Aquaman

Official Australian release date: 26/12/18. Viewed: 26/12/18.

Director: James Wan

Actors: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

     

‘Aquaman’ is almost the best DC film since the Dark Knight trilogy – it’s certainly more fun, colourful and enjoyable than ‘Justice League’, ‘Batman v Superman’ and ‘Man of Steel’. ‘Wonder Woman’ is still the benchmark, but only just. The film works well as both an origin story and a coming-of-age story. Arthur (Momoa) is the offspring of Tom (Morrison), a lighthouse keeper, and exiled Queen of Atlantis, Atlanna (Kidman), making him half-man, half-Atlantean and the heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis.

We see Arthur trained by Vulko (Dafoe) in flashbacks and helped in the present by Mera (Heard). To stop his step-brother Orm (Wilson) from starting a war with the “surface dwellers”, Arthur has to embark on a journey to track down an ancient trident that will make him King of Atlantis and unite the two realms. There’s enough tongue-in-cheek-ness and charm from Momoa to help you past some of the daft moments – Manta’s suit (overall a weak villain), octopus drums, plesiosaurs, underwater fire and giant seahorses.

It’s not too long (just over 2 hours) and is fast-paced and much of the story makes it feel like a cross between ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’, with many of the underwater colours reminiscent of ‘Avatar’ – none of which are bad things. The battle at the end is all a bit absurd, but there’s so much colour, action and humour to make it worthwhile. Wish all DC films were as joyful as this!  

Overall: Fun and not-too-serious – good superhero film.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Mary Poppins Returns

Official Australian release date: 1/1/19. Viewed: 21/12/18.

Director: Rob Marshall

Actors: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Colin Firth, Ben Whishaw

Genre: Musical / Fantasy

Rating: G

     

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ is the longest-gap between an original film and it’s sequel – 55 years! It obviously begs the question: did we need a sequel? From Marshall, director of ‘Chicago’, ‘Into The Woods’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 4’, this sequel is as much as homage to the original and doesn’t necessarily add anything new. The plot’s simple – Michael (Whishaw) and Jane (Mortimer) are now grown-up (~25 years later, ~1930) and Michael has three kids of his own, but the bank’s trying to repossess his house, so they need to find a certificate of shares to save the house.

Since everything’s chaotic, Mary Poppins (Blunt) shows up to help look after the kids – John (Saleh), Anabel (Davies) & Georgie (Dawson) – and teach the kids some lessons, such as how to have baths and fix broken bowls. The maid Ellen (Walters), the Admiral (Warner) and Dawes Jr (van Dyke) are all back, adding familiarity straight away. The film starts with a song – leaving no doubt this is a musical – by Jack (Miranda), a protégé of Bert’s, who met Mary as a kid.

There’s some good animated (traditional cartoons, not CGI, which is nice) scenes, but overall nothing truly exciting or original seems to happen. None of the songs seem that memorable, with the best probably being the ‘Trip a little light fantastic’ one from all the lamplighters, but like the chimney sweeps in the original, it goes for way too long. The poignant ‘Place where lost things go’ song and scene with the kids & Michael is touching. The other 6+ songs I could’ve done without! For some reason, there seems to be sections of the film where Mary Poppins is barely on-screen. If anything, the film probably needed more of Mortimer. Both Blunt & Miranda are good, without being outstanding. Predictable nice ending.

Overall: An inoffensive kids film, but nothing spectacular.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Overlord

Official Australian release date: 6/12/18. Viewed: 15/12/18.

Director: Julius Avery

Actors: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, Pilou Asbaek

Genre: War / Horror

Rating: R

     

‘Overlord’ was the codename for the Battle of Normandy in 1944 – and that’s exactly where the film starts, with some American troops on a plane crossing the English Channel. The first 15min is hectic and extremely realistic – possibly the best war opening since ‘Saving Private Ryan’. The film plays like a genuine World War Two film for the first hour or so, following Ed (Adepo), Ford (Russell), Tibbet (Magaro), Chase (De Caestecker) & Rosenfeld (Applewhite) behind Nazi lines in France.

They have a mission to blow up a Nazi communications bunker and are sheltered by Chloe (Ollivier), which brings some nice tension to some scenes. All the actors are good, and we get to meet the local Nazi commander, Wafner (Asbaek), who’s set up nicely as the main bad guy. The team then have less than six hours to blow up the bunker before the invasion begins.

Then the film takes a bit of a twist, elaborating on the rumours of Nazi scientists experimenting with all sorts of weird science – in this case they’re working on some sort of Lazarus Pit which brings people back to life, once enough people are sacrificed. There’s some gruesome stuff and plenty of blood – the R-rating’s well-earned. It’s well-paced, has an excellent score and is fun throughout.

Overall: Great mix of a WWII film and some zombie scares.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Mortal Engines

Official Australian release date: 6/12/18. Viewed: 7/12/18.

Director: Christian Rivers

Actors: Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving, Jihae

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

     

‘Mortal Engines’ is apparently based on a book, but I’ve not read it. Maybe if I had, the film would make a bit more sense… As it stands, it came across like a mix of ‘Into The Badlands’, ‘Wild Wild West’ and ‘Terminator’ – but with none of the best bits from any of them. Plot is that Hester Shaw (Hilmar) is trying to get vengeance against Valentine (Weaving) for killing her mum, and she’s helped by Tom (Sheehan) & Anna (Jihae). The catch is it’s 200 years in the post-apocalyptic future and most of the world’s cities are giant mobile tanks, for some reason.

A number of questions – why is the bad city/tank “London”? Why did they turn bad? Why is an Australian (Weaving) playing a Brit? Why do two 30-year-old’s find it so hard to kiss? Is that an American “PG-13” thing? How to the physics of the city/tanks work? Seems like they wouldn’t be able to move anywhere near as fast as they do. Where does the fuel for the plane/blimps come from? Why are there Terminator-like resurrected cyborgs?

Anyway, there’s some nice visuals, but lots of too-fast camerawork and plenty of CGI, which is both good and bad. Both Hilmar and Sheehan are likeable. Not sure if the side plots with Kate & Bevis, or Shrike, were needed. I’m sure some teenagers may like this, but there’s really nothing too novel here at all.

Overall: Average attempt at sci-fi.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.