Never thought I would see one in real life (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2018)

193.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 

 

 

 

 

6.5/10

 

A sequel to the franchise that I'm not sure anyone asked for in the first place. If they asked for this one too, shame on them. Chris Pratt is thrust back at us, fresh from some Star Lord success and along with Bryce Dallas Howard, they bring a storyline that will either feel like any of the other Jurassic Park movies, or something completely different. By the looks of the trailer, it's going to be a new chapter in the franchise. This time, it looks like the islands are breaking apart and some dinosaurs are taken back to the mainland to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, along with them creating some newer hybrids for the hell of it. I was always a fan of the earlier movies and was a little excited when they decided to look into Jurassic World but this new creating side of it is starting to get too much.

 Quickly running through this story, it didn't really hold any surprises from what the trailer offered us. The movie is based around three years after the first Jurassic World. A team has landed to take some DNA from the Indominus Rex corpse and after narrowly making it out, the massive Mosasaurus makes it out into the open ocean. Back on the mainland, we are inside a courtroom where Ian Malcolm is discussing with the U.S. Senate as to whether the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar should be saved from an impending volcano eruption. He is in the reasoning that nature is correcting itself by killing them all after Hammond going against God's plans all those years ago. Meanwhile, Claire, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, has created a Dinosaur Protection Group with the plan to save all of the creatures from the island. After the Senate reject the rescue mission, Claire is contacted by Benjamin Lockwood, who was Hammond's partner back in the day of cloning. She heads off to meet him on his ranch, along with his aide, Eli Mills, played by Rafe Spall, who I've seen about in a number of movies. Straight away, you get a feeling about him, one that isn't good. In the background, we see a little girl scuttling about. There are always children in these movies. Lockwood and Mills want to relocate the dinosaurs onto a new island and want Claire to help. One thing they know though and that's about Blue. She will be hard to capture so Claire needs to recruit Owen once more. Owen, played by Pratt, instantly brings some humour to the movie and they discuss what happened with their relationship, instantly answering those questions for the audience.
Arriving at the island, they need to get to a bunker in order to reactivate the park's dino trackers. Once they find Blue, she is shot by the mercenaries, just before we think that Owen will calm her and then he is shot with a tranq. Zia, one of the assistants is set the task of keeping Blue alive, whilst Claire and a guy named Franklin are locked inside the bunker as the mercs all change side to bad. The Volcano starts ripping the place apart and a dinosaur attack leads to Claire and Franklin escaping before being reunited with Owen. As the hills fill with lava, ash hits the sky and the ground starts to shake, Owen puts Claire and Franklin inside a gyro-sphere from the first movie. As the dinosaurs run past to escape the lava, they are also running from predators and one sets his sights on Owen. That's until he is saved by the good old fashioned T-Rex bringing back our love of the first. One bad thing is that this scene was already ruined by putting it into the trailer. There are some things that should be left for the movie.

 The gyro-sphere ends up getting knocked off a cliff with jumping dinosaurs and Owen dives afterward to save the pair. Doing so, they all wash up on a beach and head back to the dock that they arrived on. They sneak aboard a ship, reuniting with Zia and seeing nothing but captured dinosaurs, as the ship leaves for the mainland. Looking back, they see the lava reaching the end of the dock and creating nothing but red smoke. A Brachiosaurus is seen in distress as the lava hits her and she ends up on two legs falling back into the smoke and out of sight. That was probably the hardest scene I've had to watch in a move in a long time! I love dinosaurs.

 
Back on the mainland and on Benjamin's ranch, his Granddaughter witnesses Mills planning and action for the dinosaurs along with an auctioneer named Gunnar Eversol, who's an ugly bastard. They have also created a new hybrid called the Indoraptor. Dr. Wu plans on using the DNA from Blue and the Indominus Rex to create an even better version. Maisie runs to tell her Grandfather but when he confronts Mills, he's easily murdered due to his ill health. Mills then covers this up by acting as if the illness had finally gotten the best of him. Owen and Claire are discovered in the mansion and locked inside a cell in the basement. Zia and Franklin have evaded capture and as the auction begins, Owen and Clair escape, using a dinosaur and find Maisie, who shows them how to get to the auction. Owen opens a cage and sends it into the auction room, causing carnage and a lot of running. The Endorapter is shot dead and the lead merc heads into the cage to get a tooth as a trophy. We know this isn't going to end well, we haven't seen this dinosaur open the bedroom door and attack Maisie yet. We saw this in the trailer. The dino is playing dead, wakes up and kills the merc and the auctioneer.

On the run for Owen and Claire, Mills reveals that Maisie is actually a clone. She was created by Hammond for Lockwood when he lost his daughter. This was why the old friends ended their friendship. Lockwood was against human cloning. I didn't want this kind of film. I wanted dinosaurs, not human clones! As the Indoraptor is hunting throughout the mansion, they are saved in the bedroom scene by Blue, who was freed by Zia and Franklin. They head up onto the roof, where the Indoraptor is too heavy for the glass and falls through, impaling itself on a Triceratops skull.

 It's not coming back this time. The unsold dinosaurs are stuck downstairs in their cells as a poisonous gas is killing them. They are all freed by Maisie, who opens the cages and garage doors, releasing them on the world, against what Owen wants. Mills is on the escape with the Indominous DNA but is eaten by the T-Rex and Carnotaurus. The movie ends with a new Senate hearing, as Ian Malcolm explains the humans must now learn to co-exist with dinosaurs. There is even an after credits to the movie as we see some Pteranodons land on the fake Eiffel Tower in Vegas. Here we go!
  I'm not too sure what to say about this movie. We've come to know Pratt and Dallas Howard in this franchise now but even with the chemistry and humour that both could bring, it is often forgotten when you think of the turn the storyline is taking. I'm all for dinosaur storylines and bringing them back onto our screen but they may have gone as far as possible now. They have made it to the mainland, once again but this time it could be absolute carnage if we get a third. One thing I think they should look at is setting the next many years in the future, give the dinosaurs a chance to settle in and not just a few years. Get some new blood onto the screen and give us something a little fresher. The way that Owen and Blue looked at each other at the end of the movie reminded me of Rise of the Planet of the Apes with James Franco and Caesar. I swear to God, if Blue ends up talking by the next movie, I'm done with the franchise. The graphics looked great and so did the setting, for the first half of the movie anyway. I didn't like the second half of the movie at all, it was ruined by the storyline and it wasn't for me. It didn't seem fresh and was very recycled. If they carry on with this franchise, they need to stick to what they know best and what always draws a great reaction from the audience. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

You...will never be...a God! (Avengers: Infinity War 2018)

192.

Avengers: Infinity War 

 

 

 

 

10/10

 

 

The film that every Marvel fan, a fan of the MCU and nearly anyone who is a fan of comics, have been waiting for. 10 years on from Iron Man and we have hit something that is going to change the landscape for the future. After all those movies, after credits scenes, theories about what is going to happen, we have come down to this. This is going to be a movie that we know will be in two parts, with this one containing a death or maybe deaths of some major characters. Treating myself to watching this in Odeon IMax, I couldn't wait to sit down and watch this, probably more than once. Every character we have come to know, including a few more, will come together in what promises to be an epic movie. Let's not hope it feels like this movie goes on for an infinite amount of minutes.

The movie begins with how it finished at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. Thanos and his children have boarding Thor's ship, killed nearly everyone and set their sights on one thing. Hulk puts up a bit of a fight but is completely out-shone by Thanos. They know Loki has the Space stone, which was inside the Tesseract. They get to Loki by hurting Thor, who is held down. Once Loki hands over the stone, to which would be Thanos' second stone after smashing up Xander and the Power stone, seen in the first Guardians movie, Loki begs for Thor's life. Thanos knows that betrayal is coming and snaps Loki's neck before he can be stabbed himself and we instantly have our first death of a decent sized character. Heimdall quickly uses the bifrost to send the Hulk back to Earth before being killed himself. Thanos and the crew leave, leaving the ship to destroy itself with all of the damage.

 

Back on Earth, Hulk lands in the Sanctum looked after by Dr Strange, before reverting back to Bruce Banner, uttering Thanos' name and his arrival. Here come the official opening credits and then we head to Tony Stark and Pepper, before Strange opens a portal and summons Tony to follow him to the Sanctum, where he briefs him and reintroduces him to Bruce. Obviously Banner was away for Civil War so has no idea that the Avengers have disbanded. They realise that they need to protect vision, seeing as he has a stone in his forehead. That means getting in touch with Steve Rodgers, who has gone off the grid with a few others. Just then, there seems a slight earthquake but it's really two of Thanos' children hovering a spacecraft nearby. Looking for the Time stone, which is around Strange's neck, they take him, after his refusal and a couple of quick-witted responses. Banner isn't much help. Hulk refuses to show face after being beaten to a pulp the last time he came across the whole gang. From inside a school bus, on a bridge nearby, we see Peter Parker have a little spidey-sense and instantly turn to see the spaceship. Que the Stan Lee cameo, who is the driver of the bus, as Peter heads out as Spiderman and sets his target for the ship. After they set off with Strange, Spiderman jumps aboard and Iron man follows suit. Just as Peter is running out of air, Tony radios back for the Iron Spider outfit to be sent up, instantly attaching itself to Peter. Iron Man cuts himself inside the ship and tells Spiderman's suit to deploy his parachute, taking him back to Earth. This doesn't work though, as Peter clings on and sneaks inside the closing doors of the ship.

 

Back in space and the music instantly figures that we are about to have the Guardians of the Galaxy on our screen. They are responding to an emergency beacon, sent out by Thor's ship. After picking him up, he revives himself and guesses that Thanos will be after the reality stone, which is in the possession of the Collector. Firstly he must get a new weapon after his hammer has been destroyed. He orders the rest of the crew to head to Knowhere and find the Collector. Thor takes Rocket and Groot with him and heads out.

This leads us to Edinburgh, where this gang is hiding out and after my excitement of seeing a street that I've actually had a beer on, two of Thanos's kids set upon Maximoff and Vision, who have snuck away for a date. They are saved by the unveiling of Steve Rodgers and his new beard, along with Black Widow and Falcon. Right then we get a flashback. A flashback of a young Gamora and who she met Thanos. He was on her home planet and killed half of the population. She kept her mind at ease and away from the killing, finally taking her aboard his ship and away from her life. Once the 'Morons', named by Thor and Rocket, arrive at Knowhere. They are ambushed by Thanos, who sets a trap and knows they would arrive. He already has the stone, creating a fake reality as a trap and now he takes Gamora. He dismantles both Mantis and Drax. She has already asked Quill to kill her if she ever got captured. This moment comes but he freezes and Thanos takes her. His main intention is to take her because she knows the location of the Soul stone. As he's left, Drax and Mantis come back to life, thankfully not adding to the death toll.

 Back to Cap and the gang and they head straight to an Avengers Facility in New York and meet up with Rhodes, who is ordered to arrest them. He obviously refuses, who now has some new legs and Vision needs Maximoff to destroy the stone in his head. She's the only one powerful enough to do so but refuses because of their weird and un-needed love story. Instead, they head to a place that may be the only refuge for them, Wakanda. Before they arrive, we have a scene where Bucky, the Winter Soldier is handed a new arm. The movie is switching back and fore quite a bit but it's really working. The story is linking together really well.

Iron Man and Spiderman head to rescue Strange from Maw's torture and do this by creating a hole in the side of the ship and Maw being sucked out into space. He was such a good villain. On deciding what to do next, Strange votes retreat, to protect the stone but Stark votes to take the fight to Thanos and away from Earth.

 Within all this time, Thor and the 'boys' have made it to where the weapons get made and there is one dwarf left after making Thanos' gauntlet. It's Peter Dinkladge, who is playing a  giant dwarf. Thor restarts the star and has a giant axe created for himself, which needs a handle. Groot breaks off his arm and uses it for the axe, bringing back a weakened Thor to full strength, if not more. It even gives him the power of the bifrost. Rocket even gave Thor a false eye for his troubles. A quick seen back at Thanos' prison and we see Nebula escaping and sending out a message to Mantis to meet her on Titan. Back to Iron Man's trio and they get to Titan, Thanos' home planet and crash land before having their ship broken into by the 'Morons' of the Galaxy. Quill, Drax, Mantis, Spidey and Iron Man are holding each other to gunpoint, until they reveal who they really are and that they all know Thor. They all make a plan to defeat the Titan and removing the Infinity Gauntlet from his hand. In the background, we can see Strange looking into the future, at all options on how to win and after millions, he only sees one.

 

Thanos and Gamora have made it to where the stone is. She reveals the location after torturing Nebula in front of her sister. There, the guardian of the stone is the freeking Red Skull from the first Cap moving. He reveals that getting the stone comes at a heavy price, sacrificing something that he loves. Gamora finds this funny as Thanos starts crying. His tears aren't because he doesn't love anything though, it's because he knows he loves Gamora and throws her off the cliff, killing her. Death toll rising, he retrieves the stone and we cut off there. I almost choked up watching that scene.

At Wakanda, Shuri is trying to surgically remove the stone from Visions purple forehead. Thanos' army has also arrived outside the force field. They instantly begin attacking, willing to kill themselves to bring down the power of the city's shield. What's left of the Avengers, along with Black Panther and his army, open the shields and begin the fight. One of Thanos' kids has made it upstairs to begin a fight with Vision, who still has the stone attached. On Titan, everyone is fighting with Thanos, even Nebula. Before this, he reveals about his home planet, how there were too many mouths to feed so needed to half the population to survive. He carried this onto other worlds and then finally wanting it for the Universe. . Finally, they bring him to their knees, with everyone holding him down, Mantis putting him into a trance and they try to rip they gauntlet from his hand. Whilst in a trance, Thanos keeps uttering Gamora's name after Quill asks about her and Mantis reveals that his thoughts are of mourning. This makes Quill question Gamora's location before Nebula realises he has the Soul stone and knowing what that means, reveals that she is dead. Quill completely loses his shit and attacks Thanos, who breaks out of the trance, takes back the Gauntlet.

 The gang is starting to become overwhelmed, just as Thor, Rocket and Groot arrive in an absolutely assume and probably my favourite scene from the movie. Kicking ass and taking names. Then we have a scene with just the female fighters battling everyone because, you know, girl power and everyone will protest on the streets if it didn't happen. Thanos brings a planet down on the gang before he stabs Iron Man. Strange, acting like a broken man, asks Thanos to spare Stark if he gives him the Stone that he is guarding. Taking it and disappearing, the gang is left alone to question their choices. Stupid Quill. Does Strange know that this was the only way though? After seeing all those futures, maybe this was the only choice after all.

 

 Only one person is left to arrive. Thanos. He does and Vision instantly demands Maximoff to crack on, destroying his head. She does so through tears and with the other hand, holds back Thanos. Powerful bitch. He has already made light work of everyone else. Once the stone and Vision are destroyed, he holds Maximoff and feels sorry for her. Now that he has the Time stone, he turns time back, reviving Vision and picking the stone from his head like someone picking a grape from a bunch of them. His head caves in and Vision is no more. Love it. I hated Vision and Paul Bettany's voice for that matter. Thor then attacks, leading his axe called Stormbreaker, straight into the chest of Thanos, who utters the chilling words,' You should've gone for the head'. He snaps his fingers before teleporting away. On a faraway world, he finds a young Gamora who asks him if 'it's done' and 'what did it cost', to which he replies, 'everything'. Back to Thor and his face is one of distress. Thanos' gauntlet is now battered from all the effort.

The goal of cancelling out half of the universe begins. People begin to turn to dust. This goes for Panther, Bucky, Quill, Drax, Falcon, Mantis and Maximoff. Out of all of them, they are still beaten by the death of Spiderman, who shows his youth and character by announcing to Tony how scared he is. Yet another scene where anyone can choke up! Thanos is seen fully healed and sitting on a green planet, that could easily still be Earth and up the Brecon Beacons. Looking chuffed that he has finished his mission.

 

Obviously, there are going to be post-credits scenes. This one takes us back to Earth and everyone turning to dust. We catch up with my other hated person and not a character but the actor. Nick Fury, played by Sam Jackson, is seen feeling a little weird, taking out his pager before turning to dust. The camera zooms in and we see the pager revealing Captain Marvel's symbol. Done.

WOW. Where do I even start with this? Even I say I'll start small and discuss the musical score, it'll still wouldn't be just a minor part. The music used for such parts as Gamora's death, Thor's entrance and watching Thanos kick ass was exceptional. Then there was the lack of music as people were turning to dust, which gave everything an eerie feel. Watching the moment back where Peter Parker died was a hard one to take. The lack of musical score made it. As for the cast, every single person shone and apart from my dislike of the character Vision and Paul Bettany anyway, you couldn't really pick up a flaw. Josh Brolin as Thanos was CGI but that voice and those quotes will echo through the MCU for a long time. The look of the movie, the effects, the fights scenes, everything was so crisp and enjoyable that you will find something new to enjoy every time you re-watch it. The main part, that most would be scared off, was would there be too much to take in, too much storyline and too many characters for one screen? The answer to that would be simply no. It worked so well, in every aspect and wasn't too crowded. The storyline flowed like any other great movie and although it doesn't make you think too much, there were some really clever aspects that I didn't see coming. One would be Thanos knowing the time stone would be important in order to collect the final one. I may not have written the review in the correct order of the movie but you'll just have to watch it. I have to agree with one bad thing though... maybe this big purple guy does have a point. He is looking to save lives, just not in the right kind of way. But still, the guy or Titan, gets results when he does it himself! Just like Marvel.

 

 

 

 

No man is a failure who has friends (Ready Player One 2018)

191.

Ready Player One

 

 

 

9/10

 

A movie that I had been waiting for since I seen the first trailer a while before. It had been years since I had been looking forward to a Steven Spielberg as much as I was going to do with this movie. I didn't know if he would have another crowd-pleaser in him, but I had high hopes for this one. The trailer consisted of so many throwbacks from my youth that I couldn't help but be ready. The movie is based on a book by Ernest Cline with the same name. The movie seems to be a mixture of CGI and live action, which has worked well in the past but also has some bad attempts under the belt. With what's on offer here, I can only expect some sort of success.
The storyline revolves around a boy living with his Aunt in a poor part of town and the world has become desperate. The only way that they can escape real life is in the Oasis, a virtual reality world where anyone can be anyone and do what they want, to a limit. This comes into threat when the creator, James Halliday dies, 5 years earlier than our story is set and he creates a game within the Oasis, for its players to find keys, leading to the final Easter Egg. The one who finds this egg will gin the shares to the company, own the Oasis and all that comes with it. Tye Sheridan is playing Wade Watts, a boy named so because his father enjoyed the same kind of names as a superhero's alias. His avatar inside the Oasis is called Parzival and as he gives us a little tour, Wade carries on with some narrative, letting us know that the full on egg hunter, or Gunters, have been trying for years.

 A company called IOI are also on the look, employing hundreds and exploiting people in debt, to make them play the games for IOI. They want control of Oasis to make it more commercial and more revenue for themselves. The first challenge was unlocked a year ago, a race, which features many famous vehicles and obstacles such as King Kong and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Which is extremely cool to watch and seeing the BIgfoot monster truck from a game years ago gave me goosebumps. Towards the end, Parzival looks certain to win, until he realises that no-one gets past Kong. At that moment, he sees a well-known player named Art3mis, played by Olivia Cooke, who he stops from making the final jump, saving her from the clutches of the massive gorilla, but not saving her bike.

Parzival's friend, in game, is named Aech, who invites the two back to his garage to fix the bike. Showing some of his builds in the meantime, such as some speeders from Star Wars and the Iron Giant. Aech is able to see that Wade likes this female. Due to her being of high stature in the game and a reel against IOI but also the fact that her character is an attractive alien. He fixes the bike and she leaves, just as Wade can hear his aunt calling, meaning he would have to log out too. He gets back home to the stacks, which are a bunch of caravans on top of each other, as far as the eye can see. His Aunt's partner attacks Wade because Wade stole the gloves to play from his Aunt. This leads to Rick, admitting that he had spent most of their savings inside the game and the Aunt threatening to kick Wade out if he touches her stuff again.
The main guy in charge at IOI is Nolan Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn, who has recently seemed to be everywhere as a villain, including Rogue One. He is the one desperate to find the egg and get the fortune, along with the chances that come with the Oasis. Back inside the Oasis, Wade visits Halliday's Journals, which is like a library but contains Halliday's memories. He speaks to the robot host, the curator, who guides Wade through the memories, most of which Wade knows word for word. It is a launch party, where Halliday and his partner, who created the Oasis with him, are discussing the future and Morrow, the partner, wants to leave the company. Morrow is played by Simon Pegg and Wade listens intently as Halliday repeats that it would be 'going backwards', which Wade suddenly wakes up to, thinking it's a clue for the first challenge. He then returns to the race, decides to stay at the start and then reverse, opening up a new pathway, which goes underneath all of the obstacles and takes him to the finish line. He meets Anorak, who presents him with a copper key and Parzival finally makes the scoreboard, which Sorrento takes instant notice of. Sorrento enters the Oasis in his own avatar, the evil Superman and meets with a bounty hunter called I-R0k, who is a big badass, skull as a torso and then he speaks. Being played by T.J. Miller, it adds to the humour of this storyline. He presents Sorrento with the Orb of Osuvox, which he can use to lock down the Oasis and is also sent on a mission to find out who Parzival is.
With his winnings from the first challenge, Wade goes shopping in the Oasis, picking out a special suit to wear whilst gaming, which allows him to feel everything that goes on inside the game. He has also been elevated into a sort of celebrity within the Oasis. He helps Aech and Art3mis finish the race and they are followed by the members of their gang named Daito and Sho. The claim the top 5 places, being named 'The High Five'. The next clue revolves around a creator who hates his own creation and a leap not taken. Wade and Art3mis return to the Journals, whilst Wade is wearing a disguise to make him look like Clark Kent so that he isn't pestered. This memory shows Sorrento as a bumbling assistant to the two creators. Halliday and Morrow are talking about a date that Halliday had been on recently. It was with a lady named Kira, actual name Karen Underwood, the woman who later became Morrow's wife. Wade believes that this could be the reason that the partnership drifted apart. Wade also notices that no other memories have any mentions of Kira. He even makes a bet with the Curator that this is true, which he wins and the Curator gives him a quarter as winnings. Art3mis ends the day by asking Wade if he wants to go to a nightclub. Before he goes, he heads over to Aech's place to try on a couple of outfits. Aech warns him that it could be anyone playing as Art3mis, even a 40-year-old man. I can imagine it won't be, but that is a very true statement.
Meeting at the club called The Distracted, which Wade has become with this date, the two dance together and he instantly finds himself falling for this girl. She reveals that her avatar has a mark on her face, linking to a deformity in real-life. He suggests that they tell each other their real names, which isn't a good thing in the Oasis and I-R0k is there to overhear him. Moments later, Sorrento has been informed and sends in a SWAT team of Sixers to attack the two avatars. Wade uses a Rubix cube, which turns back time a minute and the two manage to escape. It doesn't end well as Art3mis turns on him, mainly because he got them into trouble as she is only focused on taking down IOI because they are the reason that her father is dead.

Sorrento projects a message into Wade's headset, to offer a meeting. Accepting, Wade is the projected into Sorrento's office, where he is offered 50 million dollars to join IOI and help them. Wade notices a password written on the arm of Sorrento's rig and after outright refusing, Sorrento reveals that he knows where Wade lives and is about to blow it up with drones. We have already seen that Wade doesn't play at home and he instantly disconnects to run home and warn his Aunt. Trying to call her, the boyfriend answers, who has stolen the new suit and tells him never to call again. The drones then blow the bombs that they have planted and the stacks begin to crumble. As he is walking through we see a man with a face tattoo eyeing him up. He runs back to his trailer to warns his friends but is captured by the tattooed guy.

He wakes up face-to-face with Samantha, the girl behind Art3mis. She doesn't exactly have a deformity that she was complaining about. It's a birthmark on he cheek. Jesus wept. Grow up girl. She's pretty attractive too. Nothing to worry about there. She and a few others have started a rebellion, not too far from the stacks but with the IOI building in sight. They have a chat and almost kiss, that's until she has a brainwave and realises that the leap not taken would have been referring to Halliday's regret from not kissing Kira on their date. They gather the rest of the Avatar gang and head to the date that was. They watching The Shining, which would link to the creator hating his own creation, with Stephen King not a massive fan of the movie. The Curator is present and sends them all into a simulation of the Overlook hotel from the movie. Since Aech has never seen the movie or read the book, he encounters the twin sisters and the elevator of blood. He is even the one who runs into the creepy woman in the bathtub, before having to outrun Jack with the axe. Elsewhere, Samantha is able to find Kira in the dancehall, dancing with the zombies and looking stressed. She makes her way to here, leaping from zombie to zombie, as there is no floor and they are all floating, she dances with her and wins the challenge, being presented with another key. The others follow suit and this is where Sorrento realises that Wade is actually still alive. The Sixers are pictured having an awful time at trying to get passed The Shining. There is so much to this movie and I'm loving it.
F'Nale, who is Sorrento's assistant, uses a drone to find the tattooed guy and then finding the hideout of the rebellion. They instantly storm and although Sam is taken, Wade makes it out, before being picked up by a gang in a van. A girl runs over to him, who turns out to be Aech! And after that chat he gave Wade about Art3mis. The rest of the gang are rounded up too, with Daito and Sho in the back. They all head to rescue Samantha and stop Sorrento once and for all.
The final challenge is on Planet Doom, in Castle Anorak and Sorrento has already used that orb from earlier to create a massive force field over the castle, preventing anyone else from trying the final quest. He also has Sam thrown into a loyalty centre to work back her father's debt, in which she will be planting explosives around the castle. She manages to escape her pod, track down Sorrento's rig so that the gang can hack it and make him think that they have taken over the IOI, by projecting a view of his office, into the Oasis. Sam then moves on to the war room, where gangs of people are playing as Sixers. The final challenge is based around Atari games, with no-one knowing which one to choose. Back outside the force field, Wade sends a message to the whole of the Oasis, telling them what IOI are doing and asking for their help to defeat them. Thousands arrive, throwing in all sorts of characters, whilst Aech has also woken the Iron Giant! It's really cool to see everyone and their fighting styles.

Sorrento has come down to hold them off and his character is riding the Mecha-Godzilla. They all join forces to take him down, allowing Wade to move on, into the castle. Wade realises that he must sacrifice Samantha because she has been spotted as a Sixer betraying inside the game. He shoots her point-blank so that she gets replaced in the real world. This means Sorrento doesn't catch up to her. Wade finds a Sixer playing Adventure, which holds the final key. This guy gets closer than anyone else, before failing and falling beneath a blanket of ice. Just as Wade is about to play, Sorrento is back for one last fight, he even pulls out a bomb, capable of killing all the Avatars, which he sets off, even killing himself and I-R0k. One thing he didn't expect though, was for Wade to survive. It turns out that the coin The Curator gave Wade earlier was actually an extra life token. He picks up the controller and begins to complete the game, knowing that it isn't meant to be completed in a conventional way, but instead to find the first even Easter egg, hidden inside the game. He retrieves the crystal key and a door appears to enter all three keys. Because he is still playing in the back of Aech's van, the IOI have tracked them down and begin to ram them off the road, making it hard for Wade to be on target with the locks. Everyone across the world is watching him attempt this, all in anticipation. Finally succeeding, he is greeted by Anorak, who offers Parzival a contract to take over the Oasis. Wade realises that this is another test, linking to when Halliday made Morrow sign over his share, which Halliday had always regretted. The chamber of gold they stand in soon disappears and they arrive at Halliday's bedroom. He presents Wade with the Golden Egg, once he finds it and also shows him a big red button which can shut down the Oasis if he chooses. He even nearly hits it by accident because of the car chase still carrying on. Aech sends the van to the stacks, where groups of people are ready to face Sorrento for his actions. They have all seen a video that Aech has uploaded, wit Sorrento confessing to all of his crimes. He and F'Nale are arrested and the team is then approached by Morrow, who reveals that he was The Curator all along. With a team of lawyers, he helps Wade gain control of the Oasis and shares out control with his friends.
Wade's final moments of the film reveal that they all control the Oasis with ease and have forced IOI to remove all loyalty centres. They have also cut two days out of the Oasis so that people can continue to live their real lives. The film finally ends, showing that Wade and Sam have moved in together, with a place that he can finally call home.
This film was a cut above for me. There was so much nostalgia, so much fun and I want this future, so a degree. I'm halfway through the book and so far, there is a little extra that wasn't in the movie but that is only natural. The storyline came across as pretty original for me and although there was an unneeded love interest, the rest was pretty clever. Being a kind of gamer myself, knowing all about Easter eggs and how clever the hidden ideas of this film were, this may have gone over some of the heads of the audience. Between everything being linked with old films, games and music, there was clearly something for everyone to an extent. Apparently, Spielberg took out quite a bit that was linked to him movies in the books, maybe because he felt it was a little too much if he was in charge of this movie. The cast worked well, each who had a different side to them whilst online. When it came to Ben Mendelsohn, he's easily playing the part of the villain in his recent movies and this was no change, I'm enjoying his roles. The CGI throughout this movie had a certain look to it, one that immersed its audiences and one that would have made certain references relevant a lot more than if you were to read a book. Compared to how it portrayed the real-life moments, which were dark and gritty, the online game was as colourful as anything else. Also, the music that comes along with it, mostly power ballads, add to every single emotions I felt. The movie was a blast from beginning to end, with a hidden meaning of not forgetting to go out and enjoy life rather than constantly being stuck with technology. The film was completely charming by the end and looked amazing throughout, with the final battle being one of great spectacle. I cannot wait to watch this movie again!
 

 



But I ain't my father! (Pacific Rim: Uprising 2018)

190.

Pacific Rim: Uprising

 

 

 

 

4/10

 

 

I'm not too sure about this one. Was the first one really good enough to bring a sequel to our screens? The first was ok, I mean it had a bit of a storyline to it and had some decent cast members but with Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba not returning for this one, will it be able to have anything to give us in terms of enjoyment. Fresh of the back of some Star Wars fame, John Boyega is ready to step up for the plate and play the son of Elba's character. He'll be alongside Clint Eastwood's son Scott, who hasn't exactly hit the heights of his old man yet. A couple of characters are back from the first though and those would be, Burn Gorman and Charlie Day's eccentric scientists and Rinko Kikuchi is back as Mako Muri, Hunnam's love interest from the first. So, let's get down to it and find out whether this will cause any sort of drift.

The story actually takes place 10 years after the previous movie and Jake, played by Boyega, sees himself as nothing like his dad. He actually deals in parts of Jaeger's in exchange for goods. He's a jaeger cadet drop-out. If any other storyline ever was something to go by, I'm predicting right here, right now, that he will end up going back to the training and saving the day against what anyone around him predicts. We see Jake in a spot of bother after a deal goes wrong and he is held at gunpoint by a bunch of thugs. They want him to find a really rare core in the jaeger scrap yard. He finds the core is missing, traps the thugs and chasing down the other thief. Trapper them, he finds out that it is an orphan girl. Amara boards a jaeger that she has pieced together and as authorities arrive, she escapes in Scrapper, with Jake following close behind. Jake boards Scrapper with her and tells her to disable the Defence Corp jaeger with one of Scrapper's batteries, which works for a little while but they still end up getting caught anyway. At their cell, in steps Mako Mori who offers Jake to either have jail time or train some new cadets. We can see from their chemistry that they have met before and it even looks like she has helped him out of a tough spot once too many times. He obviously takes the training job, reluctantly though, with Amara becoming a cadet too.

The two are sent to the training camp in Hong Kong, where Jake meets up with his old co-pilot Nate, played by Eastwood. These now have a very strained relationship, one I'm sure will be patched up by the end. Amara learns that Jake is the son of a famous pilot. She is a massive nerd when it comes to Jaegers and their pilots. Jake also meets a soldier called Jules, who is quickly thrust into the love interest for the movie. Nate takes Amara to meet the other cadets who will be going through the same training. One, named Viktoria, will be playing the role of the arsehole cadet, who will be giving Amara a hard time. She isn't happy that Amara got into the programme so easy. The cadets' first step if to try a drift. As suspected Amara doesn't do too well and is instantly discouraged. As for Jake and Nate, they have a chat and decide to stay out of each other's way, but it isn't revealed right now as to why they had the falling out. The training complex is visited by reps from a corporation called Shao. The CEO named Liwan and her Head of Research Newt, who is played by Charlie Day, plans to deploy a load of Jaeger drones around the world, which is viewed as a threat by the PPDC, Mako's defence team. Newt reunites with his scientist partner Hermann, who brings him to the research lab to have a look at some Kaiju blood. This may help with creating the drones but Hermann is more concerned about nightmares he has been having since they drifted with the Kaiju brain in the first movie. Newt suddenly leaves to see his boss, who tells him to stay away from Hermann so that she doesn't need to question his own loyalty. Make doesn't fancy this drone programme one bit and tells Jake that they could be hacked, causing disaster. She has arranged for Jake to co-pilot the Gypsy Avenger at a meeting in Sydney coming up. Co-piloting with Nate, they are at the meeting as a rogue Jaeger emerges from the harbour and starts blowing shit up. The two men operate to fight back and in all the action, Make is trying to escape in a helicopter, which is then shot down and although Gispy tries to catch the chopper, they only just miss, in slow motion. Obsidian, the bad Jaeger, retreats back to the water and out of sight.

 

Back at the PPDC building, Jake returns to mourn the loss of Mako and meets with Amara. In order to take his mind of things and help Amara, he offers to drift with her, but this means seeing her memories and where she came from. Her family was killed in front of her on a boardwalk and Jake tells her that she needs to stop holding onto that memory in order to advance. Back at the Shao headquarters, the team is celebrating the vote on the drones as a success after the attack in Sydney. Was this staged in order for them to win this authorization? Newt heads home to his partner Alice, who he'd earlier told Hermann he was seeing. This turns out to be the Kaiju brain for the first movie. Jesus wept! And he's been drifting with it ever since. Back at the PPDC, Amara and Vik get into another fight, with Amara overpowering her rival this time around. This is broken up by Nate before someone runs in to tell him that they have finally found a message sent by Mako before she died. It's a location in Zemlya, where the Jaeger that attacked them could be operated from. Jake and Nate once again team up and this time defeat the Jaeger, finding out that it is actually being operated by a Jaeger's brain. They take the unit back to the base and Amara, along with the other cadets, sneaks into the Obsidian Fury and find labels tracking it back to the Shao Corporation. She cuts into one of the tubes, it leaks acid which burns another cadet and after an investigation, she gets kicked out of the programme. Now is the time to guess that she will soon be back to help save the day anyway. As she leaves, Jake tells her not to let others bring her down and the other cadets express their remorse, even Vik, who tells her to build her next Jaeger higher. There's one cliché from a movie ticked off.
All of the drones are set to be deployed around the world, with PPDC one of the locations and as they are set on go, they are quickly corrupted by the Kaiju brains, attacking the base and destroying almost all of the Jaegers. Hermann heads to find Newt to stop all of this but he quickly realises that he has been planning this all along, not the Shao Corporation. He sets them up to all open breaches around the world in order to let Kaiju through to Earth. Liwen manages to act fast and close the breaches after shutting down the drones, but 3 bad boys have made it through. Newt has well and truly been turned by the Kaiju creators called the Precursors. The three massive Kaiju are making their way to Japan.
In the lab, Hermann and his gang have decided that the Kaiju are heading to Mount Fuji because it holds rare elements. Mixed with Kaiju blood, this can cause massive reactions and activate all volcanoes, destroying humanity and releasing more Kaiju. The PPDC instantly springs into action, bringing in people to repair the damaged Jaegers and getting their cadets set for battle. Where's Amara when you need her. Jake and Nate line up the rest of the cadets, ready for Jake to give a
speech like his old man used to deliver.

They are all ready for battle and as anyone could have guessed Amara is back in the line-up, joining with Vik and another cadet on board a Jaeger. The head off with their new thrusters that Hermann has created and they are on their way to Japan. The Kaiju are already attacking the city and as the Jaeger arrives, we see Newt sitting pretty on top of a skyscraper, using his tech to merge these three monsters into one massive mega-Kaiju, if that is even a word. This is beyond cringe-worthy now.

 This one causes crazy carnage, dealing out some casualties within the Jaeger team. It overpowers them all and heads for Mount Fuji. Nate is badly injured, ejecting himself to leave room for Amara to join Jake as a co-pilot. Liwen even joins the gang, riding Scrapper and using its last rocket to help Gipsy head towards Mount Fuji. The massive Kaiju moves closer and closer to its target and the only way to stop it is a suicide mission, driving Gypsy straight into it. Once they are high enough in the sky, they send themselves hurtling straight down, only for Jake and Amara to struggle in freeing themselves. Scrapper is here to save the day though, just as Gypsy finally crash lands into the monster, sending it rolling down the mountain and to its death. Newt tries to start his Plan B but is knocked out by Nate. Jake and Amara have also landed safely and began to celebrate their victory. The movie comes to an end with Newt getting arrested and seeking revenge, as soon as he's free. Jake enters the scene and promises that they will be ready to fight back, 'bigger and badder than ever'. I really hope not. 
Apart from never seeing this movie again, I hope that I don't have to see a third in the franchise. It's not hard to realise that hardly any of the original staff wanted to stick around for this instalment. The story made me constantly question what the hell I was watching. I don't mind something that comes from outside of the box but this was such a mixture of crazy and at times, so predictable that even thinking back about the moving just makes me realise how I wasted my time. The one redeeming feature for me would be the CGI that comes with the movie because I do like to see other peoples ideas of how monsters should look, come to life on the screen. It was weird seeing Charlie Day play a villain but at the same time, he had the pathetic role that has been made by him in other movies, being controlled by a further person. Boyega has done better, such as Detroit, but surely this movie will be one that he would look to forget. If you enjoy a game of rock'em sock'em robots and care for destruction, then look no further than this movie. If you don't enjoy a story that makes sense, head on down. There is even a God-awful reference to the 'Salt Bae' guy. This time, it feels like the movie is more geared towards a younger audience and this shows with the age of most of the cast.



I'm not fucking crazy! (Unsane 2018)

189.

Unsane
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7/10

 

Another trailer leaving me asking questions and wanting to know more. Claire Foy is going to be playing a woman who is involuntarily committed into a mental asylum, where she is confronted with her worst fear, what seems to be her stalker, working at the place. But the main question is, is this part of her break down or is he really there? Will the answers and movie itself leave me feeling unsane?

The movie begins with a quick voiceover by a male named David Strine, played by Joshua Leonard. He's telling a woman that he loves seeing her in blue because that's what she was wearing when they first met and he wants to feel like that again. Then we quickly move on to Sawyer Claire Foy's character. Being introduced to her job, she's a saleswoman and thinks she sees her stalker, David, in her workplace. She is a lonesome person, maybe a little paranoid and talks to her mother often over the phone. She goes on a Tinder date and offers to put out straight away, with no contact afterward but back at her flat, she has a panic attack and locks herself in the bathroom. We then follow her to a counselling session, where she discusses the issues of being stalked for two years, her thoughts of suicide and the counsellor wants to sign her up for extra sessions. She heads to the clinic and signs some paperwork, which as always, no one reads the fine print. She is brought to a room and her belongings are taken and she's forced to undergo exams whilst having her clothes taken too. She has been committed involuntarily for 24 hours and when she tried to ring the police, they don't do anything because they are so used to those fake calls from the same number. As she submits to her time there, she is put into a room with other characters, one being Violet, who later pesters Sawyer before creating a shiv and cutting her hair whilst Sawyer sleeps. As Sawyer tried to leave the room, a patient called Jacob tries to touch her, so she knees him in the balls before an orderly comes in, who she thinks is David, so she unleashes on him too, before being sedated. Meanwhile, the police have decided to turn up, before leaving before learning anything about the situation.

 
The following morning, she's off to see the big cheese at the hospital, who tells her that she is staying in for a whole week due to her violent behaviour. Due to all of this, she is forced to take medication and one of the orderlies is David, going under a different name. But the first thing I'm thinking about is are we seeing through her eyes? Is she really seeing him and are we? This hospital is a shit hole. Really dark and it really adds to the mood that this movie is trying to create. Sawyer has a chat with one of the other patients, Nate, who she has gotten closer too. She finds out that he has a phone and offers sexual favours in order to get a use out of it. She rings her mother straight away and fills her in, causing her mother to drive all the way from Boston and vow to the heads of the hospital that she will get her daughter out. Angela, the mother, is staying in a nearby motel when she gets knock on the door one night from the 'maintenance' guy. Of course, it's David himself. See you later Angela. Ok, now I'm beginning to believe that Sawyer isn't making this thing up. We are seeing David everywhere and this guy is mental.
Another conversation between Nate and Sawyer reveals that the hospital is one big scam. They keep people locked up until their insurance companies no longer want to pay for their treatment. Sawyer starts to reveal her past, explaining that she used to work at a hospice where David's father was. Once he died, David started harassing her, claiming that his old man would have wanted them both to be together. Sending a crazy amount of texts and calls, he got blocked.

 He started sending stuff to her work, such as flowers or breaking into her house and leaving dresses for her to wear. She ended up getting a restraining order as well as having an officer telling her what to do so that David couldn't find her. This officer part was probably the most shocked I'd been. He walks in and randomly, from nowhere, we have 5 minutes of Matt Damon., and then he's gone again. Did owe someone a favour? After this conversation, we see a clever shot of David, looking at them both through the blinds. Nate later gets assaulted, tortured and killed in the basement, with the pictures being sent to Nate's' phone, which is now in the possession of Sawyer. She screams and tries to tell the other orderlies but once again, it's falling on deaf ears. After some more violence and even chucking coffee onto Violet, Sawyer is moved to the basement and solitary confinement. This is exactly what David would want and low and behold, here he comes to visit her. Still thinking they can be together, he offers to take her to a cabin to be alone from all of this. Instead, she rips him a new one, reducing him to tears by calling him pathetic and what not.
Away from the hospital, a random woman is jogging, until she sees a hand poking out of the soil. After calling the cops, it turns out to be George Shaw, the guy that David is posing as. Back at the nuthouse, David has brought some grub to Sawyer's room and once again puts over the idea of the cabin. She has come up with a plan this time, offering him to bring another woman to his cell and for him to have sex with her in front of Sawyer. David looks really nervous about this and Sawyer tells him that she wants it to be Violet. He brings her and nearly rapes her until Sawyer steps in and begins to kiss her. This is turning pretty dark and I know what's coming. She grabs the shiv and stabs David in the throat, running for the door. Closing it behind her, she looks back in and sees David snap Violet's neck with his Of Mice and Men's Lenny style power.

 Sawyer then decides to run, before being caught up by David as he knocks her out and chucks her into his trunk. She wakes and smells something awful straight away, opening a black bag next to her and discovering her dead mother. She cries for her and takes her cross necklace. She pulls the safety lever for the trunk and legs it into the woods, being followed once again by David. Meanwhile, we finally have a police follow up on the body and they have entered the asylum. Reporters have arrived too as it turns out that Nate was an undercover reporter for them, finding out about all the dodgy dealings. The staff still claim that all is well but as the police investigate, they find notes by Nate and arrest the lot of them. Back in the woods, David has his hands on Sawyer again and smashes he leg up with a hammer. That got me wincing. He takes her unconscious body further in and lays her down, trying to smooth talk her. It turns out that she was always awake, biding her time and suddenly stabs him with the cross necklace, straight in the eye, before using the shiv again and finally ending his ways with a throat slice.
We get a date of 6 months later and Sawyer is sitting in a café with her friend when she believes that she sees David again. Grabbing a knife, she approaches him and as he turns to reveal that he is just a stranger, she is horrified about what she intended to do, running out the door and now completing the full transition into a paranoid unsane woman.
This film really had the creepy factor. It didn't need a monster, ghost or any sort of paranormal being, all it needed was an event that could actually be true. Clair Foy played her role really well and as for the relatively unknown to me Joshua Leonard, his character was the face of terror in this one. He didn't have much dialogue, but just being in the shadows was enough to cause his statement. Everyone else wasn't around long enough to add an impact, apart from finding out that Nate was undercover. The actually filming and its quality was very clever. To me, it seemed to be quite bright at the beginning and once the story carried on, the scenes got darker, along with the storyline. In the end, it was pitch black at times, including the car trunk and the fight in the woods. The whole thing had a gritty look to it, different from normal movies and that's because it was filmed mostly on an iPhone. When it comes to this story, it may not be for everyone's taste, with it showing how some of these processes work. One example would be that someone cannot be committed for this type of care for more than 72 hours without a court hearing being part of it all. For me, the fact that the audience was made to question the credibility of the main character was a clever draw. Although it was quite a show film, it was very raw and sent some into a state of panic and unease during viewing.