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Movie Night: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

06/08/202319/05/2026Dr. K4 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:

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

03/08/202304/08/2023Dr. 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:

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)

30/07/202331/01/2026Dr. 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:

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

08/07/202303/07/2024Dr. 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:

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

04/07/202304/07/2023Dr. 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:

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.

Movie Night: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

30/06/202325/08/2025Dr. K1 Comment

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
If you’d like to support the site, you can do so at my Ko-Fi page.

Released: 2 June 2023
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $100 million
Stars: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Jason Schwartzman, Jake Johnson, Daniel Kaluuya, and Brian Tyree Henry

The Plot:
Miles Morales/Spider-Man (Moore) is at a crossroads in life when his multi-dimensional friend and crush Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Steinfeld) re-appears, now part of a sprawling society of Spider-People led by Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Isaac). However, Miles is forced to pick between his world and his family when Doctor Jonathan Ohnn/The Spot (Schwartzman) threatens both, bringing him into conflict with the Spider-Society.

The Background:
Back in 2011, writer Brian Michael Bendis made the bold decision to kill off Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man (2000 to 2011) and replace him with a younger character, Miles Morales, an African American youth of Puerto Rican descent. Though this caused much controversy at the time. Miles quickly became a popular character and branched out into cartoons, videogames, and even the mainstream Marvel continuity (“Earth-616”). After the poor reception of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Webb, 2014) saw Spider-Man incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Sony pushed forward with Spider-Man-adacent films separate from the MCU, including the visually spectacular Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsey, and Rothman, 2018), a Miles-centric story that became a critical and commercial success. Production of a sequel began immedately after the release of the first film and the plan was always to expand upon the multiverse concept in the sequel, which would necessitate splitting the sequel into two parts. The film greatly built upon the concept of multiple Spider-People, writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were encouraged by infamous Spider-Man producer Avi Arad to include the Spot as an antagonist, and different art and animation styles were painstakingly incorporated to make each character unique. After being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened to a massive $563.1 million worldwide gross and universal praise; critics loved the visuals and action-packed adventure and the road seems clear for subsequent sequels and spin-offs.

The Review:
It’s probably not too surprising to say that I really enjoyed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While I don’t always agree or like that a street level superhero like Spider-Man is so often at the epicentre of massive multiversal stories, it was a breath of fresh air as both a superhero and animated film. The visual storytelling on offer was nothing short of spectacular and I think it went a long way to cementing in the minds of the mainstream audience that there is more than one Spider-Man out there. That groundwork is taken to the nth dimension in the highly anticipated sequel, which picks up with Miles just over a year after the last movie and finds him a little older, a lot more confident with his spider powers and unique abilities (such as his electrical “venom sting” and camouflage ability), and generally pretty beloved by the citizens of New York City. He has a working relationship with his father, soon-to-be Captain Jefferson Morales (Henry), who remains ignorant of his son’s dual identity, and has made a name for himself as the heroic friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. Unfortunately, as is often the case for Spider-Man, this success doesn’t translate to every aspect of his life; despite his high grades, his absence from school has been noted and he’s under pressure to take his first tentative steps into adulthood, something made all the more difficult for him not just because of his responsibilities as Spider-Man but his guilt about lying to his parents about his extracurricular activities and the smothering he receives from his doting mother, Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Vélez), who struggles as much as Jefferson with how quickly Miles is growing and the fear of losing him to the wider world.

*Miles and Gwen reconnect, only for him to realise the multiverse harbours great hardship.*

Because of this, Miles feels very alone; while his roommate (and only friend), Ganke Lee (Peter Sohn) knows his secret identity, he’s mainly just a cameo and refuses to be Miles’ “guy in the chair” and, since Miles doesn’t dare reveal himself to his parents, he’s left pining for Gwen and internalising a lot of his issues, particularly his grief for his beloved uncle, Aaron Davis/The Prowler (Mahershala Ali),. His only true freedoms come from his artwork and his web-slinging; Spider-Man offers Miles a freedom unlike anything else and allows his confident, snarky attitude to rise to the forefront, but this ends up biting him the ass when he treats newly turned supervillain the Spot like an afterthought, causing the former physicist to exponentially increase his power to avenge himself on Spider-Man. Miles initially thinks very little to the Spot, especially when Gwen suddenly reappears in his life; the film’s opening delves much deeper into Gwen’s own tragic backstory, which saw her isolate herself from others after the death of her best friend, Peter Parker (Jack Quaid), after he’d transformed himself into a lizard-man. Since her father, Captain George Stacy (Shea Whigham) blames Spider-Woman for Peter’s death, Gwen is similarly unable to properly open up to her dad and, when he first meets Spider-Man 2099 and the enigmatic Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Issa Rae), she’s granted an opportunity to leave her world behind rather than face her pain. Although it’s fairly clear that Gwen has missed Miles as much as he has her, she remains guarded; her duties to the Spider-Society dictate that she has to keep her distance from Miles, but she can’t help reconnecting with him since he’s the only friend she has in the entire multiverse, despite all the new allies she’s made. Her affection for him drives her to hide the Spider-Society’s true purpose from him since he’s destined to rise through horrible tragedy, yet she can’t help but admire his enthusiasm and desire to do the right thing, saving everyone whenever possible, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

*Miles’s disregard of the Spot is nothing compared to the wrath of the ruthless Spider-Man 2099.*

This is just one of many reasons why Miles follows Gwen through an interdimensional portal to Earth-50101, where they encounter the free-spirited and confident Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India (Karan Soni). Joined by Gwen’s fellow Spider-Society member, the anarchist and anti-authoritarian Hobart “Hobie” Brown/Spider-Punk (Kaluuya), the four team up to tackle the Spot once more after he escapes, realises the vast potential of his organic dimensional portals, and seeks to add to his power by absorbing energy from particle accelerators across the multiverse. While the Spot might be a deranged, deluded villain who struggles with his often-unpredictable powers, his confidence and mania grow alongside his powers, transforming him into a nightmarish creature capable of ripping entire timelines to shreds. A strange bond links him to Miles, allowing the young Spider-Man to see glimpses of the future and act accordingly; however, this is the catalyst that brings him under the scrutiny of Spider-Man 2099 since Miles interfered with a “canon event”, a life-altering moment in Pavitr’s destiny that was fated to make him a greater hero. The consequence of altering this sees Pavitr’s world threatened by a raging black hole, something Spider-Man 2099 has witnessed happen first-hand after he innocently replaced a version of himself and was forced to watch his surrogate family and timelines vaporise before his eyes as a result. Thanks to his connection to the Spot, Miles realises that his father’s death is set to be his canon event and his natural instinct is to save him, only to be imprisoned and threatened by Spider-Man 2099 and the majority of the Spider-Society since they cannot allow one life to threaten the delicate tapestry of the titular Spider-Verse. A stoic, aggressive, and driven individual, Spider-Man 2099 is absolutely relentless in his pursuit of Miles; he has no compunction about ordering the entire Spider-Society to pursue him when he escapes and tries to break him, mentally and physically, rather than allow him to risk his entire world. His ruthless pursuit casts Spider-Man 2099 as much of a villain as the Spot; though he maintains that he’s doing what’s necessary to keep the multiverse stable, his actions have caused great personal tragedy for countless Spider-People, though many of his followers (including Miles’ mentor, Peter B. Parker (Johnson), and Gwen) are strangely onboard with Miguel’s methods since it’s deemed necessary to birth greater heroes.

The Nitty-Gritty:
This questionable morality is as much at the heart of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as its ruminations of life, responsibility, and adulthood. The film is surprisingly complex in its portrayal of Miles’ relationship to his parents; both feel they’re losing him since he’s becoming a young adult and are frustrated by his obvious lies, and Miles equally is torn between wanting to share himself with them and the fear that they won’t understand. Gwen witnessed this rejection first-hand when her father initially reacted in horror at finding out Spider-Woman was his daughter and was inspired by Miles to return to her father and reconcile with him since she’s tired of running from her path and feeling alone and is struggling with her actions since joining the Spider-Society. Both Miles and Gwen feel alone and like they have no one to confide in, but only Miles feels ostracised from everyone; his friends, family, and even the wider Spider-Verse since Gwen is cagey about their recruitment specifics, and he seems to be the only Spider-Man not part of the team. This is because he hasn’t had his canon event yet, but the film’s a little iffy on that: here, it seems to be the death of a police captain that spurs the Spider-People on, yet Miles lashes out at the various Spider-People for letting down the teachings of their uncles and both Miles and Gwen already suffered tragic losses that you’d think would be catalyst enough for their growth as heroes. I do think that the reveal of the Spider-Society’s true purpose should’ve been handled differently as it’s weird to me that so many Peter Parkers were willing to let even one person die, no matter the stakes, and I wonder if it would’ve been better to reveal that Spider-Man 2099 had been deceiving all of them.

*The film’s stunning visuals allow each Spdier-Person to stand out amidst various bizarre universes.*

As intense and thought-provoking as the character interactions and themes of the movie are, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse excels in its visuals. The film takes the unique frame rate and cartoonish, comic book-stylings of the first movie and ups the ante to make every Spider-Person feel unique. Gwen’s world is rendered very differently from Miles’s, being mostly pastels and having an almost brushstroke effect; Spider-Punk animates jerkily, like a living piece of Sex Pistols artwork, and the attention to detail in the animation, background details, and little things like thought boxes and sound effects popping up onscreen really add to the exhilarating, pop art appeal of the film. There are some gorgeous shots here, too, such as when Miles and Gwen sit upside down and gaze upon the inverted city, rain and night effects are used for fantastic dramatic detail, and I especially enjoyed how 2099 was brought to life as a sprawling, high-tech utopia above ground and a dark, depressing, neon-spawned underbelly below. This translates into the web-slinging, which is easily the best we’ve ever seen from a Spider-Man movie since the action is only limited to the animator’s imagination. All the Spider-People web-sling and fight differently, with the pregnant Jessica Drew doing her best Akira (Otomo, 1988) on her motorcycle and spewing webs from her fingertips, Spider-Punk leaping into battle with a guitar, and Pavitr incorporating a little wooden accessory into his webbing. For me, the standout in this regard was Spider-Man 2099; as morally reprehensible and ruthless as he appears, his fighting style and web-slinging are a force to be reckoned with. Utilising energy webs and sporting both talons, fangs, and bladed appendages alongside his bad-ass suit, Spider-Man 2099 is more feral than the other Spider-People and carves a swath of destruction in his pursuit of and attack upon Miles. Although clearly outmatched, Miles manages to elude and survive even Spider-Man 2099 thanks to being an “anomaly”; the spider that bit him wasn’t even from his Earth, making him unpredictable (and, for Miguel, potentially dangerous) and accounting for his ability to fend off multiple, more experienced Spider-People and exercise a moral integrity that’s sadly abandoned many of his counterparts.

*An exhilarating cliff-hanger sees Miles’ attempts to save his dad, and his world, in jeopardy.*

This all comes to a head when Miles frantically uses Spider-Man 2099’s elaborate, spider-based machine to return home, desperate to save his father’s life and keep his world from being consumed by the Spot’s wrath, only to find that he’s been deposited on the wrong Earth. This is quite the twist for both Miles and Gwen, who followed him to try and help, and doubly so since Miles actually found the courage to reveal his dual identity to his mother, only to be stunned to find that his uncle is alive and well in this world, which lacks a Spider-Man since its spider bit him instead. Here, Miles finds himself strung up and held at the mercy of his uncle and his Earth-42 counterpart (Jharrel Jerome), a bad kid who has taken up the mantle of the Prowler. With Spider-Man 2099 and his lieutenants scouring the multiverse to find Miles and keep him from saving his father’s life, Gwen reconciles with her father and recruits her own band of Spider-People to help Miles and end the film on a massive and exhilarating cliff-hanger. I can’t say that I saw this twist ending coming at all; the film is so enjoyable to watch that I would’ve happily sat through another hour of it, and things were really ramping up at the end so it’s exciting to imagine where the next part will go and seeing Miles reunite with his friends from the first movie. The entire film is stuffed with cameos from Spider-People from all across the multiverse, including live-action cameos from the likes of Andrew Garfield and Donald Glover (as an alternative version of the Prowler), persistent voice cameos from J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson (proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that J.K. just is Jonah in every dimension), and references to both past and current versions of Spider-Man (the recent multiverse shenanigans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are mentioned at one point). It never feels glorified or out of place, to be fair, and it’s fun spotting and following some of these background Spider-People, though again I do find it odd that so many subscribe to Spider-Man 2099’s logic. There was a point where Miguel is seen injecting himself with something, and Miles points out how he’s more like a vampire than a spider, so I wonder if this’ll factor into the next film, perhaps revealing that Miguel is actually his brother, Gabriel, or someone like Morlun. There’s also the threat of the Spot to wrap up, too; I liked how he was driven to prove himself, just like Mils, but went to destructive extremes and I’m sure that’ll result in a spectacular final showdown involving more than a few Spider-People!

The Summary:
I was blown away by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. I expected it to be a visual treat but it overdelivered in this regard; I loved how all the Spider-People looked and felt very different, even if just in small ways, to really emphasise that all these different versions are just as valid and “real” as the other. You could spend hours going through every frame looking for cameos and little details, like frames of animation and visual quirks, and still not catalogue everything on offer here; at times it’s almost underwhelming, but it results in easily the best visually impressive Spider-Man action we’ve ever seen in cinema. At then, alongside all that, there’s a really heartfelt and relatable story of a kid trying to find his place in the world, somewhere to belong, and mature into adulthood. I really felt for both Miles and Gwen here and enjoyed how they had such a strong connection together, and it was harrowing seeing him being excluded from even her world because of things he wasn’t yet experienced enough to understand. I loved how Spider-Man 2099 was so tortured by his mistakes that he’s hell-bent on ensuring that no other worlds die because of a Spider-Person’s selfishness; it made his motivations very understandable and contributed to his manic aggression, but also made for a compelling antagonistic character. The Spot may be a joke, but he becomes a force to be reckoned with throughout the movie and I’m excited to see how he’ll be brought down and the further clash of webs and ideals between the various Spider-People. While I took issue with so many Peters and Peter proxies signing up to Miguel’s harsh philosophy, it doesn’t take away from how stunning this movie is as a piece of art. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has raised the bar not just for Spider-Man movies, but for the animation genre itself and, while I would still like to step away from multiverse shenanigans in Spider-Man movies, it’s hard to deny how incredible impressive and well-executed this film is.

My Rating:

Fantastic

Did you enjoy Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? What did you think of the different animation styles of the various Spider-People? Which of the alternative Spider-Man was your favourite? What did you think to Miles’ struggles? Do you agree with Spider-Man 2099 or do you think that the other Spider-People are betraying the core concepts of their characters? What other Spider-People would you like to see in the next film? Whatever your opinions on Across the Spider-Verse, go ahead and drop them in the comments and be sure to check out my other Spider-Man content across the site!

Movie Night: The Flash

29/06/202304/07/2024Dr. K3 Comments

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
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Released: 4 November 2022
Director: Andy Muschietti
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $200 to 220 million
Stars: Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Keaton, and Ben Affleck

The Plot:
After realising the true extent of his superspeed, Barry Allen/The Flash (Miller) travels back in time to prevent the death of his mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú), and ends up breaking the timeline and teaming up with an alternative version of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Keaton) in order to set things right.

The Background:
After the Marvel Cinematic Universe became an unstoppable juggernaut, Warner Bros. scrambled to craft their own cinematic universe with Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013); despite the presence of acclaimed superstar Ben Affleck and reaping a hefty box office, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (ibid, 2016) divided many and Warner Bros. got cold feet regarding Snyder’s vision for the DCEU. This resulted in two different versions of the big Justice League movie but, even though the future of DC’s live-action universe is questionable and a planned team-up between the Flash and Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) fell apart, development of a solo Flash movie continued onwards. Of course, the Scarlet Speedster is no stranger to adaptation, having been brought to life in numerous cartoons and live-action portrayals, most notably by John Wesley Shipp, Michael Rosenbaum, and Grant Gustin, and the character has often been at the epicentre of reality-bending “Crisis” events, but I don’t think anyone expected the Flash’s first solo feature to feature multiverse shenanigans. However, after taking the reins of the film, director Andy Muschietti set about not just returning Keaton to his iconic role, but also bringing back Ben Affleck to finish up his Batman tenure and introducing a version of Supergirl (Calle) to the DCEU. The aim was to both introduce the multiverse to the DCEU and streamline the continuity to address the negative criticism aimed at Warner’s prior efforts and, although the production was mired by an unfortunate on-location accident, COVID-19 delays, and Ezra Miller’s bizarre behaviour. In thw end, The Flash made $271.3 million at the box office and wasmet with generally positive reviews; most of these focused on Keaton’s return as Batman and the balance of emotion and humour, though the special effects and messy narrative drew some criticism and the future of the speedster was thrown into question when James Gunn came onboard and announced plans to reboot the DCEU.

The Review:
The Flash is one of the last holdouts of the DCEU as it existed for about ten years. It’s a film that has been so much development strife that I’m surprised it even got made and has always been something of an anomaly. On the one hand, producing solo movies for DC characters after their big team up is certainly one way to catch up to and separate themselves from the MCU, as is producing darker, grittier movies but that didn’t exactly last long, did it? I was actually onboard with the idea of each DCEU solo film featuring a team up between two of their characters to help speed things up, but my faith in The Flash was tainted by three very specific things. The first was Ezra Miller, who I’ve never really enjoyed in the role as he acts more like Bart Allen/Impulse than the more methodical Barry; the second was the decision to prey on nostalgia by bringing back Michael Keaton rather than actually try to solve the DCEU’s bonkers multiverse by resetting into Robert Pattinson’s new world; and the third was the bizarre decision to have the Flash’s first solo outing be an adaptation of Flashpoint (Johns, et al, 2011), a universe-altering event that not only ushered in one of the worst DC runs of all time for me but also painted Barry as a selfish and misguided man who broke the multiverse for the worst. I’ve talked about this a few times, but I don’t necessarily hate the idea of the multiverse, I just think it’s the sort of thing you should build up to, not rush into before we’ve had a chance to connect with the existing characters, and some of these issues are certainly present in The Flash.

*Socially awkward Barry is astonished when his selfishness beaks the timeline.*

The tone of the movie is established right off the bat as we catch up with Barry, still a forensic scientist and still as neurotic as ever. In a way, I understand Ezra’s portrayal of Barry as a constantly agitated, awkward social recluse; for him, even mundane tasks take too long and he’s constantly jittery thanks to the Speed Force, which allows him to run superhumanly fast, even up walls and in defiance of gravity, and to vibrate his molecules so he can pass through solid objects. However, Barry was clearly more than a little maladjusted before he got his powers; flashbacks tohis childhood show young Barry (Ian Loh) obsessing over numbers and quandaries and struggling to focus on one task at a time. Barry’s social skills haven’t improved all that much since his time with the Justice League; he talks rapidly and about absolute nonsense, goes off on tangents, and generally seems incredibly uncomfortable in social situations, even more so when gorgeous reporter Iris West (Kiersey Clemons) tries to approach him and his immediate assumption is that she’s looking for an exclusive comment regarding his wrongly imprisoned father, Henry (Ron Livingston). Barry’s been tormented by his mother’s death and championing his father’s innocence since he was a kid, and it’s heavily implied that a lot of his neurosis is due to losing his mother to a random murder, to the point where he’s constantly driven to use any means necessary to prove his father’s innocence and haunted by his grief. Thus, when he realises (or remembers, depending on your perspective; both appear valid here) that he can effectively time travel using the Speed Force, Barry can’t help but use his abilities to save his mother despite Bruce Wayne/Batman’s (Ben Affleck) warning that meddling with time, even in minor ways, could be disastrous.

*Barry’s time travel shenanigans see him confronting the worst of himself to make things right.*

At first, Barry is elated to see that one small change sees him having a happy childhood with both his parents; however, after a demonic figure knocks him out of the Speed Force, he accidentally winds up in 2013 rather than the present day. Again, this is fine at first as he reconnects with his parents, but he’s soon forced to tackle his younger, even more obnoxious and aggravating self and realises that he’s altered time in such a way that Young Barry won’t get his powers unless he intervenes. This is a great way to show the Flash’s origin in a unique way, but it predictably results in Barry losing his powers because of Young Barry’s stupidity and then having to desperately try and train his younger self to realise the scope of his super speed when General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his forces have come seeking Kal-El (Henry Cavill) and Barry learns that his actions have somehow robbed the world of metahumans. Barry’s interactions with Young Barry teach him some valuable lessons about how annoying he can be; his younger self is ridiculously excitable even before he starts flashing about with reckless abandon and takes his life and happiness for granted, which frustrates Barry almost as much as seeing how his selfishness has “broken” the timeline. Young Barry is confused by the entire situation and mainly stoked to suddenly have awesome powers and be hanging around the Batcave; he’s like a kid with a new toy when he borrows the Flash suit and learns that he’s destined to be a superhero, but he hasn’t had to deal with loss like his older, alternate self and so treats the missions as more of a game. Over the course of the movie, the gravity of the situation eventually sinks in; the Barrys have a relationship akin to squabbling siblings, which is quite endearing when they’re not being annoying or aggravating characters, and Young Barry’s eventual determination to both prove himself and prevent his newfound friends from dying serves as a crucial wake-up call for Barry to realise that he needs to let go of his past and his pain in order to save the entire multiverse.

*The undo the damage he’s caused, Barry turns to an older, alternate version of Batman.*

Although the Justice League are absent from Barry’s meddling, he’s relieved to learn that Bruce Wayne and the Batman still exist, so he coerces Young Barry into travelling to Wayne Manor to recruit Bruce’s help in locating Superman, the only one powerful enough to oppose Zod. Barry’s stunned to find the manor once again in disarray and Bruce an elderly recluse, and even more shocked to see he’s an entirely different person! This Bruce is conveniently as clued in on multiverse theory as Barry’s Bruce and explains (using pasta as a metaphor) how Barry’s actions have caused changes all throughout time as time isn’t linear and instead intersects at multiple points. Though intrigued by Barry’s story, Bruce refuses to actively help; his Gotham City has become one of the safest places in the world and outgrew the need for a Batman, which apparently was enough for him to give up his crusade both in and out of the suit. However, he can’t help but listen in as Barry uses the Batcomputer to locate Superman and, inspired by Barry’s dedication to saving a world that isn’t even his, he decides to suit up and help out. Though older and jaded, Batman is no less capable; he has a wealth of gadgets on hand to help them break into the Russian facility where Superman’s pod is being held and is surprisingly a far more capable fighter in his twilight years than at his peak. Keaton was a selling point of the film (and for many, I’m sure) and, while I was annoyed that we went backwards rather than forwards with the character, it’s a blast to see him back in the suit and assuming a proactive mentor role. Keaton definitely steals the show (thanks in no small part to his upgraded suit (despite the poor cowl), assortment of other suits, and snippets of Danny Elfman’s theme) and Batman finds his passion again in aiding Barry’s quest, to the point where he’s willing to sacrifice his life to save the world.

*The traumatised Supergirl ends up being the best shot at opposing General Zod’s mad ambitions.*

Barry’s goal for much of the film is to find Superman. He’s convinced that Superman will be able to defeat Zod as before, thus saving the world and allowing him to live in a timeline with both his parents. Like him running to Batman, much of this can be attributed to displacement; he screwed up and knows it, and his kneejerk reaction is to “fix” it like he tried to with Nora. However, when he finds that it’s not Superman but an emaciated Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Calle), he doesn’t hesitate to help her and, despite her having every reason to hate humanity after they made her suffer in a cage for years, she’s compelled to aid him after witnessing Zod slaughter humans without mercy. Kara is instrumental in helping Barry regain his powers when Bruce’s makeshift device fails on him, finally restoring Barry to full power, and she’s driven into a rage when she learns that Zod intercepted her infant cousin’s pod and killed him in his relentless quest to restore Krypton to prominence. As much as I enjoyed seeing Michael Keaton back in action, I went into The Flash equally as excited for Supergirl; Sasha looks gorgeous in the suit and plays the role (essentially substituting for Superman from Flashpoint) really well. She’s suffered greatly not just at the hands of humanity but in losing her world and initially has no interest in helping Barry; like Bruce, she’s inspired by him and his selfless nature and desire to undo his mistake and throws herself into the battle against Zod, and she proves to be the catalyst for an emotional showdown between the two Barry’s. Surprisingly, The Flash doesn’t really have a main antagonist; on paper, it’s Zod and the Kryptonian threat but really the main villain is time and Barry himself. Stopping Zod is seen as the primary goal to course correct this new timeline, and he proves to be as ruthless as ever as he cuts down anyone in his way, including the fledgling Supergirl, and proves such an insurmountable threat that Young Barry becomes obsessed with reversing time again and again to find a way to stop him and save Batman and Supergirl from falling in battle.

The Nitty-Gritty:
A principal theme in The Flash is of dealing with loss; it’d be difficult for anyone, much less the socially awkward Barry, to come to terms with the traumatic loss of their mother and subsequent imprisonment of their father, and dealing with this loss and the frustrating lack of evidence in favour of his father is very much at the heart of Barry’s motivations not just as a superhero, but in this film. This, as much as anything, is perhaps why he relates so closely to Bruce; while he resents being a glorified janitor for the Justice League, he connects with Bruce over their shared pain but is far too reckless and impulsive to heed his advice regarding meddling with time. However, Barry is switched on enough to recognise when he’s screwed up but it takes him much of the movie to realise that he can’t just “fix” things as easily as he would like, and he literally comes face to face with his neurotic obsession with undoing the bad when Young Barry realises the potential of the Speed Force. Although both are driven to do good things, Young Barry is inexperienced and less adjusted compared to his counterpart, and Barry’s hardly setting a high standard for responsibility here as it is! Still, the entire reason the alternate Bruce and Supergirl agree to aid Barry is by seeing that he has a drive towards protecting others, despite his flaws as a character.

*While some effects are a bit dodgy,* The Flash *is visually impressive, especially the costumes.*

I think a major issue with The Flash is the same thing that was present in his previous appearances; there’s nothing new happening here for the character. His plight about Nora and Henry has been expertly tackled in The Flash (2014 to 2023), as was the Flashpoint story, parallel worlds, and alternate characters. I understand that many audiences might not have watched the show so these aspects would be new to them, but the presentation of Nora’s death isn’t as compelling as in the comics or TV show since it isn’t attributed to a dark mirror of the Flash. Similarly, Iris may as well not even be in the film since she doesn’t really do anything and is basically a glorified cameo, as cute as she is and despite the potential she has for a future relationship with Barry. On the flip side, the presentation of the Flash’s powers is generally quite visually exciting; sure, we’ve seen the super slow-motion speed scenes before but never with a character saving a bunch of babies plummeting from a collapsing hospital. I quite like how destructive Barry’s speed and lightning can be; he now sports a sleek, comic accurate suit that glows when he channels the Speed Force and monitors his “energy” (basically a recurring gag where he stuffs himself full of carbs to refuel) and Barry has far better control over his speed, but Young Barry still has the wild, destructive blue lightning and is constantly getting into scrapes as his clothes burn up. Similarly impressive are the new Batsuits and Bat-gadgets and Supergirl’s eye-watering suit; Keaton’s Batman also flies and fights with a grace never seen before, and I was impressed by good his and Affleck’s stunt doubles performed in their new suits. I also enjoyed the depiction of the Speed Force and time travel; we get a bit of spaghetti-fication as Barry travels faster than light and, within his bubble, he can view multiple timelines at once and engage with them as he likes, though Ezra continues to have a weird weightlessness to him and the strangest running stance I’ve ever seen.

*With the sake of his friends, and the multiverse, at stake, Barry makes the ultimate sacrifice.*

Devoid of his powers, Barry has no choice but to rely on Batman and his exasperating younger self for much of the middle film. Young Barry proves a poor student but, to be fair, he has a lot of pressure suddenly thrust upon him and lacks the years of training Barry has (which we get a glimpse of with another flashback that shows the proto-Flash was also in Metropolis when Zod invaded). Given how dire Zod’s threat is, Barry risks his life being struck by lightning once more to regain his powers and his substitute Justice League fly into battle against the Kryptonians. However, even with Supergirl and Batman’s amazing Bat-toys, it’s an unwinnable battle; no matter how hard Young Barry tries, he can’t prevent Batman and Supergirl being killed in the battle and his obsession with trying to prevent it horrifies Barry when he sees the damage it causes both to Young Barry and the multiverse. Within the Speed Force, Barry sees a bevvy of cameos (including deepfakes of Christopher Reeve, Helen Slater, and Nicolas Cage and archival footage of Adam West and George Reeves but, oddly, no cameo from Grant Gustin) as worlds and timelines collide and are destroyed by his increasingly manic double. Young Barry’s obsession then takes physical form when the demonic entity reappears and is revealed to be an older version of Young Barry, one who’s spent untold years desperately trying to find a way to succeed and has become so corrupted by this notion that he doesn’t care about the damage he’s causing. Finally learning that he needs to let go and restore the timeline, Barry resolves to undo his actions, thus dooming his mother; although Young Barry is aghast by this, he’s so disgusted by dark doppelgänger that he sacrifices his life to save Barry, thus erasing himself and the Dark Flash. After a heartfelt, incognito goodbye to his mother, Barry resets time but, apparently having learnt nothing about temporal causality, can’t himself from making another minor change. This is enough to see Henry acquitted for his crimes and apparently restores the world to normal…if you don’t count Bruce Wayne being changed once more, this time into George Clooney and ending the movie on a hefty sigh rather than truly restarting or rebooting the DCEU as I expected.

The Summary:
I was sceptical about The Flash. I’m not a fan of Ezra Miller or his portrayal of the character, I feel it came out way past the point where it could’ve actually been meaningful, I definitely was miffed that it was skipped right to Flashpoint rather than focusing on the Flash’s rogues, and I questioned the heavy reliance on Michael Keaton’s return as Batman. I grew up with Keaton; he was an excellent Batman and set a standard for others to follow but bringing him in just seemed like such a blatant trick to get people to see this film that I was sure it would be terrible. Thankfully, despite these issues being the case, that wasn’t true, and I enjoyed it more than I expected. Barry is, however, a fundamentally awful and often unlikeable character because of how whiny, awkward, and ungainly he is; I did like seeing him interact with his younger self and realising how obnoxious he can be, and the character arc of him learning to let go of the past was executed well, even if it was very derivative. The film suffers a bit from some wonky special effects (the deepfakes were especially unnerving) but mostly delivers some fun visuals with the Flash’s powers and I loved the practical suits used in the film. It was awesome giving Keaton one last crack at the character, but I can’t help but feel like The Flash missed an opportunity to properly re-align the DCU. Instead, the message here, again, is that the multiverse exists, and everything is canon as it’s all connected, which is fine, but I honestly prefer the focus to be on one singular continuity. Still, The Flash was quite fun and had some thrilling action scenes, especially those involving the Bat-actors’ stunt doubles. The primary themes of the film landed well, too, even if Barry just seems like a selfish, petulant child most of the time, and I was glad (and surprised) to find that it just about managed to hold its head above water amidst all the clarified cameos and references.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy The Flash? Were you disappointed that it skipped to Flashpoint or were you simply won over by the cameos? Do you enjoy Ezra Miller’s portrayal of the character and what did you think to the relationship between Barry and Young Barry? Were you excited to see Michael Keaton return or did you think it was weird how the only character who changed faces was Bruce Wayne? Who’s your favourite version of the Flash and where do you see the DCEU going next? Whatever your thoughts, please leave a comment below or on my social media.

Movie Night: Prey

27/06/202331/03/2024Dr. K3 Comments

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
If you’d like to support the site, you can do so at my Ko-Fi page.

Released: 5 August 2022
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Distributor: 20^th Century Studios / Disney+
Budget: $65 million
Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Bennett Taylor, Michelle Thrush, and Dane DiLiegro

The Plot:
In 1719, on the Great Plains, Comanche warrior Naru (Midthunder) finds herself fighting to protect her people not only from French fur traders destroying the buffalo they rely on for survival but also from a vicious, humanoid alien (DiLiegro) that hunts humans for sport!

The Background:
Predator (McTiernan, 1987) quickly evolved from a high-budget B-movie that had Jean-Claude Van Damme running around a jungle in a bug suit into a box office hit heralded as one of the best of its genre. After a troubled development, Predator 2 (Hopkins, 1990) failed to match the first film’s box office despite positive reviews and it would be twenty years before Predators (Antal, 2010) ignored the sequels and crossovers and proved a minor hit. Sadly, this meant that hopes for a direct sequel were quashed when the studio opted for a soft re-quel; unfortunately, despite the return of Predator writer Shane Black and a respectable box office gross, The Predator (ibid, 2018) divided critics and any hopes of a sequel were put on hold after 20^th Century Fox was purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2017. It wasn’t long before development of a fifth entry (initially titled “Skulls”) got underway, however; director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison’s pitch of a prequel that returned to the franchise’s roots was approved and the filmmakers even considered having the film’s characters speaking exclusively in Comanche. Trachtenberg specifically cast Dan DiLiegro as the iconic hunter as he wanted a leaner, more agile version of the Predator; the creature’s entire design was revamped, though DiLiegro still had to suffer in an uncomfortable suit throughout the shoot. Four weeks of weapons, team-building, and communications training saw star Amber Midthunder gain prowess in axe throwing, and filming attracted much attention and support from the Native American community and the film was praised for its historical accuracy in depicting Comanche society. Prey was released exclusively on streaming services, becoming the most-watched premiere on Hulu in the United States at the time, and was widely regarded as being the greatest Predator sequel yet. Critics praised the tension and atmosphere, its strong and capable heroine, and the thrilling balance of action, emotion, and gore; its success effectively reinvigorated the franchise and left the door open for further films.

The Review:
Prey kind of came out of nowhere for me; I suspected that Disney would want to profit from their acquisition of 20^th Century Fox’s properties but it seemed as though the franchise was sadly dead in the water after the disastrous effort that was The Predator. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed Predators, I had been hoping for some kind of follow-up to that film’s cliff-hanger and, instead, we got this weird mish-mash of a bunch of elements from the previous three films and a controversial depiction of autism as some kind of superpower. I enjoyed the effects, some of the characters and humour, and a few aspects of The Predator but it still dropped the ball and I was convinced that the next step at trying to kick-start the franchise would be to lure back either Arnold Schwarzenegger or Danny Glover (or both) and drop us back in the jungle again. For me, each Predator film should try something different; I might not be a fan of AVP: Alien vs. Predator (Anderson, 2004) but at least it was unique in its snow setting, its three Predators, and the clash between alien species so I was intrigued by the idea of a prequel. Dropping the highly advanced and adaptable alien hunter into an era where automatic weapons and modern technology weren’t really a thing is a great way to recapture the raw nature of the first film, especially the final act where Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (Schwarzenegger) is left to rely on his “Boy Scout shit” to survive, and I’d love to see the Predator picking soldiers off the battlefield in No Man’s Land, stalking cowboys in the Old West, or lurking in the misty shadows of Plague-era London almost as much as I’d enjoy visiting their home world or a film set further into the future. Plus, a smaller budget lacking in big-name actors meant more focus on the creature, the battle for survival, and had the potential for a higher reward in terms of box office and reception; low risk and high reward is a model that’s worked pretty well for other genre films and I was pleased to see it pay off in Prey‘s reception.

*Naru is desperate to prove herself a skilled warrior but didn’t expect to be facing an alien hunter!*

Prey revolves around a Comanche tribe, back before the then-modern world absolutely ravaged their lands with industry and Christianity. Our main character, Naru, is something of an outcast in her tribe; tradition demands that she follow her calling as a healer but, in secret, she trains to be a warrior like her brother, Taabe (Beavers). Alongside her faithful canine companion Sarii (Coco), Naru works on her tomahawk-throwing skills out in the forests and showcases a considerable talent with accuracy and proficiency but also at hunting, as she’s able to sneak up on a deer undetected. When the deer is startled, Naru demonstrates her impressive cardio and parkour-like skills, racing through the forest, hopping over and under trees with a deftness and determination, and also her talent for medicine after Sarii’s tail is caught in an iron trap that puzzles her in its design. Later, Naru fashions a weapon unique to her by tying her tomahawk to a length of hand-made roping, not unlike a roped kunai, and demonstrates her grace under pressure when she falls into a swamp-like bog and is able to haul herself to safety rather than giving in to panic. While out in the forest, Naru catches sight of the Predator’s cloaked ship breaching Earth’s atmosphere and interpets it as a Thunderbird, a sign that she needs to prove herself. Despite showing talent in many areas, Naru’s motivation for wanting to hunt is simply: nobody in the tribe believes she’s capable of it (even her mother, Aruka (Thrush) questions her desire) and she’s determined to prove them wrong. Taaba, who paints himself up in half-ghost face, is a great hunter; when Naru was young and being taken to gather herbs, he was learning the skills that allow him to shoot an eagle out of the sky with barely a glance. His relationship with Naru is a complex and surprisingly realistic one; they wind each other up like most siblings but, while she believes she’s ready to prove herself, Taabe has his doubts. He knows, from first-hand experience, the difference between picking off prey that’s either unaware or incapable of defending itself and taking on something that actively hunts its quarry.

*Despite Wasape’s mockery, Naru* *is wily enough to* *learn from the Predator and to survive.*

Still, when Taabe joins the search party to rescue Huupi (Tymon Carter) from a mountain lion, he vouches for Naru’s tracking and medicinal skills, though it’s not enough to completely win over the prejudice of his fellow hunters, particularly Wasape (Stormee Kipp). Even after she tends to Huupi’s wounds, Wasape gives her grief and their antagonism boils over into an intense brawl when he’s sent to retrieve her and is met with defiance and tales of a mupitsl, a monster from her tribe’s children’s stories, lurking in the forest. Paaka (Corvin Mack) has equal disregard for Naru, believing she’s too afraid to be of use and, like Wasape and Naru’s other doubters, he meets a gruesome end as a result of his condescending nature. Unfortunately, Naru misses out on her big moment thanks to a distraction from the Predator; when Taabe returns to the village with the lion’s beheaded carcass, he’s named the tribe’s War Chief and, fully confident that he can tackle whatever other threats are out there when the time comes, leaves Naru heartbroken when he voices his own distrust in her abilities, regardless of her clear hunting skill. Determined to prove herself, Naru shirks her duties and heads out beyond the ridge with Sarii, finding more of the Predator’s tracks (and even some of its distinctive luminous blood), a herd of rotting, skinned bison, and a grizzly bear. Forced to take shelter when her weapons fail her, this affords Naru her first gruesome glance of the true alien menace lurking on her lands, a creature she cannot understand and so believes to be the fictional mupitsl come to life. Bound and helpless, it’s all Naru can do to free herself from her bonds when the Predator attacks Wasape and his fellow hunters, but her experience proves invaluable at seeing what the creature is capable of and spotting the warning signs of its bolt gun.

*Even the French’s guns are no match for this Feral Predator, despite the primitive nature of its weapons.*

Although it appears as though the Predator is responsible for slaughtering the buffalo herd (skinning creatures is its modus operandi, after all), this is actually the work of a brutish group of French voyageurs. Compared to the Comanche, the voyageurs are almost Viking-like savages; they growl and bark in an unintelligible French dialect and wield far more advanced weaponry, including rifles and gunpowder. After she’s taken captive by them, Naru is approached by Raphael Adolini (Taylor), an Italian man who acts as a translator between the two groups and who both speculates on the nature of the Predator and reveals that the voyageurs have encountered the creature before. When she refuses to talk, their leader, “Big Beard” (Mike Paterson), wounds Taabe with a cut across his torso and the two are strung up as bait for the Predator. Although we see a fleeting shot of it within the first ten minutes or so, we don’t actually see it unobscured until about fifty minutes in, with much of the first act being built around echoing the slowly mounting tension regarding the creature to reflect the confusion and superstition felt by the Comanche. There’s a particularly simple, yet striking, sequence that showcases both the Predator’s looming menace and the film’s themes of predatory hierarchy; an ant unknowingly crawls over the cloaked Predator’s leg before being eaten by a rat, which is then struck by a snake, which in turn is slaughtered by the Predator’s wrist blades, with all of this framed to show just how close the alien was to Taabe and the others without them realising it. As is tradition with every new Predator movie, this Predator is both familiar but decidedly different, perhaps more than any Predator before and not just by virtue of being bigger and tougher. This Predator sports decidedly outdated technology, including a skull-like mask more bone than mechanical, a laser-guided bolt gun rather than the traditional plasma cannon, and few of the more technologically advanced weaponry of its brethren. Whether this is by design or by choice, it means this Predator is much more about getting up close and personal with its prey, stalking them with its thermal vision and favouring both hand-to-hand combat and its wrist blades rather than smoke and mirrors. Yet, despite all of this, the Predator still only kills prey it deems worthy; it has no interest in helpless bait and leaves Naru be when she’s caught in an animal trap since she’s no longer a threat or capable of putting up a decent fight. Additionally, in a twist on the usual formula of Predator protagonists using mud to obscure their body heat, Prey sees Naru’s medicinal knowledge to accomplish the same result.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Right from the start, Prey is a very different kind of Predator movie; being set in the wide-open flatlands and dense forests of the Great Plains, the movie eschews the stifling jungles and anarchy of the city streets for a more open and, dare I say it, cinematic presentation. Through its visuals and its haunting melody, the film has more in common with the likes of Dances with Wolves (Costner, 1990) and spends a great deal of time establishing the society, lore, and lifestyle of the Comanche tribe. While I’m no expert in Native Americans, I found the film to really benefit from this approach and its attention to detail; we get sporadic uses of their native tongue and the voyageurs speak exclusively in a guttural French (without subtitles), the Comanche are painted up individually to represent their personalities, their clothing consists of simple robes, their village is made up of tepees, they adorn themselves with feathers and necklaces, and their weapons are hand-made. Crude, yes, but these are simple, primitive times and folk, yet their bows, arrows, tomahawks, and hunting skills are no less formidable and they’re fully capable of sustaining themselves through traditional hunting prowess and restraint. Consequently, they don’t indiscriminately hunt simply for sport or the thrill of it, but to survive, meaning that the presence of French voyageurs greatly disrupts their ecosystem as they haphazardly slaughter the local buffalo.

Prey *contains some of the most brutal, gory, and creative kills of the franchise.*

This Predator isn’t just about the wholesale slaughter of human beings; given when the film takes place and the many instances of primitive weaponry seen in the film, it’s possible that humanity hasn’t yet caught the attention of the alien hunters. Observing the local wildlife, this Predator stalks all prey, not just humans; it tracks a ravenous wolf, gutting and mutilating it to add another trophy to its belt. This Predator’s preference to fight up close with its prey makes it far more aggressive and susceptible to injury; the Predator wrestles with the grizzly bear with its bare hands, its wounds only fuelling its aggression, and seems to take great pride in showcasing its superior strength over the wild animal, holding it aloft to be drenched in its blood in a fantastically gory and striking shot. Having witnessed Wasape and Naru brawl and assessing the weaponry of the tribe, the Predator strikes, killing Wasape with its bolt gun and slicing off limbs, heads, and impaling Taabe’s kinsmen with its separatable combistick. Although it lacks the explosive impact of the traditional plasma cannon, the Predator’s bolt gun allows for some fun and bloody kills; it still uses the iconic red targeting system, but fires three arrow-like projectiles on a predetermined path. There are quite a few drawbacks to this primitive version of the plasma cannon; for one, it allows some leeway for its victims to potentially survive, and the targeting system comes back to bite the Predator in the finale but it’s an interesting way of showing how the Predator’s technology evolved over time and almost puts it on more equally ground with the primitive tribespeople. Although the French boast more advanced weaponry than the Comanche (and attempt to capture and kill the creature with traps of their own), the Predator’s superior strength and weaponry sees them all reduced to bloody corpses; the Predator sports its constricting net trap, electroshock bolas, a retractable bulletproof shield that also doubles as a razor sharp projectile, leaves its gauntlet behind as an explosive surprise, and even uses the humans’ own weapons against them by throwing a foothold trap right at a voyager’s head! Not to be outdone, Naru doesn’t abandon Sarii, even in the face of the Predator’s near-supernatural menace, when she’s held captive by the voyageurs, mercilessly killing them all with her roped tomahawk to get her to safety.

*Naru uses all of her wiles and skills to outsmart and defeat the Predator and prove herself worthy*.

With the French brutalised by the Predator, the mutilated Adolini begs Naru to help him and teaches her how to load and use his flintlock pistol; although she’s able to stem his bleeding and mask his body heat and he tries playing dead, he ends up dead anyway when the Predator steps on his body and stabs him when he screams. Taabe then rides in on horseback to attack the Predator with its own weapons; with his speed and skill with a bow, Taabe is able to land several shots on the Predator all while Naru struggles to load Adolini’s pistol in a strikingly effective commentary on the clunky inefficiency of then-modern technology compared to her tribe’s more direct methods. Unfortunately, Taabe is unable to kill or even mortally wound the Predator and Naru is forced to watch her brother be slaughtered right before her eyes. The last one standing, Naru takes a moment to expel her grief and anguish and then mounts her final stand against this seemingly unstoppable monster; ambushing the shellshocked Big Beard, she severs one of his legs and leaves him Andolini’s unloaded pistol to make him an easy target for the Predator as payback for him hurting her brother, then makes use of her herbs to mask her body heat and take the Predator by surprise. A bullet to the back of its head might only be a flesh wound to the alien hunter, but it’s enough to again expose its horrific visage (which is also a far cry from the usual Predator appearance) and allow her to steal its helmet, driving the creature into a vengeful frenzy. Naru prepares an elaborate trap around the bog using carved wooden spikes, not unlike Dutch’s later tactics, and places the helmet in full view to lure her prey in. While physically outmatched by the far larger and stronger creature, Naru’s speed, wiles, and determination see her strike with a wild tenacity, using herself as bait to draw the Predator closer on her own terms, a tactic that allows her to allow use its weapons against it and severe its right arm. While Wasape mocked Naru using her “leash” for her weapon, it proves vital in trapping the Predator in the quagmire of the bog; goading the creature using both Taabe’s and Dutch’s words, Naru tricks the Predator into firing its bolt gun at her, which sees its projectiles kill it instead. Exhausted and injured, Naru returns to her village with the Predator’s severed head and its blood splashed across her face like war paint; having proved herself beyond measure, she’s named as the new War Chief, but tribal paintings allude to the inevitable return of the alien hunters, if only to claim Adolini’s pistol…

The Summary:
For a movie that’s so visually and narratively removed from the Predator franchise, Prey does a wonderful job of getting back to the basics and roots of the series. Setting the film hundreds of years in the past and focusing on a primitive, but highly skilled and spiritual Comanche tribe, was a fantastic way of reframing the Predator narrative into a fresh and original presentation while still paying homage to the themes of horror and survival that made the first film as memorable as its abundance of machismo. Naru is a very strong and determined young woman, easily the equal of her more celebrated male rivals, and really comes across as a formidable opponent for the Predator thanks to her adaptability, intelligence, and ability to see what others miss. While I’m a sucker for well-armed protagonists getting picked off by a superior force because they rely too much on their weaponry, I really enjoyed the higher stakes on offer in Prey as everyone is using such limited and primitive weaponry. Even the French, with their cumbersome rifles and gunpowder, are no match for this, probably the most brutal and aggressive Predator that isn’t bulked up on steroids. This Feral Predator is a hands-on kinda guy, slaughtering whatever creatures take its fancy and sporting some unique, if primitive, technology alongside its more familiar toys. I can see why so many people praised Prey for being the best film in the franchise for some time; it’s definitely better than The Predator, and I’m really excited for the possibilities of other Predator films exploring other time periods, and overall this was a highly enjoyable horror that told an entertaining coming-of-age story and showed that there’s still life in this under-rated franchise yet.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Did you enjoy Prey? How do you think it compares to other films in the franchise? What did you think to Naru’s character, the obstacles she overcame and her solutions to those problems? Would you have liked to see more from the Comanche tribe and their society? What did you think to the Feral Predator, its different technology and its more aggressive personality? What time periods or situations would you like to see the Predator dropped into in the future? Which of the Predator sequels and merchandise was your favourite and did you celebrate Predator Day this year? Whatever your thoughts on Prey, feel free to leave a comment below or drop your thoughts on my social media.

Movie Night [Superman Month]: Man of Steel

26/06/202304/07/2024Dr. K15 Comments

In 2013, DC Comics declared the 12^th of June as “Superman Day”, a day for fans of the Man of Steel the world over to celebrate Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, the superpowered virtue of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” who is widely regarded as the first ever costumed superhero. This year, I expanded Superman Day to “Superman Month“ and have been spending every Monday of June celebrating the Man of Steel.

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
If you’d like to support the site, you can do so at my Ko-Fi page.

Released: 14 June 2013
Director: Zack Snyder
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $255 to 258 million
Stars: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Antje Traue, and Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner

The Plot:
Just before the planet Krypton is destroyed, scientist Jor-El (Crowe) sends his young son to Earth. Raised by a kindly couple, Clark Kent (Cavill) hides his superhuman powers from the world but, when he discovers the truth of his alien heritage, he finally assumes the mantle of Earth’s greatest protector, Superman, just in time to defend his adopted home world from the maniacal General Zod (Shannon), a Kryptonian warrior seeking to terraform Earth into a new Krypton!

The Background:
For Superman’s big-screen feature back in 1978, producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind and Pierre Spengler initially convinced Warner Bros. to produce a two-part film, a decision which led to both financial and creative issues as director Richard Donner frequently clashed with the producers. Still, Superman (Donner, 1978) was a critical and commercial success and, despite all the behind the scenes drama, Superman II (Lester, 1980) was equally successful, but things quickly took a nose dive, despite Christopher Reeve’s iconic portrayal of the character, and Superman was absent from cinema screens for nearly twenty years. After numerous abortive and attempts to bring the Man of Steel back, director Bryan Singer attempt to recaptur e the magic of Richard Donner’s original film with Superman Returns (Singer, 2006) but, despite making $391.1 million at the box office, the film was maligned by critics and derailed plans for a sequel. Two years later, Warner Bros turned to notable Superman writers like Grant Morrison and Mark Waid to consider options for a reboot and, after settling a lawsuit, brought in writer David S. Goyer and director/producer Christopher Nolan to collaborate on a new Superman movie following their success with the Dark Knight trilogy (Nolan, 2005 to 2012). After Nolan won the studio over with his pitch to completely reboot the franchise in a similarly grounded way, director Zack Snyder was brought in to helm the project, and he immediately set about redesigning the character’s iconic costume with a slick, modern aesthetic that owed a lot to his Kryptonian heritage. British actor Henry Cavill finally won the chance to take on the role after having lost out to it before and underwent rigorous physical training to prepare for the role, while veteran actors Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe were cast to portray Superman’s two fathers who would raise the ethical and moral quandaries faced by the character. Weta Digital, MPC, and Double Negative created the film’s extensive visual effects, which were bolstered by documentary-style filmmaking techniques, infused Krypton with a whole new liquid geometry and alien landscape, and aimed to bring a real physical weight to the flying and fight scenes. Man of Steel was a massive success at the box office, where it made nearly $670 million, but reviews were somewhat mixed; while the action and performances were praised, critics questioned Superman’s characterisation, the widespread death and destruction, the Superman’s execution of General Zod. Regardless, Man of Steel was the start to the rocky and needlessly complicated DC Extended Universe (DCEU); it was followed by the divisive (to say the least) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Snyder, 2016) and a Justice League team-up that was fraught with its own issues, and both fans and Cavill were left salivating for another solo film for the titular superhero.

The Review:
Those who’ve read my reviews of the Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve films, and Superman Returns, will know that my relationship with those movies is a contentious one. While Reeve was undoubtably iconic in the role, and the first two films not only helped establish Superman in the eyes of the general audience but influenced comic books and their adaptations for decades, I also grew up reading the Post-Crisis version of Superman as written by John Byrne and firmly believed that the character had significantly changed since his wacky Pre-Crisis days. In the comics I read, Clark Kent wasn’t some bumbling reporter, Lois Lane wasn’t an obsessed stalker, and Superman was a relatable and at times vulnerable character; he got married, died and came back, and, crucially, had a humanity at the heart of his character and was far less God-like than in the sixties and seventies. Consequently, I was quite excited to see a new version of the character brought to the big screen, with a revised origin and no ties to the films that had come before it. I believe this is the route Warner Bros. should have taken with Superman Returns and, if they had, the nature of the DCEU could be quite different today. I was doubly excited since the studio not only had Christopher Nolan onboard as a producer but brought in Zack Snyder, who had impressed me with his visuals and brutal action-orientated storytelling in 300 (Snyder, 2006) and Watchmen (ibid, 2009), and even roped in Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe in pivotal roles.

*Amidst a chaotic opening, Jor-El is able to spirit his infant son to safety before Krypton is destroyed.*

As is tradition at this point, Man of Steel opens on Krypton, a world decidedly different from what we’ve seen onscreen and in the comics before. While many interpretations of Krypton like to draw upon Donner’s cold, crystalline wasteland, Man of Steel presents a vast alien world whose technology is based around a sort of fluid nanotech, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence. The landscape is also much more alive and vibrant, with massive creatures roaming the ground and the skies, other planets dominating the horizon, and a tint of copper red/orange applied to the world, whose architecture is a curious mixture of almost Aztec-like structures and advanced anti-gravity technology. In this version of events, Krypton is quite the lackadaisical race; having grown weary of colonising other worlds, they’ve allowed themselves to become somewhat stagnant on their home world. Their society is comprised of genetically engineered individuals pre-programmed into specific roles, such as warriors, scientists, and politicians, and thus the infant Kal-El is the first natural birth in centauries. However, their hubris remains as steadfast as ever and they ignore Jor-El’s warnings that the planet’s core is quickly destabilising after (presumably) decades of mining it following an energy crisis. Realising the planet is doomed, Jor-El pleads with the Kryptonian Council to allow him access to the “Codex”, a complete record of their society and genetic history, in order to ensure that a new generation of Kryptonians survives the calamity, but his demands are quickly interrupted by a coup d’état led by General Zod, who disposes the council and causes the planet to erupt in all-out war despite the looming danger. Consequently, Man of Steel has an extremely chaotic opening where we’re bombarded with information and explosive visuals; Kal-El is born, Krypton is said to be close to destruction, war breaks out!, Kal-El is imbued with the vaguely-defined Codex and rocketed to safety, Zod kills Jor-El before his insurrection is quashed and is banished to the Phantom Zone alongside his cohorts, and then the planet explodes all within the first twenty minutes! While this is clearly important to give us a glimpse of Kryptonian society and the sacrifices his parents made, and absolutely a narrative device used in Superman media time and time again, I can’t help but feel like the opening could have been trimmed down a little and scattered throughout the film, especially as Jor-El’s holographic interface later gives Clark the rundown on these events, and Zod also relates things from his perspective, meaning we essentially learn the same information twice.

*Having struggled with his powers, and guilt over his father’s death, Clark with his place in the world.*

This bombastic and visual cacophony then gives way to a much more nuanced, grounded, and undeniably Nolan-influenced portion of the film where we jump ahead some thirty years to find the now grown-up Kal-El travelling Earth as Clark Kent and trying to get a better understanding of himself and the nature of humanity in order to figure out how best to utilise the fantastic abilities afforded him by our yellow sun. This narrative device makes far better use of the film’s run time to parallel Clark’s journey as an adult with his childhood growing up in Smallville, Kansas, where young Clark (Cooper Timberline and Dylan Sprayberry) was initially overwhelmed with his developing abilities, which cause him pain, discomfort, and fear and are framed very much as an allegory for puberty. Clark’s superhearing and x-ray vision are depicted as being harrowing for the young boy, who has a full-blown panic before his kindly adopted mother, Martha Kent (Diane Lane), helps him to focus himself, to block out the noise and the visions that plague him, and to master his abilities. As he grows older, he comes to resent having to hold himself back and to hide his powers, which very much sets up an ongoing moral conflict within the film. Indeed, his adopted father, Jonathan Kent (Costner), even suggests that he should have let a busload of his classmates drown rather than risk revealing himself since he’s of the firm belief that the world isn’t ready to accept the truth of what he is. However, Jonathan and Jor-El both believe that Clark, and his gifts, have world-changing implications; his presence will inspire both fear and hope, reverence and hostility, as humankind realises that they’re not alone in the universe and that their world has been forever changed. Jonathan recognises that this is not only a huge burden but will result in Clark being viewed as something other than human, whether for good or ill, and just wants his son to be prepared to either face up to this great destiny or to walk away from it without regret. Clark’s fear and confusion eventually turn into resentment and adolescent rage as he grows older and becomes tired of having to hide himself and lashes out at Jonathan without thinking, only to have to watch, helplessly, as his adopted father is swept away by a tornado since he was forbidden to act and expose himself before he was ready. While this death is overly dramatic and lacks the subtle nuance of Jonathan succumbing to a simple heart attack thus teaching Clark that even he cannot stop nature, it does result in him being so guilt-ridden that he travels the world to try and find himself and learn how best to honour his father.

*Lois is integral to Clark’s decision to reveal himself as Superman and is at the forefront of the chaos.*

By the time he’s an adult, Clark has experienced much of the conflicting nature of humanity; there are bullies and assholes but also those who will go out of their way to save others, proving that humankind has a spark of decency buried deep beneath the conflict. When he discovers the Kryptonian scout ship and meets the holographic representation of his birth father, Clark learns of his true heritage and the reason for his existence and finally discovers the means to reconcile the conflict within him. Donning an absolutely glorious alien suit and flowing cape, and inspired by both his fathers, Clark finds he has only begun to realise the true extent of his abilities as he defies Earth’s gravity, clearly basking in the feelings of liberation brought not only from flying through the air but from finally accepting his birthright. Clark is shown to have always had a strong relationship with Martha, who only ever showed him love and affection and tried to help him to focus his abilities. While both her and Jonathan loved him unconditionally, their methods at helping him through his adolescence and his burgeoning powers differed somewhat, as she was perfectly happy to just let him grow up, fully confident that he’d make the right decisions, whereas Jonathan continually went out of his way to stress that Clark is there for a reason and has a greater destiny. After Jonathan’s death, Clark’s bond with Martha grows even stronger, partially due to his guilt but also because she’s all that he has left and he flies into a rage when her life is threatened by Zod and his cronies later in the film. Of course, intrepid reporter Lois Lane (Adams) remains a central influence in Clark’s decision to embrace his destiny and put his powers to good use; depicted as a strong-willed, curious, and empathetic woman, Lois is a fearless reporter who doesn’t hesitate to put herself in harm’s way, or the most extreme environments, in order to get a good story. When she learns that a centuries-old Kryptonian scout ship has been located in the Canadian Arctic, she doesn’t hesitate to head out there, immediately establish herself as a woman of some fortitude before the somewhat disapproving Colonel Nathan Hardy/Guardian (Meloni), and even brave the frigid environment to get up close and personal with the ship. After she’s attacked by the Kryptonian security droids and Clark saves her life, she throws herself into trying to track down her mysterious saviour, much to the chagrin of her editor, Perry White (Lawrence Fishburne), and is intrigued by the many and varied reports of a superpowered do-gooder helping others before disappearing.

*Strong supporting characters flesh out the world and ask new questions about Superman’s presence.*

In a fantastic change of pace, Lois experiences Clark’s abilities and is privy to his identity right away, doing away with the need for him to assume the guise of a bumbling fool. Lois not only gives him the name Superman (in a roundabout way), but also plays an important role as an audience surrogate as she uses her reputation as a celebrated reporter to accompany and talk to him after he surrenders himself to the distrustful Lieutenant General Calvin Swanwick (Harry Lennix) and even goes with him to Zod’s ship after Superman willingly agrees to give himself up to spare his world. Cavill and Adams have a real tangible onscreen chemistry and Lois very much acts as a mediator between Clark’s somewhat sheltered upbringing, the awe that his presence (and unparalleled physicality) inspires, the suspicion of Swanwick and some others, and the demands of Zod. General Zod announces his arrival by broadcasting an ominous message across all media platforms and in all languages to deliver Clark with an ultimatum, thereby giving him another moral quandary over whether to surrender himself to the Kryptonians or to humanity, neither of which are particularly trustworthy. Zod isn’t alone in his mission, of course. He’s joined by a number of Kryptonian followers, the most prominent of which are Faora-Ul (Traue) and an unnamed towering brute who ransack Smallville to draw Superman out for a conflict. Much like Ursa (Sarah Douglas), Faora-Ul is absolutely devoted to General Zod and follows his every order without question. Interestingly, she sparks up a rivalry (and, apparently, a mutual attraction and respect) with Colonel Hardy during the conflict between the military and the Kryptonians that eventually drives them to go out in a burst of glory during the finale. Perry White also has quite a prominent role here; not only does he bust Lois’s balls over daring to suggest the Daily Planet print a story about aliens, but he’s also less than impressed that she protects Superman’s identity and actually takes an active role in helping his staff (and others) during the cataclysmic finale. Lieutenant General Swanwick takes the lead in the military’s investigation of Superman; legitimately concerned and thrown off by the revelation that an alien has been living amongst them for thirty-three years, he treats Superman with a great deal of apprehension since he has such incredible power but acts independently of anyone’s interests, to say nothing of those of the United States government.

*Zod is a cruel and malicious warrior who is dedicated to ensuring the survival of the Kryptonian race.*

I do think that the film would have benefitted from a slight restructuring to allow for a time jump between Clark discovering his suit and Zod’s arrival; Clark is Superman for barely a day before the Kryptonians arrive to cause havoc, meaning his first real test is right in the deep end against a bunch of fanatical warriors and I think it would have benefitted the film (and the sequel) to have had a bit of a montage that showed him performing superheroic feats across the world and lay the seeds for the hope and fear his presence inspired in people. Kryptonian society is a little different to what we saw in the old films; genetic engineering is the norm, so everyone has a predefined role; while Clark, as the first natural-born Kryptonian in centuries, is the exception to this rule, General Zod is a warrior through and through whose desire to ensure Krypton’s survival drives him to extreme and devastating actions that he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. Having spent a great deal of time in exile and spurred by the perceived betrayal of his fellow Kryptonians, Zod is an interesting dichotomy; he’s both one-dimensional and multi-dimensional since he is fixated on ensuring Krypton’s survival and yet he’s genuinely hurt when Jor-El refuses to join forces with him in meeting this goal, and at being forced to fight against his old friend. Rather than being a criminal and a conqueror simply for personal glory, Zod seeks to terraform Earth and extract the Codex from Clark in order to rebuild Kryptonian society and is disgusted that Clark shares the same compassion and weakness as his father. As much as I was glad to see that Man of Steel avoided using typical Superman villains and devices like Lex Luthor and Kryptonite, I was a little disappointed that Zod was used as the main antagonist; Michael Shannon is amazing in the role, don’t get me wrong, exuding an intelligence and a malice that help him be as distinct from Terence Stamp’s memorable rendition of the character as Cavill is from Reeve, but I do think the film could’ve been largely the same, and actually somewhat superior, if Zod had been replaced with Brainiac. By taking influences from Superman: The Animated Series (1996 to 2000) and elements of the Eradicator and Zod’s fanatical fixation on rebuilding Kryptonian society, Brainiac could have helped the film stand out even more from its predecessors, and Michael Shannon could have brought the same calculating intensity to that role as he does to Zod, but I very much enjoyed how Zod was such a devious, manipulative, and brutal foe here.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Man of Steel owes more than a little to Nolan’s grounded and gritty take on Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy; like those films, Man of Steel is a very serious and thought-provoking deconstruction of easily the most iconic superhero in all of comicdom. The film is front-loaded with themes regarding destiny, nature/nurture, and realising oneself in a world that’s not as black and white as we’d like. More than ever, Superman and General Zod are presented as thematic opposites; while Zod is pained to have killed his friend and is acting only in the interest of preserving his long-dead society, Superman is determined to safeguard his world and others but has struggled for his entire life with finding the means to do so. Both Jor-El and Jonathan see him as a world-changing symbol of hope and the capacity to achieve something greater, and he even wears his family crest (the symbol of hope) as Superman, but a prevailing concern throughout the film (which later turns out to be true) is that humanity will stumble, to say the least, in their efforts to keep pace with him. As ever, Superman is accompanied by strong religious themes; one of Jonathan’s many worries about him exposing himself is how it will change humanity’s perception of their beliefs in both scientific and religious teachings, when Zod arrives Clark communes with a priest (Coburn Goss) before surrendering himself (fitting, considering his dialogue with Jor-El clearly evokes a conversation with the Creator), and of course Superman adopts the image of the crucifix before dashing off to rescue Lois’s escape pod.

*Superman, his enemies, the tech, and the entire film shines thanks to a strong visual identity.*

One of the benefits of bringing in Zack Snyder is his strengths as a visual storyteller; Man of Steel is beautifully shot, utilising a subdued colour scheme that gives the film a very tangible, grounded aesthetic. Shots of Krypton, and Superman, are given a suitably grandiose sheen, making for some of the most impressive flying sequences in a Superman film yet and ensuring that Superman makes a lasting impact every time he’s onscreen. Snyder is far from a subtle storyteller, however, though, here, his tendencies are clearly tempered by Nolan’s more measured and intellectual approach. Still, Snyder’s propensity towards spectacle and engaging visuals results in some harrowing sequences; one of the standouts is a dream-like confrontation between Superman and Zod where the Man of Steel sinks beneath the skeletal remains of billions of murdered humans. Superman’s powers are somewhat subdued here, potentially to maintain the grounded tone of the film; Superman exhibits superhearing, vision, and strength but he and the other Kryptonians primarily rely on their heat vision, superspeed, and flight rather than freezing breath. Thanks to fully utilising modern technology, Man of Steel has the best flying sequences of any Superman movie, taking the lessons learned in Superman Returns and cranking them up to eleven. Snyder loves him some dramatic camera zoom; it’s a little overused but actually makes it feel as though the camera is tracking the action and flying in real-time. Of course, I have to gush about Cavill’s super-suit; yes, debates will rage seemingly for all eternity about whether he should have trunks or not but this is, for me, the best Superman costume we’ve ever seen in live-action. The symbol is alien, and yet familiar, and the texture work is sublime. His cape is nice and long and flowing, making for some dramatic shots as it billows out behind him, and the colour grading allows it to be both colourful and realistic without being overly comic book-y. While the Kryptonian suits are all CGI, you’d never know it since they never appear to be fake; I love how they’re all garbed in this functional dark armour, which is a brilliant thematic and visual parallel between their dark designs for Earth and Superman’s heroism. Krypton and its technology are far more alien than is the norm, comprised of squid-like robotic aides, a sort of nanotechnology used for communication, and a life-like holographic projection of Jor-El that guides Superman and helps Lois. When Superman arrives on the Kryptonian ship and learns about his society, there’s a distinct visual contrast between himself and the world he knows on Earth and this unknown alien society, which is similar to ours but fundamentally different and far more advanced in so many ways.

*Metropolis is wrecked by the destructive conflict in scenes analogous to a disaster movie.*

Superman ultimately embraces aspects of both worlds by donning a Kryptonian suit and his father’s crest and using his powers to benefit his adopted world while also being mindful of his adopted father’s fears that society will never fully trust, or embrace, him due to how different he is. Thanks to having lived on Earth for his entire life, Clark has fully mastered all of the sensory bombardment that comes from his powers, however he’s still learning and is untested in operating in public. Onboard Zod’s ship, Superman is rendered powerless and as vulnerable as they are when exposed to Earth’s atmosphere, which initially causes them crippling pain. However, the Kryptonians are born and bred warriors, trained to master their senses and their environment, so quickly adapt to the atmosphere and the powers that come with it; they’re also far more adept at fighting than Clark, and not only outnumber him but have devastating terraforming technology at their disposal, meaning Superman faces a very real and formidable physical threat throughout the film. This results in Man of Steel being almost the exact opposite of Superman Returns, and its other predecessors, as it features more action, fight scenes, and depictions of gratuitous destruction than you could ever hope for…and it’s pretty freakin’ glorious! Even Jor-El gets in on the action, donning both the Superman suit and Kryptonian armour, blasting at Zod’s forces, flying through the battle that rages in Krypton’s sky, and even going toe-to-toe with Zod himself to help establish that Superman’s fighting spirit and defiance is potentially inherited from his father. The action is intense and brutal, with a huge area of Metropolis and Smallville being destroyed as Superman ploughs his opponents through buildings and Zod’s World Engine machine devastating the city with its energy cannon. This Superman is an extremely emotional and reactive character who flies into a rage and is determined to tackle his enemies using brute force, meaning untold collateral damage in the process that received a lot of backlash but is clearly evoking the imagery of cataclysmic events such as 9/11 to show how these God-like beings pose a real danger to the world. While I can’t deny that Snyder definitely went way overboard with the destruction caused during the finale (Metropolis literally looks like it’s been entirely wiped out at one point, and Superman sends Zod’s ship crashing right into the heart of the city, which absolutely killed thousands of people), Clark’s just become Superman and is being threatened by a formidable force who won’t listen to reason, so he’s not as experienced as his predecessor or comic book counterpart. Plus, I think it’s important to remember that Superman does make an effort, wherever possible, to save lives; hell, the entire reason Colonel Hardy learns to trust Superman is because he saved his life, and he pushes himself to the absolute limit to destroy the World Engine in the Indian Ocean, thus saving the entire world from destruction.

*Superman takes drastic action to end Zod’s threat and settles into his new life as an unassuming reporter.*

With his ship downed, his World Engine destroyed thanks to Superman and Hardy’s sacrifice, and his followers all dead, General Zod is left utterly devastated; he’s lost his world, the last remnants of his people, and his entire reason for living (nay, being) has been brought to ruins all because Superman, the son of his former friend and hated enemy, chose his adopted world over his birth planet. Fuelled by his rage, and his commitment to ensuring the greater good of his people, Zod flies into a brutal and merciless assault, resulting in a vicious battle between him and Superman through the remains of Metropolis. Thanks to the benefits of modern day effects, this fight isn’t restricted in the same way as the finale of Superman II was, allowing Superman and Zod to plough through buildings, tear through walls, smash through a Wayne Enterprises satellite in the upper atmosphere, and finally gives us the violent and exciting airborne fist fight we’ve wanted from a Superman film since seeing The Matrix Revolutions (Wachowski Brothers, 2003). Although the battle has already cost the lives of God-knows how many, Superman is ultimately faced with an impossible decision; trapped in a headlock, General Zod refuses to ever stop his destructive vendetta and threatens to immolate a nearby family with his heat vision, leaving Superman no choice but to break the fanatical Kryptonian’s neck to end his threat once and for all. Again, this sparked a great deal of controversy and I can fully understand that, but it’s not as if Superman hasn’t killed Zod before (he did it in Superman II (twice, actually) and famously did executed him the comics, too) and I would much rather have Superman forced to make that decision and then learn to deal with it rather than just sweep it under the rug because he’s supposed to “be better”. In the aftermath, Superman maintains that Swanwick will just have to trust that he’s there to help and isn’t a threat to humanity (something that, sadly, is a focal point of the sequel) and, in a move that I was genuinely surprised to see, goes to work with Lois at the Daily Planet. Considering how fast and loose Man of Steel played Superman’s identity, I was almost sure that Snyder would avoid using this trope but it is tradition, after all, and the film ends with the hope that the world will change for the better following Superman’s arrival (which, again, would be dashed in the sequel…)

The Summary:
After years of Superman being pigeon-holed into this outdated Silver Age characterisation as a God-like being forever embodied by Christopher Reeve, Man of Steel was a real breath of fresh air for the character and really changed the perception and portrayal of the character in interesting ways. I’ve said it before but playing Superman is no mean feat because Reeve cast a very long, dark shadow and comparisons will always be made between him and every actor to take on the tights and cape, but Cavill really brought a physicality and charisma that hadn’t been seen for some time. It helps that he’s an absolute beefcake, but his suit is incredible, and I enjoyed the deeper insight into his relationship with humanity and the burden of living up to the responsibility of his incredible powers. It’s maybe a bit too grounded and gritty and dour for a Superman film, especially as he’s meant to be a paragon of truth, justice, and the American Way, but I think it did a great job of introducing a new version of Superman to a new generation of audiences. The visual presentation and explosive action is an absolute spectacle; there’s a real sense of danger and consequence when Superman throws hands with his Kryptonian foes that may not be the most subtlest approach to take when it comes to disastrous events but absolutely makes for the most action-packed Superman film yet. Man of Steel is only bolstered by strong performances across the board; there’s a fantastic chemistry between Lois and Clark, Zod is a malicious and spiteful despot, and even the supporting actors all do a wonderful job of grounding this world and setting the stage for the coming DCEU. It’s a shame that so many people couldn’t get past the wanton destruction and more controversial aspects as there’s a lot to like here, and even more of a shame that Snyder (and Warner Bros.) squandered all the potential of this world with the follow-up by presenting Superman as a contentious figure and then killing him. While I have grown to despise die-hard Snyder fans and their antagonistic behaviour, I still really enjoy Man of Steel and am incredible happy with how it all came together to deliver a Superman much more in line with what I wanted to see onscreen.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Did you enjoy Man of Steel? What did you think to Henry Cavill’s performance as Superman and how do you think he compares to other live-action Superman? Did you enjoy the new interpretation of Krypton? What did you think to the extended discussion regarding Clark’s powers and place in the world? Did you enjoy the way the film handled his secret identity and the new suit? What did you think to this version of General Zod? Were you put off by the destruction and Zod’s execution or did you enjoy the more violent aspects of the film? What is your favourite Superman story, character, or piece of media? How did you celebrate Superman Day this month? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to share them below or leave a comment on my social media.

Movie Night: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

25/06/202303/07/2024Dr. K3 Comments

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
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Released: 22 May 2008
Director: Steven Spielberg
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $185 million
Stars: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, and John Hurt

The Plot:
When greaser Mutt Williams (LaBeouf) drops into his life with the news that his old friend, Professor Harold Oxley (Hurt), has gone insane and been captured by Nazi forces seeking the legendary Crystal Skulls, aging archaeologist and adventure-seeker Doctor Henry Jones Jr. (Ford), better known as “Indiana Jones” (or simply “Indy”), sets out on a life-changing rescue mission.

The Background:
Inspired by the pulp serials of his youth, George Lucas came up with the concept of Indiana Jones in the 1970s and, alongside director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford, produced the critical and commercial hit Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981), the controversially violent Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (ibid, 1984), and the highly-lauded (and highly profitable) third entry, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ibid, 1989) to create one of cinema’s most influential franchises. Lucas and Spielberg initially made a deal to make five Indiana Jones movies for Paramount Pictures but, when they struggled to come up with a suitable story for a fourth film, focus shifted to the prequel series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992 to 1993). While filming Harrison Ford’s cameo as an aged version of Indy for this series, Lucas was inspired by the concept of an older character tangling with B-movie-style aliens in the 1950s; although both Ford and Spielberg criticised the idea, Lucas pushed forward with a script, which would include the return of Sean Connery and Indy getting married, but the idea was summarily quashed upon the blockbuster release of Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996). However, by 2000, the idea was revived and refined to centre around the mysterious crystal skulls. Work on the script, and getting the project off the ground, stalled between 2002 and 2005 as the plot shifted away from the Nazis and towards the Cold War and, when filming finally began in June 2007, the production stayed firmly in the United States so Spielberg could stay close to his family. Although practical stunts and effects were emphasised to retain the style of the previous films, with the aging Ford still performing many of his own stunts, over 450 CGI shots ended up being incorporated to create the sci-fi elements and more dangerous aspects of the action, the quality of which was the subject of scathing criticism. Indeed, while Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’s $790.7 million worldwide box office made it a huge success, reviews were mixed; while the action sequences and lead performances were praised, its execution and effects were criticised. The film was openly mocked for its more over the top elements and even star Shia LaBeouf spoke out against the film, a decision he later came to regret and potentially impacted his future in the franchise. Despite the overwhelming negative reception of the film, a fifth entry was announced soon after the franchise fell under the vast umbrella of the Walt Disney Company to continue the series, for better or worse.

The Review:
Unlike many my age, I didn’t really grow up with the Indiana Jones movies; I’d seen bits of them, maybe all of one, as a kid but it wasn’t until I was a little older that I really started getting into them. For years, it was one of the great constants and reliefs of my life that we had these three movies, a pretty consistent trilogy that was largely well regarded, and that I didn’t have to worry about any re-releases taking up more of my time, space, or money. And then, out of nowhere, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came along. Almost twenty years after the last Indiana Jones adventure, in a climate where action cinema had not only changed so much but was on the cusp of exploding into fantastical superhero productions, Indiana Jones was set to return and I, like many, met this with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. Harrison Ford had aged pretty well but had largely moved on from his more action-orientated roles, to say nothing of outright disowning some of them, but the concept of an aging hero returning to the fold was becoming popular at the time and, like Lucas’s epic sci-fi series, Indiana Jones is as much a popular brand as it is a character so it was guaranteed to bring audiences in on the name alone. For me, this movie also offered the first chance I’d ever had to see an Indiana Jones adventure on the big screen, adding to its allure, despite my personal dislike for Shia LeBeouf and the scepticism I had about the film, negatives that ultimately came to influence my perception of the movie, especially compared to its predecessors.

*Though older and jaded, Indy still retains his adventurous spirit and curiosity despite the dangers.*

As ever, Indy’s reputation proceeds him; he’s specifically captured by the Russians because of his knowledge of Area 51 and, similar to the ending of Raider of the Lost Ark, is just as intrigued and excited by the secrets that are contained within it even when he has a butt-load of guns pointing at him. Seemingly having learned nothing after his experiences both on and, presumably, off-screen, Indy continues to scoff at superstitions and legends, particularly the idea of psychic powers, and is instead driven by the science and opportunity presented by such artefacts as the titular crystal skull. Interestingly, between movies, Indy was drafted into the war effort and contributed to the fight against the Axis Powers, coming out the other side with a war record and the rank of Colonel, indicating a development from a morally grey mercenary and tomb raider, to scholar and part-time government agent, to a fully-fledged and highly decorated patriot willing to go to war for his country. He’s thus understandably infuriated to be accused of treason thanks to his association with turncoat former MI6 agent George “Mac” McHale (Winstone), and with the shroud of secrecy and paranoia that has overtaken the American government since the war, especially concerning the Roswell incident that he was forced to advise on, and force both him and his friend, Dean Charles Stanforth (Broadbent), out of the university. Interestingly, Indy has noticeably grown in other ways; he’s more likely to consider the consequences of his actions and recognises the odds are against him now that he’s older, and also encourages his students to get out of the library, which is in stark contrast to his teachings from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Yet, at the same time, it seems Indy has resigned himself to his teaching; he’s taken away from the classroom against his will and even openly introduces and refers to himself as Henry Jones, Jr. rather than his more adventurous nickname. Indy remains as well-read and learned as ever; of course, in this case, it helps that he advised on the Roswell remains and that he has first-hand knowledge of the crystal skulls thanks to his former friendship with Harold Oxley. It’s because of this that he’s able to decipher Oxley’s riddles and begin the film’s globe-trotting adventure, one that seems him decoding the old man’s mad scribbles and notes very similar to piecing together the notes from his father’s diary in the last film.

*Rebellious greaser Mutt* *is stunned to learn this Indy is his real father.*

Thanks to being set in 1957, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull takes place during a time of free-spirited teenage rebellion; fun-loving kids take joyrides through the desert for a thrill, hang out at diners, and obsess over rock ‘n’ roll music. Accordingly, image and style are important to these youths, none more so than greaser Mutt Williams, a hot-headed upstart garbed in a leather jacket, infatuated with his slicked hair, and quick to defend his mother and himself from any perceived slights. Embodying a “too cool for school” attitude, Mutt was raised by his mother, Marion Ravenwood (Allen), without any knowledge of his true father; instead, he saw Oxley as father figure after his own father died in the war and has no idea that Oxley’s old protégé, Indy, is his real father. Of course, anyone with half a brain can see this twist coming a mile away but Indy remains oblivious for some time, meaning he and Mutt initially bond as peers; Indy encourages him to do his own thing and to follow his passions, advice he immediately retracts once he learns he’s Mutt’s father. As the youngest of the film’s protagonists, Mutt naturally takes centre stage in many of the action sequences; armed with a switchblade, the fighting spirit of youth, and willing to throw or ride into danger without a thought for the consequences, Mutt is very much the rebellious boy Indy was seen as by his own father. Though he’s still capable of holding his own in a fight, venturing into the field, and pulling off some insane tricks when his back’s against the wall, even Indy despairs of Mutt’s cavalier attitude; he’s of a generation that Indy doesn’t quite understand, forcing Indy into a scolding, cantankerous role of disgruntled mentor and father not entirely unlike the strict demeanour of Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery). While there’s a lot he admires about Mutt, the youngster is an emotional and volatile greaser who underestimates Indy’s skills and abilities and yet is dependent on his elder to figure out what happened to Oxley since mythology and history aren’t Mutt’s strength.

*Indy’s quest sees him betrayed and reunited with old flames and friends alike.*

Despite the tensions running throughout the United States and federal agents being quick to point the finger at him, Indy still isn’t short on allies; while the bumbling Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) and Indy’s own father have died between movies (proving once and for all that, despite vague allusions to the contrary, neither Henry or Indy were granted everlasting youth or immortality by the Holy Grail), Indy still has a friend at the university, one willing to put his own career on the line to at least keep Indy tenuously connected to the institute, and eventually comes to bond with Mutt despite them both being aghast to learn of their true heritage. Indy and Marion’s reunion goes about as well as in Raiders of the Lost Ark but is given an extra wrinkle by the fact that she managed to move on after him and has become determined to shield her son from following Indy’s reckless ways to the point where she’s very overprotective of him and reluctantly reveals that his true name is Henry Jones III only when she and Indy face imminent death from a dry sand pit. From there, she gets swept up in their adventure as Indy’s deciphering of Oxley’s mad ravings leads them through the hazardous Amazon jungle to the lost city of Akator, resulting in some heated exchanges and, ultimately, the rekindling of their romance as neither can deny the attraction they still feel and are united in their affection for Mutt. Indy is distraught after seeing his old friend and mentor’s mental state when reunited with him in Peru; driven mad by prolonged contact with a crystal skull, Oxley is little more than a raving lunatic, a fact that breaks Mutt’s heart and unsettles Indy, who scoffs at the legends and rumours surrounding the crystalline artefacts. While largely relegated to comic relief, more of Oxley’s true self begins to bubble to the surface as he sees Indy in action and his research proves crucial to locating Akator, though only Indy is able to make practical use of it since Oxley’s in no state to share his knowledge and his rantings are beyond the expertise of the Russians.

*Irina is determined to acquire the power of the crystal skull to dominate the minds and wills of others.*

In a nice change of pace, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull uses the Soviets as its primary antagonist rather than the Nazis; while functionally not too different, the Russian antagonists rely more on subterfuge and deception that blunt execution, posing as American military personnel to force their way into Area 51 and allowing Indy to do all the heavy lifting for them. The sense of distrust and geopolitical tension between these two superpowers is best embodied by Mac, an old ally of Indy’s from the Second World War who routinely betrays both friend and foe alike, his motivations never fully known, all to serve his own ends. Mac’s constant betrayals end up coming across more as a running gag and a constant annoyance; since we’ve never seen this character before, it’s hard to care when he turns on Indy and I can’t help but feel it might’ve meant more if this had been a character like Sallah (John Rhys-Davis) who we’d had a previous relationship with. His knowledge of Indy’s methods is invaluable to the alluring and menacing Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko (Blanchett), a cold-hearted Russian agent who seems to example some form of telepathy, or at least empathetic powers, in order to forcibly extract information from her victims. An efficient and driven individual, Irinia maintains her composure at all times, proving swift and deft with her rapier and maintaining an eerie, unblinking façade no matter what’s happening around her. With little time for Indy’s antics or pointless delays, Irina isn’t above slaughtering an entire people or threatening anyone and everyone that gets in her way, torturing Oxley and holding him captive to the point of driving him to near madness in her search for the fabled crystal skulls, with which she and her fellow comrades plan to brainwash the world into following their will. While we don’t really learn all that much about her, Irina has a strange allure to her; she and Indy have a bit of a love/hate relationship which means that actually work well together when figuring out Akator’s location, and they could’ve been allies or perhaps even lovers in another set of circumstances, but her ruthlessness and dreams of world conquest are decidedly at odds with Indy’s quest to return the crystal skull to is resting place so its masters can finally leave our world.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull seeks to evoke the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark, essentially tarnishing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as an aberration, a perpetual and unfortunate black sheep whose themes and presentation are secondary to the title font, structure, and narrative of the first movie. This means we not only get a classic Paramount Pictures logo, the return of the more subdued credits font, and a chance to see Indy teaching at the university, but also that the film explicitly references the first movie by finally exploring that secret government warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant was stored at the end of Raiders. To be fair, Indy still cuts an impressive figure despite his advanced age, but there’s a gruffness and weariness about him that’s to be expected now that he’s past his prime; he’s as adaptable as ever, maintaining his adventurous spirit and still capable of tackling multiple foes at once, but he’s much less optimistic about his odds and relies far more on elaborate tricks rather than his fists. Indeed, it’s telling that he barely uses his whip in this movie (though, to be fair, he didn’t use it much in Raiders…) and that there are numerous references to his age getting the better of him. These are played for laughs and give the character a sense of vulnerability and desperation that was either lacking or framed somewhat differently in the previous movies, where he was always flying by the seat of his pants, but do make me question the logic of portraying an older Indy in such an action-orientated fashion. Sure, Harrison Ford can clearly still go, or at least to the best of his ability, but recontextualising him in a way where he’s coming to the end of his adventurous ways (or, to put it another way, getting “too old for this shit”) and having to begrudgingly rely on Mutt in a twist on Indy’s relationship with his eccentric father might’ve been a better fit for me since I feel Indy’s character works best when he’s in his physical prime.

*The move really ups the ante into ridiculousness with its comical set pieces and action.*

This means that Indy is even more on the backfoot than ever before which, again, is great for crafting a wily and vulnerable action hero but can lead to him looking a little foolish at times as he’s dominated by physically fitter enemies and forced to rely on pratfalls like incinerating a bunch of soldiers using a rocket engine and causing a brawl at a diner to escape the Russkies. Although I consider it an under-rated entry in the franchise, even I cant deny that Temple of Doom went a little over the top with its cartoonish humour and action sequences, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has it beaten thanks to two notorious set pieces. The first sees Indy stumble into a makeshift town designed to test the effects of an atomic bomb; literally at ground zero, Indy chooses to ride out the blast by shutting himself in a lead-lined fridge freezer. Somehow, despite being blasted clear across town by the resulting explosion, Indy emerges with barely a scratch on him and then immediately stops to admire the immense mushroom cloud left by the explosion, surely undoing whatever protection this tactic would’ve granted him and resulting in a sequence that’s so over the top that it may as well be in orbit! Mutt certainly follows in his old man’s footsteps in this regard; not only does he lash out at the Russians without a clear plan in mind, he’s able to put his fencing skills to the test against Irina while…somehow…maintaining his balance between two vehicles as the jungle swats at his crotch. Although he puts up a decent fight, he’s massively outclassed by the Russian, and most foes; like his father, Mutt has wiles and guts but not the greatest finesse in a fight. Given when the film was made, and the reputation of George Lucas at the time, it’s no surprise that CGI is a huge part of the film; even seemingly innocuous elements, like rodents, monkeys, and army ants are now rendered using dated and largely cartoonish computer effects rather than the tried-and-true practical efforts of the previous films. To be fair, there are many practical effects, car chases, and fight sequences that are more in keeping with the previous movies, especially when Indy and Mutt are exploring the ruins in Peru and the ancient hieroglyphics of Akator, but many of these are unnecessarily “enhanced” by ugly CGI.

*Whether you accept the aliens’ presence in the film or not is really a matter of personal preference.*

It’s been said by many that one of the reasons Kingdom of the Crystal Skull doesn’t work is because of the central narrative involving aliens, an element that many feel doesn’t belong in an Indiana Jones. I’m not entirely convinced that this is true; yes, the previous movies all had a supernatural and paranormal bent, ones deeply entrenched in religion, but Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is expanding upon real-world myths and conspiracy theories, such as the Roswell spacecraft crash and the titular crustal skulls, which have long been believed by many to be extraterrestial in origin, and these elements are framed in a way that’s in keeping with the previous films, where elements such as voodoo and religious mythology were revered in an almost magical context. Ultimately, my issue isn’t that aliens were included; in fact, I quite enjoy the depictions of the creatures and their crafts, which is in keeping with sci-fi movies and stories of the time. No, my issue is in the execution of the aliens, especially in the finale, where they’re brought to life through some truly horrendous CGI, and the explanation that they are “interdimensional beings” from “the space between spaces”, as though the filmmakers backed out at the very last minute regarding the extraterrestial nature of these beings. Another butt-ugly sequence sees Spielberg abandon practical effects in favour of cartoonish CGI and an obvious overabundance of green screen during the jeep chase through the Amazon jungle. Here, disturbingly fake trees and hazards whip by in a blur and Mutt ends up ridiculously swinging from vines alongside a gaggle of moneys, with the only thing missing being a Tarzan scream, which blasts the realms of believability right out of the water.

*The aliens dispatch of Irinia and disappear, leaving Indy to undertake perhaps the greatest adventure yet…*

After overcoming a series of hazards each more comical than the last, including surviving three waterfalls and the aforementioned army ants, Indy and the others finally find the lost city of Akator, where they’re attacked by a tribe of savages. Thankfully, these primitives both revere and fear the crystal skull our heroes possess, allowing them to scale the overgrown pyramid-like temple and finally figure a way inside, where they’re met by a series of suitably thrilling boobytraps such as temporary stone platforms and a spike pit filled with less fortunate tomb raiders. Even Indy is awestruck by the collection of treasures held within but, while Mac loads himself up with as much gold as he can carry to satisfy his greed, Indy uses the skull to unlock a door to an impressive chamber seemingly made of gold and in which sit the crystalline skeletons of thirteen extraterrestrial visitors, one of which is missing its skull. Betrayed by Mac one last time, Indy and the others can only watch as the captivated Irinia enters the chamber and reunites the skeleton with its skull; speaking through Oxley, the creature offers to reward them and Irinia volunteers without hesitation, desperate to know the truth and the limits of the aliens’ powers and origins. She gets far more than she could’ve ever imagined, however, when the temple whirs to life, crumbling away around them; the Russkies are swept away to another dimension, Mac is unable to control his greed and perishes as a result despite Indy’s best efforts, and Irinia is so overwhelmed by the aliens’ true nature that she immolates into nothingness from the sheer awesomeness of their psychic power. Indy and the others are swept to safety by a sudden rush of water and can only watch in awe as the flying saucer disappears out of existence, the experience having returned Oxley to his senses and brought Indy and Marion back together. Indeed, after years of messing around and denying their feelings, the two finally marry in the finale, seemingly putting an end to Indy’s adventurous ways. However, as Mutt retrieves his father’s hat and prepares to don it for himself, Indy snatches it away at the last second with a cheeky smile, indicating that he’s not quite ready to pass the torch on to the next generation.

The Summary:
If there’s a word to describe Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it’s definitely “divisive”. Like many people, I came away from this movie feeling less than impressed and, even now, it’s my least watched of the entire franchise. Whenever it’s on television I avoid it and I went into this review fully expecting to give it a sold two-star summary, but I’m actually going to be a little lenient on it and bump it up to three stars. Is it perfect? No, not even a little bit. Is it on par with any of the previous movies? Absolutely not, but how much of that is down to nostalgia raising their quality in our eyes as fans of the franchise and its star? There are some good qualities to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; it continues the adventurous spirit of the previous films, expands and explores Indy’s character in new ways, and does a pretty good job of depicting him as a disgruntled, aging hero who’s suddenly forced into becoming the last thing he ever expected: a father. Mutt, in concept, is a pretty good counterpart to Indy; filled with the gusto of rebellious youth, he’s everything Indy isn’t and yet they share the same spirit and compliment each other well, despite my dislike for Shia LaBeouf. I enjoy the few practical effects employed in the movie and that the film uses new antagonists and goes down new avenues; even the idea of aliens being the focal point of the film is intriguing to me. However, some of the execution is flawed and it definitely hobbles the film; the CGI, some of the characterisations, and the decision to even depict an older Indy chief amongst them. Yet, I quite enjoyed this latest watch of it; it’s definitely got way more issues than any of its predecessors but it’s entertaining enough for what it is, though I’d still recommend you just re-watch The Last Crusade again instead.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Are you a fan of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? What did you think to the idea of an aging Indy? Which of the film’s more ridiculous aspects annoyed or entertained you the most? Were you a fan of Mutt and the idea of Indy being a father? What did you think to the incorporation of aliens into the franchise, and do you think they are suitable for an Indiana Jones film? If not, what would you have preferred to see in their place? What is your current ranking of the Indiana Jones movies? Whatever you think about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, feel free to share your memories of Indiana Jones in the comments or on my social media.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Fantastic

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Terrible

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My Rating:

Fantastic

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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