Film Review: PACIFIC RIM (2013)

Writer/director Guillermo del Toro has made a career out of crafting fantasy and horror films that are not easily categorized and labeled.  Beginning with his unorthodox take on the vampire film Cronos (1993) and Blade II (2002) and following on to his Spanish ghost story The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and his dark fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and his comic book epics Hellboy (2004) and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).  All of that experience has culminated in his biggest film to date Pacific Rim (2013).

The world is on the brink of destruction not by an alien race from outer space but from deep below the Pacific Ocean as an inter-dimensional portal has opened allowing giant monsters from another world to enter into our own.  To battle these giant kaiju (as they are called) the nations of the world band together to create giant robots called jaegers that are piloted by two people.  At first the jaegers do a good job of defending the world from the kaiju menace but now the monsters are appearing more frequently leading many to believe that there is an ulterior motive to this invasion.

Anyone who has seen a Godzilla film will be very familiar with the world of giant kaiju and jaegers but in del Toro’s hands the film becomes a full on military exercise done to a big budget, high concept way and he delivers the goods.  Not being just content with a run of the mill action film del Toro crafts a complex ensemble film which touches upon all aspects of the world he has created from the grunt soldiers on the front lines to the smugglers who deal in rare kaiju body parts (played by del Toro regular Ron Pearlman in one of his most entertaining roles).   This film is populated with a lot of relative newcomers and faces you may recognize such as Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba well as Charlie Day and Rinko Kikuchi but these are not the main reason to come see a film like this.  It is the giant robots fighting giant monsters and in del Toro’s hands it is an epic battle with an epic story.  Del Toro is not just concerned with telling a giant monster verses giant robot story but he gives his characters a history and a goal to achieve elevating the film above being just a meager Summer Blockbuster.

The special visual effects are astounding and if you’re lucky enough to see the film in 3D or better yet in IMAX 3D then you are in for a real treat as this is one of the few films of the summer to use both formats adequately.  Pacific Rim is one of the standout summer films and one to be enjoyed on the big screen (and if you need to go even bigger go IMAX big).

Film Review: CHAINED (2012)

Jennifer Lynch has made a career out of directing films that are as far from the mainstream as possible following in the footsteps of her equally non-Hollywood father David Lynch.  Her previous films Boxing Helena (1993) and Surveillance (2010) can in no way prepare audiences for what may be her most polarizing film Chained (2012). 

Vincent D’Onofrio is Bob, a serial killer who uses his taxi cab to pick up his potential victims and take them to his secret home in the middle of nowhere where he proceeds to do whatever he wants to them.  One day one of his victims has a son with her and he decides to kill the woman but keep the son as his own personal slave.  Bob names the boy Rabbit (Eamon Farren) and forces him to do any and everything that he wants.  Soon Bob begins to think of Rabbit as his own son and as the boy grows older Bob begins to teach Rabbit how to do what he does with the women that he captures and kills.

D’Onofrio gives a depraved and gripping performance as Bob proving time and time again that he is not an easy actor to pigeon hole.  There hasn’t been as memorable a performance of a serial killer in a film since Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986).  Chained is not a film for everyone as it goes to a dark place and never comes up to the light.  Some of the best films that focus on the inner workings of a serial killer go to a dark place and if nothing else this film is one of the few that can be included on the list of must see films of this type.

Lynch has proven that she has a keen eye for directing unusual material and if she is like her father her films will be worth seeking out in the future.

Film Review: HOSTEL: PART III (2011)

Films labeled as torture porn have been on the decline since the release of Hostel Part II (2007) and the Saw 3D (2010) so it comes as a surprise that this sequel Hostel: Part III (2011) ever saw the light of day but this film is not directed by Eli Roth (who did the first two films) and this film takes place here in the U.S.A. but more importantly in Las Vegas, the City of Sin. 

Four friends head off to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to end all bachelor parties and find themselves on the receiving end of the filthy rich who pay to kill people in creative ways.  Now they must find a way to survive or risk becoming another victim in the City of Sin.

Using the Hunters Club as seen in the first two films, this film is somewhat grounded in the world created in the previous films but this world seems like a step back from the previous films.  In Hostel Part II the captured victims have been cut off by any escape routes leaving nowhere to run (an improvement based on events in the first film) whereas in this film it’s far too easy for them to escape; you’d think that if one faction of the Hunter’s Club upgraded their security system then they all would (especially in America where you think that it would be even more elaborate and modern).  

The film is not nearly as inventive with the death sequences as the previous films nor as inspiring as one person is killed by bugs while another by arrows by a woman dressed up in a mask.  If there is one thing that audiences come to these films for it’s to see people/victims get killed in new and creative ways (which is one of the reasons why the Saw franchise lasted as long as it did).  Unlike the previous films most of the gore and shock is off screen which is fine for the casual viewer but for fans of the previous films this is a disservice.  It renders the film utterly flaccid and ineffective.  

Relocating the film to Las Vegas was also a mistake as it has become the lynchpin destination for just about every film that wants to deal with the wages of sin and the theme of adultery and revenge not to mention other deadly sins.    By this third film I wanted something a little more substantial but then again this is a straight to video release so you can’t expect any more than the most mundane of execution.

Film Review: SILENT HILL: REVELATION (2012)

The original Silent Hill (2006) wasn’t the best film in terms of story but it had style and it actually had many surprising and horrifying moments despite the over bloated ending so it was a surprise that a sequel was in the works.  Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) pales in comparison as it borrows the style from the original but has little else going for it. 

 Harry (Sean Bean) and his daughter Heather (Adelaide Clemens) have been moving from town to town under different alias’ after the events of the first film in which Heather was saved from the clutches of Silent Hill by her step mother Rose (Radha Mitchell).  Now Heather is all grown up and she is plagued with nightmares about Silent Hill and hunted by creatures that want her to return.  When her father is kidnapped Heather travels to Silent Hill not only to save her father but to discover her true past and to rid herself of the nightmares.

The film has the makings of a good film as it has all the returning players from the original film but the film has very little in the way of a story that offers anything new that wasn’t in the previous film.  Bean and Mitchell are barely give more than a cameo in the film and instead the film focuses on the teenagers’ plight which is in direct contrast to the first film which focused on Rose’s search for her missing daughter.  This film comes off more as another teen horror film and lacks the depth of the first film.  Clemens also doesn’t have the ability to carry the story on her own.   In the first film Rose’s exploration of Silent Hill yielded strange characters and even stranger horrors whereas in this film Heather’s exploration seems disjointed as if they were vignettes that don’t really go anywhere or connect with the rest of the film.

There are a few stand-out creatures like the spider made of mannequin parts and the nurses return for more mayhem as well as other creatures from the first film but the film lacks the focus of the original and none of these sequences are particularly suspenseful or frightening.  There lies the biggest setback of the film which is the fact that it lacks the drive or atmosphere of the first film rendering much of what happens static and uninteresting. 

Film Review: THE WOLVERINE (2013)

I’m not a big fan of the X-Men films.  The only one that I thought was remotely good was X2: X-Men United (2003) which I thought was the only film that truly captured the ensemble spirit giving each of the characters in the film an actual story and through line.  This being said, I do think that what the films in the franchise did get right is the casting for most all the characters both good and bad and it is to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine who truly grounds the films (as evidenced in the fact that he is the only actor who has appeared in all the films), so it is no surprise that the latest film in the franchise The Wolverine (2013) focuses on Jackman’s character after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). 

Logan (Jackman) is haunted by Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), the woman he loved and whom he killed, so he has disappeared into the wilderness away from society.  During an altercation at a bar, he encounters Yukio (Rilia Fukushima) who tells him Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), a man he saved during WWII in Japan, wants to see him before he dies.  Logan decides to go to Japan to honor the request of the Yashida.  Upon reaching Japan, Logan soon discovers that Yashida (who also has become one of the wealthiest men in Japan) may hold the secret of taking his immortality from him and allowing him to live a normal lifespan and maybe be reunited with Jean in the afterlife.  Before Logan can truly make a decision that will disrupt the rest of his life war breaks out between the Yakuza who decide to kidnap Yashida’s daughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), who holds the secret to controlling the future of Japan.  Now Logan finds himself protecting Mariko at all cost.  

This film is a far improvement over the previous solo Wolverine film X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) as it goes back to the basics of the character.  It delves into Logan’s grief of not being able to save Jean Grey while paralleling that with his trying to protect and save Mariko, whom he also falls in love with.  The film explores the nature of honor as filtered through Logan’s eyes and through the Japanese culture.  When Logan loses his invulnerability by Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), another mutant like himself, he must contend with his newfound humanity but there is an even deeper conspiracy at hand for Logan that even he may not be prepared for.

As directed by James Mangold this film is smaller in scope that the previous films which works in this film’s favor as it becomes more of a character film as Logan grapples with vulnerability, guilt, redemption, honor and indeed love.  If there is one thing that the X-Men films have gotten right it is that of Logan’s hidden love and inner demons as it pertains to Jean Grey.  In this film she is a personification of his guilt not just emotional but physical as it reminds him that he is practically immortal and may never be reunited with her in the afterlife.  Yashida’s deal to strip Logan of his immortality is profound in that it forces him to see life in a finite way which can be enticing for an immortal that has nothing to live for.  When Logan falls in love with Mariko it allows him to come to terms with his grief of Jean’s death while also allowing him to find a reason to go on living and allow him to find his purpose in an immortal life.

This is not to say that the film is without its faults.  There are some amazing action sequences especially the one of the bullet train and the invasion of Yakuza gangsters at Yashida’s funeral but the third act seems overly big with the Silver Samurai only showing up in this sequence and whereas most of the film’s action was very Japanese in look and nature this final sequence is very modern and metallic which takes away from the grandeur of the Japanese local and culture of everything that came before it.  This is a small gripe as this film improves upon the previous films in the franchise by returning to focusing on character which is why I liked X2: X-Men United.