The Museum Of Modern Thinking

Just got back from seeing Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, et al. I’ve seen written that it heralds the start of a new age of cinema sci-fi, and being somewhat of a cinema sci-fi buff, I have to agree.

The films starts by getting the viewer up to speed by Tom Cruise’s character Jack Harper (not Reacher). A long time ago, Earth was invaded by aliens, they were nuked and the war was won, but at the expense of the planet. Harper’s mission is to look after drones which in turn look after huge hydro-reactors that generate power for the remaining humans on Titan. He’s aided in this by his partner Victoria, who communicates with him and a mahoosive orbiting satellite called the Tet(rahedron), who are basically mission control.

Harper, who lives and dreams among the clouds, flies around in a *really* cool craft and repairs drones that have crashed. Well, not really crashed, more like shot down, by some of the remaining aliens called Skavs. They seem to be fairly intelligent, as they are taking the drones apart for their own reasons. Early in the film, Harper has a run-in with some Skavs, and that when we are introduced to the drones proper. Basically, they’re just giant balls of death, making mincemeat out of the Skavs and doing a fine job of protecting Harper.

They don’t do such a good job of protecting the hydro-reactors however, and after one gets destroyed in a (very large) explosion and some humans turn up unexpectedly, the film really gets going and that’s all I’m going to say on the plot.

I found the acting, unsurprisingly, to be top-notch. A lot of people put Tom Cruise down (ha ha), but he does this role very well, he seems to be all over the place at the moment. The rest of the cast are also excellent, especially Andrea Riseborough in the role of Victoria. Olga Kurylenko also does very well, despite being a smaller character initially. The film packs a bit of an emotional punch as well, almost to Silent Running levels

But good god, the design of the film is incredible. Earth looks ruined, but in a way not seen before. It is truly desolate, with only some recognisable features left (half the Pentagon, Lady Liberty’s torch, etc). Juxtaposing this is the achingly cool sci-fi tech. It looks advanced, but believably so, i.e. there’s no magic sci-fi thingy to help our hero out. The flying craft holds a myriad of devices to help Harper in his job, and even a fold-out motorbike – but again, it’s realistically done. The drones look fantastic, Harper’s house in the clouds looks like something Frank LLoyd Wright would design if he was alive in 2077, it’s all just stunning.

I was going to link to a featurette about the look of the film, but it really is worth going into it blind, and just enjoy the spectacle. The score is also fantastic, will probably end up buying it.

All in all, a very worthy 9/10 for Oblivion. To explain why it’s not 10/10, my reasons (referencing other sci-fi films) may lead to deductions of spoilers, and I wouldn’t want to do that. It’s a crackers of a film, and you’d be mad to miss it. It deserves to be seen on the big screen, but not necessarily IMAX big…

Finally, a good-looking Die Hard (4.0 was ok, tho’):

A hat-tip to First Showing

Even though it’s a not on general release yet, through following The Raid UK on Twitter, I was alerted to an advance screening of the film for Showcase Cinema Insiders. Having seen the trailers on YouTube and a few special features, and having heard of the film from State-side conventions, I blew off Sunday evening with the family and booked my ticket.

Written and directed by Gareth Evans, The plot is as much as it needs to be: a twenty-strong team of Indonesian riot police converge on a 30-storey tower block to take down a brutal (aren’t they all?) crime lord. The team is a mixture of battle-weary cops, fresh meat, hot-heads, and the lead of the film, Rama, played by Iko Uwais, star of Evans’ earlier film Merantau, which I’ll be checking out shortly. Rama is shown as a devout Muslim, a father-to-be and someone who loves early morning sit-ups, bag work and chin-ups, just like me. Kind of.

So, a short van-ride later (I think, the cinema ballsed-up the projection and cut off the subtitles, so I had to go inform them), they arrive at the tower, hook up with the raid leader and proceed. The spotters are taken care of, and the team start moving up floor by floor, encountering no resistance.

Well, until they do, in the form of an alarm given by young lad. It’s an actual alarm, with a foreboding drone, which is nothing compared to the chilling, monotone, passionless voice of Tama the crime lord, who informs the residents of the block that whoever helps to clear the “infestation” can live there rent free. As you would imagine, the inhabitants of the tower block aren’t exactly nice people (save a couple), so within a few minutes, all hell breaks loose.

From here on in, I don’t want to give too much away. Suffice to say, most of the team get cut down very early on, leaving a few main players. As the bullets run out, more, er, creative ways have to be found to dispatch of enemies, including a novel use of a fridge. In fact, in a very visual film, the sound direction of the explosion is done very well, with the high-pitch whine that signifies you’ve suffered hearing loss. The weapons sound very punchy too.

So, as the team lessen in number to guns, machetes, knives and axes, the core of the team have to fight their way out. Without giving too much away, there is another plot point (or two) that add to the film to keep it moving along. That said, the action direction being what it is, I would have happily watched them fight their way out anyway. Gareth Evans must have a lot of films in his library, as there are many influences. A stand-out one is a character called Mad Dog, played by Yayan Ruhian, a clear nod to John Woo’s Hard Boiled. He gets to take out Jaka, the team leader hand-to-hand in a thrilling scene, which is exceptionally brutal. He’s about a head shorter than, well, everyone but he’s very, very fast. And yes, I know it’s choreographed, but they’ve still got to throw those kicks and punches. There’s one piece where Mad Dog throws a kick, Jaka grabs the leg and just swings him into the doors of a cupboard. The poor guy gets tossed about a lot, actually…

But this is Rama’s film, and the action stays firmly centred on him. After safely depositing an injured team member with an unlikely ally, he tries to regroup with the rest of his team. He does so eventually, but not before dispatching people in a variety of manners, namely gun, knife (the thigh rends are particularly unpleasant), fists and a doorframe (don’t ask). Iko is a practitioner of the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat, but there’s also thai boxing in there, and a few others. Comparisons with the Thai martial artist Tony Jaa (star of Ong Bak, Warrior King, etc.) are possible, but I found the silat portrayed on screen to be more compact and less focused on large moves, which seem to be Tony Jaa’s signature moves (think flaming knees). There weren’t as many limb breaks as there were in Warrior King, however, and it’s good to see something different.

To sum up, the action is pretty much relentless, but it has structure, a plot driving it and great spectacle. I have no problem giving it a 10/10, and looking forward to picking up on Blu-Ray for all the special features.

Edited for a correction to the team leader’s name; it was Jaka, not Andi – my mistake, thanks to Melissa for spotting it

It’s been a very long time since I’ve blogged, but my word, The Cabin In The Woods (hereafter TCITW) deserves it. Directed by Drew Goddard and written by him and Joss Whedon, it’s a genre-bending film. As the trailers said, you know the premise: 5 young things go off to a cabin in the woods, and Bad Things happen. As the trope goes, they are picked off one by one by various unpleasant ways until the hero(ine) triumphs at the end.

Well, TCITW turns all that on its head, kinda like the clever Rubik’s cube poster for it. From the very start, it is clear that something much larger is going on here, and there are other pointers along the way. TCITW progresses as you would expect, with jumps, scares and creepy rooms, and it’s all fun and games until some reads some Latin, and then all Hell breaks loose. The numbers are quickly thinned, and then we’re just left with the hero(ine). Maybe.

Without giving too much away, the five in the cabin are being monitored, but for what, we don’t know. This does lead to some very funny dialogue and situations, and also to some “aha!” moments, such as why do couples always have sex outdoors in the woods in these sorts of films? Why do they always split up to search somewhere?

The people doing the monitoring – well, they get a large slice of the film as well, and it is fun to figure out what is going on. It’s also good to see Winnifred Burkle (Amy Acker) again as a, well, whatever she is. Because of the monitoring, there are times that there is a lot happening on different video screens – there’s even something happening off in Kyoto, but I think I’ll need to watch it again as there was a lot in the last third that I missed.

Horror is not really one of my genres, so I’m sure I missed lots of nods to horror films, but I think I got some (there was a Cube nod, I’m sure). I’m no acting critic either, so in my eyes all of the actors did fine, fine jobs or conveying their emotions, from humour to PANT-STAINING terror

I can’t really write much more without starting to give stuff away, so I’ll just end with some choice quotes, which won’t be funny until you’ve seen the film – and maybe not even then

“I’m still on speaker-phone?”

“Good one, zombie hand”

“He has a husband’s bulge”

All in all, see it. The less you know going in, the better, and the last third is a riot. A solid 10/10 from me.