(film review) - Bumblebee

I’m trying to figure out (along with the rest of the world), how this new Transformers movie fits into the universe of the Transformers franchise.  At first, I heard it was a soft franchise reboot, but it comes across as a prequel, kinda.  I mean, Michael Bay has f’ed up this franchise in the most royal way. The Transformers franchise is basically an X-Men movie timeline at this point and nobody is interested in it any more.  We can argue it made money at the Box Office, but when nobody generally likes it, overall, it a question of, "Who Actually Cares?"

Let me get into it.

Bumblebee is a fish out of water story of a boy and his dog.  Well, I believe that is the two idioms you could use to describe a film like this.  A civil war is engaged between the Autobots and the evil Deceptacons.  Losing the battle, Optimus Prime wants to establish a new base of operations and sends Bumblebee as a scout to Earth as a potential base as they retreat to regroup.  "After a battle and being awoken and disorientated, Bumblebee is intercepted and tracked down by two Decepticons who threaten to find his leader Optimus Prime and destroy Earth.  With only his one human friend, Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), Bumblebee is the only Robot to save it. He is Bumblebee."

Pretty straight forward and straight to the point.  Nothing major or anything we haven’t heard/seen before.  Think if the movie ‘ET’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ had a baby.  This is essentially how the rest of the movie plays out.  If anything, the same plot synopsis of the first Transformers as well, maybe.  I don’t know and at this point, frankly I don’t care, as this film is actually really really good.  At the top, I stated that I am trying to figure out where we stand in the franchise, unless from the very beginning as a reboot, I am totally fine with this and I hope they do intend to go forward in this direction.  Anything else is just confusing.

The first 5mins of the movie was AMAZING!  It reminded me of 'Man of Steel' where we see Krypton.  The little kid in me smiled with glee as we were able to finally see the Gen 1 Transformers fighting on Cybertron.  I mean, I’m just going to spoil the first 5 minutes of the movie because frankly, we need more people to see this movie to get more movies and I would be doing the movie a dis-service if I didn’t mention it.  Soundwave! Shockwave! Ravage!  Just like the toys you played with as a child!  If you are as old as me.  I don’t need to explain the Ravage and Soundwave connection I’m sure, but seeing this on screen was amazing.  Travis Knight clearly had a great vision with this movie and for what he executed in the first 5mins alone was enough to have any Transformers fan salivating for more.  Alas we don’t get any more than maybe 5-10 minutes of that, but the rest of the movie is also very good, albeit with a few nit-picky bits I didn’t like, which could arguably be the Michael Bay influence.

So it goes without saying that I found the movie aesthetically pleasing visually and the story wasn’t great but pretty serviceable.  The supporting actors next to Hailee were throwaway characters and although John Cena as a lead was ok.  He was nowhere near as bad as previous military characters in other Transformers movies.  The movie didn’t have enough Autobots and Deceptacons, but from what I saw, I was fine with.  More for the sequel?  The nit-picky things were things I thought we had moved away from in Transformers movies, and in cinema as a whole.  Maybe I was reading too much into it, but the black man dying first or more importantly, sacrificing himself to save the white man, because essentially, that is what happens.  Or at least it seems that way as you never see him again.  Weirdly enough, I didn’t notice that until my friend alerted me to it.  I did notice the black man being the butt of the joke, which was the wannabe boyfriend.  I get it we needed comedy interjected into the movie, but I thought that was what the "Fish out of water" element with Bumblebee was.  As I said, maybe I was over thinking it, but these were the things I hated regarding previous Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay.  At least there wasn’t any unnecessary explosions and over sexualized shots and 360-degree camera spins…although it was EXECELLENT in bad Boys 1.

I’d definitely suggest to watch this movie, even if you dislike Michael Bay Transformer movies, as this one is different, and it’s executed well.  Other than the nit-picky moments, this is a feel-good movie.

(film review) - Aquaman

My Mother was the Queen of Atlantis.  She fell in love with my father, a human and then I was born.  She was driven back to the seas, when I was just a boy, but then she went missing.  Atlantis is looking to a new ruler, but is now under the threat of my brother, the Ocean Master, who wants the throne by inciting war between my two worlds.  My name is Arthur Curry and I must reclaim the throne as King of Atlantis and I am the only person who can stop him.  I am, Aquaman.

For those familiar, I think I could have come up with a better one (considering I wrote a different one 4-6 times or even more), but I’m finding these amusing.  Hopefully I will stop soon.  But for now, it gets the job done and just as it states, as jokingly as I do them, this is the synopsis of the film.  Yes, there is more detail packed into this movie, so I’ll go into it a little trying not to spoil anything.

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), a man who is born of two completely different worlds continues to do what he feels is right, living life and saving those less fortunate – being a hero.  Having been contacted by his long-time friend, Mira (Amber Heard) who continues a conversation |they had in Justice League about the division of Atlantis, Arthur is essentially, not interested in any of the politics of Atlantis as he believes he is not of that world and he will not be accepted due to not being of full Atlantian blood.  He doesn’t want to get involved with the hierarchy of the people or becoming their King, but he is then thrust into the situation when his brother Orm Marius (Patrick Wilson), decides to take the position to, not only be the king, but to incite war among the land dwellers, his home.  Arthur must stop his brother, gain acceptance by the people of Atlantis and reclaim the throne as the true king! Oh, and have a great adventure along the way.

James Wan’s Aquaman is similar to many other movies that came before it, such as Black Panther or even the Lion King just to name a few.  Nothing ground-breaking at all, however with the run time of 143 minutes, it is over 2hrs of what he claims to be swash-buckling fun, as we travel with Arthur across many locations, challenge his brother and to also defeat his antagonist, the Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).  For the most part, this movie is good.  Although it lacks depth in the story and some of the characters, I did have a good time with it because James Wan knows how to direct entertaining movies, whether it is The Fast and the Furious (Fast & Furious 7) or The Conjuring. 

This film has many different tones to it, but he manages to bring it altogether without it feeling disjointed.  The film succeeds in being a comic book movie with some light-heartedness, some horror/terror elements and family dynamics that doesn’t actually bore you to death, but this possibly could be due to the relentless action and terrible chopping, editing and “jump-scare” explosions that occur throughout.

I felt the film, although over two hours jumped from scene to scene quickly and the lack of character development meant that some characters could have been cut out of the movie altogether.  A specific character (in whom I will not mention) could have been introduced briefly only to be a major foil in the sequel.  Their storyline ultimately did nothing for the film or the character.  They will probably bring the character back anyway, but the film was unnecessarily long due to this.

Visually, the movie is stunning and there are some excellent visuals that took my breath away and coincidently took me out of the movie for a moment as some scenes could be framed and hung and placed on a wall, i.e the “trench run” or the moment before it, or the final battle at the end or many other moments in the movie.  One of the visually annoying things I found was seeing this movie in Screen X at Cineworld.  I think I would have preferred D-Box as I found the intermittent changing of the screen's length distracting as I change focus and become more aware of the extra space and more screen...and people moving down the stairs to use the bathroom for example.

Although, loosely connected to the same universe as Man of Steel, Wonder Woman and Batman vs Superman, Justice League and Suicide Squad, it would be interesting to see where they will go next with the sequel they have mentioned for Suicide Squad or Birds of Prey and it seems as though Warner Bros do not know what they are doing although they are slightly righting the ship, but they could easily mess it up at this point.

Although, some great action set-pieces and a decent story with decent acting, I won't be in a rush to see this movie again.  However, if you liked Aquaman the ultimate surfer bro from Justice League, then you will like this movie too.  I guess at this point we are wondering when they are going to trip up since they seem to be on a winning streak, WB. It can only last soo long, right? RIGHT? Well let's hope so!

(file review) - Creed II

I was thinking, do I put the number “2” or the Roman Numerals “II”.  Considering this is based off of the Rocky Franchise (a franchise I haven’t seen all the way through – yeah I know), I thought I should continue this as they did and honour the Rocky Franchise.

Anyway, if you didn’t know, Creed is a spin-off movie based off the Rocky Franchise that stars (Michael B. Jordan) as Adonis, Apollo Creed’s son of whom died in the ring at the hands of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (I almost typed the number).  So, where the first film is about Adonis making a name for himself and becoming the champion, this film is about Adonis, now the champion, is faced with the family who were responsible for his father’s death by fighting Ivan Drago’s son and centres on what both fighters are now fighting for, their motives and how ultimately, what it would mean if they were to lose.

Ryan Coogler is a great Director.  I am scared to watch Fruitvale Station as I heard and read that it is a brilliant film but very saddening, so I don’t want to cry my eyes out.  He then went on to direct Creed I and then Black Panther.  He is now 3 for 3 and was unable to direct Creed II due to filming Black Panther and prepping for Black Panther 2, so he was executive producer and brought on director friend, Steven Caple Jr. who has directed a few TV Series episodes and a few films.  As this is pretty much his first big budget movie at 50 million, I’ve got to say, although he is no Ryan Coogler, Steven Caple Jr’s directing is sound, smooth and splendid.

Whilst watching this film, Michael B and Tessa’s Chemistry is excellent, absolutely flawless. You believe they have been together a while, they love each other and that they are growing together.  Something to aspire to in a relationship soo raw.  You just like seeing them together and their relationship bloom.  As stated before the directing is sound and is a very smooth transition between the directors.  There isn’t a lot of long shots if any, like how Coogler has in both Creed I and Black Panther, so trying to identify any visual or directing tropes from Steven is still unidentifiable at this time, but with that said, I don’t see how Hollywood will not be asking him to come back to direct more movies as he knows Ryan and Ryan is a part of the Disney’s umbrella due to Black Panther, so it is fair to say that he could be asked to direct some Star Wars Mandalorian episodes to further build his credibility as a director (if needed – probably not due to this film), but with the character building and emotional scenes in this movie (I was close to tears in some parts – maybe due to personal reasons), Steven is a very capable director.  Visually, some of those shots, the fighting with the punches etc, I was holding myself as though I felt them too with a few exclaims.  Sound, Visuals, Acting, everything is superb; and the film runs as smooth as butter, in which I cannot stop reiterating.  Oh, and before I forget, it has a montage. Even Rocky has a montage.....montaaaaaaggggee.

If you can, go and watch it.  If you enjoyed the first one, you are bound to love this one, even if it isn’t directed by Ryan.  However, for me personally, I am very interested in seeing what else this guy Steven has up his sleeve.