How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Official Australian release date: 3/1/19. Viewed: 5/1/19.

Director: Dean DeBlois

Actors: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Kit Harington

Genre: Action / Fantasy

Rating: PG

     

‘How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ is the third & final film in one of the best trilogies of recent memory – it lives up to the benchmark set by the first two films and has solid character development and a fantastic ending, rather than just rehashing the same motifs. There’s so much great CGI to watch – oceans, clouds, forests, caves, waterfalls, and obviously, hundreds of dragons! It’s all really colourful, fun and enjoyable

The plot is that now most of the dragons are living in their Norse village, pirates keep stealing them, so Hiccup (Baruchel), Astrid (Ferrera) , Eret (Harington), Snotlout (Hill), Fishlegs (Mintz-Plasse), Gobber (Ferguson), Ruffnut (Wiig) and Tuffnut (Miller) have to keep rescuing them. Since this is unsustainable, they try to find the hidden realm beyond the edge of the world where dragons originated from. In the meantime, Toothless is being hunted by the evil Grimmel (Abraham) who wants to destroy all Night Furies.

Even though it’s all fantasy and about dragons, there’s two great love stories in the film – Hiccup & Astrid and Toothless and the Light Fury. Along with love comes loss, and the film does a great job of portraying to kids that change is inevitable and is handled really well. There’s a few funny moments, lots of great action scenes and plenty of sweet moments. Almost had a tear in my eye at the end!

Overall: Delightful and uplifting fun, excellent conclusion.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

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.

The Old Man & The Gun

Official Australian release date: 15/11/18. Viewed: 11/11/18.

Director: David Lowery

Actors: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover

Genre: Crime / Drama

Rating: M

     

‘The Old Man & The Gun’ is Robert Redford’s final acting role. It’s not quite a fitting finale – he’s great as Forrest Tucker, the aging bank robber, but the overall film fall’s a little flat. Based on a true story, most of his exciting adventures and prison breaks are glossed over, in favour of him finding late-life love with (Spacek). He can’t curb his compulsion to rob banks however, and it assisted by Teddy (Glover) & Waller (Waits), but underutilised.

Detective Hunt (Affleck) is the Texas cop out to catch him – we also spend unnecessary amounts of time with his home-life. The chemistry between Redford and Spacek is good, and he’s still as charming as ever. Affleck plays an exhausted cop as almost too dreary. Instead of seeing any heist planning or prison breaks (besides a montage), we instead get Redford and Spacek talking in a diner, walking, or making tea.

Thankfully, it’s a quick 90min film, but the pacing and action could’ve been much better. Tehre’s some chuckles, but nothing hilarious. You’re better off re-watching ‘The Sting’!

Overall: Interesting true story, but lacklustre execution.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Official Australian release date: 1/11/18. Viewed: 2/11/18.

Director: Bryan Singer

Actors: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy

Genre: Music / Drama

Rating: M

     

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is the story of Queen, one of England – and the world’s – greatest ever rock bands. More specifically, the film focuses predominantly on Freddie Mercury (Malek)’s life, genius and struggles. It must be said that Malek, his mannerisms and fake teeth are exceptionally close to the real-life Freddie.

The film is helped by not being 100% about their music, albums and touring, but also not spending excessive time with Freddie’s personal life. The other Queen members get their fair share of screen time – guitarist Brian May (Lee, uncannily similar), drummer Roger Taylor (Hardy) and bass player John Deacon (Mazello) – and have lots of good moments. Mary (Boynton) plays a key figure, being Freddie’s wife early on.

The film does delve into some of the trappings of celebrity that Freddie fell into, but does showcase Queen’s music superbly – the making of Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites The Dust and We Will Rock You is fun and insightful. The climax of the film is Freddie seeing his parents and then an almost note-for-note replica of Queen’s Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium and it’s superb.

Overall: Excellent if you like Queen, still great even if you somehow don’t.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.