A Quiet Place Review

            A Quite Place is the kind of film that feel like it was originally meant to be some kind of vanity/arthouse horror project that was somehow warped into a more conventional horror film. It features a rather creative high concept premise that requires the actors to act almost exclusively through their body language and facial expressions. It has a lead actor who also directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film and is the kind of film that would otherwise be so overwhelmed by the ego of said actor that it would be impossible to take seriously. Yet despite all of the warning signs, A Quite Place actually tuned out to be a solid little horror film and is a decent way to spend an hour and a half.

            The film takes place in the United States roughly a year and a half after a race of creatures began appearing, seemingly out of nowhere and began killing off the world’s population. No one seems to know what they are or where they came from. All that anyone seems to know is that are blind, have incredible hearing that can pick up a noise from miles away, very fast, very dangerous and very tough to kill. Our story focuses around a family of upstate New York farmers who are trying to live their day to day lives while trying to make as little noise as possible lest they attract the monsters. And that’s about it.

            This is one of those of films that is sold on a single original idea but is otherwise rather formulaic. The plot isn’t elaborate and doesn’t really get any more complicated beyond that. Whether or not it’s actually any good relies on how well they execute said original premise and incorporate it into said formulaic plot. But, in this case, the execution is, for the most part, spot on. What makes it work is that there is a subtle air of tension is every single scene. It doesn’t constantly shove it in your face with jump scares or moments where the characters almost make a noise but just manage to avoid doing so. You are, however, always aware that any misstep made by these characters could cost them all their lives. It takes what would otherwise be tedious, mundane scenarios and turns them in to life or death situations

            This all eventually comes to a head in the second half of the film when one of these characters actually makes one of these missteps and kicks off the film’s climax. From then on you can cut the tension in every shot with a knife as the monsters creep around while the family desperately tries not to make a sound in situations where all you want to do is scream. The crown jewel, however, has to be at the film’s midpoint and adds several layers of tension to what was already a tense, nail-biting film. I won’t spoil what it is but it’s the kind of event that tremendously raises the stakes and has you praying that the characters can keep quiet while knowing that it is all but impossible.

            What ultimately glues it all together, however is the family. You buy that this family is legitimate. It’s clear that the father loves his kids but has some trouble expressing it to his eldest daughter, possibly due to an early film tragedy. The daughter clearly has issues with the dad regarding this tragedy and feels neglected as a result. The son has a great turn as a kid who has responsibilities thrust upon him that he clearly unready for but none the less has to take on. The only real weak link in the cast is the mother. This is mainly because the film doesn’t give her much to do beyond being the terrified housewife though she does sell the hell out of it and does have some badass moments at the film’s end. But for the most part the character relationships work and help keep the stakes high by successfully making us care about them,

            That’s not to say, however, that the film doesn’t have problems. We never really get any kind of explanation as to what the monsters are or where they come from which is a tad bit frustrating. It has to be said that their designs are rather generic and boring looking like a generic mutant from the Resident Evil games or something. It also has to be said that the film has a bit of a structuring problem as it seems to lack a clearly defined third act. You have the first half where everything is quiet and the characters go about their daily lives and the second half where they’re hiding from the monster and there doesn’t seem to be anything resembling a finale in the film. If anything, it seems to end right before the third act was suppose to start and ends up feeling like we were cheated out of the actual ending as a result. But these things only slightly take away from the overall experience.

            In the end, A Quiet Place is by no means perfect but is an otherwise decent way to spend an hour and a half. It’s suspenseful, dramatic and a welcome breather from all the hundred million-dollar projects that that we have and will be bombarded with over the spring/summer season. I say give it a look.

Overall

8/10

          So until next time, please be sure to follow the site, Like my page over on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my other work over at The Nerd Hub and Heroic Hollywood and please considering donating to my personal Pateron to support this article and other projects like it. Until then, lets hope that the summer season has some more good movies to bring.

The Dark Tower Review

            This past weekend we saw the release of the long awaited Dark Tower film and pretty much every critic and their mother hates it.  It has a 18% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 34/100 on Metacritic and upon viewing the film it’s not at all difficult to see why.  The characters are underwritten, the action scenes lack any sense of special, the plot is generic and cliched as hell, it’s incredibly cheap looing and there are many points where longtime fans of the novels are going to wince in pain and disgust.  But you know what?  When all is said and done, it’s actually not that bad.  It’s disposable and the franchise certainly deserves better but it’s not quite the abysmal train wreak that some people are making it out to be.

            The plot is a VERY loose adaptation of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and has been softball pitched as a quasi-continuation of the novels, (if you’ve read the books then that description will make a lot more sense), as it takes elements of the first book and reworks them into an original plot.  The story begins with a boy names Jake Chambers having visions of The Man in Black using children with psychic abilities as a power source for a weapon that is launching attacks against a structure known as The Dark Tower; a place that in this continuity protects a vast multiverse from “the darkness” that is beyond and constantly trying to consume it.  Not long after, agents of The Man in Black attempt to kidnap Jake as a new power source for this weapon, forcing him to flee and seek out The Man in Black’s mortal enemy, Roland, The Last Gunslinger in a dimension known as Mid-World.  Together the two of them will attempt to track down The Man in Black, find his base and weapon, destroy it and kill him in the process.

            When watching the film, it becomes clear that all of its problems, (outside of massive deviations from the source material), stem from two sources; it’s was clearly made on an incredibly low budget and is far too short.  The main issue is that due to its short runtime none of the characters are properly developed.  The Man in Black, for example, is about as generic of a mustache twirling bad guy as you can possibly get.  He kills and tortures people seemingly just for fun and we’re never told why he wants to destroy The Tower and let in the darkness that it’s holding back.  We don’t get any explanation as to where his powers come from, why they are so strong, why they don’t work on Roland or what their actual limits are.  He just all around lacks any meaningful writing that tells us anything about him outside of the fact that he’s a bad guy doing bad things.  Luckily the character is somewhat salvaged thanks to Mathew McConaughey’s performance.  It’s not going to be his next Oscar nominated performance to be sure but he brings enough raw charisma, sleazy guile and scenery chewing ham to the role that he at least makes it entertaining to watch if nothing else.

            Likewise, we have Idris Elba as Roland.  Like McConaughey, Elba has enough raw charisma to carry you through every scene he’s in and feels very well suited to the role.  The problem comes in the form of his so-called arc.  You see at the start of the film it’s pretty clear that he can’t stand Jake and is only going after the Man in Black out of a desire for revenge as opposed to defending The Tower, (in this continuity the Gunslingers are sworn to protect it).  By the time the film ends, however, it’s clear that his commitment to defend The Tower has been renewed and has become fond of Jake.  The problem is that you really don’t buy this arc.  The transition just kind of happens and seems to have been spurred by a tragedy midway through the film but seems to happen over the course of five minutes and is completely unbelievable.  Luckily Elba is a good enough actor where you can at least buy his performance but the actual writing and pacing of the film leaves you feeling as if you missed a scene or two somewhere.

            The big weak link in the three leads, however, is Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers.  Like Elba and McConaughey he has enough raw charisma to get you through the picture but ends up functioning more as a plot point then then a character.  What little character he does have, unfortunately, amounts to the generic wonder kid kind where he is the most special kid in the universe and only he can do this and that and we’ve already seen this a million times before.  For the most part, however, he’s only in the film to lead Roland to The Man in Black, guide him through New York, and eventually be rescued by him at the film’s climax.

           As mentioned earlier, the other major thing that held the film back was clearly its budget.  While watching the film it’s very clear that it was shot on a limited budget and I wasn’t surprised to find out that it was made on about 60 million dollars.  The biggest victims of this are the action scenes.  In total, the film has about four big action scenes and most ended up coming out as average at best despite having some cool toys to play with.  Early on, for example, Roland and Jake have to fight a monster from “the darkness” that has broken through the Dark Tower’s protective shield, which in theory sounds like a cool monster for them to fight and give us some sense as to what they’re up against should the Tower fall.  Unfortunate it mostly amounts to Roland struggling from being pinned to a tree while Jake hides in some old carnival equipment before Roland guns it down.  At the end of the film we get Roland’s final confrontation with The Man in Black where we see a cool range of their abilities but the whole thing takes place in a narrow hallway with the two shooting and throwing things at each other.  While none of these action scenes are bad, per say, it’s very clear that at one point they were meant to go on longer and be far more imagined and epic in scale then they ended up being.

            Ironically, however, one of the film’s biggest hindrances is arguably its biggest saving grace.  As mentioned earlier the film is rather short, clocking in at around 95 minutes.  Because of this it’s fast paced enough to where you don’t notice its flaws as much while you’re watching it.  The whole production is quickly paced and keeps thing moving fast enough so you’re never actually bored.  And that actually sums up the entirety of the film.

            Everything about it is fundamentally flawed but it’s never boring.  Our three lead characters lack any real depth but they’re so well played that you enjoy watching them.  The action is a pale shadow of what it could have been but it’s still well done enough to where you can’t really say anything bad about it.  And finally, the plot is a cheap generic mess but its fast paced and short enough to where you’re never bored.  Ultimately, it’s a disposable film and The Dark Tower franchise deserved far better but as an early August matinee show goes you can certainly do worse.

All Around

5/10

          So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter, and be sure to check out my other work over at The Nerd Hub where I cover comic books and video games and is worth taking a look at.  Until then, let's hope that if they continue this franchise has more substance then this one.

John Wick Chapter 2

            Go see it.  Seriously, go see it.  Why are you still reading this article?  Why aren’t you going to see it right now?!?!?!  If you’ve already seen it, why aren’t you seeing it again?!?!  GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!  In all seriousness though, 2017 is already shaping up to be a pretty good year, entertainment wise.  Resident Evil 7 was a pretty solid game, For Honor already has a very loyal fan base and films like Split and The Lego Batman movie turned out far better than anyone expected them to be.  The year has started out on a pretty positive note and, as of the writing this article, John Wick Chapter 2 has been the best note of the year so far.

            For those who don’t know, the film is a sequel to the 2014 action sleeper hit, John Wick which followed a retired hitman’s rampage across New York to find the mobster scumbags who stole his car and killed his dog.  The film was basically a perfect version of what it was trying to be; a 90s-style unstoppable badass action movie that should be experienced rather than talked about.  The action used continuous shots with incredible gunplay and hand to hand combat that never looked staged and always felt realistic.  On top that, the film had a surprisingly amount going on under its surface.  Most of the world building and character history was conveyed through actions as well as subtle dialog that consisted mostly of casual conversation between the characters as opposed to overly long exposition.  All of which transfers over to the sequel with bigger stakes, more deadly fighting and an actual pretty satisfying character arc for the titular hero.

            The plot begins in the immediate aftermath of the first film with John achieving a truce with the remaining family members of the antagonists of the last film and is ready to go back into retirement.  Unfortunately, not long after a crime lord acquaintance of John’s by the name of Santino D’Antonio arrives, calling in a blood oath favor that Wick owes him that allowed him to get out of the life in the first place.  Once completing the task, however, D’Antonio puts a seven million dollar bounty on his head in order to cover his tracks.  Realizing that his only chance for survival is to kill D’Antonio, John must battle a gauntlet of assassins and bodyguards all across New York before he can get to the man himself.

            As mentioned before, everything that made the first film work so well is back for the sequel but this time turned up to eleven.  The action scenes are more creative and make for some pretty intense fights that put a lot of modern action movies to shame.  Be it the initial rush of assassins that John has to face midway through the film or an incredibly tense chase through a hall of mirrors art exhibit, it’s hands down some of the best stuff that I’ve seen in a while.  It helps that the film actually has legitimate tension.  Wick may be every bit the unstoppable badass action hero that he appears to be but what both the creative team and Keanu Reeves make apparent is that the character is actually human.  The constant running and fighting the character does is something that clearly winds him and beats down on his stamina.  Getting stabled, shot, or bludgeoned does actually hurt him and by the time the film ends you legitimately wonder just how he is still standing.

            Another layer of tension is added to the fight with what appears to be a relatively realistic ammo count.  It might seem like a trivial thing but when compared to other films but Wick seems to be constantly reloading his gun or switching out weapons in order to compensate for just how many enemies are coming after him.  In one instance, for example, he is forced to go after the main antagonist in a room full of body guards with just one gun with seven rounds.  After burning through the rounds relatively quickly, he is forced to go after the various bodyguards and taking their weapons by hand which also have limited amounts of ammo, forcing him to quickly reload or change weapons.  It’s a very refreshing take on gun battles when most action movies just have the main character run out of ammo the moment the plot says so.

            Character interactions are just as good as they were in the last film.  The initial conversations between Wick and D’Antonio, for example, tell us everything we need to know about their relationship through subtle acting, character action and lines of throwaway dialog.  We’re never told what exactly it was D’Antonio did for John but given how seriously everyone in the film takes the blood oath, we can infer that it must have been something pretty extreme.  We can also tell from the get-go that these two clearly do not like each other.  It doesn’t evolve into pure hatred until later in the film but thanks to the acting you can clearly tell that there is some animosity between the two even before D’Antonio puts the hit on him.  Something similar happens between Wick and the character Cassian played by Common.  We don’t know how it is the two know each other but it’s pretty clear that they respect and know each other pretty well, even knowing what the other’s preferred drink is.  Because of this we get a pretty good feel for the relationship between the two, once again with subtle acting and a few key lines of dialog that feel more like natural conversation than anything else.  Likewise, the world building elements are done in similar ways.  While there isn’t nearly as much of it as there was in the previous film, what we do have is done in the exact same manner; through character actions, subtle dialog, and the creative team trusting the audience to be smart enough to figure out what certain things are on their own.

            If there is one major weak point in the film, it’s the first act as it takes a painfully long time for it to get to the main plot.  Up until then we have a lot of characters walking from place to place and talking about how serious certain plot elements are without a whole lot happening.  Granted a good chunk of this revolves around John preparing for the job that he is about to do but it drags on for far too long and ends up feeling boring, especially when compared to the rest of the film that seems to be firing all cylinders all the time.  You also see things that can’t help but draw attention to themselves as franchise management on camera.  Certain characters that you expect to be added to the body count simply aren’t and other characters are introduced out of nowhere seemingly because the studio wants them for the sequels. 

            In the end, though, John Wick Chapter 2 is just a kickass movie.  Everything that worked in the first film is back and turned up to 11 and is everything that you would want out of an action movie sequel.  Be sure to check it out.  So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter and let's hope that 2017 can keep the ball rolling.

2015 Favorite, Biggest Surprises and Biggest Disappointments

            Well everyone, 2015 has come and gone and 2016 has arrived.  We’ve had our share of ups and downs, box office bombs, massive hits, controversies and surprises and like everyone else it’s time for me to say just what I think constitutes as the best and worst in the year.  Unfortunately the year proved to be a busy one for me due to a move, school, a change in jobs and trying out game mastering for DnD for the first time and I’ve had neither the time nor the money to see every movie, play every video game, or read every comic book to come out this year.  So whereas most people would do a top 5 or top 10 lists I’m limiting my choices to one in categories of Personal Favorite, Biggest Surprise and Biggest Disappointment.   So without further delay, let’s see what I loved, what surprised and what disappointed me.

Movies

Personal Favorite

Mad Max: Fury Road

            In spite of a few noticeable hiccups like Terminator: Genisys, 2015 was a heck of a year when it came to reviving franchises from the 80s and early 90s but for my money Fury Road is easily the best of them.  Tom Hardy was the perfect choice for the titular character making us all but forget the man who originally played the role.  Charlize Theron’s turn as Furiosa made for a great co-lead and surprised us all by taking over the role as the main character.  The plot, though simple in nature, was loaded with a surprising amount of depth.  The action sequences were easily some of the best of the year, combining old school practical effects with modern special effects and editing techniques.  All around, it was a kickass movie that was surprisingly smart and I can’t wait to see what’s next for these characters.

Biggest Surprise

Jurassic World

            After one subpar sequel, one terrible one, and 12 years of development hell I really wasn’t expecting this movie to even come out, much less be any good.  The fact that they chose Chris Pratt as the lead, (yes he was good in Guardians but I wasn’t convinced he would be good for this), and the trailer showing that the main bad dinosaur would be a mutant hybrid didn’t exactly help matters.  In the end, the movie was pretty silly coming off more as Jurassic Park fan fiction, with most of the characters coming off as parodies of their stock roles, deaths that more often hilarious then horrifying, and an final fight against the mutant dinosaur that was so stupidly awesome that for a moment I thought I was watching Pacific Rim or something.  But I’ll be damned if the whole thing didn’t work.  It may pale in comparison to the original’s Adventure/Horror atmosphere, but for what it is the movie was a lot of fun.  Chris Pratt was entertaining in the lead role.  His relationship with his Raptors was entertaining and in some ways cute and the final battle was just so much fun.  I can’t honestly say that I think the movie deserves as much money as it made but for what it was it was a fun ride.

Biggest Disappointment

Crimson Peak

            There were plenty of movies that disappointed and/or sucked but most of them we can probably say that the movies in question sucking was something that we saw coming.  With Age of Ultron there was no way it had any chance of surpassing the first Avengers or even The Winter Soldier and Guardians in terms of quality.  The Terminator franchise is one that no one seems to care about anymore and the new Fantastic Four movie not being any good was something that everyone knew about months before the movie even came out due to the steady trickle of rumors of production problems plaguing the film.  But then we have Crimson Peak, the latest outing from Guillermo del Toro; a man with an insanely impressive film resume doing a haunted house movie.  And it wasn’t any good.  Outside of two admittedly great performances by Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain and some interesting looking ghosts, the movie disappoints in nearly every other regard.  Marketed has a horror movie, the film fails to provide any legitimate scares and is truly more of a predictable, subpar murder mystery and if the so called twists aren’t told to the viewer outright in the first act it’s so heavily imply that they may as well have told you.  I honestly do believe that del Toro is easily the most underappreciated living director of this generation but this movie almost made me rethink that position.  Almost.

Video Games

Personal Favorite

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

This was kind of a tough one as there were three games that I really wanted to put in this spot.  Bloodbourne was a game I’ve sunk a lot of hours into and have thoroughly enjoyed, even with its insane difficulty.  Fallout 4 has also proved to be a fine game even if it does lose a lot of its steam the moment you get to the Institute.  But for me, The Witcher 3 is the best game of the year.  With great graphics, fantastically written characters, a campaign that both rewards and punishes you for your actions and a slew of monster hunting quests that have you acting as much as a detective as a warrior the game offers the absolute most you will get out of any game this year.  To put it simply, it’s everything that Dragon Age: Inquisition tried and failed to be and everything that Skyrim wasn’t interested in being.  Check it out.

Biggest Surprise

Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game

Since the release of the first “season” of their Walking Dead game, Telltale is a development company that has quickly devolved into making games that consist almost entirely of QTEs and has very obviously over extended itself, dipping its hands into a few to many franchises all at once, (Minecraft Story Mode anyone?) and at first their Game of Thrones game seemed to be just another middling Telltale game.  And to be fair, this game is not one of their best outings.  Once again we have a game that only gives you the illusion of choice, that’s gameplay amounts to QTEs and a story that pales in comparison to the media it’s based on.  But, when all was said and done, I found myself completely invested in the struggles of House Forrester and wanted to see them succeed in their struggles against their enemies and it really does capture “crap happens” effect of the source material as well as the idea that a lot of your investment in these places and characters amounts to little in this cruel world.  All of the characters are interesting and go beyond being the Jon Snow stand in or the Rob Stark stand in, (although they do get close at times), and have the kind of depth that you really wouldn’t expect in a licensed game.  Although the game is kind of hard to give a glowing recommendation, it makes for a decent filler story while you wait for the next book or show season to come out.

Biggest Disappointment

Batman: Arkham Knight

In this category I was torn between this game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Star Wars: Battlefront.  Ultimately I felt that Battlefront was undeserving of this spot mostly because I saw it being mediocre the moment EA announced its revival and the fact that DICE would be developing it, (Battlefront 4 anyone?) and the game’s actual poor quality and lack of content is an obvious result of large chunks of the game being carved out for DLC; a practice so cliché for big shooters at this point that I think most people are just numb to it.  With MGSV what we had was a very solid game and what was lacking was clearly the result of Konami’s poor business decisions and the apparent conflict between Kojima and Konami executives.  While this is good fodder for an article on gaming controversy it doesn’t make the game any less good, even if it is easily the weakest MGS installment.

  The reason I opted to go with Arkham Knight however was because, when you got right down to it, the developers simply failed to make a compelling title or a satisfying ending to the Arkham series.  The game’s many problems included a PC version that was utterly unplayable at launch and a lackluster, by the numbers Batman vs. Scarecrow storyline with an insultingly predictable twist.  The gameplay relied WAY to heavily on tank battles and side missions that had you doing the same things over and over again and failed to take advantage of the interesting and unique villains that populate the Batman mythos.  All of this was rounded up an ending that was so unclear as to just what happened it negates any emotional impact that it was supposed to convey, walled off by an infuriating 100% completion condition that would drive anyone up the wall.

All around, 2015 was full of disappointing games but this one was the one that hit the hardest for me.  It’s not a bad game by any means but it was hands down the one that let me down the most.

Comics

Before I go any further on this section I should disclose that I’ve only read Marvel comics this year.  That’s not to say that DC doesn’t produce great comics but I’ve simply fallen so far behind on DC’s that catching up has proven to be a very difficult task, and while I do intend to cover DC’s series this year none of their products will be appearing in this section.  So with that said, let’s get this show on the road.

Personal Favorite

The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Verse

Technically this one is kind of cheating, seeing as how half of the Spider-Verse event came out in 2014 but Marvel’s turnout was so lackluster this year, mainly due to the Secret Wars event, (makes you think I should expand my horizons doesn’t it?), that the answer as to what would be my favorite of the year was always obvious to me.  Featuring probably the most unique crossover event that I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, the Spider-Verse event had everything that most events both have and lack.  The characters were all three dimensional and had some degree of development, the interactions between all of these versions of Spider-Man range from dramatic to heart breaking to hilarious, and it gave us an insane but interesting storyline that manages to capture the complexity of the character and Spider-Man mythos as well as its ludicrous nature.  It’s the best kind of crossover that there is and I couldn’t recommend it enough.  Check it out.

Biggest Surprise

Darth Vader

I’ve already talked about this one in a previous post and my feelings on it stay unchanged.  But it should suffice to say that this was a comic that was a lot better than it had any right to be, providing a new and interesting cast of characters, art work that perfectly captured the mood, challenging obstacles for Vader to overcome and answers questions that I, quite frankly, didn’t even think to ask.  If you have to buy one Star Wars comic I recommend this one.  It is worth your time and money.

Biggest Disappointment

Secret Wars

Oh dear.  Where do I even start with this one?  Should I talk about the insane number of production delays?  Should I talk about how all of this was supposed to be over in October but will now be ending on the 13^th of this month?  Should I mention that the series was originally 8 issues but was extended to 9?  Should I go over the fact that the event series has continued even though the rebooted Marvel Universe has already started with several fantastic series?  Is it worth mentioning that it doesn’t actually have a plot?  Should I go over the fact that more than half the series is prolonged exposition explaining how things work while failing to have a coherent narrative?  Should I mention that the characters have no apparent arc or development?  Should we talk about how the whole thing just skips from the exposition issues right to climactic battle issues?  All are worth mentioning and all are the reason why this comic sucks and has been the biggest disappointment of 2015’s comics.  Seriously, BURN THIS SERIES AND NEVER ALLOW IT TO BE REPRINTED AGAIN!

And that wraps up my personal picks for my favorites, biggest disappointments, and biggest surprises.  This year will be one to feature a lot more content and hopefully bring more readers and I am determined that one way or another, this will be a great year.

So until next time please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and let the new year begin!  It's going to be a good one.