movie night

Movie Night: The Matrix Reloaded

Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 15 May 2003
Director: The Wachowski Brothers
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Budget: $127 to 150 million
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Laurence Fishburne, Lambert Wilson, and Randall Duk Kim

The Plot:
After shedding the artificial reality of his mundane life and realising his destiny as “The One”, Neo (Reeves) is conflicted between his duty and his status as a saviour to the remnants of humanity. As the machines prepare an all-out assault against Zion, Neo must unravel the mystery of his purpose and face the fight of his life when his old enemy, Smith (Weaving), inexplicably returns with the power to endlessly duplicate himself!

The Background:
Back in 1999, up-and-coming writer/director duo Andy and Larry Wachowski (as they were known then) brought together an impressive mixture of martial arts, philosophy, and science-fiction that pulled heavily from manga and anime and made an instant and lasting impression on action cinema by popularising “bullet time” and wire-assisted kung fu (or “wire-fu”) in movies. The Matrix was a smash at the box office, and with critics, and the Wachowskis made the bold decision to follow it up with not one film, but two, filmed back-to-back and accompanied by a bunch of tie-in multimedia, including comics, videogames, and a series of animated shorts. Seeking to push the boundaries of the mind-bending concepts and special effects pioneered in the first film, Warner Bros. set up ESC Entertainment to develop the technology needed to bring their vision to life once more. Virtual cameras, incredibly detailed facial capture programs, and optical flow techniques, among others, allowed the duo to better manipulate the virtual space and pit Neo against hundreds of Agent Smiths in the memorable “Burly Brawl” and the producers even constructed a 1.5-mile freeway specifically for an action-packed chase sequence. Going bigger with the action and spectacle paid off dividends at the box office as The Matrix Reloaded made over $740 million worldwide, though critics were divided on the increased focus on philosophy and its complex narrative. Unlike the first film, which was relatively straight-forward, The Matrix Reloaded spawned endless readings and discussion with its dense themes, though many praised the intense and spectacular action sequences and fight scenes. Audiences didn’t have to wait long for the third, far more contentious entry, though it would be nearly twenty years before Warner Bros. decided to revive the franchise. Still, I’ve always enjoyed this second Matrix movie and, since today is Keanu Reeves’ birthday, this seems like the perfect time to revisit it once more.

The Review:
It’s still pretty crazy to me to think back to The Matrix, which was a huge deal when it came out. When my friends and I had sleepovers, The Matrix was usually always one of a handful of films we would put on and we were all enthralled by the action, the special effects, and the concept of machines having overrun a post-apocalyptic world and subdued us all in a virtual reality environment. The hype for the sequel was pretty high, as I remember; The Matrix opened up so many philosophical and layered discussions that it was probably my first experience of really intense fan debates and speculation about where the series would go in the sequel, especially regarding the expansion of this fictional world. I don’t recall if I watched The Animatrix (Various, 2003) before seeing this film, but I know I didn’t play the videogames (and have still yet to do that), so I went into this with only my affection for the first film and the anticipation of the trailers behind me, both of which were more than enough to excite me.

For all his power within the Matrix, Neo remains a conflicted and doubt-ridden saviour.

The Matrix Reloaded takes place some six months after the events of the first film and finds Neo in a much more comfortable position than he was throughout The Matrix, where he was mostly confused, overwhelmed, and struggling to pick between panic, adrenaline, and instinct. Now garbed in an all-black ensemble that resembles an all-in-one suit and cape, Neo cuts a confident and awe-inspiring figure thanks to having unlocked incredible and unprecedented powers within the Matrix. This allows him to sense the presence of Agents of the system, view the Matrix’s code at will, perform superhuman and physics-bending actions, and, of course, to fly through the sky at the speed of sound. While many in Zion, the last human city, don’t fully understand Neo’s abilities or question his status as their saviour, there’s no doubt that he’s easily the most powerful character in the film when plugged into the Matrix. While other characters are forced to run from the Agents, Neo can engage them in hand-to-hand combat and best them without much difficulty, even when going up against “upgrades” like Agent Johnson (Daniel Bernhardt). However, as formidable as Neo’s physical abilities are within the Matrix and as celebrated a figure he is amongst a certain sect of Zion’s inhabitants, he remains a fallible man plagued by self-doubt that’s only been exacerbated since being heralded as a saviour and the growing pressure he faces at being the literal key to the survival of humanity. As before, he seeks guidance from the Oracle (Gloria Foster), who continues to bombard him with riddles regarding his true destiny and turns to his lover, Trinity (Moss), for support and solace as he struggles to meet the lofty expectations placed upon him and combat the incredible power of his old enemy, Smith, when he makes an unexpected return.

In addition to being Neo’s rock, Trinity is a bad-ass character willing to sacrifice herself for him.

While Trinity was very much a catalyst for Neo’s unplugging and guiding him towards realising his true calling as The One in the first film, here she’s reconfigured the centre of Neo’s world. While the chemistry between the two characters (and actors) is incredibly lacking, with both being quite wooden in their passion and delivery (beyond when they’re sucking face or getting raunchy during a sweaty rave), the film goes out of its way to emphasise that their connection, their true love, is central to Neo’s relationship to humanity. Still a forthright and capable figure, Trinity is far more than just Neo’s arm candy or a damsel in distress; she’s treated as one of his strongest supporters and an equal and given her fair share of action scenes thanks to her taking the lead on liberating and safeguarding the Keymaker (Duk Kim) using her motorcycle skills. There’s no question that Trinity is a formidable and bad-ass fighter and shooter; even when fighting alongside Neo, who can basically do whatever he wants in the Matrix (though, oddly, rarely ever does this), Trinity holds her own but all the physical skill in the world don’t stop her from taking offense when Persephone (Monica Bellucci) demands a passionate kiss from Neo before she agrees to betray her husband, the condescending Merovingian (Wilson), so they can get to the Keymaker. While Neo and Trinity don’t really have the greatest chemistry as a couple (which is potentially due to everyone assuming a stoic demeanour within the Matrix), their love is much envied by Persephone, who has grown weary of her husband’s cheating ways and pompous arrogance and longs for the days when he was more like Neo (a throwaway line that many took to believe that the Merovingian was once a One), but warns that their love is doomed to end in tragedy. Accordingly, Trinity plays a huge role in the film as Neo finds himself plagued by nightmares of her impending demise during a bombastic action scene; fearing that his visions may come true, and desperate not to lose her, Neo asks that she stay out of the Matrix for the finale, which sees the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar team up with other crews in a multi-staged assault to get Neo plugged into “The Source”. However, when the crew of the Vigilant is destroyed during a Sentinel attack, Trinity has no choice but to enter the Matrix to complete the mission and, in the process, Neo is faced with his greatest choice yet as he must pick between literally saving the last remnants of humanity from the machine’s reprisals or saving the life of the woman he loves.

Morpheus is now a questionable figure whose beliefs and methods are the subject on ongoing debate

A pivotal and memorable character in the first film, Morpheus (Fishburne) undergoes a significant character shift here from wise and benevolent mentor to a figure of some controversy. As presented in The Matrix, I always saw Morpheus as a crucial figurehead in the Zion hierarchy but it turns out that he’s actually something of a religious zealot; many in Zion not only question is unwavering belief in the Oracle, Neo, and the prophecy of The One but also see him as a reckless, disobedient, and dangerous individual who often acts against the interests of the ruling council. Labelled as “crazy” by some and treated with contempt by Commander Lock (Harry Lennix), whose concerns are more realistically focused on the impending assault from the machines, Morpheus jarringly loses much of his mystique and becomes a much more layered and human character as a result. This is aided by the presence of Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) of the Logos, a sceptical character who once had a romantic relationship with Morpheus that was forever changed after Morpheus first met the Oracle and learned that his destiny was to find The One. Clearly still harbouring feelings for each other, their relationship is frosty, to say the least, thanks to Niobe now being with Lock and her resentment towards The One and Morpheus’s devotion to his beliefs. Still, it’s not as if everyone doubts Morpheus; Neo and Trinity still hold him in high esteem for showing them the truth, Councillor Hamann (Anthony Zerbe) and others on the council treat him with reverence and respect even if they don’t fully believe the same things he does, and he’s revered as an influential figure, regardless of his beliefs, who can inspire the citizens of Zion to rise up against the fear of their impending destruction and therefore face the oncoming attack with gusto. Within the Matrix, Morpheus plays a largely supporting role but sparks up a bit of a rivalry against Agent Johnson and plays an important part in helping Neo fend off the Merovingian’s minions, though his primary role within the virtual reality environment is to be a stoic and implacable believer in Neo’s abilities and destiny to lead the human race to victory regardless of the odds, the risk, or the concerns of others. Indeed, Morpheus is completely nonplussed by his doubters; it’s only when Link (Harold Perrineau) questions his decisions that he steps in, and his faith is even rewarded as Neo arrives to save him when he “prays” for help during the chaotic highway chase. However, his unwavering devotion to the cause is shaken in the finale, when he sees his ship destroyed before his eyes and stunned to find that Neo’s insertion into the Source didn’t out-right destroy the Matrix as he was led to believe.

Neo’s abilities cause a stir within Zion, with some sceptical and others devouted to him.

Naturally, given that The Matrix Reloaded is a much bigger film than its predecessor and actually shows just how large and complex the steampunk underground city of Zion is, the film includes a large number of supporting characters. The Nebuchadnezzar has been reduced to a four-man crew, with newcomer Link acting as the ship’s operator; Link is still getting used to his role and processing not only Morpheus’s unwavering faith in Neo and the prophecy but also Neo’s incredible abilities, which he’s seen first-hand and has turned from a sceptic to a believer. The aforementioned Niobe, Hamann, and Lock are three of the principal figureheads of Zion, with each one offering another wrinkle to the film’s greater focus on philosophy and the question of choice and destiny. Lock is a pig-headed, militaristic man who wants every resource possible at his disposal to effectively barricade Zion and fend off the impending attack and is constantly frustrated at the council’s insistence of wasting manpower and ships following Morpheus’s mad beliefs but, while he might be a hard-nosed blowhard, his devotion to the safety of Zion is never in question. Niobe remains torn between her lingering feelings for Morpheus and her scepticism regarding The One; while she has little faith in this, she does believe in Neo’s character and volunteers to help the Nebuchadnezzar get Neo to The Source, much to Lock’s chagrin and jealousy. Amusingly, Neo is actually more perturbed by his believers than the sceptics; he’s visibly uncomfortable when Zion’s citizens offer him gifts and beg him to watch over their friends and family as part of the film’s explicit and unashamed Christ metaphor and aggravated by the hero worship piled onto him by The Kid (Clayton Watson), an overly enthusiastic youngster who yearns to join Morpheus’s crew to fight alongside his hero. Finally, Hamann walks the line between practicality and faith; having lost much of his life to the virtual reality of the Matrix, he seizes every waking moment and is clearly awestruck by Neo’s abilities, which he believes are a greater design even if he doesn’t fully understand what that is.

Suspicion surrounds many allies when they’re revealed to be programs of the system.

Hamann also lays the groundwork for the film’s overarching theme regarding control; the humans use machines to maintain their lives, while fighting other machines looking to kill them, and the balance between the two, their duel capacity for life and death, plays a pivotal role in Neo’s ultimate destiny when he’s faced with the choice between giving into a greater power or smashing the system that maintains so many lives, even if only in a form of slavery. This is in stark contrast to the Oracle, an enigmatic and cryptic figure who continues to pick and choose what information she gives out. Quickly revealed to actually be a program, and thus part of the system of control within the Matrix, the Oracle’s trustworthiness and true motivations are briefly called into question by Neo, despite his gratitude to her for helping guide himself towards his great destiny. Believing that the war between needs to come to an end and that both races need to find a way to co-exist, the Oracle adds to Neo’s considerable load by expositing that he must reach The Source to complete his destiny and that he’s as much a slave to his choices and fate as she is to her programming. It’s through conversations with the Oracle that we learn more about the Matrix and get a sense of just how complex The One is; it’s not merely about bullet time or humbling Agents, it’s a coding system that holds the key to humanity’s salvation, and the weight of this responsibility weighs heavily on Neo’s shoulders. This time, the Oracle is accompanied by a bodyguard, Seraph (Collin Chou), a program designed to safeguard her at all costs; he doesn’t say much but makes an immediate impression by going toe-to-toe with Neo in order to “truly know him”. When Neo and the others finally reach the Keymaker, they find a wizened old man with a collection of keys that allow one to travel vast distances through doors and even traverse backdoor corridors in the Matrix’s coding. The Keymaker represents the film’s focus on everyone having a reason and a purpose; his purpose is to make the keys and to know how to access The Source, and protecting him from the Agents becomes the protagonist’s highest priority in their desire to end the war.

While the Merovingian and the Twins are more interesting than Agents, they’re wasted potential.

This mission is, as ever opposed by the Agents; these men-in-black antagonists remain as formidable as ever, able to jump to new host bodies, dodge bullets, and proving a persistent threat even when Neo is around thanks to having been “upgraded” to give him a bit more of a fight. Their threat is eventually lessened not just by Smith and his inexhaustible army of clones but also the presence of the Merovingian, a charismatic and self-aggrandising “Exile” who has amassed an army from previous versions of the Matrix (inexplicably meaning that vampires and werewolves make a very brief cameo) to establish a vast network for programs, like himself, who wish to travel beyond the restrictions of the virtual reality world. A self-styled “trafficker of information”, the Merovingian is arrogant and patronising to the heroes, unimpressed with their grandeur and what he sees as their lack of knowledge about what they want and why. Seeing them as little more than lapdogs for the Oracle, he dismisses their demands and shows no fear of Neo’s powers, having “survived his predecessors” in the past. Oozing disgust and disdain, the Merovingian lives only for his own self-gratification; he delights in creating programs that cause physical and sexual stimulation, regularly cheats on his wife, and desires only to acquire more power and knowledge through whatever means necessary. While Hamann muses on the duality of control, the Merovingian delivers a twisted diatribe on the illusion of choice; although he’s speaking in the context that people are unable to deny their true natures, his perspective is actually not a million miles away from the truth as Neo eventually discovers that the choices everyone makes (especially those connected to the Matrix) are not of their own free will but dictated to them by the system’s methods of control and also all part of the greater cycle of death and rebirth inherent to the nature of the Matrix. His primary underlings, and one (two?) of the film’s more wasted opportunities, are the Twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment), albino, dreadlocked sadists who can assume gruesome, incorporeal forms and attack with straight razors and can even heal their wounds with a thought (something that, like almost everything about them, is unfortunately not elaborated upon). Sadly, these two have very few lines and, despite being central to some of the second act’s biggest action scenes, end up underutilised and ultimately wasted as they fail to retrieve the Keymaker, or really cause much of a problem for Morpheus and Trinity despite being more threatening than the regular Agents, and are then promptly taken out by a car explosion (despite clearing turning incorporeal), meaning both the visually impressive Twins and the eloquent menace of the Merovingian boil down to some philosophical musings and adrenaline-fuelled action sequences and little else. It’s such a shame as the Twins look and fight so cool, and really stand out against the black-suited Agents, so I would’ve loved to see them have a greater role here or in the next movie, but you could honestly remove them from the film (or replace them with Agents) and the plot wouldn’t even suffer in the slightest.

Now able to duplicate himself, Smith threatens to overrun everything and everyone in the Matrix.

On the other hand, Smith is back in full force; now literally unplugged from the system he once rebelled against, Smith is exploring his newfound freedom by indulging every sadistic desire that comes to mind and literally spreading himself across the Matrix using his newfound copy ability. With a violent thrust to the chest of an Agent or human, Smith can override their code (both digital and genetic) and create an exact duplicate of himself, with all of his powers and personality, though a “prime” version remains at the forefront. Like everything in The Matrix Reloaded, Smith’s survival and new abilities is the subject of discussion in the film, with Smith musing that Neo somehow overwrote or passed on a piece of himself when he destroyed him at the end of the last film and then promptly dismissing it as “irrelevant” compared to his new purpose in life, which is to eradicate all life within the Matrix and replace it with himself. As formidable as Smith was before, his threat is now magnified to an almost incalculable degree as more and more of his copies swarm in to overwhelm Neo; even though Neo is able to fend them off and trump Smith with his ability to fly (and can even resist Smith’s infection through sheer force of will), he can’t simply destroy or erase Smith with a thought (although…he should be able to do this, but that wouldn’t be very visually exciting now, would it?) and he’s forced to flee, giving Smith the chance to make more and more copies and continue to show up at the worst possible times to hinder their mission. Though Smith’s desire to kill Neo and the others aligns with that of the Merovingian and the Agents, he is allied with neither of these forces and actually copies himself to their minions to increase his power; so evolved is Smith that he even overtakes the body of Bane (Ian Bliss), a resistance fighter, to allow a version of himself to wander around in the real world! Although this wouldn’t be fully explored until the next movie, we do get a glimpse of how sadistic Smith is as he cuts his human form and attempts to stab Neo in the real world before being interrupted, and even plays an active role in sabotaging the humans’ mission in the third act simply because he gets a sick thrill out of causing death and destruction.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Like in the last film, music plays a huge role in The Matrix Reloaded; composer Don Davis put together a whole bunch of memorable and catchy beats to accompany the film’s biggest moments, such as the Burly Brawl and the highway chase, which were collaborations with Juno Reactor, in addition to a great tie-in song by P.O.D. Diegetically, music is pivotal to rallying the people of Zion; it’s a surreal inclusion in the film, but the big sweaty rave scene galvanises the people, with all their doubts and fears, in a celebration of life. Highly sexually charged, the scene shows how passionate these people are at embracing their lives, even though the real world is hard and dangerous and lacks the creature comforts of the Matrix. Still, Zion is doing a lot better than I ever imagined from the brief descriptions in the first film; despite the revelation that humans have been fighting the machines for 100 years, Zion is a bustling, steampunk-inspired metropolis filled with rudimentary dormitories, a huge dock, defensive cannons and blast doors, an independent virtual reality security system, and even a water recycling and processing plant and the means to heat, feed, and clothe all of its citizens. There’s never a question that Zion is lacking in these resources, only that some are extremely basic (clothes, food, and possessions) and others are unbelievably advanced (their ships and technology), and I do find myself asking how they make their clothes and built all that stuff. It’s somewhat implied that they repurposed a lot of the machines’ technology to their own ends, but actually building such a large and self-sustaining city seems beyond the capabilities of the few human liberated from the Matrix, and the actual implied truth is far more ominous.

The Burly Brawl and chateau fights show off the new technology and Neo’s incredible powers

Without a doubt, The Matrix Reloaded is much, much bigger than the first film; with at least double the budget, the film is able to present far more visually interesting and technologically impressive fight and action scenes. Fights are much longer and more detailed, slicker and contain more combatants and movements at any one time, and bolstered by an abundance of wire work and CGI to bring Neo’s gravity-defying moves to life. The film’s big action scene is the Burly Brawl, wherein a seemingly inexhaustible swarm of Smiths pile onto Neo in the middle of an urban playground; while it’s true that many aspects of this sequence haven’t aged as well as others in the film (or the first movie), it remains an exciting and surprisingly long fight scene as Neo (or a rubbery representation of him) fends off Smith after Smith with blows, throws, and a strangely bendy steel pipe. While I find it an exhilarating display of Neo’s superhuman abilities, the fight goes on so long that it almost becomes a little ridiculous, but I suspect that might’ve been the point thanks to the bowling pin sound effects used when the Smiths are knocked down. Punctuated by some fun wire-fu, effective use of bullet time, and dynamic camera shots, the Burly Brawl is primarily there to show off the technology that’s been developed since the first film, to paint Neo as an absolute bad-ass as he holds his own against the Smith army, and Smith as this relentless, unstoppable force that’s desperate to tear his hated enemy apart. The chateau brawl is a similarly visually engaging fight, but very different; not only is it more claustrophobic due to taking place in a more enclosed space, it also features much more weapon combat, more diverse combatants, and more variety as Neo isn’t just swatting away hundreds of guys in suits and he actually gets a chance to show off a few fancier movies. While the Merovingian’s minions number far less than Smiths army, they’re no less formidable; made up of programs exiled from older, far more primitive versions of the Matrix, they’re assumed to be somewhat supernatural and, unlike Smith, actually cause Neo to bleed thanks to favouring bladed weapons. This means their fight is exciting in wholly separate way as Neo must flip about, balance on bannisters, and use swords and sai to fend them off.

The action comes thick and fast and showcases the awesomeness of Neo’s abilities within the Matrix.

On the flip side, we get a noticeably subdued exchange between Neo and Seraph; while it’s clear that Neo isn’t exerting anywhere near the power as he was against the Agents or Smith, it’s still a fun fight that includes an impressive one-handed cartwheel from Neo and is a great shorthand to show that Seraph is no slouch when it comes to fighting. Things ramp up again for the highway chase, another obvious standout action sequence; this is an adrenaline-fuelled sprint that features Agents desperately overtaking bodies to chase after Trinity and the Keymaker on a high-speed motorcycle, Morpheus battling Agent Johnson on top of a trailer truck with a samurai sword, and the Twins ghosting through vehicles and tangling with Trinity in close quarters from the back seat of a car. The action then suitably ramps up for the third act as Trinity is forced to storm a power plant full force, which is actually the explosive opening sequence of the film and serves to show just how capable she is even without code-bending abilities. As fun as all of these action sequences are, however, the true highlight of the film for me is Neo, now liberated from many of the shackles and doubts about himself that held him back in the last film. We saw a glimpse of what The One was capable of when he easily fought off the Agents with one arm, destroyed Smith, and then blasted off into the sky but, here, Neo practically has no equal. He can rocket into the sky at will, blast down the streets and supersonic speed, and even enter the code and physical body of others to remove bullets. However, despite what you and many of the characters think, he’s not some all-powerful God; he can bleed just as easily as anyone, is as conflicted by self-doubts as any of us, and his fight scenes aren’t just a simple case of him blinking his opponents out of existence. He still has to stop bullets in mid-air, dodge blades, and tackle his foes hand-to-hand and the film generally tries to both make him look powerful and vulnerable at the same time by throwing multiple opponents at him at once to give him something resembling a physical challenge.

Neo vehemently rejects the system’s control and discovers new aspects of his powers in the process.

Neo’s biggest challenge, however, is emotional; terrified at the idea of losing Trinity and burdened by the weight of expectation, Neo is still trying to find his way in this complex world where he has so much power but little understanding of what he’s actually supposed to do with it. Luckily for him (but not so lucky for some segments of the audience), Neo has his destiny spelled out to him, in a fashion, in the finale when he enters The Source and comes face-to-face with the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), a conceited and haughty program who claims to have created the Matrix. In what essentially amounts to an overly complicated version of the dressing down Mr. Rhineheart (David Aston) gave Neo (then Thomas Anderson) in the last film, the Architect explains (using condescending words like “concurrently”, “apropos”, and “ergo”, which I have since added to my vocabulary) that Neo isn’t as special as he first thought. Instead, he is the fifth “One”, an unavoidable anomaly that the machines expect to crop up as a side effect of giving everyone plugged into the Matrix a choice to accept or reject the program. While only a tiny percentage of people do this, they eventually grow into Zion and a resistance effort and, with each generation, the machines cull Zion’s population and have The One reboot the Matrix, taking a bunch of its inhabitants to rebuild the city and start the cycle over again. Neo is aghast at the idea that he’s as much a part of this system of control as anything else and vehemently rejects the Architect’s demand that he fulfil this function to allow the human race to continue limping along for, if he chooses not to, Zion will be destroyed and the Matrix itself will suffer a “cataclysmic system cash” that will kill everyone plugged into it, thereby causing humanity’s extinction. However, unlike his predecessors, Neo has a far more specific human attachment, Trinity, and he chooses not to go along with this plot in favour of rescuing her even if it means the death of his species. While I admit that I’ve read more into this scene using interpretations and essays and such, I really enjoy it as a deep dive philosophical discussion regarding choice and control; it’s also really fun seeing Neo’s multiple reactions reflected in the television screens, which actually let him showcase some emotion as he vehemently rejects the “old white prick’s” overwhelmingly arrogant diatribe. Neo barely even gives the Architect’s ultimatum a second’s thought; he chooses to save Trinity, adamant that he’ll be able to fight against the resulting disaster but, while he does save her, things immediately go downhill soon after: the Nebuchadnezzar is destroyed, Bane is found comatose and accused of sabotage, and Neo passes out after exhibiting electromagnetic powers in the real-world for a dramatic cliff-hanger ending!

The Summary:
I’ve spoken to a lot of people over the years who’ve told me that they don’t understand The Matrix, and I’ve never understood this; the first film is pretty simple (humans are trapped in virtual reality by machines in a post-apocalyptic world) but The Matrix Reloaded definitely confuses things and I can totally understand how some people were left a bit baffled by the lengthy, vague discussions regarding fate, choice, and the nature of humanity. While the films have long been the subject of academic debate, these discussions really ramped up with The Matrix Reloaded, which hinted at there being so much more at work in this sci-fi world than we originally believed; Morpheus had a questionable reputation, not all programs were malevolent, and Zion was this impossibly self-sustaining city. Questions were raised about whether or not the real world was also a simulation, people wondered if the Merovingian and Seraph were former Ones, and all of a sudden The Matrix turned from a thought-provoking piece of visually stunning sci-fi cinema to this absolute mind bender of philosophy and metaphysical debate. Personally, I’ve always really enjoyed this. The Matrix Reloaded is a thinking man’s sci-fi film, one that’s maybe a little too vague and a little too clever for its own good but which always has me engaged whether characters are throwing punches or discussing the self-destructive nature of love and choice. The action and fight sequences are absolutely thrilling, and probably the best in the series thanks to how consistent they are; sure, some effects haven’t aged all that well, but I loved seeing the multiple Smiths dog-piling Neo and watching Neo fend off numerous enemies at once with a slick efficiency. It’s not a perfect film, of course, and hindsight makes me wish the filmmakers had done a few things differently (the Matrix-within-a-Matrix might’ve been good, giving the Twins a bigger role, and maybe making Morpheus a little less controversial would be just three examples), but this is still my second favourite of the entire franchise. While even I, as a big Keanu Reeves fan, have to admit that Keanu was disappointingly wooden throughout much of this, Neo’s mannerisms and stoic proficiency paint him as an effortlessly cool hero, and I love that even after finding himself he’s still conflicted and how the world is just made more complex following his awakening as The One. It’s maybe a little too heavy-handed to put on all the time, but The Matrix Reloaded remains an exciting, visually and intellectually stimulating film that never fails to impress or entertain me and I think it’s well worth a deeper consideration as there’s a lot to sink your teeth into here, even if the payoff for all its plot threads didn’t exactly deliver as many might’ve hoped.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of The Matrix Reloaded? What did you think to the progression of Neo’s character and his powers? Were you a fan of Smith’s copy ability and what do you think to the action scenes? Did you enjoy the film’s characters and concepts or do you feel like it became too bogged down in philosophy? What are some of your favourite fan theories regarding the franchise from back in the day? How are you celebrating Keanu Reeves’ birthday today and what are some of your favourite roles of his? Whatever you think about The Matrix Reloaded, drop a comment below or let me know your thoughts on my social media.

Movie Night [Judgment Day]: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Dr. K8 Comments

“Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines”.

Released: 2 July 2003
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures / Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International
Budget: $187.3 million
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, and David Andrews

The Plot:
Years after ensuring that the malevolent artificial intelligence known as Skynet doesn’t come into creation, John Connor (Stahl) is haunted by dreams of an apocalyptic future. His fears come to life when an all-new Terminator, the T-X/Terminatrix (Loken), travels through time to murder prominent members of the future Resistance. John’s only hope is a reprogrammed T-850 machine (Schwarzenegger) that has been sent not only to protect him…but also his future wife!

The Background:
Since The Terminator (Cameron, 1984) was an unexpected financial success, there was little doubt that a sequel would soon follow. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (ibid, 1991) not only out-did its predecessor but is frequently regarded as one of the greatest movie sequels. Although the man behind the franchise, James Cameron, and his co-writer were adamant that T2 marked the natural end for the story, producer Gale Anne Hurd and Carolco Pictures both pushed for a third film, and Cameron became involved after working on the theme park ride T2-3D: Battle Across Time. After Carolco filed for bankruptcy, 20th Century Fox negotiated with the stars and filmmakers to try and get the project off the ground, but financial concerns soon saw the rights fall into the hands of Andrew G. Vajna and Cameron eventually giving his blessing for a third film to be made without his involvement after repeated attempts and missed opportunities to purchase the rights for himself. Although initially reluctant to return without Cameron, Schwarzenegger was advised by the director to reprise his role for the money, if nothing else, which ultimately led not only to his staggering $30 million salary and him putting up $1.4 million to complete an elaborate chase scene. Schwarzenegger worked daily to get back into peak shape for his most iconic role, and even had a gym on set to work out in; however, he returned without co-star Linda Hamilton, who declined reprising her role as Sarah Connor due to being unimpressed with the script. Although Edward Furlong initially signed on to return as John Connor, his substance abuse problems led to him being replaced with Nick Stahl, a decision which alienated some fans. Kristanna Loken beat out the likes of Famke Janssen and Vin Diesel for the T-X role, who was once again brought to life by the legendary Stan Winston and Industrial Light & Magic, who used a combination of miniatures, practical, and visual effects brought the new semi-liquid metal Terminator to life. Although Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines impressed with a $433.4 million box office, reviews were dissatisfied with the film’s mindlessness and redundant narrative. Terminator 3’s derivative nature and tone-deaf humour marked it as a low point for the franchise, rather than a return to form. Even a couple of tie-in videogames and Schwarzenegger’s return to his most famous role failed to impress, and it wouldn’t be long before the franchise rights were once again shopped around to a new owner.

The Review:
Personally, as much as I love the Terminator films, I never actually found myself clamouring for a third entry. At least, not one that continued the story past the second film, anyway. I always thought there was potential in a prequel, though, one set during the Future War and showing John Connor’s struggles against the machines. I’ve always felt that it was a missed opportunity that we never got to see this sweeping shot of an army of Arnolds marching over a skull-littered, post-apocalyptic wasteland firing lasers at hapless Resistance fighters. On the other hand, I was mildly excited for Terminator 3 simply because it would be the first time I’d get to see a Terminator movie at the cinema, and the trailers had done a relatively decent job of selling the film as an action-packed spectacle, but this would be the start of a downward spiral for the franchise in which far too many sequels and spin-offs sought to ape the franchise-changing success of Terminator 2 rather than actually try something new.

Haunted by nightmares of the Future War, John is stunned when the Terminator reappears in his life.

Having narrowly escaped with this life after the events of the second film, John Connor is all grown up and has inherited his mother’s paranoid and nightmarish visions of a war-torn future. In the years between Terminator 2 and Terminator 3, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has died of leukaemia, but had managed to stay alive (against all medical logic) just long enough to ensure that the world didn’t end on August 29th, 1997 as Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) had once warned. The world continued on as always, but John was forever traumatised by her loss and his knowledge of a world overrun by killer machines, so he took himself off the grid and went on the run, drifting from place to place and job to job before, conveniently, ending right back where he started in California. So distracted by his nightmares is John that he takes a nasty fall from his bike and is forced to break into a veterinarian’s to patch himself up, and in the process coincidentally runs across an old flame of his, Katherine Brewster (Danes), who he’d once made out with as a kid. John’s reputation proceeds him, however, as Kate remembers his foster parents dying and him disappearing under suspicious circumstances, but he’s forced to reveal the truth about himself, and what happened all those years ago, when they’re attacked by the T-X and saved by the Terminator. Like Sarah before him, John is stunned to see the familiar, grim-faced cyborg return; so stunned, in fact, that he inexplicably believes the machine to not just be the same make and model as the last Terminator but to literally be his former father figure, which I guess you can chalk up to the shock of learning that their efforts to stop Skynet’s creation and the onset of Judgement Day simply delayed the inevitable. I never quite “got” the Nick Stahl experiment; he popped up in a few films around this time and he just never really clicked for me. He plays John as a neurotic, quirky, and melancholic drifter, one who feels beaten down by the expectation placed upon him by his mother’s teachings (and, apparently, fate) since he feels ill-equipped to be the future saviour of mankind. Thus, John does everything he possibly can to once again rally against this desolate future; his focus remains not on surviving the oncoming nuclear apocalypse, as the Terminator emphasises, but on stopping it altogether by infiltrating the source of Skynet’s creation, now shifted to Cyber Research Systems (CRS), and his entire character seems to be in this limbo between abject denial of the obvious truth staring him in the face and a resigned acceptance that the world expects more than he is prepared to give.

Unassuming Kate’s feisty nature soon reveals a capable fighter buried beneath her exterior.

New to the lore is the idea that, in the future, John will have a wife and child; thanks to the events of Terminator 2, the timeline has shifted, delaying Judgement Day and altering the future somewhat, to the point where the future Kate ends up being the one who sends the reprogrammed Terminator back through time to act as John’s protector once more. In the present day, however, Kate is little more than a naïve and under-appreciated vet; her priorities involve little more than registering gifts for her wedding to kindly, one-dimensional milksop Scott Mason (Mark Famiglietti), tending to the animals under her care, and trying to build bridges between Scott and her overprotective father, Lieutenant General Robert Brewster (Andrews). Kate acts as the audience surrogate here and, though there’s a brief suggestion that she’s not entirely sure about her upcoming wedding, her simple life is turned upside down in the most violent way possible when the cyborg killers literally come crashing into her vet in search for her. While she’s confused and overwhelmed, Kate is a pretty feisty character; she tricks John and stuns him with a taser, locking him up in a cage until she can figure out what’s going on, and even tries (futilely) to fend off the Terminator when it manhandles her for her own safety. Believing herself to be the victim of an elaborate kidnapping, Kate is sceptical of John’s claims about the future and the machines and escapes at the first opportunity, only to witness Scott transform into the T-X before her eyes and be faced with the undeniable truth that Skynet is a very real, very much impending threat. Kate barely even mourns Scott, however, and instead focuses on safeguarding her father from the T-X and using his connection to CRS to help them locate the Skynet mainframe. In the process, she undergoes a transformation not a million miles away from Sarah’s in the first film (John even remarks that she “reminds [him] of [his] mother”) that shows a glimpse of how proactive and capable she can be under stressful situations. Though she is adamant (nay, disgusted) that she and John will never be a couple in the future, she’s the first of the two to piece together that their mission wasn’t to prevent Judgement Day, but to survive it, and accepts their fate much faster than John in the finale. Kate brings an interesting perspective on the Terminator, one similar to John’s in the second film, as she addresses it as though it’s a person rather than a machine, and, through her curiosity, we learn that the Terminator might not be capable of human emotions but seems nevertheless despondent at the idea of failing its mission, which John later uses to snap it out of the T-X’s corrupting nanites.

In addition to being a protector, this Terminator uses basic psychology to strengthen the humans’ resolve.

While Arnold naturally slips back into his most famous role looking like barely a year has past since his last appearance, the Terminator once again undergoes a transformation for its third outing; although it still has a fancy for leather jackets, sunglasses, and stoic quips like its predecessor (and even has recognisable traits like checking for car keys under the sun visor and ensuring it doesn’t kill), the titular Terminator is, naturally, a completely different machine than before. Hell, it’s actually a different model entirely, being a T-850 rather than a T-800, which actually translates to a few notable additions and alterations, but it’s made explicitly clear that this once fearsome unstoppable killer and heroic father-figure is now a figure of comedy as, rather than ripping apart street punks or tossing aside a bar full of bikers to get its threads, this Terminator wanders into ladies’ night and accosts a male stripper. Additionally, this Terminator is powered by two highly combustible hydrogen fuel cells, making it functionally more vulnerable than its predecessors, and second is its programming in basic human psychology. This allows the Terminator to lie, cross-examine, and offer insight into the mental welfare of its charges (though it admits that its database “does not encompass the dynamics of human peer bonding”), and is largely used to comedic effect as the Terminator awkwardly encourages the two to mate, gets offended at being labelled a “robot”, and barks commands to the hysterical Kate in an effort to calm her down. One scene where this really comes into play is when John, overwhelmed at the burden he’s been forced to carry since he was a child, has a complete breakdown in his mother’s tomb and the Terminator calls his bluff, threatening to choke the hysterical John until he spits vitriol in the Terminator’s face since “Anger is more useful than despair”. This means that, while this Terminator is absolutely a protector figure, it’s far more blunt and less patient with the human protagonists (especially John, who is in real need of a kick up the ass that the Terminator is happy to provide) and concerned only with safeguarding them to meet their destiny. Another difference that is really underplayed is the fact that this Terminator wasn’t chosen at random; it infiltrated the Resistance and utilised Future-John’s emotional connection to its model number to terminate him. It was then reprogrammed by Future-Kate and sent back to protect him, meaning that John is faced not just with the inevitability of his eventual death but also forced to rely on the machine that will one day kill him, and the Terminator consequently only follows Kate’s orders. Again, this is largely played for comedic effect but there was some real potential behind this concept, and the Terminator even seems to deliver John a warning in the finale (“We will meet again”) to perhaps enable him to avoid his fate.

The T-X is a faster, more efficient, anti-Terminator Terminator that’s full of underutilised abilities.

As outclassed as the Terminator was in Terminator 2, there’s no question that it’s on the backfoot this time around; the Terminator even admits that it’s an “obsolete design” compared to the Terminatrix, an apathetic and alluring cyborg assassin that has both a metal endoskeleton and a liquid metal exterior. Somehow, this allows the T-X to shape-shift like its predecessor (I guess the endoskeleton is liquid metal, too…which only raises more questions about how it survived the trip through time…) but the T-X rarely uses this ability; instead, it relies on its ability to transform its arms into weapons. And not “knives and stabbing weapons” like the T-1000 (Robert Patrick); this bitch creates an energy cannon and a flamethrower, though, again, this ability is rarely utilised. The T-X seems to be on a tight deadline here as there’s no question at all that it’s the villain of the film since we see it tracking down and murdering John’s future lieutenants (who are young kids, no less) in cold blood rather than make any attempt at subterfuge. The T-X has other new abilities as well; it can grow its breasts to distract men, identify humans by sampling their blood, and is able to infect and remotely control computer systems and machines using a kind of nanotechnology. This allows it to chase after its prey by controlling police cruisers (which is pretty inconceivable since there’s no way they’d be able to drive in the way she controls them), taking over the T-1 machines at CRS, and even corrupts the Terminator’s systems to set it against John and Kate. The T-X is every bit as formidable as the Terminator, easily overpowering it and taking its shots in their brawl, but is portrayed as being both faster and more powerful in every conceivable way, which contributes to the Terminator’s primary plan of escaping to safety rather than trying to tackle it head-on. The T-X isn’t entirely vulnerable, though; rocket launchers soon damage its arm and it’s rendered temporarily helpless thanks to the magnetic pull of a particle accelerator, but it’s a pretty vicious and vindictive machine; it not only hunts down and murders John’s future allies in cold blood, but shoves its hand through a police offer’s stomach in the film’s bloodiest sequence. I know Kristanna Loken from the under-rated Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998 to 1999) and this basically remains her biggest film role to date; she does a decent job of portraying an emotionless killer cyborg but, like the Terminator and T-1000 before her, also adds a lot of nuance to the role. The T-X becomes visibly frustrated at the Terminator’s interference and screams with rage, scurrying about like an insect as it desperately tries to fulfil its mission in the finale.

The Nitty-Gritty:
If you’ve seen Terminator 2, then you’ve basically seen everything Terminator 3 has to offer. The film borrows so much from its predecessor that it’s not even funny, which is super ironic considering the film offers a more comedic slant on moments such as the Terminator acquiring its clothing (now from a male stripper who doesn’t seem to match Arnold’s dimensions in the lightest), exhibiting personality and humanity, and even offering neutered versions of actions sequences like the assault on Cyberdyne and CRS, respectively. Consequently, many of the same themes from the second (and first) film carry over here; there’s a focus on fate and destiny, the inevitability of our own destruction, and the dangers of artificial intelligence, but the fundamental message of the Terminator franchise has been twisted simply to justify the existence of this film. Previously, the message was “The future’s not set. There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves” but it turns out that this was a bit of a misdirect; Judgement Day is now seen as “inevitable”, the creation of a destructive A.I. unavoidable, and it no longer matter show hard the characters fight or deny this fact, humanity is doomed to be driven to the point of complete destruction. This means that Terminator 3 has a far bleaker tone than the last film, which ended on a message of hope, and instead skews the narrative into one where it’s somewhat implied that everything that’s happened (including the future messages) has been to get John born, trained, and to safety so he can lead humanity to ultimate victory rather than trying to avoid this outcome altogether.

Since Judgement Day is now “inevitable”, the machines certainly do rise by the end.

Although Sarah is dead, her presence is very much felt throughout the film; one of the many demons John is trying to hide from is the teachings and expectations she placed upon him and, while he loved his mother and clearly misses her, he also resents her for tainting his childhood and screwing him up with stories of war against the machines. Although she held on to ensure that Judgement Day didn’t happen, it turns out that Sarah was also unable to shake off her fear and paranoia and had a casket full of armaments buried in place of her remains, which helpfully enables one of the film’s more visually interesting shoot-outs. Earl Boen makes a surprising and amusing return for his cameo as Doctor Peter Silberman, which sees him offering some mild comfort to Kate and then fleeing in fear at spotting the Terminator, and there are so many mentions of Terminator 2 that it’s genuinely hard for the film to stand on its own two feet. Interestingly, and disappointingly, Terminator 3 fails to borrow the iconic Terminator theme until the end credits; Marco Beltrami’s score is suitably machine-like and has traces of Brad Fiedel’s memorable work laced throughout it, but it’s just not Terminator without the “duh-duh-dun-duh-dun” at the forefront of the soundtrack. And yet, Robert Brewster heads up CRS, which acquired Cyberdyne’s assets and is in the midst of struggling with a particularly aggressive computer virus throughout the film. Although his technicians insist that Skynet will be able to identify and eradicate the virus, Brewster is reluctant to activate the advanced artificial intelligence as he’s uncomfortable with handing over that much power and responsibility to a machine. Unfortunately, he’s over-ruled by his superiors and John and Kate are unable to get there in time to stop him from bringing Skynet online; he realises all too late that Skynet was the virus and that he has effectively doomed humanity to near extinction from the self-aware A.I. Gunned down by the T-X, Brewster pleads with John to get Kate to safety and provides them with the location of Crystal Peak, and their last hope at stopping the nuclear apocalypse.

The film has some decent action and fight scenes, though there’s a heavy reliance on CGI.

Visually, Terminator 3 is still pretty impressive; the opening rendition of the Future War, in which we see an army of Terminator endoskeletons carving a path of destruction across a smouldering battlefield, are as harrowing as those of the previous films. Additionally, this is the first time we actually see the Terminators arrive in the past in full detail, which was cool as I’d always wondered about how they actually materialised in the past. Although the effects have definitely moved more towards CGI than practical puppetry and animatronics, traditional effects remain a constant highlight. Not only does the Terminator cut open its abdomen to remove its damaged fuel cell, but the T-X’s armaments (no pun intended…) are largely practical, and there’s some pretty enjoyable throwdowns between the two machines once they swap out their weapons for hand-to-hand combat. However, the appeal of these fights is, again, more comedic than tense; the T-X grabs the Terminator’s crotch, the two smash each other into toilets, and the main thrust of their combat is based around the once terrifying cyborg killer being manhandled (or, I guess, machinehandled?) by a smaller, female variant against which it has very little chance of success. While the big chase scene is pretty thrilling and involves a lot of destruction, it’s hard to not spot the overabundance of CGI used to flip cars and send the Terminator crashing through walls. Similarly, it’s a bit of an awkward effect when the Terminator reattaches its severed head, though the CGI does allow for probably the best battle-damaged look for the Terminator in the finale. Additionally, the T-1 machines are entirely practical, which makes for some fun (and deceptively impactful) scenes of them trundling around CRS and gunning down technicians like hulking Grim Reapers, and the effects used to bring the Future War to life are better than ever, but a lot of the gritty, weighty, mechanical feel of the previous films is lost in favour of a sleek shine that gives the Hunter Killers (HKs) and the T-X’s endoskeleton a glossy, almost alien aesthetic but also makes them feel very fake. Say what you will about the jerky puppets and stop-motion effects of the first film but I never felt like the Terminator wasn’t “there” in the scene but, here, fights and sequences often boil down to CGI ragdolls flailing about like action figures, which somewhat undermines any dramatic tension we’re supposed to feel.

The TX is destroyed but the world is nuked regardless for an unexpectedly bleak ending.

In fact, dramatic tension is difficult to find anywhere in Terminator 3 because the awkward focus on making jokes, quips, and gags even when the characters are fleeing for their lives or discussing the extinction of humanity. The Terminator throws up a “Talk to dah hand”, which severely dates the film, casually mentions how it assassinated John, and much of its delivery is meant to illicit a chuckle from the audience, which really creates a very tone-deaf film. Moments of levity were few and far between in the last two films, but when they popped up they were natural and didn’t feel anywhere near as forced; when the Terminator snapped “Fuck you, asshole”, it was an amusing glimpse at how human the killer cyborg could be, and the T-1000’s “Say…that’s a nice bike” had an air of menace to it that was only exacerbated by how callously it murdered people previously. Here, the Terminator is going out of its way to shop for designer sunglasses, roughly grabbing John and Kate to assess their physical wellbeing, and spitting out bullets and admonishing Kate all for a cheap laugh and it’s jarring not just for the franchise but in the context of the film. As soon as the Terminator acquires John and Kate, it tries to get them to safety so they can survive the inevitable blast zones, but is constantly derailed from its mission by John and Kate’s insistence that they try to stop the war. Despite continuously emphasising that the war can’t be stopped since there’s no time and they’ve no hope of fighting the T-X, the Terminator is duty-bound to go along with their commands, but John is distraught to find that Crystal Peak doesn’t contain Skynet’s system core but a fallout shelter for governmental officials. The Terminator (literally) crashes in to battle the T-X one last time, ultimately sacrificing itself by jamming its remaining fuel cell into the T-X’s mouth and ending its threat, leaving John with the stark realisation that the future he has long feared and rallied against is finally coming to pass. In a poignant moment that the film in no way earns, the bombs drop as John and Kate embrace in the bunker, begrudgingly left with no choice but to prepare for the fight of their lives, and ending the film on a depressingly bleak note that is decidedly at odds with the majority of its more comedic runtime.

The Summary:
It’s hard to deny that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was a massive misfire; rather than trying to do something fresh and new with the franchise, the film settled on being a poor man’s rip-off of Terminator 2, something that would unfortunately continue to plague the series going forward. I get it, I honestly do; if you’ve bought the rights to the Terminator films, you want Arnold back and you want to try and recreate what worked before, but there were so many other avenues that the filmmakers could’ve gone down here. The idea of Skynet hunting down John’s lieutenants has a lot of potential, and could have been the focal point of the film; maybe John could’ve taken on the Kyle Reese role to protect Kate from the Terminator, which would not only draw a bit more from the first film but also allow Arnold the chance to do something a little different by portraying a evil version of his most iconic character once more. Or, even better, do the Future War and show the Resistance fighters battling the machines, which was probably beyond the budget of this movie, but the end result was got is a conflicting, confusing mess of a film that isn’t sure if it wants to be a family friendly action comedy or a dour science-fiction movie laying the foundation for a devastating apocalypse. The tone and atmosphere is all over the place, completely negating any of the high points (and there are some, like the car chase, the Terminator-on-Terminator fight scenes, and the dour ending) and leaving a sour taste in the mouth since it literally feels like we just watched a budget version of Terminator 2. It’s no surprise that, when viewing the timeline of the Terminator movies, it’s pretty easy to skip this one; while Kate does eventually make a return, pretty much every Terminator production after this just ignored this one and I can’t say that I blame them as it’s a pretty disappointing and unnecessary retread of ground we’d seen done bigger and better back in 1991.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

By any chance, did you enjoy Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines? How do you think it compares to the first two films and the other sequels? Were you a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s performance and the changes made to his character? What did you think to Terminatrix and its abilities? Were you a fan of Nick Stahl’s take on John Connor and what did you think to his relationship with Kate? Did you enjoy the greater emphasis on CGI this time around? How are you celebrating Judgement Day today? No matter what you think about Terminator 3, and the Terminator franchise, feel free to s leave a reply down below.

Movie Night: Blue Beetle

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 18 August 2023
Director: Angel Manuel Soto
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $104 million
Stars: Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, George Lopez, Raoul Max Trujillo, and Susan Sarandon

The Plot:
College graduate Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) finds himself unwittingly bonded to an alien, beetle-like suit of armour (Becky G) and drawn into a destructive conflict with the vindictive Victoria Kord (Sarandon) and her ruthless enforcer, Ignacio Carapax (Trujillo)

The Background:
Initially presented as a beat cop created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, the Blue Beetle is easily one of DC Comics’ more obscure characters, despite Steve Ditko’s reimagining attaining cult status due to his time with Justice League International. It’s the third iteration, Jaime Reyes, who is easily the most recognisable incarnation of the Blue Beetle thanks to being a Latino superhero and appearances in videogames and television. Development of a live-action film focused on the character began in 2018, initially scheduled as content for HBO Max before Warner Bros. were impressed by director Angel Manuel Soto’s vision and bumped it to a cinematic release. The filmmakers were keen to emphasise Jaime’s family roots and values alongside him coming to terms with his powers as a metaphor for maturing into a young adult, with star Xolo Maridueña excited at the prospect of being DC’s first Latino superhero. The Blue Beetle armour was designed by Mayes C. Rubeo, who took inspiration from anime as much as the character’s many iterations in and out of the comic books, while various special effects groups collaborated to bring the character’s unique alien weaponry to life. Although Blue Beetle was met with mainly positive reviews that praised the performances and heart of the movie, it was met with a disappointing initial box office; as of this writing, the film has grossed over $50 million at the box office, though DC Universe head honcho James Gunn and all involved were keen to return to the character in future projects.

The Review:
I’ll be honest and say that I was very surprised when I first caught wind of a live-action Blue Beetle solo movie. Considering the state of the DCEU, it seemed odd to me that they would prioritise such a film, though it’s pretty clear that it’s yet another attempt by the studio to change direction, as well as appeal to fans of troubled superheroes like Peter Parker/Spider-Man and target a new demographic in the genre, in this case the Hispanic audience. While I’m quite familiar with all iterations of the Blue Beetle, I’ve always felt a bit of a disconnect with Jaime, mainly because his iteration changed the concept so much. Still, he’s a popular figure and I can understand trying something new, and luckily Blue Beetle proved to be an enjoyable enough adventure simply by focusing on relatable themes such as family, a sense of identity and duty, and exploring xenophobic themes through Jaime and his destitute, hard-working family against the technologically advanced corporate greed of Victoria Kord and her malevolent Kord Industries. When we first meet Jaime, he’s just graduated from Gotham High (the first in his family to achieve this) and has aspirations of making his family prouder by landing a job worthy of his degree, only to find himself forced to scrub gum off Victoria’s decking alongside his snarky little sister, Milagro (Escobedo). I can immediately relate to the frustration he feels about this; there’s nothing worse than spending years at university (getting yourself into debt, in Jaime’s case) only to find having a degree doesn’t open the doors you’d expect, and Jaime suffers even more as Victoria basically treats all her staff, especially the lower classes like the Reyes’, as glorified servants.

The heart-warming and relatable relationship between Jaime and his family is the heart of the film.

Jaime is devastated to learn that his family will be forced to leave their home since Kord Industries tripled the rent; after his beloved father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), suffered a mild heart attack and was forced to sell the family garage, they’ve barely been able to scrape by, though the Reyes’ remain resolute because they are such a tight-knit and loving family unit. Jaime’s mother, Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo), remains steadfast that they can whether any storm, his surprisingly capable and bad-ass Nana (Adriana Barraza) demonstrates a fighting spirit and chequered background that contrasts with her frail form, while his rebellious, anti-authoritarian uncle, Rudy (Lopez), riles his family up with his crackpot theories and wacky inventions. Still, they are a supportive and loving group; Jaime might be embarrassed by their outspoken love for him, but he’s absolutely devoted to them and desperate to help out with their financial situation. This sense of loyalty and responsibility sees him intervene when he spots Victoria and Carapax giving Jenny Kord (Marquezine) a hard time, which results in him and Milagro getting fired but also opens an opportunity for Jaime to secure a better job at Kord Industries courtesy of a grateful Jenny. Although his family wind him up over his obvious attraction to the young Kord, Jaime is primarily motivated to take a chance on this offer out of a deep-rooted desire to put himself to work for the good of his family, and ends up biting off more than he can chew when a desperate Jenny hands him a mysterious scarab, an alien device once studied by her father and long coveted by Victoria, who moves Heaven and Earth to acquire it to upgrade her company’s destructive One Man Army Corps (O.M.A.C.) technology.

The scarab bestows Jaime with potentially unlimited power and opens up an unexplored corner of the DCEU.

Upon inspecting this artifact, Jaime and his family are shocked and horrified when it suddenly springs to life and grafts itself to his spine, painfully growing a techno-organic armour right through his skin and encasing him in an honestly really well-realised rendition of the Blue Beetle suit in scene reminiscent of The Guyver (George and Wang, 1991). Unlike in his initial comic run, the armour (which identifies itself as Khaji-Da) communicates directly to him, though he remains mostly incapable of controlling the symbiotic suit and much of his character arc is learning not to fear or rid himself of the armour, but to embrace his newfound destiny. Described as a world-destroying weapon, the armour renders Jaime effectively bulletproof and resistant to serious injury, healing any wounds he receives and conjuring fantastical weapons based purely on his imagination and willpower. Initially, Jaime is terrified at the prospect of the symbiote imbuing itself into his nerves and brain and is entirely dependent on Khaji-Da to take over when in a combat situation, with his only influence being his desperate pleas not to use lethal force (a sentiment his family, curiously and hilariously, do not share). With his family fearing for his safety and Jaime out of his mind with panic, they’re forced to turn to Jenny for answers; she reveals that her father, Ted Kord, once studied the scarab alongside its former host, Dan Garrett, with both of them fighting crime in the past as the Blue Beetle. Although she’s unable to offer a reasonable solution to Jaime’s predicament, her assistance allows Jaime, Milagro, and Rudy to explore Ted’s long-abandoned lab and retro technology and put Jaime on the path to discovering his true calling as a superhero.

While Carapax showcases some surprising depth, both he and Victoria ham it up a bit too much.

Malicious and ruthless after being spurred by her father in favour of her brother, Victoria has reshaped Kord Industries into a weapons manufacturer and become obsessed with acquiring the scarab to take her O.M.A.C.’s to the next level. Although I applaud the filmmakers in securing Susan Sarandon for this role, it can’t be denied that she’s absolutely hamming it up to the point of being a pantomime villain, overdelivering many of her lines and exuding a one-dimensional, xenophobic hatred towards anyone she sees as lesser than her. The only person she shows a modicum of respect and admiration for is her right-hand man, Carapax, the most capable and ruthless of her soldiers; a half-human cyborg empowered by the existing O.M.A.C technology, Carapax is absolutely loyal to Victoria’s bidding and takes a sadistic pleasure in hunting down Jaime to apprehend him for her experiments. Although a largely stoic and grim juggernaut of a henchman, Carapax is secretly hiding a pain of his own, one that he has largely forgotten due to the emotional and physical trauma of being transformed into a cyborg; his family were murdered before his eyes by Victoria’s weapons, and she herself oversaw his transformation simply out of a cruel desire to test her technology on a live (and suitable) subject. Bolstered by uncannily futuristic technology and her own private army, Victoria stops at nothing, even targeting her own niece, to get what she wants; her desire to get her hands on Jaime is so great that she leads an attack on the Reyes household and indirectly causes Alberto to suffer a fatal heart attack. This, however, has the knock-on effect of galvanising the Reyes’ into using Ted’s weaponry to storm Kord Industries and rescue Jaime, proving that Carapax was incorrect when he dismissed Jaime’s love for his family as a weakness. As interesting as Carapax is, these developments don’t come until the film’s finale and he loses much of his appeal whenever his bulky armour obscures his face and form, ultimately making him as over the top as Sarandon’s performance.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Although themes of family are prevalent in many superhero films, they’re at the forefront in Blue Beetle and represented in different ways by each character. Obviously, the most prominent representation of traditional family values are the Reyes’, a hard-working immigrant family who weathered terrible adversity to establish a home in the United States and value each other more than material possessions. These aspects are explored through Jaime’s interactions with Alberto, in which he expresses no regrets at having to work every job he could get and all the hours of the day to get his family to America, and later guides Jaime towards embracing Khaji-Da and ending the conflict within him as his final gift to his son. Jenny is absolutely aghast at how her aunt has perverted her father’s company into a greedy, ruthless powerhouse that lords itself over everyone and treats its employees as expendable pawns. Heartbroken at the disappearance and presumed death of her father, Jenny has actively been trying to do good in his name against her aunt’s wishes and sees liberating the scarab from Victora’s clutches as the ultimate insult. Victoria’s entire motivation for being such a cartoonishly cold-hearted villain is based on the bitterness she felt towards her father, who bequeathed Kord Industries to Ted over her despite her being instrumental in establishing the company. Finally, though Carapax sneers at Jaime’s emotional ties to his family, the scarred brute is fuelled by the trauma he endured at seeing his family violently killed; he carries their locket on his person and is later inspired to end himself and Victoria after remembering that his poisonous employer was responsible for his pain and suffering.

While the suit and effects are a lot of fun, it’s the familial aspects that hold this film together.

I praised the Blue Beetle suit earlier and it really does look great here; a mixture of practical and CGI effects, the armour is extremely versatile, conjuring bug-like wings, concussive blasts, and even a fully-functional Buster Sword to easily best swarms of heavily-armed goons. Indeed, the Blue Beetle is almost too powerful here, proving resistant to all harm and unstoppable once Jaime and Khaji-Da are united; the only one capable of consistently offering a challenge to the Blue Beetle is Carapax, whose weapons-grade O.M.A.C. armour is more than up to the task of matching the panic-stricken teen blow for blow. While the Blue Beetle armour is strikingly faithful to its comic book counterpart (almost to a fault with its strangely cartoonish face), the O.MA.C. armour is heavily altered to more resemble Carapax’s comic book counterpart, and appears more akin to something seen in the Iron Man movies (Various, 2008 to 2013). Still, the action and fight scenes involving both were exhilarating and fun, especially when Khaji-Da took control and turned Jaime into a cartwheeling, sword-wielding engine of destruction. The Blue Beetle’s flight scenes were also a lot of fun, as was exploring Ted’s underground lair, his retro-tech (including comic-accurate renditions of the Dan Garrett and Ted Kord Blue Beetle suits), and the Reyes’ commandeering Ted’s old school weapons and ridiculous bug ship to go rescue Jaime. While the bug ship looks a little cartoony at times, it was fun seeing Rudy stomp about, impaling Victoria’s guards and unleashing Ted’s unique weaponry on her forces, as was seeing Milagro and even Nana take up arms to help Jaime out in the name of love and family. Yet, easily the film’s most poignant scene is a metaphysical interaction between Jaime and his father’s spirit in a limbo between life and death; here, Alberto encourages his son to embrace his destiny, finally allowing true symbiosis between him and Khaji-Da, a revelation sadly somewhat muted when Jaime has to wait for the suit to reboot after escaping Victoria’s energy-sucking device (though this is a great excuse for the gun-toting Nana to shine).

Jaime’s family ultimately proves his greatest strength in overcoming Carapax.

Desperate to retrieve the scarab after learning Jenny swiped it, Victoria leads her troops and Carapax to the Reyes’, mercilessly threatening them and even causing Alberto’s death in a bid to draw out and capture Jaime. This proves a success and Jaime is hooked up to an elaborate machine that forcibly downloads the scarab’s code to empower the O.M.A.C. armour, but luckily Alberto’s spirit and Jaime’s family help to rescue him and scupper Victoria’s entire operation. Jenny even earns a modicum of catharsis when she tackles Victoria out of her helicopter and smashes the scarab data which, in conjunction with blowing up the O.M.A.C. lab, leaves Victoria desperate to avenge herself, only to find that Carapax has suffered a change of heart when Jaime inexplicably shows him mercy and they come to an understanding. This comes after a lengthy and brutal battle between the two armoured warriors in which the continually bust out bigger and better weapons to try and beat the other; Carapax uses every trick in the book, including taunting Jaime over his perceived weaknesses and seemingly killing Rudy, to gain the upper hand on his young foe, who is pushed to the brink by the onslaught. Despite having spent the whole film admonishing Khaji-Da for favouring lethal force, Jaime is fully preparing to execute the defenceless Carapax but spares his life after being shown his traumatic memories, finally reaching an understanding with Khaji-Da and leaving the grief-stricken brute to avenge his losses against Victoria. In the aftermath, Jenny assumes control over Kord Industries and immediately sets about discontinuing their weapons production; she vows to rebuild the Reyes’ house and give back to the community, rather than steamrolling over it, and shares a passionate kiss with Jaime (though, to be honest, I wasn’t convinced that she was as into him as he was her, so maybe they should’ve stayed plutonic friends, at least until the sequel). Speaking of which, the seeds of further intrigue are planted not just from the opening credits, where an errant Green Lantern beam causes the scarab to fall to Earth, but when Ted Kord (Unknown) desperately tries to contact someone for aid…

The Summary:
I was honestly sceptical going into Blue Beetle; it’s such an obscure character and an odd decision to go in, especially now with the DCEU in such a confusing flux, but the film actually held up really well, despite a few hiccups. The effects and suit action were really impressive, with a strong anime influence and drawing from some familiar superhero cliches but presenting them in a visually engaging new way, such as Jaime panicking and pleading with the suit and apologising to those around him since he’s not in control of himself when Khaji-Da takes over. Jaime himself and his family were very enjoyable characters; I liked their banter, their relatability and humanity, and the heart that held them together even in the toughest of times. While I wasn’t entirely convinced of the romance between Jaime and Jenny (mainly because I would’ve liked to see more of her showing an equal interest in him, rather than it being largely one-sided), the relationship between him and his sister, father, and uncle kept the family drama elements interesting for me. Unfortunately, Susan Sarandon is hamming it up a bit too much for me; she seems to be channelling the pantomime-like villainy that once dogged the genre and which I thought we’d moved on from. Carapax is far more compelling, but is largely just a surly brute of a man until some last-second revelations and is again simply a dark mirror of the hero, clichés that I can’t help but point out as flaws even if the film mostly kept its head above water. Overall, this was a fun introduction to a fresh, young superhero and I’d like to see more from these characters going forward, with perhaps some more visually and thematically interesting villains being introduced to place more emphasis on the positives at work here.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Did you enjoy Blue Beetle? Were you surprised to see the character brought to life on the big screen or did you enjoy seeing a fresh new ethnically diverse superhero take the spotlight? What did you think to the relationship between Jaime and his family? Did you enjoy the look and powers of the suit? What did you think to the more cartoonish presentation of the villains? Would you like to see more from these characters, and which obscure DC hero would you like to see get their own film? Whatever you thought about Blue Bettle, drop a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Blue Beetle content on the site.

Movie Night [Spidey Month]: Spider-Man 2.1

Dr. K10 Comments

Easily Marvel Comics’ most recognisable and popular superhero, unsuspecting teenage nerd Peter Parker was first bitten by a radioactive spider and learned the true meaning of power and responsibility in Amazing Fantasy #15, August 1962. Since then, the Amazing Spider-Man has featured in numerous cartoons, live-action movies, videogames, action figures, and countless comic book titles and, in celebration of his debut and his very own day of celebration, I’ve been dedicating every Saturday of August to talk about everyone’s favourite web-head!

Released: 17 April 2007
Originally Released: 30 June 2004
Director: Sam Raimi
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $200 million
Stars: Tobey Maguire, Alfred Molina, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, J. K. Simmons, and Rosemary Harris

The Plot:
Although he has saved countless lives as Spider-Man, Peter Parker’s (Maguire) personal life is falling apart due to his double life. Lovesick for Mary Jane Watson (Dunst) and tormented with guilt, Peter’s powers begin to fail him just as he faces his greatest challenge yet when renowned scientist Doctor Otto Octavius (Molina) becomes a four-limbed madman following a freak accident. When “Doctor Octopus” endangers lives, Peter is forced to reconcile his two lives in order to save the city, and the woman he loves, once again.

The Background:
Fittingly, given that his debut issue became one of Marvel’s best selling titles at the time, Spider-Man became so popular that he was ideally placed as Marvel Comics’ flagship character; the wall-crawler starred in numerous team-up titles, videogames, cartoons, and even a live-action series in the seventies, but his cinematic debut was constantly delayed by script and legal issues. Thankfully, director Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures Entertainment finally brought the character to life in Spider-Man (Raimi, 2002), which was an incredible critical and commercial success, but, while a big-budget sequel was almost immediately greenlit by the studio, Spider-Man 2 nearly underwent a major recast after star Tobey Maguire suffered a back injury. Although Jake Gyllenhaal was pegged to replace Maguire in the title role, Tobey recovered and returned to the franchise, which saw him go up against Alfred Molina as Doc Ock. A big fan of the comic books, Molina was excited to win the role and threw himself into it, relishing the chance to play a sympathetic villain with a sardonic sense of humour and even naming and playing pranks with his four prosthetic limbs on set.

After decades of legal issues, Spider-Man’s big-screen debut was a massive success.

Doc Ock’s arms were created by Edge FX and were a mixture of practical puppetry and visual effects. To improve upon the first film’s web-slinging antics, a specially-constructed “Spydercam” was employed to zip through the city and more accurately create the illusion of speed and excitement throughout the entire film, rather than just the final swing sequence. Following a number of script ideas, Raimi worked closely with the screenwriters to alter Doc Ock into a more sympathetic figure and to incorporate elements from the classic “Spider-Man No More!” (Lee, et al, 1967) story. Considering that Spider-Man 2 is often regarded as one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, and far exceeded its predecessor in terms of storytelling and visual effects, the film actually made less than the first at the box office (though a $789 million worldwide gross is anything but a failure!) Critics heaped praise upon the film; Molina, especially, was highlighted for his magnetic performance and the engaging plot regarding Peter’s personal drama was praised as much as the visual effects. Still consistently cited as one of the best sequels and superhero films ever, Spider-Man 2 was followed not just by a videogame adaptation and a third instalment, but was also re-released on home media (with twenty minutes of additional footage and some alternate cuts incorporated into the film) close to the Spider-Man 3’s (Raimi, 2007) release and Molina would later reprise his iconic role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Review:
While I remember there being a great deal of hype surrounding Spider-Man, I actually don’t remember the same being true for the sequel; this isn’t to say that it wasn’t massively anticipated by many, myself included, I just can’t really remember it as much as I was a little older and distracted by other concerns at the time. I know the initial trailer hit pretty hard, and it was exciting to see Doc Ock being brought to life, especially as he’s always been my favourite classic Spider-Man foe. Growing up reading the limited comics I had access to and watching the Spider-Man cartoon (1994 to 1998), I’d actually had little exposure to Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, and it wasn’t until Raimi’s first movie that I fully understood how big an impact Osborn had had on Spidey’s life. Consequently, though, I had always seen the calculating, ruthless Doc Ock as Spidey’s greatest villain; he handed the wall-crawler his first defeat, brought together the Sinister Six, and always seemed to crop up in the comics and videogames I was exposed to (potentially because Osborn was dead at that point). Still, back then, superhero movies were really starting to break through to the mainstream, and Spider-Man 2 was an exciting prospect given how well the first one had gone down, and the film immediately recaptures the feel and atmosphere of the last movie by once again utilising the great Danny Elfman for the opening title sequence (and even catching viewers up to speed using paintings by the amazing Alex Ross to recap key moments of the last movie).

Burdened by the weight of his responsibilities and the stress of his life, Peter’s powers begin to fail him.

As in the first movie, Spider-Man 2 opens with a bit of narration from Peter Parker, who’s in a pretty bad place here; having chosen to walk away from M. J. and live a life of responsibility, forsaking his own selfish needs in order to honour the memory of his beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), Peter is tormented by M. J.’s vacant, staring visage from atop a giant billboard and pines for her every day, martyring himself for the choice he was forced to make. No longer living in his childhood home in Queens with his doting Aunt May (Harris), Peter lives in a crummy little apartment in the middle of the city that is cramped, dirty, falling apart, and right next to the train line. The door sticks, there’s a communal bathroom, and he’s constantly hounded by his landlord, Mr. Ditkovitch (Elya Baskin) for rent, which he can barely afford to pay as he has recently lost his job as a pizza delivery boy and is constantly being shafted on payment for his photos of Spider-Man (and other notable events in the city) by Daily Bugle editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson (Simmons). While Peter was often angst-ridden and burdened by bad luck (“Parker Luck”, as he called it) in the comics, the whole world is out to get him here; he can’t keep up with his college assignments, people are constantly barging into him, he’s cockblocked by an obnoxious usher (Bruce Campbell), and he can’t even walk out of a supply cupboard without stuff falling on him. The amount of hardship he faces in this one movie is almost absurd, and is equalled only by his desperate pining for M. J.; he desperately wants to tell her the truth but can’t risk endangering her life, and is equally unable to quell Harry Osborn’s (Franco) hatred of Spider-Man to preserve Norman’s memory. Peter’s also still carrying the guilt of having indirectly caused Uncle Ben’s death, and it’s only after sharing this with Aunt May that his outlook begins to change. And just in time, too, as all this stress is not only causing a rift between him and the few friends he has but also cancelling out his spider-powers. Since Tobey has organic webbing, this is an interesting way to do the old “run out of web fluid in mid-air/mid-fight” trope, but the depiction is quite inconsistent; potentially an allegory for sexual inadequacy and clearly a manifestation of his troubles, Peter’s powers only short out when the script says so, meaning he’s denied even the freedom offered from retreating to web-slinging.

Though she has a hunky astronaut, M. J. can’t deny her feelings and chooses Peter after learning the truth.

Just as Peter pines after M. J. on a daily basis, almost to an uncomfortable degree, so too is M. J. constantly distracted by him; Harry claims that she is “waiting for [him]”, but, regardless of his love for her, Peter continues to keep her at arm’s length and to avoid discussing his feelings for her. Although she’s clearly still in love with him, M. J. is doing a far better job of moving on (or, at least, hiding) from those feelings; she not only has a billboard but has landed her dream job with a part in The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People (Wilde, 1895) and even gotten herself a ruggedly handsome astronaut (of all things), Colonel John Jameson (Daniel Gillies). John is barely a character at all and simply there to deliver another gut punch to Peter; M. J. clearly isn’t that into him, despite accepting his proposal, as she’s constantly yearning for Peter and waiting for him to admit his feelings for her. However, she’s also increasingly frustrated by Peter; despite him claiming to be her greatest friend and confidante, he’s been absent and unreliable, and she’s driven to the edge when he breaks his promise to see her play. Otto offers Peter some advice in trying to explain things to M. J., which leads to him awkwardly blurting out random poetry excerpts to her, and he inadvertently ends up alienating her so much that she’s fully prepared to settle for John, even briefly entertaining the idea that she was wrong about Peter and that John is Spider-Man. All of M. J.’s frustrations and concerns are completely swept away once she sees the truth she’s known all along and Peter clearly explains that he can’t risk being with her because of his responsibilities, but she ultimately chooses to face those dangers with him so that they don’t have to deny themselves. M. J. is a bit underwhelming here, to be honest; I’ve never really been a big fan of Dunst in the role and, while she has a feisty side, the script doesn’t really do her character any favours. It gets a bit worse in hindsight as she blows up at Peter in the next film for kissing a girl but she’s here making out with (and presumably having sex with) her hunky boyfriend, while trying to coax the truth out of Peter instead of just demanding that he be honest with her. She also ends up as a screaming hostage once more, and it’s telling that even Aunt May has more fight in her when captured by Doc Ock than the object of Peter’s affections.

Harry, consumed with vengeance, is stunned to discover Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same!

Peter’s life is further complicated by his strained relationship with Harry; despite struggling through school in the first film, Harry has done pretty well for himself in the intervening time, becoming head of special projects as OsCorp and funding Otto’s fusion research in a bid to live up to (and surpass) his father’s lofty ambitions. However, having seen Spider-Man with his father’s body at the conclusion of the first film, Harry assumes that Spidey killed his dad and has been harbouring a deep-seated vendetta against the wall-crawler ever since. Even when Spider-Man saves his life, Harry isn’t swayed in his opinion, and his lust for revenge even drives him to turn against Peter in a bitter, drunken rage in one of the film’s most dramatic and upsetting moments. An extended scene included in this version sheds a little more light on Harry’s mindset, as he believes that Peter either knows who Spider-Man is or is protecting him from reprisals since he earns money from the masked vigilante, and he compares his desire to see Spider-Man dead to the bloodlust Peter must feel towards the man who killed Uncle Ben, thus painting Harry as a dark mirror of the titular hero. Frustration and grief get the better of Harry after Otto’s experiment is a disaster, and he unleashes a vicious, heart-breaking tirade against his best friend for choosing his livelihood over his best friend. Harry’s obsession only grows when Spider-Man is believed to have quit after his discarded costume is discovered, and he’s so consumed by vengeance that he partners with Doc Ock to draw Spider-Man out by having him target Peter in exchange for supplying the mad scientist with the Tridium he needs to complete his fusion experiment. With Spider-Man helpless before him, Harry prepares to deliver the killing blow and is stunned into a near maddening disbelief to find his best friend behind the mask, shattering his perception of reality and the people around him and leaving him susceptible to the manipulative influence of his father’s vengeful spirit.

A science experiment gone awry transforms kindly Dr. Octavius into the twisted, sardonic Doc Ock.

Of course, Spidey’s most tangible threat in the film is Doc Ock himself; beginning as a kindly mentor and hero of Peter’s, Otto is a far cry from the malicious, power-hungry mad scientist from the comic books. Although initially reluctant to interrupt his work by entertaining Peter’s questions, especially given he’s aware of Peter’s assumed laziness, Otto quickly finds a kinship with Peter based on their mutual appreciation for science. A likable, fatherly figure, Otto is absolutely besotted with his beloved wife, Rosie (Donna Murphy), and emphasises to Peter the importance of using his great potential and intelligence for the good of mankind. Despite his unparalleled scientific mind, Otto is also a romantic at heart and encourages Peter not to bottle up his love and emotions lest they make him sick, though both he and Rosie stress that love requires a lot of hard work from both parties. Otto’s life work is to provide the world with clean, renewable energy using a Tridium-based fusion reaction; Otto is so convinced of the safety and importance of his experiment that he generates an artificial sun in the middle of New York City, confidant that his four mechanical limbs will allow him to stabilise the resultant reaction and give him his moment of glory. Of course, everything goes hideously wrong when his machinery malfunctions, which not only results in Rosie being killed but Otto’s mechanical appendages being fused to his spinal column. Awakening in a confused state, Otto finds himself susceptible to the arms’ artificial intelligence after his inhibitor chip is destroyed; as they’re programmed to create and stabilise the experiment, the arms influence him towards robbing banks and committing crimes to rebuild the reactor at an abandoned pier rather than drown himself in the river in his grief. Christened Doctor Octopus (“Doc Ock”) by Jameson, Otto becomes a twisted, power-hungry maniac who completely abandons all of his former principals and puts innocent lives in danger thanks to the influence of his arms. He not only tries to kill a train-load of New Yorkers but even takes Aunt May and M. J. as hostages and battles Spider-Man with a devious glee, constantly frustrated by the web-slinger’s interference and determined to kill him so he can be left in peace. Doc Ock’s story is functionally similar to that of Norman’s in the first film (both were mentor and father figures turned to evil by science), but the execution is unique enough to stand out from his predecessor; he stomps around in broad daylight, his identity is never in question, and his ultimate goal isn’t to prove his physical superiority, but to prove his intellectual superiority and complete his life’s work by any means necessary.

While Jonah delights in Spidey’s misfortune, Aunt May and Ursula offer Peter some much-needed support.

As haunted by M. J. and his many doubts and problems Peter is, his guilt over indirectly causing Uncle Ben’s death basically dictates his entire life. The only reason he’s denying his true feelings is because his interpretation of Ben’s final teaching was that he had an obligation to put his powers to good use, a life lesson that is reinforced by Otto and his position of scientific acumen. However, all of the stress caused by his conflicting duality sends Peter’s power son the fritz; his webs stop firing, he can’t always stay stuck to walls, and he begins wearing his glasses again as his eyesight fails. Concerned for his physical welfare, he consults a doctor, who offers the prognosis that the issue is psychological rather than physical, and, with the weight of the world pressing down upon him thanks to Jameson’s smear campaign, Peter rejects his responsibilities in a dream-like conversation with his uncle’s spirit. Upon being brought Spider-Man’s discarded suit, Jameson is overjoyed that his efforts to besmirch and belittle the wall-crawler have met with success, but he’s forced to admit that Spider-Man was a hero when Doc Ock kidnaps M. J., thus leaving John distraught, though Peter delights in upstaging the cantankerous editor once he gets his shit together. He’s helped in this regard by an honest exchange with Aunt May; given that the film takes place on the two year anniversary of Ben’s death, May is in a fragile place, which is only exacerbated by her inability to keep up the payments on their family home. Burdened by his guilt, Peter shares a version of the truth of that fateful day to her; though initially horrified, she forgives him and stresses the importance of doing the right thing. It’s heavily implied in this exchange that May is aware of Peter’s dual nature and, though neither explicitly admit it, he’s relieved that her encounter with Doc Ock and subsequent rescue from Spider-Man has turned her opinions on the web-spinner around. After giving up his suit, Peter applies himself fully to his social life and academic work, finally earning him the praise of his teacher, Doctor Curt Connors (Dylan Baker), and he later finds some support in Ursula (Mageina Tovah), the daughter of his landlord, who clearly has a crush on him and brings him a moment of quiet reprieve in a moment of absolute despair. This extended cut adds a few additional scenes, most of which are alternate takes and longer sequences that don’t really add too much to the existing story, though one of the most notable additions is a hilarious scene where Jameson hops around his office garbed in Spider-Man’s discarded suit and a discussion between M. J. and her friend where it’s revealed she accepts John’s proposal primarily because of her father’s abusive nature.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Given that it’s a Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man 2 is primarily focused on exploring themes of guilt and the weight of responsibility; Peter drives himself into the ground trying to save everyone he can and live up to his uncle’s expectations, to the point where he neglects his life outside of the costume. Not only is he failing at school and to make money, he’s letting everyone around him down, which only adds to his feelings of despair; his friends are starting to resent and distrust him because of his absent nature and, while he’s desperate to do more and to apply himself better, he can’t shake the call to action. Even something as simple as delivering pizzas or getting to the play is interrupted by a disturbance of some kind, whether it’s kids playing in the street or a high-speed car chase, and Peter doesn’t even let himself relax when he’s in his crummy apartment as he sits there tuning into the police radio band to find ways for him to help. This ever-mounting struggle to find the right balance between his wants and his responsibilities is the primary cause for his failing powers; losing his webs, wall-crawling, spider-sense, and strength only adds to Peter’s confusion and frustration as the freedom afforded to him by being Spider-Man also becomes a closed door. Once he decides to quit, that weight is immediately lifted but his brief moment of happiness is shattered when he’s unable to save a life from a house fire, thus hammering home that he is capable of great things and thus must exercise great responsibility.

Both Spider-Man and Doc Ock look fantastic, and Ock’s arms make for exciting fight sequences.

Surprisingly, Tobey’s spider-suit is basically the same design as before; normally, superhero sequels go out of their way to change the character’s costume to make more toys but, aside from popping a little more and a few tweaks to the mask, muscle suit, and other minor details, it remains consistent with the first film. Thanks to the movie not having to spend an hour or so setting up Peter’s origin, we get much more Spider-Man action here and the aforementioned Spydercam really delivers some dynamic web-slinging shots. As ever, Peter has an annoying tendency to lose or remove his mask so that we don’t miss out on the emotional impact scenes and events have on him; this is, as always, hit or miss as Tobey favours a vacant, doe-eyed stare throughout most of the film and the regularity that he is unmasked gets ridiculous at times, regardless of how dramatic or thematically relevant these scenes are. While audiences will forever decry the Green Goblin’s outfit in the last film, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone complain about Doc Ock’s depiction here; garbed in a trench coat, hat, and glasses, Doc Ock cuts a simple but intimidating figure and it really is impressive how Molina projects the weight and movement of his mechanical limbs. The arms are extremely versatile, able to stretch out and grab things in their claws, light Ock’s cigar, and even sporting a nasty looking spear-like appendage. While Otto can control and influence the arms, the destruction of the inhibitor chip allows them to act independently of him, but their goal is not only to create and sustain a fusion reaction but also to protect Ock at all costs. Swinging and whipping everywhere, the tentacles cause Spider-Man a great deal of difficulty in getting to Doc Ock and make him a constant threat as they can perform multiple tasks and endanger many lives all at once. One of their most memorable sequences is when they lash out while Otto is unconscious, slaughtering the doctors that try to remove them in scenes that harken back to Raimi’s time as a horror filmmaker as we see fingernails being ripped off and screaming bodies being tossed all over the place. Indeed, Rosie’s horrific death (though not seen onscreen it’s pretty clear she was practically decapitated) and many shots of the arms are created using practical effects, puppetry, and first-person perspectives just like those seen in his Evil Dead films (Raimi, 1981 to 1992) and their threat is matched by Otto’s obsession with holding “the power of the sun in the palm of [his] hand”.

Spider-Man and Doc Ock’s battles are a spectacle, and Spidey performs incredible feats to save lives.

The versatility of Doc Ock’s arms really do make for some of the best fight sequences in any Spider-Man film; despite the armaments and manoeuvrability of the Green Goblin’s glider, Spider-Man’s fights never really kicked into that higher gear as the filmmakers were still working out how to create the special effects necessary to shoot these sequences (something that the third film greatly improved upon), but Spider-Man 2 more than makes up for this with scenes depicting Spider-Man and Doc Ock battling up the sides of buildings and on top of a speeding train. While it’s true that any one of Spidey’s repeated blows to the non-superpowered Doc Ock should have immediately ended the multi-limbed menace, I can forgive this as it’s really exciting to see Spidey have to dodge and flip around the tentacles and fight through them while on the side of a building or whipping around a bank. I can also forgive the convenience of Doc Ock robbing the same bank that Peter and May happen to be at because it leads to him clambering up the sides of buildings with May and his bags of loot, tossing better (and more sadistic) quips than Spider-Man himself, and showing just how dangerous and adaptable his mechanical limbs are as they can hoist him up, absorb impact damage, and deflect Spidey’s blows at every turn. Obviously, the most thrilling action scene is the train sequence, which sees Spider-Man first using his webs to save the civilians Doc Ock causally tosses away, battling him on the exterior of the speeding train carriages, and then using all of his fantastic strength to literally force the out of control train to a stop. Full disclosure, though…I’ve always found this sequence to be a little over the top; the physics and logistics of it seem a little outside of Spider-Man’s range and more like something Clark Kent/Superman would do, but it undeniably makes for a brilliantly dramatic sequence as it shows that Peter will literally push himself to exhaustion and beyond his limits to save lives. The passengers are so grateful to him that they promise not to share that they’ve seen his face, moved by how young and brave he is, and Spidey only adds to his heroic card by basically trading his life for theirs when Doc Ock returns for him.

Thanks to Ock’s sacrifice, the city is saved, but Harry poses a looming threat…

After having a taste of happiness, Peter begins to believe that he can finally offer M. J. his true feelings but, after realising that he can’t deny the great responsibility bestowed upon him, he’s forced to walk this suggestion back and once again pretend that he’s not in love with her. However, his spider powers truly return in full force after Doc Ock inexplicably kidnaps M. J. to force Peter to lure Spider-Man out for a final confrontation. As many have mentioned, it’s damn lucky that Peter is Spider-Man and that his spider-sense kicked in at that exact moment or else Doc Ock’s errant taxicab would have squashed them both and Harry would’ve indirectly killed his two best friends. When he discovers that Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same, Harry is stunned, to say the least, and heartbroken by the belief that his best friend apparently killed his father. However, Peter manages to convince Harry to reveal Doc Ock’s location in order to rescue M. J. by stressing that there’s more at stake than their personal problems (though a quick “No, he was a madman who tried to kill me” might’ve gone a long way…) Thus, once again, Spider-Man has to save M. J. from a supervillain, though she’s much sassier here than last time, where she was little more than a screaming wreck. Enraged at Doc Ock’s actions, which not only threaten the entire city but have put first Aunt May and then M. J. in the line of fire, Spidey delivers a massive beatdown, once again taxing himself to the limits to shield M. J. from a falling girder and finally revealed the truth to her after removing his mask again. To be fair, this time Peter voluntarily unmasks in a desperate attempt to appeal to Otto’s humanity; thoroughly beaten, Otto snaps out of his insanity upon seeing the face of his protégé and surrogate son and realises that his arms have perverted everything he once stood for. With the fusion reaction threatening to suck the city into it like an artificial black hole, Otto exerts all of his willpower and humanity in a tragic sacrificial effort to drown the artificial sun and redeem himself, once again delivering a startling message of the dangers of scientific exploration and arrogance to Peter. Despite coming to terms with the fact that he can never be with M. J. as he’ll always be Spider-Man, Peter is delighted when she ditches John at the altar to be with him and triumphantly swings off to attend to an emergency with M. J.’s blessing. However, unbeknownst to either of them, Harry is tormented by a vision of his dead father and stunned to stumble upon a hidden laboratory containing a cache of Norman’s Green Goblin apparel, and potentially the means to exact his revenge against his former friend…

The Summary:
Even today, after all the Spider-Man films we’ve had over the years, Spider-Man 2 remains a highly praised entry in the franchise and has long been the gold standard that all other Spider-Man films are measured by. It’s really not too hard to see why; like all great sequels, Spider-Man 2 takes everything that worked in the first film and provides not only more of the best aspects but improves upon them at every turn. The interpersonal drama is heightened, the action and fight sequences are much more exciting and visually impressive, and Spider-Man’s web-slinging is a sight to behold thanks to the innovative camera techniques pioneered in this film. While some of the performances still leave a lot to be desired, the visual spectacle more than makes up for it and Alfred Molina’s brilliantly nuanced portrayal of Doctor Octopus carries the acting quality to a new level, allowing Tobey Maguire to focus on embodying Peter’s utter despair and anguish. Most importantly, Spider-Man 2 does a wonderful job of balancing all of its narrative elements; Peter’s struggles with his dual life and his failing powers are perfectly juxtaposed with Doc Ock’s menace, and it never feels like there’s too much going on. I’d argue that the only main character to suffer is Mary Jane, simply because I would prefer to see more agency from her, but I loved seeing Harry’s obsession send him into a downward spiral of revenge that parallels Otto’s degradation from kindly father figure to sadistic, megalomaniacal villain. If you’re going to watch Spider-Man 2, be sure to pop in this extended version as the few extra minutes add a little more spice to the sauce, so to speak, and the film remains as entertaining as ever, even in the face of the more visually impressive and narratively faithful Marvel Studios movies. My only regret is that some of the lingering plot points were poorly addressed in the third film, but that definitely doesn’t diminish Spider-Man 2’s appeal and it remains in the top tier of the web-slinger’s live-action films to this day.  

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Are you a fan of Spider-Man 2? Where does it rank for you against the many other Spider-Man movies? Did you enjoy the extended sequences offered in this version of the movie? What did you think to Peter’s many struggles in the film and which of the fight sequences was your favourite? Were you a fan of Alfred Molina’s portrayal of Doc Ock and were you excited to see him return to the role? What did you think to Harry’s character development and were you excited at the prospect of him taking up his father’s legacy in the third film? Do you think the film still holds up or do you prefer other filmic interpretations of the character? Whatever your opinion on Spider-Man 2, leave a comment and thanks for joining me for Spider-Man Month!

Movie Night [K-DAY]: Pacific Rim

Dr. K10 Comments

In this absolutely bonkers science-fiction film, the monstrous Kaiju first attacked humanity on 10th August 2013. The attack ended a few days later on August 15th but, in that time, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Oakland were completely devastated and the Kaiju War officially began. Accordingly, August 10th became known as “K-DAY” and is, for me, a fantastic excuse to talk about some giant monster movies!

Released: 12 July 2013
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $180 to 200 million
Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, and Ron Perlman

The Plot:
In 2013, alien monsters dubbed Kaiju emerged from an interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat these creatures, humanity built massive robots called Jaegers, which are mentally controlled by pilots, and sealed their cities behind gigantic walls. By 2020, the war has taken its toll and washed-up Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket (Hunnam) is called out of retirement and teamed with rookie pilot Mako Mori (Kikuchi) as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju.

The Background:
Although Godzilla has proven to be the most famous kaiju creature ever created, the atomic monster is very much a creation of Japan and the West has struggled to really have a counterpart to the Big G; sure, King Kong came first and has significantly influenced cinema, but we’ve not really created a giant creature to match Godzilla’s popularity. Celebrated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro sought to change that when he learned of Travis Beacham’s concept for a kaiju film that would become Pacific Rim; del Toro worked closely with Beacham to refine the script, suggesting scenes and concepts and urging his visual designers not to look to previous kaiju films for inspiration in the hopes of crafting something fresh and new that would introduce both the Kaiju and Mecha genres to a new audience. Industrial Light & Magic were behind the film’s spectacular and varied special effects; over one-hundred Kaiju and Jaegers were created for the filmmakers to choose from, and the Kaiju were specifically designed to evoke the man-in-a-suit aesthetic of classic Kaiju films while the Jaegers took inspiration from landmark buildings and war machines. Pacific Rim went on to gross over $400 million at the box office and was met with generally positive reviews: critics praised del Toro’s imagination and visuals, the spectacular action sequences and the chemistry between the actors. While some criticised the dialogue and plot, the film was accompanied by a poorly received videogame, an anime and, eventually, a less critically and commercially successful sequel, and talks of a crossover with Legendary Pictures’ “MonsterVerse” continue to do the rounds.

The Review:
I remember being a little late to the Pacific Rim party; a co-worker told me about the trailer and the concept and, as a massive kaiju fan, I was immediately intrigued but boy did I underestimate how bat-shit crazy the trailer and the resulting movie actually was! Pacific Rim outlines its concept in its opening moments, even providing a translation of the words “Kaiju” and “Jaeger” for our convenience, to help establish the premise of the film. Rather than falling from the stars, alien life comes from a mysterious portal, the “Breach”, deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. Later in the film, it’s revealed that the Kaiju are a genetically-engineered extermination force created by the alien “Precursors”, and their impact is immediate and violent and aims for nothing less than the extinction of humankind. Unlike in some giant monster movies, Pacific Rim provides a glimpse of the Kaiju’s destructive potential within the first few moments, showing (through news reports) the devastation brought to San Francisco in the first attack by a near-300-foot-tall creature subsequently dubbed “Trespasser” by the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. In six days, Trespasser destroyed three cities and claimed “tens of thousands of lives” before the military was finally able to put the beast down with tactical nuclear missiles; though the world tried to move on from this attack, another Kaiju emerged six months later, then a third, a fourth…and all too soon, it became evident that these weren’t isolated incidents but actually a full-blown invasion.

Raleigh is struggling with his brother’s death but unable to deny his desire to pilot a Jaeger again.

To combat the colossal invaders, the world’s governments finally set aside their differences to formulate a joint defence initiative, and the Jaeger Program was born. Rather than rely on jets, tanks, and heavy, nuclear artillery, humanity created monsters of their own, gigantic mechanical machines called Jaegers. Jaegers are massive, heavily armoured, and sport all kinds of bells and whistles; from missiles to swords, rocket propulsion and even a plasma cannon. Rather than being gigantic robots, Jaegers are controlled by at least two human pilots (Crimson Typhoon’s Cheung (Charles Luu), Hu (Lance Luu), and Jin (Mark Luu) Wei Tang are the only three-pilot team) by “Drifting” to share the neural strain. Still, it takes a great deal of mental and physical strength to pilot a Jaeger; pilots need to fully trust each other, their movements and thoughts need to be in perfect synchronisation, and they also need to be “Draft compatible” otherwise the strain becomes too much and will almost certainly result in death. This is a problem for our main character, Raleigh; his bond with his older brother, Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) made them a formidable team in command of Gipsy Danger, but he was left grief-stricken and guilt-ridden after Yancy was killed by the Kaiju “Knifehead”. Thanks to the neural uplink, Raleigh experienced all of Yancy’s pain and fear at the moment of death and that, as much as the strain of piloting Gipsy Danger alone, traumatised Raleigh so badly that he quit the fight. Since the frequency and aggression of the Kaiju attacks escalates to the point where the Jaegers can’t be built fast enough to fend them off, the United Nations cuts funding to the project in favour of massive walls to shield major coastal cities from attacks. Raleigh finds himself drafted back into service when the walls prove completely useless when the Kaiju make their return, and he’s forced to join the few Jaeger pilots who remain from all corners of the world to once again bring the fight to the invaders.

Mako longs to put her training and trauma to use in directly fighting the creatures that took her family.

Only those with the strongest mental capacity succeed at piloting Jaegers; Drifting takes a heavy toll as the pilots are bombarded with the thoughts, memories, and fears of their co-pilot, and Raleigh is initially sceptical that he can have a bond as strong as the one he had with his brother. Additionally, he faces some distrust and resentment from the likes of Chuck Hansen (Kazinsky); Chuck and his father, Hercules (Max Martini), pilot Striker Eureka, the most powerful and successful Jaeger in the corps but, while Hercules is accepting of Raleigh given his knowledge of he and Yancy’s time piloting Gipsy Danger, Chuck is resentful of Raleigh abandoning the cause and arrogant in his skills as one half of the top Jaeger team. Central to Raleigh’s reintroduction to the Jaeger program is the timid Mako Mori (Kikuchi), who, despite being in awe of his physical appeal, initially doubts his suitability as a pilot due to his reckless nature and is tasked with finding him a suitable co-pilot. Naturally, Raleigh finds her an alluring presence, especially given he’s surrounded by grizzled soldiers (most of whom are men), but his interest in her only increases when, during a training session, he finds that they’re Drift compatible. Unfortunately, Mako is still struggling with a traumatic experience from her childhood where she was left paralysed with fear during a Kaiju attack. This, alongside Raleigh’s lingering guilt over Yancy’s death, means that she struggles to push past her ordeal and shows just how mentally fit a Jager pilot has to be to keep their focus on the here and now rather than getting lost in the allure of memories. Her desire to fight is admirable, but she not only lacks the proper combat experience but is also held back by her adopted father, and commanding officer, the grizzled and hard-nosed Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Elba).

The no-nonsense Pentecost is absolutely committed to ending the Kaiju threat, no matter the cost.

Pentecost is a man who absolutely exudes authority from his very core. Commanding respect from all around him, Pentecost disregards the United Nations’ threat to cut their funding and instead initiates a widespread recruitment initiative to get whatever pilots he can into the few Jaegers he has left but, while he’s able to inspire Raleigh to return to the cause by appealing to his innate fighting spirit, Pentecost is not quite as willing to allow Mako the chance to sign up to the Jaeger program since he knows she’s not mentally prepared and he’s extremely overprotective of her. Though a straight-talking figure with a penchant for rousing, pragmatic speeches and demands, Pentecost only delivers the information he deems necessary to his Rangers; his goal is not to be their friend, or their father, but rather a consistent source for them to focus their efforts on, but his steadfastness falters when Mako is involved purely because he is so protective of her. Years ago, he saved her from a Kaiju attack and he’s been grooming her to focus her anger and desire for revenge, crafting her into the perfect soldier and pilot, but time is against him and he is reluctant to let her step into a Jaeger without more training. Pentecost’s options, however, are quickly becoming limited; not only are the Kaiju attacks predicted to increase, but he’s also dying from radiation poisoning from his days of piloting Jaegers with insufficient shielding, all of which culminates in him strapping into a Jaeger once more in a last, desperate bid to seal the Breach once and for all. The Breach, and the Kaiju themselves, are closely monitored by eccentric and bickering scientists Doctor Newton “Newt” Geiszler (Day) and Doctor Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), two extremely different and conflicting personalities who have vastly different opinions on the Kaiju threat. While Gottlieb is convinced that the Breach will soon stablise and remain open, allowing not only for Category V Kaiju to emerge but for the creatures to attack in full force, Newt is obsessed with the idea of Drifiting with a living Kaiju brain in order to earn more about them. While he’s able to glean some intel on the creatures using this technique, he’s forced to turn to black marketeer Hannibal Chau (Perlman), a peculiar gangster who has profited from selling harvested Kaiju organs on the black market since it’s exceedingly difficult to gather specimens from the creatures.

Monstrous Kaiju emerge from the Breach to exterminate humanity!

Newt’s compulsion to Drift with the Kaiju brain causes him a great deal of mental strain, and also results in the first-ever double Kaiju attack and the discovery that the Breach can only be opened in the presence of Kaiju DNA, which proves pivotal in the final, desperate assault on the portal. The Kaiju are demonic, monstrous beings that sport thick, leathery hides, bony appendages, and which plough through cities and conventional weapons without fear in a single-minded quest to eradicate all life in their path. The creatures originally emerged millions of years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, but couldn’t survive in the climate so they waited centuries until, thanks to our destructive and pollutive ways, humanity had “practically terraformed” the planet into a far more hospitable environment for the invaders. Over the years, Kaiju attacks have become frequent but also highly predictable; the Pan Pacific Defense Corps monitor the Breach closely and are able to determine the size and strength of each creature, which is given a suitably fitting moniker and categorised according to the “Serizawa Scale”, with Categories I and II being the weakest. The most powerful Kaiju in the film is “Slattern”, the first Category V Kaiju ever recorded; they sport acidic blood, self-destruct on death, emit a highly toxic substance called “Kaiju Blue” that contaminates the environment, and some can even emit electromagnetic pulses as the Precursors strive to better adapt their creatures for combat against humanity. Monstrous and lacking in anything other than pure, unadulterated destruction in the name of their creators, the Kaiju threat is often downplayed since they have become so frequent that people have learned to expect and live with them. Jager pilots are treated like celebrities, Kaiju are turned into action figures or revered by “groupies” like Newt for their impressive physiological allure, and yet Pentecost is right there on the ground level able to see with his own eyes that the attacks are increasing and witnessing his pilots dying trying to defend what’s left of humanity from all-out apocalypse.

The Nitty-Gritty:
One of the things I enjoy about Pacific Rim is how humanity is literally depicted as teetering on the brink; it’s not quite a post-apocalyptic story, but it’s verging very close to one as the Kaiju attacks increase. There’s a definite sense that everything, literally everything, is being put into the Jaeger project and the massive walls being erected; while bustling cities still exist and much of society continues on regardless, I think it’s fair to assume that these won’t last forever and you can see glimpses of how close humankind is to being snuffed out forever in just how elaborate the Jaegers, the Shatterdome, and even the walls are as there’s no way that we aren’t burning through our resources at an alarming rate producing such extravagant defensive measures. Crime and profiting from the Kaiju attacks is also rampant, as best evidenced through Hannibal Chau, and the death toll and absolute devastation brought by the Kaiju is beyond catastrophic, and yet many still disregard or downplay the threat. While we’re told that all the world’s governments and people have come together to fight the Kaiju, there’s a significant number of people not working towards that cause, and the United Nations disregard the Jaeger program simply because they’d rather hide behind ineffectual walls.

While visibility is low at times, the giant monster battles are the most memorable part of the film.

Easily the most appealing aspect of Pacific Rim is the effects; like many of my favourite science-fiction films, Pacific Rim features a marriage between the practical and the fantastical for its aesthetics. The Jaegers and the Shatterdome have a huge amount of weight and depth to them, feeling large and cumbersome and having a real impact when they’re onscreen while also sporting a slick, steampunk-like presentation. This exists alongside the bustling, neon-drenched streets of Tokyo and futuristic, advanced technology like holographic interfaces and the Drift equipment. The film is an absolutely bonkers premise, one that immediately drops audiences into a world constantly under threat from not one but multiple giant monsters and where our best defense is giant mechanical machines. You might think that there’s got to be a better and less expensive way to fight the Kaiju than this, but that wouldn’t be anywhere near as visually striking now, would it? In true Guillermo del Toro fashion, there are plenty of practical effects to be found here, particularly in the rendition of the organs and body parts harvested from the Kaiju, though the Kaiju and Jaeger are largely rendered using spectacular CGI. The two titanic concepts make for a constant visual spectacle as they match blows between skyscrapers, tearing down landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and storming through Sydney, though there are instances where the action is noticeably difficult to follow thanks to taking place at night, at sea, and with rain pelting down and distorting the impressive visual effects. The low visibility can make the Kaiju a little difficult to distinguish, but they all look very different; some have horns on their heads, or are more bulbous, or sport split jaws and long, glowing tentacle-like tongues. Slattern is the largest and most dangerous, sporting three whip-like tails and a spiny protrusion of its chest for close and long-ranged damage, but the Kaiju are also capable of giving birth to smaller, equally vicious offspring. Thankfully, the Jaegers are more than up to the task of combating them; though their primary form of attack is to engage in hand-to-hand combat, the Jaegers also pelt the Kaiju with missiles, cut them up with blades and saws, and Gypsy Danger even uses a boat as a melee weapon in the streets of Tokyo!

Thanks to Pentecost’s sacrifice, the Breach to the Kaiju dimension is successfully sealed.

With time fast running out and the promise of increased Kaiju attacks becoming a startling reality, Pentecost is forced to put his final plan in motion; scrambling all of his remaining pilots and Jaegers together, he plans to strap a nuclear warhead on the back of Striker Eureka and drop it into the Breach to collapse the portal once and for all. However, Hercules is injured during an earlier attack, forcing Pentecost to replace him as Chuck’s co-pilot and, impressed with Mako’s compatibility with Raleigh, to sign off on his adopted daughter piloting Gypsy Danger into battle. After finally getting on the same page and Drifting with a Kaiju brain, Newt and Gottlieb relate that the Jaegers must latch onto a Kaiju in order to enter the Breach or else the weapon will simply be deflected, as always, but this is made all the more difficult by the first instance of a triple Kaiju emergence, and the appearance of Slattern at the Breach. What follows is an action-packed battle between the last two Jaegers and the three Kaiju deep beneath the ocean which sees Striker Eureka damaged in the attack, forcing Pentecost and Chuck to sacrifice themselves to clear a path for Gypsy Danger. Since Gypsy Danger is an older, nuclear-powered Jaeger, the mech itself acts as the pay load and they’re able to skewer Slattern and ride it into the ethereal, bizarre dimension that lays beyond our own world. In a last minute bit of tension, Raleigh scrambles to overload Gypsy Danger’s nuclear reactor but he’s ultimately successful, collapsing the Breach and escaping back to the surface alongside Mako with the assumption being that the Kaiju assault has been ended once and for all.

The Summary:
I feel like Pacific Rim has kind of been forgotten a bit over the years; at the time, it was a pretty spectacular prospect, and American-made giant monster movies weren’t exactly the norm, though the first few Transformers movies (Bay, 2007 to 2011) were acclimatising audiences to seeing big, mindless robotic creatures duking it out onscreen. Pacific Rim has a lot more going for it than those dumb-ass films, however, though maybe there’s a little too much happening in the film: we’ve got Kaiju, portals, giant mechs, neural links, advanced technology…I’m honestly surprised there aren’t actual psychics here, too. Still, I enjoy that there’s a lot of action and destruction and variety; the low lighting can make some of the fights a little difficult to make out, but the Jaegers are all quite distinctive with their different paint jobs, limbs, movements, and weapons. The Kaiju have very similar leathery hides but also look a lot different when we get a good shot at them; glowing with neon blue highlights and sporting massive claws and monstrous, demonic appendages, they waste no time in making an immediate impression and the film is bolstered by a decent influx of action. Interestingly, it’s not the giant monsters of robotic mechs that are the most over the top thing about the film, it’s the acting. Filled with brilliant character actors, Pacific Rim is strengthened by a shot of machismo and some truly scenery-chewing performances by Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, and Idris Elba. Elba is the clear standout with his gruff demeanour, which he maintains despite carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, though Charlie Hunnam is just charismatic enough to work as the square-jawed, reluctant hero. Naturally, it’s the big monster/robot battles that are the true spectacle of the film and make it a rollicking movie to throw on with some beers and pizza; there’s a decent attempt at a deeper message regarding uniting against a common foe and taking better care of our world, but you’re watching Pacific Rim to see giant mechs smashing seven kinds of shit out of Godzilla wannabes and that’s exactly that it delivers.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Were you a fan of Pacific Rim? Did you enjoy the concept, or was it a little too over the top for you? Which of the Kaiju and Jaegers was your favourite? What did you think to the human characters, particularly Idris Elba and his rousing speeches? Who would you Drift with if you were a Jaeger pilot? What’s your favourite kaiju movie, and how are you celebrating K-Day today? Whatever your thoughts on Pacific Rim, kaiju, or monster movies in general, please do leave a comment below or respond to my social media and be sure to check back in for more giant monster content in the near future!

Movie Night: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 2 August 2023
Director: Jeff Rowe
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $70 to 80 million
Stars: Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Brady Noon, Ice Cube, Ayo Edebiri, and Jackie Chan

The Plot:
After years of being sheltered from the human world, four mutated turtle brothers embark on a quest to be accepted as normal teenagers by the people of New York City through acts of heroism. With the aid of their new friend April O’Neil (Edebiri), they target a mysterious crime syndicate, but trouble arises when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them!

The Background:
Created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a violent pastiche of comic book tropes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) achieved mainstream success with their toys and cartoons. After this translated into cinematic success, the TMNT became semi-regular staples on the silver screen; however, their box office potential began to wane over time, with their under-rated second and fourth outings receiving mixed reviews, their third being universally panned, and Michael Bay’s monstrous reimaginings being equally lambasted. Yet, the TMNT continued to flourish in various popular animated ventures and rights holders Nickelodeon were eager to bring the characters back to the big screen, so they partnered with Seth Rogan and Jeff Rowe to craft a new incarnation of the popular franchise. A life-long TMNT fan, Rogan aimed to emphasise the “teenage” aspect of the TMNT, which resulted in actual teenagers voicing the characters for the first time. Rogan was impressed by the cast’s camaraderie and much of the voice acting took place in group sessions to allow for more natural interactions between the characters, who were brought to life by over 120 animators at Mikros Animation and Cinesite. Inspired by the kinetic, comic book visuals of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsey, and Rothman, 2018), director Rowe wanted the animation to resemble concept art and imperfect comic book sketches to tie into the teenage focus. The TMNT were redesigned to be less bulky, have teenage frames and apparel, and the film’s many mutant characters were given exaggerated designs to reflect their individual personalities. Upon release, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was met with widespread critical acclaim: critics praised the performances as much as the visuals and found it to be a reinvigorating revival of the long-popular franchise. Grossing over $180 million at the box office, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was accompanied by a tie-in videogame, a spin-off animated series, and a sequel was also greenlit soon after.

The Review:
As is always the case when it comes to TMNT adaptations, Mutant Mayhem alters the TMNT’s origin story and the backstory of the mysterious ooze that transforms them, but in a way that touches upon many different iterations of the TMNT. The film begins with Doctor Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) being hunted by mercenaries hired by his former employer, Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) of the Techno Cosmic Research Institute (TCRI), after he went rogue and stole the mutagenic ooze he was developing for them after forming a disturbingly familial bond with his animal test subjects, specifically the young mutant housefly who takes the name Superfly (Cube). Having felt ostracised and alone his whole life, Stockman planned to create a family of his own using the ooze but was left dead when TCRI attacked, which left Superfly to rescue his “siblings” and a stray cannister of ooze to fall into the sewers and mutate both Master Splinter (Chan) and the TMNT. Like in Michael Bay’s TMNT films, Splinter is once again just a normal street rat who comes to care for the infant turtles and decides the best way to protect them is to train them in ninjutsu, this time using YouTube videos and kung-fu movies rather than being a mutated ninja master or having learned from a ninja. Personally, I continue to find this a disappointing inclusion; it calls into question why the five are as skilled as they are when they’re simply mimicking what they see onscreen and I feel like it’s a bit weird to leave out Splinter’s legitimate martial arts background considering how bonkers the concept is in general and how hard this film otherwise runs with the surreal nature of the source material, to the point where the city is seemingly overrun with bombastic mutants.

The TMNT dream of being accepted by the outside world and being normal teenagers.

The TMNT are also very different to how I’ve seen them before; while they look very familiar and sport different body sizes relating to their capabilities (Raphael (Noon) is the biggest, Michelangelo (Brown Jr.) is the smallest and has braces, for example) and largely conform to the roles you’d expect (Leonardo (Cantu) leads and Donatello (Abbey) does machines, in the sense that he’s always got his headphones on), they’re characterised as teenagers, which is surprisingly rare in the history of the franchise, which often portrays them more as accomplished and responsible fighters who make the most of their downtime, with Mikey generally shouldering much of the comic relief. Here, they’re all very immature and easily distracted, especially by the outside world; they’re also largely untested outside of training and their own wild imaginations and develop confidence in their ninja abilities as the film goes on. Unlike in nearly every TMNT iteration before, there’s little in the way of internal conflict between them; Leo’s brothers mock and judge him for his strict adherence to Splinter’s mandate that they stay out of sight, but he’s easily swayed into straying off mission to see movies or enjoy the perks of the surface world, and his traditional rivalry with Raph is re-framed simply as an extension of the four ragging on each other for their flaws. The TMNT are lively, jovial, and squabble like bickering teenagers a lot of the time, making them as animated and kinetic as the film’s visually stunning art style; they are united in their love for their father and desire to please him but also in their longing to be normal teenagers and be accepted by humans, which they believe they can achieve if they perform heroic deeds to show that they’re not monsters. Overall, I found that the TMNT worked as a group, but individually had few chances to stand out: Raph is said to be full of rage but we rarely delve into this beyond a few instances where he delights in fighting, Donnie is more concerned with the apparent uselessness of his bo staff than he is with technical wizardry, Mikey is actually a little less goofy here since all the TMNT adopt many of his characteristics, meaning it’s Leo who edges out his brothers somewhat. He’s conflicted between his desire to live up to Splinter’s expectations and his yearning to join his brothers in revelling in the human world and this is only escalated when he instantly develops a crush on April. Yet, the film does a fun job of showing the TMNT grow and become more capable as a fighting unit as the film goes on, and this is reflected in Leo’s growing confidence as a leader even if his brothers give him a hard time over it.

Despite Splinter’s distrust of humans, the TMNT find a friend and ally in April.

As ever, the TMNT are sheltered and mentored by Splinter, now an overprotective father figure who has developed a severe hatred and mistrust of humans and the surface world. Having been shunned and ostracised his whole life, Splinter had never experienced love or affection until he stumbled across the mutated turtles and he’s desperate to hold onto that since, as he says, his boys are all he has. Since he knew how much the TMNT wanted to be a part of the outside world, Splinter took the baby TMNT up there only to be attacked and nearly killed by panicked New Yorkers. Thus, he resolved to keep them safe in the sewers and train them in ninjutsu to avoid being spotted when out for groceries, and Splinter’s characterisation is framed to mirror both Stockman’s relationship with his fledgling mutants and Superfly’s aggressive desire to create a world where he and his siblings won’t have to worry about being hounded by xenophobic humans. Although a bit overbearing and strict at times, Splinter truly loves his boys and wants what’s best for them and tries to appease their curiosity in his own way, but he’s powerless to stop them getting caught up in trying to prove themselves to humanity with the help of their human friend, April. A budding teenage reporter, April relates to the TMNT since she’s also been labelled and targeted after a comical blunder saw her vomit on-camera, so she’s desperate to turn her popularity around with a big story. Although she accepts them, she admits that others probably wouldn’t but is driven to document and aid their efforts in tracking down and apprehending Superfly since she wants to be popular and accepted, motivations that she later comes to realise are as selfish as the TMNT’s, yet they both resolve to do the right thing anyway since that’s what’s morally correct, regardless of whether people love or hate them for it.

Superfly and his crew plot to make mutants the dominant species to fight back against the likes of TCRI.

New York City is in the grip of a crime wave; news outlets are alive with reports of the mysterious Superfly orchestrating a series of robberies, but no one’s ever seen his face, not even the underlings the TMNT pummel for information. The TMNT are thus stunned and massively in over their heads when they find that Superfly is a monstrous mutated housefly and commands a crew of wacky and sadly underutilised mutants. Initially hyperactive Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd) and Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou), wannabe singer Ray Fillet (Post Malone), meat-heads Bebop (Seth Rogan) and Rocksteady (John Cena), Aussie bruiser Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), slobbering cockroach Scumbug, and the forgettable Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress) are painfully loyal to Superfly’s plan, to the point where they willing chase down the TMNT when they steal a vital component to his machine that he plans to use to mutate every animal on Earth. At first, Superfly and his crew embrace the TMNT as “cousins” and the TMNT even bond with some of his mutants, with Mikey and Mondo especially getting very close, but the TMNT cannot subscribe to Superfly’s plot to enslave, devour, and eradicate humanity, earning the mutated fly’s ire. Like Splinter, Superfly tried to rejoin society with his crew, only to be met with violence and bigotry, but he’s taken Stockman and Splinter’s distrust of society to a genocidal level and is determined to create a utopia for mutants by making them the dominant species on the planet. He sees this as the only way to protect his siblings from the likes of TCRI, who continuously hound the mutants in a bid to recover and replicate Stockman’s research by “milking” the mutants so they can create an army of genetically altered anthropomorphic soldiers. Superfly and Splinter’s paranoia about this comes to pass when the TMNT are briefly captured while trying to foil Superfly’s plot, but primarily exists to setup a later conflict in a future film and to forge a trust between Splinter and April that sees them uniting alongside Superfly’s easily turned crew to oppose the streetwise gangster in the finale when his plan sees him transformed into a kaiju-sized menace.

The Nitty-Gritty:
I’ve always been a big TMNT fan. I had the toys, watched the cartoons, played the videogames, and loved the original live-action movies (well…the first two, at least). When it comes to translating the TMNT to the cinema screen, I’ve come to regard animation as the best option; I loved Jim Henson’s super impressive practical suits and animatronic heads and would really like to see what modern technology could do with these traditional effects today, but animation allows for a near-infinite number of possibilities for the TMNT. Because of this, I’ve always held TMNT (Munroe, 2007) in high regard even if the plot was a little middling at times and the TMNT weren’t very visually distinct as it did such a good job of bringing them to life thanks to being entirely animated. I’m also a big fan of the frenetic visuals of the Spider-Verse films so I was intrigued when Mutant Mayhem was first announced, and even more so when I saw the big names attached to the project and teenagers being cast in the title roles for the first time. The TMNT have been reinvented numerous times over the years so it’s nothing new to me to see them and their supporting cast looking or acting different, and the film definitely does a really good job of paying homage to many aspects of the TMNT’s history, from the original Mirage comics to the ever-popular 1987 cartoon to the timeless 1990 live-action movie. This is best evident in the TMNT’s appearance; they mix aspects of the cartoons and toys into their designs (including the letters on their belts) and imagine themselves as stoic, silent ninjas much like in the original comics, yet their personalities are wildly different from both, allowing the film to present a new take on a long-running franchise.

The film has a fun and kinetic visual style that’s like a comic book come to life!

As ever, a primary theme of Mutant Mayhem is of family; Splinter and Superfly are motivated to protect their kin out of genuine concern for their welfare and prepare them to fight against inevitable xenophobia, and the TMNT and Superfly’s crew are both tight-knit groups, thought obviously the TMNT get more focus. Indeed, I do feel like Superfly’s crew could’ve been scaled down to just four mutants to give them more personality and better reflect the thematic parallels between Splinter and the TMNT as most of the crew don’t get to do much (Ray Fillet just sings his name over and over, I could barely understand Bebop and Rocksteady (who strangely turn good!), and Genghis Frog and Leatherhead may as well not be there). On the plus side, they do add to the film’s impressive visuals; the influence from the Spider-Verse films is strong here but Mutant Mayhem has a visual style all its own with this kinetic and eye-popping sketchbook-like aesthetic. Mutant Mayhem resembles a comic book come to life, or a new form of Claymation, and it really helps to give this new version of the TMNT a memorable and engaging appearance; when the TMNT fight, it’s with a fast-paced, frenetic action that gets more refined and methodical as their prowess and confidence improves, and every frame is a burst of colour, action, and creative lighting. The fights are subtly brutal at times, too; the TMNT and Splinter use weapons primarily defensively, but there were a couple of frames where it seemed like Leo, Raph, and Splinter had killed some of their attackers, which I appreciate as much as the film’s darker undertones regarding xenophobia and Superfly’s plans for humanity. Superfly himself cuts a monstrous figure at the best of times and his crew are suitably disturbing to behold, though sadly the film doesn’t give much depth to their personalities. While you could argue there’s more to his crew than meets the eye as they reveal that they only agreed to his plan as they saw no other option and readily accept a less destructive alternative, I’d say it comes across as quite rushed and the film could’ve spent more time showing the TMNT having a positive influence on Superfly’s crew if there were less mutants crammed into the brisk runtime, despite how amazing they look in this striking animation.

The TMNT and their newfound allies defeat Superfly and integrate into a grateful society.

So, yes, the TMNT reject Superfly’s plan and try to foil his plot but end up captured by Cynthia and TCRI; thanks to April, the four are rescued by Splinter and they gain more allies when they offer Superfly and his crew a place amongst them in the sewers. Unable to let go of his destructive need to avenge his “father’s” death, Superfly angrily lashes out at his siblings and activates his machine, only for the mutant’s combined might to force it (and him) into the river. Strangely, rather than this resulting in an army of mutated undersea creatures, this transforms Superfly into a gigantic concoction of marine life and fly; already a nigh-unstoppable force before he became a Godzilla wannabe, Superfly becomes a threat to the entire city when he adds more mutated animals to his form and rampages through the streets in a lumbering, ecstatic assault against humanity. This exposes the mutants to the world and sees them all branded as monsters but, luckily, April is literally able to swallow her fears and convince New York that the TMNT and their allies are there to help, resulting in civilians offering Splinter aid when he’s injured by Superfly. Since the only way to stop Superfly is to drop one of TCRI’s anti-mutant solutions into his raging blowhole, the mutants all work together with each other and the helpful civilians to get past Superfly’s vast bulk, stomping feet, and endless supply of vehicular projectiles to end his threat. In the aftermath, the TMNT are celebrated as heroes and accepted into society just as they dreamed; their newfound allies find a home with them in the sewer, Splinter forms a bizarre relationship with Scumbug and fully supports his boys enrolling in high school, where they’re popular fixtures amongst their peers and help restore April’s reputation. While things end well for the mutants, they’re unaware that Cynthia is monitoring them from afar and so determined to discover the secrets of their mutation that she’s willing to employ the services of an ominous mercenary in bladed armour. It’s also worth pointing out that Cynthia’s last name is Utrom, which is the race that Krang is from; her appearance and voice even mirrors that of Krang and his robot body, strongly suggesting we’ll be seeing a reimagining of the Krang/Oroku Saki/Shredder alliance, though I do wonder if the Shredder can have the same impact on the TMNT given the revisions to their origin presented in this film.

The Summary:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fun, action-packed, visually stunning reimagining of the popular franchise that I think young kids will really enjoy. There’s enough references to the cartoons, toys, and other iterations of the TMNT to appeal to older viewers and hit that nostalgic sweet spot, but much of the presentation, dialogue, and humour is geared towards appealing to a new demographic. Luckily, this is one of the best versions of the TMNT put to screen; I really enjoyed how youthful they sounded, how energetic and enthusiastic they were, and their interactions with each other. I liked that they didn’t fall out and that the film avoided the usual clichés like Raph and Leo clashing over his leadership, but I did feel like their individual personalities weren’t as fleshed out as normal; they adopt so many of Mikey’s characteristics that he loses some of his individuality, Donnie doesn’t get much to do beyond realising the potential of his bo staff, and I would’ve liked to see Raph’s impulsive rage emphasised more. On the plus side, the voice work is amazing, especially with the titular brothers; they bicker and banter and interact like real teenage siblings, though at times they talk over each other a little too much and some of their jokes may become dated quite quickly. The rest of the voice cast is also pretty good; I liked Splinter being reimagined as a paranoid, overprotective father, which was juxtaposed with Superfly so well that it almost made up for robbing him of his usual legitimacy as a master martial artist. Again, though, I do think there were too many mutants on Superfly’s team; they were all very one-dimensional and seem to have been included to sell new toys and appeal to that nostalgia factor I mentioned earlier, which is a shame as there was potential for more thematic parallels between Superfly and, say, Mondo, Leatherhead, Wingnut, and Ray Fillet as dark mirrors to Splinter, Mikey, Raph, Donnie, and Leo, respectively. Luckily, the visuals, frenetic action, and overall presentation makes for a very enjoyable package; there’s a lot of colour, jokes, and engaging animation to make this one of the most entertaining TMNT films in recent memory, but I do think it was a little rushed and overstuffed at times so hopefully the next film keeps things more focused.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem? Did you like the animation style or do you prefer more traditional animation? What did you think to the TMNT, their personalities and interactions, and do you agree that they needed more time to shine? Do you think there were too many mutants in the film? What did you think to the thematic parallels between Splinter and Superfly? Did you like the changes made to the lore and how do you think this will impact the Shredder’s inevitable inclusion? What’s your favourite TMNT movie or adaptation? Whatever your thoughts, please leave a comment below and check out my many other TMNT reviews across the site!

Movie Night [Thor’s Day]: The Incredible Hulk Returns

Dr. K4 Comments

In August 1962, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby introduced readers of Marvel Comics (specifically Journey into Mystery) to Thor Odinson, God of Thunder and mightiest of the Asgardian deities. Through associations with Marvel’s premier super team, the Avengers, and a number of cosmic, mythological adventures, Thor has become another of Marvel’s most successful and versatile. Being as it’s the first Thursday (or “Thor’s Day”) of the month, what better way to celebrate the God of Thunder than to take a look back at his live-action debut!

Released: 22 May 1988
Director: Nicholas Corea
Distributor: New World International
Budget: Unknown
Stars: Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno, Steve Levitt, Eric Kramer, Lee Purcell, Tim Thomerson, and Jack Colvin

The Plot:
For two years, Doctor David Banner (Bixby) has been able to keep his monstrous alter ego, the Hulk (Ferrigno) at bay. Banner’s hopes to rid himself of the Hulk once and for all with his Gamma Transponder are interrupted by a former student of his, Donald Blake (Levitt), and Thor (Kramer), the brutish Norse God of Thunder under Blake’s control. When mob boss Jack LeBeau (Thomerson) threatens to pervert Banner’s research, he reluctantly teams up with Blake and Thor to ensure that his machine doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

The Background:
Long before the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel Comics had a decent amount of success with live-action adaptations thanks to the iconic Incredible Hulk television series (1977 to 1982). The show, which coined the memorable “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” line, aired eighty episodes before finally concluding on 12 May 1982 and forever entrenched the Green Goliath in the cultural consciousness thanks to standout performances by star Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, who would go on to voice the character for years to come. About six years after the end of the series, the first of three made-for-television movies was produced, intended as a backdoor pilot for a Thor spin-off. The Incredible Hulk Returns was, apparently, a ratings success, which justified the production of the next two television features.

The Review:
So, if you’ve been following my website for a while and reading my previous reviews of the Incredible Hulk’s made-for-TV movies, you might’ve noticed that they’re a bit out of order. This actually reflects how I watched them as a kid, since I actually saw The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (Bixby, 1989) first, though it’s pretty clear right from the beginning that this film is meant to be take place two years after the end of the show. This is most obvious not just from the film’s title, but the inclusion of the classic opening sequence, narrated by Ted Cassidy, which gives a (very) brief rundown on the premise of the show. After experimenting on himself with Gamma radiation in an effort to unlock the hidden superhuman strength within all of us, Doctor David Banner finds himself transforming into a green-skinned beast whenever angered or panicked. Banner is believed to be dead, and this “Hulk” is pegged as the culprit, and the doctor has been forced to go on the run in a desperate attempt to find a cure for his condition, all while reporter Jack McGee (Colvin) relentlessly hounds him at every turn to try and get the scoop on the Hulk.

Banner’s chance for a cure is ruined by the surprise interruption of Blame and his magic hammer.

The Incredible Hulk Returns glosses over basically everything that happened in the show and picks up some two years later; Banner, using the fake name of “David Bannion”, lives a relatively stable and happy life with his long-term girlfriend, biogeneticist Doctor Margaret “Maggie” Shaw (Purcell). Though plagued by nightmares of his monstrous condition, Banner has finally found a happiness that had long eluded him; although he’s told a version of the truth to Maggie (he summed the whole situation up as a long period of “self-destructive behaviour”), he’s managed to hide the true extent of his secret from her and politely refuses to move in with her permanently to protect her lest his other half emerge. Maggie’s influence on Banner is immediate; not only is he content with her, but the Hulk has laid dormant for two years because of her positive influence on him, and it’s out of love for her that he works on his latest cure so he can fully commit to this new life. Banner has found a modicum of success as a scientist for the Joshua Lambert Research Institute, where he’s the brains behind the “Gamma Transponder”, a machine that promises to deliver unlimited, clean, renewable energy while also ridding Banner of his monstrous affliction. Much to chagrin of his employers, Joshua and Zachary Lambert (John Gabriel and Jay Baker), Banner refuses to take the spotlight or be publicly acknowledged for his work, not just because he insists that it was a team effort but also to avoid being recognised by the likes of McGee when he’s so close to a cure. Following a public unveiling of the institute’s most promising technological marvel, Banner wastes no time in activating the Gamma Transponder to rid himself of the Hulk. As is his nature, he is meticulous about this, recording what essentially amounts to a farewell message to Maggie and his colleagues in case the worst should happen, and emphasising that the machine can do everything he promised and so much more. Unfortunately, his experiment ends before it can even begin when a shady character grapples up into the lab and interrupts the procedure. This turns out to be a former acquaintance of his, Donald Blake, who sought to confirm that his old mentor was still alive and ask for his help in solving a very unique problem he has.

Blake can summon and command Thor, who must perform heroic deeds to ascend to Valhalla.

A far cry from the crippled doctor of the comics, Blake is a young and irresponsible figure, who often got into trouble as a student and acts without thinking of the consequences, Blake has been fixated on Norse mythology and culture his whole life but has never been able to explain why, so he signed on as the team doctor for a hazardous excursion into the frigid Norse mountains as a way to scratch that itch. Drawn towards a cave by pure instinct, Blake stumbled upon the tomb of a Viking warrior king known as Thor, who was denied entrance into Valhalla until he had paid a penance for a lifetime of arrogance. Blake discovered a Viking warhammer laying next to the skeletal remains of the warrior and, upon seizing it, was stunned by the arrival of Thor, reborn into the living world, following a flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder. Interestingly, Banner completely forgets about his experiment to indulge Blake in his story, but is sceptical that his old student truly brought a long-dead Viking warrior back to life. and rightfully so; The Incredible Hulk was always a very grounded show, with the only fantastical element being the titular green-hued beast, so the introduction of actual, real magical elements is as jarring to Banner as it is to the audience. Unfortunately for him, his scepticism leads to disaster as Blake calls forth Thor and Banner is stunned to find the brutish Norse warrior king is not only real, but dangerous in his arrogance and brash nature. Rather than Blake and Thor being one and the same, as in the comics, they are two completely separate individuals here; just as Blake is bound to the hammer, Thor is tied to him, duty-bound to follow Blake’s directions in a bid to fulfil his heroic quota and appease Odin so he can finally rest. Although he’s not as fantastical as his comic book counterpart, Thor possesses incredible superhuman strength but, despite wishing to perform heroic deeds, he’s impulsive and a stranger to the ways of the modern world.

Thor proves a valuable, if hot-headed, ally to the Hulk in battling their gangster foes.

Thor sees Banner as a “warlock”, the Hulk as a “troll”, and cars as “metal chariots” and is used to his demands for food, drink, and revels being met without question; frustrated at being little more than Blake’s slave, Thor wishes to live, to indulge himself, and craves the rush of battle. While this means his impetuous nature triggers Banner’s first transformation into the Hulk in two years, he delights in clashing with the Hulk, but is stunned when the Green Goliath shrugs off his attacks, and even electrified blows from his hammer. In a moment of hubris, a combination of shock, respect, and fear, Thor changes tries to befriend the beast after seeing the extent of his rage and fighting prowess, and humbly affords the proper respect and consideration towards Banner in subsequent scenes. Irritated by Blake’s interference and influence, to say the least, Banner guilt-trips him into sticking around rather than just running away after all the trouble he’s caused. In this way, Banner forces Blake to stop avoiding responsibility, or constantly shifting the blame to Thor, which ties into Thor’s earthly mission to encourage Blake to step up and be more heroic. While Blake is something of a burden to Banner, and Thor’s lumbering oafishness causes more than its fair share of trouble, Banner’s life is only compounded when McGee sees the newspaper report on the lab incident and immediately sets out to sniff out any news of the Hulk. McGee is small fry compared to Zach Lambert, however, who hires Cajun mobster Jack LeBeau (Thomerson) to steal the Gamma Transponder in a bid to screw over his domineering older brother and profit from the machine. Unfortunately, LeBeau’s men are thwarted in their attempt by the Hulk, and he thus decides to target Maggie instead; despite the best efforts of the Hulk and Thor, Maggie, already reeling from discovering Banner’s secret, is kidnapped from her beachfront home after a surprisingly engaging helicopter attack. LeBeau and his goons aren’t really much more than the stereotypical gangsters, but they’re given a bit of an edge with their Cajun accents and willingness not only to take Maggie as a hostage but also to kill Zach when he starts to get cold feet. Zach’s motivations are a bit weak (he wanted to have something for himself after being handed everything by Josh) but things quickly spiral out of his control when LeBeau goes into business for himself. LeBeau’s actions are enough to properly get the Hulk and Thor on the same page, and for Blake to see the potential for good Thor has, so as a plot device it ticks enough boxes for some last-act action and to crush Banner’s dreams of finally curing himself but none of the antagonists ever really pose a physical threat to either superhumans despite their greater numbers and being reasonably well armed.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Like I said, The Incredible Hulk has always been very grounded and focused more on science than mystical elements, so the introduction of Thor really does change the perception of the show in interesting ways. Obviously, the team up between Thor and the Hulk is nowhere near the grand spectacle of the MCU, but his presence definitely pushes the show more towards its comic book roots than ever before. It ties perfectly into Banner’s ongoing, desperate search for a cure; just as his efforts were thwarted time and time again in the show, his best effort to date is not only accidentally sabotaged by Thor but forever denied him due to the events of the film, and Banner is forced to return to his old, wandering life by the end. Along the way, though, he’s at least able to help impart some wisdom to Blake, who begins the film directionless and desperate in his own right but destined for greatness since he literally commands the power of a God, he just lacks the confidence and compunction to truly accept that destiny. Sadly, this comes at the expense of Banner’s cure, and his newfound life; this remains the closest Banner would ever get to a sense of normalcy, and in many ways he might have been better off using Maggie as his calming influence rather than constructing an elaborate machine that could be used for nefarious purposes, but it’s the tragedy of the character to be doomed to a life of hardship and to put his intelligence, and unique condition, to work aiding others rather than himself.

Alongside a fair amount of action and Hulk-outs, Thor’s boorish nature provides some humour.

As in every instance when I return to The Incredible Hulk, it’s the Green Goliath himself who provides the bulk of the action and spectacle. Lou Ferrigno excels in the role, which actually requires a little more nuance than just growling and looking hench as fuck! since the Hulk is now joined by a fellow boisterous muscleman. The initial fight between the Hulk and Thor might boil down to a lot of posturing and posing, but there’s some decent stuff there considering the limitations of the time and budget; the lightning effects when Thor arrives and leaves and tosses his hammer are crude but they get the point across, and the Hulk is even show lifting the Viking warrior up and tossing him aside, humbling the would-be Thunder God. Thor himself steals the show for me; sure, Kramer is garbed in a pretty cheap looking outfit and spouts some cheesy dialogue, but it works for the character’s raucous nature. Thor is a born and bred, battle-tested warrior from a very different time, when men fought and revelled and threw themselves in the glory of battle, and he’s frustrated that all Blake wants to do is discuss the nature of their relationship and destiny. Blake is moved by a poignant soliloquy from Thor in which the Viking expresses the pain and despair of having lost everything he knows and cursed to lay dead, and yet fully conscious, between worlds, and the two bond during one of the film’s most entertaining moments when Blake takes Thor to a biker bar to indulge his vices. Thor adds a much appreciated comedic element to the narrative, downing pitchers of beer, being a carefree and impulsive character, and even posing as David Bannion when McGee comes calling in a hilarious moment. Again, this does detract from the Hulk somewhat, who is noticeably absent in the middle part of the film, but Banner more than carries his own weight as he’s forced to neutralise the Gamma Transponder to keep it from being perverted into a weapon, thus destroying his best chance at a cure.

Banner loses his best hope of a cure and walks away from his idyllic new life in search of a new hope.

After Maggie is kidnapped and held to ransom, Banner has no choice but the dismantle the Gamma Transponder, erase all of the computer records, and destroy the machine’s most vital component to keep it from being weaponised. He and Blake then head to the agreed meeting place with the intention of rescuing Maggie, but things quickly become complicated when Josh shows up, grief stricken by Zach’s death, and triggers another transformation into the Hulk. This means that The Incredible Hulk Returns has a fair few Hulk-outs packed into it, which is actually quite surprising given how often the show (and these feature-length adventures) liked to focus on Banner’s personal dramas. It also means that the film concludes with the Hulk and Thor storming through LeBeau’s men, easily shielding themselves from their gunfire and overpowering them with their superior physical strength; even Blake gets in on the action, completely disregarding whatever hypocritic oath he may or may not have taken to gun down one of the mobster’s goons. Despite LeBeau taking Maggie at gunpoint, the Hulk cuts quite the intimidating figure, meaning he’s easily able to snatch the gun from his hand and subdue LeBeau by wrapping him up in a metal pipe. Although they’re victorious, Banner’s life has been irrevocably changed by the events; while McGee faces ridicule for his obsession chasing monsters, his presence and the publicity surrounding it all scares Banner off. While Blake and Thor make peace with each other and head out to do some good in the world, Banner is forced to leave Maggie and his idyllic life behind and hit the road once more, once again cursed to endure his hardship alone.

The Summary:
The Incredible Hulk Returns is easily my favourite of the Incredible Hulk’s three feature-length adventures; although my experience with the television show is still very limited, I feel this one is a bit more legitimate in  a lot of ways since it retains the opening sequence, Jack McGee features in it, and it has the same kind of atmosphere as the show. However, it also introduces fantastical elements to the otherwise grounded narrative, elements that don’t crop up again and make this a really unique entry in the show. I can see why some would find the Hulk sharing the screen with Thor, of all people, a little jarring but I find it incredibly enjoyable; Thor is a boorish, loud-mouthed, arrogant warrior who is massively out of place in every scene he’s in and it’s endlessly entertaining as he’s central to many of the film’s comedic and action-orientated moments. The Hulk is massive and eye-catching as always, performing a number of impressive physical feats and more than meeting his match with Thor who, despite being a little underpowered compared to the source material (much like the Hulk), still makes a visual impact. It’s cool seeing them onscreen together, fighting, roaring, and revelling in their battles, and this is nicely juxtaposed with the disappointing shattering of Banner’s new life. Clearly, the focus is on establishing the relationship dynamic between Blake and Thor, but Banner’s decision to destroy his only hope of a cure for a greater good and heading back on the road is very familiar to anyone who’s watched the show before. I think there’s a fair amount to like here, and Bixby holds his own against his less subtle screen partners to deliver a poignant reintroduction to the character, who’s doomed to forever be burdened with his monstrous alter ego.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever seen The Incredible Hulk Returns? What did you think to the introduction of Thor into the show’s continuity and did you enjoy Kramer’s performance? Were you sad to see that Banner had to walk away from his new life? What did you think to the relationship between Thor and Blake and would you have liked to see a spin-off show focusing on them? How are you celebrating Thor’s debut this month, if at all? I’d love to hear your thoughts on Thor in the comments or on my social media so feel free to drop me a line.

Movie Night: The Running Man (1987)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 13 November 1987
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
Distributor: Tri-Star Pictures
Budget: $27 million
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Marvin J. McIntyre, Erland Van Lidth, Jesse Ventura, and Richard Dawson

The Plot:
Following worldwide economic collapse, the United States has become a totalitarian police state whose populace is pacified by Damon Killian’s (Dawson) The Running Man, a game show where criminals fight for their lives from sadistic maniacs. After escaping prison following a frame-up, Ben Richards (Schwarzenegger) is forced to compete in the game and, in the process, assist a resistance movement in revealing the horrible truth behind The Running Man.

The Background:
By 1982, Stephen King has established himself as the undisputed king of the horror novel; Carrie (King, 1974) became be a runaway success, especially after the accompanying adaptation, The Shining (ibid, 1977) became his first hardback bestseller, and The Stand (ibid, 1978), as epic as it was, proved to merely be a precursor to King’s sprawling Dark Tower series (ibid, 1982 to 2012). King also wrote a under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, both to publish more books per year and to test whether his success had been a fluke or not, and The Running Man began life as a Bachman book. The story, a dystopian thriller in a world where the economy has collapsed, was first published in 1982 and King claimed to have written it in just a week! Producer George Linder became obsessed with the book and its premise and was easily able to acquire the film rights since it wasn’t yet public knowledge that Bachman was King’s alias. After the success of The Terminator (Cameron, 1984), Arnold Schwarzenegger shot to superstardom as the premier action star in Hollywood, and screenwriter Steven DeSouza tweaked the script to accommodate the Austrian Oak, who in reality had very little in common with is literary counterpart. He also greatly expanded upon the game show aspects of the novel, but the film’s production was troubled by directors constantly dropping from the project and Schwarzenegger disapproved of Paul Michael Glaser’s filming style. With a $38.1 million box office, The Running Man was a modest financial success; reviews were somewhat mixed, with Dawson’s performance, the film’s satire, and Arnold’s range and physicality drawing praise despite the mindlessness of the action. A life-long favourite of mine, The Running Man recently gained additional exposure thanks to its accurate predictions of the future and the 2025 remake but, since today is Arnold’s birthday, this is the perfect time to revisit this fantastic, action-packed sci-fi classic.

The Review:
It’s hard for me to say, since I don’t really remember all that well, but The Running Man may very well have been my first exposure to Stephen King; at the very least, it was one of my first, and it came at exactly the right time in my life since I was already a big fan of Schwarzenegger’s work from the late eighties to early nineties. The film takes places in the far-off future of around 2018 where the world has become a dystopian police state following a massive economic collapse. Censorship runs rampant and the people are controlled by the media and their governments; generally, they’re satiated by an influx of violent media, such as the life-or-death game show The Running Man, but riots and pockets of resistance continue to spring up, so the government employs more “direct methods” to quell the uprising. Ben Richards begins the film as the part of the system; he starts off as a helicopter pilot for the police force sent in alongside a group of armed officers to investigate a food riot in Bakersfield, California. Richards is aghast when his superior officers order him to open fire on the unarmed crowd and refuses to comply; for his moral stance against gunning down woman and children, he is not only overpowered and knocked out by his comrades but also framed for the ensuring slaughter, earning him infamy as “The Butcher of Bakersfield” and a stint in the Wilshire Detention Zone.

After being framed for a massacre, Richards is forced into fighting for his life on The Running Man.

After eighteen months in a harsh labour camp, his life in the hands of the government that betrayed him thanks to the explosive collar clipped around his neck, Richards has grown into a jaded man who has no time for politics or the steadily declining shithole that the world is becoming. All he cares about now is getting out and reuniting with his brother so he can flee the country, and he joins forces with William Laughlin (Kotto) and Harold Weiss (McIntyre) to stage a brawl and overthrow the armed guards long enough to deactivate the controlling mechanism for their collars and allow a mass escape. Richards remains aligned with the two, who are associates of the Resistance, long enough to have his collar removed but has no interest in getting caught up in resistance leader Mic’s (Mick Fleetwood) efforts to highjack the ICS network satellite and broadcast the true extent of the government’s deception to the unsuspecting masses. Richards is a man of action who has been burned once too often by those who only talk of changing the world; believing that no-one is willing to act on their words, he’s ready to walk away from the world but finds himself targeted by Killian, the charismatic host of The Running Man, who is so inspired by Richards’ physicality and notoriety that he employs every means at his disposal to intercept Richards as he’s trying to flee to Hawaii with the feisty Amber Mendez (Alonso), a composer for the network who Richards was forced to take hostage to keep such an arrest from happening. Initially defiant, Richards is coerced into taking part on the show when Kilian threatens to have Weiss and Laughlin take his place, only to be double-crossed when his friends are dumped into the wreckage of Los Angeles, which comprises the game zone, but his defiance is only fuelled by his desire to fight his way out of the situation and make Killian pay for his part in defaming and endangering him and his buddies.

The feisty Amber ends up competing as well when she learns that the media has been lying to the masses.

After his escape, Richards heads to the city to meet up with his brother, only to find that Edward’s apartment is now owned by Amber after he was taken away for “re-education”. Like Richards, Amber begins the film as an employee of the system; she has had some success composing songs for the ICS network, but is also hiding a few secrets of her own as she has music from the censor list and black-market clothing in her apartment. Richards uses this knowledge to effectively blackmail her into accompanying him to Hawaii, but he also requires her to go with him since, without his brother to help him, he needs her money and travel pass in order to get out of the country. Despite Richards’ massive stature and the ease at which he overpowers her, Amber is a spirited and bold young woman in her own right; she goes along with Richards’ plan, throwing insults and taunts his way wherever possible, and takes the first chance she gets to hit him in the dick and alert airport security to his presence. Like the rest of the ignorant masses, Amber fully believes that Richards is a dangerous and psychotic killer, but her opinion of him (and ICS) changes when she sees that the specifics of his arrest at the airport have been greatly exaggerated to include him having assaulted and killed airport personnel. Her suspicions raised, Amber snoops around the ICS offices and finds that the original unedited video record of the Bakersfield Massacre, but is caught in the act and thrown into the game zone after Killian besmirches her on air with scathing accusations. Although she’s absolutely in over her head, and little more than a screaming, complaining wreck when in the game zone, Amber remains an entertaining character; she constantly winds Richards up with her babbling and naïvety and actually ends up proving quite useful when Weiss has her memorise the uplink code so that Mic can hack into the network satellite. Furthermore, she’s instrumental in Richards’ name being cleared in the finale, and even learns to take care of herself, rather than constantly being saved by Richards, by the time the bulbous Dynamo (Van Lidth) tries to sexually assault her during the film’s climatic firefight.

Much to his chagrin, Richards’ allies are fixated on exposing the government.

While Richards has little interest in politics or fighting against the system, the same can’t be said of Weiss and Laughlin; Laughlin, a former schoolteacher, despairs for the state of the country’s youth as ICS run their propaganda twenty-four hours a day and brainwash them into signing up to serve as part of the violent polices state that oppresses free speech and art. Laughlin’s anger at ICS, and this situation, makes him quite a volatile character; he and Richards start a fight to distract the guards in the labour camp at the start of the film and he explodes with rage when Eddie Vatowski/Buzzsaw (Gus Rethwisch) attacks Richards out in the game zone. This despite the fact that Laughlin was somewhat suspicious of Richards; while Weiss is adamant that their musclebound ally has been framed by the government, Laughlin isn’t so sure since Richards was once a part of the same system he’s fighting against and isn’t “one of [them]” (as in, he’s not a member of the Resistance). Still, Laughlin is fiercely loyal to both his cause and his friend, which ultimately proves to be his undoing as he puts himself in harm’s way to keep Richards from being skewered by Buzzsaw’s chainsaw and ends up dead as a result. Deeply touched by his friend’s sacrifice, this is the turning point for Richards, who vows to bring the uplink code to Mic, despite his scepticism, to honour his friend. Sadly, Weiss doesn’t fare all that well either; the less physically capable of the three, he’s easily manhandled by Professor Subzero (Professor Toru Tanaka) and constantly at risk since he’s unable to simply fight his way through with brute force. Weiss remains fixated on finding the network uplink out in the game zone which, coupled with his weaker physical stature, leads to him being electrocuted to death by Dynamo. Luckily for him, he’s able to teach Amber to memorise the uplink code before he dies, which she then gives to Mic so that the Resistance can finally hack into the ICS network. Although he’s critical of Mic’s Resistance, not just because of the extent of ICS’s influence but also Mic’s use of kids like Stevie (Dweezil Zappa) in his makeshift army, Richards relishes the chance to arm up and lead them in storming The Running Man studio to broadcast the truth of ICS’s malevolent nature and end Killian’s disruptive influence over the audience.

Killian is a charismatic game show host who casually manipulates lives and the media for his ratings.

Speaking of Killian, this guy is one slimy, charismatic, and underhanded individual. Played with absolute relish by career game show host Richard Dawson, Killian is a cold-hearted showman who delights in the adulation of his rowdy audience and is focused only on increasing The Running Man’s ratings by any means necessary. Since The Running Man is “the number one show in the whole, wide world” and the most direct means by which the government can influence and control the masses, Killian wields an incredible amount of power and regularly flouts his influence by manipulating the justice department (or going directly to the President of the United States’ agent) to find viable candidates for his show and thus increase his ratings. Unimpressed with the physical stature and uncharismatic screen appeal of the potential candidates on offer, Killian uses all of his resources and influence to get approval to put Richards on the show, and then goes the extra mile by threatening his friends to force him to undergo the horrific and invasive medical treatments necessary before dumping them all into the game zone. While the protagonists desperately fight for survival out in the desolate wasteland, Killian shines as the captivating host of the show; he engages with his audience (especially his “number one fan”, Agnes McArdle (Dona Hardy)) with a flirtatious and magnetic banter, encouraging them to pick their favourite Stalker to chase after the contestants and awarding them their prizes for participating. However, Killian becomes increasingly frustrated not just by Richards’ continued victories over the Stalkers but also by his increasing popularity, which sees the masses cheering and betting on him rather than favouring the Stalkers. Luckily for Killian, he has a crack media team on hand to not only doctor video footage to incriminate his contestants but also to stage Amber and Richards’ deaths using a very early representation of CGI facial mapping after Richards vehemently turns down Killian’s offer to become a Stalker himself.

The violent and sadistic Stalkers are worshipped by the masses and famed for their brutal kills.

The Stalkers make up the primary physical threat faced by our main characters; essentially a gaggle of bloodthirsty wrestlers kept under ICS’s payroll with the specific purpose killing contestants in the most gruesome ways to pop a higher rating. Cheered and idolised by the masses, the Stalkers are more than celebrities; they’re heroes, each of which have their own dedicated fanbase and odds of winning based on their experiences on the game show, and the audience is stunned into silence to see them being offed one at a time by Richards, especially as a Stalker has never been killed before. Although Captain Freedom (Ventura) is technically the first Stalker introduced, he’s basically been reduced to being a mascot for the network, and is insulted when Killian denies him the “code of the gladiators” for his eventual fight against Richards. Consequently, Captain Freedom is denied actually participating in the show as much as he is his time to host his workout show or share his insights during the broadcast, which leaves him resentful of his employers. The first Stalker to actually enter the fray is Professor Subzero, a huge Japanese sumo wrestler who attacks our heroes with a razor-sharp hockey stick and meets his ends when Richards garrottes him with a piece of barbed wire. Buzzsaw and Dynamo enter the game as a tag team of sorts, with the chainsaw wielding Buzzsaw having the most impact of all of the antagonists thanks not just to the sadistic pleasure he derives from slicing his prey with his chainsaws but also because he kills Laughlin and is subsequently executed by Richards by having his beloved chainsaw cut through his groin. Not that Dynamo is any slouch either; he murders Weiss and makes an immediate impression with his ludicrous light-up outfit, operatic singing, and little armoured car that he tries to run down Richards with. Initially, Richards spares Dynamo’s life after he’s left helpless beneath the wreckage of his vehicle, but he is later electrocuted to death by Amber after he tries to assault her, bringing his perverse designs to an end. Finally, Killian sends in Fireball (Jim Brown) to immolate Richards and Amber but, despite the benefits afforded to him by his jetpack, his fireproof suit, and his trusty flamethrower, Fireball is easily dispatched by Richards using a road flare after a brief, tense game of cat and mouse.

The Nitty-Gritty:
I’d just like to take a moment to praise the stellar work by composer Harold Faltermeyer; The Running Man’s gloriously over the top action, satirical cynicism, and dystopian world are only bolstered by a thumping synthetic beat that hits perfectly during every punch, kill, or contemplative scene. Even now, the bombastic main melody will often pop into my head and it’s just a really fun, energetic score that gets the blood pumping every time it kicks in. Considering it was made in the late-eighties, The Running Man is a startlingly accurate portrayal of modern society; not only do we have voice-activated conveniences at home that control our lights and appliances, but we have absolutely become blinded to the conflicts and politics of the wider world in favour of consuming media, and governments make no bones about using said media to control us in both subtle and explicit ways. Obviously, The Running Man favours the more explicit path for the purposes of entertainment; the prison Richards finds himself in is an absolute hellhole where the inmates are worked to death, watched over by armed, masked stormtroopers, and unable to leave lest their heads be blown off by explosive collars! Furthermore, the government is more than willing to employ lethal force to quell food riots and spin the situation in their favour by pinning such incidents on patsies like Richards. The United States government has a controlling interest in The Running Man television show, using it as a backdoor solution to eliminate political insurgents, and even those who manage to beat the game are executed offscreen but presented as heroic victors to help boost the ratings.

Schwarzenegger is never short of a cutting quip to taunt his dismembered opponents in this film.

The Running Man is filled with examples of black humour, from Killian’s laughably bad adverts for Cadre Cola (“It Hits the Spot!”) to lethal game shows like Climbing for Dollars and the price of a Coca-Cola having shot to $6, The Running Man is indicative of a biting satire regarding consumerism and media consumption that was so crucial to sci-fi classics at the time. Of course, a great deal of the film’s humour also comes from Schwarzenegger; while the Austrian Oak falters somewhat here and there with his line delivery in this one, The Running Man is chock full of some of his most amusing one-liners and character moments, from stabbing his court appointed attorney (Kenneth Lerner) in the back with a pen after he rattles off all kinds of nonsense legal mumbo-jumbo, his vow that “[he’ll] be back” to Killian (whose reply, “Only in a rerun”, isn’t to be sniffed at either) and his many quips while interacting with and after dispatching each of the Stalkers (“Hey, Christmas Tree!”, “He had to split”, and “What a hot-head!” spring instantly to mind). For me, though, the standout moment comes when Richards, enraged at the loss of his friends, turns down Killian’s request to sign up as a Stalker and promises to “ram [his fist] into [Killian’s] stomach and break [his] Goddamn spine!” Alongside Schwarzenegger’s trademark wit, we have a decent variety of action and fight scenes on offer thanks to the different Stalkers; Professor Subzero attacks the group in an enclosed ice rink, Buzzsaw and Dynamo strike out in the wasteland, and Fireball chases Richards and Amber through an abandoned building. More often that not, Richards can’t simply rely on throwing punches at his opponents as they’re pretty huge guys in their own right, heavily armed, and some wear protective armour or ride motorcycles, meaning he has to think up some creative ways to subdue them and finish them off, such as ripping out Fireball’s fuel line and tossing a flare at him and overpowering Buzzsaw to drive his chainsaw up into his crotch!

Richards storms the studio, gives Killian some karma, and becomes the unlikely face of a revolution.

Interestingly, one of the film’s more brutal fight sequences doesn’t technically involve Richards; thanks to Killian’s aide, Tony (Kurt Fuller), using digital trickery, Captain Freedom fights and kills two stand-ins to stage Amber and Richards’ deaths in order to quell the support the latter is gaining from the viewing public. Thankfully, Mic intercepts the two before Killian can have them hunted down and killed off-camera and Richards volunteers to lead the Resistance in storming The Running Man broadcast, ensuring that the film culminates in a massive firefight between the Resistance and the ICS armed guards. Thanks to being caught off-guard, the guards are picked off by Richards and the others, who help get the majority of the panicked audience to safety, and Richards is left alone with Killian after his mistreated head of security, Sven (Sven Thorsen), leaves him in the lurch. Clearly not a physical match for Richards, Killian falls back on his silver tongue and desperately pleads with the grim-faced former cop for mercy since Killian is simply trying to appease the masses with violent entertainment. However, his appeals fall on deaf ears and Richards seals him up in one of the rocket-powered pods that so violently deposits contestants into the game zone and sends the deceiving game show host careening to a fiery death. By this point, however, the truth of the Bakersfield Massacre has been revealed and Richards has won over the viewing audience for being a “bad motherfucker”, meaning that Killian’s death is celebrated across the city. With the head of the snake effectively removed, The Running Man (and the large television screen in the city centre) goes off air for, presumably, the first time ever and the film ends with a definite sense that the people have not only found a new hero to idolise in Richards but will no longer allow themselves to be so absolutely controlled by the media and the oppressive government.

The Summary:
I haven’t read The Running Man, so I really can’t comment on the film’s fidelity to Stephen King’s original text, but I do have to say that I’ve always wanted to give it a read based on my affection for this adaptation. I might be blinded by nostalgia and my love for Arnold Schwarzenegger films, but I absolutely love The Running Man. It’s not completely flawless thanks to some spotty line delivery and most of the action taking place in a pretty bland, dark location, but I think it holds up surprisingly well even after all this time. It helps that it’s not an overly elaborate sci-fi tale, so there are no flying cars or complicated special effects here; it’s simply a darker, somewhat realistic representation of a possible future society that has been oppressed by an overbearing government following near-total economic collapse. The film shines in its excess of machismo; Schwarzenegger is at his most quippy here, overpowering and outmatching his beefy opponents with pun after pun and filling out his skin-tight spandex outfit wonderfully. The Stalkers might be soulless, sadistic modern-day gladiators, but they stand out thanks to being visually distinct and each having their own unique, vicious ways of attacking the contestants. Of course, the real star of the show is Richard Dawson as Killian, the two-faced game show host who is jovial and engaging in front of the cameras and a cold-hearted tyrant backstage, which makes him an impeccable mastermind for Schwarzenegger to go up against. The Running Man continues to be culturally relevant as time goes on thanks to modern day technology not being a million miles away from what’s seen in the film, and our continued obsession with meaningless gameshows, media, and increasingly violent entertainment. For me, this makes The Running Man a clever satire amidst a top-notch sci-fit action film that means it only takes on more meaning, and gets more entertaining, as you get older and appreciate all the different layers at work in what many probably write off as just another mindless Schwarzenegger flick.

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

What do you think to The Running Man? How do you think the film holds up to others in the same genre and what would you rank it against Arnold’s other films? Have you read the original book and, if so, how do you think the film holds up as an adaptation? What did you think to Schwarzenegger’s many quips? Which of the Stalkers was your favourite? Are you surprised at how accurate The Running Man was at predicting the progression of society? Were you a fan of Richard Dawson’s performance? How are you celebrating Schwarzenegger’s birthday today and what is your favourite Schwarzenegger film? Whatever you think, go ahead and leave your thoughts below.

Movie Night: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 30 June 2023
Director: James Mangold
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Budget: $295 million
Stars: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Antonio Banderas

The Plot:
Former adventure-seeker Doctor Henry Jones Jr. (Ford), better known as “Indiana Jones” (or simply “Indy”), is facing retirement and a life of regret and loneliness when his goddaughter, Helena “Wombat” Shaw (Waller-Bridge), bursts into his life in search of the fabled Antikythera, a scientific artefact said to allow time travel and coveted by Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller (Mikkelsen).

The Background:
Taking inspiration from the pulp serials of his youth, George Lucas created the character and concept of Indiana Jones alongside director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford, resulting in one of cinema’s most influential franchises with the critical and commercial success Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981), the controversial Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (ibid, 1984), and the highly-praised (and profitable) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ibid, 1989). After Lucas and Spielberg focused on the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992 to 1993) prequel series, they stumbled upon the idea for a fourth film. Unfortunately, despite a hefty $790.7 million box office, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (ibid, 2008) was met with mixed reviews and mockery, meaning it was a surprise when a fifth entry was announced shortly after the franchise was purchased by the Walt Disney Company. While neither Lucas or Ford were bothered by concerns over Ford’s age and never considered recasting, it was decided early on that Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) would not be taking over as the lead and Helena’s role was specifically written for star Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Although Spielberg contributed to the plot, he declined to direct so James Mangold could bring a fresh perspective to the franchise. The most expensive of the franchise, Dial of Destiny included some elaborate chase sequences utilising both on-set filming and CGI, including an extended opening sequence that digitally de-aged Ford, while the story was specifically written to address Indy’s advancing age. After filming was delayed due to an injury Ford suffered, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny released to generally positive reviews; it has currently made $171.9 million at the box office and critics praised Indy’s character arc and the entertaining narrative, though some noted that it failed to live up to the standards of the original trilogy.

The Review:
It wasn’t until I headed out to see Dial of Destiny that I realised that my relationship with the Indiana Jones franchise isn’t as strong as it is with others; I didn’t grow up with the films in the same way as I did other franchises, I often skip over watching them if they’re on TV and rarely feel the urge to rewatch them on DVD, and generally consider them all to be of about the same level of quality, separated by the big action sequences and set pieces unique to each one. However, I’m of the firm belief that Indiana Jones is a young man’s game; Kingdom of the Crystal Skull got lucky in its depiction of an aging Indy who can still go but effectively retired the character, meaning I would have much preferred to see a new actor take on the role for earlier adventures or a recast of his son to allow Mutt to take centre stage and re-frame the aging Indy into something resembling the father/son dynamic we saw in The Last Crusade. Indeed, Dial of Destiny begins very promisingly, showcasing a hitherto-unknown adventure from Indy’s past, with de-aging technology applied to Harrison Ford so he appears to be in his prime during the fall of Berlin in 1944. I say “appears” to be because, while this technology is so impressive I’d wager an entire film could be produced in this manner now (and probably be more enjoyable), there are times when it falters, and you can tell that the elderly Ford is struggling with the physicality of the role. Still, this opening is classic Indy and sees him butting heads with Nazis over a forgery of the mythical Lance of Longinus, scrambling to rescue his close friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), and stumbling upon the titular Dial of Destiny, the Antikythera, a device created by renowned mathematician Archimedes (Nasser Memarzia) to detect fissures in time, which Nazi scientist Jürgen Voller wishes to present to Adolf Hitler to undo their defeat.

Following a look at his gory days, old man Indy awkwardly embarks on an impromptu adventure.

Naturally, Indy defeats Voller’s aspirations and retrieves the Antikythera, but his friendship with Basil later crumbles over arguments about the search for the missing half of the device, which drove Basil to near madness, just one of many regrets weighing down Indy when the film jumps ahead to the 1960s. Old, worn down, and alone, age has well and truly caught up to Indy; his students no longer fawn over him and are more interested in the Moon landing than archaeology, and he’s currently facing a divorce from his wife and recurring love interest, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). It turns out that, despite getting his happy ending in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, things really went bad for Indy in the intervening years: Mutt enlisted to “piss him off” and got himself killed, destroying Indy’s relationship with Marion since neither of them could properly process their grief, leaving Indy a bitter and cantankerous old man who yells at his neighbours and sleepwalks through both life and even his retirement. Shuffling through his day to day with the weight of his adventures and toll of loss wearing him down, Indy has lost much of his zest and thirst for adventure; his memory is fuzzy to the point he doesn’t immediately recognise Helena, and he openly mocks her suggestion of one last adventure to retrieve the Antikythera (though, to be fair, this is primarily because he still has it in storage despite his promise to Basil to destroy it). Indeed, Indy is very much a passenger in Helena’s quest for the device since his first reaction when Klaber (Holbrook) arrives shooting first and asking questions later is to call the police, but he’s soon determined to keep Helena from auctioning off the Antikythera out of respect for his and Basil’s love of antiquities, which was so strong that they stormed a Nazi train to preserve history. There’s no doubt, however, that time has more than caught up with Indy; he’s extremely ineffectual in a fist fight here, often easily being captured or overpowered, and he struggles with his failing body when clambering about a tomb. Strangely, though, his character arc is less about rediscovering his old self (though this is haphazardly suggested at the end) and more about coming to terms with the fact that he’s old and the world has passed him by.

Helena manipulates Indy into helped her achieve her dreams of fortune and infamy.

In place of Mutt, Indy shares the screen with his goddaughter, Helena (who he affectionately refers to as “Wombat”, though there’s no explanation for this). Although she initially approaches him as an excited and warm family friend, this is a front for her true purpose, which is to steal the Antikythera from Indy and sell it off to pay off her debts. A promiscuous and selfish young lady, Helena is as manipulative as she is capable; she easily toys with the emotions of others, making many enemies in the process, in the pursuit of fortune and fame rather than to preserve history. Yet, while she sells herself as a glorified treasure hunter, Helena is as learned as Indy; she memorised all of her father’s notes on the Antikythera and has a degree in archaeology, so she knows her stuff and is constantly depicted as being as knowledgeable as Indy through her awareness of various myths, customs, and ability to decode ciphers. While she appears to use this knowledge only for personal gain, Indy observes that she has an emotional stake in the Antikythera since Basil obsessed over it up until his death, but she’s resentful towards Indy since he neglected to fill her father’s shoes, so she thinks nothing of using him to her own means and is initially reluctant to team up with him despite needing his expertise. She softens towards him after Indy gets emotional about his losses and they soon pool their resources and respective knowledge to find the missing half of the Antikythera. Tough and adaptable, Helena even has her own kid sidekick, budding pilot Teddy Kumar (Isidore), a pickpocket who acts as her lookout, bodyguard, and backup as needed, but her manipulative and selfish actions mean that she’s short on allies to aid in their journey. This is where Indy becomes even more useful as he has many allies, such as the returning Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), who helps him get out of the United States, and newcomer Renaldo (Banderas), an ill-fated, lame pilot who provides them with the specialised diving equipment they need to locate a wax tablet that reveals the location of Archimedes’ grave and the missing half of the Antikythera.

Nazi scientist Voller and his goons will use any means necessary to acquire the Antikythera.

Indy, Helena, and Teddy are relentlessly hounded throughout this quest by Voller, who defected to the US after the war, took on a new name, and put his science to use getting a man on the Moon all to acquire support for his efforts to locate the Antikythera. A stoic, unnervingly charismatic villain, Voller makes little attempt to hide his prejudice towards other races and cultures and his complete disinterest in anything other than acquiring the Antikythera and conquering time itself through its unique mechanism. Although cordial and soft-spoken, Voller switches to a psychotic madness on a dime; he thinks nothing of threatening, torturing, or killing others to get what he wants and gives Klaber carte blanche to exercise any means necessary to carry out his orders, outraging sadly underutilised government agent Mason (Shaunette Renée Wilson), just one of many people Voller and his Nazi buddies murder in cold blood to achieve their ends. Volley’s underlings are simply trigger-happy psychos but Voller himself is far more conniving and patient; Voller’s goal is to acquire the completed Antikythera and use it to locate a time fissure so he can go back to 1939, assassinate Hitler, and change the course of history by leading the Nazi’s to ultimate victory and he’s perfectly happy to let Indy do all the leg work for him and simply steal his rewards or follow his enemies to the source of his obsession. As captivating as Mads Mikkelsen always is (he truly commands every scene, especially when he’s colluding and conspiring with those around him), I was a bit confused by Voller; I’d love to know how he survived his opening encounter with the younger Indy, and I kept waiting for a reveal that he’d already used the Antikythera in some way, but it never came to be. I think it might’ve landed a little better if Voller had been scarred or otherwise incapacitated in some way, because as is he just seems as immortal and indestructible as Indy, who survives being caught in a massive explosion and swung about from a noose with barely a scratch. I also went through the whole film not really knowing Voller’s name or those of his underlings as they’re either not said or are difficult to make out, and most of them lacked any characterisation beyond psychopathic Nazi, which was a bit of a shame.

The Nitty-Gritty:
On the surface, Dial of Destiny very much delivers everything you’d expect from an Indiana Jones movie: it uses the same title font introduced in Raiders of the Lost Ark, map sequences for when Indy and his allies are covering great distances, John Williams returns to do the score, and it features Indy bouncing all over the place on a globe-trotting adventure. However, for me, Dial of Destiny lacked a lot of the energy and excitement I associate with the franchise specifically because of the unavoidable reality that Harrison Ford has aged out of this role. Burdened by regret, grief, and loss, Indy is now snappy and grouchy, and with good reason; the world has passed him by and he’s in a lot of pain over Mutt’s death, his failure to protect him, and his inability to support Marion in her own grief. Learning that Helena felt abandoned by him only compounds that but travelling with her and Teddy offers a sliver of redemption, in a way; initially, he goes along with them to retrieve the Antikythera out of a devotion to Basil but, once he learns of Voller and the Nazis’ involvement, he’s motivated by that same spark to preserve history, which then gives way to giddy excitement when he realises that all the stories of the Antikythera are true and that it actually can detect fissures in time. I am a bit confused about this, though; the Antikythera doesn’t generate the time fissures, it simply directs you to them, so are they just…there…with no explanation of how are they formed. Also, it was pretty ballsy to put in a time travel plot considering the backlash against aliens in the last film; it feels a little disconnected, to be honest, and I was surprised the film didn’t opt for a more traditional, less sci-fi premise, especially as it doesn’t really explore the potential of the Dial in interesting ways beyond briefly plonking Indy in Ancient Greece.

With Indy’s action scenes relegated to chases, the film focuses more on the quest than crazy stunts.

Indy’s advanced age definitely reflects on the film’s action sequences; I felt like the fetch quest aspects of the film were emphasised way more so the film could focus more on Indy’s knowledge rather than whip-cracking stunts and this is noticeable in Indy’s few fight and action sequences. His whip is now used defensively, to keep others at bay, rather than as an offensive weapon and its usefulness is constantly undermined by the heavy use of firearms in the film, both by Indy and his enemies. Indy has also lost a lot of his explosive impact in a fist fight; he’s now much better suited to catching his enemies unawares than taking them on in a straight fight, so he’s far more likely to jump in a speeding tuctuc or commandeer a horse than he is to trade blows with his younger, stronger foes. While the opening sequence showcases Indy in his prime, getting into many of the same wacky scrapes you’d expect, it’s a stark juxtaposition to then be left with the awkward and cumbersome aging Indy for the rest of the film, one whose action scenes are relegated to where he’s scrambling about in numerous chase sequences that drag on a little too long at times. It ties into some of the themes of the movie, and Indy himself, who’s always been a flawed, vulnerable, and scrappy character but it’s not like Helena does much of the heavy lifting in his place. She’s younger, obviously, but her strengths are in sleight of hand, manipulation, and impulsively escaping from dangerous situations rather than showcasing any impressive physical ability, meaning things do get a little repetitive and underwhelming in the action department. There are some nice visuals, though; I enjoyed the chase scene amidst the Moon parade, the underwater sequence was quite tense and made effective use of some aggressive eels, and the film surprisingly references Temple of Doom both explicitly and in the incorporation of a new batch of disgusting bugs when Indy and Helena are exploring Archimedes’ tomb.

The Antikythera allows travel to the past, where Indy is tempted to stay to escape his pain.

Thanks to Indy and Helena’s combined knowledge of Archimedes and the Antikythera, they’re able to reach Archimedes’ tomb and complete the device, but Voller proves himself both persistent and intelligent and simply follows them there, using Teddy as a hostage, to claim the device for himself. As in previous Indiana Jones movies, Indy and his enemies share a respect for the artifact’s power and mystery; they’re both astounded to learn from Archimedes’ mummified remains that the ancient mathematician must have used the device at some point as he’s sporting a modern-day watch, but Voller is driven to maniacal distress when he fails to take continental drift into account when making his calculations. With Indy as his prisoner, Helena as a stowaway, and Teddy in hot pursuit, Voller and his allies don their best Schutzstaffel uniforms and fly a German bomber through a time fissure, only to find Indy’s warnings were correct and they’ve landed themselves in 212 BC! Amidst the Battle of Syracuse, the plane is shot down by Roman warships and Archimedes’ innovative defences, killing Voller, Klaber, and their nameless henchmen. Wounded in the fight, Indy is awestruck to be literally witnessing history and meeting the legendary Archimedes, who takes Voller’s watch for himself and is equally fascinated by their story. Feeling he has nothing to live for in the present day, Indy is adamant about staying in the past to witness history first-hand and the film lingers on this for so long that it really feels like Indy’s going to live out what little time he has left in Ancient Greece. But an emotional Helena, having rediscovered her affection for the aging adventurer, simply knocks him out and drags him, off camera, back to the present so he can survive and continue to be a part of her life. She even reunites him with Marion and the film ends with the suggestion that Indy is “back”, not so much as a free-spirited adventurer but back from his grief, though this ending felt very rushed to me. It definitely seemed to want to bring Indy’s journey full circle and leave him in the past, but then it just didn’t; I also thought the plot point of Indy regretting not being able to save Mutt would tie into the Antikythera/time travel plot and allow him to save his son but that doesn’t happen either.

The Summary:
I went into Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with low expectations; I really didn’t think we needed another Indiana Jones film, especially one where he’s portrayed a broken down, bitter old man, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was still very much fresh in my mind. I went into it out of respect for the franchise and the title character and hoping it would make good on the mistakes of the last film, and ended up with a half-baked adventure that lacked the energy and excitement I associate with the series and its iconic lead. Old, cantankerous Indy could work with a younger lead to team him up with, one who embodied his adventurous spirit in a new age and could teach Indy new things, but Helena sadly fails to fill this role just as Mutt did before her. She’s a better character, that’s for sure, but it’s weird how she’s only now being mentioned and I wonder if it might’ve been better to have her be his granddaughter, resenting Indy for her father’s death. Visually, the film is quite impressive and the performances do land for me; Indy showcases some stirring emotional depth at times and Mads Mikkelsen once again delivers as the psychotic, cold-hearted, yet surprisingly captivating antagonist but, overall, Dial of Destiny just fell flat for me. It felt like a shadow or what had come before, less of a celebration and homage to Indy’s old adventures and more a last gasp effort to squeeze some life out of the franchise. It’s sad seeing Indy’s story turn out so tragically and watching him stumble through scenes, and I think the film squandered a lot of its potential by playing things a little too safe, meaning it’s probably better that Indy hang up the whip and hat for good this time as I think we’ve done everything we can do short of recasting a younger actor in the role for prequels and interludes.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Do you think it was better than the last film or are you equally put off by Indy’s advanced age? What did you think to Helena and her relationship with Indy? Were you a fan of Mads Mikkelsen’s performance and what did you think to the time travel plot? Which of the Indiana Jones movies is your favourite? Whatever you think about Dial of Destiny, feel free to share your opinions in the comments or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Indiana Jones content!

Movie Night [Independence Day]: Captain America

Dr. K1 Comment

First appearing in 1941, Marvel Comics’ star-spangled super soldier, Steve Rogers/Captain America, has become one of Marvel’s most recognisable and celebrated characters not just for his super patriotism but also for being a prominent member and leader of Marvel’s premier super team, the Avengers. Having successfully made the jump to live-action, Cap is now a widely celebrated, mainstream superhero and, given that today is Independence Day, this seems like the perfect excuse to pay tribute to the star-spangled man with a plan himself!

Released: 14 December 1990
Director: Albert Pyun
Distributor: 20/20 Vision / Columbia TriStar Home Video
Budget: $3 million
Stars: Matt Salinger, Scott Paulin, Kim Gillingham, Francesca Neri, and Ronny Cox

The Plot:
As the United States and Nazi Germany go to war in 1943, polio-stricken Steve Rogers (Salinger) is transformed into a superhuman solider, codenamed “Captain America”, and frozen in ice for fifty years after saving the U.S. from a ballistic missile launched by his Italian counterpart, Tadzio de Santis/The Red Skull (Paulin). When he awakens in the modern world, Steve finds the Red Skull alive and well and planning to brainwash President Thomas Kimball (Cox) in order to usurp his pro-environmentalist legislation.

The Background:
Since his debut in Marvel Comics, Captain America has had a bit of a tumultuous history; for a time, the Star-Spangled Avenger was the most popular patriotic superhero in all of comic books but, after the War, the popularity of superheroes began to falter and the character was literally put on ice for about ten years. Upon being revived and joining the Avengers, Cap once again returned to prominence in Marvel Comics. Along the way, Cap featured not only in a crude animated series in the 1960s and guest starred in some of Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s 1980s cartoons, but also a couple of live-action television films in the 1970s before Cannon Group founders Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus acquired the rights to the character in 1984. Six years of development hell caused the script to go through numerous rewrites and director changes before Albert Pyun came onboard and targeted a theatrical release date to coincide with the character’s fiftieth anniversary; eventually, however, the film was released straight to video and is regarded extremely unfavourably and has also gained some merit as a cult curiosity if nothing else.

The Review:
The first thing to note about Captain America is that the DVD transfer quality is absolutely dreadful; it genuinely looks like a VHS copy of the film was simply spliced onto the disc and left at that. It’s by no means an amazing film anyway but actually going to the effort of properly converting the film to DVD would have gone a long way to make the viewing experience a little less unsightly. The second thing to note is how drastically the film changes the Red Skull’s origin story; usually, he is Johann Shmidt, a crazed Nazi super soldier hellbent on obtaining power and spreading fear across the entire world but, here, he’s a much more tragic figure. Child prodigy Tadzio de Santis (Massimilio Massimi) is abducted from his family, who are killed right before his eyes, and forced to endure Doctor Maria Vaselli’s (Carla Cassola) experimental super soldier process by the Fascist Italian military. While the Italians are pleased by the procedure’s results, which transform its subjects into beings of incredible strength and intelligence but render them a bloodied, skeletal beast, Dr. Vaselli draws the line at subjecting the boy to the procedure and flees to America, leaving Tadzio to be transformed into a maniacal super soldier.

Although Vaselli is killed, Steve is transformed into a super soldier.

Vaselli flees and defects to America and, over the next seven years, perfects her procedure; “Project: Rebirth” is now capable of transforming even the weakest, frailest man into one as “fast and as strong as an athlete”. Wishing to create an entire regiment of super soldiers, the military are only too pleased when Steve Rogers, a young man crippled by polio, volunteers for the process; Steve, who is the epitome of the All-American boy, with a loving family, is determined to live up to the example set by his father, who died in service for his country. His girlfriend, Bernice “Bernie” Stewart (Gillingham), is distraught at Steve’s decision to leave, but promises to wait for him for as long as it takes for him to come back. Steve is taken to a rather unimpressive, dungeon-like laboratory hidden beneath a traditional American diner and, under the supervision of Dr. Vaselli and Lieutenant Colonel Louis (Michael Nouri), is subjected to a painful procedure involving lots of flashing lights and sparks. The result is the sudden increase of his muscle mass and his transformation into “Captain America”, a name specifically chosen to evoke the spirit of the good ol’ U. S. of A. Unfortunately, while the procedure is a success, a Nazi agent infiltrates the bunker. Although Steve uses his newfound strength to dispose of the Kraut, Dr. Vaselli and a number of other bystanders are killed in the fray. Dr. Vaselli takes the secret of Project: Rebirth to her grave and Louis is left with a single superhuman soldier rather than an army.

For all the film’s flaws, the Red Skull looks pretty bad-ass.

Bypassing such formalities as training, Steve recuperates from his injuries and is immediately dropped into the deep end. Garbed in a garish red, white, and blue fireproof uniform and carrying a circular, frisbee-like shield, Cap easily infiltrates a Nazi base, where the Axis forces are planning to launch a ballistic rocket at the White House. The rocket is guarded by Tadzio, now transformed into the hideous Red Skull. Say what you will about the film but the make-up effects on the Red Skull are actually pretty good; it’s a shame, then, that he only appears in this guise for a brief scene in the film. Anyway, the two have a bit of a punch up but, finding himself evenly matched in strength and outmatched in ferocity and strategy, Steve ends up strapped to the rocket after being pricked by the Red Skull’s little hand-needle-thing.

Steve is dethawed to find the world has moved on in his absence.

When Cap tries to take the Red Skull with him, his Nazi counterpart severs his own hand to escape; despite his desperate situation, Cap is able to deflect the rocket from its course, much to the awe of one young Thomas “Tom” Kimball (Garrette Ratliffe), and ends up buried in ice in Alaska. We are then treated to a montage as the next fifty-odd years pass; in that time, Tom grows up to become not only Ronny Cox but the President of the United States! Additionally, the Red Skull undergoes extensive plastic surgery (making him more like the Reg(ular) Skull!), raises a daughter, Valentina (Neri) to be his best hitwoman, and becomes the head of a shadowy crime family behind the assassination of many celebrities and political figures. Rather than kill Kimball, whose pro-environmentalist legislation angers the military-industrial complex, the Red Skull instead intends to kidnap the President and brainwash him to avoid turning him into a martyr (which, apparently, is much less trouble than paying for and organising an assassination; who knew?) Steve’s frozen body is finally discovered by a team of researchers and he breaks free, disorientated and initially believing himself to still be in the 1940s. Even when Kimball’s friend, reporter and conspiracy theorist Sam Kolawetz (Ned Beatty), tracks him down and explains what’s happened, Steve refuses to believe that it is anything other than a Nazi trap. Not even an attack by the Red Skull’s forces convinces him and it is only after feigning car sickness, stealing Sam’s car, and meeting Bernie’s daughter, Sharon (Gillingham), that the weight of his predicament finally hits him. After Bernie (and, it seems, Sam) are killed by Valentina and Kimball is successfully kidnapped, Steve resolves to head to Rome (begrudgingly taking Sharon along with him) to confront his nemesis once more.

The Nitty-Gritty:
In many ways, I have to admire Captain America; it’s not a million miles away from the source material, especially as established in Marvel Comics at the time, and is clearly limping along on fumes rather than benefiting from a big budget. Surprisingly, the film even goes to the effort of name-dropping Namor the Sub-Mariner and Jim Hammond/The Human Torch, hinting that this is a world where costumed heroes are actually present (although conspicuous by their absence).

He might look 100% comic accurate but man, does Cap look like an absolute goon.

I mentioned the make-up effects on the Red Skull before and they really are impressive. Sadly, though, it seems the bulk to the special effects budget was spent achieving this effect as Cap’s infiltration of the Nazi base is woefully pitiful thanks to some obvious miniatures and, while I appreciate how faithfully the filmmakers recreated the Captain America costume, Cap really does look like an absolute clown running around in what looks like a really hot and uncomfortable latex suit with floppy rubber wing-ears and chucking a shiny oval shield that often looks far too much like plastic. Cap’s action scenes aren’t really up to much, either; the film’s chase and vehicle sequences are far better than the fight scenes, which are shot very frantically, feature an abundance of loud, exaggerated sound effects, and don’t really showcase Cap’s amazing strength or agility in any significant way.

There’s not much for the women to do in this film but support, or fawn after, the goofy Steve.

Of course, any Captain America story has to deal with Steve being a man out of time and Captain America is no different; similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation, though, this is largely glossed over. In the space of a few scenes, we see Steve confused and gawking at the then-modern world but, while he’s heartbroken to find that Bernie has aged into an old woman, married, and had a daughter, he quickly acclimatises to his new situation. After catching up on the last fifty years using VHS tapes, Steve immediately focuses on the bigger picture: tracking down the Red Skull using Dr. Vaselli’s diary. Sharon helps bring Steve up to speed and actually proves very helpful in Rome as, unlike Steve she can actually speak and read Italian; unfortunately, despite initially appearing quite a ballsy and independent young woman, Sharon quickly becomes little more than a babbling, screaming hindrance who is constantly overwhelmed by the events happening around her and who even ends up being taken as a hostage when they reach Rome.

Cap wins the day but…after watching this film, is anyone truly a winner?

Having learned of de Santis’ tragic childhood, and donning his God-awful suit once more, Cap infiltrates the Red Skull’s castle. It turns out, though, that Kimball doesn’t even need his help as he escapes his cell out of his own initiative (which perfectly fits with Kimball’s forthright and practical nature); he even teams up with Captain America for the finale (leading to one of the cheesiest thumbs-up ever), which sees Cap overpower all of the Red Skull’s goons. Although the Red Skull activates a bomb, Cap distracts him with a recording of his abduction as a child and finishes his Nazi counterpart off by knocking him to an explosive death with his shield. With the Red Skull dead and his daughter down for the count, Steve saves the President, ushering a new environmental age, and once again disappears into legend.

The Summary:
Man, that was a tough watch. Even the power of nostalgia can’t really save Captain America, which was another of the few live-action comic book adaptations I grew up with as a kid. It tries, desperately, to be this fun, action-packed little adventure but it just can’t seem to kick into the higher gear necessary to hit whatever tone it’s going for. Matt Salinger does a decent enough job as Captain America but, while he looks the part with his square jaw and All-American physique, the costume does him very little favours and he’s one of the oddest, most wooden actors I’ve ever seen. He constantly looks baffled and out of his depth, which you could argue is fitting considering Cap is massively out of his element in the modern day, but it seems more like he was told to act like a complete goof rather than as a cheesy but forthright icon. The Red Skull and Ronny Cox and some of the special effects make it worth a watch for those curious to delve into this dreg of a film but even the most die-hard Captain America fans will have difficulty defending this one.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Have you ever seen Captain America? If so, what did you think of it? Do you agree that it is a pretty dreadful film overall or do you, perhaps, have a soft spot for it? What did you think to the Red Skull’s make-up and Captain America’s suit and portrayal? What was your first exposure to Captain America and where do you rank him against other superheroes, where Marvel or otherwise? What story or character of his is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating Captain America’s star-spangled debut this month? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below.