Monthly Archives: March 2024

Mar 29 2024

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Is Pure Goofy Fun!

Well, no one can say Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire can be compared to Godzilla Minus One, but it was still fun.

The latest film installment in the Monsterverse cinematic universe reunites everyone’s favorite kaijus Godzilla and King Kong, who last faced each other in Godzilla vs. Kong. That film left the two titans living in two different worlds: Kong in an underground realm called Hollow Earth while Godzilla remained on the surface and as the undisputed king of the monsters. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire takes place a few years later where Godzilla starts stomping around the world, destroying cities while battling other kaijus, and absorbing radiation to charge himself up. This catches the attention of the Monarch Organization, which monitors the behemoth kaijus throughout the world that have made their presences known in the Monsterverse.

Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) is a linguist at Monarch with an adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who is the sole remaining member of her tribe that lived on Skull Island. Jia has been having visions that serve as a warning and Ilene recruits a podcaster, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), to decipher Jia’s visions, He figures out that the visions are a distress signal from Hollow Earth. Meanwhile, down below on Hollow Earth, Kong is trying to find other giant apes like him and eventually discovers a tribe of such apes, but they are hostile and ruled by a giant, red-furred tyrant called the Skar King.

After King Kong comes up to the surface world to get his tooth infection taken care of by a free-spirited veterinarian called Trapper (Dan Stevens)—yes, that actually happened, Ilene, Jia, Bernie and Trapper voyage to Hollow Earth to find the source of the distress call. Once there, the four run into the last remaining members of Jia’s tribe who are telepaths and they learn that long ago, the Skar King and his ape tribe tried to conquer the surface world, fought Godzilla and were trapped in Hollow Earth.

During his encounter with the giant ape tribe, Kong is bested by the Skar King and is forced to flee with his new-found friend, Suko, a young, red-furred giant ape that is patterned after Grogu or Baby Groot. The human quartet from the surface world run into Kong who was badly injured during his fight with the Skar King and his forces. As Trapper treats Kong, the rest have to find a way to get Godzilla back to Hollow Earth to help Kong fight the Skar King, who plans to escape to the surface to conquer it.

Yes, this admittedly sounds goofy, and it is. But Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is so damn entertaining and it’s simply a fun watch that is fast paced and exciting. Basically, this is the quintessential film for you to turn off your brain, not question the film’s logic and just go with it. By the end of the film, anyone will be rooting for our heroes during the climatic battle with the Skar King and his minions. That battle was actually pretty epic and the film is a throwback to the more juvenile Godzilla films from the ‘60s and ‘70s that we all enjoyed as kids. The script is obviously the weakest part of the film, but everything else was well done. Who cares about collateral damage as famous landmarks and cites are destroyed as these giants tussle? How many people were killed as King Kong and Godzilla faced off in Cairo? Never mind that the Pyramids of Giza were destroyed! Or that the film copies elements from popular films and TV shows like The Avengers or The Mandalorian. Leave those concerns home and keep munching your popcorn as the film makes you feel like a little kid again. This is the kind of film to not think too deeply about and have a laugh-filled blast.

The actors give it their all with their limited character development, while King Kong is the clear star of the film.  His dialogue-free scenes give him a lot of pathos as the lonely giant gorilla tries to find others of his kind and dealing with the fact that when he does so it was not what he expected. Godzilla’s screen time was not as prominent as in other Monsterverse films, but that’s okay. His scenes are awesome to watch, although some of them were silly like when he uses the Roman Coliseum as his resting place to get some shuteye. Yet, he and Kong still inspire much respect whenever they display the full might of their power.

While Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is just goofy, surface-level fun, it is unfortunate that the film came out after the more serious Godzilla Minus One and even Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the TV show set in the Monsterverse and is required viewing for fans of the film franchise. It can be too easy to dismiss these kaiju films especially the ones from the Monsterverse as silly nonsense, but they can achieve a more mature and thoughtful tone, which was seen with the first Monsterverse film, 2014’s Godzilla. Of course, many complained that that film was too serious and didn’t feature enough monster destruction. Fair enough, but it seems as if the recent offerings have swung too hard in the other direction to the point that they cannot be taken seriously. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters struck a fine balance and if more Monsterverse films are made they should emulate the mood of the TV show. The filmmakers should aim for something higher instead of playing it safe and reveling in epic kaiju battles. But enough of that griping, just go see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and have some fun.  

Mar 17 2024

Regarding MCU’s Cancelled Projects

The big news this past week regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was that Disney cancelled a few MCU projects that were being prepared as a way of getting MCU and Marvel Studios back on its feet. What was noticeable about the news was that the projects included followups to Eternals, Captain Marvel and Ant-Man. There are also reports that long-announced projects like Ironheart and Armor Wars are also on the chopping block. While it is understandable why they have been cancelled, there is also some cause for concern.

The reasoning behind the cancellations was that Marvel Studios should focus on projects based on popular characters that will be guaranteed hits like Spider-Man, the Avengers and the X-Men. It makes sense but it just means that Marvel Studios will be forced to play it safe. It’s a shame because Marvel Comics has a huge plethora of intellectual property to mine from. To just go back and do films and TV shows about the same characters over and over again runs the risk of over-relying on them. Then you wind up with the situation Warner Bros. has with its DC characters where the only thing the company focuses on are numerous Batman films and related TV shows. Of course, these film studios need hits and it doesn’t hurt to rely on what works to fund future projects, but doing so risked overusing certain characters and diluting their appeal in the long run.

By playing it safe, Marvel Studios will avoid taking risks and approving projects based on lesser-known Marvel characters. This is understandable given the time and money that will be used to produce films and TV shows on characters few have heard of. But if Marvel Studios always followed this mentality we never would have gotten Guardians of the Galaxy. Back when that film was first announced, many were convinced that it would be Marvel Studios’ first flop. After all, few people heard of the characters who were outlandish. A talking raccoon? A walking tree? These doubters were sure no one would pay money to see films featuring such bizarre characters. But as we all know, the film was a huge hit and turned the Guardians of the Galaxy into beloved household characters.

Marvel Studios has tried to replicate the success of Guardians of the Galaxy with other lesser-known properties to varying results. For every Black Panther there was Eternals. While not everything Marvel Studios tried worked out, this does not mean that the film studio should avoid experimenting and trying out new characters. This will pay off for the film studio in the long run. Just look at the Scarlet Witch. When she first debuted in Avengers: Age of Ultron, she had an impact but her popularity did not truly take off until WandaVision years later. That show was so popular that it has spun off a couple of its characters into their own film and TV show, that being Photon and Agatha Harkness. Unfortunately, Photon’s film The Marvels flopped and Agatha: Whatever is the Subtitle still hasn’t streamed yet, so the jury is out on the TV show. However, the failure of The Marvels cannot be blamed on the character of Photon. The same would have to go with the other main characters in that film and going further with Nick Fury in Secret Invasion or Ant-Man in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Those projects failed but it was not because of the characters. They had their own issues and the characters were mostly well received in other appearances.

Thankfully, Marvel Studios will continue to utilize these characters in other projects. For instance, Ant-Man is supposed to appear in the next Spider-Man film and the next Avengers film. With Eternals, even though that film won’t get a proper sequel, the characters and events from the film are rumored to be incorporated into the next Avengers film. It would make sense that if the fifth Avengers film is no longer about Kang the Conqueror then it could be a cosmic-based film that features the Eternals and even the Guardians of the Galaxy in a loose adaptation of the Annihilation storyline from Marvel Comics (this was the comic book event that introduced the modern incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy that we think of). Some creative scripting could have the events of the cosmic plot in that Avengers film continue the Incursion/Multiverse arc and lead into Avengers: Secret Wars.

Marvel Studios should not hesitate with continuing to introduce new characters all the time in their films and TV shows. Although not all of them will take off in popularity, they should be featured to at least test the waters and see how they are received.

Maybe after a few hits under its belt, Marvel Studios will once again take creative chances with Marvel’s other characters. After all, the richness of the vast Marvel Universe deserves to be fully explored for MCU fans.

Mar 9 2024

A Brief Look Back At David Lynch’s Dune

Dune is a classic 1965 novel by Frank Herbert that chronicles a feudal family, House Atreides, in the far future that gains control of the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune) that has a precious substance called The Spice. They are betrayed by the Emperor of the Known Universe, who conspires with their hated rival House Harkonnen, to seize the planet and kill off the Atreides leader Duke Leto, while his concubine Jessica and son Paul escape to the desert. They ally with the native people know as the Fremen and rebuild their empire with Paul becoming the Fremen’s long awaited messiah to lead them to freedom.  

This complicated story has been adapted several times, most recently by Denis Villeneuve with his two-part film adaptation. The very first live-action film adaptation of Dune, however, was done by famed director David Lynch in 1984, whose take on the material was interesting if not always accurate to the book. The lavish production and look of the whole thing was a highlight as well as its all-star cast. Twin Peaks lead Kyle MacLachlin starred as Paul Atreides, and other stars included Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif, Jurgen Prochnow, Dean Stockwell, and Sting.

The film was basically the same as the book, but there were deviations from it. Most notable was the inclusion of a sound weapon used by the Atreides to battle the Harkonnens. This doesn’t appear in the original book and was somewhat weird to see on the screen. The ending was basically the same but had one crucial difference. After vanquishing the Harkonnen heir, Feyd Rautha, played by a manic Sting, Paul takes control of the empire, and then makes it rain on Arrakis. This is strange as in the book, Paul doesn’t have any magical powers, he just pretends to in order to fulfill the Fremen prophecy of being their “Voice from the outer world”. Nevertheless, Dune as a whole was a good retelling of Herbert’s intriguing tale of outer space intrigue, religion, politics and conflict. 

The special effects were somewhat of a mixed bag. The overall look of everything was very good and had the feeling of the book coming to life, but some of the scenes with the enormous sandworms on Dune and the Spacing Guild navigators do look dated. The costumes were both strange and exotic which was appropriate given that the story takes place tens of thousands of years in the future, although the Imperial Sardarkar troops look like they’re wearing garbage bags.

Dune was a struggle to make for Lynch, and subsequently there was an extended edition made without his approval that aired on television. This longer version removed his name from the credits at his insistence and featured new footage and a different opening that explained more of what happened in the years before the film with paintings and a husky voiced narration. This was nice to see for fans of the book who were familiar with what was being described, such as the Great Revolt against thinking machines, but casual viewers might be baffled by it, as some were by the theatrical version. This was probably due to the time constraints of fitting in the whole book into a 2 1/2-hour film. It was inevitable that many of the details of the novel would be lost.

A later TV adaptation on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2000 rectified this as a three-part mini-series that lasted over four hours. This version, sometimes called Frank Herbert’s Dune, was able to be more faithful to the novel, albeit with a lower budget as seen with some of the background scenes that looked like paintings in some instances. The latest adaptations in 2021 and now this year have wisely spilt the book into two parts to have a story that retains much of the book as well as the feel of a big budget, Hollywood production. This seems to be the best of both worlds and their success bodes well for the Dune franchise.

Overall, David Lynch’s Dune does a good job of showcasing Frank Herbert’s story. Lynch basically washed his hands of it after issues with the film studio Universal, but I see it as one of his better films. While it has its flaws, it is still a quality science fiction film that is interesting to watch and still holds a place in the franchise as an alternative look into what happened to the Atreides family in their epic struggle against the Harkonnens and a very unique window into the fascinating Dune universe.

C.S. Link

Mar 3 2024

Dune, Part Two Is Truly An Epic Cinematic Experience

Visionary director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Part Two concludes his epic live-action adaptation of the sci-fi classic novel, Dune, with a sweeping flourish. At the same time, by splitting the adaptation into two films Villeneuve is able fully flesh out the scope of the novel, which was impossible to do with just one film, as we saw with David Lynch’s film from 1984.

Picking up immediately after the first film, Dune, Part Two, further develops the saga of young Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides (Timothée Chamolet), the heir to House Atreides and future messiah to the Fremen people of the planet Arrakis. Now, it must be said that you need to have seen Dune, Part One, or be at least aware of the situations in the story. Basically, in the far future, humanity has spread throughout the universe with the aid of a substance called spice mélange that enables humans to perform complex intergalactic navigation. This spice can only be produced on the desert planet called Arrakis, which becomes the center of a dispute between two royal houses, House Atreides and House Harkonnen. In the first film, the Atreides were assigned by the emperor of the Known Universe to administer Arrakis and harvest the spice, but they were ambushed by the forces of the Harkonnens. This led to the death of Paul’s father, Duke Leto, and with the downfall of his House. By the end of the first film, Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) fled to the deep desert and were adopted by the nomadic Fremen.

If any of this sounds complex, then you are correct, and there is much more to the story. This complexity has made the novel nearly impossible to adapt in the past, yet Denis Villeneuve was able to pull it off while adding his own stamp to the story. It’s similar to what Peter Jackson was able to do with his adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Where the first Dune film was devoted to setting up the complex worldbuilding and multiple characters, the second film centers on Paul’s rise to power as the Kwisatz Haderach, the messianic savior of the Fremen who will liberate their world from outside forces. However, Paul is wracked with doubt because of prophetic visions he has that reveal that billions of people throughout the universe because of his followers. In Dune, Part Two, Paul ingratiates himself to the Fremen and rises to prominence among them as they fight the Harkonnen forces on Arrakis as many of them see him as the fulfillment of the Kwisatz Haderach prophecy. He also begins a romantic relationship with Chani (Zendaya), a brave and lethal Fremen fighter who is skeptical of the Fremen’s religious deference to Paul and even the Fremen religion. It is revealed that the religion was developed by Lady Jessica’s matriarchal order the Bene Gesserit in order to control the Fremen.

Like the novel, the films, especially Part Two, explore the perils of religious fanaticism as it blinds followers who will only see what they want to see. In this case, despite Paul’s early protestations that he is not their savior, many Fremen refuse to heed him and twist their logic to justify their beliefs. The analogies to today’s religious strife are quite obvious and damning but illuminating. Even more incredible is that how closely the film translates the same cautionary themes about religion from Frank Herbert’s novel which came out over 50 years ago, and demonstrates the timeless nature of the book.

There are a few distinct departures from the novel that won’t be spoiled but may upset Dune fans, but the basic plot structure of the novel remains, such as Paul’s development, and the intergalactic politics that turns its attention to the barren Arrakis that turns out to be the most important world in the universe. For non-fans who enjoy rich and intricate political storylines, Dune is basically Game of Thrones set in space, except that it should be the other way around since Dune novel came out decades before the fantasy epic.

While Villeneuve was able to successfully translate the dense story, what is even more impressive with Dune, Part Two is its epic nature that puts other adaptations to shame. Many of its visuals are clearly inspired by Lawrence of Arabia, which itself has many of the same themes as with Dune: an outsider who joins desert people and becomes their liberator.

The visuals and cinematography are just gorgeous to witness, as they engross you completely into the rich alien worlds. Also impressive were the performances by the actors who imbue their characters with complexity. Along with Chamalet and Zendaya, Javier Bardem as the Fremen leader Stilgar and Austin Butler as the psychotic Feyd-Rautha Harkonen were excellent in their roles. Many scenes were heart stopping and instantly iconic, like Paul’s first ride on a giant sandworm, the Fremen attack on the Harkonnens or Paul’s duel with Feyd-Rautha. Together, all these elements have been able to create a true cinematic experience that will be remembered for years to come and prove that serious sci-fi can be a vehicle for a complex and enriching film.

Summing up, Dune, Part Two is one of the very best sci-fi films ever made thanks to its complex themes and visual richness that rivals the greats. Needless to say, it must be experienced on the biggest screen possible.

José Soto