Thursday, May 30, 2019

'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' Fulfills Its Transcendent Monster-Action Purpose

If one would like to see a monster movie with less human drama and more monsters taking down other monsters, this is it. Everything else is just secondary. Director Michael Dougherty maximized the use of CGI and turned this movie into an immaculate display of detail-oriented beasts and titans walking the different sides of, over and under the Earth. It's immersive, jaw-dropping and overwhelming that the movie's other aspects, most especially its screenplay, get the short end of the stick.

Warner Bros. Pictures
It couldn't be taken against it, though. It's super self-aware of its megablockbuster capability that it fully embraces its witty but cheesy lines that we used to hear from a Bay or Emmerich war/disaster movie. Somewhere in the movie, you'll hear Zhang Ziyi uttering a soft but aggressive "That bitch!" referring to Vera Farmiga, and a number of times Ken Watanabe will say 'Gojira' in the most random, often funny, and sometimes touching moments.

It's also complete with the sarcastic computer and ship navigator--who's to blame for the "Oh my God", "...zilla" line, and a feisty but vulnerable daughter played by the perfectly cast Millie Bobby Brown. The rest pretty much ticks the plethora of disaster movie archetypal characters checkbox.

King of the Monsters is also set in unbelievable conditions that include people the middle of a blizzard in Antarctica while two monsters are thrashing each other on the side, Ken Watanabe's Dr. Ishirō Serizawa barely sweating while walking amidst the lava-filled ancient civilization in the hopes of reviving Godzilla, and a military troop slash globetrotters who can go at one continent to another in what seems like a snap. They're all designed to be pretty invincible for human standards.

Then again, it's Godzilla. Authenticity is its least priority, or so it seems.

Warner Bros. Pictures

It's not without a coherent plot, though. It continues where 2014 Godzilla left off while introducing a new family who lost one of their members because of the destruction. Vera Farmiga plays the matriarch, Dr. Emma Russell who works for 'Monarch', a crypto-zoological agency that studies the world's monsters. She built a device that could communicate with them via touchscreen clicks and taps. Kyle Chandler plays her estranged husband, and Millie Bobby Brown plays their daughter Maddie, who's torn between her two parents with different intentions. This plays out repeatedly until new monsters appear on our screen. Monsters that apparently bring them all back together in the end.

These monsters vary from King Ghidorah, a three-headed Hydra, which Monarch refers to as Monster Zero, a pterodactyl-looking demon who resides in a Mexican volcano, a beautiful Mothra who's dubbed as the Queen of the Monsters and more. With how each of them was introduced, and how they epically collided with each other, King of the Monsters fulfills its maximum monster action purpose. All complete with great visual effects and a profound score by Bear McCreary.

To say that King of the Monsters' spectacle didn't work as much as Godzilla may be valid, but this one held its own compared to its predecessor. At least in terms of its visual imagery because it has outdone any of its previous work. It's one that will not underwhelm anyone, and I must say it's good enough to sustain what this film is lacking in other facets.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

'The Sun is Also a Star' is a Fast-Paced Millennial Love Story

Two strangers falling in love after spending time together while talking about anything under the sun is not a foreign concept in movies. The most prominent, perhaps, is Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, which produced two more sequels and considered one of the best trilogies of all time. The Sun is Also a Star shares the same approach, except it's incorporated with a cross-cultural angle, a millennial flair, and set in a gorgeous New York City backdrop.

Warner Bros. Pictures
The film stars Charles Melton as Daniel and Yara Shahidi as Natasha--two strangers who met with a little help from destiny one sunny day in Manhattan. Daniel is on his way to his college interview when he met Natasha, a Jamaican-born immigrant, who's fighting for her place in America facing her family's deportation. It's serendipity with a pinch of politics and a spoonful of youthful love and energy.

Their fateful encounter is often cut with their cultural backgrounds via a montage of interesting stories from their origins. Daniel lives with his Korean family who owns a haircare shop. At one point, they were able to share an eye-opening trivia about Koreans and wigs and their link to America. Natasha, on the other hand, often tells facts about astronomy and logic and stories about how her parents fell in love, as immigrants in America. Both characters are indebted to their parents' choices as foreigners who once had their American dream and both are not entirely happy with their current situations.

Warner Bros. Pictures
It's almost basically what young adult books and movies are made of, and Melton and Shahidi commit to what's given to them. Both are lovely actors but whether their acting works well is a little bit of a different story. This adaptation of Nicola Yoon's bestseller doesn't quite give the actors room for modern authenticity. Their dialogues are often cheesy, which could work possibly only while reading them as a book, instead of watching two people saying it to one another, making their interaction a bit cringeworthy. So kudos to them for fully engaging in it.

Thanks to cinematographer Autumn Durald, the shimmering New York City backdrop makes watching these two too wide-eyed-for-each other characters watchable as they walk and talk and hang out around the city. It's easily the best part of the film.

I think the best way to enjoy this film is to fully commit to the too-sudden love story like how the actors commit to their characters. If one would see this with a cynical heart, there is no way for this too good to be true story to penetrate you. It's brimming with love, energy and positivity and not
everyone would take in this spectacle.

'Brightburn' is a No-Mercy Version of Superman

Superman, he is not. Superhero, very doubtful. A psychopathic villain, very appropriate.

David Yarokevsky's Brightburn answers the question: what if a child from another world crashed on Earth, complete with Superman's superpowers except instead of becoming a hero, he turned out to be someone evil?

Evil despite being adopted and raised by a loving couple.

Columbia Pictures
Starting off swiftly a la Smallville, a massive explosion shocks the farm of Tori Breyer (Elizabeth Banks) and her husband Kyle (David Denman), a couple who's spent years trying but failing to conceive a child. A blessing in disguise, the blast is revealed a few minutes later to bear a baby boy. They raised him as their own, and as normal as possible, despite his superhuman qualities. They named the child Brandon (a terrific Jackson A. Dunn) who, after learning about his origin, later rebelled against them.

At first, it's almost a perfect depiction of a sweet nuclear family. Yarokevsky establishes the Breyer family as loving as possible without falling into cheesy family tropes in superhero movies where the superhero is embraced fully by normal beings. They are imperfect but they seem to be alright raising a boy going through puberty. It's always disguised as a film with a heart, that no matter what happens in this family, it's going to fall back into love.

But it's far from that. As soon as Brandon learned about his superpowers amidst his rebellion, it becomes an all-out no mercy exciting thriller. Imagine the stress level of A Quiet Place without the heart of the Krasinkis. That is exactly Brightburn without the alien monster. The monster here is an innocent-looking child who's purely evil and no ounce of heart for whoever.

Columbia Pictures
The jumpscares and gore are of high level that horror fans will surely enjoy as they squirm with terror on their seats. There are a handful of them and they're tense and edgy enough to make one laugh at themselves out of terror and disbelief, for the scary things Brandon could do to people, and even to his parents. Once it hits the climax, it's all-out crazy fun and entertainment.

There is no turning back for Brandon, even if the first half of the film says otherwise. This new villain is merciless and evil, and I don't think anyone could convince him to go back to the good side.
At least that's what the film implies, and even if there are unanswered questions, the film doesn't feel like the characters are written thinly. It's one that can be enjoyed even if it’s not clear if Brandon will ever stop.

With Brightburn, Yarokevsky creates new innovative ways to play with the superhero and horror genres and even combining them into one, almost producing a compelling family drama. It's several
brands crafted into one, but overall, Brightburn's horror is its best weapon.

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

'POKÉMON Detective Pikachu' -- Furry Noir for Pokémon Fans

I never would have predicted an incredibly furry live-action Pokémon movie will be made, this soon. I, at least thought, the treatment would be the same as Warner Bros' Space Jam. But here we are, and to be honest, it shouldn't be no surprise as Pokémon continues to discover new fans all over the world. With the app PokémonGo and an upcoming new generation to be released later this year, there really is no sign of slowing down for this company, and on a second reflection, a live-action movie makes a lot of sense. Even if it turns out to be a little weird. Cute, but really weird.

Warner Bros. Pictures.
An alternative reality where Pokémon and humans coexist in one world is something every fan would love to see, and Detective Pikachu resides in that place exactly. Ryme City--a neon-lit metropolis where Squirtles help firefighters, Machamps are traffic enforcers, Loudreds are badass speakers, Jigglypuffs sing in bars where no one gets mad however bad they may be, and a furry Pikachu with a cap. In terms of world-building, this film is already A+. There's nothing more fun than watching a work of fiction about these monsters where one could spot every little detail of Pokémon almost everywhere in one screen.

But this isn't just about them. Humans are as important as they are in this world, and the neo-noir plot makes the human-monster interaction more interesting. It started when detective Harry Goodman suddenly goes missing, propelling his young adult son to search for what happened. In Ryme City, after a series of events, he met a Pikachu with an incredibly recognizable Ryan Reynolds voice only to realize that he's the only human who can talk to him. Pikachu speaks, and not without a reason

Written by Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, director Rob Letterman and Derek Connolly, Detective Pikachu forms its concept with a brief but intense mysterious car chase scene involving Detective Goodman and a powerful Mewtwo right away. They then further establish Tim as a former Pokémon-loving kid by attempting (and failing) to catch a sobbing Cubone with his friend in the wild. The juxtaposition of these events kicks off a promising detective plot that's not too serious for kids, and not too inadequate for noir fans.

Warner Bros. Pictures.
It's brimming with energy, and the world they've created operates in endless possibilities that they could utilize not only in this film but in its future saga as well. So much that it felt like they left off a lot of their cute monsters for another Pokémon movie because it sure seemed like they were holding back a little even though they've already featured a lot--even shifting to a visually amazing disaster scene involving humongous Torterras, a Pokémon Smackdown arena with a livid Charizard, and a hidden laboratory experimenting with Pokévolutions.

It's not devoid of heart, though, as it wouldn't be a Pokémon movie without it. Like other recent blockbusters Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and Shazam! to name a few, it has a touching family story. But ultimately, with the amount of fan-service this had, this is really about the fans. But the story is pretty much universal so non-Pokémon fans will be alright.