Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Director: Zack Snyder. Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa.

First things first: I have never seen the original “Justice League” and to be honest after seeing everybody’s reaction to this director’s cut, saying that this is an improvement of the previous version, I don’t think I ever want to see it. So basically I’m giving you my thoughts on the basis of what I have just seen (almost 4 hours of my life I’ll never get back) and not on what they fixed improved or changed from the theatrical cut. First of all I should say that NO film should be 4 hours long.

This was an ill-conceived project to start with, whatever version you’re watching and to say that this version serves better storylines and characters because it has more time to do so, is just not enough of a good reason.

As it is this film feels like a compilation or a cut-down of an entire TV season about DC superheroes squeezed in 4 hours. With no beginning and no ending.It starts with a messy recap of a bad film I had tried to forget (Batman vs Superman) and after almost 4 hours it still managed to leave us with cliffhangers, unresolved plots and open ends: what an utter deflating experience.

In the middle of all that, a whole lot of GCI mess and then here and there some clumsy backstories for some of the characters which felt slightly crowbarred and tagged on. Let’s face it, no film should ever do so much weight lifting and introducing so many new characters in one go.

So let’s talk about its length really: did it need to be so long? Absolutely NOT. Speaking here as a (pretentious and presumptuous) film editor with almost 30 years of professional experience in cutting things down, I do honestly believe there is a better film (not a perfect one, mind you) to be made out there with some serious tightening, as I have said I have not see Weadon’s version, but I’m told that wasn’t the one.I thought the first hour or so was almost entirely expandable (and so were the last 20 minutes, which really belong to another film… or actually 2 other films).

So many scenes felt superfluous, while few others were pointless fan service, (including a pointless twist which actually ruins a potentially decent and poignant scene between Lois Lane and Clark Kent’s mother), but more crucially the internal pacing of most sequences seemed indulgent to say the least. A lot of that has to do with Snyder’s style of film-making, with those constant agonising slow-motion shots, often adding very little in my view (in fact they could have shaped off at least 40 minutes by running those at normal speed). But hey, once again, that’s Zack Snyder for you: self-serious, ponderous, downbeat, very few smiles, murky-toned-down-colours and lot of slow-motion. If you like that kind of stuff, this might as well be your thing. I just wanted to reach our to the remote control and make it go at least twice as fast (something very funny actually happened at one point: as I stretched my leg on my couch I accidentally hit the remote and shut off my tv just during one of those end-less slomo shot. It took me about 15/20 seconds to turn it on again, and guess what? It was still on the same slomo shot… haha).

I also have to say (and I know I might sound like an old man talking) all those dark grays and blacks in the film didn’t help much when it came to work out who’s doing what to whom an where… There’s a scene about half way through underground where I had some real problems trying to figure out what the hell was going on in terms of who was hitting whom? Not that it matter much. At the end of the day, it’s all the same stuff: people hitting each other and nobody ever getting hurt. In fact I thought one could play a nice drinking game every times a superhero (or a baddie) get thrown up in the air and against a brick wall.

The film is so over-stylised and CGI-heavy that ends up having the opposite effect of those Nolan’s Batman movies and feels artificial and removed from any reality. I rarely cared about anything that was happening on the screen. Not once I laughed or got moved or even went wow. Nothing. No emotion whatsoever, except at the very end when the credits came up, at which point I finally felt relived and said about “thank F**k for that”.

It doesn’t get the 1 star treatment because actually all the actors do the best they can with what they’re given ( I particularly liked Ezra Miller as the Flash), but as a film it’s an over-blown mess which should never have been made as a one-film. And that’s from somebody who’s grown up reading Superman and Batman comics. Potentially I was the perfect audience for this.

I don’t understand how can this film be possibly among the top 120 favourite film on imdb. Please enlighten me! Leave me a message and let me know.

Finding Dory

Finding Dory

Directors: Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane Cast: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill,Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell.

A lovely sequel which is just like what a sequel should be: something that doesn’t betray the spirit of the original (nor the memory of it), which gives you a little bit of the same (same settings, same characters and enough connections to the original) so that it feels familiar and inviting, but at the same time it can set itself apart from it and live on its own. “Finding Dory” starts from the same place but it follow a side character, taking the story to new places and exploring different themes. The sequels to Toy Story were the perfect example of “perfect sequels” and to be honest hardly anything gets close to those (especially part 2 and 3), but still “Finding Dory” is a step up to on sequels like Monsters University, or the various cash-in “Cars” (And we’re only talking about the Pixar products, I won’t even go into the endless Madagascar or Ice Age sequels, just to mention some). One of its biggest achievement is that it manages to tackle very serious issues like “learning disabilities” in the most gentle and warmest way. It goes without saying that it look beautiful even better than the original if that’s even possible: the reflection of the light across the various seascapes is so detailed and realistic that it’s at times disarming and the animation of the character Hank, the octopus, is one of the most inventive and beautifully realised I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not quite up there with “Nemo”, but at the same time even if it followed exactly the same arc, I thought it was more homogeneous film which felt less episodic than it predecessor. Even if not an absolute classic this is still a delightful, charming, poignant film, well above the average.

Incidentally, this was also my son’s first ever trip to a movie theatre back in October 2016, so it will always have a special place in my heart.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Director: Steven Spielberg. Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne.

Let’s face it, they don’t make them like these anymore. This one of those last handsome adventure movie filmed all around the world on actual location, with an actual script and some great set-pieces before CGI came in and made them all look more like video-games.This is possibly my least favourite of the entire trilogy (what? A fourth one? I don’t know what you’re talking about), but that doesn’t mean that it’s less enjoyable.It may not have the memorable action from Raiders or the tension and the energy from from “Temple of Doom”, but it makes up for all that in charm and so much humour that my jaws still hurts from all the smiling.

The chemistry between Connery and Ford is pure gold: their comedic timing is impeccable, whether they’re tied up on a chair while a room is on fire around them, or flying on a plane or riding a motorbike, their expressions and banter make up for the fact that actually the action and stunts are not as impressive as one might remember.

Of course are great ideas here, like the introduction to young Indy, rats in the catacombs under Venice, the tank chase, the 3 final challenges and of course bringing back the Nazi as the big badies (including Hitler himself) and that final ride into sunset among many other things, but there are less successful ones too: for example bringing back Sallah felt more like fan-serving than anything (so much so that he’s left with very little to do), the ploddy scene full of exposition telling us everything we needed to know about Holy Grail, the rather cheap-looking scene on the boat at the start (that one annoys me even back in 1989) or the slightly wasted opportunity to have fun with boats and gondolas along the canals in Venice. Spielberg is so keen to make us laugh and to bring humour everywhere he can (after being criticised for all the darkness in the previous instalment) that he seems to forget the kind of action that made the other film so thrilling.

Don’t get me wrong: I still think this is a great film and I love it with all my heart (and I really adore its soundtrack too) and it’s a really great right, but I have to be honest I love the first two a bit more.

So, not quite a 5 stars… but pretty damn close.

The X-Files (S1.Ep8) “Ice”

Season 1 – Episode 8 – “Ice” 1/2

Director: David Nutter Writers: Chris Carter, Glen Morgan, James Wong. Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xander Berkeley, Felicity Huffman

This is definitely the best episode so far in this season. Written by some of the best writers in the series Glen Morgan, James Wong and directed by one of their best men, David Nutter, the only reason why it doesn’t get the full 5 stars rating from me, it’s just because some of it seems to riff John Carpenter’s “The Thing” a bit too closely (they call it homage… but, let’s be honest, it’s a complete rip-off. But hey, who cares when it works so well!).Right from the first few frames you know this is going to be a much darker and better episode. The way the camera glides across those details of dead bodies is intriguing and creepy at the same time. Apparently the decision to have the most of the episode taking place inside the ice station, was to somehow balance the budget with the rest of the series and actually make a cheap one. Well, it might have been cheap, but the use of the single location really does enhance the feeling of claustrophobia which beautifully fuels the whole episode. The sense of paranoia, as we don’t know who to trust is beautifully handled and so is the interplay among all the characters, both in terms of script and acting, including the first really tense moment between our two heroes, who find themselves pointing theirs guns at each other in one of the greatest scenes of the entire season.It’s their first big argument and it gets as close as killing each other off. Brilliant. Of course it does help that you also have 2 great supporting actors too: Felicity Huffman (well before her time in Frasier, Desperate Housewife and many others) and especially Xander Berkeley (a great character actor and later seen playing Mason in 24) bring a sort of lived-in baggage to their characters making them believable and three-dimensional. This is what the X-Files is all about: paranoia, mystery, tension, gross-out moments, and a little bit of humour too (Mulder having to take his clothes off in front of the others and proclaiming “Let’s not pass judgment, we are in the artic!).

Dramarama

Dramarama (2020)

Writer, director: Jonathan Wysocki. Cast Zak Henri, Nico Greetham, Anna Grace Barlow, Megan Suri, Nick Pugliese, Danielle Kay

What a charming and unexpected little surprise this was!!!

The story centres around 5 high school friends who have their last night together (in fact a murder mystery party in costume) before each of them will have to leave the day after for college.After quite a frantic, unsettled (and unsettling) beginning with a bit too much background music, the film soon finds its feet, it calms down a bit and as it becomes more of a stage play (though never feels static or stuffy), it begins to show a definite John Hughes vibe (which made quite irresistible for kid like grown up in the 80s).

It’s a sort of rite-of-passage story which clearly owes a lot to films like “the Breakfast Club” with the so-called “rejected” group of kids who, during the course of the night, ends up learning about themselves, their friends and essentially they grow up. Even if the script is at times slightly too over-written a bit too self-conscious (however smart these kids might be, some lines carry a bit too much experience-baggage), the magnificent ensemble cast makes even the most improbable dialogue work beautifully.Writer, producer and director Jonathan Wysocki handles their continuous changes of moods beautifully. One moment they kids are laughing their heads off, the way teenagers do, playing jokes on each other, talking by quoting lines from classic 80s and early 90s movies and being immature in general (a hilarious scene in which they swap movie titles with the word “fart”, “jurassic fart”, “silence of the farts” and so on), then they themselves arguing and fighting as if there was no tomorrow only to make peace again a few minutes later. They apologise, they cry, they hug and they carry on laughing on whatever the next idiotic thing is. The film perfectly captures what being a teenager is all about: the awkwardness, the laughters, the talk about sex, the inappropriate jokes, the spontaneous hugs among friends, the hopes for the future. You’re still la child most of the times but with brilliant and short moments of maturity filled with naive, unspoilt and often acute observations. A time when being friends means everything. And when towards the end of the film they will have to say goodbye to each other, a lump on your throat will remind you of all the times you’ve had to say goodbye to a a friend.

I don’t know if the film has a distribution yet (I saw this at the BFI Flare Festival) but I do hope it gets it and you’ll be able to see it too.