Ghost in the Shell (March 2017)

Official Australian release date: 30/3/17. Viewed: 29/3/17.

Director: Rupert Sanders

Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbaek, Juliette Binoche, Peter Ferdinando

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

‘Ghost in the Shell’ is a remake of the mid-90s anime film, which explored cyborgs and digital immersion before the internet became commonplace. It’s a bit of a shame there’s not more Japanese actors, seeing as it’s still set in futuristic Tokyo (but filmed in New Zealand & China…), with heaps of shots of the annoying super-size digital billboards. Aramaki (Kitano) has an OK cameo as the police chief, but is otherwise wasted.  

Basically, Major (Johansson, doing her best to walk stiffly) is a human brain (“ghost”) transplanted into a robot body (“shell”), who’s then trained to be a SWAT operative – they show you all this in the first 5min, before picking up where the original film starts. Her partner’s Batou (Asbaek), who they do a good job of how he gets his enhancements. Dr Ouelet (Binoche) is her “creator” and conscience, as Major battles to define her humanity and ‘soul’. Cutter (Ferdinando) is a poorly-written bad-guy.

It’s quick – just over 90min – and, like the original, I’m left feeling “why?”. Didn’t have a huge impact on me, unfortunately. Sure, it’s got some good fights and explosions; Kuze (Pitt) poses some interesting questions; and you’re constantly almost seeing Johansson nude, but there’s not much meaning or a bigger picture of why we should care for the characters. Still, it’s better than ‘Lucy’.

Overall: OK remake with some decent action.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Kong: Skull Island (March 2017)

Official Australian release date: 9/3/17. Viewed: 9/3/17.

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Actors: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly

Genre: Action / Fantasy

Rating: M

With almost no plot – island is hidden by a “perpetual storm”!?! – not sure why this version of King Kong is set in 1973? At least it’s not a direct re-make, but rather a sort of re-imagining. It has a good soundtrack – Stooges, Sabbath, Creedence, Bowie – and a few pretty good action/fight scenes. It’s spends 30min introducing most of the characters and seeding a plot, but it seems pointless, since you hardly learn anyone’s name. And as for the plot – not sure how it took three people to write this screenplay!

There seem to be a lot of shots that were made just for the trailer – zooming into Kong’s eyes; Kong in front of giant sun/moon (how can you see either setting, if there’s a perpetual storm?); 12 helicopters flying into the storm/sun; Kong slow-mo chest thumping. Kong’s obviously not the bad guy, but he’s not the star either – probably with less than 30min screen time, as he fights giant lizards. I’m not sure if Packard (Jackson) or Conrad (Hiddleston) is either, since no-one’s the hero or has that much to do. Larson is OK, Goodman’s wasted, but Marlow (Reilly) saves the day with some almost-humour. At least some of it was filmed in Queensland, although you can tell the bits that were filmed in Hawaii, as it looks like ‘Jurassic Park’!

Of the three King Kong films I’ve seen (1933, 2005, 2017), this is probably my least favourite – they seem to be on a slowly-deteriorating scale. Also, what’s up with Jackson’s right eye near the end? It seems about 75% bigger than his left eye in a few shots! Anyway, predictable ending, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hard to get too attached to Kong when we have such well-developed CGI characters in the current ‘Planet of the Apes’ series.

Overall: Not horrible, but adds nothing to the King Kong mythology.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Logan (March 2017)

Official Australian release date: 2/3/17. Viewed: 2/3/17.

Director: James Mangold

Actors: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: MA

‘Logan’ is the final (we’ll see) Wolverine film, in addition to the six X-Men films, so it’s safe to say it’s Jackman’s last outing – it’s been a good 17 years! ‘Logan’ is again directed by Mangold, who did the previous film (‘The Wolverine’) and is set in 2029 – when Logan/James Howlett is ~200 and Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart) is ~90. They do a great job of making them both look and seem way older than their appearances in the last few films! It’s great to see Logan as an every-man drifter, working as a limo driver between El Paso and Mexico, where he’s looking after Prof X with his dementia. Clearly, some tragedy has befallen them and it’s alluded to a few times.

The “near-future” looks very realistic – almost the same as now, but with driverless trucks and giant robotic harvesting machines. No futuristic ray guns or anything! It’s also cool to see Wolverine kill about five people and swear about 10 times in the first 3min – well-earned MA rating! Also, very true to the comics, where some of the story is from Millar’s ‘Old Man Logan’ (highly recommended). Once X-23/Laura (Keen) comes into it, the film becomes a Western, with Logan trying to protect Prof X & Laura from Donald Pierce (Holbrook – fun bad guy) as they go on a cross-country chase.

There’s some plausible plot, only tentatively linking in with previous films, but particularly X-23 and X-24 (i.e. Wolverine as “Weapon X” was X-1, but this time the experiments were in Mexico, not Canada…) showing Logan both his past and potential future. Getting to see his healing-factor wane and have to face his mortality, as well as reluctantly be the good guy, is all true to character and pulled off expertly by Jackman. It’s long (2.25 hours), with lots of nice, character-building moments – particularly with the family at the farm house. Keen is good as Laura and Merchant has a nice role as Caliban. It’s also touching and poignant in plenty of scenes (good score), but there’s heaps of action and violence too – especially the final 25min, with it all well executed.

Overall: Fantastic finale – I hope they leave Wolverine for quite a few years now!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.