PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES review

I am a big PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN fan. I love the first movie. And I really like the second and third movies. I completely agree with C. Robert Cargill when he said that the trilogy that is like the modern-day INDIANA JONES. They’re both over-the-top B-action films with an iconic character that a generation latched onto. The first film is loved by the majority of people while the second and third are mixed with some loving and some hating them. Then both series got an unnecessary 4th film that were kind of meh. Now PIRATES has a 5th film. I’m happy to say that it’s much better than ON STRANGER TIDES.

What didn’t work for me in the 4th PIRATES movie was Jack Sparrow does not make a good protagonist. He’s a fantastic supporting character, but don’t make him the main hero of the film. DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES recognized this and decided to make 2 newcomers the main focus of the movie. There’s still a lot of Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa, but we’re mainly following Henry Turner, son of Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner, and Carina Smyth.

Even if you haven’t seen the first 3 films it does a great job of establishing how important this is for the main character. I wouldn’t really say this has sequel baggage. It does a great job of standing on its own legs. Although, really, this is basically the same plot as the previous films. Bad guy is angry at Jack Sparrow. Jack needs to find McGuffin to stop bad guy. Other people also want McGuffin for their own goals. They do shorten it up a bit. The movie’s only a little over 2 hours long when all the other films were at least 2 hours and 40 minutes. It shaved off a lot of the fat.

The story’s been done before but now we get a couple new characters to follow. They do tie into the first trilogy with who these characters are. But it definitely is a step in a direction I would like to see this series take in moving away from Jack Sparrow and all these established characters. More on that later. While these newbies do tend to get overshadowed by Depp and Rush, they still do a great job. There is still a lot of focus on Jack and Barbossa, but the story is still Henry’s and Carina’s. I enjoyed their characters enough to care. And by the end of the movie I felt something. Definitely something the 4th movie missed.

Action is one of the series strong points. DEAD MEN doesn’t disappoint with brilliantly staged and set up set pieces. While there isn’t really too much threat of characters not making it out alive in (most) of the series, it still manages to be very creative and entertaining. It does hearken to the old days of the silent film physical comedies stars like Chaplin. Even though a lot of the set pieces are flooded with CGI, there’s is quite a bit of practical physical comedy within these crazy romps.

Just like in previous films, DEAD MEN is beautiful. The visual design is impressive as ever. The special effects are great in most aspects of the film. Which kind of sucks because in all 4 of the previous ones the effects were fantastic all around. The villain characters all had amazing effects but a lot of the extra bits didn’t feel like they had the same care put into them. And there’s a scene with 3 dead sharks that looks pretty bad. And the 3D didn’t help at all…

Speaking of which, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE IN 3D! This was really hard for me. Most movies that play in IMax will have scene that are filmed in the larger IMax ratio. I mentioned this when reviewing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. But DEAD MEN was filmed entirely on IMax. So the whole movie has the larger 1.9:1 ratio instead of the standard 2.35:1. So if you don’t see it in IMax, you’re missing part of the shots, but if you see it in IMax you have to watch it in 3D. And this movie is shot way too dark for the 3D to really work. I’m usually really good with 3D movies, but this one I noticed was pretty bad.

What I really want for this series to do is to move beyond Jack Sparrow. Or at least have less of him. I still like him as a character, but with so many legends and myths that surround pirates and the seas I feel keeping it with Jack can kind of narrow the focus. The world these films have built is fascinating and rich. I would love to keep returning to see what we can explore in the future.

DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES doesn’t quite make it to the greatness of the original trilogy. It definitely sails laps around the previous entry, though. And with a much shorter run time and being a somewhat stand alone film, it’s much easier to be an in-and-out film for those who want fun pirate action without having to sit through the intimidating length of the previous films. I proudly own the first 3 films. I have no desire to buy the 4th. I will be buying DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES later on.

7.5/10

Review also available HERE

ALIEN COVENANT review

ALIEN COVENANT is Ridley Scott apologizing for PROMETHEUS without fully making up for it. Scott has gone on record on saying that the fan feedback on PROMETHEUS affected how he approached COVENANT. Before I was incredibly excited to see Scott return to the ALIEN franchise. But with the overall “meh” feeling of PROMETHEUS, and an overabundance of smart people doing really stupid things, along with Ridley Scott having some sub-par movies lately, I was a little worried this would just be another entry into an all but dead franchise from a director who isn’t nearly as good as he once was. Luckily it wasn’t that bad. But it’s not good enough to completely turn me around on it, either.

To sum it up in one sentence, COVENANT feels like it’s trying to capture what made the good entries rather than push the series into a new direction. ALIEN is one of the greatest sci-fi horror films of all time. Then ALIENS was one of the greatest sci-fi action movies of all time. And PROMETHEUS tried to tackle scientific/philosophical questions. From 1 to 2 and to PROMETHEUS, the direction of the series went in a completely new direction. It would have been completely acceptable for COVENANT to take things somewhere different. Instead, Scott tries juggle what made those three entries good. For most of the movie Scott does really well, but he does drop a few balls every so often.

I really liked how the characters were handled. Everyone is unique and has interesting personalities. I enjoyed my time with each character even if I didn’t quite get attached to each one of them. A great touch was making everyone in the movie married couples so when people do die it’s more impactful. I also really liked how not everyone is a scientist. This is a crew where everyone has a different role to play.

This idea also cuts back on my “Smart people doing stupid things” complaints. While some of these people do very stupid things, none of it seems like it was simply because it was for the plot but rather that’s their flaw as a character.

Remember when I said this movie tries to recapture what made previous films great? COVENANT tries to balance the horror of ALIEN, the action of ALIENS, and the philosophical questions of PROMETHEUS. I really like how COVENANT tries to be a smart sci-fi film rather than just be another exciting romp. There’s a lot of this I do enjoy but I feel it ultimately falls flat. Fortunately, the action and horror elements of the films are much better. While Scott’s films have been a bit iffy lately, he’s still great at directing. The horror elements did keep me on edge even if I never really felt truly scared. And the action sequences are really exciting and visually interesting. And If nothing else, COVENANT is beautiful.

For the most part I didn’t mind the use of CGI for this film. A lot of it is done really well, especially when enhancing the environments. Even a lot of the action sequences with the Xenomorph in full lighting, moving around at breakneck speeds, it looks good. It’s actually quite frightening how vicious the creature is and that’s something that couldn’t be done with practical effects. However, there are just as many scenes where the CG look awful as it does look good. Almost like there were 2 different teams working on the effects and one of those teams was understaffed.

For the first two acts of the film I was really diggin’ it. I loved the first act with the crew in space and how it establishes everything. The second act when everything starts going south was also greatly enjoyable and moves so quickly you almost can’t fully appreciate how good some of these bits are. There’s still some faults here and there but nothing really enough to ruin the experience. But the third act became really predictable and the ending almost made me feel cheated. They try to do a twist, I guess, but it’s so poorly hidden that you’d really have to be naive to fall for it. I caught it right away, but about 15 minutes before the reveal I heard a guy behind me sigh in realization of what was really going on. His groan of disappointment wasn’t because he figured it out too easily. But rather he was so invested in the characters that he knew something bad was going to happen. I guess with the series going from the past and heading towards the Alien movie it has to make things happen to lead to that. But even at the end of ALIEN COVENANT, I’m not sure they even know how to line everything up.

If nothing else, ALIEN COVENANT is an exciting sci-fi thriller. Great bits of action and horror balanced with at least an interest in asking greater questions. The series is no longer happy with just being fun movies. They want to be smart. And while I think it’s trying too hard for its own good, at least it’s trying. And most importantly, it wasn’t boring. Well worth the money to see it on the big screen. And I may be grabbing this on Blu-ray after the price drops.

7/10

Review also available HERE

THE WALL review

It’s a difficult thing to make a feature-length movie that takes place in one location and with few characters interesting. Most concepts that involve very few things going on can last for longer than 20 minutes. It might make a good YouTube video. But making it feel worthwhile to pay $12+ to watch 2 people interact with each other for 80+ minutes is hard. THE WALL, for the most part, does it pretty well. Think of it as a blend of PHONE BOOTH and BURIED. Quality definitely leads much more on the BURIED side.

THE WALL is about a sniper team played by John Cena, the sniper, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the spotter, who get called to investigate a distress call about a possible sniper in 2007 Iraq. Then things go sour. I mean, it wouldn’t really be a movie if something bad doesn’t happen. And without giving too much away, we spend the majority of our time with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as he tries to survive and get him and his buddy out before they both bleed out. Only problem is he’s stuck behind a wall and can’t move very well.

What really intrigues me is how a director approaches these small-scale movies. Doug Liman is known for pretty decent action films. He’s done THE BOURNE IDENTITY, MR. AND MRS. SMITH, and one of my personal favorites, EDGE OF TOMORROW. He’s not only good with action, but he’s smart. He knows how to handle characters and situations to make them likable and believable. This is something Liman would be great at…

For the most part, yes, he handles it incredibly well. But before I get about what works about this movie, I want to get what I didn’t like out of the way. I feel there’s a missed opportunity with the examination of the politics of the situation. We’re still going on with needless wars and having this set in Iraq AFTER President Bush gave his “Mission Accomplished” speech, yet still having soldiers on the ground would have been great to examine why we remain in these places after we supposedly won. This is glossed over a little bit, but it really doesn’t hold much significance for anything. Aside from that, I mostly appreciate Liman holding back on his style, but the movie does get visually bland at times. There’s much more going on in THE WALL than there is in BURIED, but the latter does so much more visually with its limited space that sometimes THE WALL just seems kind of lazy.

I do greatly appreciate the narrowed scope of the film. With so many movies trying to go big and bold it’s nice to see things taken down several notches to something simple. There’s just enough in the beginning to feel like these two characters are good buddies and the banter between them is fun. I really wanted them to make it out alive. So when things start to get going I was tense the entire time. They get hurt. It’s much more personal and therefore more involving than something like TRANSFORMERS which is just way too big and loud to even care. And it’s also established very early on that there’s real danger. Something like TRANSFORMERS (again) really never makes it feel like the main characters are ever in real danger and so I don’t care.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the film is something I don’t really want to talk about because it is a spoiler. It’s a great way to make the film more interesting and entertaining and creates opportunities to explore the more political and emotional side of war. But it glances over these opportunities and mainly just serves to show us that surviving in a battle situation is HARD. And even though the decision with the ending is questionable -- it definitely made a few people in the theatre scoff in disappointment -- I still walked out liking the film. I probably won’t watch it again. But it’s worth seeing. Maybe go for the discount Tuesday.

6.75/10

Review also available here!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 review

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is one of my favorite movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I loved the quirky, zany, almost Looney Toons vibe it had along with entertaining characters I could get attached to. The villain was incredibly bland and the third act of the film felt very by-the-numbers, grab the McGuffin so big bad can’t destroy the world, cliche Marvel ending. However it stepped above all the previous ones by having a great emotional moment and a clever undercut of the stand-off trope. Even with all that, it remained my favorite MCU film… until the sequel improved on everything I had problems with in the first film.

I’m not going to say GUARDIANS Vol. 2 is perfect. It’s still got some flaws. But it’s a near perfect sequel. Being a big James Gunn fan it’s great to see him get this big-budget property with a great amount of freedom. It’s kind of incredible with how the entirety of the MCU seems under such tight surveillance from the suits with everything having to fall in place to support the grand scheme. But because Guardians has such a niche following and is so obscure and literally in another galaxy from the rest of the MCU it seems the chains are off allowing Gunn to do what he does best: going completely off the walls.

Vol. 2 brings everything in for a smaller story than the first. This is a much more personal story for the team. And I do mean for the entire team. Trailers would suggest this is Star-Lord’s story. And while the plot certainly rides on Peter Quill’s story, there’s 2 other stories going on as well. All 3 of these storylines focus on family… And Vin Diesel’s in this movie… Family… Vin Diesel… There’s a joke here… Somewhere… eh, maybe I’ll think of it later… anyway…

You’d think with 3 stories going on with so many characters some of them would get lost in the shuffle. So many movies trying to cram this many people to follow tend to favor some at the expense of others… *cough*X-Men 3*cough* Excuse me. But somehow James Gunn pulls off an amazing juggling act having not just 2, 3, or 4, but 6 character arcs. SIX! You could even argue 7. Some were a little more fleshed out than others, but we get 7 characters that have a full arc in this movie. What makes this even more incredible is not a single one of them feels rushed or undeserved.

VOL 2 also improves on one of the biggest issues with the MCU, terrible villains. There are technically 3 villains in this movie and all of them are interesting in their own way. I don’t really want to give too much away, but the big bad of the main storyline, while not too fleshed out, does do enough to pull a lot of investment. Even though Gunn wanted a smaller story in scope than the first film he still manages to raise the stakes even higher making the importance of the victory we’re rooting for that much more important.

I want to take a moment to step back for a moment. Something I feel a lot of actions films today aren’t doing enough of is appreciating the quiet time. I’m also a gamer and this is a problem in action games as well. With these so-called “non-stop action” movies/games we can get exhausted with all the excitement. We get numb to the visceral overload and even though there’s a large quantity of exciting things going on we either don’t care or aren’t impressed by it because there’s so much fat. Gunn seems to know that this is not what you want so we get several scenes or quiet, open space through the film. It’s also a sign of Gunn’s growing confidence as a big-budget filmmaker being able to compose these brilliant shots of maybe just a single character with a lot open space. Taking full advantage of the IMax format, some of the most beautiful shots are these quiet time moments letting us reflect on what’s happened so far alongside these characters. Which also allows us to fully enjoy Gunn’s matured eye for action as well.

I did love the visual style of the first film but the action sequences felt lacking to me. Aside from the prison escape, Gunn seemed a bit too afraid in his ability to frame action. This certainly isn’t a problem anymore. About half of the big set pieces were filmed in the beautiful IMax format which allows Gunn to really wow us. Almost the entirety of the third act is filmed in the IMax format and is used to great effect. Every shot is composed well. Not a single moment was too shaky or too close to see what was going on. No editing was done with the intention to hide mistakes or laziness. You see everything. Not only does it just look great, but the action is derived from the story. Every little bit of action serves the story and moves things forward. But even if you’re not really here for the emotion, the spectacle is enough to stand on its own.

While all of this makes a better movie than the original, what really sold me was the emotion -- the characters. I cared for every single character in this movie. VOL 2 really tugged on my heartstrings a few times. Sure, some moments were kind of cheesy. Some of the dialogue did kind of get a little melodramatic or cliche. But it works for me. I cared about these characters enough to look past those small missteps. These are characters I enjoyed watching and made me laugh. Oh boy, did they make me laugh. Easily the funniest movie of the MCU. And easily the most likeable band of misfits on this side of the galaxy. I love this movie.

If you can, see this movie in IMax. The 3D is great, but there’s several scenes shot in the larger IMax format which are simply amazing. It’s worth the extra $5-10 to see the film in its true form.

Review also available HERE