The Jungle Book

For F*** Magazine

THE JUNGLE BOOK

Director : Jon Favreau

Cast : Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong’o, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken

Genre : Action/Adventure

Run Time : 106 mins

Opens : 7 April 2016

Rating : PG (Some Intense Sequences)

Disney recently took us to a vividly-imagined concrete jungle with Zootopia. Now, it’s time for a sojourn to a jungle of a more traditional sort. Mowgli (Sethi) is a human boy, or ‘man-cub’, raised by a pack of wolves led by Raksha (Nyong’o) and Akela (Esposito). The panther Bagheera (Kingsley) brought Mowgli to them when the man cub was but an infant. The powerful, menacing tiger Shere Khan (Elba) is disgusted by the presence of man in the jungle, threatening Raksha and Akela. Mowgli voluntarily leaves his adoptive family, Bagheera guiding him back to a human village. Along the way, he befriends Baloo (Murray) the bear, and encounters less friendly creatures in the form of Kaa (Johansson) the python and King Louie (Walken) the Gigantopithecus. Mowgli must come to terms with his identity as Shere Khan stops at nothing in his bloodthirsty hunt for the man-cub.

            The Jungle Book is a remake of the classic 1967 animated film, which in turn was an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s collected stories. For those worried that this is yet another pointless grim and gritty remake, rest assured that The Jungle Book is plenty of fun. There are also stakes and a good deal of peril, but these are necessary ingredients in any riveting adventure. This might seem an odd thing to say, considering the countless times Kipling’s stories have been adapted, but there’s a certain freshness about this take on The Jungle Book. Justin Marks’ screenplay is focused and coherent, incorporating just the right amount of Kipling-isms. Director Jon Favreau manages to deliver just the right dose of nostalgia for those who hold the cartoon movie near and dear, while also delivering breath-taking scale and pulse-pounding action sequences that are awe-inspiring in 3D.

            Not only are the animals fully computer-generated, the backgrounds are as well. This is an excellent example of new ground in filmmaking technology being broken not merely for the sake of it, but in service of a good story. The visual effects were primarily created by the Moving Picture Company and Weta Digital, with Avatar’s Robert Legato serving as one of the visual effects supervisors. Favreau made the choice to have the animal characters created via key frame animation instead of relying on performance capture, in an effort to avoid the highly undesirable “uncanny valley” effect. The animal acting on display here rivals that seen in Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. There’s life and nuance; the characters becoming far more than a mere assemblage of soulless voxels. You’d think talking animals in a realistic setting might pull the viewer out of it, but The Jungle Book draws one in, and the viewer soon forgets that all of this was built in a computer.

            A great deal rests on newcomer Sethi’s slight shoulders; the child actor picked from over 2000 hopefuls in an "exhaustive worldwide search". Quite a lot is demanded from Sethi, who is the sole human being onscreen for the bulk of the film. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop built life-sized animatronic animal puppets for Sethi to react to in order to aid his performance, so he wasn’t exactly “acting against nothing”, but that’s not to take away from the how challenging the role is. There are some spots where this reviewer found Sethi lacklustre, overshadowed by the dazzling imagery around him, but all things considered, it’s a commendable performance.

            The star-studded voice ensemble Favreau has gathered may seem gimmicky, until one realises how perfect each actor is for their respective characters. Kingsley brings dignity and warmth to the watchful Bagheera, while Murray’s lackadaisical charm and casual friendliness ensures Baloo is as loveable as ever. It’s very easy to believe that Elba’s baritone would emanate from a fearsome tiger and his impactful turn as Shere Khan is terrifying yet restrained, making for a worthy villain.

Nyong’o is a luminous presence onscreen, and just her voice has almost the same effect. Raksha’s bond with Mowgli provides some of the film’s most heartfelt moments; her kindness standing in contrast with Esposito’s sternness as Akela. Johansson gets just one scene, but she puts that husky femme fatale timbre to fantastic use. This film’s realisation of Kaa’s hypnotic gaze is also delightfully effective. King Louie is characterised like a mob kingpin; Walken supremely entertaining yet also subtly sinister as the orangutan-like Gigantopithecus. There’s also a great in-joke: right before meeting King Louie, Mowgli picks up a cowbell; a sly reference to Walken’s famous “needs more cowbell” sketch on Saturday Night Live.

Any number of things could have gone horribly wrong with this version of The Jungle Book: the tone could’ve been too grave, the animals could’ve looked silly, the references to the cartoon could’ve been clumsy, the cast could’ve comprised big-name stars who weren’t great voice actors, this list goes on. Favreau has managed to avoid a large number of pitfalls and we’re sure many audiences will be extremely pleased that the iconic songs “The Bare Necessities” and “I Wan’na Be Like You” weren’t excised; the latter featuring revised lyrics by Richard M. Sherman. This Jungle doesn’t merely rumble, it rocks.

Summary: The Jungle Book is visually enthralling, thrilling, funny and meticulously crafted, quality family entertainment in almost every respect.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Life

For F*** Magazine

LIFE

Director : Anton Corbijn
Cast : Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Ben Kingsley, Joel Edgerton, Alessandra Mastronardi
Run Time : 1 hr 52 mins
Opens : 31 December 2015
Rating : M18 (Sexual Scene and Some Nudity)

It can be said that a photo of someone is a sliver of a life frozen in time. It is 1955 and photographer Dennis Stock (Pattinson) of the Magnum Photos Agency is out to create art, tired of the same old set visit and red carpet assignments he has been given by his boss at the agency John G. Morris (Edgerton). At a Hollywood party thrown by director Nicholas Ray (Peter J. Lucas), Stock meets young actor James Dean (DeHaan). Stock quickly identifies Dean as a fascinating potential subject and pitches a photo essay for Life Magazine to Morris. Stock eventually convinces Dean to let him tag along, taking candid un-staged photos around L.A., New York and the farm in Indiana where Dean was raised. Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner (Kingsley) is intent on pushing Dean as the next big thing, but Dean rejects the pageantry involved with presenting himself as a new matinee idol. Stock and Dean gradually go from being photographer and subject to true friends, all while Dean’s status as an icon for the ages is being moulded.

            It seems that garden variety “cradle to the grave” biopics just won’t cut it anymore, and a movie about a real person has to have some kind of hook to stand out from the crowd. Steve Jobs takes place behind the scenes of three key Apple/NeXT product launches, and Life focuses on the relationship between James Dean and Dennis Stock, the photographer who took some of the most iconic photos of the star. Screenwriter Luke Davies had originally intended to pen a traditional biopic about James Dean, but was struck by the photos that Stock took of Dean walking in Times Square and looked into the background of said photos. Director Anton Corbijn is himself a photographer, famed for being U2’s official photographer and the director of many of the band’s music videos. As such, it is easy to see why he was drawn to material, perhaps feeling an affinity with Stock.

            Life proves incredibly frustrating because for a film about a figure who lived fast and died (very) young, it ambles along at the most leisurely of paces. In order to capture the rising star in his most unguarded moments, Stock hung out with Dean and this movie could be titled “Hanging Out with James Dean”. When we hang out with friends, noteworthy occurrences are usually infrequent. In the film, Dean attends an acting class conducted by legendary teacher Lee Strasberg (Nicholas Rice), then goes for drinks with a few classmates and dances. It just so happens that he’s dancing with Eartha Kitt (Kelly McCreary). We glimpse a who’s who of 50s Hollywood luminaries including Elia Kazan (Michael Thierrault), Raymond Massey (John Blackwood) and Natalie Wood (Lauren Gallagher), but all the glitz and glamour is intended to be secondary to the central friendship of Stock and Dean. It’s akin to a kid at Disney World being dragged past Star Tours by his parents and forced to sit through the Hall of Presidents.

            James Dean is hailed as something of a mythic figure idolised by many and casting someone to play a personality whose look and attitude has been influential far after his death must have been an immense challenge. DeHaan might only resemble Dean on a foggy night from 30 feet away but he does make a conscious effort to convey Dean’s brooding intensity. There are moments when the performance comes across as whiny and others when it feels like someone playing dress-up, but one can tell DeHaan’s done his homework. Fellow Harry Osborn James Franco has also played Dean, in a 2001 made-for-TV biopic.

Pattinson has spent most of his post-Twilight career trying to distance himself from the vampire romance franchise and while he’s not a terrible actor, he’s not great either – at least not yet. Pattinson does develop a chemistry with DeHaan and the relationship progresses believably. The film depicts the dissolution of Dean’s romance with Italian starlet Pier Angeli (Mastronardi), though it seems like the film is eager to get her out of the way so the bromance may commence. Kingsley shows up to do some very delicious scene-chewing as Warner, less head honcho and more terrifying overlord of tinsel town.

Life views James Dean through a photographer’s lens, pushing the glitz and glamour out of frame as much as possible. Perhaps through observing Dean, Stock changed and impacted the actor in some way as well. The approach is hit and miss – sometimes, Life’s quiet approach distinguishes it from melodramatic broad strokes biopics but at others, this feels like a boring movie about a fascinating subject, never digging quite deep enough.

Summary: While thoughtfully crafted, there are considerable stretches where Life seems to come to a standstill, the low-key approach working both for and against it.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

The Walk

For F*** Magazine

THE WALK

Director : Robert Zemeckis

Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Clément Sibony, César Domboy, Ben Schwartz, Steve Valentine

Genre : Drama

Run Time : 123 mins

Opens : 22 October 2015

Rating : PG (Some Intense Sequences)

Keep those Dramamine pills handy, because director Robert Zemeckis and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt are taking us on a particularly dizzying walk. In this biopic, Gordon-Levitt plays Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist with, quite literally, a lofty ambition: to walk a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. The moment he first glimpses the structures in a magazine, Petit cannot take his mind off conquering the void between them. He seeks the tutelage of Papa Rudy (Kingsley), the patriarch of a famous clan of high-wire circus performers, and goes about assembling a team of accomplices who will help him break into the South Tower. Street musician Annie (Le Bon), who becomes Petit’s girlfriend, is the first. She is soon joined by photographer Jean-Louis (Sibony), math teacher Jeff (Domboy) and in New York itself, electronics salesman J.P. (Dale) and insurance agent Barry (Valentine), whose office. in the World Trade Centre. Battling doubts, their better judgement and logistical difficulties all the while evading the authorities, Petit and his crew go about preparing for this illegal, dangerous but ultimately breath-taking feat of derring-do. 

The Walk is based on Petit’s autobiography To Reach the Clouds, which earlier served as the basis for the 2008 Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. After making his acceptance speech, Petit famously balanced the Oscar statuette on his chin. Awards contender biopics, branded as “important movies”, can sometimes be inaccessible and a bit of a chore for the average moviegoer to sit through. The Walk is very far away from that, a straightforward, heartfelt account of one guy’s crazy quest and the lengths he and his friends went to in order to make his dream a reality. There’s an undeniable appeal to the simplicity of the premise which papers over the slightly phony Hollywood sheen the film sometimes has. There are moments that can be twee and cloying, particularly during the nostalgia-heavy scenes set in Paris, but perhaps it adds to the film’s old-school charm in its own way. 

Typically, awards movie season biopics don’t exactly seem like they must be witnessed on the big screen. The Walk’s primary selling point is its spectacle, and the exhilarating sequences of Petit doing his thing 110 storeys up in the air are what Zemeckis and co. hope will convince those who watched the documentary to experience the story again. There have been reports of audiences at screenings actually throwing up from vertigo. We don’t mean to sound insensitive to those viewers, but incidents like that are great publicity indeed, indicating that the film has achieved a sense of immersion for the audience. It’s a little like when horror movies like Last House on the Left proudly proclaimed on their posters that audience members fainted from fright. 

Known for helming effects-heavy films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, in addition to motion capture movies like The Polar Express and Beowulf, Zemeckis has never been one to shy away from gimmicks. Surprisingly, 3D hasn’t been used to accomplish the effect of vertigo as often as one would think. The twin towers themselves and the surrounding New York cityscape circa 1974 are faithfully, stunningly realised by visual effects supervisor Kevin Baillie and the artists from effects houses Atomic Fiction, UPP, Rodeo FX and Legend 3D. This is a “based on a true story” affair that isn’t afraid to have lots of fun, and the theme park thrill ride aspect is complementary rather than distracting. 

Gordon-Levitt turns up the charm, bringing lithe athleticism and a mischievous twinkle in his eye to the part of Petit. Yes, his French accent is pretty cringe-inducing and is even more jarring given that Gordon-Levitt is acting opposite actual French actors, but it’s relatively easy to overlook after a while. It’s no mean feat to make obsession endearing, and while there are the expected dramatic beats where we see the toll that Petit’s unceasing drive takes on him and his friends, the film is largely upbeat and free-spirited. His stunt double is former Cirque du Soleil high-wire walker Jade Kindar-Martin. Gordon-Levitt’s take on Petit is almost an imp from another dimension who has materialised on this plane to simply live his dream. Sure, his exploits may seem crazy to the man in the street, but high above that street, Petit seems perfectly at home, and in his projection of this, Gordon-Levitt is irresistible. 

French-Canadian actress Le Bon shares palpable chemistry with Gordon-Levitt. While her introductory scene in which Annie gets upset with Petit for stealing her thunder with his tightrope juggling routine is corny, we do come to buy these two as a couple. Annie definitely has ideas and goals of her own, so her support of Petit is all the more endearing. As the mentor figure Papa Rudy, Kingsley does seem like he’s lived his whole life in a circus, bringing enough personality to the “paternal/authoritarian” archetype. Sibony, Domboy, Dale and Valentine are a likeable bunch and the camaraderie that Petit’s team shares is heart-warming and rousing. Jeff willingly assists Petit on the roof of the South Tower in spite of his own crippling fear of heights. “Squad goals,” as the kids say these days. There is a stoner character who comes off more as inauthentic, unnecessary comic relief than anything else, though. 

The Walk isn’t about a troubled chess champion, a schizophrenic mathematician, a code-breaking genius or women fighting for their right to vote. It’s not particularly weighty, but especially during awards movie season, this reviewer is fine with that. The twin towers stand no more and the film acknowledges this tastefully with a final frame that is wont to give many New Yorkers a lump in their throats. It is occasionally overly schmaltzy, and as Alan Silvestri’s score swells and characters give impassioned speeches about chasing their dreams, one might roll one’s eyes and say “I see what you’re trying to do, movie”. However, the earnestness with which Zemeckis and crew go about things overrides that feeling. A celebration of passion, conviction and artistic expression, The Walk is a thrilling, entertaining and moving journey.  

Summary: While it might give acrophobics pause, The Walk is a heartfelt tale that is easy to get into thanks to its star’s innate likeability and its thrilling spectacle is something to behold. 

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars 

Jedd Jong 

Exodus: Gods and Kings

For F*** Magazine

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS

Director : Ridley Scott

Cast : Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Tuturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, María Valverde

Genre : Adventure/Action

Run Time : 150 mins

Rating : PG13 (Some Violence)

It could be said that Old Hollywood’s Biblical epics were the big-budget superhero blockbusters of their day, with their casts of thousands and lavish sets. Cecil B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments is the codifier of that genre and now director Ridley Scott offers up his retelling of the story of Moses.

            It is 1300 B.C. and Moses (Bale) is a general in the Egyptian army who has been raised alongside Prince Ramesses (Edgerton) by the Pharaoh Seti I (Tuturro). While on a routine survey at a work site, Moses is struck by how badly the Hebrew slaves are being treated. Nun (Kingsley) tells Moses the truth of his origins, that he was born a slave and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses is eventually exiled by Ramesses. He wanders the desert, becoming a shepherd and falling in love with the Midianite Zipporah (Valverde). After a dramatic spiritual encounter, Moses takes up the task of returning to Egypt to fight for the freedom of the Hebrew slaves. In the face of Ramesses’ stubbornness, God strikes Egypt with ten frightening plagues. Only after the most horrific of these calamities does Ramesses relent, but for Moses and the children of Israel, their journey has only just begun.

            The story of Moses is a familiar one, the best-known films inspired by it being the afore-mentioned The Ten Commandments and the 1998 animated film The Prince of Egypt. Director Ridley Scott, who as the promotional materials are quick to remind us helmed Gladiator, delivers a not-quite epic. While the departures from the Biblical source material are not as outrageous as in Noah, it seems that Scott’s approach was to make more of a gritty swords-and-sandals flick than a grand, majestic Old Hollywood-style extravaganza. Perhaps this is meant to appeal to more cynical moviegoers but this reviewer was particularly disappointed that after being promised large-scale 3D spectacle, in this version, the Red Sea does not so much part as recede – off-screen. In trying to differentiate itself from earlier takes on the Exodus story, Exodus: Gods and Kings ditches one of the most iconic images in favour of a more “plausible” underwater earthquake.

            Sure, this is a $140 million movie and there still is spectacle to be had. The film was mostly shot in the historic Spanish city of Almería and the Egpytian palace sets do look suitably imposing and sprawling. The highlight of the film is the sequence of the ten plagues, in which we get swarms of buzzing locusts in 3D. The first plague in Exodus: Gods and Kings, the rivers of blood, is brought about by a violent clash of a bask of monstrous crocodiles. There are also lots of flyovers of ancient Egypt and while the CGI does mostly look good and certainly took large amounts of effort to complete, it’s always clear that what we’re looking at is computer-generated, resulting in the nagging sense of a lack of authenticity.

            Much has been made of the “whitewashed” cast – suffice it to say that you wouldn’t find anyone who looked a lot like Christian Bale or Joel Edgerton in Ancient Egypt. Scott has defended this by saying the big-budget film would not get made without A-list stars in the leading roles. Fair enough, but for this reviewer at least, this further affects the authenticity of the film and pulls one out of it somewhat – not to the extent of the film adaptations of Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender, but still in that unfortunate vein.

            Christian Bale is now the second former Batman to play Moses, after Batman Forever’s Val Kilmer voiced the titular Prince of Egypt. More emphasis is placed on Moses as a warrior, the film opening with a battle sequence in which the Egyptian army storms a Hittite encampment. Through most of the film, Moses comes off as weary and confused, with the heavy implication that his encounters with God might merely be delusional episodes. However, he’s still plenty heroic and steadfast and there’s enough of an old-school leader in this interpretation despite the modern “flawed hero” approach. Joel Edgerton seems visibly unsure of how over the top to go with his portrayal of Ramesses, conflicted as to how much scenery he is allowed to chew without going all-out ridiculous. In the end, this pales in comparison to the clash of titans between Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. The “brothers-turned-enemies” relationship was also drawn more compellingly in The Prince of Egypt.

            The supporting cast barely registers, with Sigourney Weaver getting a total of around five minutes of screen time. Ben Mendelsohn’s campy turn as Hegep is entertaining but seems slightly out of place, even given the flamboyance associated with Ancient Egyptian royalty. As with most of Ridley Scott’s films, there will probably be an extended director’s cut released and perhaps we will get more characterisation in that version. At 154 minutes, this theatrical cut is still something of a drag. The “event film” of the holiday season has its awe-inspiring moments but alas, they are few and far between.

Summary: “Underwhelming epic” sounds like an oxymoron, but that is the best way to describe Exodus: Gods and Kings.  

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

The Boxtrolls

For F*** Magazine

THE BOXTROLLS

Director : Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable
Cast : Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, Richard Ayoade, Nick Frost, Jared Harris, Tracy Morgan
Genre : Animation
Opens : 11 September 2014
Rating : PG
Running time: 100 mins

We know we’re not alone in mishearing the lyrics to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit as “here we are now, in containers”. Orgeon-based animation studio Laika brings us the story of loveable, misunderstood beings - in containers. Evil, greedy pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Kingsley) misleads the residents of Cheesebridge into believing that they are plagued by subterranean baby-eating monsters called the Boxtrolls. The Boxtrolls, so named because they “wear” cardboard boxes, are really harmless tinkerers who collect discarded knick-knacks to build their own amusing doodads. The Boxtrolls raise a baby, whom they name “Eggs” (Hempstead-Wright), as one of their own. An adolescent Eggs discovers the world above and has to learn how to fit in as a regular boy, the precocious Winnie Portley Rind (Fanning) becoming his friend and teacher. Eggs and Winnie have to convince the populace of Snatcher’s deception to save the Boxtrolls from being completely wiped out as Eggs learns how he came to be cared for by the Boxtrolls.

            Based on Alan Snow’s fantasy novel Here Be Monsters!, The Boxtrolls is Laika’s third feature film, following Coraline and ParaNorman. Short of location filming on the surface of the planet Venus, stop-motion animation has got to be the most painstaking way to make a movie ever. With every movement needing to be tactilely manipulated, every tiny costume hand-stitched, every minute prop machined, it’s easy to see why it’s not a commonly-seen form of animation in theatres today. While the stop-motion work in The Boxtrolls is enhanced with computer animation, everything still has that quaint handmade feel to it. The studio manages to marry the old-fashioned with the cutting edge, using 3D printed parts in their puppets. The effort and care taken to craft Cheesebridge, the Boxtrolls’ domain below and all the inhabitants within is readily apparent and is something moviegoers should cherish, standing in sharp contrast with the production line feel of a film like Planes: Fire and Rescue. So, hats off to directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, lead animator (and Laika CEO) Travis Knight and all the artists and technicians involved.

            Just like the two films before it, Laika has wrangled a wonderful, predominantly British voice cast for The Boxtrolls. Isaac Hempstead-Wright, best known as Bran Stark on Game of Thrones, plays Eggs as a sweet, amiable, slightly lost fish out of water – it’s a good performance, though there are times when he can sound a little stiff. Elle Fanning is entertainingly headstrong and off-kilter as Winnie and follows in her older sister’s footsteps, Dakota Fanning having played the title role in Coraline. It is Ben Kingsley who truly steals the show with his rumbling, sneering turn as Archibald Snatcher. Combined with the grotesque character animation (that allergic reaction Snatcher has looks truly disgusting), Kingsley gives life to a vile, despicable villain who recalls the most memorable baddies from British children’s literature. The Child Catcher from the film and stage adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang seems to have been a major source of inspiration. Nick Frost and Richard Ayoade are expectedly comical as two philosophical lackeys, with Tracy Morgan as the demented third henchman. Also noteworthy are the veteran voice actors who provide the Boxtrolls’ vocalisations, including experienced animated monster/creature portrayers Steven Blum and Fred Tatasciore.

            The message in The Boxtrolls is one we’ve seen before in family films – “different is good”. However, it is articulated in a sincere, charming manner here. The sweetness and fuzziness is balanced with gross-out moments that will have kids going “eww – but yeah!” There’s also some social commentary, with the aristocrats in charge of running Cheesebridge deciding that a giant wheel of Brie is a better use of their money than a children’s hospital and with Snatcher hankering after a white top hat, a symbol of status and power. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of visual invention that Coraline did and it is not as emotional and poignant as ParaNorman, that Laika magic is in full force in The Boxtrolls. Stick around for a mid-credits scene in which Mr. Trout (Frost) and Mr. Pickles (Ayoade) wax existential as the truth about the nature of their very being is revealed.

Summary: Laika keeps the flame of stop-motion animation burning bright with a warm, very funny, beautifully-crafted film, served with a side of the weird and gross.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Ender's Game

For F*** Magazine

ENDER'S GAME

Director: Gavin Hood

Cast:         Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis, Nonso Anozie, Stevie Ray Dillmore, Andrea Powell, Moises Arias, Conor Carroll, Aramis Knight, Brandon Soo Hoo

Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure

Run Time: 114 mins

Opens: 7 November 2013

Rating: PG

           These days, nothing quite gets a movie studio excited like the F word – “franchise”. Hollywood honchos hanker for the next Marvel cinematic universe, the next Star Wars, Fast and Furious or Twilight. Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the sparkly vampire chronicles, has found a property with the potential for aggressive expansion: the Ender Saga or the “Enderverse”, a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card which were, well, a game-changer.

            Following an attack on earth by insectoid alien invaders known as “Formics”, a battle school is established to train the next generation of International Fleet cadets for when the Formics strike again. Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) is a particularly promising student who is earmarked by Col. Hyrum Graff (Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Davis) as a potential leader of earth’s military forces. Ender’s siblings, Valentine (Breslin) and Peter (Jimmy Pinchak) failed to make it through the program, so as if the pressure of the fate of the world being in his hands wasn’t enough, Ender has to cope with that. An integral part of the training is the game of the title; a kind of zero-gravity strategy-based amalgam of football and laser tag. Ender has to contend with being bullied, but finds friendship in the form of Petra Arkanian (Steinfeld), one of the few female students in battle school. Ender soon finds himself among the cream of the crop and studying under war hero Mazer Rackham (Kingsley) as the clock ticks away to the next invasion.

            The novel Ender’s Game, expanded from a short story of the same name, was published in 1985. The book and its sequel Speaker for the Dead clinched the Hugo and Nebula awards, two of the most prestigious honours in science fiction. A film adaptation has been in the works for many years, with The Phantom Menace’s Jake Lloyd considered for the title role at one point. The book is regarded as something of a modern classic and perhaps film franchises centred on young characters, like the Harry Potter movies, paved the way for this adaptation to finally get off the ground.

            The premise of using games and simulations in preparation for war proved prescient, seeing as how video game technology has been co-opted into military training over the last decade or so. The film focuses on the process of the practise and trials leading up to combat instead of the battle itself, so writer-director Gavin Hood has the responsibility of making sure certain stakes and a sense of danger are still established and that viewers will be interested in seeing the games played out instead of yelling “get to the real fighting already!” at the screen. He is somewhat successful in this regard, but the film’s pacing is uneven and jittery and there is a fair bit of exposition and backstory to get out of the way in its first half. Also, pretty much every “boot camp” or “military school” trope from the movies finds its way into Ender’s Game.

            Big-budget spectacle and sci-fi action razzle dazzle is a lot more accessible to today’s audiences than before. That’s another way of saying moviegoers have become harder to impress. Ender’s Game is not a badly-designed movie by any standard, it’s just that its world of space stations, futuristic dorm rooms, grey uniforms and termite mound-style enemy terrain carries a sense of familiarity with it and doesn’t pack quite enough punch to pull one into the world. The film’s major action sequences take place within the battle room, the balletic zero-gravity sequences well-choreographed and stunt coordinator Garrett Warren’s wire-work innovations making the scenes suitably dynamic. It’s a shame this film comes right on the heels of Gravity, which will be hard to top.

 

            Asa Butterfield is a competent lead, playing Ender not as a know-it-all whiz or an insufferable adult-kid but as a “chosen one” who just has to deal. Hailee Steinfeld is very likeable as Petra and the moments in which she and Ender train together are welcome respite from the harshness of the battle school environment. A role like Hyrum Graff is best handled by an actor of stature and who has a sci-fi pedigree and Harrison Ford certainly fits the bill. Sure, there’s a lot of the scowling and looking grumpy typical of Ford’s recent career, but he’s able to bring out some layers, the character not just an authority figure but a manipulative and canny one at that. Ben Kingsley, sporting facial Tā moko Māori tattoos, is only in this for the last section of the film and doesn’t get too much to do, but he’s good.

            Ender’s Game will give teen audiences something to chew on and it is good to see a film aimed at this demographic that isn’t pointless and inane. Sure, the tackling of issues such as ethics in war and theme of empathy vs. violence may come off as clumsy or heavy handed, but at least they were given some attention. The film’s most intriguing moments come in the form of a mind game in which Ender is represented by a mouse, faced with a giant and other allegorical obstacles – and there’s the attention-grabbing ending, too. On the whole, Gavin Hood’s take on the material is more effective than the over-the-top satire Paul Verhoeven wrought with his Starship Troopers adaptation, even if the Ender’s Game team doesn’t quite hit a home run.

SUMMARY: Certainly not the easiest story to bring to the screen, Ender’s Game presents a blend of mature themes and sci-fi action – a balancing act that mostly pays off.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Iron Man 3

Movie Review                                                                                                                  25/4/13

IRON MAN 3

2013

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle

Directed by: Shane Black

   

        In the interest of full disclosure, let it be known that this reviewer is more of a DC Comics fan than a Marvel one. That said, he hasn’t missed a single one of the films in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, established with 2008’s Iron Man. The time has sped by on rocket boots, and with the Phase I films all in the bag, Phase II begins where it all started, with Iron Man.

            Robert Downey Jr. (who else?) is back as Tony Stark, tinkering with new gadgets even as the events of The Avengers give him sleepless nights. His girl Friday Pepper Potts (Paltrow) has moved in with him, but Stark just won’t give her the time of day even as the holidays approach. Enter the enigmatic terrorist mastermind The Mandarin (Kingsley), perpetrator of a series of vicious bomb attacks, one of which critically wounds Tony’s ex-bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). Tony swears revenge, and his home is assaulted by the Mandarin’s forces in return. Stranded in rural Tennessee, he enlists the help of a local kid (Ty Simpkins) to help patch his armour in anticipation of The Mandarin’s next strike. Tony also discovers links to Dr Aldrich Killian and Dr Maya Hansen, developers of the Extremis virus – a revolutionary piece of biotechnology that has turned dangerously unstable.

            Iron Man 3 is nothing short of a game-changer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the film, Happy Hogan doesn’t work directly for Tony Stark anymore – a bit of leaning-against-the-fourth-wall winking, seeing as how Jon Favreau has passed on the director’s baton to Shane Black, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Drew Pearce. Once one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Hollywood, Black proves he’s still got the mojo he displayed with his screenplays for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout in spades. Iron Man 3 has got his stamp all over it (notice the Christmas-time setting) and yet also delivers everything we’ve come to expect of a big-budget superhero blockbuster at the same time.

            The film is tightly-plotted and expertly paced; audiences certainly won’t be twiddling their thumbs waiting impatiently for the next action scene to roll around. Said action scenes are plenty inventive though – a daring mid-air rescue which Stark compares to playing “Barrel of Monkeys” and a dazzlingly-choreographed finale involving Stark hopping in and out of an array of Iron Man suits mid-combat being the prime examples. Black shows that he understands how important such displays are to the type of film he’s making, but never lets the story get drowned out by the din of high-octane bells and whistles.

            A section of viewers have taken Iron Man 2 to task for spending too much of its running time in setting up the big event, The Avengers. Iron Man 3 suffers no such problem. The focus is squarely back on Tony Stark, and by now it is impossible to imagine the character being played by anyone other than Robert Downey Jr. At this point in a franchise, the leading man is wont to display signs of weariness or that he’s only doing it for the paycheck – nope, not here. Downey Jr., armed with a new batch of one-liners and an even bigger new batch of armoured outfits, is having as much fun with the role as ever.

He doesn’t feel like he’s hogging the spotlight though, because both Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow get more to do here in their supporting parts. Col. James Rhodes’ “War Machine” has been given an image makeover and renamed “Iron Patriot”; the film doing a good job of showing how Rhodey is at his best fighting alongside Iron Man instead of merely playing errand boy for the US military. Pepper Potts finally gets to step out of her “beleaguered assistant” corner and throw some punches of her own, playing a pivotal part in the film’s climactic shipping dock battle. The subplot with Ty Simpkins’ character serving as Stark’s kid sidekick of sorts could have come off as twee, but it doesn’t eat into the meat of the proceedings and Stark’s interactions with the boy are amusing and heartfelt.

Also new to the series are Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall. The Mandarin, the Fu-Manchu like archenemy of Iron Man in the comics, is reimagined as an unkempt, somewhat theatrical figure of the shadows – though there is of course more to him than that. Stalwart comic book fans might not like the way the character is ultimately handled, but it is clever enough and didn’t really bother this reviewer. Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian is a scientist who was ignored by Stark earlier in his career and doesn’t take too kindly to this, re-entering the fray with slicked-back hair and a spray tan. Pearce plays the “mousy to charismatic” angle well, when it could well have been overly cartoonish à la Jim Carrey’s Riddler in Batman Forever. The beautiful Rebecca Hall doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but is one of those actresses who plays “hot scientist” without a hitch.

It would seem that doing anything new within the confines of the wham-bam comic book blockbuster genre would be difficult, since every new entry seems to be measured against The Avengers or The Dark Knight trilogy. It is to the credit of Shane Black and the team behind Iron Man 3 then that the film is effortlessly invigorating, assured in its tone with a good sprinkling of humour mixed in with awe-inspiring, effects-heavy action sequences and well-written character moments. There probably isn’t a better way to kick off Phase II of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe than with this flick.

SUMMARY: Iron Man emerges tri-umphant under the direction of Shane Black with a three-quel that is anything but same-old same-old.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong