Independence Day: Resurgence

The original Independence Day is one of those movies that every action movie fan holds in high regard. But a lot of the charm and excitement of that movie is severely lacking in this reboot, with only the crazy destruction remaining. Is that enough to make this movie great? Not when you're dealing with the legacy of the original movie.

Twenty years after the world united against the alien invasion, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) is in charge of alien research at Area 51 in Nevada. As the world is starting to prepare for the anniversary of the invasion, a spherical alien ship appears near the moon's space defence station. A decision is made by the global council to shoot it down in case of it being another invasion attempt. But it ends up not being a real threat at all and a bigger one is on its way. An alien harvester ship with a queen on it lands across the Atlantic Ocean (as in it's the size of it) and its up to a small team of pilots led by Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) and Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher).

This movie really doesn't offer much past the action. There is no real tension or high stakes. Yes there is a countdown that the good guys have to go up against to win, but there's no underdog story that was present in the original. Where the humans were going against the aliens with our old technology, in Resurgence, they are fighting with alien technology. So there's no real tension in two equally matched enemies fighting one another with no exciting underdog story to speak of. There is the introduction of the alien queen, but she is so similar to the queen from Aliens, it's unbelievable. At least she's a different colour.

What's really disappointing is that none of the characters stick out in a distinct way. In the original, you had the diverse personalities of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Randy Quaid and Jeff Goldblum. While both Goldblum and Pullman both return, they are a shadow of their former selves. Even Goldblum, who is known for his eccentric performances, actually gives the first normal performance of his life. None of the new actors offer anything special either. Liam Hemsworth is normally good in an action flick, but it feels like he's relegated to the background. Jessie T. Usher, playing Will Smith's son is equally boring. Travis Tope plays Liam's pilot partner and I was just waiting for him to be killed off, which he isn't. As for the leading ladies of Charlotte Gainsbourg and Maika Monroe, they're both fantastic performers and don't belong in this movie. As for Nicolas Wright (or American John Oliver, you'll know what I'm talking about), his character just baffled me.

All told, Resurgence occupies a weird limbo in the exact centre of the triangle made up of action, sci-fi and 20th anniversary reboot. It's not good enough for everyone to go crazy about, but it's not terrible enough to hate. It just is.

Classic Movie Review: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the second instalment and at the time of its release it was seen as a very poor sequel to the original film. And while it does live up to comparisons with the original film, it is a very fun movie in its own right and has a cast of great characters and all new dinosaurs to hold up even eighteen years later.

Set roughly four years after the events of the first film, Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is summoned to the home of John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) where he is asked to lead a team of experts to the second island that contains dinosaurs in Costa Rica. However when Malcolm discovers that his girlfriend, palaeontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) has been sent in advance, the team leaves a little early. However, once the team gets to the island, they discover two things; Malcolm's daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) has stowed away in one of the trucks, and that a team of InGen scientists led by Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), the current InGen CEO has led a team to the island to extract a number of dinosaurs for a theme park in San Diego.

The Lost World takes no time in getting to the action. This movie relies on none of the suspense in getting to the dinosaurs that the first film did and as a result we can get a lot more fun. Within thirty minutes we are in the middle of a chase of the InGen team and a whole herd of dinosaurs. From this point on it is all action, right up to the thrilling climax which involves a T-Rex rampaging through the streets of San Diego. While this sequence may seem out of place to some, it is a perfect place to show off how big dinosaurs were in comparison to our modern buildings.

This movie has some pretty cheesy, but memorable quotes that are delivered quite well by Jeff Goldblum. The line "Where you're going is the only place on Earth where the geese chase you" is but one of the many wonderful lines. The character of Dr. Burke has some absurd long explanations about different dinosaurs that are fun to sit through as they are quite complex and scientific, but are one of the details that make this film well rounded, but at the same time it isn't taking itself too seriously. The film also has a surprising amount of characterisation for a film of this budget and genre. The leader of InGen's safari team Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) is a well built character and his relationship with others, especially his second-in-command Dieter (Peter Stormare), is something to write about.

The movie introduces some new dinosaurs into the mix. Every kid's favourite spiky tailed herbivore Stegosaurus gets a lengthy action sequence early on, as well as a new small dino called a Compy that terrified me when I was a kid. The Velociraptors also play a much bigger part in the film and their intelligence is fleshed out a little more (although not to same extent as in the third film. The CGI dinosaur design had developed a lot further than what they were at the first time and as a result the dinosaurs are a lot more mobile. Spielberg however still uses a lot of animatronics that work seamlessly with the CGI and is something that you won't find in movies made today.

Jeff Goldblum really does steal the show in this movie. He is well practiced with his character of Ian Malcolm and his own idiosyncrasies just add to his character. Julianne Moore is superb and was having a couple of good years around this time with both Boogie Nights (1997) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Arliss Howard (of Full Metal Jacket fame) is great as the greedy villain Ludlow. My only criticism is that Vince Vaughn should have stuck around for longer as he disappears two-thirds of the way into the film. Keep an eye out early on for a twenty-five year old Eli Roth playing Subway Man (you'll know the character when you see him).

While this is far from being Steven Spielberg's magnum opus (I think he's still searching for that himself), it is an amazing film to re-watch and rediscover as a fun part of the Jurassic Park series. I know for a fact that I enjoy it time after time.

Mortdecai

As we are in the midst of awards season for movies, there seems to be an expectation that every movie that is released at the moment has to be better than the last and by doing so we forget that movies also serve as entertainment. Whilst David Koepp's Mortdecai may not win any Oscars, BAFTAs or Golden Globes, it is a very fun movie and I feel like I need to see a good fun one every once in a while.

Charlie Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) is an aristocratic art dealer who has fallen on some financial hard times and is only days away from complete insolvency. After the murder of a painting restorer, he is enlisted by MI5 agent Inspector Martland (Ewan McGregor) to hunt down the killer. So with his trusty manservant Jock (Paul Bettany) in tow, they set off in search of the painting. Meanwhile, Charlie's wife Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow) begins her own investigation into the missing painting.

One thing I think this movie suffers from is an overcomplicated story. There are parts where I felt as though it was tripping over plot points just to get to some laughs that occasionally fall flat. However, I did find that the characters were suitably well rounded enough to feel them as real people. The movie also takes a lot of time in its transitions to the parts of the world that it takes place. Every time we change city (or even a different part of the same city) we get an animated fly-over of the globe, which I felt worked once, but every time after that was just annoying.

The performances were all fun though. All the actors were playing against type, except for Depp. His usual hammed up performance came in handy here, making himself slightly effete and terribly in love with his freshly grown moustache, which he checks in a mirror of some sort every five seconds. Paltrow has a fun time playing his long suffering wife, although I can't see why she is still together with Mortdecai (and yet at the same time I can). Ewan McGregor's character has been in love with Johanna forever, which I thought was a fun touch to a character whose main job is to give exposition and therefore can be a tiny bit tedious.

The supporting cast is great too. Paul Bettany, normally quite a dramatic actor, plays the rather stiff but reliable manservant Jock and is just a joy in any scene. Jeff Goldblum turns up for a few scenes but the amount of screen time he gets is tantamount to murder. Olivia Munn plays his nymphomaniac daughter but has nothing really to do but be a provocative character.

All in all Mortdecai may not be the best movie out right now, but it surely is a relief from some of the more emotionally invested movies that are out at the moment. I am a huge fan of slapstick and I felt as though this had some fun moments of that.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

If there has ever been a more esoteric film, The Grand Budapest Hotel is it. All the fans of Wes Anderson's films will immediately pick up on the formalities of his work and enjoy the film immensely. But don't think that if you haven't seen any of his films previously that you won't see it because you'll be missing out on some larger picture. Rather, it is a great introduction to his world. I think that may have to do with Ralph Fiennes, who comes fresh to the films of Wes Anderson.

Indeed, the majority of the film falls on the more than competent shoulders of Fiennes. This film, however, is a huge departure for him as he usually plays insidious characters (Harry Waters in In Bruges, Amon Göth in Schindler's List, Voldermort in the Harry Potter films). He plays Gustave H., the bubbly concierge at the titular hotel, where he wines and dines many of the older female clientele. One such guest, Madame D. (the wonderfully enigmatic Tilda Swinton), ends up being murdered and Gustave is the prime suspect. This is after he becomes the most profitable recipient of Madame D.'s will.

To help Gustave clear his name is the young lobby boy Zero Moustafa. He is played by the talented young Tony Revolori, for whom this is his first major role. He and Fiennes make an excellent comedic duo playing off each other perfectly and you can feel as though the role of mentor that Fiennes takes up must have spilled over to reality.

A lot of the humour in the film comes in very punctuated moments that are both absolutely absurd and shocking. But there are a lot of jokes that are very quick and funny, mainly quips spouted by Gustave, a lot of them to do with poetry or advice for young Zero.

Of course there are a huge number of other people in this film. F. Murray Abraham plays an older Zero and gives the film some of it's more emotionally insightful moments. Adrien Brody's foul-mouthed Dmitri also gives the film some more comedy as his swearing at times seems completely unwarranted (I should know).

From a technical standpoint this is a fun film to watch. Anderson's trademarks of models and fixed camera angles are all here, but the the most enjoyable thing about the film is that it's aspect ratio changes throughout the film. This has largely to do with the fact that the film is a series of flashbacks piled on top of each other.

Verdict: A hugely enjoyable film for everyone to watch. It is fantastically funny and at the same time has some beautifully reflective scenes. Watch out for the Schindler's List reference toward the end.