Trekking Into Darkness

My familiarity with Star Trek is unfortunately, very much restricted to the recent feature films and naturally I'm not in any position to understand whatever allusions to the TV Series that may or may not have been in the J.J Abrams' series.

I massively enjoyed 2009's Star Trek. From the breakneck pacing, the casting, Giacchino's score, and yes, even the lens flares. So naturally, expectation was high for a second outing.

Star Trek Into Darkness follows the crew of the enterprise facing one of their own agent, a man named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) who held a personal vendetta against Starfleet. Driven by very much the same emotion USS Enterprise's Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) decides to take up arms against Harrison, an act fully sanctioned by the Starfleet leader, Marcus.  However, Harrison turns out to be not the man they thought he was, and there is a far more sinister plan abound.

Retaining the first film's wonderful breakneck pacing, this Trek opens rather spectacularly with an exciting action sequence on an alien planet which put Mr. Spock at the heart of an exploding volcano which seemingly will become his final resting place. But of course, Kirk, once again break all the rules to save his (now) pointy eared buddy.  Their dynamic was the heart of the first film and in my opinion, the most interesting thing from the first film. Here, that dynamic works wonderfully in setting up the film's climactic scene.

The action sequences are very well staged, and the team seems to be getting very confident. One change, I enjoyed the most has to be the new "warp effect" which distorts and elongate the Enterprise just before it jumps into warp, leaving trails of lights , like a slingshot.

Not so successful is the introduction of Carol Marcus, General Marcus's daughter who joins the enterprise to perform an investigation of its cargo. To be honest, I think her existence is solely so they could put the infamous "lingerie scene" that was in one of the trailers.

SPOILER!

The film's second and third act are where things start to steer off course, despite the emotional climax. The revelation of General Marcus's sinister plan which sets him up as the film's villain, which needs to be defeated by The Enterprise's Crew with help from John Harrison (revealed as classic villain Khan).

Now, the first Trek film already re-booted Kirk/Spock dynamic, why not reboot Khan as an ally rather than a villain? He'll make wonderful addition to the Enterprise, if he's not so mad and zealous that is.

The film's ending also cheated the emotional climax by providing a very simple solution to resurrect someone from death (A"why don't they just" plot hole).

Its flaws aside, this is still a very entertaining film with wonderful mastery of its elements. Everyone is much more mature this time around. With Abrams confirmed for Star Wars Episode VII, and taking into account his direction for the two Trek films, It is exciting to imagine how his Star Wars going to turn out.

And one last thing, despite all the good things about the film, they still need to work on getting better posters.

3.5/5

Good To Be Back: IRON MAN 3

After a group outing in last year The Avengers (Avengers Assemble to some), Tony Stark dons his armour for another solo outing. This year's mission is to stop a crazy terrorist leader, The Mandarin from destroying the world.

Set one year after The Avengers, Tony Stark is dealing with the trauma following the attack on Manhattan by Loki and the Chitauri

Stresses and anxiety attacks aside, his life is pretty stable and hunky dory, he's got a girlfriend (Pepper Potts) and he has tons of cool new armours at his disposal (and new method of suiting up).  However, after a terrorist attack, led by the Mandarin, on every aspect of his personal life, which left him powerless, Tony must once again save this day, but this time with less reliance on his suits.

Directed by Shane Black who replaced Jon Favreu as the helmer of the series, Iron Man 3 is without doubt a much better sequel than Iron Man 2 and even better than The Avengers.

Robert Downey is as charismatic, witty, and badass as usual.  Ben Kingsley is truly menacing as The Mandarin and the action sequences are spectacular (the air force one rescue and the attack on the mansion in particular).

The script is surprisingly very, very funny in contrast to the The Dark Knight Rises vibe the trailers were giving. I absolutely loved the opening which is very different than its predecessors, and the post credits sequence.

After two composers (Ramin Djawadi & John Debney), Iron Man finally gets his own (long overdue) heroic theme from Composer Brian Tyler. I have always found the music of Iron Man (AC/DC aside) to be the weakest in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (with Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk being personal favourites), so it is great that Brian Tyler finally gives Iron Man the music he deserves whilst balancing the rock and orchestral elements better than Iron Man 2.

Overall, a very entertaining entry in the series, and I sincerely hope that this is the last Iron Man film, for the ending is just perfect (but looking forward to more of Tony Stark in future Avengers sequels).

4/5

The Circle is Complete : The Place Beyond The Pines

When the first still of the film came out last year, I thought this film would be Drive on two wheels and naturally I was super excited for this film. But The Place Beyond The Pines turned out to be a completely different kind of a beast.

Directed by Derek Cianfrance known for the bleak romance in 2010's Blue Valentine (in which Gosling also starred), Pines also shares much of its realistic grittiness and again a rather unique structure (The Courting & The Parting). 

Pines tells its story in a three act (or chapters?) structure, and each chapters introduce new protagonists.

The first chapter, follows Stuntman Luke Glanton (Gosling), who works at a fair, performing death defying stunts on a motorbike across the country, and he never stays long  in one place, always on the move, never settling down. Everything changes when an old flame, Wilhelmina (Eva Mendes) returns to the picture with an infant son (Jason) from their relationship when he was last in town. Determined to be a part of his son's life, in order to not repeat his own Father's non-presence, Luke decides to settle down, and takes up a low paying job. But, wanting to provide for his son and win Wilhelmina back, Luke decides to turn to bank robbing after a friend, Robin (Ben Mendelhson) (an occasional back robber himself) advised him to do so.

The second chapter, follows the story of Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop turned hero after being injured in the line of duty and putting an end to Luke's bank robbing's career. Avery as we learned later on, is overqualified for his job, and is being constantly pushed into politics by his Politician's Father.  With his injury preventing him from working in the field, Avery is reassigned into evidence and discovered a corruption within the Police Department. 

The third chapter is set 15 Years after the first and second and follow Avery and Luke's teenage sons (A.J & Jason played by Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan respectively), as they deal with their own respective father issues. 

The only drawback to this film is only that the second and last chapter are not as gripping as the first.  With chapter two being the weakest of the three. The last chapter is particularly brilliant at drawing parallels between the two sons and their respective fathers, and bringing the story to a complete circle.  There is nothing fancy or heavily stylised about the look of the film, it looks natural, real, bleak yet dreamy. The haunting score composed by Mike Patton is also very well done. Every single actors gave great performances in their respective roles (especially Gosling, Ben Mendelhson, and Emory Cohen). 

Overall, a truly great piece of cinema and I am sure this film will remain in my top three by the end of the year, as of right now, this is my favourite film of the year. 

4.5/5

Life Of Pi: A Review

Based on Yann Martel's book of the same name, Life Of Pi was almost trapped forever in development hell, with many directors signed on and signed off on it. But no, it was released gloriously into theatres around the world last year (the start of this year in Australia) and has been hailed as one of the best films of 2012, and has been nominated for Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards.

Like the book, the story focuses on Piscine Molitor Patel's ("Pi") entrapment in the middle of the pacific in a lifeboat (after the freighter transporting his family and his family's zoo sank), if that's not bad enough, there is a hungry Bengal Tiger sharing the boat.

Ang Lee seemed to have emphasise the book's religious overtones. In the book and the film, Pi is shown as a person of multi faith, holding down three religions at once with his father being opposed to them all.  Lee also added scenes of Adult Pi telling the story of his entrapment to a young writer (a minor character in the book), who becomes the audience's avatar.  The writer, being led to believe that Pi has a story that would "make him believe in God" abandoned his Novel in favour of Pi's story (not a very religious man then). Their whole conversations consists mainly of discussing Pi's story and faith.

The Film kept the book's resolution to Pi's entrapment (SPOILER ALERT!) In both medium, Pi survived and is visited by Investigators who are investigating the sinking of the Freighter. They rejected his story of surviving almost a year, floating in the middle of the pacific in a lifeboat with a Tiger, since they all found it hard to believe. Like the book, Pi tells them another story, a darker, bleaker, but far more realistic story, exchanging the animals for people. This second story has no wonder in it, only blood, though it ends in the same way, despite casting Pi in a different light. At the end of both stories, Pi ask the people he's been telling the story to, which stories they prefer.

If we take into account the theme of Faith that has been floating alongside the main story for the course of the 150 minutes runtime, Pi's two stories pretty much sums up the point that you couldn't force someone to believe in something (in this case Faith), they need to choose for themselves if they want to truly believe. The stories also, in a way paint pictures of a world with God, where miracles could happen and a Godless World, where there is no wonder to be found. Pretty strong stuff for a family film.

The 3D of the Film is one of the best I've experienced in recent times and the CGI Tiger is really, really good, you could almost think they trained a real Tiger to act. Mychael Danna's score to the film is also really good, very subtle instead of symphonically melodramatic. David Magee's script is also very well done, especially the writing in of the scenes with adult Pi and The Writer.

Suraj Sharma performance as  Pi  is in the same level as Tom Hanks  in 2001's Cast Away. I found the rest of the cast, despite giving good performances to be merely functional. But then again, they aren't being given as much screen-time as Suraj.

4.5/5

Been Away

I should be posting more stuff soon, reality kept me occupied.

The Master: A Review

This is it, the film I've been waiting for all year, the film everybody's been raving about. I just have to say, having seen it twice, I am not sure what to say.

The story follows Freddie Queyle, a WWII veteran, a drunk with sex obsession. Having returned from the War, with a severe psychological condition, Freddie attempts to adjusts to the Post-War World (Working as a Dept. Store's Photographer & at a farm, both ends up with him leaving due to drinks related issues). Lost, Freddie stows away onboard a Yacht (The Alethia) where he met Lancaster Dodd, founder of a movement called The Cause. Despite warnings from people around him, Dodd takes Freddie under his wing, somehow attracted to him. Together they travel to spread the Cause's teaching, and Dodd attempts to "cure" Freddie.

People have been making connections between Scientology and The Cause. Having no knowledge whatsoever of the former (apart from the publicised stuff in the media), I simply could not see what they see.

Thinking this film is about a certain movement is the first mistake I made when I saw the film for the first time.  After second viewing, I am still no closer to an answer. The film has such rich materials and each is dealt with very subtly, making the film's intention ambiguous.

The cinematography had to be one of the most beautiful I've seen in films this year. Shot on 65mm film (the first film that did so in years), the wide shots really made my jaw drop, such wide scope! (And I saw the film in a cinema with a rather small screen).

Much like his previous collaboration (There Will Be Blood) with Director Paul Thomas Anderson, Jonny Greenwood composed a minimalist, unconventional, atmospheric, and haunting score.

But the biggest win in this film, is in the acting department. Joaquin Phoenix (in his first performance after his "retirement") gives a very convincing and disturbing performance as Freddie. From the way he talks, moves, the glint in his eyes, you could see and feel the madness radiating from within. Phillip Seymour Hoffman on the other hand, is a complete opposite of Phoenix. Dodd (or "Master") is a very controlled, intelligent, sophisticated man. Having these two together in the same scene is always a wonder to behold. Amy Adams as Peggy, Dodd's (3rd?) wife is gentle, kind, but also creepy, fierce, and at times domineering.

It is the relationship between these three characters that is really the heart of the film.   Overall, the film is a triumph and without doubt special among the rest of this year's releases.

5/5

ARGO: A Review

Based on a declassified true story of a CIA operation in the late 70's and early 80's.  ARGO follows CIA Agent, Tony Mendes from the planning stage to the execution of the plan in the field.

The film starts with angry mobs filling the street outside the US Embassy in Tehran, demanding the return of a former Dictator that is harboured by the US. The Mob eventually gets in and takes the Embassy. Six people however, managed to escape to the safety of the Canadian's Ambassador Home.
Knowing that the Iranian militants will soon find out and attempt to capture the six people to be executed with the others. Racing with time to prevent it, CIA begins an operation to extract the six out of Iran without the militants' knowledge.

Argo is appropriately gritty, just like any film of its genre. The Hollywood scenes set a very nice contrasts between the worlds in Argo (Iran, CIA, Hollywood).  These scenes are also among the film's most humorous moments.

The Six Civilians actors play their part well, not only have they been made up as similar to their counterpart as possible (As shown by the end credits) the actors successfully made you care about these people which gives us the epic finale.

Without doubt, one of this year's best films.

4.5/5