Jurassic World: Fallen Screenplay

Mild spoilers abound: 

First the good news: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has a crackerjack opening sequence. 

A moody, undersea mission to plunder skeletal dinosaur remains – and the unexpected encounter with some that are still very much alive. I love dinosaurs, and was thoroughly entertained by Colin Trevorrow’s 2015 Jurassic World - it was crisp and epic and viscerally enjoyable, despite the occasional silliness. Unfortunately, director J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, The Impossible, A Monster Calls) fares less well with this sequel, in large part due to a muddled script (Trevorrow, with Derek Connolly) that paints in broad strokes and strains disbelief time and time again.

It seems the dino’s home of Isla Nublar was actually a dormant volcano (who knew?!) that now threatens to make all dinosaur life on the island extinct. It turns out that original park impresario John Hammond had a partner (who knew?!), Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), who summons Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) to his vast Gothic mansion to convince her to lead a covert rescue mission to the island to save as many dinos as possible. But first, she needs to convince Raptor-whisperer Own Grady (Chris Pratt), to stop building his house and join her, being the only one who can contain Blue, the last surviving Velociraptor. Their characters are even less pronounced this time, and have an uncomfortable lack of charisma together. A scene in a bar where Howard tries to persuade Pratt to go with her was reminding me of the infamous animal cracker scene in Armageddon. Plus, the ham-fisted product placement has them drinking Becks. I mean, this guy’s a supposed man’s man, house-building, wild-dinosaur wrangler in the age of craft beer – he’s not having Becks! He’d spit it out! Point being, I shouldn’t even be noticing the bogus beer choice. Pratt’s a wildly entertaining presence, but he seems neutered here, seldom getting to do anything funny. He’s wasted, stiffly running away from volcanic ash clouds like Ben Affleck in Batman v Superman.

Pratt and Howard are accompanied by two young assistants (Daniella Pineda and Justice Smith), and a suspicious gang of mercenaries led by “Put the lotion in the basket!” Ted Levine. Because guess what (who knew?!)? It’s all a sham! The dinos are being “rescued” to be weaponized to the (literal) highest bidder! Pratt and his gang have been hoodwinked! Now they don’t just need to save them from volcanic extinction, but save them from the evil that men do! The whole bestiary is crammed onto a single ship that looks like it could barely contain one or two – yet somehow this ocean-going clown car manages to contain dozens of poached dinos. 

Somehow this entire colossal operation happens without a single journalist’s camera being on the scene – despite earlier CNN coverage of the island’s nascent eruptions – as it’s the seismic event of the century – yet not a single press helicopter is there to witness the sauropod skulduggery. 

You’ve got several hundred tons of dinos? Where do you keep them? Why in the gigantic subterranean research lab/garage beneath your Gothic manor, that’s where! Poor James Cromwell has been duped by his nefarious jack-of-all-Ops guy (Rafe Spall), an oily suit who makes one long for the subtler villainy of Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber. You know Spall's a bad guy because he yells at children!

The thing is, Bayona is clearly a really good director. Working with DP Oscar Faura, Bayona captures some really fantastic images and knows how to stage a dynamic set piece. There's a lot of good material in Fallen Kingdom, but it's undermined by a tepid script with a plodding 2nd act. It's also frustrating to have the dinosaurs spend half the movie sedated and confined. You yearn for them to bust loose, and when they do, it's exciting as hell. Bayona loves classic Gothic atmosphere, and there are some great moments where he turns the film into a demented Hammer horror film. I just wish the script had let him go even crazier, as he understands the terrain between catastrophe and mortal dread very well.

When the inevitable 3rd film comes out, get some more apex predators in the screenplay department and please give Chris Pratt material that plays to his strengths. There's a bit where he's been tranquilized and desperately tries to escape rivers of encroaching lava - more of that! 

At the end of the day, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is pretty much review-proof. If you like dinosaurs and thrills, I'd still say go see it in the theater. I just wish the script had as much teeth as the carnivores it depicts. 

Annihilation's Realm of the Senses

Alex Garland's been a prolific sci-fi screenwriter, with 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go and Dredd among his films. But it was his debut film as a director, 2015's phenomenal A.I. thriller Ex Machina, that really made his bones. That was no fluke. With Annihilation, Garland firmly establishes himself right alongside director Denis Villeneuve as one of the top visionaries in the genre working today.

Adapted from Jeff VanderMeer's novel (the first of a trilogy), Annihilation is a strange experience. A remote area of the southeastern U.S. has undergone some kind of strange transformation. Surrounded by a mysterious barrier, it's been cut off from the world at large, now dubbed "Area X." The government's sent in teams to explore it that have never returned - until one man does. The book was a surreal read, written in a sensory-disrupting style that had me rereading some pages three or four times before I felt I'd managed to really see what was happening.

Effective as the book was, Garland's improved on it dramatically, bringing more depth and definition to the characters, more tangible dread to the environment beyond "the Shimmer," and more intriguing hints about what may be behind this catalyst of mutating flora and fauna.

Natalie Portman is the biologist member of a small expedition - all female this time - who venture into the zone looking for answers. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok) are the more high profile members of the team, all well-drawn characters, all full of trepidation about the task at hand, all woefully under-prepared for what they'll find there. Oscar Isaac is the man who came back.

The less I say about particulars, the better. But know that this is intelligent science fiction that doesn't go for cheap shots, and isn't afraid to unnerve and disturb. Like Villeneuve's Arrival, Annihilation depicts life beyond our known experience as something our conventional senses may have a hard time processing - or even sanely perceiving. The film evokes other pictures like Ridley Scott's Alien, Altered States, The Mist and The Ruins, but retains a unique and original atmosphere throughout. Garland and his Ex Machina cinematographer Rob Hardy do a remarkable, painterly job of staging the bizarre, visionary mutations and landscapes that the expedition encounters. There's also refreshingly little explanation or exposition to reassure the audience. Sound and music are used particularly well to influence mood and unbalance the viewer.

I'm kicking myself for missing this one in the theater, as it's so uniquely immersive and visual. Really striking, original science fiction films are few and far between, and if you're game for a challenging, unsettling look into a realm of haunting beauty behind the chaos of nature, Annihilation is a fascinating experience, well worth seeking out.

Deadpool 2's Cyborg Cuddle-Party

Did you know we were getting a Terminator sequel this summer? A really good one? Well, we are - and it's called Deadpool 2. So rejoice, fans of self-aware meta-commentary and unhinged splatter! Because Deadpool 2 is easily the delirious equal of its 2016 progenitor.

Ryan Reynolds has found a character he can really paint the town with, and he wreaks every kind of havoc you can imagine here. New director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde) fills the void left by departing original director Tim Miller (more on that later), diving headlong into the action right out of the gate. The opening credits are a gut-busting send-up of the opening titles of every Roger Moore Bond picture's design-heavy kaleidoscope.

Wade Wilson doesn't handle tragedy well - and when his over-the-top healing factor throws a wrench in his self-immolating intentions, he decides to channel his need to save something into becoming the best X-Man ever! Well, best trainee ever. And in a world where mutant misbehavior is carefully monitored, he soon finds himself in the mother of all super-max prisons - the Ice Box.

What's great about this second outing is Reynolds doesn't just caper and smirk. Deadpool's 'tude comes from a place of real pain - and serious loss - and Reynolds does terrific work carrying the film's more serious moments as well.

So about that Terminator. Wade's immediate plans are disrupted by the arrival of a hard-case cyborg from the future - Cable (Josh Brolin) - who's journeyed through time on his own hell-bent mission to set things right. Hot on the heels of his work as Thanos, this has become The Summer of Brolin, and he's awesome, having seasoned into an indelible, hugely charismatic presence of steely intimidation.
Leitch does an incredible job with the scenes where Cable explodes into the present. Shot by Jonathan Sela (John Wick) and cut by a team lead by Craig Alpert, Cable's arrival is ruthlessly kinetic and evokes the heat and pneumatic violence of James Cameron's first two Terminator films. Cable's character design is superb, and he instantly becomes an iconic character.

Deadpool can't do everything by himself - after all, he's got to comment on not just the X-men, but this movie and Hollywood in general - so he recruits his own band of gifted mutant miscreants, dubbing them "X-Force." Newcomer Zazie Beets as Domino, steals the picture just as effectively as Tessa Thompson did in Thor: Ragnarok. Her superpower is being lucky, and Leitch (along with screenwriters Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds) take that less flashy-sounding ability and make it inventively tangible in one dynamite scene after another.

Here's the weird thing: back to director Tim Miller. As Terminator as things feel here, Miller and Reynolds had some of those pesky old artistic differences and parted ways, and now Miller's been hand-picked by James Cameron to direct next year's reboot of his Terminator franchise - ignoring the last three misfires as though they never happened.

There are plenty of surprises (and cameos - Dickie Greenleaf!) in Deadpool 2, so the less I say about further specifics, the more fun you'll have - and this picture is one helluva lot of fun. Like the first film, if you're easily offended, you should probably swipe left and look elsewhere. But if you dug the original, Wade, Cable and the X-Force are waiting to show you a really good, really sticky good time.

Solo's Satisfying Space Cowboy

Sometimes it happens – you try to make the jump to box office lightspeed, and the hyperdrive just doesn’t engage. It whines awkwardly and you’re left floating along in space. It doesn’t mean you’ve got a bad ship – it just didn’t perform like you wanted it to when it really counted. That’s pretty much the story with Solo’s Memorial Day box office. A disappointing 4-day take of barely $100 million, far short of the colossal franchise expectations. Which is something of a head-scratcher – because director Ron Howard has made a rousing, satisfying, audience-pleasing movie.

Exclamations of “franchise fatigue” will be made, and Disney will be blamed for opening Solo a mere 5 months after The Last Jedi. Given how fantastically well they’ve done over the last three Decembers, holding Solo until The holidays would have made sense. But let’s question that logic: Avengers: Infinity War came out less than 3 months on the heels of Black Panther – and was a colossal hit. So that “proximity” premise doesn’t always hold true. Part of the issue is likely due to Solo being a prequel – so there’s little sense of real jeopardy for our heroes, because we know they’ll make it out of any scrapes, having lived on to appear in the subsequent films. Solo also earned an A- CinemaScore from viewers, so we know that most audience members (myself included) loved the movie.

Solo’s development woes are well known. Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) were let go by Lucasfilm after their freewheeling, ad lib directorial style clashed with Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan. Ron Howard came in to right the ship, reshooting a huge amount of footage, and ballooning Solo’s budget in the process. So how’d Howard do? I think he did a sensational job. Receipts be damned, Solo is terrifically Old School, and being free of the larger Jedi mythos, it’s just plain fun.

Solo: A Star Wars Story, was written by none other than legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, along with his son Jonathan. Lawrence Kasdan wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Nobody knows Star Wars better. Kasdan also wrote Silverado and Wyatt Earp – which is worth mentioning because overwhelmingly, Solo feels like a Western. Han Solo’s the outlaw gunslinger, there’s an elaborate train heist, Lando Calrissian’s the stylish riverboat gambler. Howard and the Kasdans have given Solo a real Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid vibe, and those tropes have always been a part of who Han Solo is: the rogue who shoots first – who’s in it for the money, but can’t help having a tarnished heart of gold.

Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) is growing up fast and wild on the streets of industrial ship-building planet Corellia; his best gal Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) his accomplice in trying to steal something valuable enough to buy a ship and escape their world’s total lack of prospects – maybe build a future together. But things go south and the two lovers are separated. Han actually joins the Empire out of desperation, hoping to at least become a better pilot. But he’s not cut out for military life, and quickly falls in with a gang of outlaws posing as soldiers, looking to make a big score on military fuel supplies. There are a lot of predetermined plot points we know are coming – how Han meets Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). How they find the Millennium Falcon. Their knowing Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) back in the day. So while many of these beats may seem obligatory, Howard and the Kasdans deserve credit for making them entertaining and satisfyingly surprising.

The cast is the glue. Alden Ehrenreich’s endured a lot of grief, (“He needed acting lessons!”) tasked with the unenviable task of filling Harrison Ford’s shoes, but he does a great job here. He’s charming and funny and easily carries the picture. He’s a terrific fit in the role. Thandie Newton is great as part of the gang, and I really enjoyed Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, the older gang leader who somewhat reluctantly mentors Han into the life: “Assume everyone will betray you and you will never be disappointed.” He’s a great character. Likewise Donald Glover, who knocks it out of the park as Lando. He’s a fantastic incarnation of Billy Dee Williams’ original character, intent on style and deliberate with charm. He and Ehrenreich have great chemistry together. But as unfiltered, riotously righteous robot L3-37, it’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge who steals this movie. L3 is captivating and hilarious and a fantastic addition to the seemingly endless roll call of Star Wars characters. 

It's worth noting that Solo’s color palette is overwhelmingly gray and drab, with the murky grime often working at cross purposes with the film’s generally lighter tone. Lando’s yellow shirt and a red cape Qi’ra wears in one scene, create the only splashes of color in the film. That muddy monochrome may be helping to dampen audience engagement to some degree. A highlight of the film is the absolutely spectacular train heist – but it occurs fairly early in the film, and no other set piece quite tops it in terms of sheer spectacle. 

But as a Star Wars fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s full of references to other little corners of that universe, and there are some definite surprises – including one whopper – along the way. Most importantly, Solo is fun. It evokes those old fashioned Dirty Dozen “train gang” flicks that spin a good yarn and keep you entertained and smiling. Do we need a whole sub-franchise of Solo adventures? Probably not. But if you haven’t seen Solo yet, don’t write it off as a disappointment. It’s a helluva good time in the dusty streets of deep space, so if you like Star Wars, better grab the controls and “Punch it!” and see Solo on the big screen.  

Avengers: Infinity War Leaves No Stone Unturned

I guess you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs - but know this: Avengers: Infinity War is one hell of a damned omelette. I've only seen Infinity War once so far, but that's enough to realize it's the shadow-casting monolith of all superhero movies - a film we've been building up to since Iron Man changed everything back in 2008 - and as the 19th entry in Marvel Studios' massive movie mosaic, humbling evidence of extraordinary foresight and planning, that leaves an emotional blast crater amidst the pop culture landscape.

By now, most eager beavers have experienced Infinity War, but I'm still going to try to stay spoiler-free here, then get more in-depth and specific in a week or so, after I've had my second helping. These days, as we keep seeing with the Star Wars franchise, the greater the anticipation for a film, often the more polarizing and indignant the fan response. We've been waiting for this movie since we got our first glimpse of Mad Titan Thanos in a post-credits scene of 2012's The Avengers. That's a lot of build-up.

This picture does not disappoint. Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Captain America: Civil War), Infinity War is an incredible decade-spanning example of deft execution. Imagine the complexities of taking five or six of your favorite franchises and whipping up multiple overlapping sequels that suddenly allows for the interaction of numerous unrelated characters: Thor meets Rocket. Doctor Strange meets Spider-Man. Black Panther meets Captain America. It could easily feel muddled and obligatory. Not so here.

Make no mistake: Thanos is the most satisfying villain in ages. Too often our heroes' antagonists are one-dimensional behemoths who bluster and bore, Wonder Woman and Justice League being the most recent and egregious examples. With Thanos, we're finally getting a villain who's a character. Who's got depth. Like the all great villains, he's the hero of his story, and from where he sits, he's more than justified in undertaking his agenda. Scattered throughout the cosmos are six Infinity Stones - artifacts that when combined, endow the wielder with unlimited power - the ability to annihilate countless billions with the snap of his fingers.

Josh Brolin is simply iconic as Thanos. He's in nearly every scene, and he rules. We've seen motion-capture performances evolve mightily over the last couple of years, and Brolin's performance is of equal stature with Andy Serkis's Apes work here. He crafts a tremendous character, rich with emotion and malevolence, and the effects work is so stellar I kept asking myself where they found this twelve-foot-tall actor at.

The Russos aren't screwing around, and Infinity War opens at full throttle, with dire stakes from the very outset. It's jarring to board a ride that’s already going at full speed and you feel you'd better not let go. Thanos has a goon squad - The Black Order - that quickly establish themselves as formidable and cool. I particularly enjoyed Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), though they're all unique with great character design.

The chess pieces are scattered across the board on several different planets, so we're frequently moving between small groups of characters - a dynamic that works and never becomes tiresome. Because we've had years to invest ourselves in these characters, the stakes feel incredibly dire to us. The outcome matters because we truly care about these people. Nearly every character has been given ample moments to shine, though for me, Zoe Saldana's Gamora is a particular standout. She's amazing here, as is Chris Hemsworth's Thor.

It's fairly common knowledge that this is the first of two Infinity War films, with the second as-yet untitled installment arriving next year. So while you may be expecting an Empire Strikes Back cliffhanger, Markus, McFeely, and the Russos take a more Thelma and Louise approach to cliffs, driving the audience right off the edge.

Audiences crave the thrill of the new and the shock of the unexpected, and may find they get more than they bargained for. Like me, I suspect they'll be wanting to head right back for a second viewing as soon as possible. It's a lot to take in, but Marvel has succeeded wildly, and the shock waves of Infinity War will be with us for a long time. Make haste and drink deep, True Believers: Thanos is here.

The Silent Screams of A Quiet Place

It doesn’t take much clairvoyance to predict that A Quiet Place is going to easily end up on my year-end best-list.

I’ve got a major soft-spot for economical genre thrillers that do a lot with a little, putting the oomph into a strong script over big budget – and does A Quiet Place deliver on all those fronts, and then some.

 

The small town streets are deserted, debris and the wake of pandemonium strewn everywhere. No people – just silence. A plague? A plague of monsters. No far-flung sci-fi premise, but just a few months up the road from where we are now, horrific creatures have descended on Earth, shredding the populace down to the most fleeting bands of survivors. A Quiet Place focuses on a single rural family, hiding out on a remote farm, just trying to exist together. Ever knock something over accidently? In this world, that’ll likely get you killed – because these alien beasts hunt by sound. The parents (Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, who also directs) must be constantly vigilant that their children maintain absolute silence, as any sneeze or sudden noise is enough to draw one of these things on you in seconds. They’ve taken great pains to put systems in place to maintain quiet and signal warnings. Bare feet pad quietly on sand-covered paths, every threat carefully planned for. Until it’s not.

 

A Quiet Place is practically dialogue-free, largely told via sign language and scant subtitles. The effect is beyond unnerving. John Krasinski is simply a revelation as a director here, working with a script from writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, it’s a master class in storytelling economics and structural effectiveness – all of which is only surpassed by the empathy of character. Blunt and Krasinski are also real-life husband and wife, and along with Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds create an all-too rare depiction of a close-knit family who genuinely care for each other and are trying to hold on, despite the crushing anxiety and dread around every corner. Simmonds is a tremendous find – the actress herself is deaf, as is her character, and having a character who’s lost in their own unique silence beyond what’s mandated by survival makes for fascinating family dynamics and superb acting. That’s all I’ll say as far as plot, but know there is a lot going on here in this simple and compelling premise.

 

Krasinski has made a sinew-taught thriller that stands tall among the likes of Get Out, Don’t Breathe and The Gift, that shares DNA with films as diverse as Pitch Black and The Mist, but that’s refreshing, unpredictable and unique. Danish cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen (The Girl on the Train) immerses her camera in every tight corner the characters experience, making the farm environment feel real and convincing. She and Krasinski do phenomenal work focusing on character faces, making sure their eyes and expressions deftly fill the void left by any absence of dialogue. Editor Christopher Tellefsen is the man responsible for the increase in heart medication prescriptions as a result of this relentless 90-minutes. Emily Blunt blew the doors off in Edge of Tomorrow, but this might be my favorite performance of hers. She never overcompensates to make up for absent speech, and goes through a gauntlet of emotions that’s astonishing to behold. Clearly this “family project” inspired everyone to be free to do their best work.

 

It’s interesting to consider how much awareness and empathy A Quiet Place will likely inspire among the hearing for the deaf community. The audience gets to palpably experience what it might feel like to have a different range of expression from others, likely often taken for granted. Krasinski is the real deal, and those in search of smart, unnerving thrills, miss this at their peril. Very highly recommended.

Ready Player One: Virtual reality - literal overload

Ready Player One is primed for success. Every ingredient is there. A beloved pop culture novel, adapted by a directorial living legend - and not just a living legend, but the very one whose eighties touchstones of nostalgia punctuated countless pages of Ernest Cline's wonderful novel. Dream come true.

I suspect many viewers (especially ones who didn't read the book) are going to love Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One. I certainly enjoyed large dollops of it. Both book and film are real works of imagination. Cline's novel of a bleak near-future where everyone's plugged into an immersive virtual reality game called the OASIS, was a magical Wonka-esque riff on nerd culture's shared iconography, but also a lightly masked cautionary tale of our escapes threatening to turn into collective dependency. When the creator (Mark Rylance) of the OASIS dies, he reveals that a special Easter Egg has been hidden somewhere in the vast gaming landscape - bestowing wealth and complete control of the OASIS to whoever finds it. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World meets Tron.

No expense was spared, and it shows. And for this viewer, Ready Player One was an infinitely more enjoyable reading experience than a movie. One of the great appeals of the book is that each reader gets to conjure up their own imaginary mindscapes of the OASIS and the myriad characters. That really made for a fun read. Spielberg directs with great energy and vision, but there's something about seeing everything previously imagined made so literal that kind of deadens and overwhelms the result. There is just so much CGI on view, it's impossible to catch all the details, and it makes it a little hard to really get behind the characters. There are some substantial changes from the book. Hero Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) and his gaming avatar Parzival only meet fellow gamers Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and Aech (Lena Waithe) at the end of Cline's book. Here, they all meet up "IRL" much earlier. Part of the fun of the premise is the uncertainty of who the actual person might really be behind their avatar. When Wade wants to meet Samantha, Art3mis's real self, she warns he might be disappointed in her, and when they do (gasp!), she has a birthmark on her face. Which is pretty ridiculous given Ms. Cooke's overall gorgeousness. She's not exactly the Elephant Man, or a leper.

As Wade's antagonist, oily corporate CEO Nolan Sorrento, Ben Mendelsohn does what's supposed to be a mid-Atlantic American accent of some kind, but it seems very odd - almost Southern at times, and it's pretty distracting. Sorrento's also given a Bond-girl femme-fatale called F'nale, who's unnecessary and a little R’diculous.

I wish Spielberg had taken more stabs at social commentary here. When a bad guy holding a gun is patiently told by a squad of police to "put down your weapon," it's pretty tone-deaf in this day and age. You're practically screaming for the cop to yell, "We're only not shooting you 'cause you're white!" You have to wonder what the Paul Verhoeven of the Robocop era would have done with this story. The cast is engaging, Sheridan in kind of an earnest, early Shia LaBeouf kind of way. But too often the tone feels more generic than piercing.

The book was a lot funnier, and there's not nearly as much humor here as there should be. The digital effects and design are all incredibly impressive (MechaGodzilla!), but they're also so inescapable that they become oppressive as well. I'll say this - the mid-section where the characters must journey into the movie of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is phenomenal - a real tour de force. That sequence is worth the price of admission - I only wish the rest of the film had been as clever and engaging. While your mileage may vary, if you’re on the fence, absolutely see the film in a theater, on the biggest screen possible - as the film’s visuals will be beyond diminished on any home video format.