Category Reviews

Oct 4 2024

The Wild Robot’s Emotional Story Almost Overwhelmed My CPU

It’s no hot take that DreamWorks Animation (DreamWorks) always knocks it out of the park when it comes to adapting beloved books into unforgettable movies, and The Wild Robot is no exception. Every single decision that led to the finished product was nearly perfect and it really feels like the people behind this movie’s creation, such as director Chris Sanders (who directed Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon), poured their whole hearts and souls into developing this film, which makes sense since this is sadly the last in-house animated film for DreamWorks. I highly recommend The Wild Robot to everyone who reads this review to go out there and see it in theaters because it deserves the love and the theater experience for this one was definitely unique. This review will be split into 4 parts.

STORY

The story follows a lost robot named ROZZUM Unit 7134 (“Roz”, voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) as she finds her way around an island entirely inhabited by wild animals. She is programmed to be an aide and seeks to offer her services to the animals as part of her pre-programmed goals before she can activate a beacon to be picked up by her manufacturers. As Roz explores the island, it becomes clear that she is unable to communicate with the animals, so she spends months listening in on their conversations and is eventually able to hear and speak in their tongue.

Along the way, she unofficially adopts a baby gosling named Brightbill (Kit Connor) after she accidently kills his family. Having a new purpose, Roz must help raise the gosling to be prepared for the upcoming winter season when the geese migrate off the island. During their time together, Brightbill sees Roz has his mother while Roz begins to develop genuine emotions and is conflicted with her protocol to leave the island after her task of raising Brightbill is completed.

This movie’s story is genuinely amazing and almost made me tear up 3 separate times in only the first two acts. DreamWorks did such a phenomenal job at delivering a heartfelt story that is so emotionally rich that you feel somewhat of a bond with the characters in this film. My only issue, if I absolutely had to have one, was that the pacing was very quick, like whiplash quick. But surprisingly, unlike many other films with fast pacing, this film somehow made it work and it didn’t feel too off-putting. Every plotline progressed off the previous one and every scene felt more action packed and engaging than the last.

CHARACTERS

The characters are well written in The Wild Robot. To start, Roz is a complex character and is able to feel emotions that robots shouldn’t; she is instantly one of my favorite DreamWorks protagonists. She has a heart of steel that comes from her programming where she is unable to harm other living things despite what they think of her. She is unyielding in whatever task has been assigned to her and refuses to give up even in the most impossible scenarios.

Throughout the film, Roz is accompanied by a mischievous and unpopular local fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal) who is sly and has no problem with lying but is also willing to help others who are mentally and physically vulnerable. He is also a really funny supporting character and has great chemistry with both Roz and Brightbill. As the adopted child of Roz, Brightbill is an adorable and inspiring goose that overcomes all odds against him. We get to see him grow from baby to young adult in mere moments, but it feels as if we were with the family every step of the way.

Brightbill’s journey was more difficult than it was for those around him because he is a runt and had an unusual upbringing, but he proved everyone who doubted, and even bullied him, wrong. There are many other supporting characters that played

into their roles really well, such as the stoic and tough owl, Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames), who helps teach Brightbill how to fly, the gentle and wise Longneck (Bill Nighy), the leader of the island geese who welcomes Brightbill into his flock, and a crusty but helpful beaver named Paddler (Matt Berry). These and other minor characters get their moments to shine throughout the film and add to the rich tapestry of characters throughout the film.

SOUND DESIGN

The sound design in The Wild Robot is stellar and every voice actor knocked it out of the park. To start with the soundtrack, it included very strong and epic music that complimented certain key scenes very well, adding onto the layers of immersion this film has. The two original songs featured in this film are amazing and I recommend listening to both of them (“Kiss the Sky” and “Even When I’m Not” by Marren Morris). The voice acting is phenomenal and every character’s actors were chosen perfectly.

My personal favorites were Lupita Nyong’o as Roz, Kit Connor as Brightbill, Pedro Pascal as Fink, and Bill Nighy as Longneck. The original score only amplifies the experience of watching this movie, as it makes every scene either emotional, casual, or heart-pounding.

ART AND ANIMATION

The only word to describe the art style of this movie is gorgeous; this is without a doubt one of the best-looking animated movies ever made. The art style is a mixture of natural landscapes, watercolor strokes, and the wonderous joy of storybook pages. Every character looks so high quality that I wanted to personally thank every person in charge of developing this fantastic identity. The animation is astonishingly brilliant and it’s so good that every frame of animation could by captured as a photo and used for marketing material. The people who worked so hard to animate Roz’s fluidic, yet robotic movements deserve so much praise. The backgrounds and landscaping are also beautiful; there is this one shot that involves Roz being in front of a giant moon in the background that I cannot stop thinking about because it was such an amazing shot. I am probably rambling on about the art and probably sound like a broken record, but that’s how much I genuinely love the work put into making this movie shine so visually.

CONCLUSION

The Wild Robot is an unforgettable and story-rich adventure that no one will want to miss. Its story is unique, the characters are lovable, the sound design is elite, and the animation is easily one of the best of this decade so far. This DreamWorks movie is one of its best and it is a shame that this marks the end of in-house animated movies for the company. I am usually not one to advocate for sequels, especially in an age where they get more and more mediocre, but I really would not be opposed to seeing another two movies based on the other books in the Wild Robot trilogy by author Peter Brown. Be sure to watch The Wild Robot, out now in theaters!

Angelo Soto

Aug 18 2024

Alien: Romulus Brings The Alien Franchise Back To Basics

The Alien films have had its share of stumbles with the last few films in the franchise. Director Ridley Scott’s recent attempts at expanding the lore of the franchise had mixed results with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. After Alien: Covenant did little to reinvigorate the franchise, it seemed as if the franchise would go dormant. Thankfully, this is not the case with this weekend’s release of Alien: Romulus and the upcoming TV show, Alien: Earth.

Alien: Romulus succeeds where most of the films in the franchise have failed with its back-to-basics approach that emphasizes horror and favors the use of practical special effects. Even though, there is CG used in the film, it’s usage is restrained and blends nearly flawlessly with practical effects. However, what makes the film stand out is the tight, claustrophobic atmosphere created by director Fede Alvarez, which harkens back to the original Alien.

The film opens with a spaceship probe finding the floating wreckage of the Nostromo from the first Alien film. Among the wreckage the ship recovers the fossilized body of the alien xenomorph that was ejected into space at the end of Alien.

Alien: Romulus shifts ahead to a mining colony on the planet, Jackson’s Star, and Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), a young miner who is desperate to leave the colony along with her adoptive brother Andy (David Jonnson), an artificial being who is an older model of the artificial beings featured in other Alien films. After her attempts to legally leave the planet fail, she is approached by her friend Tyler (Archi Renaux) to help him and his crew of his ship, the Corbelan, to raid a derelict space station that entered the planet’s orbit, but will soon crash. The crew of the Corbelan consists of Tyler’s sister, Kay (Isabela Merced), his abrasive cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and the ship’s pilot, Navarro (Aileen Wu). Like Rain, Tyler and his crew hope to leave the planet but need cryopods to make the long journey to the next world. Tyler plans to raid the station in order to salvage unused cryopods for themselves.

Once the group boards the station, they discover that the crew aboard the station are dead because the xenomorph they recovered from the Nostromo revived, massacred the crew and irreparably damaged the station. Onboard the station are dormant alien facehuggers, which are a crab-like form of xenomorph that forcibly impregnates victims in order to hatch infant versions of the skeletal xenomorphs. It turns out that the station is owned by the company, Weyland-Yutani, which as seen in the other films is dedicated to capturing xenomorphs at the expense of anyone else in order to carry out scientific experiments on the alien creatures.

During their efforts to retrieve the cryopods, Tyler and Bjorn accidently revive the facehuggers, which soon imperils the crew of the Corbelan, as well as Rain. Andy, meanwhile receives a software upgrade in order to find out how to deal with the facehuggers and adult xenomorphs that are nestled within the dark corridors of the station. However this upgrade overwrites his benevolent personality and his motives become more nebulous as Rain and the others try to escape the station.

While Alien: Romulus has a fairly simple storyline, it delivers with well-earned jump scares and a pervading sense of dread and intense suspense throughout the film. It also has a few homages and call backs to the other films, which are sometimes a bit too-on-the-nose. But overall, these references pan out and the film manages to add new wrinkles to the Alien lore as the motivations behind Weyland-Yutani are fleshed out, which leads to some truly horrifying moments in the final act.

Fede Alvarez deserves much of the credit for how well Alien: Romulus turned out. He injects the film with a back-to-basics approach that focused on horror, which is what made the first film so memorable. Alvarez knows how to keep audiences in suspense with his use of shadows and sounds, which made the station feel like a haunted house in space as the deadly xenomorphs stealthily stalked their victims. He wisely keeps the creatures in the shadows, which adds to the feeling of primordial terror we and the characters feel while confronting the deadly and opaque unknown.

The actors turn in solid performances with Jonnson being the best standout thanks to his portrayal of Andy. At first, Andy, being an obsolete model, comes off as a sympathetic character from the way he is mistreated by humans. We can see that although Andy is synthetic, he has emotions and only wants to protect Rain and the others. But once, he receives his upgrade he transforms into a cold and unfeeling being who is compromised by the goals of the Weyland-Yutani company to the point that the characters cannot be certain that he has their best interests in his artificial heart.

By going back to basics, Alien: Romulus reinvigorates the Alien franchise by focusing on what made the first two films work so well. That is the sense of cosmic terror one may encounter out there in the unknown regions of space.

José Soto

Jul 26 2024

Deadpool & Wolverine Save The MCU

The only film from Marvel Studios this year, Deadpool & Wolverine, introduces the film characters based on Marvel Comics before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was created and the Fox X-Men films into the vast MCU with a gory and wild flourish.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman return to the superhero roles that made them famous, and even though it’s been several years since they donned their costumes, they fit easily into the roles as if they last played the roles yesterday. Frankly, it was great seeing the two actors interacting with one another as they had instant chemistry in what amounts to a reluctant buddy film. The last time they appeared in film together was with the abominable X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was a low point for the Fox X-Men films. Now, the two actors reunite to salvage the MCU, which is currently undergoing its own rough patch. Some spoilers will follow.

Deadpool & Wolverine begins with everyone’s favorite mercenary, who has the power to instantly heal, exhuming the remains of Wolverine/Logan who died at the end of Logan. His mission ends when he finds out the hard way that this version of Wolverine is not coming back from the dead and he is forced to find another version of Wolverine to save his world.

An extended flashback reveals that Deadpool aka Wade Wilson is now retired from being a mercenary and living a meaningless and lonely life as a used-car salesman. He is soon captured by agents from the interdimensional Time Variance Authority (the TVA featured in the series Loki). At the TVA headquarters, Deadpool meets Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who informs him that his timeline is dying because Wolverine is an anchor being in his timeline who kept the timeline intact. But because he died in Logan, the timeline is becoming unstable and will cease to exist. In order to move up the corporate TVA ladder, Mr. Paradox plans to destroy Deadpool’s timeline with the Time Ripper, a machine that can quickly destroy timelines as a form of “mercy”. He offers Deadpool the opportunity to live in the MCU’s Sacred Timeline and actually lead a meaningful life, but the retired mercenary steals a time traveling device and explores various universes to find a Wolverine variant to fill in the role of his timeline’s anchor being.

Deadpool eventually encounters a surly and bitter version of Wolverine that is considered the worst Wolverine and Deadpool manages to subdue him. However, once back at the TVA with the Wolverine variant, Mr. Paradox banishes Deadpool and Wolverine into the Void, a realm outside of time. Amidst their bickering, the duo come across many variants of characters we last saw in the Fox X-Men films and Marvel films before the MCU was created, implying that their timelines were destroyed. One of these characters is Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrinn), an evil twin sister of the powerful mutant telepath, Charles Xavier, and the ruler of the Void. Nova plans to take control of the Time Ripper and intends to use it to destroy all timelines. Now Deadpool not only has to save his own timeline but every other as well, and he has to find a way to convince the gruff Wolverine to help him.   

Deadpool and Wolverine serves as another raucous return to form for Deadpool that revels in over-the-top profanity and violence. It is definitely the most violent Deadpool film, but the violence is so cartoony and sick that one can’t help but laugh at the outlandish nature of the violence. This film certainly earns its R rating from its sexual innuendo to its graphic violence and exaggerated profanity.  Of course, parents SHOULD NOT allow young children to see the film, but everyone else will have a blast watching Deadpool and Wolverine savagely ripping through their enemies while swearing up a storm, and laughing at all the meta jokes.

The film has its flaws, namely with its pacing at times and the script needed more polishing. This is most likely due to last year’s writers’ strike that prevented any revisions of the script, which is regrettable because there are a few plot holes and threads that are not resolved. As for its dark humor, while the film is quite hilarious at times, not every joke lands and some of it may become dated with its topical references. Let’s be honest, Disney, Marvel Studios and the MCU needed to be roasted for their missteps and familiar tropes, and the film doesn’t hold back on riffing on Marvel and the MCU. Seriously, it’s amazing that the film was allowed to go above and beyond with its humor which was very raunchy and with MCU (and Disney) often being the butt of the jokes.

But Deadpool & Wolverine more than makes up for its faults with witty energy and great banter between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. It goes without saying that it was a joy not just seeing Jackman playing the wild mutant again but in wearing for the first time a comic book-accurate costume. Plus, the action scenes are very inventive and are some of the best featured in the MCU, especially one bloody and claustrophobic fight that takes place inside a minivan. Then there are the numerous cameos, some of which will make jaws drop since they were unexpected. Not every character or actor or reference that can be imagined shows up. But nearly every character introduction steals the scenes and are welcome not just for returning characters but those we never got to see before.

Saying that Deadpool & Wolverine saves the MCU is not a small exaggeration. At this point in time and given its recent missteps, the MCU needed a win which is provided by this hysterically gory and fun romp that should be seen multiple times to take in all of its jokes and references.

José Soto

Jun 30 2024

Dark Matter Is The Multiversal Journey We’ve Been Looking For

Dark Matter, currently streaming on Apple TV+, just concluded its first season as it took viewers on a mind-numbing journey throughout the multiverse.

Based on the novel by Blake Crouch, Dark Matter tells the story of Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), a mild-mannered physics professor who is kidnapped one night by a stranger and left in a world not quite like his own. It is revealed that the stranger is himself. Actually this is an alternate version of Jason from another reality who switches places with Jason. In the alternate reality, Jason is a world-famous scientist who built a machine that lets people travel to other universes. This alternate Jason forced the original Jason to switch places because of his life which he covets. The original Jason is married to Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and has a teenage son, Charlie (Oakes Fegley), which is something the alternate Jason doesn’t have in his universe.

As the alternate Jason tries to fit in to the original Jason’s more mundane life, the original Jason with the help of the alternate Jason’s girlfriend, Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga), goes on a life-altering journey throughout the multiverse as he attempts to find his way home.

The concept of the multiverse was a somewhat obscure subgenre of sci-fi books but has recently gained popularity in mainstream media. The most famous examples were the TV show Sliders and the award-winning film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Whereas both films approached the multiverse concept at different extremes, Dark Matter manages to take a more centered approach that doesn’t go overboard with weird universes of talking rocks or holding back on the multiverse concept.

At first, the TV show takes place in two universes, but soon goes into a wild journey throughout the multiverse as Jason and Amanda explore universes that are either mundanely different, such as Danila having blonde hair or extreme, as seen where the duo are trapped in a world frozen over in an ice age.

Strongly supporting these journeys is the great performance by Joel Edgerton who is able to convey different subtleties to his characters. What was interesting was that while the alternate Jason is the show’s antagonist, he is not some mustache-twirling villain. He only wants a chance to live on the road he did not take. In his world, he let Daniela go years ago and came to regret it. What makes him so much scummier is his inability to let her go and move on with Amanda. We cannot help rooting and sympathizing with the original Jason as he discovers that each world he visits is not his own. It was painful to see him falling apart as he sees alternate versions of his family dying or never existing.

The other actors, especially Connelly and Braga, also turn in memorable performances, as each of them grapple with the consequences of Jasons’ journeys and actions. It was always interesting to see the alternate versions of the people in Jason’s life, which made each episode so watchable.

Equally as enthralling were the journeys themselves. Thankfully, the worlds they visited were not the cliche alternate worlds were the Nazis won World War II or Barack Obama never became the U.S. president. The TV show instead concentrated on having the characters visit worlds with either tiny differences from Jason’s or were wildly different. One brief but terrifying visit had Jason and Amanda nearly killed as they stepped into a world which had no atmosphere. An intriguing twist to these journeys was the realization that each world any character visited was influenced by their state of minds, which made Jason’s goal of getting home that much harder and desperate. Complicating his journey is the growing relationship he has with Amanda, which leads him to recognize his hopeless situation yet he remains committed to his world and Daniela and Charlie.

As fascinating as the journeys were, what made each of them so engaging were Jason’s reactions to them. We sympathize with him as each journey leads to bitter disappointment or pain. We know each heartbreak taxes Jason and we could only hope that the setbacks do not have dire effect on his mind and soul.

Dark Matter took a wild twist in its final episodes that could be confusing to viewers not paying enough attention. But the last episodes were intensely riveting and enthralling for viewers who have followed Jason’s odyssey. It’s not certain if there will be a second season for Dark Matter, even though there were a few potential plot threads that could be followed up if the series continued. Still, Dark Matter concluded in a satisfying manner and whether or not it gets cancelled the series merits watching by fans of multiverse stories and fine sci-fi.

May 29 2024

Furiosa Excitingly Expands The Mad Max Saga

It’s unfortunate that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is not doing well in theaters because it is a truly great sci-fi action piece and a worthy prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road. But given how great the film is, it is certain that it will join that club of films that were initial box-office bombs and become revered as classics later on, as it happened to Blade Runner, The Thing, Edge of Tomorrow, The Suicide Squad, and so on.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga as its title suggests is the background story of Furiosa, the breakout character of Mad Max: Fury Road. As a prequel to that film, it begins back when Furiosa (first played by Alyla Browne, then later by Anya Taylor-Joy) was a young girl who was kidnapped from her idyllic garden home by barbaric raiders. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the world of Mad Max, these are post-apocalyptic films that take place in Australia, which is a barren desert wasteland full of roving gangs that prey on the weak. After seeing her mother killed by the gang that snatched her, Furiosa harbors a personal hatred against the gang and its leader Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a charismatic, yet brutish thug. Seeing Furiosa as a stand-in for his long-lost children, Dementus comes to think of her as his own daughter.

Living a nomadic hunter-gatherer existence, Dementus’ gang encounters the savage society of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), who we last saw in Mad Max: Fury Road. After tense negotiations between Dementus and Immortan Joe, Furiosa was traded to Immortan Joe, who intended to raise her to be one of his wives. However, Furiosa escaped that fate, and masquerading as a young male she joined one of Immortan Joe’s pit crews with her desire to return to her home and killing Dementus being her driving force.

Director George Miller, who introduced us to the world of Mad Max, has wowed us again with this captivating, brutal and exciting post-apocalyptic tale of vengeance and survival. The film is visually and tonally similar to Mad Max: Fury Road but differs in that the former film told a tighter story that moved as fast as the vehicles featured in the film. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga tells a more sprawling story that spans years and features many characters, a lot of them returning from Mad Max: Fury Road. Even Mad Max himself pops up in a cameo though he is portrayed by Tom Hardy’s double.

While an expansion and exploration of the world of Mad Max is always welcome, doing so robs Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga of that feeling of intensity and non-stop action that made Mad Max: Fury Road so beloved. Make no mistake, there is a lot of action in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga but there is also a lot of character development as we bear witness to seeing the brutal transformation of Furiosa as she starts off as an innocent yet skilled child into a hardened nearly feral survivor who desperately holds on to lost dreams. As such, the film time between the major action scenes are much longer, although the epic car chases and battles are well worth the wait. The best sequence comes around the halfway point of the film that involves another one of those scenes where motorized gangs besiege a souped-up supply tanker called a War Rig that is armed to the teeth. The scene lasts about 15 minutes and is worth the price of admission alone thanks to George Miller’s skillful talent for delivery pulse-pounding action.

Anya Taylor-Joy does a great job as Furiosa as she takes on some of the characteristics of Mad Max in that she rarely speaks and adopts a savage loner persona. The other actors like Hemsworth are just as memorable in their roles with the standouts being Tom Burke and Charlee Fraser. Burke portrays Praetorian Jack, the sympathetic driver of a war rig that serves as a prototype to Mad Max’s character and could explain why Furiosa eventually bonded with Max. Meanwhile, in her brief presence as Furiosa’s mother, Fraser, was outstanding in her performance as a skilled warrior who went above and beyond to save her daughter. Even though she was not successful, her sacrifice left a solid impression on young Furiosa.

Exploring the world of Mad Max is a welcome idea although the filmmakers should now think beyond epic car chases and battles in deserts. What else is going on in this world? What about the coastline of the continent or beyond? It’s too bad the film is not performing well because it is unlikely we will revisit this world in the near future.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a spectacular entry into the Mad Max Saga that does what it sets out to do: provide the origin story of Furiosa in a kinetic and engaging fashion that exemplifies George Miller’s cinematic style.