ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016)

Genre: Science Fiction / Adventure
Running Length: 2:13
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen,
Director: Gareth Edwards
Screenplay: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy from a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta, based on characters created by George Lucas

ROGUE ONE is better than Force Awakens, not because the former is more superior but it's because the end product feels unrestrained. Probably the filmmakers do not feel overly pressurized to fit their story into the Skywalker saga. One do not really need to fully understand the universe that George Lucas has created in his trilogies to enjoy this movie.

For Star Wars fans, Rogue One is packed with easter eggs. Thankfully it wasn't distracting but more like a wink to its legion of followers. As for the narrative itself, it's a grittier fare than one would expect because this film has more "war" than "star" ie space opera. People die in Rogue One. Not just one but many.

That said, when the characters gets killed off, I didn't feel much for them, eventhough the movie took a good 50%-60% of its running length to establish its characters. Ok, I did feel a lump in my throat when one of them perished.

The 'return' of Darth Vader was triumphant. Eventhough Director Krennic is the chief villain in this film, it is Darth Vader that steals the show with the few scenes he is in. Talk about impact. As for the rest of the cast, Diego Luna's character is equally central as Felicity Jones'. And as for Donnie Yen, it's nice to see him finally getting the kind of recognition from the West he so deserves. Overall, the diverse cast is adequate.

The big standout for me was the special effects. It is very impressive especially the dogfights and war scenes. It wasn't a disorientating mess as viewers know who's good and bad. And thank God it's not a CGI fest aka screensaver, like the ones in Ep. I, II and III. And speaking of CGI, the recreation of Grand Moff Tarkin (once again portrayed by Peter Cushing, who passed away in 1994) using CGI was a distraction for me. It reminded me of Polar Express.    

In summary, Rogue One a good standalone movie and it presents a closure on why the Empire's ultimate planet killer weapon had such an easy-to-exploit flaw. And it serves well as a companion piece to the Star Wars anthology too.

Rating: 8.5/10

JASON BOURNE (2016)

Genre: Thriller / Action
Running Length: 2:03
Cast: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles, Riz Ahmed
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenplay: Paul Greengrass & Christopher Rouse

Despite the rinsing and repeating elements from the trilogy, JASON BOURNE still feels fresh. It's all there, exactly like how Honest Trailers - The Bourne Trilogy pointed out. That said, one doesn't go into a Bourne movie expecting an intellectually stimulating experience. The series' only has one goal; to keep the audience gasping for breath from get go with Greengrass' frenetic camerawork.

And this installment probably offers the best of such relentless intensity in the series. The action set pieces are not mindless (meaning: predictable and boring) but it's choreographed and edited in such a a way that it amps up the tension. The best of which comes near the end; an exhilarating car chase that actually feels real and dangerous.

As for the plot, the Snowden and social media backdrop are introduced in this film to give it a bit more relevance to today's context but like I mentioned, it's pretty much the same - the CIA hunting down Jason Bourne.

As for the supporting cast, they all do a fine job. Jones,Vikander and Cassel are all serviceable. But man...Matt Damon IS Jason <expletive> Bourne. Eventhough this outing is clearly financially motivated, I'm glad the filmmakers still put in a lot of heart and more importantly, Damon didn't phone-in his performance (*cough* Bruce Willis *cough* Die Hard series).

I'm definitely looking forward for more of Damon/Bourne walking away to Moby's Extreme Ways in the closing credits.

Rating: 7.5/10

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Running Length: 1:57

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Renee Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton

Director: Dan Gilroy 

 

Sociopath: A person with a psychopathic personality whose behaviour is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

Although advertised as a thriller, NIGHTCRAWLER is actually a character study of a sociopath. In the beginning, we are introduced to our main character's initial "career" - carrying out petty activities. And when confronted, what happened thereafter will give the audience a clue who we are dealing with because as the film progresses, our anti-hero gets much worse. This isn't a feel good movie. It's dark, cynical, tense and at times downright uncomfortable. Viewers will be able to relate to the premise of the film where the sensationalisation of a piece of news is more important than reporting the truth to garner ratings (interesting enough, the core value of the TV series Newsroom is somewhat opposite of this film but I digressed). However, the most notable highlight of the film is Jake Gyllenhaal performance. He undergoes a radical physical transformation to play the part of the main character. His almost skeletal appearance, fake smile and dead eyes and his creepy "knowledge is power" personality really gets the audience under their skin. I thought his performance in last year's equally disturbing film Prisoners was mind blowing (soft spoken, eye twitching when stressed) but Gyllenhaal's performance here is a game-changer for his career. He deserves to get an Oscar nomination nod for this film. Equally impressive is Renee Russo's supporting character and the interesting relationship between her and Gyllenhaal. My favourite scene in the movie is at a Mexican restaurant where we can literally experience the balance of power shifting from one to the other. That amazing scene made my jaw dropped. The movie of course is not without its flaws as it occasionally runs into pacing issues and some of the plots are a little far fetched. The score is serviceable and the photography is noteworthy as it managed to capture the darker underbelly of LA suburbs. 

 

Rating 8.5/10