xXx: The Return of Xander Cage

After leaving this movie, my seventeen year old cousin told me that he had lost all respect for Vin Diesel. That got me thinking. The Iron Giant came out before he was born, Pitch Black came out the year he was born and The Fast and the Furious didn't come out much later after that (side note: that first F&F movie is the only one I like because my school camp didn't have any other movies to show us). So why did my cousin have any respect for him in the first place? Maybe Groot, I guess. Hopefully you can tell from this opening paragraph that I don't have much to say about this movie, so it's going to be a fun review for all of us.

Former government operative and extreme sport enthusiast Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is coaxed out of retirement in order to hunt down a terrorist named Xiang (Donnie Yen) who has stolen a device that can bring satellites crashing down to the Earth. But shock horror, Xiang is actually part of the same xXx program and Xander's boss Jane Marke (Toni Collette) is the bad guy. There you go, you've just been informed of the world's most basic and predictable action movie ever. Helping Xander is the most standard group of buddies ever. Standard except for one DJ who he keeps around for the good times.

The action in this movie is the most logical thing happening. That's weird to say considering the movie starts with Diesel skiing down a gravelly hill in move that makes me question whether they understand how skis or gravel works. But then again this is the movie that has dirt bikes that whip down rivers and under waves (all in the same chase mind you). Because this is a movie that is appealing only to teenage boys, there are a lot of gratuitous girls in bikini shots, as well as a scene in which Diesel is the 'victim' of a female gangbang (I actually feel disgusted that I wrote that sentence, let alone watched it in a movie). The movie tries to even out this disgrace by adding two female action heroes, which doesn't work. Before you all go "Ruby Rose is my kween, she slays in OITNB, what are you talking about?", I have to remind you that I grew up with her being presenter on the Australian version of MTV and nothing will ever get that out of my head. In addition to all this weird portrayal of women where they're not sure if they should degrade them or make them strong, Nina Dobrev plays the cringiest character ever, someone who is geeky and shy, but unafraid of telling Xander Cage she likes rough sex and flirting with Ruby Rose. Again, this is obviously the very warped fantasy of what a woman should be like.

The moment well-respected martial artist Donnie Yen realised he needs a new agent

This movie does give me a chance to educate you a little about the industry though; namely the relationship between Hollywood and China. This year it is expected that Chinese ticket sales will surpass those of America for the first time in history. Because of this, Hollywood studios want to capitalise on that untapped market by getting their movies shown in China. Now the Chinese government only lets in a limited number of decadent Western films a year (and boy is this one decadent) and to make those chances higher, a studio can co-produce with a Chinese company. In order to do that, the filmmakers have to agree to fill a certain number of lead roles with Chinese actors. (I know that this is a deeply complex issue and I'd suggest checking out this video by Vox). What does all this have to do with our horrible movie. Well, it explains the inclusion of Chinese actors Tony Jaa, Donnie Yen and Kris Wu and also why this movie will probably do so well in that market.

xXx is an extremely subpar action movie. I know that sometimes I come of as someone who doesn't respect the genre, but I do enjoy it and know when something is trying. There was no effort whatsoever here. Gone are the extreme sports that I'm guessing the x's stand for and are replaced by a lot of standing around with arms spread wide open. And remember those character title cards that everyone thought were pointless in Suicide Squad, get ready for a lot of those.

Adam's Thoughts - Rogue One

Check out Ed's full review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by clicking here!

The hardest part about judging a movie like Rogue One comes with considering it's context and purpose as a film. Is it meant to be considering fully as its own piece of work, or simply just as an addition to the Star Wars cinematic universe? This experience of entering into a predetermined story is especially jarring for someone like me who is not the biggest fanatic of the Star Wars franchise, but in the end Rogue One can still be seen as a bit of fun in addition to fulfilling its quota of fan service.

Story-wise, this movie was somewhat backed into a corner, in terms of telling a story with a predetermined outcome. Some 40 years later, and a story introduced in the original Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) makes it onto the big screen in its own feature length film. That alone is a remarkable feat, and shows how powerful the franchise really is. Despite this already established story arc, Rogue One still manages to feel like the plot could go in any direction - a sign of a truly exciting narrative. A point is eventually reached where the audience remembers that this story already has an ending, but this doesn't take away from the viewing experience at all.

In a story that has to be told only in this movie alone (no trilogy for this one), it is understandable that the character building of some supporting characters might be a bit lackluster. This is especially disappointing, however, when considering the amount of unnecessary and somewhat forced comedic additions early in the movie. It's fine for even the most serious of movies to have comedic value in them, but when they are forced and in place of detailed character development, it is hard not to question their relevance. In the end, the characters realistically just fit into the cliche of the rag-tag group of outsiders going against the 'big guy', with most of them being token racial characters from different parts of the world (when I'd assume these countries don't even exist in Star Wars).

Lastly, while the fan service was necessary and ultimately pretty well balanced, I can't help but envision some wasted potential in the 'big moments' of Rogue One. Without going into spoilers, the movie maybe could have been more reserved with their limited space in terms of big reveals. While ultimately this would have led to less fan service, it could have been better fan service. In the end, however, this is just nitpicking at what was ultimately an enjoyable flick and a comfortable addition to the Star Wars movies. I can only hope that their future 'story' movies continue to feel like this one, and less like unnecessary money grabs.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The Disney-era of Star Wars is well and truly underway following the success of last year’s The Force Awakens, and it continues this year with Gareth Edward’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first in an anthology of spin-offs that focus on background events and origin stories in the rapidly expanding filmic universe.

Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is separated from her father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) at an early age when he is taken by Imperial military officer Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). She finds help from Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker) and manages to stay out of Imperial sights. Years later, the Empire is building a new superweapon, the Death Star, and Jyn is recruited by the Rebel Alliance to join a team who are out to find the design blueprints of the weapon.

As the first major theatrical spin-off of the series, Rogue One is arguably the most hyped about movie of the year. Billed by many as a war-film of sorts, it’s a direction we haven’t seen the series go in before, and strikes a very different tone to The Force Awakens or indeed any of the others. Where space opera sized characters, love-triangles, story twists and endless metaphors about family have dominated previously, Rogue One focuses-down to the nitty-gritty land skirmishes, insane aerial battles and internal politics of the Rebellion that work behind the scenes in the main saga.

Rogue One is in essence the opening crawl of A New Hope, at least that’s what it is intended to be. At the forefront we have the story of Jyn Erso and the team that steal the design schematics of the Death Star. There’s a lot of back-story and character development that falls flat here, primarily because the film moves so quickly that it gets caught up in the rush and the characters don’t have time to breathe. Where these crucial character moments are expedited through the hyperbolic nature of the core films, this instalment aims for more subtlety in style and direction, thus it really can’t hope to build well-rounded characters in the time given and material covered.

Whilst it’s over two hours in length, Rogue One still manages to pack more than its fair share of content into the running time. If we’re not constantly planet hopping, we’re filling in canonic plot holes with new context. If you boil it right down, you could argue the whole film exists to explain the Death Star’s crucial design flaw. Slotted-in at the tail end of the nineteen year timeline-gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the film feels too grand in scale for a contained spin-off, and in many ways there’s not enough meat in the plot to sustain the construct of such a huge summer blockbuster.

Jones manages to do a lot with Jyn when the film slows down enough to give her the opportunity, though at times she gets lost amongst the frantic action and the various other ensemble members vying for the audience's attention. Luna’s Andor has charisma, but like Ahmed’s Bodhi is inclined to blend into the background too much for a core supporting character. Yen and Wen’s characters are the unlikely buddy-sidekicks of the film who work efficiently as a fighting unit, and Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO whilst sometimes a little too forced, is one hell of an upgrade from C-3PO. Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen are both not given nearly enough screen time, and finally we have Ben Mendelsohn who is really just the archetype evil villain.

Rogue One however does look beautiful and takes advantage of well designed sets and practical effects almost as effectively as The Force Awakens. There’s X-Wings, Y-Wings and TIE-Fighters galore, as well as various Imperial Walkers on the ground, and plenty of idiotic-as-ever Stormtroopers to be mown-down. There are a few moments of fan service just as in last year's instalment, although not as numerous, and the main sequences are tied together with a fantastic score by Michael Giacchino that weaves in just the right amount of Williams’ iconic soundtrack. One of the biggest issues with the film is *possible spoilers* the  use of CGI to bring a character back from the original films (and effectively the actor back from the dead) who I didn’t really think needed to be in the film at all.

Rogue One feels like a slightly-unnecessary, heavily bloated chapter in the greater Star Wars universe that doesn’t do enough with its characters. However it does manage to differentiate itself from the main saga, and has been made with enough love and devotion to the canon to make it worthwhile viewing for Star Wars fans.