatar hero. Cool space ships, cool aliens, simple but functional stories and an embarrassingly machismo protagonist.
Anyway, there is a fiery sea of magma in that episode and a complex of buildings, protected by a force field, that eventually collapses. Where have I seen that again?

Volker

Yes, while it's still a good show, there's something 'off' about the second season. But at least I'm happy that [spoiler]Anthony Hopkins is back; he can carry anything all on his own[/spoiler].

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

It's pretty lousy. Most of its plot is ripped straight from The Lost World, the new characters are either forgettable (the villains) or annoying (the sidekicks). Chris Pratt looks stoic, Bryce Dallas Howard screams a lot. There isn't any tension or memorable set pieces.

Giacchino's score does make an impression in a few places, especially when the chorus kicks in. The sound effects often obscure the score though.

I totally disagree. There's no reason why creature features can't be good franchises. It's not all about the plot, but how it's staged and whatever trademarks the director brings to the table. That being said, I'm not thrilled with the way the JURASSIC franchise is heading. They're expanding it and going in bizarro directions. I would much have preferred a SMALLER story; i.e. ONE person trying to survive in a dino jungle. There's actually a good story to be told about the boy who survived for weeks in JP3, but obviously it would need to be recast as the actor is all grown up now. But something like that would be infinitely more interesting than what they're doing with it now, under Trevorrow's damp hand.

Annihilation

This is one of the best movies I've watched this year. Although I enjoyed reading the quite intricate and well-argued theories about the movie's meaning, the visceral dread this movie leaves you with is enough for me. It resonates on both a primal and intellectual level. Terrific.

It was very weird and very boring. No wonder they didn't want to release it in the cinema outside of the US.