Alright, let's wrap up the last bunch of films before I bring this year to a close. I've certainly got quite the handful here, between mysteries, giant monsters, superheroes, and anime. I know there are still some I missed in this year, but the fact that this is Part 7 means I still saw plenty enough, I think. Anyways, on to the reviews!
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After enjoying the first two of Kenneth Branagh's Poirot films, I was eagerly anticipating this one. While early trailers seemed to show a shift into horror (not a genre I'm a fan of), I figured that it would still end up as a classic detective thriller, with our hero seeing through the mysticism and revealing the criminal behind it all. That certainly does happen, but journey wasn't as pleasant this time around.
The story starts with Poirot retired in Venice when a friend (renowned as an author who gets her ideas from Poirot's cases) shows up to bring him along to a séance in an effort to debunk a psychic. The circumstances are perfectly tragic: the psychic has been hired by a former opera singer to get in touch with the singer's daughter (who died a year earlier) in hopes to helping her overcome her own grief, and naturally, it's taking place in a former orphanage where legends tell of the deaths of many children who still haunt the place. However, as the cast comes together, it turns out that everyone involved has their own reasons for being there, muddling the case and providing all kinds of red herrings. Fortunately, Poirot is there to separate fact from fiction, or so he intends, as long as he can keep his own head straight.
Sounds like a pretty solid set up, and the story holds together pretty well. Unfortunately, there are problems in the execution. The cinematography leans pretty hard into the horror mystique, often shooting scenes at uncomfortable angles, and frankly, it's a little too good, making me feel irritated by it. Some of the editing makes certain scenes fly by a little too quickly as well, making for some jarring jumps, and not in the spooky way. I also felt that the movie was in too much of a rush to get to the spooky stuff, but I suppose I was also critical for how long Death on the Nile took to get going. Maybe Branagh just needs to find a happy middle ground.
While not as good as the first one, it's probably on par with the second, and still remains a solid mystery, especially for me who is going in blind for these things. The cast, if maybe a little muted and limited in screen time, does well enough to create the right atmosphere, and they certainly found some great set locations for their story. I know these kinds of films are not your typical blockbusters, but I'm still hoping Branagh is able to carry on with more of these, especially if the ending is anything to go by.
I admit I wasn't really planning on seeing this one, but when my dad (a big Godzilla fan) suggested that we go check it out, I figured I had nothing to lose. While the recent efforts by Legendary Films have been some decent, if shallow, fun, this one goes all in on a remake of the original film, and turned out to be the surprise of the year!
Set in the 40s, after Japan loses World War II, the story focuses on a kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima who chickened out when the call for duty came. Landing on an island of plane mechanics, the base there gets suddenly attacked by a T-rex-sized Godzilla, where Kōichi fails his fellow soldiers once again. Returning home in disgrace and learning that his own family had died in the fire bombings, he ends up taking in a young girl who had found an orphaned baby, and the three of them come together to make do as best as they can. Kōichi finally gets a job on a boat crew destroying ocean mines, only to run into Godzilla again, this time much larger, having been mutated by the nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll. He and his crew soon learn that the monster is now headed for land and must do what little they can to prevent the thing from destroying their home, even if the Japanese government won't help them.
Tone-wise, this is a definite departure from the blockbuster style of the Legendary films, instead having long stretches with the human characters, first dealing with personal issues, and later, coming up with plans to defeat this strange monster from the sea. As such, it leans into a very classic, melodramatic style of filmmaking, where the quiet scenes are slow and poignant. However, the cast is completely perfect in their performance, and I found myself caring quite a lot about the human characters, which usually doesn't happen in a kaiju film. It helps that they have a really good script and that it leans into the post-war angst of the era, making defeating Godzilla feel like a do-or-die, triumphant effort of soldiers who finally get a chance to do things right.
As for the visuals, the special effects are incredible. I have no idea how they were able to do this much on just $15 million. Godzilla wrecks all kinds of havoc, both on land and on sea, with tankers and train cars flying through the air. And when he finally warms up his heat ray, the destruction in intense and fills the screen with cinematic power. The only real gripe I have is that the monster is definitely stiff in motion, but I wonder if that itself wasn't an homage to the original film (among many other little pieces). I cannot recommend this enough, especially if you don't mind subtitles and some slower character moments. I'd say see it on the big screen if you can, but I don't know if it will still be in theaters by now. (I guess they're going to re-release it in black and white?)
I guess I haven't talked about it much on this blog, but I'm a pretty big fan of Studio Ghibli's films and particularly those directed by Hayao Miyazaki. When I heard he was coming out of retirement, I admit I wasn't surprised, but still eagerly anticipating whatever he would do next. The movie finally came out this past summer and while I heard good things, I stay away from any potential spoilers (outside a trailer or two). So when it finally came to the US, I was pretty excited to see the latest from Ghibli and Miyazaki. Unfortunately, two hours later, I felt completely confused and flummoxed by what I had seen.
The story starts during World War 2, when the boy Mahito's mother dies in a fire at the hospital she was staying at. He takes it pretty hard, and when his father marries his mother's sister, he has a hard time with adapting to her. They end up moving to the countryside, and right after they arrive, the boy is harassed by a strange grey heron. He tries to go to school, but gets bullied, and ends up staying home for a while. When his step-mother (who is struggling with a rough pregnancy herself) suddenly disappears into the nearby forest and disappears, Mahito joins in the hunt to find and rescue her, eventually confronting the grey heron and falling into a strange magical world where he meets many different people and creatures. From here, the story is about the boy reconciling his grief and accepting his new mother.
Unfortunately, not much else is clear. The boy just kind wanders from scenario to scenario without much logic to the world he is in. There's a wizard who seems to be important (and related to Mahito), but his intentions are bent on finding an heir to the magical world they're in. At a certain point, an entire group of villains show up out of nowhere and becoming immediately important without any kind of set up whatsoever. And even the arc for the boy himself didn't click, as he seems to be seeking for his step-mother for his father's sake, but then suddenly decides to accept her as his own mother? And why did she go into the forest in the first place? Doing some research, I did see that the movie was inspired by a popular Japanese book from the 1930s (though it's not an adaptation of that book), and that Miyazaki drew from his own childhood experiences, so maybe this all makes more sense to Japanese audiences.
Still, I came out of the theater thinking I had come out of a fever dream, a kind of surreal, Alice-in-Wonderland experience. It's been baffling, as I know this movie has been getting high praises all over from various places as a heartfelt piece of healing, and while I guess that's there, it never feels like it flows well. I'm wondering if maybe I wanted a more cohesive fantasy (like Miyazaki's earlier works) and wasn't prepared for such a trippy story. (I ended up watching it subtitled, and I'm wondering if maybe the English dub tweaked the translation to make things clearer and less hard to follow.) I just feel so frustrated because I wanted to enjoy this movie, but the movie kept insisting on its nonlogical weirdness without ever explaining why it's weird. Maybe in the end, all that mattered was that the boy overcame his trials, and everything else was just visual fluff. It did feel like Miyazaki took all his previous films (with a rather large chunk of Spirited Away) and blended them together, but I still think something got lost in the process.
Well, whatever optimism the first Aquaman film may have provided clearly was unfounded as the DC Extended Universe proceeded to make a complete mess of itself. While the movies themselves were a mixed bag, this sequel carries on the fun, bombastic tone and style of the first film quite well. While it's just as shallow and silly as the first one was, it's at least to some comfort for the DCEU to end on a good note, despite all that's happened.
After becoming King of Atlantis, Arthur Curry has to juggle his two lives of saving the people of the surface world as the superhero Aquaman, and wading through the mires of politics as king. In the midst of this, Black Manta continues his quest of revenge against Aquaman for the death of this father. He stumbles on an old underwater battlefield and picks up the Black Trident, which allows the evil Kordax to possess Black Manta to get more than revenge, but to destroy the world. Once he learns of this, Aquaman has to break-out his half-brother Orm (who was the main villain in the last film) and work with him to find and stop Black Manta from releasing an ancient evil.
The movie does a good job of carrying on what the first film had started, and the cast is certainly game for it. There are a lot of clichés in the dialog and story, but when it's having this much fun, it's not a deal breaker. Because Black Manta digs up a bunch of old Atlantean technology, the movie does get an extra dash of this Jules Verne/60s sci-fi B-movie feel, which was refreshing. However, the action scenes aren't as impressive, which is a shame as the first film had a lot of cool, stylized action choreography. These are just nitty-gritty things, as the movie really is just more of the same. If you liked the first film, you'll be pleased with this one, but otherwise, it's a pretty standard superhero film. It's just unfortunately that being standard is what counts as quality for the DCEU.
Well, that wraps up the year. Kinda crazy that I watched so much this year compared to previous years. And there were still more that I was at least a little interested in. I might have to do a catch-up article or something. Still, it's been a pretty good year for movies, as I got to see a lot of interesting stuff. Here's hoping the next year is just as good!
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