Ever since I watched the first trailer for Alien: Romulus, I was in. I liked the vibe, the grittiness, and when the name Fede Alvarez popped as the director, I knew I would be checking it out in the cinema. He did the remake of The Evil Dead (1981), simply called Evil Dead (2013), which I loved. He also made Don’t Breathe (2016, my review here), which I respected; you could even say I liked it. The thing about him is that he seems to be a very “back to basics” director whose movies feel real, gritty, and raw, and he isn’t afraid to disgust you a bit (sometimes, a bit more). So I hoped he would bring those elements to the Alien franchise, and luckily, my hopes were answered. This movie is almost everything I wanted it to be and then some.

The movie starts on this planet full of people who are effectively slaving away for Weyland-Yutani and hoping to escape it by working hard. But given this megacorporation is as evil as if you mixed Amazon and Apple, they keep changing the conditions, so people stay, work and eventually die there. No inspiration taken from the real world; let’s move on… 😉 And it’s even during this “boring but necessary” exposition I noticed that this movie feels real. It’s a shame that this needs complimenting, but it did feel like they shot this on location and with physical objects rather than being trapped in a green screen studio (or the VFX were THAT good).

I also liked the new group of soon-to-victims/alien birthing chambers. For me, the standouts were a bit obvious – Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. Their “brother/sister” dynamic at the start worked, and as the events of this film unfolded, I liked how that dynamic changed and got challenged. Whom I always enjoy seeing and who has a tinier but pretty crucial role was Isabela Merced. I think she is sneaky great, and, given a couple of good roles in a row, she could rule Hollywood.

Now, let’s get to the meat of this story – the Alien. You can have the best characters ever, but if your Alien movie fucks up the “Alien” part, you are in trouble. Luckily, Alien: Romulus knows what it wants to do and, more importantly, how to build the tension. There are some predictable things and some questionable things as well (more about that soon), but one thing this movie nailed was the action and horror. Because of its settings (“abandoned” spaceship), we go back to the claustrophobic roots of this franchise, where it seems like Xenomorph or Facehugger can be behind any corner. I also love the shots when, a few times in this movie, the Xenomorph almost blends in with the background, and we can only see it when it moves.

Fede understands this beast very well and makes it (alongside the numerous Facehuggers) scary, ruthless and almost unstoppable, just as we remember from the numerous Alien movies before this one. I also appreciated that this is a dark movie, but I was never confused about where we were or struggled to see any action on the screen. As I always said, there’s a difference between “movies taking place in the dark” and “let’s hide our shitty action/CGI with a lot of shadows and darkness”. Also, Fede does something unique with this franchise, and we have several outstanding sequences. The clear standouts were the zero gravity fight and crossing the room full of Facehuggers undetected.

My only tiny issue with this movie would be the clunky way they bring back someone from the past. I don’t want to mention which movie; I don’t want to discuss spoilers that much, but I don’t know whether it was needed. Especially given who that person is/was within that universe, you could have easily made this movie with some other, unknown character rather than what this movie chose to do. It didn’t pull me out of the film, but it was a weird choice for… numerous reasons. Also, if I was nit-picky, towards the end, they seem to run around this big ship quite quickly, and the timer seemed to be pausing/stopping because, of course, there’s a self-destruct timer, wouldn’t be an Alien movie without it!

But I can’t lie; neither of those two things bothered me as much as to spoil my enjoyment of this twisted film. Especially the last third, where you know some shit will go down and then it happens, and it’s even bloodier and more intense than I thought. And that is why I am fully on board with Fede Alvarez being one to watch out for. Even if he doesn’t do something I would fully appreciate (like Don’t Breathe), I still think his movie has a unique sense of style and grittiness I gravitate towards. We live in an age where many movies look alike, no matter whether you watch comedy, action or a thriller. And his films always have a more “cinematic” look to them. They feel more grounded, and I am including Alien: Romulus in that conversation too, which is saying something.

Overall, Alien: Romulus was a blast. It’s an almost two-hour thrill and horror ride that never bored me. The jump scares (only a few, which is another positive) worked, but what I appreciated more than that was the atmosphere, the willingness to show us something new and Fede staying true to himself and showing us some good old horror fun. I can’t wait to rewatch it and see where this will ultimately end up in my Alien ranking because, at this moment, it’s pretty high. Go and support this movie in the cinema if you fancy a great Alien movie.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

For the first time since The Avengers (2012), we only have one MCU movie coming out in the entire calendar year of 2024, and it is this one. The pressure was on to deliver and, to an extent, prove if people are, in fact, sick and tired of comic book films or whether they just don’t like when movies that don’t do anything new. And by the massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine, it seems clear that people still care; you just need to motivate them to show up in the cinemas. The Marvel Jesus (Ryan Reynolds) did it.

I can’t lie; it’s been a while since I have had such a blast in the cinema. This movie throws everything at you and then some; the cadence is roughly 22.5739 jokes per minute, and there are various quips, quick jokes, and references to many things (mostly pop-culture related), but most landed for me. What I loved is how this movie dealt with the idea of “bringing” Wolverine back, as I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that he died in his last film and Hugh Jackman officially retired from playing him. That was until this movie, where what they did and how this movie opened was brilliant. And the laughs didn’t stop for me for pretty much the entirety of this buddy hero movie.

It’s hard to discuss specifics without going into spoilers because there are some amazing jokes, scenes, and characters who I had no idea were coming. So, before delving into spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed this movie and was on the verge of giving it 5/5 stars. The only thing that stopped me was the nagging feeling of whether some of those scenes and jokes would work as much on my second watch. But other than that, I had a good time with this film, as it’s a pretty poignant farewell to a specific comic book era where things weren’t always going great. It’s a love letter to all the “forgotten” comic book movies, characters and some that never even gotten their chance to shine. I have noticed when people discuss this movie, one of the biggest criticisms is that there is “no story”. I don’t get that at all because this movie is about many things; you just need to look beyond the vulgar humour. It’s about finding your place, fitting in and wanting to be something bigger than yourself. This movie talks about how no matter how super you are, you may never reach the heights you want to, and that’s fine. So, I don’t agree with that notion.

I will also give the movie this – the action scenes and montages were executed well. Unlike many MCU films, the action scenes in Deadpool & Wolverine seemed less edited and more fluent. And the montages, whether it’s the finale or the closing credits one, were tastefully done, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many teared up during either of those. Especially the end credit one, where we see behind-the-scenes footage from many comic book films of the past, made me want to rewatch the X-Men movies as it’s been a minute since I watched the first ones. Anyway, let’s go to spoilers so I can talk about some scenes and characters more freely.

BEWARE, SPOILERS ARE COMING!

I expected more cameos, to be honest, but I will say I am not disappointed by “only” having those we got just to clarify something from the start. I imagined, given the fourth-wall-breaking nature of Deadpool, everyone who has ever appeared in the MCU would be in here, even if in a big group scene for a second (like in Deadpool 2 (2018)). Instead, we get a more sensible approach, and the first hint of that is when Chris Evans shows up, but not as Captain America. Instead, he shows up as Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four movies he made in the mid-2000s. One thing I don’t think people appreciate about this movie is they could have gone for the expected (especially with the subplot of Deadpool trying to join the Avengers) and made him come back as Captain America, but that wouldn’t have worked with the theme of this film. Don’t get me wrong; this movie goes for the obvious jokes when it’s funny. But as far as plot and all these cameos are concerned, they seemed to have more thought put into them than simply: “Hey, we need to bring back this person and that person, just because we can!”

Speaking of which, did I like seeing Jennifer Garner as Elektra and Dafne Keen as Laura back? Yes, I did. Did I expect to see Channing Tatum as Gambit? Absolutely not. The choices they made with his character giving him this goofy… dialect? Accent? Speech disorder? Either way, it worked, and I, yet again, ask for Channing to star in more comedies because he is a low-key underrated and brilliant comedic actor. But, who brought me so much joy and I didn’t know I needed to see back on the big screen was the man, the myth, the tax dodging legend himself, Wesley Snipes. Blade has always been one of my favourite characters ever, and to see him back, be as cool as he was back in 1998 (!) and referencing the fact there is only one Blade (can you believe they announced the Blade movie in 2019 and we still haven’t gotten it?!) just made me so giddy. As much as I loved all the cameos and Deadpool variants, Wesley Snipes coming back in that scene as Blade was something I didn’t know I needed, and it made my day.

What this movie then does with all these cameos is also underappreciated. Sure, Evans is mostly the punchline, but as far as the others are concerned, Deadpool & Wolverine gives them all one last chance to shine, to be cool. And as Gambit himself points out in the movie, it gives him the chance to even exist because his Gambit movie was stuck in pre-production hell for a decade until it got cancelled altogether. And despite making him into “a bit” of a joke, when the action time came, they give him some cool set pieces too where it acted as this glimpse of what could have been. Everyone got the chance to shine in the big battle, and I am glad they didn’t bring them back just to kill them off. Well, except for Johnny Storm, but did you see him shit talking Cassandra Nova? No wonder she did what she did to him.

Speaking of her, Emma Corrin was awesome. Emma goes by they/them, and their character was a nice spin on Charles Xavier’s character. I liked how their journey almost mirrored Deadpool’s, and they also had to live in someone else’s shadow and just wanted to be seen. This film also showcased something we had never seen before – what if Professor X was evil? This movie goes through several things, and they barely manage to stop Cassandra’s character, fully displaying just how powerful someone with those powers would be.

I can’t wait to rewatch it and see how well it plays the second time around. But as far as my cinema visit, I had a blast. I thought MCU desperately needed a hit; they got it, and hopefully, they will understand that they need to mature now. I am not saying every MCU movie from this point forward needs to have this much profanity, but the audience is ready for more mature, darker comic book movies. And if there is one thing Deadpool & Wolverine proved without a doubt, people will show up and make you money, even if the movie is R-rated. If the source material calls for it, don’t soften it; nourish what makes the characters and stories unique.

Overall, Deadpool & Wolverine surprised me with how much fun I had with it. I expected a cameo fest of all the famous people. Instead, we get a few cameos that mean something. I didn’t expect this movie to be a reflection of how far we’ve gotten (comic book-wise) while giving some characters a proper send-off. I think this also will be an amazing time capsule film. In 20/30 years, when you put this on, you will be transformed into 2024, as no matter how much or how little you liked this movie, it is a mirror to the modern pop culture and our current obsession with nostalgia, multiverses and all the other things that make studios money. And sometimes, it’s good to reflect.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

LUke

“Hey, you! Yes, you over there. Did you like/tolerate The Big Bang Theory (2007 – 2019)? Do you think David Oyelowo is criminally underrated and deserves a better career? What about a fun Bill Nighy? Well, if you said yes to all of the above, get ready to be super whelmed by Role Play! What’s that, you say? Whelmed is not a word? Shut up and buy Amazon Prime to watch this more average than the average movie!” – an Amazon executive, probably. I didn’t expect much from this film, but what I got was… somehow, almost exactly that. Not much.

Firstly, I don’t understand how nobody throughout the shooting of Role Play pointed out that Kaley Cuoco and David had no chemistry together. Just because you cast two good-looking people together, it doesn’t always mean they will mesh together, and I think that was, by far, the biggest problem of this film. The movie spends too much time on Kaley’s career and past, where we get only a few scenes where she interacts with her husband. On top of that, all the interactions (either the beginning or the end) feel just like they are good friends rather than husband and wife. Which is weird because I think both are capable actors.

The other thing I thought was weird was how the second half seems to be building up towards a big showdown, where we see Kaley utilising all her assassin powers on the people that kidnap her, her husband and her children, and then we have about five people in total for her to deal with…? So, instead of some fun action set piece, we get a couple of mid-kills, some happen off the screen for “comedic” effect, and that’s it…? This movie is hyping up the agency going after Emma (Kaley’s character), and then they only had three guards with one boss and her henchwoman. Really?

I don’t think this is nostalgia talking, but when watching movies like Role Play, I remember that even “silly” action comedies like Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) gave us much more of… well, everything. Yes, I know that I am kind of cheating because we are comparing bigger budgets, larger names and all of that, but if this movie wants to play in this sandbox of “I’m married to an assassin, and I had no idea?!” than there were so many fun things for them to do. And this film does none of them.

To name some positives, Bill Nighy does his absolute best in the couple of scenes he had and almost steals this movie. Usually, I would say that’s because he is that talented, but in this case, it’s not as hard to stand out, given everything around him is various shades of beige. I also appreciated some comedic moments by David Oyelowo’s character, even though, for the most part, he seemed wasted in this film.

The biggest issue is that if I am being objective, there is nothing else to say about this movie because it was shot competently, paced well enough, and the runtime was a swift 100 minutes, so it’s not like you will rue the day you pressed the play button on your remote. But it’s so “by the numbers” I struggled with every aspect of this movie. There isn’t a single standout – no scene, performance, action set piece, or anything that would allow me to remember and rate this film much. Hence why I said this movie whelmed me because it’s not underwhelming by any means; it’s just the food equivalent of the most basic fast food you can get. Even the moment you are eating it (watching the film), you know you should be having a healthier meal (watching better films), and you won’t remember it within the next couple of days. I watched this film a couple of days ago, and honestly, besides the hotel scene with Bill, I am grasping for straws.

Overall, Role Play is one of the most average movies I have ever seen. The main couple consists of two good enough actors who, unfortunately, have no chemistry. And everything skews from there; the action is okay, the story is fine, the ending seemed rushed… If you are looking to watch something after a very long day and just want to switch off, I might still recommend 100 better movies than this. But if you want to watch something new-ish… Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

When Inside Out 2 was announced, I was less than enthusiastic because, like many, I consider the first movie (Inside Out, 2015) one of the best films Pixar ever made. Also, unlike some other films, this one didn’t never feel like there was much for expansion, as the first movie did everything it wanted to do without setting up any potential sequel. Yeah, they make the puberty joke towards the end that came back at the beginning of this film, but other than that, the idea of a sequel felt more unnecessary than with other films in the recent past. And let me remind you, we live in an era where quite a few movies are sequels, prequels or remakes. Anyway, I was curious, and the film was getting positive reviews, so I had to check it out for myself and honestly… Not bad.

The one thing this sequel did well was utilising the fact it was a sequel, so we jump straight into the story. We get one quick scene of re-introducing all the emotions (just in case you have not seen the original film and felt like going to see the sequel, I guess?), but besides that, the movie starts almost immediately with Riley starting puberty. Well… the puberty buzzer goes off, and they “bin” it. Does that mean Riley’s emotions delayed her puberty? Because that would be wild. Moving on, Inside Out 2 takes place two years after the original when our protagonist hits puberty and is introduced to new emotions – anxiety, ennui, envy and embarrassment. The new emotions quickly overtake her, banishing the old group to the side and taking over Riley’s life whilst she is getting used to the idea that her two best friends will attend a different high school than her.

I thought the movie displayed, yet again, each emotion brilliantly. I can imagine this film helping many younger people to describe what they feel much better, especially anxiety. I also appreciated how much this movie spent on the sense of self-worth and how, at that age, that gets directly tied to a different sense – of belonging to a group. Feeling the pressure to like the things the new group likes, because if you don’t, the chances are, they might not like you as much… I thought this was where Inside Out 2 shined the best in all the Riley scenes and how relatable they portrayed everything she was going through.

My only problem was with the “emotions’ journey”. Not only does it mirror the first movie (the “sensible” emotions get banished and need to find their way back to the control room), but the journey that our old emotions end up on feels a bit off. Because every time they stumbled upon a problem, it almost magically gets solved on its own. In the first movie, Joy had to think on her feet and figure out the way out of problems. In this movie, there were some moments where literal magic helps them out, and that felt “a bit” cheap.

Also, the overall point is the same as in the original movie. It’s been a minute since I watched the first Inside Out, but I am pretty sure the main message is sadness isn’t always bad; it just can’t control your life. And the same point was made here, with anxiety, respectively, with the “planning” part. It’s fine to plan, but if you do it to the point of driving yourself crazy, that’s not helpful. And it was in that way my worries came through and how, ultimately, this world isn’t as large as one might think. Because the “ultimate” message will always stay the same, all human emotions can be helpful if the person lives an examined life. Sure, we follow a teenager who doesn’t understand anything (as everybody their age), so it makes more sense, but from the viewer’s perspective, if you watch these back to back, I imagine it can get repetitive.

Another thing – where the original had a big emotional scene that almost got me (yes, I am talking about Bing Bong), this sequel didn’t have anything like this. They try, don’t get me wrong, and all the scenes hit just right, but there wasn’t one that would stand out as much or hit me a bit more.

I will have to rewatch it at some point to sort my thoughts on Inside Out 2. I might even rewatch the original movie first to see whether I am viewing the first movie through a “nostalgic lens” (that was a great scene with nostalgia, btw), but for now, despite all the tiny issues I had with this movie, I actually had more fun than I anticipated. Pixar didn’t miss with this movie as it’s a beautifully animated, relatable story about a young girl on the brink of puberty. Sure, the “road map” might be familiar, but given the sensible runtime, great voice cast (the clear standout is Maya Hawke, given how much runtime her Anxiety gets) and the fact that I had a good time, I enjoyed it.

Overall, Inside Out 2 is better than I expected, although it doesn’t reach the peak of the original movie, which isn’t a fair criticism, given the original is just on another level. Nevertheless, if you are looking for something familiar, fun and easy to watch, this movie is that and more. And if you have a teenager living with you, this movie might equip them to talk to you about what they are going through a bit better, and that’s never a bad thing.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke