Rock 'The Dwayne' Johnson invades Hong Kong's tallest building to rescue his family from terrorists. Oh, and the building is on fire as well.
This is a very safe, predictable actioner where DIE HARD and THE TOWERING INFERNO have been combined and the violence toned down. The huge amount of CG and over editing removes any sense of danger, rare moments of humour fall flat but Dwayne's on-screen presence and two really tense set pieces salvage it. Passable but will never be worth a rewatch.
Mexican Horror Wunderkind Guillermo Del Toro has taken an insane budget and fashioned a spectacular sci-fi action popcorn movie, integrating giant monsters of the Godzilla/Gamera era fighting giant robots inspired by Transformers/Evangelion.
The vibe this film most reminds me of is Independence Day, wherein it is a sci-fi spectacle that creates memorable characters, but is always about the audience having fun. The production design and look of the film even make it feel like a lost treasure from the late…
A strange alien phenomenon is investigated by a group of female scientists after previous teams have failed to return. Alex Garland follows up the provocative sci-fi thinkpiece EX-MACHINA with an even more provocative sci-fi thinkpiece. Subdued flashbacks and surreal introspective moments are broken up by occasional horror elements. This is for audiences who enjoy the pondering of human psychology within the harsh environments of films like APOCALYPSE NOW, 2001 or even Garland's overlooked SUNSHINE. Others need not apply.
dir: Peyton Reed / 2018 / 118 mins / end credit stinger
Ant-Man helps the Wasp to track down her mother within the Quantum Realm while fending off attacks from a ghost-like superpowered villain.
This has the same fun balance of humour and action setpieces as the first, playing around with the shrinking and super sizing mechanics. However this sequel is less focused with flat spots; 30 mins could've easily been trimmed off. Doesn't help that the villain is quite meh. Still a very enjoyable movie worth watching for those who liked the first.
