Elysium – another great sci-fi from Bloomkamp

Forget JJ Abrmas or Christopher Nolan, Neill Blomkamp is the king of modern day sci-fi blockbusters. Weaving together story and spectacle in two hours of pure joy, the director confirms his position on top of the pile in only his second film.

Set in 2154, Earth has been devastated by disease and overpopulation. The wealthy have left the planet to live on the luxury hotel in space that is Elysium, controlled by a vicious Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster) with the help of mercenary Kruger (Sharlito Copley), who lives on Earth as a sleeper agent. Worker bee Max (Matt Damon) is left with five days to live after a work accident on Earth, forcing him to take desperate measures to get to Elysium illegally, where medical pods can cure his illness. With the help of a team of smugglers and hackers, Max obtains data that could cripple Elysium, making him a very wanted man.

Elysium has some of the best effects work seen in cinema. So good it’s often not noticeable, a credit to designers and director that their computer work merges so well with the actor’s world. From the favela filled skyscrapers on Earth to robotic soldiers that enforce the strict law, every effect is perfect and never once distracts. Despite the heavy use of effects Bloomkamp still fills his frame with characters, even when fighting in a robotic exoskeleton he doesn’t cut to CG action, instead letting his actors earn their wage throwing punches. This is how entertainment should be made. Blue screens are never noticeable, the future world design is flawless and the story moves at breakneck speed. Pure entertainment.

It’s not perfect. Jodie Foster’s character only really serves to aid a convenient but overly coincidental plot thread, Sharlito Copley’s Kruger loses his appeal in the second half when Bloomkamp gives him way too much screen time and the view we get of the world is restricted to only LA, leaving us to wonder how the rest of the world is faring. Not perfect and not as unique or gritty as District 9, but for only his second feature length film this is a very strong big budget film from Bloomkamp.

Bloomkamp delivers, Matt Damon delivers and a brilliant design team delivers. There is no reason to not see this film.

4 out of 5

The Lone Ranger – Ignore the bad press, go see

This film was a failure before we even saw it. Critics prepared for the worst as budgetary concerns delayed and eventually shut down production of a remake of the 50s Western TV show. When it eventually hit our screens critics mauled it and it now looks certain to be a box office flop. It’s a shame really, because ‘The Lone Ranger’ does more for summer blockbusters than all the rest of the season’s releases combined.

In 19^th century Texas John Reid (Armie Hammer) returns home on the newly built railroad. Trained as a lawyer Reid aims to ensure all criminals are given a fair trial, something his brother and Texas Ranger Dan Reid (James Badge Dale) doesn’t quite agree with, as he sets out in pursuit of ruthless outlaw Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner). When Cavendish attacks Dan and his men John finds himself paired up with Tonto (Johnny Depp) a mischievous Native American in pursuit of Cavendish and whatever justice they can get.

It’s the team that brought us ’Pirates of the Caribbean’, but don’t let that put you off. Unlike the weak Orlando Bloom in Pirates; Depp is matched evenly with Hammer, who delivers a great performance as the masked hero. The two work great together and it’s a shame we probably won’t see any sequels because this really is the best ‘buddy cop team’ in quite some time. Along with a very odd horse they make an extremely watchable bunch of good guys.

The budget for this film was huge, over $200 million dollars, and while it might not look as rich and detailed as something like Avatar, the filmmakers make a brave choice of using mostly really sets and stunts. It is refreshing to see after all the green screen and CGI we’ve become use to, and while there is still some on show, it never dominates the set pieces which always have the characters at their core. The opening and closing train chases are some of the best action cinema has seen in a long time. Director Verbinski never relies on the over use of editing and speeded up fights that has been unfortunately dominant in recent blockbusters.

It’s far from perfect. The middle section lacks the excitement of the beginning and end with encounters and set pieces that never really take off. The framing method used to tell the story of a young child talking to an elderly Tonto only serves to interrupt, a more straight forward narrative might have worked better. However they are minor quibbles in what truly is a return to form for the summer blockbuster.

It’s sad we won’t see more of these as this is a delight. Great use of sets, locations and actors has produced the most fun film of the summer, but instead of reaping praise it’s been judged on its troubled production and left to fail at the box office. Ignore the naysayers, go see.

4 out of 5

Only God Forgives – remove all pointy things from your home

The one thing I learnt from Only God Forgives is to have less pointy things in my home. This is violent, very violent. It feels excessive and extremely uncomfortable, but it’s honest about what violence actually is. Every punch hurts, and every pointy thing causes tremendous pain.

Ex-pat American criminal brothers Billy (Tom Burke) and Julian (Ryan Gosling) run a Thai-boxing club in Thailand as a cover for their illegal activity. After Billy is killed in retaliation for killing a young girl, the brothers mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) arrives from America to supervise the vengeance of his death. After hearing of the circumstances surrounding the murder, Julian makes a moral choice to walk away, knowing his brother done something horrible. Crystal refuses to let it go though, and pursues her own justice, putting out a hit on the dangerous Lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) a sword wielding karaoke singer.

This is a sequel to Drive. Don’t let Director Nicolas Winding Refn tell you otherwise. If not Ryan Gosling is wasting his time, as he plays the exact same character again. He dresses the same, talks the same, has the same body language, he is the same. This is in no way at all a new creation artistically by Gosling. He’s fine, as 99% of his performance is just staring blankly at the camera while the real stars; the lighting and design, are shown off.  Only God Forgives looks glorious, every room drowned in blood red light and every piece of wallpaper stencilled to perfection. It’s a marvel of cinematography that will leave a longer impression with you than anything else in the film.

Winding Refn has some good ideas floating around here, especially about parenting. Lieutenant Chang blames a prostitute’s father for her gruesome death, believing his bad parenting drove her into a dangerous profession, and punishes him for her death. We see in his home life he is extremely protective and loving of his own child. Meanwhile Julian has a very dysfunctional relationship with his own mother, demonstrated in the films stand out scene when he takes a prostitute to meet his mother for dinner. They’re all interesting ideas, but they only get mentioned. After that Winding Refn throws them in the back for a dream sequence or extreme violence. It is the old cliché, of style over substance.

There is plenty to love though. Scott Thomas is brilliantly nasty as Crystal, and Pansringarm as Chang is a menacing force of a man. The set pieces are all excellent, and what little dialogue there is is excellent, making you wish there was more. Winding Refn has taken Drive, added a splash of Twin Peaks, and moved it to Thailand. It is very very uncomftorable at times, but still a stylistically impressive piece of film making.

3 out of 5

Pacific Rim – not a disaster but del Toro should be more productive with his time

Everyone seems to realise Pacific Rim is a great big B-movie except its actors. Maybe it was lost in translation from director Guillermo del Toro but some very bad actors try their best to be serious, failing to realise the audience don’t really care about their personal challenges. Why? Because there’s a giant monster doing battle with a giant robot outside.

An alien race of skyscraper sized monsters, or Kaijus as their known in the film, open a portal to our world deep in the Pacific Ocean. After attacks on major cities killing thousands of people, the world’s governments team together to create the Jaeger program, building giant robots manned by two pilots whose minds are connected. These robots meet the Kaiju in battle and punch it out. As the attacks increase and the Jaegers start to lose, commanding officer of the program Pentecost (Idris Elba) is given one last chance to prove the Jaeger’s worth and finally close the portal to their world, or else the program will be abandoned and the world will face uncertainty.

Taking on the criticism of a lot of recent blockbusters, Del Toro slows down the action. Every move is visible and every connecting punch felt. The battles are mainly clumsy and slow, a nice change from the incomprehensible speeded up action of Man of Steel and Iron Man 3. They do mainly take place out at sea or in the rain at night, making visibility not always great. A daytime fight may have been difficult to film without bringing up memories of Transformers, but it would have been more impressive and memorable than the battles in the second half of the film that do get repetitive.

Del Toro is a great director; he proved that with Pan’s Labyrinth. Why he is still making a film like Pacific Rim is a mystery to me. There is no story, no script and no heart to this film. It is all entirely one act and while never boring, it is rather pointless for a director deemed a visionary who could have his choice of much better scripts to spend his time on.

The design and lighting are all spot on, everything is technically brilliant here. What let’s Pacific Rim down is the casting and lack of script. The only ones that seem to realise they are in what is basically a cartoon are Charlie Day as a scientist trying to connect to the Kaiju’s brains, and Ron Perlman as a shady dealer of Kaiju body parts on the black-market. Everyone else is terrible, including a sleepwalking Idris Elba, who is usually brilliant. There is no humour in the main cast who play the whole thing straight and sterile.

It has robots fighting monsters, it won’t disappoint on that side. What it doesn’t have is anything to connect to, or a script. Hopefully del Toro will get some balls and choose a decent script for his next film. He can do better.

2 out of 5