Cinema Paradiso- All about Cinema: Michael Fassbender

Friday, May 23, 2014

X Men Days of Future Past, English Hollywood Film Movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * *

Action entertainer but without the Sparkle

English Film review

Johnson Thomas

Film: X-Men: Days of the Future Past

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hennifer Lawrebce, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen

Director: Bryan Singer

Rating: * * *

Back at the helm of the Fox/Marvel franchise he successfully launched 14 years ago, director Bryan Singer stages a stealth reboot by introducing a playful time-travel element to the ongoing saga, bringing two generations of mutantkind together in a story that toggles cleverly (if not always 100% coherently) between the political tumult of 1973 and a not-so-distant dystopian future. Singer’s This film lies somewhere in between all X men films, in terms of period- bu that’s not all, the future is also part of this repost. The non-linear narrative follows characters who travel in time to prevent a future apocalypse. Entirely of the paint-by-numbers, Plot driven kind, this film is also not very distinctive in it’s look. The action is less than superlative and the exposition lacks wattage in terms of dialogue. There’s a lot of movement going back and forth in time but the sense of urgency and tension is missing.

The movie starts in the future. A murder of mutants led by benevolent Charles "Professor X" Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and frenemy Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen) conspire to save both human and mutantkind from shape-shifting, killer robot Sentinels. To prevent the Sentinels from becoming government-sanctioned weapons, the mutants send Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to stop Raven "Mystique" Darkholme (Jennifer Lawrence) from murdering the Sentinels' creator, Bolivar Trask ("Games of Thrones"'s Peter Dinklage). And in the process, Logan is forced to motivate and re-unite younger versions of Raven, Xavier (James McAvoy), and Magneto (Michael Fassbender)- who don’t make this species saving expedition easy!

"Days of Future Past" is the seventh X-Men movie since 2000. Singer (director of the franchise's three best films) and screenwriter Simon Kinberg make the spiel confident and entertaining with signature action and short expedient dialogue. The very basis for it’s existence seems a little out-of-the-blue. While the film begins in the dystopian future, it moves into the past quickly and allows for little scope for the fringe players Peter Maximoff(Evan peters), Bishop(Omar Sy) and future versions of Xavier and Magneto. Halle Berry’s Storm , Shawn Ashmore’s Iceman and Anna Paquin’s Rogue suffer through blink-and-you-miss-it appearance.

“Days of Future Past” embraces specific historical moments sending Mystique off to Saigon to rescue a squad of mutants from Trask’s clutches and including a subplot suspecting Magneto’s role in the JFK assassination. Working from Simon Kinberg’s screenplay (very loosely adapted from an “X-Men” comicbook storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne), Singer’s moves are smooth and easily transient. Though not spectacular, the action has dash and style.

More importantly, there are some key character flaws, such as young Xavier's need to take a drug that removes his powers but gives him the ability to walk, which are barely developed. When he walks he loses his mutant ability of telepathy and while he endures his wheelchair bound existence, his powers come out in full flow. There isn’t much development happening other than in the form of dialogue. The explanations are all in words, not visuals. Xavier has knowledge of what ails Raven, Erik and himself, yet isn’t much into the rescue effort. If you can forget that there’s not much solidity in story, you could be rewarded by some fun entertainment. Great pacing, and some deftly executed sequences get the pulse rate going. Action is steady. The graphics animation and FX wizardry are not consistently up-to-the-mark though. As a result you feel entertained but not enthralled!

Johnsont307@gmail.com

Friday, January 31, 2014

12 years a slave, English Hollywood film movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * * *

English Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Agonizingly Real

Film: 12 years a Slave

Cast: Chiwitel Ejiafor, Michael Fassbender,Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Lupita Nyong’o

Director: Steve McQueen

Rating: * * * *

Steve McQueen directs from a script he co-wrote with John Ridley, based in part on Solomon Northup's memoir(true Story) about his life as a free man in the 1800’s , subsequent kidnap and enslaving and finally ending in his rescue by a Canadian abolitionist.

It’s a rare first hand account of a 19^th century memoir written by Solomon Northup, (who is the central character in the film), a free black man from upstate New York who got kidnapped on a lure and was subsequently sold off, under a false name, Platt, and papers attesting to the fact, for slave labor in Louisiana. It’s an account that even the most vilely depicted(in the memoir), Edwin Epps, couldn’t find fault with. The everyday drudgery and misery of enslaved plantation life have been depicted with raw hurtful intensity. The scenes depicting the torture of slaves are like a punch in the gut. It’s definitely not meant for the faint hearted.

British director Steve McQueen, born of West-Indian parents ensures that the audience feels the pain of his lead characters. Every whiplash leaves a raw, bloody and excruciatingly painful welt on your subconscious mind. Of course it’s not all torture and pain. McQueen sweeps his camera around the countryside capturing pastoral beauty replete with stunningly picturesque cloudy skies, old gnarled tress, cotton fields , Spanish moss and majestic homes. But the people inhabiting those homes and owning those lands are not as beautiful. They are the ones who inflict hurtful wounds on those enslaved.

The story begins from 1841 when Solomon Northup (British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor), a violin player living free in New York with his wife and children, gets tricked into a circus job in Washington, D.C., and then winds up as human chattel in the Deep South. The subsequent 12 years of inhumanity and courage forms the basis for this well-written and structured script which McQueen co-wrote with African-American John Ridley.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is absolutely mesmerizing as the enforced slave who stays alive on a thin thread of hope that he will eventually be re-united with his family. It’s a sublime performance that is certainly worthy of an Oscar. In fact, the film is littered with stunning performances- Lupita Nyong'o gives the tortured, raped and perennially abused slave-girl Patsey, heart-wrenching honesty, Paul Giamatti lends gruffness to his slave trader persona, Benedict Cummerbatch as Northup’s first master brings out the contradictions in his persona to vivid life, Paul Dano is nasty and conniving as plantation overseer John Tibeats and Michael Fassbender makes Edwin Epps look vile yet driven by psychological turmoil. Hans Zimmer’s masterful musical strokes ebb and flow as required of by the inhuman drama unleashed on screen. Production designer Adam Stockhausen, costume designer Patricia Norris and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt make the engagement visually authentic and the experience completely heart-felt.

This is a somber, hurtful almost poetic film that delivers the horrors of bondage with true grit!

Johnsont307@gmail.com