Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Sean Young

What has always attracted me to Blade Runner (1982), and part of the reason why it’s one of my favorite science fiction films ever (topped only by Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) are its themes. The film asks one of the most thought-provoking questions of all time: why must we die? The question of our mortality has haunted us since the dawn of time. Why are we born with an expiration date? One for the ages to be sure, but one that Ridley Scott and his crew weren’t afraid to ask back in 1982. Which is why that scene in which Roy Batty kills his creator for being unable to give him more life struck me as a great example of a film that knows its themes well and truly explores them. “You were made as good as we could make you” is the answer Tyrell, the ‘God of Biomechanics’ gives his creations. Live your life to the fullest, but rest assured, you’re going to die.  That frustration and anger we all feel at the fact that we know we are going to die is explored on Blade Runner with laser clear precision. The film really dives into its themes with reckless abandon. It asks questions and attempts to give us answers, even if said answers are dark and hopeless. And it delivers these dark explorations with beauty and poetry.

Of course, when standing on the shoulders of such a giant, the makers of Blade Runner 2049 must’ve been concerned with delivering a film that was just as compelling and thought provoking as the original. Which of course was never going to be an easy task. Ridley Scott’s film is good on so many levels, it has  memorable characters, incredible dialog, amazing art direction, incredible special effects and music…it’s that rare “perfect” film that is extremely hard to top. I give kudos to Denis Villeneuve’s for having the guts to tackle the sequel of such a masterpiece. Was Blade Runner 2049 a worthy sequel? How does it compare to the first film? Can it be its own thing?

On Blade Runner 2049 we are presented with a new Android Executioner (a.k.a. Blade Runner) called agent ‘K’, who is assigned to retire a rebellious android who is passing itself for a farmer. Agent K ends up stumbling upon a mystery, which will lead him to a discovery that can shake the very foundations of society itself. Will he take the task and open this Pandora’s Box?  

I have to give it to Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, the writers behind this sequel, because they actually came up with some interesting concepts for this movie. The concepts are so good that they could branch off into entirely different films, which says a lot about the complexities of the concepts behind Blade Runner 2049. This movie has more meat to it than 90% percent of what passes for science fiction these days. And that “meat” is merely the backdrop of the story.  The actual plot of Blade Runner 2049 concerns itself with continuing exactly where the original film leaves off, with Deckard running off with Rachel to god knows where. This makes perfect sense when we take in consideration that Fancher also wrote the first film, so he’s picking up the story right where he left it.

Blade Runner 2049 has gotten lots of praise for its visuals and I agree, the film looks astonishing. Denis Villeneuve pays huge amounts of respect to the original film. You’ll feel you are in the same world that Ridley Scott presented us with in the first film. From the crummy, dirty streets filled with mutants to the flying police cars and the nonstop rain. It was great seeing landmarks from the first film like the Tyrell Corporation Pyramids or all those neon holograms promoting every sort of product available to man. I mean, Villeneuve succeeded in recreating that visual complexity that Ridley Scott is so good at conjuring on his films. Fans of the original Blade Runner are in for a real treat. It’s got that classy Film Noir vibe we all love from Blade Runner, its still very much a science fictin film mixed with a detective story. 

I was extremely disappointed that Vangelis was not used as the composer for Blade Runner 2049 because to me, the Vangelis score in Blade Runner (1982)  is a huge part of what emotes in conjunction with the visuals, such a unique cinematic experience. Vangelis’s music is sampled and reused in 2049, but instead letting him come up with a new score, they brought it in Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, which I will admit did an amazing job here anyway. The sounds used to compliment the visuals effectively evoke that dark science fiction vibe, it’s not Vangelis, but its mind-blowing in its own way. I’ve seen the film twice already and realized just how fantastic that musical score is. So prepare yourselves to dive into an amazing audio visual experience.

Though the film is amazing in many ways, it did have some flaws. One of the things that just didn’t work for me were the unanswered plot points, purposely left that way to be answered in a possible sequel. I personally don’t like to see scenes shoehorned in there for the sake of setting up a franchise, but whatever, you might not care. The original Blade Runner wasn’t concerned with establishing a franchise, they just did the one great film. To me it feels distracting, especially if you’re not even sure if there will be a sequel at all. You'll be left wondering what happened to certain characters, so be ready for that. Another thing is that to me 2049 is not as crystal clear with its themes as its predecessor. What is Blade Runner 2049 really about? Is it trying to answer any big questions? It is not as crystal clear as the first film. For now all I can say is that it is a film that warrants a few viewings to really grasp it, which means its a film that begs to be analyzed. I missed that focus in themes I got with the original film. But even with its flaws, the film is amazing on so many other levels that it balances the pros and cons out. I do hope more people go see it because like its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 isn’t exactly lighting the box office in flames. In fact, last time I checked it was having a hard time making its money back. Which is sometimes a good thing. When general audiences don't like a film, it usually means it has some brains to it, which usually means I'll like it. So there's that. It's not a film made for mass consumption, which is a good thing for some of us.    

This was a risky movie for Denis Villeneuve to make because it’s an intelligent, slow paced science fiction film, and mass audiences like their explosions and fights every five seconds and they like everything spoon fed to them. It also has a lengthy running time of almost three hours, but I’ll tell ya, I was engaged all the way through, I didn’t really notice the running time. I wanted more by the time it was over. When it's over it comes as a surprise. In that sense, it is extremely similar to the original Blade Runner, which also slammed its door on our face, making us wonder what happened to Deckard and Rachel. Well, this film answers us that question, but it leaves so many others unanswered, hopefully we’ll get a sequel, hopefully the answers will come, and hopefully they wont take thirty something years to make the next film. I love the world of Blade Runner and I hope we get to revisit it at some point. I am extremely happy that Denis Villeneuve is doing such an amazing job with the science fiction genre, he is steadily becoming the sci-fi director of this generation. I hear he wants to tackle Dune next! What can I say, after seeing Blade Runner 2049, he has my vote. Final word, even with its flaws, I cannot bring myself to give this film anything but a perfect score. One for the ages in deed. 

    

Rating: 5 out of 5

  

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Director: J. J. Abrams

Cast: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Harrison Ford, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Max Von Sydow, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew

For the past few weeks anticipation was at an all time high, but the day finally came for the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh chapter in the Star Wars saga. The back story behind this movie is that it is the first film in the Star Wars Saga to be produced by Disney every since they bought Star Wars from George Lucas for a mere 4 Billion dollars. So while this film exists within the universe that Lucas created, George Lucas had nothing to do with this film. Now some fans might say that this is a good thing and I’d have to agree with them because, let’s be honest here, everybody hates the prequels. They were George Lucas’s chance to give fans the Star Wars movies they’d been waiting for since Return of the Jedi (1983). What we got instead were a trio of overtly serious films that were missing that element of fun that the old trilogy had. Lucas forgot about the cliffhangers, the pure movie magic, the entertainment. In comes J. J. Abrams, the director to whom Disney gave the chance to “save” the Star Wars franchise. I think he was the perfect choice actually, after all, it looks like J.J. Abrams is shaping up to become this generations Steven Spielberg. He’s the new big budget, pure entertainment and spectacle guy. Did he manage to make a pleasing Star Wars film? Did he save the Star Wars franchise? I will be reviewing The Force Awakens in the next few paragraphs, and I’m keeping it spoiler free so I won’t deny you of the amazing surprises and shocking moments that this movie holds in store for you, so read unafraid my dear friends!

The premise for this movie is that Luke Skywalker has gone missing and everyone and their mother is desperately looking for him. The Rebels want to bring Luke home, and the bad guys, a fascist military order known as ‘The First Order’ are also after him. They fear he might bring back the Jedi’s to the galaxy. Now the only one with the map to Luke’s location is a little android known as BB-8; who has Rey and Finn, the two protagonists of this story to protect him as he makes his way to the Rebel Base. Will they make it? Will they ever find the ever elusive Luke Skywalker? See how I kept that short and sweet as to not spoil anything? ;)

Man, watching this movie in theaters, with a crowd of fans was such an experience. As it happens with the premiere of any Star Wars film (good or bad) audiences are always excited to see a new one. After the opening scroll which explains the premise of the film, it’s all dead quiet as everyone devours every second of what transpires on screen, hoping with every bit of their beings that it doesn’t suck. What all Star Wars fan wants from a Star Wars film is that old magic, that feeling of adventure we got from the first film. It’s incredible how not even Lucas himself could recapture what he achieved with that first film. The thing about those first films is that they were not about ‘the senate’ or the ‘trade federation’ or ‘negotiations’, they were quite simply about good guys fighting the good fight against the bad guys. And somewhere along the line, Lucas forgot about that and decided to do the prequels, which were primarily about politics. They got too technical, everyone was too serious. And as we all know, politics are boring. There was no Han Solo saying funny jokes, there was no Princess Leia with her snappy come backs. Thankfully, this new film brought that fun element back! That’s right my friends, we’re back to good vs. evil, and sure, at the crux of it all is a political themed film, but we see that angle from a broader spectrum, we don’t go into political conversations that nobody cares about.  

One of the main reasons why Episodes IV through VI work so well is because they had likable characters. I mean, who didn’t love to see Han Solo and Princess Leia bickering, Luke and Han fighting over Leia’s affections. R2 and C3PO squabbling over everything. I mean, sure, the future of the galaxy was in the balance, but there was always time for that silliness like Leia calling Han a "scruffy looking Nerf Herder" and the such. On The Force Awakens we have a little bit of that back again. Characters are back to saying comedic lines in the most serious moments. I mean, you can tell Han is back, and yet again, everything he says will get a giggle out of you. I have to say, true fans of Episodes IV through V will get such a thrill out of seeing Han Solo and Chewbacca back in action, flying the Millenium Falcon. When Han says “Chewie, we’re home” I thought “and so are we” because that’s exactly how I felt, like this was the Star Wars I wanted and loved, it’s finally back. I, as a Star Wars fan, was home. Trust me, I didn’t feel that with Episodes I through III. A warning though, they gave C3PO and R2D2 a rest for this film, we only see them in brief yet essential roles.

And what about the new guys? John Boyega as Finn, Daisy Ridley as Rey and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren? Well, I’m happy to inform that they did a fantastic job. The thing with presenting us with new Star Wars characters is that they have to be good actors, they have to be likable, their performances have to be convincing. Casting the wrong person in these important roles could mean the death of a movie, sure they’ll make money (as the prequels did) but the films will be hated for all eternity because they have that bad actor in that key role, Episodes I through III, I’m looking at you guys! Daisy Ridley is instantly likable, I loved her character! She was written in an interesting way. She’s got a charisma, those eyes, she’s smart and self reliant. I’m just glad that Hollywood is finally giving women great leading roles. For the longest time, women had been relegated to being ‘damsels in distress’, females who couldn’t fend for themselves, who had to rely on the big macho man to save them. Not so here. There’s this moment in which the bad guys are chasing Rey and Finn and Finn grabs Rey by the hand and she says “I can run perfectly fine without you holding my hand!” That’s when I knew that this movie was making a special effort to portray a strong, independent woman who can take care of herself, which is awesome to me because for the longest time Hollywood did the contrary. So this movie gets two things right, it puts the women and the black guy in the forefront by giving them the starring roles. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is obviously making a statement with this, and a good one at that.

And what’s a movie without a good villain right? On this one we get Kylo Ren, a truly hateful villain. Trust me when I say that by the end of the movie, you will end up hating him with every bit of your soul. He comes off as an angry, volatile, less experienced Darth Vader; he is shaping up to become a memorable villain in the Star Wars universe. And what about Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron? Well, what can I say, they’re calling him the new Han Solo, I kind of agree! Now a word about the structure of the film, which is extremely similar to Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). It’s true what you’ve heard that A New Hope is the blueprint for The Force Awakens; of course it was done on purpose to give us a feeling of familiarity. There are some moments that mirror A New Hope, but there’s no denying that the film also gives us some amazing new elements that I was not expecting at all. So there’s a little bit of the old, but also, a little bit of the new. It’s emotional, and will make an impact on you, trust there’s some shocking moments in store! In terms of effects, well, the film is top notch. You do not feel as if characters are walking in front of a green screen, nope, these sets are there. They are tangible, they feel real. There’s a perfect balance between practical set design and computer work, which is the way it should be. This is also something that George Miller executed perfectly well in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). So I applaud these directors that are showing a true balance in the force, they aren’t forgetting that films are made in front of a camera! So thank you for that J.J. Abrams, my hats down to you sir! So yeah, I was pleased as hell with Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and that ending? Whoa! Left me salivating for more! Let’s see where we go to next, looking forward to Episode VIII come May 26^th 2017!  

Rating: 5 out of 5

Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

Director: Steve Binder, David Acomba

Cast: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, James Earl Jones, Bea Aurthur, Art Cagney, Diahann Carroll, Harvey Korman

The Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired on American television during Christmas Season way back in 1978 is a page of Star Wars history that a lot of fans, including George Lucas himself, prefer you’d pass on and not even look at, which of course will make you want to watch this “forbidden fruit” even more. It’s hatred is evident by the fact that it’s never been released on VHS, DVD or Blueray. Hell, this thing didn’t even make to Betamax! There’s no love from George Lucas for this thing. I decided to give it a proper chance once again, because I was going to conduct a screening of it for a Star Wars Parody Night thing I did. The screening consisted on the mother of all Star Wars parodies: Spaceballs (1986), followed by some funny Star War themed short films and finally the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). Half way through the screening of the Star Wars Holiday Special, I was strangely hypnotized by it and so was the rest of the audience! I guess, when watched under the right mood, this thing isn’t as bad as everyone paints it to be. Plus there's the nostalgia factor and the fact that its like a time capsule from the 1970's. But it’s still bad, there’s no way around it. It’s an odd bird.

The story takes place as Han and Chewie are on their way to Kashyyyk (that’s Chewies home planet for you non Star Wars fans) but on the way there, they get attacked by a couple of imperial spaceships, which sets their journey to Kashyyyk back a bit. So Chewie’s family is worried because he hasn’t returned. Chewie’s wife Malla is all sad and impatient so she decides to give good old Luke Skywalker a call. Luke tries to calm her down by telling her not to worry, that everything will be alright. To top things off Chewie is trying to make it back home before a Wookie holiday called ‘Life Day’, which is the Wookie equivalent of Christmas. Will Chewie make it back to Kashyyyk for Life Day? Sure it’s weird seeing Chewbacca being a family man, with a kid, a wife and a grandpa waiting for him back home. At the same time, within the context of a holiday movie, it complies with the requirement of being endearing and family oriented, which means it has a lot of crying, singing and hugging.  Strange part is that all these tender moments clash with the weird ass what the hell moments, all of which I will go into right now for your reading pleasure.

Chewie's kid, Lumpy

First up, we get introduced to Chewbacca’s family composed of Malla, Chewie's wife, Chewie's kid is a little Wookie kid who goes by the name of Lumpy. Lumpy likes to play with his wookie toys and eats his wookie moms cookies. Then we have Itchy, the grumpy Wookie grandpa. The whole idea is just hilarious to me. We get about a whole half hour of the three Wookies just talking in grunts the way Chewbacca does. Ever wanted to see Chewbacca’s wife watching a weird ass cooking show, so she can cook her holiday meal? Look no further, it’s here! The thing about this holiday special is that it has a lot of comedians and acts that are no longer relevant today, so new watchers will be totally lost as to who Harvey Korman was and the fact that it’s supposed to be a ‘funny’ moment in the show, but it’s cool because the funny catches you by surprise. I must admit the whole bit with the cooking ‘lady’ who has four arms got a couple of giggles from me, ultimately, it feels kind of pointless! What the hell does this have to do with Star Wars or anything? Absolutely nothing! It’s just filler, something funny to put on the screen, like most of the things you’ll see on this special.

There are a lot of moments on this Holiday Special in which characters sit down to look at something on a screen and then we get to watch what they are watching, this happens all the time and its where the entertaining side of this Holiday Special comes in. We have a moment in which Lumpy, Chewie’s kid, looks at holographic images of circus performers who look like something out of Cirque du Soleil. It looks cool and all, and the music is trippy, but again, it goes on and on and then goes nowhere. Actually, this Holiday Special is made of a lot of trippy, sort of surreal moments strung up together. You might feel like you’re under the influence of mind altering drugs. I’m not the first to suggest that this whole special might have been made by a sentient bag of cocaine.

There’s no trippier what the hell moment than the one in which Itchy, Chewie’s dad opens up his holiday gift and it’s this virtual reality disk that contains a performance by 70’s singer/actress Diahann Carroll. The holographic entity called ‘Mermeia Holographic Wow’ is sort of a holographic projection of all of grandpa Wookie’s sexual desires; I’m not making this shit up! The hologram tells grandpa Itchy: “I am your fantasy. I am your experience. So experience me. I am your pleasure. Enjoy me. This is our moment together in time that we may turn this moment into an eternity. ” She then proceeds to sing and dance a sexy song, which I must admit was alluring in a 70’ sort of way. Her performance is filled with all these old school television level visual effects, hypnotizing in a way; certainly one of the best things about this Holiday Special. The problem is that immediately after watching this scene, you realize this show is supposed to be for kids?!  It also makes you think of why would an aging Wookie have sexual fantasies with a human female and not a Wookie female! But whatever. No logic on this thing whatsoever.

Then Lumpy, the Wookie kid, starts watching cartoons and we are treated to an animated segment that I didn’t understand very well because it’s not very well written, but it amazed me from an animation stand point. It included all the major Star Wars characters battling monsters in an alien planet called Panna. They were after some sort of magical talisman. This animated segment is valuable within the Star Wars cannon because it’s the first appearance of Bobba Fett in the Star Wars universe. That’s right my friends, the first time Bobba Fett popped up in Star Wars, was in animated form! Anyways, the drawings were sort of like something out of a Moebius comic book, at least in style. Which I dug a lot. I wonder how psyched little Lumpy must be to see his own father in a cartoon show?! After that we jump into a scene in which imperial guards enter Chewie’s house and start harassing the family, looking for rebels. One of the guards asks about an apparatus that on the table. When they show him what it is, it’s basically a television, when they turn it on, the Imperial Guard literally becomes hypnotized by a Jefferson Starship performance! Picture the lead singers microphone looking like a lightsaber with a bunch of purple, throbbing circular lights emanating throughout the performance and you’ll get a gist of what to expect!

Then we have another comedic relief moment that takes place in the Mos Eisley Cantina, with one of the Golden Girls (Bea Arthur) singing a sad song about the Empire closing down her bar. Who would’ve thought that one of the Golden Girls is the owner of the Mos Eisley Cantina?! Anyhow, the whole scene involves her trying to get rid of the last customers as they drink their last drink. More padding, but I guess it shows the oppressive arm of the Empire, pressing down on the people. Also, we see a lot of the aliens we saw in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) making a cameo, we gotta remember that this came out only a year after Star Wars was released, what they did for this scene was simply re-use the monsters leftover from the first movie. Then we get more funny stuff with Harvey Korman performing as a robot instructor giving Lumpy instructions on how to build one of his toys? Totally pointless, but again, kind of trippy because the malfunctioning robot starts to talk really slow and then they make it look like his malfunctioning by rewinding and fast forwarding the footage. It certainly makes you think “what the hell were they thinking?!” 

Then we go back to the whole story about Chewie returning and we get the whole gang back together celebrating Earth Day with Chewie and his family and a bunch of Wookies all dressed in Red Gowns.  If that isn’t weird enough, then Princess Leia starts singing a song to the Wookies. Just imagine the Star Wars theme song, but with lyrics about Life Day! Sang by Carrie Fisher. At the end of the day, this movie is all about Chewie, who ends up looking like the hero of the show, protecting his family from Imperial Trooper by throwing them down the balcony of his home. Chewie is a hero of the rebels and a good husband and father! Wow, what an over achiever!  After that, it’s all party and surrealism as we are shown a series of montage of Chewies best moments from Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). Then Chewie and his family eat dinner together and then disappear into some sort of magical trippy star…or something. It looks like they are walking to heaven or something, walking into the light.  So yeah, that’s the whole thing. Lucas didn’t have much to do with this, obviously. He hates it. The special has never been rebroadcast or released on any sort of media. But thank god for the internet, now you can watch it on YouTube and marvel at its awfulness. Or trippiness? You be the judge. Someone sitting next to me during the screening said that they made this Holiday Special for potheads. I’m thinking I agree entirely.

Rating: 2 out of 5 

Behind the Scenes Awesomeness: Return of the Jedi (1983)