Beasts of No Nation (9/10): Netflix's first original film makes some noise!

“We are just like wild animals now, with no place to be going. Sun, why are you shining at this world? I am wanting to catch you in my hands, to squeeze you until you can not shine no more. That way, everything is always dark and nobody's ever having to see all the terrible things that are happening here.”

Netflix’s first original film couldn’t have made a larger impact on me. It is one of my favorite films of the year so far. Set in an unnamed West African country, director Cary Fukunaga, takes us through the turmoils of war as we experience it through the eyes of a young child who is forced to become a soldier. The script perfectly captures this young character, named Agu (Abraham Attah), as we witness the transformation he goes through from a sweet and innocent young boy to a fearless and brutal soldier. He is the narrator of the film, and I must say the script written by Fukunaga himself is very gripping. There have been many films tackling the terrible subject matter of child soldiers in Africa, but I don’t think any of them have been handled with the grace that this script does here. It never feels forced or manipulative. We aren’t forced to sympathize with these characters or feel sorry for them because everything evolves very naturally. Fukunaga detaches us from those basic human emotions and simply lets us witness Agu’s horrifying story. The film captures the horrors of war with a lot of detail, but at the same time it contrasts with the beautiful landscape that surrounds the country. It is a film of two contrasting emotions facing off each other, on the one hand there are many horrors, but on the other there is a sense of hope. Despite all the horrifying things going on we are always left with a sense of hope that something good can come out of it all. The cinematography in this film is breathtaking and I simply fell in love with the imagery here. 

There are several things that stood out for me in this film. First of all, Beasts of No Nation further solidifies my claim that Fukunaga is one of the most talented young directors working today. I was blown away with his 2009 feature film, Sin Nombre, which centered on a Guatemalan teen who was trying to escape his past with a violent gang and flee to America with his girlfriend. Then he surprised me even more with his direction of the first season of True Detective, which was one of the best shows I’ve seen on TV. Beasts of No Nation isn’t just a showcase for Fukunaga as a director, here he proves to be an excellent script writer and cinematographer as well. The film is breathtaking. The other thing that stood out for me was the lead performance from Abraham Attah, and I believe his name should come up when award season arrives because he was simply amazing in this film. He delivers a completely believable and mesmerizing performance and we sympathize with him despite the transformation he goes through. He does some terrible things in the film, but there is still a sense that he hasn’t entirely lost his soul and that somehow that innocent child wants to come out again. His performance in the final scene is the best I’ve seen this year. Then there is also the incredible performance from Idris Elba as the rebel Commandant. These leaders have always been captured on screen as fearless and terrible men, the Commandant is all those things, but somehow Elba also manages to bring charisma to his character. There is something about him that attracts these men to follow him and basically do anything he asks of them. Elba will surely receive a lot of attention during the award season as well. I’m even hoping for Fukunaga to not be overlooked when the time comes because he has crafted a mesmerizing film that will be hard to shake off.       

My Review: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (7/10)

"It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

This is an ambitious film because it centers on an inspiring figure who made history by overcoming hate and uniting the South African nation. The only problem is that the story of Nelson Mandela is just too long to try to encapsulate in a film, and this biopic suffers from it by trying to chronicle his entire life journey. I felt the film rushed through several decades of his life highlighting every major event, but never digging deep enough. The biopic lacks those illuminating elements that Mandela's life had, and it just felt dull and overlong. This is a straightforward biopic with very conventional storytelling, which at times under develops the magnitude of its subject. This long and extensive movie failed to connect with me and I didn't feel it said anything new about a man who I highly admire for being an example of love and forgiveness. I am giving this film an extra star just because he is such an inspiring figure and his story is worth telling every time. Unfortunately this biopic isn't deep or insightful enough and a more appropriate title for this film would be Mandela: Long Watch to Boredom. Based on Mandela's own autobiography the script was adapted by William Nicholson (Gladiator) and the film directed by Justin Chadwick (The Other Bolyen Girl). Despite not delivering the epic film they were aiming for, this is still worth a watch because it centers on this inspiring hero's life who gave the world a lesson in leadership and forgiveness.

The film chronicles Nelson Mandela's (Idris Elba) life journey beginning from his childhood in the village where he was raised and continuing to his days as a lawyer where he becomes involved with a radical political group known as the ANC (African National Congress) which was against the racial separation enforced by the white government. The ANC is soon considered a terrorist group for their involvement in explosions of government buildings, and Mandela is arrested for terrorist charges along with his partner Walter Sisulu (Tony Kgoroge) and other members of the ANC. The film then chronicles his life behind bars as he is separated from his loved ones while his second wife, Winnie (Naomie Harris), continues to support his political group which grows increasingly violent during his long stay in prison. The film later focuses on his eventual release and his election as the first black president of South Africa.

Mandela's life is so extensive and full of meaningful historic moments that this biopic failed in trying to portray all of them in such a short period of time. The story jumped from one highlight of his life to the next in a way where each transition felt forced and rushed. That is what made this film feel dull at times and hard to get emotionally engaged with. It only scratches the surface of Mandela's life and never manages to dig deep enough. It simply covers way too much territory and by doing so it felt like it wasn't saying anything. I do have to give a lot of credit to Idris Elba who gives a powerful performance as Mandela and was especially good at capturing his young years as a fierce activist. Later when he grew older the makeup got in the way and distracted me quite a bit from his performance. I just thought it felt too fake and they should've used an older actor for that role. Elba does succeed in capturing his mannerisms and does excellent voice work. I also enjoyed the soundtrack, especially the Ordinary Love song by U2 during the credits.

My Review: Thor: The Dark World (6/10)

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help."

Marvel Universe Season 2 Episode 2

The second phase of the Marvel universe began this summer with Iron Man 3 which was a film I enjoyed very much, but really hasn't seemed to stick with me. I'm afraid the same problem can be said about Thor: The Dark World, which was an entertaining movie but I don't think I'd enjoy it as much on a second viewing. Most of these films are fun and exciting as you experience them for the first time, but the magic seems to vanish for me after a few weeks. Perhaps The Avengers was so great that these sequels don't seem to live up to the standard set by Joss Whedon. I still had a great time in the movies and enjoyed the sequel to Thor considering I wasn't blown away by the first film either. By now Thor knows exactly who he is and doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, so we get to see him in action with his might hammer quite a bit. At times the film has a sort of Star Wars vibe to it mixed with The Lord of the Rings (with Jane reminding me of Frodo), but the final action scene suffers from something we've seen in way too many superhero films recently: buildings getting completely destroyed and blown up. It also mixes some elements near the end that we've seen in Jumper, but all in all the film succeeds thanks to the great chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. The way they played off each other and interacted was the highlight of the film, and Hiddleston was extremely funny here. I wasn't a huge fan of his in the first Thor, but after The Avengers I began to enjoy his performance, and his character in this sequel is better than ever. I wasn't blown away by the action scenes, but I did like the smaller comedic and light moments which the film had to offer. The film is entertaining enough to garner at least one watch.

The film picks up after the events of The Avengers with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) back in Asgard serving his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) trying to restore peace to the nine realms that his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has altered. Loki is sentenced to prison after his mother Frigga (Rene Russo) insists he shouldn't be killed. It turns out to be a good decision because Thor will need his service after the city is attacked by a race of beings known as the Dark Elves. Their leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), is searching for a weapon known as the Aether which had been taken away from him thousands of years ago by Odin's father. Since the aether couldn't be destroyed, the Asgardians had to hide it. In the meantime Jane (Natalie Portman), who hasn't seen or heard from Thor since he left two years ago, along with her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings) discover an anomaly very similar to the one that had brought Thor to Earth in the past. When she goes to investigate she is sucked by some sort of wormhole and ends up right next to the place where the aether had been hidden. After Heimdall (Idris Elba) warns Thor that Jane has disappeared, he goes after her, but somehow Jane has awaken Malekith which is what provoked his attack in Asgard in the first place.

Thor: The Dark World is pretty generic and follows a similar formula of most superhero films. That is the reason why so many scenes remind us of other scenes we've seen in other action films. I was never at the edge of my seat during any of the action scenes, but I did have a great time with the light and funny moments. Some people actually enjoyed the action sequences in this film, but it really didn't do anything new for me. The highlight of the film for me was Tom Hiddleston and the scenes he was in were probably the most memorable of the movie. Jamie Alexander, Zachary Levi, and Ray Stevenson all return for their supporting roles here as Thor's soldier/warriors but their characters aren't really developed too much. It is strange to see a summer blockbuster film in November but I guess that the timing was right considering all the superhero films that came out this year. Thor doesn't stand out (and I guess none really did this year), but it is still an entertaining movie. This Marvel universe is growing so fast with all these films that at times it feels like a TV series. So I guess it was a good idea that they brought in the Game of Thrones director, Alan Taylor. He has made an enjoyable film.

My Review: Pacific Rim (5/10)

"Today we are canceling the Apocalypse!"

Pacific Rim is without a doubt Guillermo del Toro's biggest blockbuster movie and visually it doesn't disappoint. The main issue I had with this film had to do with its story and character development. I really didn't care for any of these characters and thought that the performances were pretty weak as well. The film relies entirely on the great visuals and awesome action scenes. This is what the Transformers action scenes should have looked like because the action scenes were great and the editing was done real smoothly (unlike in the Transformers franchise where there is so much editing during the action sequences that it is hard to follow). Fans of monster movies will really enjoy Pacific Rim because del Toro knows his craft, but if you are looking for a great storyline then you will be left disappointed like I was. Guillermo del Toro pays homage to those giant monster movies the Japanese started making several decades ago and it is sort of a love letter to them. Pacific Rim is visually stylish and it has some great monster and robot sequences, but there is hardly no humanity in this film despite it trying to with all the flashbacks and neural bridges mind blending scenes. It tries to illustrate the point of having humanity teaming up together to defeat these monsters, but I really didn't feel it and that is one of the main reasons why I didn't like this film. Despite the cool action scenes I felt the movie was dragging too much and it got more and more tedious as it moved on. I was disappointed with Pacific Rim and would much rather watch Hellboy over this.

Mankind has always looked to the stars for possible life forms, but what they didn't know was that it would come from the deep ocean. Monstrous creatures named Kaijus came through a portal from the bottom of the ocean and began destroying everything that was on their path. In order to stop them humans had to build these giant robots known as Jaegers. The Jaegers are controlled from within by two pilots who have their minds connected through a neural bridge; one pilot controls the left hemisphere of the robot and the other the right. The Jaegers are highly successful at first as they defeat the Kaijus and the pilots become the new superheroes, but as the years go by these Kaijus begin to adapt and come out even stronger than before. The Jaegers are beginning to be defeated and humanity is forced to build giant walls to try to keep these creatures away. However Marshall Stacker (Idris Elba) knows that the walls won't hold so he decides to create a resistance with four powerful Jaegers. He calls upon a former pilot named Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) to team up with rookie Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). Along with another group of pilots these four Jaegers remain humanity's last hope for survival. Charlie Day and Burn Gornman play two scientists who are studying a way to counterattack the Kaijus. 

The lead performances from Hunnam and Kikuchi are pretty weak for an action movie. I really never felt chemistry between them and was disappointed with their performances. Idris Elba is a great actor, but I never felt connected to his character either. The rest of the pilots didn't have a backstory or anything that allowed us to care for them either. The two scientist were mostly added for comedic relief and I wasn't very impressed. My favorite performance came from Ron Perlman (Hellboy), an underground lord who trafficked dead Kaiju body parts. He had a very small role, but I thought those scenes were the most interesting ones of the movie. I liked the action scenes, but they get tiresome after a while and I needed to care more for the characters in order to enjoy this more. Pacific Rim is just too ridiculous and it suffers from a weak screenplay. It is a very noisy film with no character development whatsoever. Pacific Rim is one of Guillermo del Toro's weakest films to date (along with Pan's Labyrinth which is way overrated). 

My Review: Prometheus (9/10)

¨How far would you go to get your answers?¨

Prometheus is one of the best movies of the year and in my opinion one of the best science fiction films I`ve seen in a very long time. The visuals were incredible, the characters interesting (very strong performances from Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace), and the suspense was very intense. I was at the edge of my seat during most of the film and was really impressed with the movie overall. I had seen the trailer and didn’t really expect much, since I`ve never seen the Alien films and had heard this was an Alien prequel. However, despite not seeing Alien I have to say that the film works on its own independently. I do want to go back and watch those films now because Ridley Scott did such a great job with this movie. Scott became a household name in 1979 when he directed the first Alien film which became an instant cult classic and followed it up with another great science fiction movie, Blade Runner. Since then his movies have been either hit or miss, with some great titles like Thelma and Louise, Matchstick Men, and Gladiator, and others not as good. He has directed several different genres, but there is no doubt that when it comes to science fiction he brings out the best. His latest film, Robin Hood, wasn`t received very well, although I did enjoy it quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I did Prometheus. The script for this movie was written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof (the writer of my favorite TV series, Lost), and for many it was the weakest part of the film, but I did enjoy some of the dialogue and the philosophy behind it considering this is a science fiction film.

The movie takes place in the year 2089 when two archeologists, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), make an important discovery in a cave somewhere in Scotland. They find ancient hieroglyphics similar to others they`ve found in different unconnected regions of the world from different eras and times. They automatically assume that this has to be a sign that we were created by some sort of a higher being, which they call ¨Engineers¨. The hieroglyphics consist of men signaling towards five stars that are exactly in the same position, which scientists later discover to be in a very distant galaxy with a solar system similar to our own. Elizabeth and Charlie convince a wealthy man named Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) to finance a trip to this planet in order to search for answers about their existence. A crew of 17 members all financed by the Weyland Company travel to this distant planet on a spacecraft named Prometheus. They are put into hyper sleep during the voyage which takes more than two years, while a human like android named David (Michael Fassbender) makes sure everything is running smoothly. Once they reach their destination, David wakes everyone up. The captain of the ship is Janek (Idris Elba) and they all follow orders from Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) who sends the exploration crew out to find any sign of life outside and commands them not to speak to anyone until they return to the ship. The film slowly builds the suspense and tension from this point on as they end up finding something very different from what they were searching for.

There are plenty of scares and thrills in Prometheus and the tension is very well constructed, unlike recent horror films where you have hardly any build up to the story. Many people complain about the script, but I thought it was really well developed with interesting characters and situations. Michael Fassbender gives perhaps the best performance of the film with a very intriguing character who you never know whether you can trust him or not. His performance is among the best I`ve seen this year. Noomi Rapace also gives a very strong performance as the strong female lead role. She proved she can play these difficult roles before (from the Swedish Millennium trilogy) and she is someone to keep an eye on. Idris Elba had some small scenes, but he is always great. Charlize Theron gives a very good performance as the sort of cold and distant Vickers. You never know whether she`s human or an android because of her distant nature, and there is even a joke about it in the movie. The rest of the cast was alright, but never up to par with Fassbender and Rapace. Some of the scientists do act rather immaturely, but I guess that is always a must in science fiction horror films. You always have to have those annoying characters which you don’t really care for or mind having them killed off. Perhaps I enjoyed this film more than others since I haven’t seen the Alien films and didn’t have my expectations as high as them. I will definitely go see those movies now, and I wouldn’t have a problem watching this film all over again.

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My Review: Takers (4/10)

¨We`re takers, gents. That’s what we do for a living. We take.¨

There is a scene in Takers where a group of sophisticated criminals have just successfully finished robbing a bank and are walking away in style from an exploding helicopter. This scene can summarize what I thought about the movie: Very stylish and cool looking, but very poor in content, story, and acting. The cast seems entirely focused on trying to look cool and outshine one another, but none of them are actually worried about giving a decent and realistic portrayal of their characters. They may act tough and cool, but they’re all two dimensional. The script is bad, but I wouldn’t blame the acting entirely on that because the truth of the matter is that most these actors can´t act even if they were given an Oscar winning screenplay. Director John Lussenhop also collaborated with the screenplay along with Peter Allen and Gabriel Casseus, and the truth of the matter is that there are several plot holes. There was however some interesting action sequences, like a foot chase around New York City involving Chris Brown and Matt Dillon which had some really cool stunt work. Some viewers might be hypnotized by the look and style of the film because the visuals are actually pretty decent, but I really couldn’t get around the poor plot and acting. Zoe Saldana is probably one of the best actresses in the film and she doesn´t even get hardly any screen time. Some of the other characters in the film seem to have served no purpose at all (Naomi for example).

John Rahway (Paul Walker), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), brothers Jesse (Michael Ealy) and Jack Attica (Chris Brown), and Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba) are part of a five man team of bank robbers who successfully completed their latest heist after a spectacular and calculated escape involving a News Station helicopter. They are sophisticated criminals who enjoy a life of luxury; they have big houses, drive Range Rovers, and wear stylish clothes. Their comfortable lives come to an end when a former member of the team, known as Ghost (Tip T.I. Harris) is released from jail that very day and shows up with a new plan for a heist involving two armored trucks and twenty million dollars. The problem is that they don’t have much time to plan for the job and they don’t know if they can really trust Ghost. Jack´s girlfriend, Lilly (Zoe Saldana), used to be Ghost`s former love interest so Jack really doesn’t want to accept the job, but there is a lot of money involved so they accept. The other problem the team has to deal with is that police officer Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his partner Eddie (Jay Hernandez) are closely behind their backs linking several pieces of evidence against them. Jack has to deal with some trouble of his own due to the fact that his obsession with his job has pushed him away from his daughter, and Eddie has been accused of stealing some evidence money. Sooner or later the paths of these criminals will cross with those of Officer Welles.

My main issue with this film was the acting. T.I. is a terrible actor. His performance as Ghost is just nauseating. Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen aren’t really known for their acting skills although they do have some charisma. In this film with everything that is going on they don’t have much screen time for us to sympathize with their characters. Idris Elba gives a decent performance, but his whole relationship with his drug addict sister is pointless if you ask me. I know that she is the reason why Welles becomes suspicious of Gordon, but they could have done without that entire story. Zoe Saldana`s character is also misused and actually pointless in this film. The one memorable moment for me was the scene where we get to see Chris Brown in action trying to escape from the police. The stunt work was great. The rest of the film is pretty much forgettable although I can’t deny being seduced by some of the camera work. The look of the film was great, but the content was just not there at all. I was actually disappointed with Takers, it could have been so much better because it did have some interesting moments, but the pieces just didn’t seem to fit together. I wouldn’t recommend this movie, there are other more interesting and smart heist thrillers out there.

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My Review: The Losers (4/10)

¨ Did you know that cats can make one thousand different sounds and dogs can only make ten? Cats, man. Not to be trusted. ¨

(4/10) Who cares how many sounds a cat can make? And the same thing can be said about The Losers: who cares about this action oriented film? The plot and the dialogue simply bored me to death. I know the movie is to be taken lightly, but still I found the movie so dull and couldn`t care less for the characters. The dialogue is just terrible and there is not even a funny moment in the movie which would allow you to sympathize with the characters. The action alone wasn`t enough to save the movie. I just finished watching a much better film (Kick-Ass) which also had to be taken lightly, but was far more entertaining than this movie because that one actually had funny dialogues and interesting characters. Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) directs this movie which was supposed to be fun, but it just didn`t work for me. The screenplay was written by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt and it was loosely based on the characters from Andy Diggle`s DC comic. The screenplay could have been written by any amateur really because it was just awful. I knew this movie was to be taken lightly and enjoyed for the action so I was prepared for that, but I really didn`t find anything entertaining about it. The Losers is a film you could definitely live without seeing.

The opening of the film takes place in Bolivia where an elite squad is preparing for an attack on a drug dealer´s home. We are introduced to the five members of the squad in a cartoonish style. Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan from Watchmen) is the leader of the group, Roque (Idris Elba, RocknRolla) is the demo and tactical specialist, Pooch (Columbus Short, Armored) is the transpo and heavy weapon specialist, Jensen (Chris Evans, Fantastic Four) is the comms and tech specialist, and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada, Che: The Argentine) is the long range elimination specialist. Yes, they are all special. While on their mission in Bolivia they discover that there are several children where the attack is going to take place so they decide to abort the mission against the CIA orders. Somehow a man named Max (Jason Patric, Speed II) sabotages their mission and tries to get them killed. The five members of the squad are left for dead in Bolivia, while they try to survive and get their identities back. A mysterious woman named Aisha (Zoe Saldana, Avatar) shows up and promises to get them their identities back if they help her to find and kill Max. The problem is that Max is a very powerful man and is very difficult to get too, but the Losers want to get there revenge as well so they decide to trust Aisha. The plot moves on from this point in a very predictable manner.

There are some very good actors involved in this movie, but they just didn`t have good material to work with. Jeffrey Dean Morgan proved that he was a good actor in Watchmen, and in this film he is probably one of the best characters and has more screen time. Zoe Saldana also has done great movies, but she falls short as Aisha. Chris Evans tried to be as funny as he was in the Fantastic Four franchise, but I didn`t care too much for his character this time. Oscar Jaenada was perhaps the coolest character of the film, and the fact that he didn`t have many lines was probably a plus for him considering the terrible dialogue. Jason Patric played a strange villain; at times he seemed overly stereotyped and way too exaggerated. His portrayal of Max was probably the most cartoonish villain on film. Overall I really didn`t find The Losers entertaining. I know not every film has to be deep or have meaning, but this wasn`t entertaining or fun for me either. This is one of those movies I will have forgotten about the next day.

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The Losers: Book One (Vols. 1 & 2)The Losers: Book One (Vols. 1 & 2)