Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 4 of 5 stars Average: 4 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: If you haven’t seen Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens yet, go do so now as there will be spoilers in this review. We’ll wait…

Welcome back!

The Force Awakens is the first Star Wars movie in 32 years, and is basically an amped up version of the original 1977 film.

Nick: Which was the film’s biggest problem. All it did was set new characters in the old shoes and the old characters in the shoes of the wise leaders. While The Force Awakens is a better film than any of the prequels, they at least had stories that had not been told before while expanding on the distant galaxy of the Star Wars universe. But this ends up being such a small problem because I was never bored or rolled my eyes at any of the dialogue, which was always a problem when George Lucas was writing the script.

Dustin: This was substantially better than the prequels and fit more easily into the series. It fixed a lot of the problems with the prequels, and in a way was sort of a reaction to them. The prequels were roundly criticised for the overreliance on CGI, wooden acting, tonal dissonance between scenes, boring/predictable shots, sensory overload in action scenes. This movie used more practical effects and only CGI where necessary, solid actors, was funny at times but also had emotional weight, and was exhilarating overall.

Nick: I’m sure Lucas will order that the films have upgraded CGI in ten years when they’re out on whatever we are watching movies on in that time!

The three main characters Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are well sculpted and overall a more interesting trio of characters than the original three--Han, Luke and Leia. Rey is basically a version of Luke that is not annoying while being able to kick ass from the get-go. Though she was even forgotten by the merchandising crew! http://www.dailydot.com/geek/star-wars-force-awakens-wheres-rey-action-figure-set/

Sex sells, but apparently women don’t!

Dustin: They must not want the fanboys to think they’re playing with a doll rather than an action figure. #TriggerWarning

I immediately like Finn, I warmed up to Kylo Ren as the villain, but I still haven’t warmed up to Rey. But still, these movies had characters I would like to see again. They had personalities and are will carry on the series nicely.

Nick: I must say I don’t think Han Solo’s death was done to the potential a scene like that could generate. Harrison Ford was my first favorite movie star with roles like Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Dr. Richard Kimble. I should have cried, but it didn’t even register with me emotionally. It felt more forced with Ford not being a fan of the character, but doing one last film for the fans (and a huge paycheck) to give the character an ending. I think it would have been better to build him up again and kill him during the second film. Wasted opportunity. Maybe he will somehow show up as a Force Ghost!

Dustin: I think the biggest problem was it felt a little too much like the first movie. Information is put into a droid that falls into the hands of a nobody on a desert planet, they have to take it to Princess Leia with the help of Han Solo. Then they end up having to blow up a new Death Star. There’s a scene where they show the new Death Star (forgot what it’s actually called), and Han Solo just says, “So it’s bigger? How do we blow it up this time?” Sort of acknowledging then dismissing the expected criticism. I don’t really think that makes it any better.

Nick: The film is basically a polished version of A New Hope. Adding layers that were missing from elements that lacked depth while keeping the details that worked the first go around. Which hopefully means Finn and Rey are brother and sister! (fingers crossed)

Dustin: Even though I thought many elements felt too familiar, I still enjoyed a lot of it. The new Death Star can blow up an entire solar system, using the energy sucked from a sun to blow up the planets in another system. The stakes felt real, and I was actually on the edge of my seat for most of the movie.

Nick: Well the stakes felt real in the original! Blowing up one planet just isn’t enough to scare good ol’ Dustin! It has to be a whole solar system!

Dustin: I was comparing it to the prequels, where there was literally nothing at stake, making it hard to care. See, for example, the robots-making-robots conveyor belt scene in Attack of the Clones. It looks like a cartoon, then, when the machine pounds down on Anakin’s hand, it somehow forms a space around his hand. At that moment you realize the characters can’t even get hurt and you don’t care as the tension has been removed. That’s why so many people described the prequels as “boring,” despite the overblown set pieces.

Nick: Sorry, thought we were still on comparing it to the originals! Darth Maul still might be my favorite villain in terms of badassery! I wonder if Supreme Leader Snoke is pulling a Great Wizard of Oz with his size? I bet he’s a small fry like Yoda, but with a Napoleon complex!

Dustin: I was happy with this film overall. It felt like a legit Star Wars sequel, and got the movies back on track after the mess that was Episodes I through III. I was embarrassed to admit I was a Star Wars fan for a long time. I’m a fan of the original original trilogy (not the special editions that progressively got worse). I liked what they did with The Force Awakens, and hope they can keep up the momentum.

Nick: As long as the next one’s not a beat for beat reboot of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3 of 5 stars Average: 3.25 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Dustin: The Hunger Games - Part 4: Mockingjay - Part 2 is the last installment in The Hunger Games trilogy for real this time. Jennifer Lawrence reprises her role as Katnip Evergreen in her personal quest to kill President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and bring balance to Panem.

Nick: I have to admit I am so happy this series is finally over with until of course they remake it in 10 years. Though I must admit I’m waiting for this whole YA franchise-into-movies thing to end even more. The Hunger Games is easily the best out of all the genre, but it still tries so hard to evoke drama that it feels more like a soap or Lifetime film rather than a drama on the silver screen.

Dustin: I’m getting tired of these YA movies too. Admittedly, I’ve only seen this series, the first Divergent movie, and The Host. They all pretty much follow the same formula, and I mentally check off each item as I sit through them. Pretty girl with bland personality who turns out to be somehow more specialer than everyone (check), some kind of training montage (check), two hunky male love interests (check, check). The best thing I’d say about the Hunger Games movies is that they do the formula better than the others.

Nick: I’m in agreement for the most part but there are so many grandstands and speeches in this film meant to give hope or drive a character forward that it becomes an even more diluted version of the drama it’s trying to create. As well every time there was a character telling another “Don’t worry everything is going to be alright,” I turned to my mom and said, “So, that character is going to die!” and they sure enough did. Also whenever there is a wedding between two tertiary characters one of them will surely end up dead. (R.I.P. Remus and Tonks)

Dustin: That’s a pretty famous trope.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 should have been combined into one film called The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Both movies had long spells that just dragged. I remember spending a lot of time during this one with my head resting on my hand just waiting for the movie to get to the point.

Nick: Though Harry Potter did the same thing with more of a reason (700 pages), it also stalled in its first Part 1 (my least favorite in that series) and the same happened with Hunger Games. The first part was such a drag with no uptempo, while this film drags a lot between its interesting action sequences. The best thing about this series is the casting of brilliant, established actors like Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman and of course Lawrence while mixing with lesser known brilliant actors like Jena Malone, Elden Henson, Robert Knepper and Elizabeth Banks. They all do a good job, but their dialogue (which isn’t their fault) sometimes made me laugh for the wrong reason and kept me from EVER being truly instilled in the drama. Though Sutherland truly is remarkable as Snow.

Dustin: The all-star cast certainly lends these films some street-cred. I hated President Snow, and that is a testament to Sutherland’s performance. I couldn’t even recognize the smartalek character I loved in MASH (granted, that film is 45-years-old).

It’s interesting you compared this to the last Harry Potter, because like Harry Potter, this movie also had a pointless epilogue, which I will go ahead and spoil because it was truly pointless. Does the audience really care Katnip will go on to get married and have two kids?

Nick: It should have ended right before that with her in bed with the man she loves, but I think it went on to do that to end the film on a happier note, which I’m assuming the only thing the writer could think of was “Let's give her kids! Everyone is happier with kids! Especially two people with extreme PTSD.”

Dustin: I also thought when it cut to black right before the epilogue that was a perfect ending point. I groaned when the sunny meadow came up. The scene right before that was tender, but also had an ellipsis. The tweenage girls who are the most devoted fans of the series might wanted a happy note to end on, but I didn’t find the epilogue convincing, and it was pointless to boot. I could imagine if Stanley Kubrick had directed these, the epilogue would have been Katnip and Peeta in some kind of couples counseling for PTSD.

Nick: The most jarring concept to me was the character of Tygress. I only assume that’s how it’s spelled considering what series we are watching. Why couldn’t it have just been a normal (for Hunger Games) looking person instead of a seemingly spliced half-tiger, half-human character, which I had not seen any character look like throughout the series. Maybe I missed the spliced characters from before, but it sure didn’t stick out like Tygress (Taigriss).

Dustin: Well, there are people with body modifications in the real world too, and it’s jarring to see them at the mall, liquor stores, job interviews. But that is a funny point. Right after they take shelter with Tigris (thank you, Hunger Games wikia), Katnip and Gale put on a disguise to slip into the crowd taking shelter at President Snow’s mansion. Their disguise is a large black hooded jacket. I’m sorry, but I think the Storm Troopers, I mean, Peace Keepers, would be well within their rights to shoot them and ask questions later. In a city where outlandish makeup and hairstyles are the norm, they go with the most suspicious-looking cover ever. Were the writers lazy or just stupid?

Nick: I think the writer(s) were constantly lazy. When the twin sisters were left in the building of the rebels’ last known location they could have carried the wounded sister to the building across the street with them and left her there, which would have been at least a logical move. Also the most combat-ready character with the most experience is the one who runs head-first into a possibly mined area and dies. Also when the character who has been brainwashed and is hitting his head against his own gun you might want to put him in handcuffs. Also when Gale tells Peeta I’ll take you out if that time ever comes, so you mean the guy in your squad that he just killed wasn’t enough? I feel like I could go on and on and I don’t know who to blame, the writer of the book or of the movie? I get it, it’s nitpicking, but when the entire film can be nitpicked it’s kind of a problem.

Dustin: I have a feeling the problem stems from the books. I doubt these movies strayed too far from the source material given the fanbase they had to please. I think a lot of the writing had to come from the hack mind of Suzanne Collins. Men simply don’t talk like the characters in this movie. Two male rivals don’t sit down and talk about their feelings, or ask others what they’re thinking. Especially when they come from a dystopian future where you have to play everything close to the chest as your true thoughts can get you killed.

Nick: Long Live the End of The Hunger Games! Both the game and the book and movie series. Another part I found amusing was when Coin was afraid of the support Katniss had and was hoping she would die, yet she gave her the honor of killing Snow in front of all the unified forces. Would that not make her even more popular?! Also, the fact Coin stood on a ridge right above Snow with her hands outraised made that scene so ridiculous. It would have been better if she was standing far far behind Katniss on a ridge over-looking the scene and Katniss turns around and lets the arrow go quickly. Instead of a close up on Katniss, her obvious lifting of the arrow and letting that arrow go towards Coin. It was a very bland moment that should have been huge! It might have been bland because it was so obviously going to happen with everyone talking shit on Coin while later in the film she became a tyrant like Snow. I also love the way people die in films like this so beautiful and gracefully. Julianne Moore falls from the high-up ridge after being shot with the arrow and falls on a thin piece of cut stone laying there as if she had died of a heart attack.

Dustin: There was one set piece I loved in this movie, and that was the one regarding the lizard mutts chasing Katnip and the gang through the sewers. It was an intense, nightmarish scene that got my heart racing. It was like something out of a different movie.

Nick: It was a very well filmed and intense scene, but also had many obvious moments. When the new leader was the only character left on the other side of the stone wall while not a single other character aiming their gun through the hole to protect her! (These are all trained in combat people, besides Peeta). And also the death of the character who was married early on in the film. The way it was filmed kept telling me this is the scene where he would die. Maybe only film students would notice that, but it kept showing him more and more isolated. While it’s also a thing that a tertiary character who is kicking a lot of ass in a battle will more than likely end up getting hurt or dead and he of course was the only one kicking ass!

Dustin: I also liked the twist at the end. I won’t spoil it, but I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise Julianne Moore’s character (Hillary Clinton) turned out to be a duplicitous politico. Or that the rebels would turn into Robespierres as soon as they took over. I guess I did spoil it…

Nick: I already spoiled it! But not really! From early on the film sets up Coin as the real enemy who needs to be defeated by end. And she is, but in a very bland scene that lacks any true emotional weight.

Dustin: Suzanne Collins spoiled it when she consciously ripped off Battle Royale.

Terminator Genisys

Dustin: 3 of 5 stars Nick: 3 of 5 stars Average: 3 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Dustin: Terminator Genisys is the fifth Terminator film, the fourth to feature the real Arnold Schwarzenegger, and further alters the timeline established in the first two films. This time Kyle Reese goes back to 1984, when the first film takes place, but encounters a Sarah Connor who has been raised by a Terminator. He, Sarah and Arnold must now go to 2017 to prevent Google from starting the robot apocalypse.

Nick: There is too much going on in this movie for just one viewing with all the homages that feel rather forced and the time jumps that try to rework the story concocted by the previous installments. If this was the first movie of the series a teenager viewed, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were quite confused. It seems there should have been a disclaimer stating Prerequisite:  Have to see the first two installments to enroll.

Dustin: I agree. This doesn’t work as a stand-alone movie. The producers take for granted the audience has seen at least the first two movies (which is probably a safe bet, in their defense). The third and fourth film aren’t really necessary for the understanding. The only thing that mattered to the timeline in the third movie is the idea Judgement Day can be delayed, but not prevented. The fourth one had some backstory, but not enough to matter, and introduced CGI Arnold. The callbacks to the first two were enjoyable, they kept me waiting to see how they would subvert expectations. The main problem with making more and more of these movies, well after Judgement Day should have already happened, is the time travel logistics get more and more convoluted, from being pretty simple in the first, to be downright confusing this time.

Nick: All the sequels have lacked the intensity of the first two films. They made their characters run around a lot more, but to what end? The first and second had so much horror it really felt like any character could die and it would be heartbreaking! There is no more heart in the series. When John Connor ends up a Terminator it should be jaw dropping, and yet I didn’t even flinch.

Dustin: I think part of that could be because this is a PG-13 film in a series that should be rated R. Granted, fewer teens would be able to get into an R-rated film, which will hurt the bottom line. But, like you said, the lack of intensity this film had compared to the first two definitely hurt.

Another reason could be some of the homages to the first films feel more like parody, or meta-jokes. Ex-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R, California) attempts to come off as human and his companions’ reactions produce as many groans as laughs.

Nick: Genisys does look exceptional though, and the fight between Arnie and his younger self was one of the highlights.

Dustin: There were a number of things I liked, mostly in the first half when we’re still discovering this modified, once-familiar story. I was expecting to hate the idea Sarah Connor was raised by Arnold, but I actually found their relationship somewhat touching. You get the idea the Terminator may have some fatherly feelings toward her, dare I say love?, that isn’t part of his programming.

I also found the sci-fi message somewhat relevant. Judgement Day is when a cloud-like technology (a thinly veiled Google), uses the death-grip it has over humanity to bring about its destruction. I don’t think Google would really do that, but as I use my Google Fiber Internet service, write this with you on Google Docs, then post on Blogger (a Google service), linking to a YouTube video (ditto, Google) for the trailer, I can’t help but think humanity relies on them a little too much.

Nick: I have also singled in on your location using Google Maps! You look very good.

Dustin: Huh?! Can Google’s satellites see through my roof?

Nick: And through YOUR SOUL! (With an algorithm recreating your soul based on your Internet searches, which are really quite disturbing, Dustin.)

Dustin: Do you see me waving?

Nick: No, but I see you giving me the bird.

Dustin: Where were we?

Nick: The most enjoyable parts for me were between Pops (Old Arnie) and Sarah Connor. I would rather have a prequel of Sarah growing up with Pops as a father than another sequel where there are four time jumps and 37 homages.  

Dustin: I’d like a prequel where they explain the reason the machines programmed the Terminator to have a thick Austrian accent when the idea was for him to blend in.

Emilia Clarke looks enough like Linda Hamilton for the role, and she has plenty of screen presence, but she doesn’t really carry it as well. I believed Hamilton in the first one when she was a down-to-earth waitress, and I believed her in the second one when she was a tough-as-nails survivalist. Clarke might be a little too soft around the edges to be believable. She looks more childlike than Hamilton (even though she’s 28, just slightly younger than Hamilton was in the first movie).

I didn’t realize this was the same chick from Game of Thrones until my wife informed me. I think she looks better as a blonde (figure 1, below), as did Emily Browning in Sucker Punch (figure 2). I guess I just have a thing for blondes with wavy hair, which is why I married an Asian woman.

figure 1: Emilia Clarke as a blonde, Game of Thrones (right), as a brunette, Terminator Genisys

figure 2: Emily Browning as a blonde, Sucker Punch (right), as a brunette, Pompeii

Nick: I kept thinking those same things about her character, but her whole life has been different so she would be much different. Instead of meeting the Terminator at 19 and trying to kill her, she met one at 9 who raised her into a very different Sarah Connor. So it’s difficult to say she didn’t play Sarah Connor as well, but more like the character of Sarah Connor was more interesting in the first two installments.

Dustin: While it didn’t have the weighty sci-fi ideas of the first two movies, nor the emotional pay offs or intense action, Terminator Genisys is a decent bookend to the series. I honestly don’t think we need another of these movies.

Nick: I wish Cameron would drop his future Avatar movies and just make a proper ending to the Terminator franchise.

Dustin: The proper ending was at the end of Terminator 2. We didn’t need the following three films.

Jurassic World

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3.5 of 5 stars Average: 3.5 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: Jurassic World is an amped up sequel/reboot of the Jurassic Park series, and is the best since the original. The tagline should be “Here we go again!” as this time the genetic engineers have spliced a T-Rex with a velociraptor to create the Indominus Rex, the biggest, scariest dinosaur we’ve seen yet, which serves as a metaphor for both the series and summer blockbusters in general.

Nick: I want people to know where I stand when in comes to the Jurassic Park series so here are my ratings for all of the films: Jurassic Park = 4.5 stars, The Lost World = 2 stars, Jurassic Park III = 3 stars. Jurassic World is easily the best sequel and brings the awe back to the dinosaurs.

Dustin: Jurassic Park is still a solid adventure/special effects film even seen today. I saw the sequels only once when they both first came out, which was enough. I remember being disappointed by The Lost World. I forgot Jurassic Park III within minutes of walking out of the theater. (I remember a few months later when it came out on DVD, I said, “They made a Jurassic Park III?!” Then I remembered I had actually seen it!)

Jurassic World is certainly the first of the sequels to actually feel like a worthy continuation of the series. I wouldn’t say it brought back the “awe” of the dinosaurs. There is no buildup like in JP. The characters seem mostly bored with the dinosaurs, as the technology to clone them has been around for 20 years now in the film’s universe.

Nick: I by no means meant to suggest this film brings back all the awe of the original, but it has more than the last two installments. There is a reason we follow around the youngest cast member and his slightly older brother through the amusement park. As the littlest one is impressed by everything, even a T-rex eating a goat, the older one is only impressed by the things we have never seen before and is suppose to represent the audience of today.  

Now to Jurassic Park III, I just want to defend it a little because director Joe Johnston seems to like to make his films with CGI that makes them look like B-movies, which I am a known sucker for, and it brought back Dr. Alan Grant who was just like Indiana Jones in my eyes growing up. Considering the original films were both made by Spielberg and they are both about scientists who are dragged into adventure I don’t think it’s that ridiculous of a notion.

Dustin: You know how much I hate bad CGI. I would rather have a puppet or a guy in a rubber suit.

I liked how this movie seemed to comment on summer blockbusters. I recently rewatched Jaws, which was the original summer blockbuster. In Jurassic World, a great white shark is fed to a Mosasaurus thing. The scale of today’s summer blockbuster compared to Jaws has gotten ridiculous, and the filmmakers know it.

Nick: Well if the CGI is solid in this film and makes other blockbusters look foolish then I’d say the characters are about on par with the $100 million movies of today. They make the main male character the James Bond where he knows everything and is, besides one little slip up, infallible.  While the main female character is a hundred times worse! She’s belittled for not settling down and having kids and is forced to watch her sister’s kids and treats them coldly until of course they get lost in the middle of the jungle with the Indominous Rex always lurking. She’s then made to chase after them in heels because the script requires her to do so, and yet we still get Chris Pratt giving her shit for wearing them. Then we get a lot of useless backstory for the two main characters, including one scene where they first meet (on screen) and it turns into a squabbling match between two people who went on ONE DATE, seemingly a very long time ago? I personally believe people can care for characters who have no relationship to each other before a dinosaur attack, especially when it entails two kids who are trapped out in the park… Would she not have gone out for them if they weren’t her nephews?

Dustin: There were a lot of people in the park, so I don’t think she would have gotten as invested in those two if they weren’t her nephews.

Nick: But the rest of the people were at least contained together and weren’t out in the park where the dinosaurs roam.

Dustin: I agree the characters weren’t very deep. I’d call them Crichton-esque. Characters in Michael Crichton’s novels tended to be treated as devices to keep the plot moving. So I guess they were true to the source material in that sense.

My wife and her friends also commented on the high heels Bryce Dallas Howard’s character wore throughout the movie. Saying it wasn’t realistic. I was like, “The movie is about a theme park that clones a new type of dinosaur, and you’re complaining because the footwear isn’t realistic?”

Then again, I would complain about that too if I were a woman, because the rules of genetic engineering as they exist in the movie are explained, but we know a normal woman couldn’t run around for hours in high heels.

Nick: My problem with that is not the realism, but how you said the movie looks at the current state of films and tries to fix them with using better CGI, but the story and its characters exist in a more ‘60s era adventure where the women and children are helpless and quite stupid, while the man is incredible and mocks the woman for her womanly ways.  

Jurassic World did have many fun Easter eggs such as the final fight scene that of course includes a T-Rex and velociraptors! The main characters also walk through the old park and kids stumble upon the old park vehicles. The movie served almost as much as an homage than a standalone film. That’s not a complaint because I quite enjoyed it! I was obsessed with Jurassic Park and had many toys representing that fact.

Dustin: The movie also had plenty of visual nods to the first film, with shots that looked almost identical. This Web site did most of the work: http://www.thegeektwins.com/2015/02/jurassic-world-trailer-scenes.html#.VZGAfmMmyNU

I remember a few more, like Indominus Rex doing the same pose as the T-Rex in the original and a shot of a velociraptor giving chase to a moving vehicle from the side mirror.

Nick: I like that the film ends with the possibility of the sequel being like one of my favorite childhood cartoon shows, Dino-Riders!  The commandos take the DNA and it sounds like they might equip them dinos with a whole lot of armour!

Dustin: I don’t think they need to do another sequel. How much bigger can these movies get? And what comments can they make on man playing God or how big and loud blockbusters have gotten that they haven’t already?

Nick: I’m not saying there should be another sequel, but considering how much money the movie has made in two weeks already makes it a certainty there will be a sequel. If it’s like Dino-Riders I could find myself enjoying it on a B-movie-like scale. Or maybe this is one of the next three Mad Max sequels that have already been greenlit! It will be dinosaur-with-guns chases instead of vehicles!