Your soul will never be quiet until you find this place (The Lost City of Z 2017)

103.

The Lost City of Z

7/10

The true story of the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who travels to the Amazon in the early 20th Century and discovers proof that there could have been once and advanced civilisation living in the area. Constantly shot down by her fellow scientists, who believe that the people are nothing but savages, he returns to the jungle he loves time and time again in order to fully prove his case, until his mysterious disappearance in 1925.

This film was the final of my 3 in a row in the cinema, alongside Life and then Power Rangers so I was a little tired, and uncomfy after the long sit down. This may have led to me being more critical but I was entertained all the same, even though I thought it was going to be constantly set in the jungle once he had travelled there and I love a good movie based on true events so here goes.

We start with learning a brief history of the man, as he has been a solider but with a tarnished name because of his fathers, unnamed exploits. Fawcett is a man who hates restrictions and society at the time because of the rules placed on himself and family at the time. He lives to explore and wanted to make a name for himself, his chance arises when he's offered a chance to discover a 'lost city' and he's soon on his way to Bolivia before finding his way into Amazonia. 

The scene is set where he meets up with some of his team, one being played by Robert Pattison, who he is wary of for people a drunk and following him around the train. Using the help from a native, he is lead down to a river which he intends to follow to its source believing that they will find the city that way due to it being an undocumented region. Once exploring a little further into the jungle off the bank, he discovers some pottery, which gives him the idea that something is indeed planted further into the jungle. One far more advanced than anything he ever found within a jungle. To be able to search more, he must plan a return journey with more funding and more resources. This isn't the first time that we shall return home to London before getting back into the jungle.
The next trip contains a lot more resources but also a man who wants to travel with him this time due to the funding he has offered. James Murray is apparently some what of an explorer himself but once he's thrust into the jungle, he soon comes apart as the liar that he is. Struggling to keep up, to adapt to his surrounds and doing nothing but moan, he soon puts the journey is jeopardy, which was actually really frustrating to watch. After making contact with a tribe, who first attacked them, they are accepted in for some food and to ask questions about further up the river. Whilst getting all this done, Murray is forever the pessimist and soon they discover he has wondered off, with Fawcett's box of belongings and food and scoffed the lot himself. This turns the men against him, Fawcett gives him a horse and tells him to find his way home on the directions he's given him but they fear they will never see him again. With all the food lost, not everything works out as expected so he heads home again. This time he is put infront of the geographical society and has to explain why there is a failure but also Murray is there and he's given his story telling them that he was left for dead by the group but managed to find his way home. Fawcett gives his account and refuses to apologise but instead claims that he will get back to the jungle without help, but for now is is delayed because he goes to fight in World War I. Whilst away he is injured and nearly looses his sight. We have already encountered the problems within his family as his oldest son, played by Tom Holland, loose respect for his father as he is never around to look after the family and is too obsessed with his exploration. Whilst lying in hospital, he asks for his son and this time they become close again after seeing his father injured in bed.
Many years pass before his next trip, but this time it's with his oldest son after making sure that his wife will be ok. They know that they will be gone for a long time this time and it's already been accepted, that's even if they make it back at all. He's funded by more than one construction this time and wonders deeper into the jungle that even before. Meeting two different trips, this time not friendly and a chase leads him to being caught by one tribe. The movie starts to end as they are lead away, hog tied to logs and into the darkness towards a lot of torches made from fire. The scene cuts to back home where a member of the society is handed his watch, from a much earlier scene where Fawcett is told to send that home if he manages to find the lost city. A lot of speculation is featured around watch actually happened. Some believe he was killed along with his son, some believe after finding it, he stayed living there because he had found his belonging after searching so hard.
The movie shows how the world is in two parts, one with its laws and restrictions and the other of mystery, opportunity and lure of promises that may or may not ever come true. Either way it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth after watching because either after all that he has been killed and led his child to the same place, or he has abandoned his wife and remaining kids in order to live free. The actual dialogue in the movie was pretty slow and if sped up, I doubt the running time would have been half as long. The film is beautifully shot though and it must have been some hard work to film in the locations that they did. It was a good watch but I think the story played it safe with the aspects that it did show. The story gave us emotions from all the central characters and all of the casting was well done for emotion didn't need to be shown through the dialogue.  

It's Morphin' Time (Power Rangers 2017)

102.

Power Rangers

 

6/10

So the remake has come around since the original in 1995 and the TV series in 93-99. Those were the only ones that existed to me, mighty morphin all the way. With Bryan Cranston as Zordon, Goldor being involved and now better abilities with CGI, I had a lot of faith in this film but unfortunately I was treated to a luke warm attempt to reprise a franchise. 

We are set a story back in time when a war on spills over onto Earth, rangers are scattered and dead whilst Cranston, the red ranger, is crawling to retrieve the yellow rangers's power coin and the green ranger Rita Repulsa stands over him asking him to join his force as she searches for the Zeo Crystal to take over the world. He refuses and a blast goes off, sending her and her coin flying into the ocean as the scene ends.

Present day and we are treated to a sign saying 'Angel Grove' so we already know we are at the home of the Power Rangers and I already know that I'm going to be typing the word 'Rangers' so much that I cannot wait to get to bed and forget about this write up. We are introduced to our first character Jason, who is pulling a prank on another team by stealing their mascot, leading to him getting arrested after suffering a pretty bad car accident on their escape. He's now under house arrest and must attend weekend detention. This is now where he meets the rest of the group, helping Billy with a school bully. Kim leaves the room for the toilet to meet her friends, who disown her because of past events and she then proceeds to cut Kim out of their friends picture. Once alone Kim gets the scissors and cuts her own hair.  We are already building up characters backgrounds for each member before they find their next path in their lives. After detention Billy thanks Jason and tells him that he can help him with his police tag if needed, but in exchange he needs a lift somewhere.
Turning up at some sort of quarry they walk up a hill with loads of equipment and Jason isn't too fussed with carrying on so leaves and bumps into Kim who's swimming in a lake. Meanwhile another student Zack is creeping on fellow student Trini as she's doing yoga. They discuss running away and starting a new life until an explosion, caused by Billy, makes all the characters run to the scene where part of the side of the hill has been exposed and the power gems are fossilised into the side of the rock. They rip them off the wall whilst alarms go off and the Jason and Billy run to their vehicle, turn around and head to pick up the others. Escape means beating a train to the crossing and attempting it fails, cause the van to over turn and then the gems start glowing.
We leave the grove for the next scene where Sam, Jason's father is fishing and has his men pull up a load of fish as the weather worsens, below deck, he discovers Rita's corpse amongst the fish. The kids meanwhile all wake up in their rooms, somehow unharmed but discover they have enhanced strength as Jason breaks off some sink and Kim crushes her phone. They still have their power stones with them and at school Billy's bully tries to beat him up but as he head butts him, he knocks himself out and everyone thinks Billy did it himself so cheer loudly. Once the gang meet up they discuss that they should go back up the mountain to find out what is actually happening to them. They bump into Zack already there doing the same and Trini is at the top of the wall, climbing to stay away from the others. They all club nearly vertical to follow here, she proceeds to take a massive jump over a crevice in order to get away. So far we are shown over a quick space of time the advances their bodies have made regarding strength and agility, as they all jump across and Billy nearly doesn't make it, climbing up, celebrating and then falling down to what the others think is certain death. Hearing laughing, he calls them to jump, which they all fancy even though Kim needs to drag Trini down. They land in water and swim down to find a ship with advanced technology. A small robot, Alpha-5 appears, played by Bill Hader. I was so used to the larger robot from the series that I didn't take to this small adaptation what so ever. He takes them to Zordon is in nice within the ship, on the morphing grid and looks like one of those kids toys, with all the little needles that take a mold of your face. They explain that because they found the coins, they have been chosen to be the next Power Rangers. The story of Rita being part of the team once and betrayal becomes a 10 minute part and ends with her motives and wanting to create Goldar. The team are asked to step on their grids and morph but it fails and Zordon decides they should start training even though he has no confidence in them. They all want to prove him wrong. Another cut scene back to Sam's boat and we see a cop checking out Rita's body, we find out that her coin has revived her to a degree and she kills the policeman.
Back at the cave and we see a usual part of a movie where the gang train, fails, try to morph, fail, then get back to failing at fight training again. They are then shown their Zords, which they can control in time, but aren't ready yet. Zack doesn't agree and takes his out, failing to control it and crashing back into the cave, Jason doesn't react well and starts a fight with Zack, Billy breaks it up and the gang are shocked to see that he has morphed. Problem is, he cant remember how to do it again. Apart from every viewer realising that its because of his passion of wanting them to work as a team. The Rangers set up a campfire and play out a scene that no one needed but tried to attract the audience by each one of them talking about their problems in life and sharing secrets. Between not being accepted by their family, family illness, the need for attention and family loss, it is all shared. It would have worked just as well with the next few sequences on their own. Rita is seen in a gold shop, devouring and adding it all to her staff, after earlier taking people gold teeth and jewellery off their bodies. The police tell her to stand down but she makes a puttie monster which kills him instead.
Kim goes over to Jason's house to reveal her secret as too why she was in detention and again I feel like its trying to reach out too much to wards the new generation of fans because it mentions explicit photos taken on phones and spreading them around for revenge. Down to this and keeping it from the team, she thinks its her fault that they can't morph.
Over to Trini's house and a now full healed Rita taunts her that she's killed rangers before. After seeing Elizabeth Banks in other films and television series, it was interesting to see her as a villain and it worked very well. Rita demands that Trini follows her orders and to lure the team down to the docks where she traps them all. Making Billy reveal where the Crystal is, she heads off to find it, dropping Billy into the water anyway, killing him. The four carry his body to the cave to see Zordon as Jason reveals how he feels he has failed his team for letting him die. The morphing grid has now activated ad this gives Zordan the chance to get back to his own body. His faces goes away but soon comes back and everyone is shocked to see that he isn't returning in the way he wanted. Instead, he's decided to bring Billy back, to the delight to the rangers and no the morphing can begin.
As soon as they step out of the cave we are straight into the action with more putties attacking the rangers and these ones are real. Outnumbered, they now jump in the Zords and now can control them, fighting their way into town to face a giant Goldar. The design on this was truly awful, made out of melted gold, it has now real face, personality and anything that made the original and actual feared monster. Jason's his father in trouble and goes to save him without revealing who he is. Goldar then pushes all of the Zords into a fiery pit whilst Rita is still trying to get to the crystal. The rise to show they have somehow worked out how to join their Zords together to make Mega-Zord. Using it to fight Goldar, Rita goes inside it to give the creature more power, but it is defeated by a giant sword and she falls out in the molten gold. Jason orders a surrender by its refused and she is slapped into outer space in what can only be described as a terrible ending to the fight, but then it actually got worse. The massive robot gives a dance for victory which everyone whips out their mobile phones to celebrate. Within the crowd, some of the old cast members of the rangers can be seen as a cool homage to the originals. The town recognises the Rangers as their saviours and Zordon gives a voice over expressing gratitude and that they will continue to protect the Earth and carry on the legacy of the Power Rangers. Shortly after the end credits the teacher in detention is calling Tommy Oliver, another character from the originals, but he is nowhere to be seen. This could be something to in involved with a sequel.
   Overall this movie wasn't what I expected it to be, it wasn't a complete failure but it wasn't far from it. It focused way too much on trying to touch the audience of youths now but adding life issues, technology problems involving controversy and not enough on the simple things. too much cheese with the dancing and even a tiny segment when first riding the Zords, it played the original music for a few seconds which actually made me cringe. The storyline moved way to fast at times and the rest of it was as predictable as you could have imagined. Having already mentioned the design on Goldar, I should mention how much I didn't like the new armour too. It felt really space like and not colourful enough, unlike the original costumes. The armour didn't show as much emphasis on which animal each colour was linked with either. Overall this wasn't a reason to rekindle my childhood memories and far from made me want to see what else was in store.

Stop calling that fucking thing Calvin, it is not your friend! (Life 2017)

 

 

101.

Life

 

 

 

7/10

The film to fill a void before Alien Covenant hits our screens.

6 astronauts aboard a space shift, recover a sample of life from Mars and proceed to examine it whilst on board. The experiment comes at huge costs, as the crew find out the hard way that this thing is a lot more intelligent that they first imagined. The crew were made of a few nationalities and personalities, between a comic relief, dry British scientist, serious Asian and the rest, there was a good mix to get involved with. We learn about each at the beginning between Ryan Reynolds jokes, the Asian character watching the birth of his child, Jake Gyllenhaal is a guy who has spent a long time in space and enjoys the loneliness. 
Our first encounter with the life form is in a small dish in the Quarantine zone of the ship and its shown to be a bacteria, offering different atmosphere to see if it would grow, they soon turned to stimulating it with a short and sharp electrical charge. Wrong choice. Over the time is starts growing, it also becomes more inquisitive towards the objects in it's case. The electrical rod for example, which it's had enough of and snaps in half. Each cell is discovered to be a muscle, brain and sensory organs all in one. By now the thing has grown to the size of a hand and has been named by an American school, for some reason, the kids have chosen Calvin. Hugh, our British scientist has his hands in the box again, and after snapping the rod in half, Calvin has now decided to take a liking to Hugh's hand which it's gripped like a strong hand shake. Slowly getting tighter and tighter as Hugh tries to escape, it ends up crushing his hand into jelly, in a painful 30 second watch and finally lets go with him passed out from the pain. It proceeds to grab the broken rod and pierce his way out of the glove holders and escape into the room. The other crew members decide what to do and Rory, the pilot played by Reynolds, gets into the room to retrieve Hugh but gets trapped as Calvin grabs his leg. We learn that each member has a firewall on their mission. Rory wants to destroy Calvin which is accepted by the Captain and he pulls out a beast of a flamethrower, dousing it al around the room causing Calvin to kick right off and throw itself for cover, anywhere that it can. Once the fuel runs out, it's the Alien's turn to fight back. It heads straight for Rory's mouth, finally silencing his smart mouthed comments, and caries on down his throat, eating him from the inside. The death is truly gory as the weightless environment causes the blood and guts to float around the lifeless body. As Calvin remerges from the body, it has now grown and the crew realise it needs to eat and they are the only organic matter around.
Calvin eerily doesn't make any sound and floats effortlessly around the ship, sometimes flying as fast as a bat o attack, and leaping from surface to surface to move around. It also holds the ability to squeeze through any gap as is shown when it escapes quarantine through a small vent and now effectively takes over the ship as the crew panics, wondering where it will show up next. The unknown is what keeps the film going. How will it be killed? How does it react to heat and cold? What does it actually want and need to survive. The astronauts mission is now beginning to change as now its not about heir survival or the space stations upkeep. They now have to make sure that Calvin never makes it to Earth. They have to sacrifice themselves for the sake of humankind. Calvin is now inside one of the tanks that is causing the ship to malfunction as it is drinking the fluid, so the Captain decided she must go out to release the alien from the tank and make it back inside safely. As soon as its opened, the usual jump scene commences as Calvin throws himself at her and wraps around her leg, slowly squeezing and searching for the oxygen tank on her suit to replenish it's body. Breaking into her suit, it fills her mask with water and she is slowly drowning in her small space, she realises her end is near and as the others try to save her, she locks the door instead to stop Calvin from getting back inside. Pushing herself away from the craft, she takes Calvin with her heading into deep space, but obviously it isn't that easy and at the last possible minute, the little squid like asshole, leap for the ship and gets a 10/10 for the landing.
Another crew member down and we are onto the next. Calvin sets out to re enter the ship through the thrusters, so naturally they decide to use the thrusters to launch Calvin into deep space by himself. Without thinking of the consequences, the try to do this but also knock themselves into an orbit which means they would be entering Earths atmosphere. The Japanese pilot Sho, knows they need to get back to a standard orbit but this would allow the alien back into the station. The crew decide to seal themselves in one module and vent the rest of the station from atmosphere in the hope of killing Calvin off. Now surely this wouldn't make sense for a storyline because the bastard had been coping fine outside the station when trying to find a way back in, attacking the captain and crawling around outside? Massive flaw! So as they are locking all the doors, we see Hugh stare at something floating towards him, but the camera plays the object and then the door slams shut. A little later and he drops into cardiac arrest and as the team revive him they see a little wiggle in his trouser leg, mind the sexual innuendo. Cutting it open, there is Calvin, feasting away on some British calf. Now I'm sure Hugh knew this, because his love for the alien crew whilst first investigating it. He just let him in, and sacrificed himself knowing they would all die anyway. Calvin releases and goes after the rest, Sho heading for the sleeping quarters, locks himself inside, as Calvin head butts the glass to try and get in and yes, Calvin has grown a head by this point, a very creepy one. Miranda, played by Rebecca Ferguson, and David notice that the alien has eaten one of the trackers off Hugh's suit so begin to follow his movements. Using Hugh's body and trail of blood they lure Calvin into another module and deprive it of oxygen, again with that flaw from earlier.
Having received an SOS call, Earth control have sent another spaceship, not for rescue, but a firewall and to nudge the station into deep space, only the remaining female knew this was coming and explains this to David. It joins onto where Calvin is trapped but not knowing the plan, Sho thinks this is a rescue attempt and pushes his way to the door. Once manually opening the door, the alien attacks but also a docking breach is caused, resulting in the detachment of the module and this then crashes through the rest of station. Overall the station has now got failing temperature and oxygen levels and the two remaining survivors realise that the collision has put them back into an orbit which will send them back to Earth. Aware that Calvin could survive re-entry, David remembers the two escape pods that can be used to get back to Earth, he plan is to lure Calvin into one and then do the usual, send it into deep space! He's willing to sacrifice himself whilst Miranda heads home. David leads the alien into his pod by using oxygen sticks because although Calvin could cope outside the station in space, the storyline now needs it to be that he needs oxygen to survive. They all launch and Miranda hits some debris and David struggles in a fight with Calvin to send himself into deep space. As we see the pods going on their courses, the Earth bound one slams into the water and two fishermen head over to help out. Its revealed, although you could see it coming, that David and the Alien have landed on Earth whilst Miranda heads on a lonesome journey through space. David now caught up on a web like structure tries to warn the men but the pod is opened just as others arrive and the film ends.
Overall this was a decent watch and although not too much of a horror, it was a sci-fi that I could watch again. The reason to kill of Reynold's character was right at the time because I don't think his type of humour could work throughout a film of this type. It does question how people would react if his finally did happen in real life. On total destruction in space, I wonder what would be in store if they did take this movie onto the next level with a sequel. We don't know if the shocking at the beginning made the alien hostile and the crew just carried on being their own downfall. The special effects were pretty awesome at times and the design of the alien was done well. Those wanting this type of film, look no further as there is plenty of tension. There are a lot of bad reviews regarding this movie but each to their own.