Yeah, I can see how some people see this as Marvel’s first Shakespearean epic.
Black Panther (Review)
Tag: Lupita Nyong’o
The Last Jedi (Review)
This movie did not go the way I thought it was going to.
I’m a nerd, if that wasn’t clear enough. I love Star Wars. I’m always quick to point out the prequel’s faults but I’m just as quick to point out the prequels strengths and what they did right (which are few but they are there if you pay attention). I remember my heart soaring when I heard the John Williams score booming in my ears when The Force Awakens started. While I enjoyed that movie, I also recognized that it tried too hard to stay close to the Original Trilogy instead of trying to be something new. I could understand the reasoning – after all, the last time someone did something new with Star Wars we got Jar Jar Binks – but at the same time, this was a brand new trilogy of Star Wars films. They needed to be different.
The Last Jedi is a very different film. At the beginning, it starts to feel like The Empire Strikes Back, portraying the Resistance as on the run and on their last legs trying to regroup from an unending force of destruction. Towards the second act, though, it starts to feel different. Emphasis on emotion and loss become more prevalent as Daisy Ridley’s character Rey explores why Luke Skywalker went into exile. Then John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran have to go to a planet seemingly ripped straight from the prequels to move the plot along. Things get more desperate as Oscar Issac disagrees with Laura Dern with how to run the Resistance.
As I watched the film, I couldn’t help but feel like the film was meandering around from plot line to plot line. Even when the film finished, I left the theater still thinking about the film. There was so much about the film that felt familiar but turned on its head and sent in a different direction. This is ultimately what has divided fans so much about the film. It’s a film that knows your expectations and then willingly subverts them.
Questions that were raised in The Force Awakens are not only left unanswered but also made to feel unimportant, like they were not the questions you should be asking. So I left the film wondering what questions should I have been asking? Eventually, I stopped wondering what questions I should have been asking and instead wondered what exactly was the film trying to say. I could go on about my thoughts on the film but in the end, this is a review so I should step away from spoiler territory.
The film does meander but it all comes together in the third act. The seemingly multiple themes spread throughout do merge into one idea that the film does portray rather well. It is a very well put together film, but it is definitely a film that is intentionally subversive. Rian Johnson knew fan’s expectations going in and decided to toss them on their heads in order to force the audience to think. To think about what, well that’s up to you. All I know is that this is a very amazing but very different Star Wars film than I was expecting.
The Jungle Book (Film Review)
The Jungle Book (dir. Jon Favreau), is pretty much the gritty reboot of the original 1967 animated movie. Honestly, though, that’s not a bad thing.
For the people who have never seen either movies, The Jungle Book follows the adventures of Mowgli (played by newcomer Neel Sethi), the “man-cub” that has been raised by wolves after being found by Bagheera the panther (Ben Kingsley). After a tiger named Shere Khan (Idris Elba) discovers this, he vows to kill Mowgli, due to his hatred of men. What follows is an adventure through the jungle as Bagheera and Baloo the bear (Bill Murray) try to return him back to the man village.
First of all, this movie is a visual treat. From the first second into the movie, I could not for the life of me figure out what was computer and what was real. This is the movie’s greatest strength. When you’re looking at animals talking to each other, you know they’re fake and yet you can’t help but believe they’re real. They look and behave just like how animals should except for the fact that they talk. In fact, as I watched Bagheera interact with the world, I couldn’t help but think of my own cats and how they acted. It was uncanny. Even how they fought other animals.
The cinematography is simply a wonder to behold. You feel like you are Mowgli running through the jungle. I whole heartedly believe that this movie will most likely get a academy nomination. You feel every hit and every shot is breathtaking.
As further proof of the power of the visuals in the movie, I actually wanted to know more about the animals. They seem to have so much history and we’re given a lot of information that Mowgli, the main character, doesn’t know. Yet, there are certainly things left unanswered. How do Bagheera and Baloo know each other? What exactly is the nature of their relationship? Why would Akela take in a man-cub to be part of the pack and protect him so fiercely? How does Kaa (Scarlett Johansson) hypnotize people like she does?
These questions only add to the mythos and yes it is now a mythos in my mind. These characters take on a fantastic and mythological standing and the less we know about them, the more we want to know about them. The only character we actually know about in detail is Shere Khan. A fascinating story to be sure but I hope we have more stories in the future.
The only bad thing about this movie is the rather strange and awkward singing number from King Louie (Christopher Walken). Of course, he sings the song “I Wanna Be Like You,” because it’s the Jungle Book and you need this song. Actually you don’t. The song you need is “The Bare Necessities,” which is woven in quite well. It serves more as character development between Mowgli and Baloo. “I Wanna Be Like You,” however, comes out of nowhere and is just bizarre. King Louie was more or less introduced in a rather threatening light and to have him suddenly break out into song is just a complete 180. It’s jarring and I found myself scratching my head at the absurdity of it.
That is just one bad thing in a movie that I had a great time watching. It’s fun but also dark, which works for the fairy tale theme, which this is. This is absolutely a fairy tale and if you remember, fairy tales have darkness. They are absolutely intense, but they are also fun adventures with happy endings. The Jungle Book is the epitome of fairy tale made into the visual medium.
Tim Lilly 