nigelhasthoughts

[nigelhasthoughts]

Oppenheimer

I've just recently seen the film Oppenheimer. It's a 3 hour long Christopher Nolan film looking into the life of J Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.

It's received some rave reviews on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, however I'm going to buck the trend and say it didn't really do it for me.

The cast performance was amazing, however we have a mix of stories, of the bomb development and the later national security committee's investigation into Oppenheimer's security clearance level, told through various jumps forward and backwards in time (and with some interesting use of black and white) which I found rather exhausting to watch. The principal big event hardly lasted 5 minutes with footage that left me thinking 'Oh, is that it', and likewise, a feeling of anticlimax on leaving the screening.

I also wonder how much of the nudity on show was there just for titillation rather than to actually contribute to and move the story on. 

I think as a film this could have been cut by around an hour, or gone the other way and been expanded out into something like an 8 episode mini series. With the various time jumps and viewing things from different people's perspectives, breaking this up into smaller separate events / episodes would not have been a problem.

Most big screen blockbusters will have me going for a second view a week or 10 days after my first session. I don't think I'll bother with this one, I'm happy enough to have gone to see it, but once was quite enough.

[nigelhasthoughts]

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Just seen "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of those films where it's best to disengage all higher brain functions on entering the cinema, sit back, and just be entertained. As expected, a paper-thin plot of the team trying to save the world, this time by acquiring a key that controls a world dominating artificial intelligence 'entity' that has gone rogue, however multiple others also want to get the key so they in turn can control this device.

The usual plots and subplots, who's your friend and who isn't, mixed in with impossible stunts and fight scenes that go to make up any Mission Impossible adventure. Tom Cruise now may be coming on in years but is still able to do the business.

Nice to have plenty of humour running through the film. Perhaps the real star of the show being the (electrified) vintage Fiat 500. This got an amazing reaction from the theatre audience when it first appeared on the screen as Tom Cruise's escape car.

One stand-out thing for me with the film was the way they handled the ending. So often with these two part films the end of part one leaves you hanging too much on the edge of a proverbial cliffhanger scene. However I really liked the way this one brought part one of the story to a natural 'end of chapter' pause, but still leaving you with much to look forward to for part two.

[nigelhasthoughts]

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

I recently saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, so what did I think.

The quick summary would be… it’s Indiana Jones so what do you expect!

We start off in 1945 and a relatively young Jones doing his stuff, busy swashing and buckling, fighting some evil Nazis as they loot some treasure which includes some ancient Greek artefacts. Jump forward to 1969 (and the time of the moon landing) and Jones, and rather unexpectedly, finds himself clashing with some of the same Nazis and also his own God daughter. No surprise to find everything being connected back to some of the same 1945 treasure, with the Nazi leader wanting use some of this to reset the past.

As expected, a good performance put in by Ford, and in turn well supported by the rest of the cast. However as Indiana Jones exploits go I don’t think it was anything special, just a mid-ranking Jones adventure. A rather fanciful plot full of the usual number of holes (how can a 2,000 year old device calculate out a position in latitude and longitude when latitude and longitude scales are a relatively new invention). On the other hand I don’t suppose the storyline is any more weird than any of the other Jones adventures.

It did however involve some time travel, and I must admit I’m getting a bit tired of this. So many other super hero type films seem to be running out of original ideas so falling back to using time travel in order to develop their story lines. This one has probably done it better than most, but still leaves me underwhelmed rather than impressed.

So a good Indiana Jones adventure, but not a great one.

[nigelhasthoughts]

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

As I got into the lift on my way out of the cinema a mother and child plus another young girl (late teens?) also got in. The child turned to mum and said she had found the film confusing. The young girl then commented on how she too found her first viewing a bit of a muddle and this was her second time seeing it, and things now made far more sense. I'll agree with this, I enjoyed my first view but got so much more out of seeing it the second time round.

I'd also highlight that if you've not watched the original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, then see that first before coming to see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. You need to have the background knowledge of the general situation, characters, back-story etc. in order to take on what's going on with this second film of the series.

As for the film, it continues on with Miles' journey as Spider-Man, making a mess of some things (especially family matters) and having to sort out others, including having to fight off thousands of other Spider-Men (& Spider-Creatures) from across the Spider-Verse. The sound track was great and the animation amazing, though some of the visuals did come across as a bit chaotic (this animation style is definitely one where you'll like it or totally hate it!).

However some scenes stretched on for too long (perhaps Gwen's opening scene and Peter Parker with his child), while the ending was just too abrupt, suddenly leaving you with an unexpected cliff-hanger, and now having to wait for Sony / Marvel to make the next part. I don't mind cliff-hangers (at least if I know they're coming) but this one was just too sudden with too many loose ends left dangling. I'd much rather there be at least a little more story resolution, making it a more complete stand-alone film, but still giving us a suspenseful cliff-hanging ending to lead us on to the next film.

[nigelhasthoughts]

The Flash

Recently saw the new The Flash movie. Ummm...interesting.

Here we have Barry, The Flash, discovering that he can run faster than light and can go back in time. So he (despite warnings) decides to go back and save his mother from getting murdered, and save his dad from being accused of killing her. Needless to say things do not go smoothly. Barry finds himself in a timeline interacting with a teenage (not yet super-powered) version of himself, the two of them teaming up with an alternative Batman and Supergirl to fight General Zod (who's attacking the planet looking for Supergirl), where after the usual battles and things, things do draw to a rather tragic conclusion.

As fun as this was as a Flash movie (where else could you get away with 'come on, Barbie, let's go party'), I think the real character that held the film together was Batman (or rather the various alternative timeline Batmen). They came across as far stronger characters compared to Barry(s) / The Flash.

As The Flash is making a general mess of his jumping across timelines it was nice to see (be it through archive footage) appearances of Christopher Reeves, Adam West, and a few other earlier SuperHeroes. As for a brief appearance of a George Clooney Batman at the end, that certainly added a nice little twist to the story.

However, one thing I'm getting rather tired of is this 'we can't think what else to do so we'll do another time travel story'. It seems to be happening more and more often, and has definitely lost its novelty.

[nigelhasthoughts]

Chevalier

Recently I found myself in the cinema watching Chevalier. A story based on the composer, violinist (and fencer) Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

We are in France, at the time of Marie Antoinette and just before the French Revolution, with our principal character, Joseph, a black guy, being the illegitimate son of a French plantation owner and an African slave. Early on in the film we see him on the stage playing with (out playing?) Mozart. We then follow his rise through the French social ranks, ending up one of the queen’s favourites (despite skin colour) until (because of his colour) the inevitable fall from grace.

I’m glad this film has been made, bringing to notice a forgotten composer, however it cuts his life short, leaving out so much that happened after the film’s time period, especially his revolutionary activities. The scenery, costumes and similar I thought were well done, however the plot itself was weak and predictable, while the film should have been done in French, not in a modern ‘Hollywood style English’. This really jarred with me. If you closed your eyes to cut out any visual clues and relied on the voices, you’d be hard pushed to guess you were in 18th century France.

So I’ll settle on a film with wasted potential, best left for a lazy Sunday streaming service view when there’s not much else on.