Suspense With A Soul

The best science fiction and fantasy puts people front and center, and it encourages us to think about our ethics in real life. A Quiet Place (2018 Paramount, directed by John Krasinski) does just that. While I was watching this movie, and for days afterward, I asked myself about my values and whether I loved my family and other people enough. When a movie can get you to do something like that, it’s something special.

This was a remarkable, minimalist piece of storytelling in which silence, sound, and a rural landscape were additional characters. The acting by John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe  (all playing members of a farm family dealing with personal tragedy under literally monstrous circumstances) is entirely convincing and elicits empathy.

As for the monsters, Paramount seems to have wisely withheld any images from general dissemination. Take my word for it, they’re scary and disgusting, and a considerable amount of tension builds up to the artfully delayed reveal. To get an idea of their impact,  just consider the reactions of the people in the pictures included in this post.

Left to right: Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds in A QUIET PLACE, from Paramount Pictures.

When I first saw the trailer on television, I thought, “one of those.” I wasn’t planning on going, but I read some positive reviews and changed my mind. I don’t really like the scifi/horror genre, but I liked this. There was no gratuitous gore or profanity, and it was a good concept movie. Only a very light sprinkling of unanswered questions, apparent gaps in plot logic, and “why-did-they-do-that’s” were in any way problematic for me personally.

There are some interesting personal stories behind the production. The screenplay was written by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, two childhood friends from Iowa. I liked also that Krasinski and Blunt, husband and wife in real life, did this project together. Millicent Simmonds, who played the deaf daughter, truly is deaf, and her ability to convey emotion with facial expressions and body language is outstanding.

This is suspense with a soul. An elegant film such as this deserves a concise review, so I think I’d better stop. Until next week…

 

Erecting Barriers (2)

The Great Wall (China Film Group, Legendary Entertainment, Universal Pictures) was a pretty good movie for its genre, but it wasn’t a great one. Were it not for the controversy surrounding this film, I would have devoted only one post to it. I did not have high expectations, but the longer I watched it, the more I began to appreciate and enjoy it for what it was.

First of all, it was a monster movie in a different kind of setting, which was intriguing at first presentation. So how did the monsters look? I certainly wouldn’t call their design iconic (like in Alien or Godzilla, for example), but they grew on me as I continued watching.

I didn’t like the design at first because I came into the movie with prior expectations. As I mentioned last week, this can interfere with our ability to appreciate something for what it is. It is easy to fall into the trap of criticizing something for what it isn’t trying to be.  The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has a fairly renowned Asian collection, and I have been there a number of times to see it. Using what I had seen there as a frame of reference helped me to recognize a quality in the creature designs that I initially missed.

The director, Zhang Yimou, re-imagined the Tao Tei from Chinese mythology, and this general approach is one that typically earns my respect unless it is poorly done. He also re-magined some 14th Century Chinese technological innovations. This, among other factors, made the Great Wall itself a kind of character in the plot, and the battle scenes on the parapets made for some spectacular visuals.

The use of aerial female warriors might not have made for the most tactical sense, especially in light of the casualties, but it allowed for some impressive stunt work utilizing stunt workers recruited from a regional temple.

It didn’t bother me that this movie sometimes lacked tight, Western plot logic because a lot of American movies also lack tight, Western plot logic.  It’s nice when it’s there, but this isn’t why I watch monster movies.

I liked some of the unusual visuals, such as looking down from hot air balloons upon a swarming horde of Tao Tei.

I also liked the plot device of the Nameless Order character played by Jing Tian having to provide some philosophical instruction to Matt Damon’s mercenary before he could get his full game on.

Even then, he couldn’t do it alone, and the Chinese characters did not seem forced into a subordinate role by the screenplay.

If you haven’t seen it, and if you can go into the experience with a relatively open mind, I’d at least recommend this one as a good rental.

 

A Big Ape, An Island, And Disgusting Monsters

I originally had my doubts about extensively reviving the Toho cinematic universe. With all those monsters, I feared it would disintegrate into a cluttered, implausible (I mean, REALLY implausible) mess. If Kong: Skull Island (2017,  Legendary Entertainment and Warner Brothers, directed by Jordan Vogt Roberts) is any indication, I need not have worried.

I can’t say this about every movie that Toho distributed, but some of them had mind-capturing, enduring concepts.  I come across them every now and then when I’m spinning channels, get interested, and ultimately end up disappointed by the special effects. But… oh, those concepts. That’s why I started watching the Legendary/Warner Brothers franchise. To date, the special effects have delivered, and the stories are interesting. I like the re-imagined take which pays homage to the original movies while adapting the plots and themes more to the expectations of a modern audience.

I like the background explanation of monsters living deep in the oceans and in earth’s crust, where they can feed on radiation. In this light, this latest iteration of the giant ape provides a backstory in a period piece format.  We get glimpses of World War II and Viet Nam war imagery mixed in with the Kaiju format, and I found the combination kind of refreshing.

The cast is very good, including Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly…

… John Goodman as an underfunded leader of MONARCH in its early days…

… and Samuel L. Jackson in his own Heart of Darkness cinematic turn.

But the character interactions and the characters themselves provide a backdrop for Kong and other assorted monsters, some of which are absolutely disgusting. The latter are given some scenes to match their nature. Mostly, however, the visuals were innovative, fun, and “realistic”.

I thought the plot was good for a film in this genre, but I’ll forego giving a synopsis… Wait. You say you want one anyway? Oh, okay. Here:

By the way, he’s still growing…

Despite the success of the Marvel and Jurassic Park franchises (which I love, by the way) this has the potential to become my favorite (for strictly personal reasons). At any rate, it is a cinematic universe which this 64-year-old fifth grade boy looks forward to exploring.

 

 

Godzilla (2014)

In a monster movie of this scope, you get your first hints of how important the human characters are from the early exits of Juliette Binoche and Bryan Cranston and from the limited lines of Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins.

Oh, yeah – David Straithairn, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Elizabeth Olson are also in it.

It’s a good cast, but the real star is…

Godzilla (duh). It was produced by Legendary Entertainment and Warner Brothers and directed by Gareth Edwards. Let me say here that Edwards really gets his special effects right in all of the movies under his direction that I’ve seen. His visuals are realistic enough to make my mind race. Okay, monsters 350 feet tall aren’t realistic, but if they were, it’s not hard to imagine them looking like this. He does a good job of blending his CGI with real backgrounds and real foreground objects. He also makes good use of imperfect focus where needed. All of this keeps the CGI from looking too much like CGI.

So let’s get the negatives out of the way. Yes, the science is ridiculous. What did you expect? For me, the complaints that Godzilla wasn’t prominent enough in his own movie were greatly lessened with repeated viewings. Near the end, the time to get the nuke away from San Francisco is insufficient, but Christopher Nolan also made a similar mistake in The Dark Knight Rises. What do we watch monster movies for most: the plot logic or the imagery? The MUTOs (massive unidentified terrestrial organisms) that everyone complained about are actually pretty cool themselves, and the associated sound effects really work. This movie is just plain kid fun, and it does a good job of encapsulating and paying homage to past Toho movies while re-imagining the original concepts.

Okay, here’s a plot synopsis. A MUTO  hatches out of a type of chrysalis that scientists from MONARCH are studying, and then it escapes.

Another one comes back to life. Later, Godzilla appears, and there’s a HALO (high altitude low opening) drop which inserts some outmatched soldiers into the area.

Then, in a totally unexpected plot development (just kidding), there’s a big fight. This leads to what I considered the coolest sequence of the movie…

and…

goodbye.

The legend hails from northern seas, a tale that few know well,

Where faith and fear blow freely on the gray and changing swell.

Mark well the drift of this account, and come to understand

That humble and heroic things go often hand in hand.

The Kraken, by Robert L. Jones, III, and illustrated by James P. Wood, is a fantasy tale told in poetic verse. It follows the journey of a bereaved and lovelorn youngster into manhood. Conscripted by brigands, he is later aided by a seaside prophet and various creatures as he seeks to destroy a monster that preys upon vessels in northern shipping lanes and to recover what has been taken away from him. 

To purchase The Kraken, click HERE.

Mythological Ideals

Saint George and the Dragon by Raphael

Creators of mythology are under compulsion, not so much to describe life as it is as to suggest how it could be (albeit in larger than life imagery). Ideals are not wrong simply because people don’t follow them. That our ideal society “never existed” does not invalidate that ideal. It did exist in the minds of at least some people. When people believe in an ideal, some actually practice it, and society benefits. Major improvements in the ways people live almost always come as a result of the efforts of a committed minority or individual. A lack of belief results in a corresponding lack of practice, and society suffers. New mythology can take the high road. Its monsters can be truly monstrous, and its heroes can be truly heroic.

It may be argued that different mythologies might espouse different ideals and that we cannot establish a consensus on what those ideals should be. Therein lies the beauty of our enterprise. Let us represent and exchange our disparate views in the marketplace of ideas. We can write. We can read. We can believe, and we can act. Then, when we disagree, we can do so with sincerity and authenticity. And after we have put forth our opinions, it is our readers who will decide.